Works such as “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are a real excursion into the 60s of the 19th century. The poem literally immerses the reader in the events of post-serfdom. A journey in search of a happy person in the Russian Empire reveals numerous problems of society, paints an unvarnished picture of reality and makes one think about the future of a country that dares to live in a new way.
The history of the creation of Nekrasov's poem
The exact date when work on the poem began is unknown. But 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 poet’s idea for the poem arose around 1860-1863, and Nikolai Alekseevich began writing it around 1863. Although the poet’s sketches could have been made earlier.
It is known that starting in 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 censorship. Despite this, work on the poem continued.
The poet had to publish it gradually in the same Sovremennik magazine. So it was published for four years, and all these years the censor was dissatisfied. The poet himself was constantly subject to criticism and persecution. Therefore, he stopped his work for a while, and was able to start it again only in 1870. During 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 Woman” -1873.
✪ “A Feast for the Whole World” - 1876.
The poet wanted to write a few more chapters, but he was working on his poem at a time when he began to fall ill, so his 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 a logical completeness.
The plot of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
In one of the volosts, on a wide road, there are seven men who live in neighboring villages. And they think about one question: who lives well in their native land. And their conversation got so bad that it soon turned into an argument. It was getting late in the evening, but they could not resolve this dispute. And suddenly the men noticed that they had already walked 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 continued and led to a fight.
Because of such noise, a chick of a warbler falls out, which Pakhom saves, and for this the 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 men’s opinion that he has a good and happy life. The heroes also end up at a rural fair.
They try to find happy people among the drunk, and it soon becomes clear that a peasant doesn’t need much to be happy: he has enough to eat and protects himself from troubles. And to find out about happiness, I advise the heroes to find Ermila Girin, whom everyone knows. And then the men learn 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 meet one peasant woman, Matryona. They help Korchagina in the field, and in return 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 also poor, You are also abundant, You are also powerful, You are also powerless, Mother Rus'! Saved in slavery, the heart is free - Gold, gold, the people's heart! People's power, mighty power - calm conscience, tenacious truth!
Genre and unusual composition of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
There is still debate between writers and critics about the composition of Nekrasov's poem. Most researchers of the literary work of Nikolai Nekrasov have come to the conclusion that the material should be arranged as follows: a prologue and part one, then the chapter “Peasant Woman” should be placed, the content should be followed by the chapter “Last One” and in conclusion - “A Feast for the Whole World”.
Evidence of this arrangement of chapters in the plot of the poem is 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 outdated. The next part of Nekrasov already shows how this old world is completely destroyed and perishes.
But already in Nekrasov’s last chapter, the poet shows all the signs that a new life is beginning. The tone of the story changes dramatically and is now lighter, clearer, and more joyful. The reader feels that the poet, like his heroes, believe in the future. This aspiration towards a clear and bright future is especially felt in those moments when the main character, Grishka Dobrosklonov, appears in the poem.
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, lives well and freely, carefree and cheerfully 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 poem ends in its last part, you can pay attention to the strangeness of the narrative. 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 may have been planned here.
The fabulousness of the composition is easily visible in the work. The text contains many elements that can easily be attributed to folklore. Throughout the journey, the author inserts his own lyrical digressions and elements that are completely unrelated to the plot.
Analysis of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
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 issue of peasant happiness would be considered.
Despite the fact that the work is written in simple language and refers to folklore, it usually seems complex to the reader, since it touches on the most serious philosophical problems and questions. The author himself sought answers to most of the questions all his life. This is probably why writing the poem was so difficult for him, and he created it over the course of fourteen years. But unfortunately, the work was never finished.
The poet intended to write his poem in 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 and in the sequence proposed by K. Chukovsky, who carefully studied Nekrasov’s archives for a long time.
Nikolai Nekrasov chose ordinary people as the heroes of the poem, so he also used vernacular vocabulary. For a long time, there were debates about who could still be considered the main characters of the poem. So, there were assumptions that these are 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 today. 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 these men are united by one goal, for 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 each hero in his poem has his own concept of happiness. For example, a rich person sees happiness in having financial well-being. And the man dreams that in his life there will be no grief and troubles, which usually await the peasant at every step. There are also heroes who are happy because they believe in the happiness of others. The language of Nekrasov’s poem is close to folk, so it contains a huge amount of vernacular.
Despite the fact that the work remained unfinished, it reflects the entire reality of what happened. This is a real literary gift to all lovers of poetry, history and literature.
“Who lives well in Russia”- poem by N. A. Nekrasov. It tells the story of the journey of seven peasant men throughout Rus' in order to find a happy man. The action takes place shortly after the abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire.
History of creation
N. A. Nekrasov began work on the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” in the first half of the 1860s. The mention of the exiled Poles in the first part, in the chapter “The Landowner,” suggests that work on the poem began no earlier than 1863. But sketches of the work could have appeared earlier, since Nekrasov had been collecting material for a long time. The manuscript of the first part of the poem is marked 1865, however, it is possible that this is the date of completion of work on this part.
Soon after finishing work on the first part, the prologue of the poem was published in the January 1866 issue of Sovremennik magazine. Printing lasted for four years and was accompanied, like all of Nekrasov’s publishing activities, by censorship persecution.
The writer began to continue working on the poem only in the 1870s, writing three more parts of the work: “The Last One” (1872), “The Peasant Woman,” “A Feast for the Whole World” (). The poet did not intend to limit himself to the written chapters; three or four more parts were planned. However, a developing illness interfered with the author's plans. Nekrasov, feeling the approach of death, tried to give some “completeness” to the last part, “A feast for the whole world.”
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was published in the following sequence: “Prologue. Part One,” “The Last One,” “The Peasant Woman,” “A Feast for the Whole World.”
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Plot and structure of the poem
It was assumed that the poem would have 7 or 8 parts, but the author managed to write only 4, which, perhaps, did not follow one another.
The poem is written in iambic trimeter.
Part one
The only part that does not have a title. It was written shortly after the abolition of serfdom (). Judging by the first quatrain of the poem, we can say that Nekrasov initially tried to anonymously characterize all the problems of Rus' at that time.
Prologue
In what year - calculate
In what land - guess
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together.
They got into an argument:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
They offered six possible answers to this question:
- Novel: to the landowner;
- Demyan: official;
- brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin: merchant;
- Groin: minister, boyar;
The peasants decide not to return home until they find the correct answer. In the prologue, they also find a self-assembled tablecloth that will feed them, and they set off.
Chapter I. Pop
Chapter II. Country fair.
Chapter III. Drunken night.
Chapter IV. Happy.
Chapter V. Landowner.
The last one (from the second part)
At the height of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene: a noble family sails to the shore in three boats. The mowers, who had just sat down to rest, immediately jumped up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs hide the abolition of serfdom from the crazy landowner Utyatin. For this, the relatives of the last one, Utyatin, promise the men floodplain meadows. But after the long-awaited death of the Last One, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.
Peasant woman (from the third part)
In this part, the wanderers decide to continue their search for someone who can “live cheerfully and at ease in Rus'” among women. In the village of Nagotino, the women told the men that there was a “governor” in Klin, Matryona Timofeevna: “there is no more kind-hearted and smoother woman.” There, seven men find this woman and convince her to tell her story, at the end of which she reassures the men of her happiness and of women’s happiness in Rus' in general:
The keys to women's happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost
From God himself!..
- Prologue
- Chapter I. Before marriage
- Chapter II. Songs
- Chapter III. Savely, hero, Holy Russian
- Chapter IV. Dyomushka
- Chapter V. She-Wolf
- Chapter VI. Difficult year
- Chapter VII. Governor's wife
- Chapter VIII. The Old Woman's Parable
A feast for the whole world (from the fourth part)
This part is a logical continuation of the second part (“The Last One”). It describes the feast that the men threw after the death of the old man Last. The adventures of the wanderers do not end in this part, but at the end one of the feasters - Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of a sexton, the next morning after the feast, walking along the river bank, finds what the secret of Russian happiness is, and expresses it in a short song “Rus”, by the way, used by V.I. Lenin in the article “The main task of our days.” The work ends with the words:
If only our wanderers could
Under my own roof,
If only they could know,
What happened to Grisha.
He heard in his chest
Immense forces
Delighted his ears
Blessed sounds
Radiant sounds
Noble hymn -
He sang the incarnation
People's happiness!..
Such an unexpected ending arose because the author was aware of his imminent death, and, wanting to finish the work, he logically completed the poem in the fourth part, although at the beginning N. A. Nekrasov conceived 8 parts.
List of heroes
Temporary peasants
- Novel,
- Demyan,
- Luke,
- Ivan and Metropolitan Gubin,
- Groin,
- Prov.
Peasants and serfs
- Artyom Demin,
- Yakim Nagoy,
- Sidor,
- Egorka Shutov,
- Vlas,
- Agap Petrov,
- Ipat,
- Yakov,
- Gleb,
- Proshka,
- Matryona Timofeevna,
- Savely Korchagin,
- Ermil Girin.
Landowners
- Obolt-Obolduev,
- Prince Utyatin (last child),
- Vogel (German, manager of the landowner Shalashnikov)
- Shalashnikov.
Other heroes
- Elena Alexandrovna - the governor's wife who delivered Matryona,
- Altynnikov - merchant, possible buyer of Ermila Girin's mill,
- Grisha Dobrosklonov.
The history of the creation of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” begins in the late 1850s, when Nekrasov came up with the idea of a large-scale epic work, summing up his entire creative and life experience as a revolutionary poet. The author has been collecting material for a long time based on both his personal experience of communicating with the people and the literary heritage of his predecessors. Before Nekrasov, many authors addressed the life of the common people in their works, in particular I.S. Turgenev, whose “Notes of a Hunter” became one of the sources of images and ideas for Nekrasov. He developed a clear idea and plot in 1862, after the abolition of serfdom and land reform. In 1863 Nekrasov got to work.
The author wanted to create an epic “folk” poem with a detailed picture of the life of various layers of Russian society. It was also important for him that his work be accessible to the common people, to whom he addressed first of all. This determines the composition of the poem, which was conceived by the author as cyclic, a meter close to the rhythm of folk tales, a unique language replete with sayings, sayings, “common” and dialect words.
The creative history of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” includes almost fourteen years of intensive work by the author, collecting materials, developing images, and adjusting the original plot. According to the author's plan, the heroes, having met not far from their villages, were supposed to make a long journey through the entire province, and at the end reach St. Petersburg. While on the road, they talk with a priest, a landowner, and a peasant woman. In St. Petersburg, travelers were supposed to meet with an official, a merchant, a minister and the tsar himself.
As he wrote individual parts of the poem, Nekrasov published them in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. In 1866, the Prologue appeared in print; the first part was published in 1868, then in 1872 and 1873. The parts “Last One” and “Peasant Woman” were published. The part entitled “A Feast for the Whole World” never appeared in print during the author’s lifetime. Only three years after Nekrasov’s death, Saltykov-Shchedrin was able to print this fragment with large censored notes.
Nekrasov did not leave any instructions regarding the order of the parts of the poem, therefore it is customary to publish it in the order in which it appeared on the pages of “Notes of the Fatherland” - “Prologue” and the first part, “The Last One”, “Peasant Woman”, “Feast for the Whole World” " This sequence is the most adequate from the point of view of composition.
Nekrasov's serious illness forced him to abandon the original plan of the poem, according to which it should have consisted of seven or eight parts and included, in addition to pictures of rural life, scenes of St. Petersburg life. It was also planned that the structure of the poem would be based on the changing seasons and agricultural seasons: travelers set off in early spring, spent the whole summer and autumn on the road, reached the capital in winter and returned to their native places in the spring. But the history of writing “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was interrupted in 1877 with the death of the writer.
Anticipating the approach of death, Nekrasov says: “The one thing I deeply regret is that I did not finish my poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Realizing that his illness does not leave him enough time to complete his plan, he is forced to change his original plan; he quickly reduces the narrative to an open ending, in which, however, he still demonstrates one of his brightest and most significant heroes - commoner Grisha Dobrosklonov, who dreams of the good and happiness of the entire people. It was he, according to the author’s idea, who should have become the very lucky one that the wanderers are looking for. But, not having time for a detailed disclosure of his image and history, Nekrasov limited himself to a hint of how this large-scale epic should have ended.
Work test
A). The emergence of a plan
The national and universal significance of the people's liberation movement in Russia in the 60s of the 19th century is undeniable. “In my opinion,” K. Marx wrote to F. Engels in January 1860, “the greatest event in the world at the present time is, on the one hand, the American slave movement, which began with the death of Brown, and, on the other hand, the movement slaves in Russia." Liberation movement of the 60s. opens the era of preparation for revolution in Russia.
ON THE. Nekrasov, a poet and journalist, was an active participant in the liberation movement and understood its significance. This favored the emergence of the epic concept. Nekrasov described events contemporary to him. The idea about the legitimacy of depicting modern heroic events of national and global significance in the epic genre was expressed by Nekrasov back in his review of Iv’s brochure. Vanenko "The Sevastopol Defense, or Such Are the Russians" (1855).
The events that caused the revolutionary situation of 1859-1861, the abolition of serfdom, everything that marked the beginning of the era of preparation for the revolution in Russia, contributed to the creation of a plot about the desire of disadvantaged peasants to find a better, happy life. After the reform, hundreds of thousands of peasants, freed from serfdom and deprived of their breadwinner land, left their native villages and went to the cities to build railways and factories.
The poem "Peddlers" (1861), inserted into it "Song of the Wretched Wanderer" indicate that the poet carefully observed new phenomena in people's life, sensitively capturing its needs and possibilities. The wanderer’s journey from village to village, the nature of his questions: “Man, do you live warmly?”, “Are you eating and singing well?...”, the Man’s answers to the wanderer’s questions - “cold-cold, hungry-hungry”, repeated in a thousand voices by the wind , forests, and all the surrounding nature, sounded throughout Rus'. Behind the generalized image of the Peasant in the imagination of the reader and friend stood a large peasantry, robbed by the gentlemen-liberators. “Black crows” - officials who carried out reprisals against “good humanity”, the weaver-plowman Titus, could be associated in the minds of readers with the royal satraps who carried out the trial and reprisal of Anton Petrov and similar peasants from Kandeevka, Bezdna and other villages of long-suffering Rus'. It seems that the idea for the “epic of modern peasant life” could have appeared during the work on “The Song of the Wretched Wanderer.”
The emergence of a plan could precede subjective readiness to implement it. ON THE. Nekrasov said that in this book he wanted to put all his experience in studying the people, “all the information about them, accumulated word by word” for 20 years.
In accordance with these words of the poet P.N. Sakkulin wrote: “Who Lives Well in Rus' was conceived as a completion, as a synthesis of all creativity, the success of work on it was ensured by the ability to look at life through the eyes of the people, speak their language, write about their taste.”
Studying the creative history of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” gives us the right to say that the beginning of Nekrasov’s path to the epic is in the novels: “The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikov”, “Three Countries of the World”, “The Thin Man, His Adventures and Observations”.. For the first time, they show the desire to depict all of Rus' from the Baltic states to Alaska, from the Arctic Ocean to the Caspian Sea, to see the diversity of folk types, to treat with great attention and sympathy to people with an “energetic mind and character” and the ability to express folk ideals. Here also manifests that special kind of artistic vision, which will be improved and will become the most important component of the epic form of objectivity.
The development of Nekrasov’s creativity is characterized by three directions that paved the way for the creation of an epic. The first of them are poems and lyric-epic poems about “heroes of active good.” The development of realism in these works went from documentary to epic. The heroism of the era of preparation for the Russian revolution was manifested in the action of peasants and workers against their masters, in the selfless activities of revolutionary democrats who were preparing the peasant revolution.
The images of Belinsky, Dobrolyubov, Shevchenko, Chernyshevsky, created by the poet, convince us that the desire to capture the facts of their biographies is combined in the poet’s works with a generalized image of the “hero of active good.”
The desire to rise to significant artistic generalizations, without breaking with documentation, is also revealed when studying the structure of the poem “The Poet and the Citizen” and the poem “The Unfortunate.” In the images of the Citizen and the Mole-Eagle one can see the features of their prototypes and at the same time they are “familiar strangers” whose ideals correlate with national ideals. The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the hero of the epic, was prepared by depicting historical “heroes of active good”.
The second direction of creative searches and achievements on the approaches to the epic is marked by the poems “Peddlers” and “Frost, Red Nose”. Nekrasov created works about the people and for the people. The form of objectivity he perfected is becoming more and more popular and even epic.
Concern for strengthening the nationality of the poem was clearly manifested, without needing proof, in the dedication of “Peddlers” to a friend and friend, the peasant Gavrila Yakovlevich Zakharov.
The ability to see life through the eyes of one’s characters, to speak their language, necessary to create an epic, was also improved in subsequent works: “Duma”, “Funeral”, “Peasant Children”, “Orina, the Soldier’s Mother”, etc. The epic form of objectivity is often combined in them with the dramatic and lyrical.
In a different way, but with the same success, Nekrasov improves the art of impersonating his democratic heroes, the ability to feel and think with them and for them, working on the poem “Frost, Red Nose.”
The third direction of the poet’s creative evolution, which prepared the creation of a new type of epic genre, is formed by the poems “Reflections at the Front Entrance”, “Silence”, “On the Volga”, etc. - lyrical in the way of perception and aesthetic assessment of phenomena and epic in the expression of thoughts and feelings.
The development of this genre variety is characterized by an increase in “details of the objective world”, as well as a change in their composition.
“Railway”, “Silence”, “Knight for an Hour”, “On the Volga” are written in the form of lyrical reflection. But the “details of the objective world” here are so numerous, voluminous and important that they overshadow the lyrical hero.
The lyricism in “Silence” and “Reflections at the Front Door” becomes truly epic. It is in this capacity that he will develop in “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”
To realize the idea of a poetic epic, a corresponding verse was also necessary.
To correctly assess the importance of this condition, let us remember the words of A.S. Pushkin: “I’m writing not just a novel, but a novel in verse. The difference is devilish!” The novel "Eugene Onegin" consists of 5423 verses; the epic “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - from 8866. Nekrasov was also prepared for the implementation of this task by previous creative searches and achievements. His epic is written mainly in unrhymed iambic trimeter (7965 lines out of 8866), a special flexible foot. The prototype of this flexible foot and unrhymed iambic trimeter with dactylic and masculine endings was created by the poet in 1862 in the poem “Green Noise.” The originality of the rhythmic organization of "Green Noise" directly preceded the similar structure of the epic verse. This amazing poem also preceded the epic with a special vision of nature, characteristic of folk art, for the worldview of the plowmen dear to the poet’s heart.
The original version of the "Prologue" was called the "First Chapter" of the "First Part". It began successfully and therefore never changed with verses written in the style of a fairy-tale beginning: “In a certain kingdom, In a certain state...”. Just like the fairytale beginning, the initial poems contribute to the poeticization of everyday reality. The plot of the search for the happy in the form in which it was outlined in the “First Chapter” correlates with the plot of the fairy tale “On Truth and Falsehood.”
In the text of the “First Chapter” by N.A. Nekrasov inserted one hundred and fifty-nine new verses and, in connection with this, re-edited the agreement of seven men on a journey across Rus' to meet the supposedly happy ones.
By adding new fairy-tale motifs and images, the poet foreshadowed that the depiction of life would be carried out not only in the perception of the seven men and the supposed happy ones, but also in the aspect of the deep layers of the people's worldview, reflected in folklore.
The curiosity of the seven men, which forced them to forget about personal and family affairs for the sake of a fair solution to the question of “who lives happily and at ease in Rus',” testified that they belonged to the best, socially active part of the peasants. In the development of men's self-awareness lay the possibility of a new direction in the search for happiness in Rus'.
The epic structure of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was carefully thought out before starting work on the “Prologue,” but the poet persistently improved it. The only thing that remained unchanged was the choice of genre, corresponding to the historical events taken as the basis of the plot. In all other respects, the plan developed and improved during the process of its implementation. The prologue was supplemented with 159 new poems about a wonderful bird and a tablecloth - self-assembled. The same is observed in the note to another addition, smaller in volume and significance.
To the original text about the cuckoo, which responded confusedly to the noise of a peasant argument and fight, the poet made the following addition:
Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!
The bread will begin to spike,
You'll choke on an ear of corn -
You won't cuckoo.
And in the note he explained: “The cuckoo will stop cuckooing when the bread begins to spike” (choking on the ear, says the people).”
Large and small insertions and edits associated with the transformation of the “First Chapter” into the “Prologue” were intended to strengthen the correlation of the “Prologue” with the intended structure of the “epic of modern peasant life.” The epic scope of the intended review of life “through the eyes of men” is preceded in the “Prologue” by a picture of an argument-fight, the noise from which was repeated by a echo, and the inhabitants of the forest responded to it with groans and roars.
The owls laughed
The gray wolves howled,
A dog barked somewhere.
But the poet was not satisfied with only the sound, devoid of visual clarity, image of the inhabitants of the forest. Instead of these verses, he wrote new ones:
To the noise, to the fierce fight
Seven eagle owls flew together
Sit in the trees
The night owls laugh.
Eyes are large and yellow
They burn like burning wax
Fourteen candles!
Hearing a fierce fight,
Settled down nearby
And the raven is unsociable.
Sitting on an old tree
Sits and prays to the devil,
So that the stupid people go away
Anyone to death.
The inhabitants of the forest in this text, as if in a giant circus, surrounded the arguing men. The image of the audience actively reacting to the dispute, to the “fierce fight”, enhanced the impression.
The following version of this picturesque frame of the picture is significantly improved:
Seven eagle owls flew together
Admiring the carnage
From seven big trees.
The night owls are laughing!
And their eyes are yellow
They burn like burning wax
Fourteen candles!
And the raven, a sensitive bird,
Arrived, - sitting on a tree
By the fire itself, -
Sits and prays to the devil,
To be slapped to death
Which one!
Fourteen burning eyes, like fourteen candlesticks from “seven big trees,” illuminate the night battle arena. The shouts of the men - “to the king”, “to the priest”, “to the priest” - are echoed in the screaming laughter of the eagle owls, repeated and amplified by a booming echo. The image of a raven waiting for bloody prey gives the picture a gloomy and ominous character. The epic number "seven", repeated many times - "seven men", "seven eagle owls", "seven large trees", "seven pairs of burning eyes" - reinforces the impression of strict proportionality, repetition and foreshadows epic repetitions of the title question and noisy debates in the central chapters.
By improving the picture of the night dispute, revealing the compositional role of the number seven in it, the poet sought to tell the reader about the structure of the future “epic of peasant life.” “Flying forward with his thoughts,” he saw the “embodiment” of the lucky seven in the composition of the epic he had conceived.
In Nekrasov’s scene, at the very beginning of the search for happiness and truth, seven giant tree-lamps illuminate the arena of argument and fight between seven wanderers. The double seven luminous eyes of eagle owls on lamp trees are associated with the two celestial seven stars Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, which also include a lucky guiding star. But men still don’t know how to distinguish her from others. It seems to them that the star letter, written “in red gold on blue velvet,” “neither wise nor foolish can read.” In “Who Lives Well in Rus',” seven men travel through real, sinful Rus' to meet the supposedly happy and see “the embodiment of people’s happiness.”
The idea of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” arose from Nekrasov under the influence of the liberation movement, which caused the abolition of serfdom. It was a concept of the “era of modern peasant life” with a protagonist and a method of artistic vision corresponding to the genre. The development of artistic action was planned in a fairy-tale-conventional form, in accordance with the needs of the people and the growth of their consciousness.
The poet’s readiness to carry out this grandiose plan was prepared by all the creative experience that preceded the epic. The milestone of subjective readiness was marked by the creation of the poems “Peddlers” (1861), “Frost, Red Nose” (1863), “The Railway” (1864), which were the poet’s highest achievements on the approaches to the epic.
It is not yet possible to indicate the exact start date for the implementation of the plan. The period of the poet’s subjective readiness to carry out his plan prompts us to agree with V.E. Evgeniev - Maximov is that work on the epic began in 1863-1864. The time of its completion above the first part is indicated by the poet himself - 1865.
b) The image of the people.
The people are the main character of the epic. The word “people” appears in it very often, in a variety of combinations: “the people surrounded them”, “the people gathered and listened”, “the people march and fall”, “the people will believe Girin”, “told the people”, “the people see” , “the people are silent”, “the heroic people are here”, “the people were shouting”, “the Russian people are gathering their strength...”, etc. The word "people" sounds like the name of the main character.
In the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" the image of the people is conventional. The people appear in crowd scenes: at a festival-fair in the village of Kuzminskoye, at a village gathering electing a mayor, at a city market square, on a Volga meadow, in a scene of a feast for the whole world, they appear as something single, whole, not imaginary, but real. He is seen by seven men traveling across Rus' in search of happiness. An important role in creating the image of a people is played by national self-awareness, manifested in folklore and popular rumor. The appearance of mass scenes in which the people are seen as something united is motivated by the development of the plot.
By improving the epic methods of artistic vision, Nekrasov strengthened the national character of the work. The poet looks at events through the eyes of a revolutionary democrat, a defender of the "working classes", through the eyes of an insightful researcher of people's life, through the eyes of an artist who has the gift of transforming into the characters depicted.
The draft versions contain the following words from a democrat-ethnographer:
Whenever what thinking
About the Russian man
I thought it was true
So I would sit in St. Petersburg
Yes, I wrote books.
And then by popular rumor
I want to test my mind
"The People's Voice" - have you heard? -
"The voice of God" - they say...
This could have been said by both the author and the narrator. ON THE. Nekrasov listened sensitively to “folk rumors”, to the wise judgments of plowmen, and skillfully used their figurative speech as a speech characteristic of folk characters. The narrator in an epic is difficult to distinguish from the author. Nekrasov endowed him with many personal qualities, including a special penetrating gaze, the ability to comprehend what and how his male companions see during their wanderings across Rus', what they think about what they saw; endowed them with the ability to speak on their behalf, without distorting either their views or manner of speech.
When seven wanderers came to a holiday - a fair in the village of Kuzminskoye, there was “visibly - invisible to the people” everyone there. This huge mass of people represents something inseparable from the festive square, as well as from that crowded, hundred-voice road that “buzzes with popular rumor” like the “blue sea”, like “violent winds.” The wanderers and the inseparable author-narrator are inside the polyphonic mass, as if merging with it. They not only hear the hum of popular rumors, but also distinguish individual remarks of men and women, the words of their songs.
Unnamed remarks vary in content and meaning, sometimes they are playful, salty peasant humor, sometimes apt judgments about topical phenomena of social life, presented in the allegorical form of riddles, omens, and proverbs.
"You are good, royal letter,
Yes, you weren’t written about us...”
"Move aside, people!"
(Excise officials
With bells, with plaques
They rushed from the market).
"And I mean now:
And the broom is rubbish, Ivan Ilyich,
And he will walk on the floor,
Wherever it will spray! "
Historical signs of popular rumors and popular rumors in the “turbulent” villages of post-reform Rus' make it possible to limit the time of action in the first part to 1861-1863. The rumors about the tsar's manifesto, published in 1861, were most intense at the beginning of this period. Words about excise officials could not have been spoken earlier than 1863, since before that time such a position did not exist. The likening of the “new officials to brooms”, which can spray a fair amount of dust, testifies to the attitude of the author-narrator and his companions towards the “new officials”.
The motley, noisy crowd in the fair scenes is related and united not only by a common festive mood, but also by common ideas about “valiant prowess” and “maiden beauty”.
When about three dozen young men sang a friendly song
About brave daring,
About girlish beauty,
The whole road became silent...
“With fire and longing” that song passed through the hearts of the peasants. The people are depicted as something united, united by a common love for justice, intelligence and kindness in the scene of a village gathering, electing Ermila Girin as mayor:
Six thousand souls, the whole estate
We shout: - Ermila Girina! -
How one man is!
The people are also depicted in the city market square as a single mass, united by trust in Yermil Girin and the desire to support him in the fight against the merchant Altynnikov and officials. When Yermil turned to the people with a request to listen to him,
The crowded square became silent...
The unity of the masses was manifested both in respectful attention to their favorite and in friendly assistance to him. The poet saw something opposing the merchant Altynnikov and the tsarist administration among the people when he wrote: “Yermil bowed to the people.”
The chapters “The Last One” and “A Feast for the Whole World” play a particularly important role in creating the image of the people. In the picture of haymaking in the Volga meadow, as in the picture of the holiday fair in the village of Kuzminskoye, again
There are tons of people! There are white people
Women's shirts are colorful
Agile braids...
The poet embodied the admiration of wanderers for the heroism of the Volga workers with amazing sculpture in the image of “a tall peasant with a jug on a haystack.” The haystack in this poetic sculpture serves as a kind of pedestal, created by the labor of the hero himself - the plowman.
The people are also seen as a single mass in the film “A Feast for the Whole World,” which takes place at a crossroads in the village of Bolshiye Vakhlaki. The Vakhlakovs are united here by the common joy of liberation from serfdom, from the oppression of the landowner Utyatin, and a common dream of a better, happy life. They hope to receive into collective ownership a large water meadow, promised to them by the heirs of Prince Utyatin for an extended period of serfdom to the sick “last-born.” According to the calculations of the peasants, the income from the meadow can reimburse them for their dues and taxes. This means that they will be freed not only from serfdom, but also from taxes.
"No corvee...no tax...
Without a stick... is it true, Lord? "
This hope made everyone happy, but the joy was premature. It was not the meadow, but a ruinous lawsuit with the heirs of the serf owner Utyatin that awaited them in the future.
The question of the meadow was not the only one, but the first in a series discussed by the participants of the feast. The joy of liberating the Vakhlaks from serfdom is expressed and motivated in the legends about serfdom, in the songs “Veselaya” and “Corvee”, in the story “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Verny”.
In “The Feast...” the entire Vakhlat world and even the entire people are engaged in the search for the happy. The Legend of Two Great Sinners provides a solution to this long-standing dispute. In accordance with the people's idea of good and evil, the murder of a cruel serf owner is a feat that frees slaves from a tyrant. The soul of a person who has accomplished such a great feat is transformed, cleansed of all previous sins and vices. The sin of betraying Gleb the elder - the sin of Judas - is not forgiven by the people's conscience. The path to happiness is the path of active resistance to evil. The best of the Wahlaks have internalized this in their hearts and minds.
Not only the seekers of the happy and the author-narrator accompanying them think about the people and see them in their own way, but also the supposedly happy: the priest, the landowner, the peasants Yakam Nagoy, Ermil Girin, Savely Korchagin, Matryona Timofeevna, the people's protector Grisha Dobrosklonov. This reinforces the impression of epic objectivity and versatility of the image of the people.
For a priest, the people are the peasants of his parish. In the post-reform era, when many landowners left their family nests and moved to the cities, the priest was forced to be content only with the income from the peasants and involuntarily noticed their poverty.
The landowner Obolt-Obolduev also thinks about the people, about Russia. This is the thought of the serf owner, whose ideal is Rus', submissive to the power of the masters.
“Now Rus' is not the same!”
The serf owner Obolt-Obolduev hates not only the preachers of freedom and enlightenment, but also the peasants who disobey him, especially those who “play naughty” in his forest and avoid working in his fields.
To determine the essence of the life of the peasantry, a different measure of value is needed than the “master’s measure.” According to this new fair measure, agricultural workers are presented to the people's tribune as “great people in work and in joy,” people who “saved their bravery for the occasion.” In the judgments of an experienced plowman and a migrant worker, a national self-awareness was revealed that was inaccessible to the backward part of the peasantry. The essence of the Russian peasantry, according to the logic of Yakim Nagogo, is labor, and the reason for the poverty of the peasants is the domination of the exploiting classes.
You work alone
And the work is almost over,
Look, there are three shareholders standing:
God, king and lord!
Savely Korchagin expresses thoughts about the people close to Yakim Nagoy’s judgments. He speaks of the heroic endurance of the people and their will to fight. The views of the Holy Russian hero are most clearly correlated with the national self-awareness expressed in folklore. The peasantry, dispossessed by the landowners, appears to Savely in the form of a huge hero, leaving under the clouds, but bound in chains.
"You think, Matryonushka,
The man is not a hero? "-
Savely asks his daughter-in-law and granddaughter and answers in the style and spirit of the epic epic.
The idea of the heroism of the people is correlated with the ancient epic worldview in the epic of peasant life not only in the minds of Saveliy Korchagin, but also in the minds of the people's defender, Grigory Dobrosklonov, and his learned mentors. The author of the song “Rus” sees the people as an innumerable heroic army. In this famous song he summarized everything,
What I saw, what I heard,
Living with the people myself,
What I thought, what I read,
Everyone - even the teachers
Father Apolinarius
Recent words:
"From ancient times, Rus' was saved
By popular impulses"
(People with Ilya Muromets
Compared by the learned priest).
Reflecting on the essence of the Russian people, Grisha compared what he himself saw and heard with what he learned from books, from his teacher, an expert on epics.
“A Feast for the Whole World” is the last mass scene in a series of those in which the image of the people, the main character of the epic, is created. The people in this scene are most active - they celebrate the wake of the last one. The spiritual and creative activity of the Vakhlaks finds its expression in relation to folklore, in the updating of known folklore works, and in the creation of new ones. The Vakhlaks together sing folk songs “Corvee”, “Hungry”, listen attentively to the story “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful”, the legend “About Two Great Sinners”, the song of the soldier Ovsyannikov and the dramatized dialogue between Klim Lavin and the hero of the Sevastopol defense.
c) Peasant heroes using the examples of Yakim Nagogo and Ermil Girin.
Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo stands out from the mass of peasants present at the festival-fair in the village of Kuzminskoye, not by his surname, not by the name of his village, although both have multiple meanings, but by his insightful mind and talent as a people's tribune. Yakim’s speech about the essence of the Russian peasantry serves to create a collective image of the people, and at the same time to characterize Yakim himself, his attitude towards workers and “parasites”.
This is the main way of characterizing the characters in “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” It is also used in the stories of fellow villagers about Yakima. The reader learns that Yakim Nagoy was both a plowman and a St. Petersburg otkhodnik worker. Already in those St. Petersburg years, Yakim selflessly defended the interests of his fellow workers in their struggle against the exploiters, but to no avail.
I decided to compete with the merchant!
Like a piece of velcro,
He returned to his homeland
And he took up the plow.
It's been roasting for thirty years since then
On a strip in the sun...
In the stories of fellow villagers, it turns out that Yakim Nagoy loves art. There are pictures hanging everywhere in his hut. Yakima's love for beauty was so strong that during a fire, he first of all began to save pictures, not money. The money burned (more precisely, it decreased in value - these were gold coins), but the pictures were saved, and later even increased.
Yakim’s speech and fellow villagers’ stories about him are heard by the entire crowded square, and with it the seven seekers of happiness. The poet sees Yakim Nagoy through the eyes of plowmen like him, through the eyes of the ethnographer Pavlusha Veretennikov:
The chest is sunken, as if depressed
Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth
Bends like cracks
On dry ground;
And to Mother Earth myself
He looks like neck brown
Like a layer cut off by a plow,
Brick face
Hand - tree bark,
And the hair is sand.
The portrait of a peasant is painted with colors borrowed from mother earth, the earth-nurse. From the earth and the power of Yakima Nagogo. In this way, the inconspicuous-looking, wise plowman is similar to the legendary, mythical heroes.
The peasant Fedosey tells the wanderers about Ermil.
And you, dear friends,
Ask Ermila Girin, -
He said, sitting down with the wanderers,
Villages of Dymoglotov
Peasant Fedosey...
The wanderers’ question, “Who is Yermil?” aroused the surprise of the hero’s fellow countrymen:
“What, you are Orthodox!
You don’t know Ermila? "
Jumping up, they responded
About a dozen men.
We don't know! -
Well, that means from afar
You've come our way!
We have Ermila Girina
Everyone in the area knows."
Yermil Ilyich stands out among his fellow countrymen for his “strict truth, intelligence and kindness,” a demanding conscience and loyalty to the people’s interests. It is these high qualities of Yermil that are glorified by popular rumor, but for actions in which the virtues revered by the people were manifested, he sits in prison.
Travelers listen to Fedosey's story about Yermil Girin, as well as about Yakima Nagy, in a crowded square in the presence of many fellow countrymen who know him well. By silently agreeing with the narrator, the listeners seem to confirm the veracity of what was said. And when Fedosei violated the truth, his story was interrupted: “Stop!”
In the completed version, the collective response of the men was conveyed to the “average priest” close to them. He knows Ermila Girin well, loves and respects him. The priest did not limit himself to the remark, but made a significant addition to what was said by Fedosey; he reported that Yermil Girin was sent to prison. The story ends here, but it follows from it that Yermil tried to protect the participants in the riot on the estate of the landowner Obrubkov. Persecuted by the authorities, the “gray-haired priest” speaks of everyone’s favorite as a person who no longer exists. "Yes! There was only one man..."
A characteristic feature of the epic genre of the stories of Fedosei and the “gray-haired priest” is that Yermil Girin appears in them, on the one hand, in relationships with the mass of peasants who elect him mayor, helping him in the fight against the merchant Altynnikov, in relationships with the rebellious peasants from the estates of the landowner Obrubkov, and on the other hand, in relationships with the merchant Altynnikov and the officials he bribed, as well as, in all likelihood, with the pacifiers of the rebellious fellow countrymen.
The epic form of objectivity in creating the image of Ermila Girin is manifested in the fact that the stories about him are verified by the world and supplemented by the world, as well as in the popular rumor praising him as happy.
d) The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
The young life of Grisha Dobrosklonov is in plain sight. The reader knows the hero’s family, the life of his native village, and living conditions in Bursa. Grisha Dobrosklonov is connected by origin, experience of poor life, friendly relations, habits, aspirations and ideals with his native Vakhlachina, with peasant Russia.
Grisha comes to the Vakhlakov feast at the invitation of Vlas Ilyich, his spiritual godfather, who enjoys the love and respect of his fellow villagers for his intelligence, incorruptible honesty, kindness and selfless devotion to worldly interests. Vlas loves his godson, caresses him, takes care of him. Grisha, his brother Savva and other Vakhlaks consider themselves close to them. The plowmen ask the Dobrosklonovs to sing "Merry". The brothers are singing. The song sharply denounces the feudal landowners, bribe-taking officials and the tsar himself. The pathos of the denunciation is enhanced by the ironic refrain that ends each verse: “It is glorious to live for the people in holy Rus'!” This refrain apparently served as the basis for the ironic title of the song “Merry”, despite its sad, joyless content. The Vakhlaks learned “Vesyolyaya” from Grisha. It is unclear who its author is, but it is very possible that he also composed this song. But it did not become a folk song, coming from the heart of the composer and performer to the people's heart, since no one understood its essence.
Indicative of the image of Grisha is his conversation with his fellow countrymen, saddened by the unforgivable sin of Judas by the elder Gleb, for which they, as peasants, considered themselves responsible. Grisha managed to convince them that they were not “responsible for Gleb the accursed.”
The poet carefully improved the style and form of Dobrosklonov’s unique propaganda speech.
"No support - no landowner...
No support - Gleb new
It won't happen in Rus'! "
The ideas of determinism were propagated by revolutionary democrats in order to rouse the oppressed to actively fight against the hostile circumstances of post-reform life. In the original version, in the manuscript stored in the Pushkin House, the author spoke about the impression made by Grisha’s speech on the listeners. In the final text, it is expressed in a form more appropriate to the epic genre - in popular rumor: “It’s gone, it’s picked up by the crowd, About the support, the right word to chatter: “There is no snake - There will be no baby snakes!” "". The “true word” of the people's intercessor entered the consciousness of the men. In the nameless popular rumor, the remarks of Prov, the sexton and the sensible elder Vlas stand out. Prov advises his comrades: “Take it easy!” The sexton admires: “God will create a little head!” Vlas thanks his godson.
Grisha's response to Vlas's good wishes, as well as his educational speech, was carefully improved. Nekrasov sought to show the cordiality of the relationship between the people's defender and the peasants, and at the same time the difference in their understanding of happiness. Grigory Dobrosklonov’s cherished dream goes much further than the idea of happiness that is expressed in Vlas’s good wishes. Grisha strives not for personal wealth, but for his fellow countrymen “and every peasant to live freely and cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'.” His personal happiness lies in achieving the happiness of the people. This is a new, highest level of understanding of human happiness for Nekrasov’s epic.
The feast ended at dawn. The Vakhlaks went home. The wanderers and pilgrims fell asleep under the old willow tree. Savva and Grisha walked home and sang with inspiration:
Share of the people
His happiness
Light and freedom
First of all!
In the completed version of “Pira...” this song serves as an introduction to the subsequent development of the image of the “people's protector.” In the "Epilogue" the story about Grisha is narrated by the author himself, without the participation of seven companions. Externally, this is motivated by the fact that they sleep under an old willow tree. The author correlates the character of the hero not only with the living conditions in his own family, with the life of his native Vakhlachina, but also with the life of all of Russia, with the advanced ideals of all humanity. Such a broad, epic correlation of the ideals of the young hero of “active goodness” with universal human ideals is carried out in the lyrical reflection “Enough Demon of Joy” and in the song “In the Middle of the Low World,” which characterize the author himself. Grisha is seen in them as an author from the outside, walking “the narrow road, the honest road” together with his like-minded people.
The beauty of the inner world, creative talent and lofty aspirations of Grisha Dobrosklonov were revealed most clearly and convincingly in three of his songs. The feelings and thoughts of the young poet, expressed in the song “In moments of despondency, O Motherland!”, are genetically connected with the impressions of a worldly feast. These feelings and thoughts are the most active elements of that national self-awareness, which sought its manifestation in stories and legends about serfdom, about who is the greatest sinner, who is the most holy, expressed in the joyful dreams of the Vakhlaks about a better future.
Sad memories of the distant past, when “A descendant of the Tatars, like a horse, brought a Slav slave to the market,” about the recent lawlessness of serfdom, when “a Russian maiden was dragged to shame” and the word “recruitment” caused horror, are replaced in the poet’s soul by joyful hopes:
Enough! Finished with completed settlement,
The settlement with the master has been completed!
The Russian people are gathering strength
And learns to be a citizen...
In the same epic range, covering the dark and bright, sad and joyful aspects of the life of an individual working person and the entire people, the entire country, Dobrosklonov reflects on the barge hauler and on Russia. The barge hauler, met by Grisha on the banks of the Volga, walked with a festive gait, wearing a clean shirt... But the young poet imagined the barge hauler in a different form, when
Shoulders, chest and back
He was pulling a barge with a towline...
From the barge hauler, the young poet’s thought passed to the people, “to all mysterious Rus'” and was expressed in the famous song “Rus”, which is the poetic result of thoughts about the people and the Motherland not only of Grisha Dobrosklonov, but also of the author of the epic.
The strength of Russia is in the innumerable army of the people, in creative work. But the process of self-awareness of the people, getting rid of slavish obedience and psychology, from wretchedness and powerlessness, was slow.
The song "Rus" is the result of the hero's thoughts about his homeland and people, his present and future. This is the great and wise truth about the Russian people, the answer to the question posed in the poem.
The truth about Russia and the Russian people, which is reflected in the song “Rus”, which concludes the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” makes us see in the people the power capable of carrying out the reconstruction of life:
The army rises
Uncountable,
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible!
Saved in slavery
Free heart -
Gold, gold
People's heart!
The likening of the heart to gold spoke not only of its value, but also of its ardor. The color of gold is like the color of flame. This image could not be removed from the song. By association, it is associated with the image of a spark hiddenly burning in the chest of Russia, that spark from which the flame of the revolutionary transformation of Russia could flare up, wretched - into abundant, downtrodden - into omnipotent.
One of the most famous works of Nikolai Nekrasov is the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, which is distinguished not only by its deep philosophical meaning and social acuity, but also by its bright, original characters - these are seven simple Russian men who got together and argued about who “ life is free and joyful in Rus'.” The poem was first published in 1866 in the Sovremennik magazine. The publication of the poem was resumed three years later, but the tsarist censorship, seeing the content as an attack on the autocratic regime, did not allow it to be published. The poem was published in full only after the revolution in 1917.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” became the central work in the work of the great Russian poet; it is his ideological and artistic pinnacle, the result of his thoughts and reflections on the fate of the Russian people and on the roads leading to their happiness and well-being. These questions worried the poet throughout his life and ran like a red thread through his entire literary activity. Work on the poem lasted 14 years (1863-1877) and in order to create this “folk epic”, as the author himself called it, useful and understandable for the common people, Nekrasov made a lot of efforts, although in the end it was never finished (8 chapters were planned, 4 were written). A serious illness and then the death of Nekrasov disrupted his plans. Plot incompleteness does not prevent the work from having an acute social character.
Main storyline
The poem was begun by Nekrasov in 1863 after the abolition of serfdom, so its content touches on many problems that arose after the Peasant Reform of 1861. The poem has four chapters, they are united by a common plot about how seven ordinary men argued about who lives well in Rus' and who is truly happy. The plot of the poem, touching on serious philosophical and social problems, is structured in the form of a journey through Russian villages, their “speaking” names perfectly describe the Russian reality of that time: Dyryavina, Razutov, Gorelov, Zaplatov, Neurozhaikin, etc. In the first chapter, called “Prologue,” the men meet on a highway and start their own dispute; in order to resolve it, they go on a trip to Russia. On the way, the disputing men meet a variety of people, these are peasants, merchants, landowners, priests, beggars, and drunkards, they see a wide variety of pictures from people’s lives: funerals, weddings, fairs, elections, etc. .
Meeting different people, the men ask them the same question: how happy they are, but both the priest and the landowner complain about the deterioration of life after the abolition of serfdom, only a few of all the people they meet at the fair admit that they are truly happy.
In the second chapter, entitled “The Last One,” wanderers come to the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, whose inhabitants, after the abolition of serfdom, in order not to upset the old count, continue to pose as serfs. Nekrasov shows readers how they were then cruelly deceived and robbed by the count's sons.
The third chapter, entitled “Peasant Woman,” describes the search for happiness among the women of that time, the wanderers meet with Matryona Korchagina in the village of Klin, she tells them about her long-suffering fate and advises them not to look for happy people among Russian women.
In the fourth chapter, entitled “A Feast for the Whole World,” wandering seekers of truth find themselves at a feast in the village of Valakhchin, where they understand that the questions they ask people about happiness concern all Russian people, without exception. The ideological finale of the work is the song “Rus”, which originated in the head of a participant in the feast, the son of the parish sexton Grigory Dobrosklonov:
« You're miserable too
you are abundant
you and the omnipotent
Mother Rus'!»
Main characters
The question of who is the main character of the poem remains open, formally these are the men who argued about happiness and decided to go on a trip to Russia to decide who is right, however, the poem clearly states that the main character of the poem is the entire Russian people , perceived as a single whole. The images of the wandering men (Roman, Demyan, Luka, the brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin, the old man Pakhom and Prov) are practically not revealed, their characters are not drawn, they act and express themselves as a single organism, while the images of the people they meet, on the contrary, are painted very carefully, with a lot of details and nuances.
One of the brightest representatives of a man from the people can be called the son of the parish clerk Grigory Dobrosklonov, who was presented by Nekrasov as a people's intercessor, educator and savior. He is one of the key characters and the entire final chapter is devoted to the description of his image. Grisha, like no one else, is close to the people, understands their dreams and aspirations, wants to help them and composes wonderful “good songs” for people that bring joy and hope to those around them. Through his lips, the author proclaims his views and beliefs, gives answers to the pressing social and moral questions raised in the poem. Characters such as seminarian Grisha and honest mayor Yermil Girin do not seek happiness for themselves, they dream of making all people happy at once and devote their entire lives to this. The main idea of the poem follows from Dobrosklonov’s understanding of the very concept of happiness; this feeling can be fully felt only by those who, without reasoning, give their lives for a just cause in the fight for people’s happiness.
The main female character of the poem is Matryona Korchagina; the entire third chapter is devoted to a description of her tragic fate, typical of all Russian women. Drawing her portrait, Nekrasov admires her straight, proud posture, simple attire and the amazing beauty of a simple Russian woman (large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark). Her whole life is spent in hard peasant work, she has to endure beatings from her husband and brazen attacks from the manager, she was destined to survive the tragic death of her first-born, hunger and deprivation. She lives only for the sake of her children, and without hesitation accepts punishment with rods for her guilty son. The author admires the strength of her maternal love, endurance and strong character, sincerely pities her and sympathizes with all Russian women, for the fate of Matryona is the fate of all peasant women of that time, suffering from lawlessness, poverty, religious fanaticism and superstition, and lack of qualified medical care.
The poem also describes the images of landowners, their wives and sons (princes, nobles), depicts the landowners' servants (lackeys, servants, courtyard servants), priests and other clergy, kind governors and cruel German managers, artists, soldiers, wanderers, a huge number secondary characters who give the folk lyric-epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” that unique polyphony and epic breadth that make this work a real masterpiece and the pinnacle of Nekrasov’s entire literary work.
Analysis of the poem
The problems raised in the work are diverse and complex, they affect the lives of various strata of society, including a difficult transition to a new way of life, problems of drunkenness, poverty, obscurantism, greed, cruelty, oppression, the desire to change something, etc.
However, the key problem of this work is the search for simple human happiness, which each of the characters understands in their own way. For example, rich people, such as priests or landowners, think only about their own well-being, this is happiness for them, poorer people, such as ordinary peasants, are happy with the simplest things: staying alive after a bear attack, surviving a beating at work, etc. .
The main idea of the poem is that the Russian people deserve to be happy, they deserve it with their suffering, blood and sweat. Nekrasov was convinced that one must fight for one’s happiness and it is not enough to make one person happy, because this will not solve the entire global problem as a whole; the poem calls for thinking and striving for happiness for everyone without exception.
Structural and compositional features
The compositional form of the work is distinctive; it is built in accordance with the laws of classical epic, i.e. each chapter can exist independently, and all together they represent a single whole work with a large number of characters and storylines.
The poem, according to the author himself, belongs to the genre of folk epic, it is written in unrhymed iambic trimeter, at the end of each line after stressed syllables there are two unstressed syllables (the use of dactylic casula), in some places there is iambic tetrameter to emphasize the folklore style of the work.
In order for the poem to be understandable to the common man, many common words and expressions are used in it: village, breveshko, fair, empty popple, etc. The poem contains a large number of different examples of folk poetry, these are fairy tales, epics, various proverbs and sayings, folk songs of various genres. The language of the work is stylized by the author in the form of a folk song to improve ease of perception; at that time, the use of folklore was considered the best way of communication between the intelligentsia and the common people.
In the poem, the author used such means of artistic expression as epithets (“the sun is red”, “black shadows”, a free heart”, “poor people”), comparisons (“jumped out as if disheveled”, “the men fell asleep like the dead”), metaphors ( “the earth lies”, “the warbler is crying”, “the village is seething”). There is also a place for irony and sarcasm, various stylistic figures are used, such as addresses: “Hey, uncle!”, “Oh people, Russian people!”, various exclamations “Chu!”, “Eh, Eh!” etc.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the highest example of a work executed in the folk style of Nekrasov’s entire literary heritage. The elements and images of Russian folklore used by the poet give the work a bright originality, colorfulness and rich national flavor. The fact that Nekrasov made the search for happiness the main theme of the poem is not at all accidental, because the entire Russian people have been searching for it for many thousands of years, this is reflected in his fairy tales, epics, legends, songs and in other various folklore sources as the search for treasure, a happy land, priceless treasure. The theme of this work expressed the most cherished desire of the Russian people throughout its existence - to live happily in a society where justice and equality rule.
