Russia in Gogol's time was ruled by landowners and officials like the heroes of Dead Souls. It is clear in what position the people, the serfs, should have been.
Following Chichikov on his journey from one landowner's estate to another, we observe a bleak picture of the life of the serfs: their lot is poverty, disease, hunger, terrible mortality. The landowners treat the peasants as if they were their slaves: they sell them one by one, without families; manage them like things. “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl,” Korobochka says to Chichikov, “she knows the way with me, just look! Don’t bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me.”
In the seventh chapter, Chichikov reflects on the list of peasants he bought. And before us is revealed a picture of the life and hard work of the people, their patience and courage, violent outbursts of protest. Particularly attractive are the images of Stepan Cork, endowed with heroic strength, a wonderful carpenter-builder, and Uncle Mikhey, who resignedly replaced the murdered Stepan in his dangerous work.
The desire for freedom lives in the soul of the enslaved peasantry. When the peasants are no longer able to endure serfdom, they run away from the landowners. True, flight did not always lead to freedom. Gogol tells the ordinary life of a fugitive: life without a passport, without work, almost always arrest, prison. But the courtyard Plyushkina Popov still preferred life in prisons to returning under the yoke of his master. Abakum Fyrov, fleeing from serfdom, went to barge haulers.
Gogol also speaks of cases of mass indignation. In the episode of the assassination of the assessor Drobyazhkin, the struggle of the serfs against their oppressors is shown.
The great realist writer Gogol figuratively speaks of the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if he doesn’t go himself, but send only one cap to his place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.”
In a country where peasants were ruled by cruel and ignorant boxes, nostrils and sobakevichs, it was not surprising to meet both the stupid Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, and the yard Pelageya, who did not know where the right and where the left side was.
But Gogol sees at the same time the mighty strength of the people, crushed but not killed by serfdom. It manifests itself in the talent of Mikheev, Stepan Probka, Milushkin, in the diligence and energy of the Russian person, in his ability not to lose heart under any circumstances. “A Russian person is capable of everything and gets used to any climate. Send him even to Kamchatka, but give only warm mittens, he will clap his hands, an ax in his hands, and went to cut himself a new hut, ”the officials say, discussing the resettlement of Chichikov’s peasants in the Kherson province. Gogol also speaks of the high qualities of the Russian person in his remarks about the “brisk people”, about the “quick Yaroslavl peasant”, about the remarkable ability of the Russian people to accurately characterize a person in one word.
Thus, depicting feudal-feudal Russia, Gogol showed not only landowner-bureaucratic Russia, but also people's Russia, with its staunch and freedom-loving people. He expressed his faith in the living, creative forces of the working masses. A vivid image of the Russian people is given by the writer in his famous likening of Russia to a “troika bird”, personifying the essence of the national Russian character.

The writing

In the poem "Dead Souls" Gogol wanted to show "all Russia". In it, the writer recreates various types of Russian landowners idly living in their noble estates, paints with satirical colors images of officials, bribe-takers and thieves who have concentrated state power in their hands. The author also introduces a new person here - a nascent bourgeois, a businessman, an acquirer, and he defines all these heroes as "dead souls." But behind the "dead souls" are living souls. This is the Russian people, with whom the writer linked his hopes for a better future for Russia. Therefore, Gogol's poem ends with the symbolic image of a troika bird. It contains the result of many years of Gogol's reflections on the fate of Russia, the present and future of its people. After all, it is the people who oppose the world of officials, landowners, businessmen, as a living soul - a dead one.

Why does the thought of the Russian people fill the writer's soul with joy, why does caustic, angry satire give way to high pathos? Probably because the writer saw in the dark and downtrodden Russian people immense forces, huge potentialities. This means that the main idea of ​​the poem is in the rapid run of Russia forward, in the movement towards a happy future for the Russian people. Despite the dominance in the era of Gogol "dead souls" over the living, he sees Russia's unstoppable movement for the better.

Who is driving her? Against the backdrop of the dead-heartedness of manila, boxes, plushkins, the lively and lively Russian mind, the people's prowess, the wide scope of the soul, stand out especially in relief. It is these qualities, according to Gogol, that are the basis of the national Russian character. And they were embodied in the images of the heroes Stepan Cork, Abakum Fyrov. Moreover, the failed landowner Chichikov, who acquired him as a "dead soul", reflects on Stepan and his possible fate. But this Russian bogatyr, "who would have been fit for the guard," appears more alive than living people with dead souls. These peasants, dead or crushed by feudal oppression, are industrious and talented. The glory of the wonderful carriage maker Mikheev is alive in the memory of people even after his death. Even Sobakevich, with involuntary respect, says that that glorious master should only work for the sovereign.

In the mean, laconic lines of the poem, the crippled fates of people from the people stand before us. The miraculous shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, who wanted to get his own house and a shop, is getting drunk. But, having paid the master a decent quitrent, this talented craftsman was deceived by the supplier of rotten leather. Senseless and absurd is the death of Gregory Go-you-don't-go, who, out of anguish, turned into a tavern, and then straight into the hole. Bitter and humiliating is the fate of Plyushkin's runaway serfs, who are doomed to hide from the police all their lives. They have little choice: to sit in prison or stick with other masters and work for them. A literate yard man, Popov, roaming about without a passport, is constantly subjected to interrogations and humiliations, and he himself bitterly mocks his fate. The image of Abakum Fyrov, who fell in love with a free life, sticking to barge haulers, is remembered in the poem. After all, the hardest hard labor of the barge gang sometimes ended with a noisy and cheerful festive festivities with songs and round dances. It is here that the national prowess, the scope of the Russian soul, is manifested in full breadth.

But the writer sees that these wonderful qualities of the people are crushed and mutilated by serfdom, the power of dead-hearted landowners and officials. Therefore, Gogol does not idealize the Russian peasantry. His flagrant ignorance, the narrowness of the spiritual world, for example, are evidenced by the images of the stupid Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minya, who can’t breed horses entangled in traces, or the image of a yard girl Pelageya, who “does not know where the right is, where the left is.” Humorously, the author describes at the beginning of the poem a thoughtful conversation between two men, arguing about whether the wheel will reach Moscow or Kazan. The striving for mental activity turns into stupid idle talk, because the life of the peasants is so meager and insignificant that it does not give them sufficient material for reflection. Causes laughter and "noble motivation for enlightenment" serf servant Chichikov Petrushka, because he is attracted not by the content of books, but by the process of reading. Gogol writes that it was all the same to him what to read: the adventures of a hero in love, a primer, a prayer book or chemistry. These episodes are a clear indication of the underdevelopment and squalor of the spiritual world of a significant part of the yard serfs. The same is evidenced by the image of the coachman Selifan, who, drunk, makes lengthy speeches addressed to horses.

Ignorance, darkness, drunkenness, downtroddenness - these are the features of the Russian people that have been formed in it thanks to centuries of serfdom. This means that the autocratic-feudal system of Russia not only hindered the economic development of the country, but also criminally ruined the soul of the Russian people. In the poem one can hear the protest of the peasantry against their tormentors and oppressors - the landowners and officials. For example, it is expressed in the revolt of the peasants of the village of Vshivaya Spes and the village of Borovka, who razed the zemstvo police in the person of the assessor Drobyazhkin. The same protest sounds in the popular word, in well-aimed proverbs and sayings. For example, when Chichikov asked a peasant he met about Plyushkin, he awarded this gentleman with the devastatingly accurate nickname "patched". Gogol writes: "The Russian people express themselves strongly, and if they reward someone with a word, then it will go to their family and offspring, he will drag him with him to the service, and to retirement, and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world." The writer is convinced that no nation has such a bold and lively well-aimed word. The majestic, boundless expanses of Russia and the bitter fate of its people suggest the possibility and necessity of fundamental changes in the country, since "a remote, full of strength nationality" is incompatible with a beggarly situation, stupefying bondage, the domination of "dead souls".

Russian people in N. V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". Almost every writer has a work that is the work of his whole life, a creation in which he has invested his searches and innermost thoughts. For Gogol, this is, without a doubt, "Dead Souls", which remained unfinished after seventeen years of work.

The poem caused heated debate and talk. V. G. Belinsky had every reason to say that the question of "Dead Souls" is as much literary as social, the result of a collision of old principles with new ones. Reading the book for the first time, I paid little attention to the author's lyrical reflections on Russia and the Russian people. These beautiful places even seemed out of place in a satirical poem. Having recently re-read Dead Souls, I suddenly discovered Gogol as a great patriot, I became convinced of how important the proud image of Russia is for the whole idea of ​​the writer.

In recent years, the question of the fate of our, today's Russia, its destiny, future, and the ability of the Russian people to once again make a historical breakthrough has grown tremendously. Scientists, writers, politicians and economists argue about it. The whole country was excited by AI Solzhenitsyn's thoughts “How can we equip Russia”. Sometimes I seem to hear the words of N. A. Nekrasov addressed to the Russian people:

Will you wake up, full of strength,

Or, fate obeying the law,

All that you could, you have already done -

Created a song like a moan

And spiritually rested forever? ..

How can one not turn to the singer of the Russian land Gogol for advice in such a difficult time? From the moment Chichikov's chaise quietly rolled into the provincial town of NN. and before this "purchaser" hurriedly leaves the city, a little time passes, but the reader manages not only to get acquainted with the amazing variety of landowners and officials, but also to see the image of the whole country, to understand "the incalculable richness of the Russian spirit."

The writer does not separate landlords and officials from the people, as critics do. Personally, it seems to me that it is wrong to interpret that all landowners and officials, and Chichikov himself, are genuine "dead souls." Of all the types, only Plyushkin can be called that, whose soul has become dead from greed. But Gogol himself explains that "such a phenomenon rarely comes across in Russia." The big Sobakevich, who can eat a whole sturgeon; reveler, liar, reveler and brawler Nozdryov; dreamy lazy Manilov; tight-fisted "club-headed" Box; the burnt-out bribe-taker Ivan Antonovich "the pitcher snout", the chief of police, who travels around the malls as his patrimony, and many other heroes cannot be called "dead souls". These are either kulaks, or useless people, or scoundrels whom Gogol managed to "hide".

And these gentlemen, and Petrushka and Selifan, and two peasants arguing whether the wheel will reach Moscow, are part of the Russian people. But not the best part. The true image of the people is seen, first of all, in the descriptions of the dead peasants. They are admired by the author, Chichikov, and landowners. They no longer exist, but in the memory of people who knew them, they acquire an epic appearance.

Milushkin, bricklayer! could put the stove in any house. Maxim Telyatnikov, shoemaker: whatever pricks with an awl, then boots, that boots, then thank you, and even if it’s drunk in your mouth! And Yeremey Sorokoplekhin! yes, that peasant alone will stand for everyone, he traded in Moscow, he brought one quitrent for five hundred rubles. After all, what a people!” “Cartmaker Mikheev! after all, he didn’t make any more crews, as soon as spring ones. This is how Sobakevich boasts of his peasants. Chichikov retorts that they are already dead and only a "dream". “Well, no, not a dream! I’ll tell you what Mikheev was like, so you won’t find such people: the machine is such that it won’t enter this room ... And in his shoulders he had such strength that a horse doesn’t have ... ”

And Pavel Ivanovich himself, looking at the lists of purchased peasants, seems to see them in reality, and each peasant receives "his own character." “Cork Stepan, carpenter, exemplary sobriety,” he reads and begins to imagine: “Ah! Here he is ... here is the hero that would be suitable for the guard! Further, thought tells him that Stepan went with an ax to all the provinces, ate bread for a penny, and in his belt brought, sure, a hundred rubles.

Over the course of several pages, we get acquainted with the various fates of ordinary people. We see the Russian people, first of all, full of strength, talented, lively, cheerful. The writer also speaks with delight about the living, well-aimed Russian word that breaks out from under the very heart.

Russian people are not always submissive to the authorities. Grievances can bring them to revenge. The Tale of Captain Kopeikin tells how the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, an invalid, offended by officials, gathers a gang of free people around him.

Russia rises before us in its greatness. Not the Russia where officials take bribes, landlords squander their estates, peasants get drunk, where roads and hotels are bad. The writer sees a different Russia, "a bird-troika". “Isn’t it true that you too, Russia, that a brisk, unbeatable troika are rushing about?” And the image of the country-troika merges with the image of the master who equipped the "road projectile". Gogol sees Russia as great, showing the way to others, it seems to him that Russia overtakes other peoples and states, which, "looking sideways, step aside and give it way."

History, unfortunately, judged otherwise. Our country failed to overtake others. And now the Nozdrevs, Chichikovs, Manilovs and Plyushkins live in other ranks and guises. But Russia is alive, the “troika bird”. And, despite the turmoil, they cannot help but smell “other, hitherto not abusive strings, the incalculable wealth of the Russian spirit will appear, a husband gifted with divine valor will pass, or a wonderful Russian girl, which cannot be found anywhere in the world, with all the wondrous beauty of the female soul , all of generous aspiration and selflessness. And we, the inhabitants of Russia, believe that the writer’s words will turn out to be prophetic in the future: “Russian movements will rise ... and they will see how deep into the Slavic nature something that slipped only through the nature of other peoples ...”

The image of the people in the poem "Dead Souls"

The poem "Dead Souls" in the work of N.V. Gogol occupies a special place. Gogol's global plan is to show the whole of Russia in the context, all its vices and shortcomings.

Most of the population of Russia at that time were peasants. In the poem, their world is described very figuratively. In my opinion, it is divided into several components. Every landowner always has a little world of peasants that belongs to him and characterizes him. The peasants themselves are not described, but we can judge them by their dwellings. At Manilov, for example, "gray log huts darkened up and down." Korobochka already had other huts, “which, although they were built scattered, but, according to a remark made by Chichikov, showed the contentment of the inhabitants.” The peasant lands of Sobakevich are not surprising - we see them the way we expected to see them - "poorly tailored, but tightly sewn." The huts of Plyushkin's peasants, like himself, are shown as old, dilapidated, practically unnecessary.

In addition to the worlds of the peasants, there are, in my opinion, other worlds. The first is the allegorical world of the peasants who died or fled from their landlords, which is very different from all the others, and is mentioned only occasionally. Also on the pages of the poem, we feel the presence of another - the so-called "central" world of the peasants, presented in specific situations.

The most strange and incomprehensible, perhaps, is for us the world of dead or fleeing peasants. Its inhabitants are, as it were, opposed to the population of the "living" world. With the help of this technique, Gogol manages to emphasize the poverty of the morals of the main characters. After the excessively boastful speech of Sobakevich, describing his dead peasants, he himself, cunning and selfish, descends in our eyes at once to several levels. But the peasants are the property of the landowner, skillful, spiritually rich people were forced to meekly obey a person with the life principles of a tradesman. The following reminders of this world show us it from a completely different side. It appears to us as the “world of the living”, those who have left the “world of the dead”.

The so-called central world requires special attention. He imperceptibly merges into the narrative at the very beginning of the poem, but her storyline does not often come into contact with him. At first, it is almost invisible, but then, along with the development of the plot, the description of this world is revealed. At the end of the first volume, the description turns into a hymn to all Russia. Gogol figuratively compares Russia “with a brisk and unbeatable troika” rushing forward. Throughout the story, the writer exalts the peasants, who constitute the main, most active and useful part of this world, by contrast with the deliberately humiliated landowners, officials, and employees. The description of this world begins with a conversation between two crafty peasants discussing the technical capabilities of the carriage entering the city of NN. On the one hand, their conversation gives off idleness, one feels its incompleteness, uselessness. But, on the other hand, both of them showed a fairly high level of knowledge of the structure and capabilities of the crew. These two characters, in my opinion, are inexpressive and are shown more from a negative side than from a positive one. They appear at the very beginning of the work and, as it were, introduce us into the world of the poem. The next colorful representatives of the “central” world shown in the poem are two men who showed Chichikov the way to Manilovka. They know the territory well, but their speech is still lame. The most colorful character among the peasants, in my opinion, is the one we saw when he dragged “a thick log ... like a tireless ant, to his hut.” He expresses the whole sweeping nature of the Russian people. Gogol emphasizes this, speaking through his lips "an aptly spoken Russian word."

The most striking expression of the writer's patriotic feelings in the poem is a discussion about the fate of Russia. Comparing her "immense expanses" with the incalculable spiritual riches of her people, Gogol sings a laudatory ode to her:

“Is it not here, in you, that an infinite thought is born, when you yourself are without end? Is there not a hero to be here, when there is a place where to turn around and walk for him? And menacingly, a mighty space embraces me, reflecting with terrible power in the depths of my soul; My eyes lit up with an unnatural power: wow! What a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! - Russia!

The topic that the author raises expands from page to page. Buying dead souls becomes a description of the life of the peasantry. The people in the poem "Dead Souls" rise with their diversity, talent, kindness and insane desire to live.

Feature of the Russian character

The classic lovingly describes the characters from the people. A Russian person is not afraid of a difficult climate, severe frosts. He is not afraid of Kamchatka. A man will sew mittens for himself, if he gets cold, he will clap his hands. With one ax he will cut down a hut for himself, which will stand for more than one century. The people, under the pen of the author, come out with a surprisingly beautiful image:

• charming face of the Madonna;
• rounded oval of the cheeks;
• wide size.

In Russia, everything is wide and spacious: fields, mountains, forests. The writer puts his face, lips and legs on the same line with them. The widest part of the people is its soul.

Russian word

Gogol loves Russian speech. He favors French words and expressions, but a man's weighty biting word is often brighter than foreign phrases. There is no alien language in the poem, everything is native to the people.

The names of the characters are interesting. Somewhere they look grotesque, someone can laugh at them, but in them the ability of the people to grab the most weighty and alive from the environment.

• Zavalishin - the desire to fall on its side;
• Polezhaev - love of relaxation;
• Sopikov - quiet sniffing through the nose during sleep;
• Khrapovitsky - a dead dream with "snores", a whistling nose.

Gogol points out the words that work "miracles on a Russian person." One of those words is forward. Russian appeals raise uprisings, sink deep into the soul. The Russian word makes me shudder. In a word, the Russian people can characterize an entire estate.

The mighty power of the Russian peasant

Chichikov, through the mouth of Gogol, talks about the people, studying the list of peasants bought by him. There are no living ones in the list, but the author presents everyone in such a way that their image rises before the reader. Moreover, it is easier to see the dead than the landowners, blurred from the abundance of food or dried up from greed. Gogol shows the hardships of the life of the common people. Serf bondage, humiliation lead to escapes. Freedom is not given to everyone. Most fall into even greater bondage. It is surprising that the desire to be free in men does not die. The peasants are fighting for their rights - the murder of Drobyazhkin. Gogol emphasizes one feature - glibness. It is in everything - in movements, in mind, in talent.

Labor and people

Beautiful palaces, multi-window halls, painted walls hide the work of talented craftsmen from the people. The craftsmen create masterpieces from stone blocks. Formless and dead, they come to life under the master's axe. The reader sees how the creation of the people perishes. Manilov's ponds are overgrown, Nozdryov's kennels are emptying, Plyushkin's rooms are covered with dust. The daring nature seems to highlight the wretchedness of the dying estates. Against the backdrop of amazing landscapes, the eyes of men from the list of audit souls shine. They are no more, but the memory and deeds are alive.

A storehouse of intelligence and cunning

The people in the poem are not just hardworking, they are wise and cunning. Gogol admires the Russian man, but confesses his vices. What amazing features the writer emphasizes:

• the ability to communicate: the shades of the conversation, incomprehensible to foreigners, will depend on the number of souls of the person they are talking to;
• decisiveness: will not go into reasoning when it is necessary to act;
• unwillingness to confess guilt;
• the ability to envy the necessary acquaintances.

Even the negative qualities of character distinguish the Russian from others.

The concept of the people in the work becomes so broad that it is difficult to cover it. It will not work to write an essay “The people in the poem“ Dead Souls ”if you are based on one social stratum. The people are peasants, landowners, officials, everyone whom the writer tried to portray.

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