Nikolay Alekseevich Nekrasov
Who lives well in Russia
PART ONE
In what year - count
In which land - guess
On a pole track
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily liable
Tightened province,
Terpigorev County,
Empty parish,
From adjacent villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neyolova -
Bad harvest too,
Agreed - and argued:
Who has fun
Is it at ease in Russia?
The novel said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official,
Luke said: ass.
To the fat-bellied merchant! -
The brothers Gubins said,
Ivan and Mitrodor.
Old man Pakhom strained
And he said, looking into the ground:
To the noble boyar,
To the Sovereign Minister.
And Prov said: to the king ...
A man that is a bull: will be blown
What a whim in the head -
Colom her from there
You can't knock it out: they rest,
Everyone stands his ground!
Was such a dispute started,
What do passersby think -
To know, the guys found the treasure
And divide among themselves ...
On the case, everyone in their own way
I left the house before noon:
I kept that path to the forge,
He went to the village of Ivankovo
Call Father Prokofy
To christen the child.
Groin honeycomb
Carried to the market in Velikoye,
And the two bros of Gubin
So easy with a halter
To catch a stubborn horse
They went to their own herd.
It would be high time for everyone
Return on your own path -
They go side by side!
They walk as if they are chasing
Behind them are gray wolves,
What is far away is sooner.
They go - they are reproaching!
They shout - they will not come to their senses!
And time does not wait.
They did not notice the dispute,
As the sun went down red
As the evening came.
Probably a whole night
So they walked - where they did not know,
When a woman meets them,
Gnarled Durandikha,
She did not shout: “Honorable ones!
Where are you looking at night
Have you thought of going? .. "
She asked, laughed,
Whipped, witch, gelding
And galloped off ...
"Where? .." - exchanged glances
Here are our men
They are standing, silent, looking down ...
The night is long gone
Frequent stars lit up
In the high skies
A month has surfaced, shadows are black
The road was cut
Zealous walkers.
Oh shadows! the shadows are black!
Who won't you catch up?
Whom won't you overtake?
Only you, black shadows,
You can't catch - hug!
To the forest, to the path-path
Looked, Pakhom was silent,
He looked - scattered with his mind
And finally he said:
"Well! devil is a nice joke
He made fun of us!
After all, we are almost
We have gone thirty versts!
Home now toss and turn -
Tired - we won't get there
Let's sit down - there is nothing to do.
We'll rest until the sun! .. "
Dumping trouble on the devil,
Under the forest by the path
The men sat down.
We lit a fire, folded up,
Two ran for vodka,
And the others are pokudova
The glass was made,
The birch barks are folded.
Vodka came soon.
Has come and a snack -
The peasants are feasting!
The kosushki drank three at a time,
Have eaten - and argued
Again: who has fun to live,
Is it at ease in Russia?
The novel shouts: to the landowner,
Demian shouts: to the official,
Luka shouts: ass;
To the fat-bellied merchant, -
Brothers are shouting Gubins,
Ivan and Metrodor;
Groin shouts: to the most luminous
To the noble boyar,
To the Minister of the Tsar,
And Prov shouts: to the king!
Visor more than ever
Playful men
Swearing swearing
No wonder they will grab onto
In each other's hair ...
Look - we’ve already clung to it!
Roman plays with Pakhomushka,
Demian tricks Luka.
And the two bros of Gubin
Iron Prova hefty, -
And everyone shouts his own!
A resounding echo woke up,
I went for a walk, for a walk,
I went to shout, shout,
As if to provoke
Stubborn men.
To the king! - to the right is heard,
Responds to the left:
Pop! ass! ass!
The whole forest was alarmed,
With flying birds
By swift beasts
And creeping reptiles, -
And moan, and roar, and hum!
Before everyone is a gray hare
From a nearby bush
Suddenly jumped out, as if disheveled,
And he ran away!
Behind him the little ones grumble
At the top of the birch trees raised
Disgusting, sharp squeak.
And then there is the chiffchaff
With fright, a tiny chick
I fell from the nest;
The chiffchaff chirps, cries,
Where is the chick? - will not find!
Then the old cuckoo
I woke up and made up my mind
Cuckoo for someone;
It was taken ten times,
Yes, every time I got confused
And she started again ...
Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!
The bread will be pricked
You will choke on an ear -
You will not cuckoo!
Seven owls flew together,
Admire the carnage
From seven big trees
Laughing, night owls!
And their eyes are yellow
They burn like an ardent wax
Fourteen candles!
And a raven, a smart bird,
Has come, sits on a tree
By the fire itself.
Sits and prays to the devil
To be smacked to death
Someone!
A cow with a bell,
That fought back in the evening
From the herd, I barely heard
Human voices -
Came to the fire, set
Eyes on the men
I listened to crazy speeches
And the beginning, heart,
Moo, moo, moo!
The stupid cow hums,
The little ones are squealing.
The violent guys are shouting,
And the echo echoes to everyone.
One care for him -
To tease honest people
Scare guys and women!
Nobody saw him
And everyone has heard
Without a body - but it lives,
Without a tongue - screams!
Owl - zamoskvoretskaya
The princess is mooing right there,
Flies over the peasants
Shuffling on the ground
That about the bushes with a wing ...
The fox itself is cunning,
By the curiosity of a woman,
Sneaked up to the men
Listened, listened
And she walked away, thinking:
"And the devil won't understand them!"
Indeed: the debaters themselves
We hardly knew, remembered -
What are they making noise about ...
Humping the sides decently
Each other, come to their senses
The peasants finally
Drank from a puddle
Have washed, refreshed,
The dream began to roll them ...
At that time, a tiny chick,
Little by little, half a plant,
Low flying,
I got close to the fire.
Pakhomushka caught him,
Brought it to the fire, looked
And he said: “Little bird,
And the marigold is awesome!
I breathe - you will roll off the palm,
I sneeze - you will roll into the fire,
I click - you roll dead,
But all the same, you, little bird,
Stronger than a man!
The wings will get stronger soon,
Huh! wherever you want
You will fly there!
Oh you, little birdie!
Give us your wings
We will fly around the whole kingdom,
Let's see, taste,
We will ask - and we will find out:
Who lives happily
Is it at ease in Russia? "
"Wouldn't even need wings,
If only we had bread
Half a day a day, -
And so we would be Mother Russia
We measured it with our feet! " -
Said the gloomy Prov.
"Yes, a bucket of vodka", -
Increased the desire
Before the vodka, the Gubin brothers,
Ivan and Mitrodor.
"Yes, in the morning there would be cucumbers
There are ten salty ones ", -
The men were joking.
"And at noon I would have a jug
Cold kvass ".
"And in the evening for a teapot
Hot seagull ... "
While they grumbled
The warbler whirled, whirled
Above them: listened to everything
And she sat down by the fire.
Chiviknula, jumped
And with a human voice
Pahomu says:
“Let the chick free!
For a chick for a small
I will give a large ransom. "
- What will you give? -
"I'll give you bread
Half a day a day
I'll give you a bucket of vodka,
In the morning I will give cucumbers,
And at noon sour kvass,
And in the evening a seagull! "
- And where, the little birdie, -
The Gubin brothers asked, -
You will find wine and bread
Are you seven men? -
“Find - you yourself will find.
And I, little birdie,
I'll tell you how to find it. "
- Tell! -
“Go through the woods,
Against the thirtieth pillar
Just a mile away:
You will come to the clearing
Are standing in that meadow
Two old pines
Under these under the pines
The box is buried.
Get her, -
The box is that magic:
There is a self-assembled tablecloth in it,
Whenever you want
Feed, give water!
Just say quietly:
"Hey! self-assembled tablecloth!
Treat the peasants! "
According to your desire,
At my behest
Everything will appear immediately.
Now - let the chick go! "
Womb - then ask
And you can demand vodka
One bucket a day.
If you ask more,
And one and two - it will come true
According to your desire,
And in the third there will be trouble! "
And the warbler flew away
With your dear chick,
And the men in single file
Stretched to the road
Search for the thirtieth pillar.
Found! - Walk silently
Directly, rightly
Through the forest through the dense,
Each step is counted.
And how the mile was measured,
We saw a clearing -
Are standing in that meadow
Two old pines ...
The peasants dug
We got that box
Opened - and found
That self-assembled tablecloth!
They found it and cried out at once:
“Hey, self-assembled tablecloth!
Treat the peasants! "
Lo and behold - the tablecloth unfolded,
From where it came from
Two hefty hands
They put a bucket of wine,
A mountain of bread was laid
And they hid again.
"Why aren't there cucumbers?"
"What's not hot seagull?"
"That there is no cold kvask?"
Everything appeared suddenly ...
The peasants got loose
We sat down at the tablecloth.
Let's go to a feast like a mountain!
They kiss for joy
A friend to a friend is promised
Do not fight in vain forward,
But the matter is really controversial
According to reason, in a divine way,
On the honor of the story -
Do not toss and turn in the houses,
Not see any wives,
Not with little guys
Not with the old people,
As long as the matter is controversial
No solution will be found
Until they bring
As it is for certain:
Who lives happily
Is it at ease in Russia?
Putting such a zarok,
In the morning like the dead
The men fell asleep ...
ON THE. Nekrasov has always been not just a poet - he was a citizen who was deeply worried about social injustice, and especially 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 then in 18621 comes the seemingly long-awaited liberation - the abolition of serfdom. But was it actually liberation? It is to this theme that Nekrasov devotes "Who lives well in Russia" - the 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 they prepared it for printing from fragments of the poet's manuscripts. However, this incompleteness turned out to be symbolic in its own way - after all, for the Russian peasantry, the abolition of serfdom did not become the end of the old and the beginning of a new life.
“Who lives well in Russia” should be read in full, because at first glance it may seem that the plot is too simple for such a complex topic. The dispute of seven men about who is good at living in Russia cannot be the basis for revealing the depth and complexity of social conflict. But thanks to Nekrasov's talent in revealing characters, the work is gradually revealed. The poem is quite difficult to comprehend, 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 between the peasant and the master is shown: the first believes that this is his material well-being, and the second - that this is the least possible number of troubles 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 environment - these are Yermil Girin and Grisha Dobrosklonov, who sincerely want happiness to the entire peasant class, and so that no one is offended.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” is not idealistic, because the poet sees problems not only in the nobility, 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 oneself personally and for the entire nation as a whole, the fight against vices and the desire to make the world a better place are still relevant today. So even in its unfinished form, Nekrasov's poem is not only a literary, but also a morally ethical model.
Illustration by Sergey Gerasimov "Dispute"
Once, seven peasants - recent serfs, who are now temporarily liable from adjacent villages - Zaplatov, Dyryavin, Razutov, Znobishin, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhayka, too, converge on the high road. Instead of going their own way, the peasants start a dispute about who in Russia lives happily and freely. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky person in Russia: a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a sovereign minister or a tsar.
During the dispute, they do not notice that they gave a hook thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, gradually develops into a fight. But the fight does not help to resolve the issue that worries the men.
The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the men, Pakhom, catches the chick of the warbler, and in order to free the chick, the warbler tells the men where to find a self-assembled tablecloth. Now the men are provided with bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass, tea - in a word, everything they need for a long journey. Besides, the self-assembled tablecloth will repair and wash their clothes! Having received all these benefits, the peasants give a vow to inquire, "who lives happily, freely in Russia."
The first possible “lucky man” he met along the way is a priest. (It wasn’t the soldiers and beggars we met to ask about happiness!) But the priest’s answer to the question of whether his life was sweet disappoints the peasants. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the priest has none of these benefits. In haymaking, in harvesting, in a deep autumn night, in severe frost, he must go where there are sick, dying and born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of funeral sobs and orphan grief - so that the hand does not rise to take copper dimes - a pitiful reward for demand. The landowners, who previously lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only throughout Russia, but also in distant foreign lands; there is no hope for their retribution. Well, about the priest's honor, the peasants themselves know: they feel embarrassed when the priest blames obscene songs and insults to priests.
Realizing that the Russian priest is not one of the lucky ones, the men go to the festive fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask the people about happiness there. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded-up house with the inscription "school", a medical assistant's hut, and a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village there are drinking establishments, in each of which they barely manage to cope with the thirsty. Old man Vavila cannot buy goat shoes for his granddaughter, because he drank himself to a penny. It is good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone for some reason calls "master", buys for him the coveted present.
Peasants-wanderers are watching the farcical Petrushka, watching as ofeni pick up book goods - but by no means Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of fat generals unknown to anyone and works about "stupid my lord." They also see the end of a brisk trading day: general drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the peasants are outraged by Pavlusha Veretennikov's attempt to measure the peasant by the master's measure. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Russia: he will not withstand either backbreaking work or peasant misfortune; without the booze, a bloody rain would fall from the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo - one of those who "works to death, drinks to death." Yakim believes that only pigs walk on the ground and do not see the sky for centuries. During the fire, he himself did not save money accumulated over his entire life, but useless and beloved pictures that hung in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Russia.
The wanderers do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Russia. But even for the promise to give water to the lucky ones for free, they fail to find those. For the sake of gratuitous booze, both an overstrained worker and a paralyzed former courtyard who licked dishes with the best French truffle at the master's for forty years, and even tattered beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky.
Finally, someone tells them the story of Yermil Girin, the steward in the patrimony of Prince Yurlov, who has earned universal respect for his fairness and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy out the mill, the peasants lent it to him without even demanding a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in prison.
About the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform, the ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the peasant wanderers. He recalls how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, cornfields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who completely belonged to him. Obolt-Obolduev tells with affection how he invited his serfs to pray at the master's house on the twentieth holidays, despite the fact that after that he had to drive women from all over the estate to clean the floors.
And although the peasants themselves know that life in serf times was far from the idyll drawn by the Obolduevs, they nevertheless understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who at once lost his usual way of life, and the peasant.
Desperate to find a happy one among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. Nearby peasants remember that Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klinu, whom everyone considers to be a lucky woman. But Matryona herself thinks differently. In confirmation, she tells the pilgrims the story of her life.
Before marriage, Matryona lived in a teetotal and prosperous peasant family. She married a stove-maker from a strange village, Philip Korchagin. But the only happy night was for her when the groom persuaded Matryona to marry him; then the usual hopeless life of a village woman began. True, her husband loved her and beat her only once, but soon he went to work in St. Petersburg, and Matryona was forced to endure grievances in her father-in-law's family. The only one who felt sorry for Matryona was grandfather Savely, who in the family lived out his life after hard labor, where he ended up for the murder of the hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: it is impossible to defeat a peasant, because he "bends, but does not break."
The birth of the first-born Demushka brightened Matryona's life. But soon the mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and the old grandfather Savely did not keep track of the baby and fed him to the pigs. In front of Matryona's eyes, the judges who came from the city performed an autopsy on her child. Matryona could not forget her first child, although after she had five sons. One of them, Fedot the shepherd boy, once allowed the she-wolf to carry the sheep away. Matryona took upon herself the punishment assigned to her son. Then, being pregnant with her son Liodor, she was forced to go to the city to seek justice: her husband, bypassing the laws, was taken into the army. Matryona was helped then by the governor's wife Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying.
By all peasant standards, Matryona Korchagina's life can be considered happy. But it is impossible to tell about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unrequited mortal grievances, and about the blood of the firstborn. Matryona Timofeevna is convinced that a Russian peasant woman cannot be happy at all, because the keys to her happiness and free will are lost from God himself.
In the midst of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. On three boats a noble family swims up to the shore. The mowers, who have just sat down to rest, immediately jump up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs to hide the abolition of serfdom from the out-of-mind landowner Utyatin. Relatives of the Possession-Utyatin promise the peasants floodplain meadows for this. But after the long-awaited death of the Follower, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.
Here, near the village of Vakhlachina, pilgrims listen to peasant songs - corvée, hungry, soldier's, salty - and stories about serfdom. One of these stories is about an exemplary serf Jacob the faithful. Yakov's only joy was the gratification of his master, the small landowner Polivanov. The tyrant Polivanov, in gratitude, beat Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey's soul. By old age, Polivanov lost his legs, and Yakov began to follow him like a child. But when Yakov's nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the serf beauty Arisha, Polivanov out of jealousy gave the guy to recruits. Yakov began to drink, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way he could, in a lackey's way. Having brought the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself directly above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful slave, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror.
Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the peasants by God's wanderer Jonah Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the ataman of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber for a long time atoned for his sins, but they were all forgiven him only after he killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky in a rush of anger.
Peasants-pilgrims also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the elder, who for money hid the last will of the late admiral-widower, who decided to free his peasants.
But not only peasant wanderers think about the people's happiness. The son of a sexton, a seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives in Vakhlachina. In his heart, love for his deceased mother merged with love for all of Vakhlachina. For fifteen years Grisha knew firmly to whom he was ready to give his life, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all mysterious Russia as of a wretched, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the invincible strength that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in her. Such strong souls as those of Grisha Dobrosklonov are called by the angel of mercy to an honest path. Fate prepares for Grisha "a glorious path, a loud name of the people's defender, consumption and Siberia."
If the peasant wanderers knew what was going on in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would probably understand that they could already return to their home, because the goal of their journey has been achieved.
Retold
The work of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is associated with the second period of the Russian liberation movement. In his works, he examines the origins of social disasters and the means to overcome them. The poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" is the result of the author's thoughts about the fate of the country and the people. It resolves the main question of post-reform Russia: “The people have been liberated, but are the people happy?” Nekrasov shows the path leading to the people's happiness, the path of struggle.
In the center of the work is the image of the people. Describing it, the author uses simple Russian, using folklore, proverbs. The folk types created by the poet are mainly divided into two categories. The first, the most numerous, includes peasants who are thinking about their lives, in whose souls protest is already ripening. Another category of peasants - people poisoned by the poison of serfdom, turned into slaves.
Nekrasov repeatedly mentions in the poem about peasant riots, which intensified especially after the reform:
Has any of you heard
How the fiefdom rebelled
Landowner Obrubkov,
Frightened province
Uyezd Nedykhaniev,
Tetanus villages? ..
In this passage, attention is drawn to the speaking names, emphasizing the fear, downtroddenness of the inhabitants. And if the peasants of such places rebelled, then the cup of the people's patience was overflowing!
Among others, Yakim Nagoi stands out. He is the defender of the interests of the people and the spokesman for those protest moods that are growing among the peasant masses. Drawing a portrait of Yakim, Nikolai Alekseevich emphasizes his closeness to the land on which he was born, lived, worked:
And myself to mother earth
It looks like ...
The competent man Yakim Nagoy thought for a long time about the fate of his fellows, he managed to understand a lot from his own experience. He speaks about the people with love, with anger - about the enslavers:
Every peasant
Soul that black cloud -
Angry, formidable - and it should be
Thunders thunder from there,
To pour bloody rains ...
The image of a thundercloud is an image of the revolution, the storm that the poet called upon, exclaiming:
Thunder over the deep sea
In the field, in the forest, swish! ..
In many ways, Saveliy is similar to Yakim Nagogo. The old man sees the causes of evil, he has lost faith in God's help and in a good king, so characteristic of the patriarchal peasantry (“high is God, far is king”). The grandfather understands that it is not by humility, but by an ax that one must obtain will. Savely realizes the heroic might of the people, but with pain he sees that all the strength of the peasants is spent on infinite patience. Nekrasov reveals both the contradictory nature of the people's consciousness, and the struggle between the age-old habit of slavery and the rebellious spirit.
From the story about Matryona Timofeevna, we understand more deeply that a spiritual storm is brewing in a woman, the most downtrodden and disadvantaged being. Faith in the people, in their spiritual awakening is expressed in the words of the poet:
Saved in slavery
Free heart -
Gold, gold
The heart of the people!
The author did not idealize the peasants, because many of them turned into slaves. He speaks of this part of the people with bitterness and contempt. The lackey Ipat (chapter "The Last One") is happy with his serf title, he does not want to hear about the will. Choking with emotion, he recalls the bullying of his master, calling him a "prince", and himself "the last slave." Nekrasov gives Ipat an apt assessment: "sensitive lackey." But there are also people like Jacob among the slaves. Unable to withstand the bullying, he took revenge on his master with his death. The poet understands that serfdom is the cause of all national disasters.
With sarcasm, he paints images of landlords. So, for example, Obolt-Obolduev is depicted:
Some kind of round gentleman,
Mustached, pot-bellied,
With a cigar in your mouth ...
In the peasant speech, a mockery of the serf owners is often heard:
We corvée have grown
Under the snout of the landowner ...
Nikolai Alekseevich creates images of “new people” who have emerged from the people’s environment and have become active fighters for the good of the people. This is Yermil Girin. Whoever he was, whatever he did, he strove to be useful to the peasant, to help him, to protect him.
The type of intellectual-democrat is embodied in Grisha Dobrosklonov. Grisha dreams of people's happiness more than his own. His love for his poor and exhausted mother gradually turns into love for his homeland. Dobrosklonov deliberately chooses the path along which "strong, loving souls" go. His image is typical of the “people's defender”. Grisha's characteristic is a thirst for learning. He believes in the future happiness of the people.
Dobrosklonov's songs contain hope and optimism. The song "Rus" ends with the lines:
The host rises -
Innumerable
The strength in her will affect
Unbreakable!
Such works as "Who Lives Well in Russia" is a real excursion into the 60s of the XIX century. The poem literally immerses the reader in the events of the post-serf period. A journey in search of a happy person in the Russian Empire exposes numerous problems of society, paints a picture of reality without embellishment and makes one think about the future of a country that has dared to live in a new way.
The history of the creation of the Nekrasov poem
The exact date of the beginning of work on the poem is unknown. But the researchers of Nekrasov's art 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 originated with the poet around 1860-1863, and that Nikolai Alekseevich began writing it around 1863. Although the sketches by the poet could have been completed earlier.
It is known that since 1866, the first part of Nekrasov's work tried to see the light of day. For four years, the author tried to publish his work and constantly fell under the discontent and harsh condemnation of the censorship. Despite this, work on the poem continued.
The poet had to publish it gradually in the same magazine "Contemporary". It was published in this way for four years, and all these years the censorship was unhappy. The poet himself was constantly criticized and persecuted. Therefore, he temporarily stopped his work, and again was able to start it only in 1870. In this new period of the rise of his literary creativity, he creates three more parts to this poem, which were written at different times:
✪ "The Last One" -1872.
✪ "Peasant" -1873.
✪ "A Feast for the Whole World" - 1876.
The poet wanted to write several more chapters, but he was working on his poem at the time when he was beginning to get sick, so the illness prevented him from realizing these poetic plans. But nevertheless, realizing that he would soon die, Nikolai Alekseevich tried in his last part to finish it so that the whole poem would have a logical completeness.
The plot of the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia"
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 the point that it soon turns into an argument. It was late afternoon, but they could not resolve this dispute. 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 the clearing. But the argument went on and ended up in a fight.
From such a noise, a chick of a warbler falls out, which Pakhom saves, and for this an exemplary mother is ready to fulfill any desire of the men. Having received the magic tablecloth, the men decide to travel 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. The heroes also get to the village fair.
They are trying to find happy people among the drunk, and it soon turns out that the peasant doesn't need much to be happy: eat his fill, and protect himself from troubles. And in order to find out about happiness for the heroes, I advise you to find Ermila Girin, whom everyone knows. And here the men find out his story, and then the master 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 to know a 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 sexton's son Grishka Dobrosklonov is also interesting.
You are poor, You are abundant, You are powerful, You are powerless, Mother Russia! In slavery, the saved free Heart is Gold, gold The heart of the people! Strength of the people, Strength of mighty - Conscience calm, True tenacious!
Genre and unusual composition of the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia"
About the composition of the Nekrasov poem, there are still disputes between writers and critics. Most of the 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 "The Last One" follows, and in conclusion - "A Feast for the Whole World."
Evidence of this arrangement of chapters in the plot of the poem was the fact that, for example, in the first part and in the next 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. In the next Nekrasov part, it has already been shown how this old world is completely destroyed and perishes.
But already in the last Nekrasov chapter, the poet shows all the signs that a new life is beginning. The tone of the story changes dramatically and now it is brighter, clearer, more joyful. The reader feels that the poet, like his heroes, believes in the future. Especially this striving for a clear and bright future is felt in those moments when the main character, Grishka Dobrosklonov, appears in the poem.
In this part, the poet completes the poem, therefore 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, lives well and freely, carefree and merrily in Russia. It turns out that the most carefree, happy and cheerful person is Grishka, who is the defender of his people. In his beautiful and lyrical songs, he predicted the happiness of his people.
But if you carefully read how the denouement comes in the poem in its last part, then you can pay attention to the strangeness 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 sequel may have been planned here.
The fabulousness of the composition is easily seen in the work. There are many elements in the text that can easily be attributed to folklore. During the entire journey, the author inserts his own lyrical digressions and elements that are completely irrelevant to the plot.
Analysis of Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Russia"
From the history of Russia it is known that in 1861 the most shameful phenomenon - serfdom - was abolished. But such a reform caused unrest in society, and new problems soon 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 will be considered.
Despite the fact that the work is written in simple language and has an appeal to folklore, it usually seems difficult for the reader to perceive, since it touches on the most serious philosophical problems and questions. The author himself searched for answers to most of the questions all his life. This is probably why it was so difficult for him to write a poem, and he created it for fourteen years. Unfortunately, the work was never finished.
The poet planned 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 the other. 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, therefore he also used vernacular vocabulary. For a long time, there were debates about who can still be attributed to the main characters of the poem. So, there were assumptions that these are heroes - men who are walking 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 main character in it is all the 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 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 hero in his poem there is his own concept of happiness. For example, a rich person sees happiness in having monetary well-being. And the peasant dreams that in his life there was no grief and misfortune, which 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, therefore there is a huge amount of vernacular in it.
Despite the fact that the work remained incomplete, it reflects the whole reality of what was happening. This is a real literary gift to all lovers of poetry, history and literature.
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