Characters of the poem who live well in Rus'. Analysis of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (Nekrasov)

About the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” we can say with confidence that they represent a complete system of images that organizes and structures the text. For example, the work emphasizes the unity of the seven wanderers. They do not show individuality or character; they express common features of national self-awareness for all. These characters- a single whole, their dialogues, in fact, - collective speech, which originates from oral folk art. This feature makes Nekrasov’s poem similar to the Russian folklore tradition.

1. Seven wanderers represent former serfs “from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neelova, Neurozhaika and also.” They all put forward their versions of who should live well in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a sovereign minister or a tsar. Their character is characterized by persistence: they all demonstrate a reluctance to take someone else's side. Strength, courage and the desire for truth are what unites them. They are passionate and easily angered, but their easygoing nature compensates for these shortcomings. Kindness and responsiveness make them pleasant interlocutors, even despite some meticulousness. Their disposition is harsh and harsh, but life did not spoil them with luxury: the former serfs always bent their backs working for the master, and after the reform no one bothered to provide them with a proper home. So they wandered around Rus' in search of truth and justice. The search itself characterizes them as serious, thoughtful and thorough people. The symbolic number “7” means a hint of luck that awaited them at the end of the journey.
2. Main character– Grisha Dobrosklonov, seminarian, son of a sexton. By nature he is a dreamer, a romantic, loves to compose songs and make people happy. In them he talks about the fate of Russia, about its misfortunes, and at the same time about its mighty strength, which will one day come out and crush injustice. Although he is an idealist, his character is strong, as are his convictions to devote his life to the service of truth. The character feels a calling to be the people's leader and singer of Rus'. He is happy to sacrifice himself to a high idea and help his homeland. However, the author hints that a difficult fate awaits him: prison, exile, hard labor. The authorities do not want to hear the voice of the people, they will try to silence them, and then Grisha will be doomed to torment. But Nekrasov makes it clear with all his might that happiness is a state of spiritual euphoria, and you can only know it by being inspired by a lofty idea.
3. Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina- the main character, a peasant woman, whom her neighbors call lucky because she begged her husband from the wife of the military leader (he, the only breadwinner of the family, was supposed to be recruited for 25 years). However, the woman's life story reveals not luck or fortune, but grief and humiliation. She experienced the loss of her only child, the anger of her mother-in-law, and everyday, exhausting work.
4. Savely Korchagin- grandfather of Matryona’s husband, a real Russian hero. At one time, he killed a German manager who mercilessly mocked the peasants entrusted to him. For this, a strong and proud man paid with decades of hard labor. Upon his return, he was no longer good for anything; the years of imprisonment trampled his body, but did not break his will, because, as before, he stood up for justice. The hero always said about the Russian peasant: “And it bends, but does not break.” However, without knowing it, the grandfather turns out to be the executioner of his own great-grandson. He did not look after the child, and the pigs ate him.
5. Ermil Girin- a man of exceptional honesty, mayor in the estate of Prince Yurlov. When he needed to buy the mill, he stood in the square and asked people to chip in to help him. After the hero got back on his feet, he returned all the borrowed money to the people. For this he earned respect and honor. But he is unhappy, because he paid for his authority with freedom: after a peasant revolt, suspicion fell on him about his organization, and he was imprisoned.
6. Landowners in the poem“Who lives well in Rus'” are presented in abundance. The author depicts them objectively and even gives some images positive character. For example, governor Elena Alexandrovna, who helped Matryona, appears as a people's benefactor. Also, with a touch of compassion, the writer portrays Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev, who also treated the peasants tolerably, even organized holidays for them, and with the abolition of serfdom, he lost ground under his feet: he was too accustomed to the old order. In contrast to these characters, the image of the Last-Duckling and his treacherous, calculating family was created. The relatives of the old cruel serf owner decided to deceive him and persuaded him former slaves participate in the performance in exchange for profitable territories. However, when the old man died, the rich heirs brazenly deceived the common people and drove him away with nothing. The apogee of noble insignificance is the landowner Polivanov, who beats his faithful servant and gives his son as a recruit for trying to marry his beloved girl. Thus, the writer is far from denigrating the nobility everywhere; he is trying to show both sides of the coin.
7. Serf Yakov- an indicative figure of a serf peasant, an antagonist of the hero Savely. Jacob absorbed the entire slavish essence of the oppressed class, overwhelmed by lawlessness and ignorance. When the master beats him and even sends his son to certain death, the servant humbly and resignedly endures the insult. His revenge was consistent with this humility: he hanged himself in the forest right in front of the master, who was crippled and could not get home without his help.
8. Jonah Lyapushkin- God's wanderer who told the men several stories about the life of people in Rus'. It tells about the epiphany of Ataman Kudeyara, who decided to atone for his sins by killing for good, and about the cunning of Gleb the elder, who violated the will of the late master and did not release the serfs on his orders.
9. Pop- a representative of the clergy who complains about difficult life priest The constant encounter with grief and poverty saddens the heart, not to mention the popular jokes addressed to his rank.

The characters in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are diverse and allow us to paint a picture of the morals and life of that time.

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the heroes, simple Russian men, walk the earth and look for a person who can call himself happy. The events of the work take place some time after serfdom was abolished. The poet’s plans included writing several more parts about the life of the peasant people, but a serious illness did not allow his plans to be brought to life, and Nekrasov’s poem remained unfinished. The writer’s large-scale work about the life of an entire people can confidently be classified as a novel.

Characteristics of the heroes “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

Main characters

Minor characters

This was an incomplete list of characters in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” in a table with brief description heroes of the work.

Work test

Veretennikov Pavlusha - a collector of folklore who met men - seekers of happiness - at a rural fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. This character is given a very sparse external description (“He was good at acting out, / Wore a red shirt, / A cloth undergirl, / Grease boots...”), little is known about his origin (“What kind of rank, / The men didn’t know, / However, they called him “master”). Due to such uncertainty, V.’s image acquires a generalizing character. His keen interest in the fate of the peasants distinguishes V. from among indifferent observers of the life of the people (figures of various statistical committees), eloquently exposed in the monologue of Yakim Nagogo. The very first appearance of V. in the text is accompanied by selfless act: he helps out the peasant Vavila by buying shoes for his granddaughter. In addition, he is ready to listen to other people's opinions. So, although he blames the Russian people for drunkenness, he is convinced of the inevitability of this evil: after listening to Yakim, he himself offers him a drink (“Veretennikov / He brought two scales to Yakim”). Seeing the genuine attention from the reasonable master, and “the peasants open up / to the gentleman’s liking.” Among the alleged prototypes of V. are folklorists and ethnographers Pavel Yakushkin and Pavel Rybnikov, figures of the democratic movement of the 1860s. The character probably owes his surname to the journalist P.F. Veretennikov, who visited the Nizhny Novgorod fair for several years in a row and published reports about it in the Moskovskie Vedomosti.

Vlas- headman of the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki. “Serving under a strict master, / Bearing the burden on his conscience / An involuntary participant / in his cruelties.” After the abolition of serfdom, V. renounced the post of pseudo-burgomaster, but accepted actual responsibility for the fate of the community: “Vlas was the kindest soul, / He was rooting for the entire Vakhlachina” - / Not for one family.” When the hope for the Last One flashed with the death free life “without corvee... without taxes... Without sticks...” is replaced for the peasants by a new concern (litigation with the heirs for the flood meadows), V. becomes an intercessor for the peasants, “lives in Moscow... was in St. Petersburg ... / But there’s no point!” Along with his youth, V. lost his optimism, is afraid of new things, and is always gloomy. But everyday life its rich in unnoticed good deeds, for example, in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”, at his initiative, the peasants collect money for the soldier Ovsyanikov. V.'s image is devoid of external specificity: for Nekrasov, he is primarily a representative of the peasantry. His difficult fate (“Not so much in Belokamennaya / On the pavement passed, / As in the soul of a peasant / Offenses passed ...”) is the fate of the entire Russian people.

Girin Ermil Ilyich (Ermila) - one of the most likely candidates for the title of lucky. The real prototype of this character is the peasant A. D. Potanin (1797-1853), who managed by proxy the estate of Countess Orlova, which was called Odoevshchina (after the surnames of the former owners - the Odoevsky princes), and the peasants were baptized into Adovshchina. Potanin became famous for his extraordinary justice. Nekrasovsky G. became known to his fellow villagers for his honesty even in those five years that he served as a clerk in the office (“A bad conscience is necessary - / A peasant should extort a penny from a peasant”). Under the old Prince Yurlov, he was fired, but then, under the young Prince, he was unanimously elected mayor of Adovshchina. During the seven years of his “reign” G. only once betrayed his soul: “... from the recruiting / Little brother Mitri / He fenced him off.” But repentance for this offense almost led him to suicide. Only thanks to the intervention of a strong master was it possible to restore justice, and instead of Nenila Vlasyevna’s son, Mitriy went to serve, and “the prince himself takes care of him.” G. quit his job, rented the mill “and it became more powerful than ever / Loved by all the people.” When they decided to sell the mill, G. won the auction, but he did not have the money with him to make a deposit. And then “a miracle happened”: G. was rescued by the peasants to whom he turned for help, and in half an hour he managed to collect a thousand rubles in the market square.

G. is driven not by mercantile interest, but by a rebellious spirit: “The mill is not dear to me, / The resentment is great.” And although “he had everything he needed / For happiness: peace, / And money, and honor,” at the moment when the peasants started talking about him (chapter “Happy”), G., in connection with the peasant uprising, is in prison. The speech of the narrator, a gray-haired priest, from whom it becomes known about the arrest of the hero, is unexpectedly interrupted by outside interference, and later he himself refuses to continue the story. But behind this omission one can easily guess both the reason for the riot and G.’s refusal to help in pacifying it.

Gleb- peasant, “great sinner.” According to the legend told in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”, the “ammiral-widower”, participant in the battle “at Achakov” (possibly Count A.V. Orlov-Chesmensky), granted by the empress with eight thousand souls, dying, entrusted to the elder G. his will (free for these peasants). The hero was tempted by the money promised to him and burned the will. Men are inclined to regard this “Judas” sin as the most serious sin ever committed, because of it they will have to “suffer forever.” Only Grisha Dobrosklonov manages to convince the peasants “that they are not responsible / For Gleb the accursed, / It’s all their fault: strengthen yourself!”

Dobrosklonov Grisha - a character who appears in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”; the epilogue of the poem is entirely dedicated to him. “Gregory / Has a thin, pale face / And thin, curly hair / With a tinge of redness.” He is a seminarian, the son of the parish sexton Trifon from the village of Bolshiye Vakhlaki. Their family lives in extreme poverty, only the generosity of Vlas the godfather and other men helped put Grisha and his brother Savva on their feet. Their mother Domna, “an unrequited farmhand / For everyone who helped her in any way / on a rainy day,” died early, leaving a terrible “Salty” song as a reminder of herself. In D.’s mind, her image is inseparable from the image of her homeland: “In the boy’s heart / With love for his poor mother / Love for all the Vakhlachina / Merged.” Already at the age of fifteen he was determined to devote his life to the people. “I don’t need silver, / Nor gold, but God grant, / So that my fellow countrymen / And every peasant / May live freely and cheerfully / Throughout all holy Rus'!” He is going to Moscow to study, while in the meantime he and his brother help the peasants as best they can: they write letters for them, explain the “Regulations on peasants emerging from serfdom,” work and rest “on an equal basis with the peasantry.” Observations on the life of the surrounding poor, reflections on the fate of Russia and its people are clothed in poetic form, D.'s songs are known and loved by the peasants. With his appearance in the poem, the lyrical principle intensifies, the author’s direct assessment invades the narrative. D. is marked with the “seal of the gift of God”; a revolutionary propagandist from among the people, he should, according to Nekrasov, serve as an example for the progressive intelligentsia. In his mouth, the author puts his beliefs, his own version of the answer to the social and moral questions posed in the poem. The image of the hero gives the poem compositional completeness. Real prototype could be N.A. Dobrolyubov.

Elena Alexandrovna - governor's wife, merciful lady, Matryona's savior. “She was kind, she was smart, / Beautiful, healthy, / But God did not give children.” She sheltered a peasant woman after a premature birth, became the child’s godmother, “all the time with Liodorushka / Was worn around like her own.” Thanks to her intercession, it was possible to rescue Philip from the recruiting camp. Matryona praises her benefactor to the skies, and criticism (O. F. Miller) rightly notes echoes of the sentimentalism of the Karamzin period in the image of the governor.

Ipat- a grotesque image of a faithful serf, a lord's lackey, who remained faithful to the owner even after the abolition of serfdom. I. boasts that the landowner “harnessed him with his own hand / to a cart,” bathed him in an ice hole, saved him from the cold death to which he himself had previously doomed. He perceives all this as great blessings. I. causes healthy laughter among wanderers.

Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna - a peasant woman, the third part of the poem is entirely devoted to her life story. “Matryona Timofeevna / A dignified woman, / Broad and dense, / About thirty-eight years old. / Beautiful; gray hair, / Large, stern eyes, / Rich eyelashes, / Severe and dark. / She’s wearing a white shirt, / And a short sundress, / And a sickle over her shoulder.” The fame of the lucky woman brings strangers to her. M. agrees to “lay out her soul” when the men promise to help her in the harvest: the suffering is in full swing. M.’s fate was largely suggested to Nekrasov by the autobiography of the Olonets prisoner I. A. Fedoseeva, published in the 1st volume of “Lamentations of the Northern Territory,” collected by E. V. Barsov (1872). The narrative is based on her laments, as well as other folklore materials, including “Songs collected by P. N. Rybnikov” (1861). The abundance of folklore sources, often included practically unchanged in the text of “The Peasant Woman,” and the very title of this part of the poem emphasize the typicality of M.’s fate: this is the ordinary fate of a Russian woman, convincingly indicating that the wanderers “started / Not a matter between women / / Look for a happy one.” IN parental home, in a good, non-drinking family, M. lived happily. But, having married Philip Korchagin, a stove maker, she ended up “by her maiden will in hell”: a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunken father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom the daughter-in-law must work like a slave. However, she was lucky with her husband: only once did it come to beatings. But Philip only returns home from work in the winter, and the rest of the time there is no one to intercede for M. except grandfather Savely, father-in-law. She has to endure the harassment of Sitnikov, the master's manager, which stopped only with his death. For the peasant woman, her first-born De-mushka becomes a consolation in all troubles, but due to Savely’s oversight, the child dies: he is eaten by pigs. An unjust trial is being carried out on a grief-stricken mother. Having not thought of giving a bribe to her boss in time, she witnesses the violation of her child’s body.

For a long time, K. cannot forgive Savely for his irreparable mistake. Over time, the peasant woman has new children, “there is no time / Neither to think nor to grieve.” The heroine's parents, Savely, die. Her eight-year-old son Fedot faces punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a wolf, and his mother lies under the rod in his place. But the most difficult trials befall her in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is like a hungry wolf. The recruitment deprives her of her last protector, her husband (he is taken out of turn). In delirium they draw pictures of her scary pictures the life of a soldier, soldiers' children. She leaves the house and runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the doorman lets her into the house for a bribe, she throws herself at the feet of the governor Elena Alexandrovna. With her husband and newborn Liodorushka, the heroine returns home, this incident secured her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname “governor”. Further fate it is also full of troubles: one of the sons has already been taken into the army, “They were burned twice... God visited with anthrax... three times.” The “Woman’s Parable” sums up her tragic story: “The keys to women’s happiness, / From our free will / Abandoned, lost / From God himself!” Some of the critics (V.G. Avseenko, V.P. Burenin, N.F. Pavlov) met “The Peasant Woman” with hostility; Nekrasov was accused of implausible exaggerations, false, fake populism. However, even ill-wishers noted some successful episodes. There were also reviews of this chapter as the best part of the poem.

Kudeyar-ataman - “great sinner”, the hero of the legend told by God’s wanderer Jonushka in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”. The fierce robber unexpectedly repented of his crimes. Neither a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher nor a hermitage brings peace to his soul. The saint who appeared to K. promises him that he will earn forgiveness when he cuts down a century-old oak tree “with the same knife that he robbed.” Years of futile efforts raised doubts in the heart of the old man about the possibility of completing the task. However, “the tree collapsed, the burden of sins rolled off the monk,” when the hermit, in a fit of furious anger, killed Pan Glukhovsky, who was passing by, boasting of his calm conscience: “Salvation / I haven’t been drinking for a long time, / In the world I honor only woman, / Gold, honor and wine... How many slaves I destroy, / I torture, torture and hang, / And if only I could see how I’m sleeping!” The legend about K. was borrowed by Nekrasov from folklore tradition, however, the image of Pan Glukhovsky is quite realistic. Among possible prototypes- landowner Glukhovsky from the Smolensk province, who spotted his serf, according to a note in Herzen’s “Bell” dated October 1, 1859.

Nagoy Yakim- “In the village of Bosovo / Yakim Nagoy lives, / He works until he’s dead, / He drinks until he’s half to death!” - this is how the character defines himself. In the poem, he is entrusted to speak out in defense of the people on behalf of the people. The image has deep folklore roots: the hero’s speech is replete with paraphrased proverbs, riddles, in addition, formulas similar to those that characterize his appearance (“The hand is tree bark, / And the hair is sand”) are repeatedly found, for example, in folk spiritual verse "About Yegoriy Khorobry." Nekrasov reinterprets the popular idea of ​​the inseparability of man and nature, emphasizing the unity of the worker with the earth: “He lives and tinkers with the plow, / And death will come to Yakimushka” - / As a lump of earth falls off, / What has dried on the plow ... near the eyes, near the mouth / Bends like cracks / On dry ground<...>the neck is brown, / Like a layer cut off by a plow, / A brick face.”

The character’s biography is not entirely typical for a peasant, it is rich in events: “Yakim, a wretched old man, / Once lived in St. Petersburg, / But he ended up in prison: / He decided to compete with a merchant! / Like a piece of velcro, / He returned to his homeland / And took up the plow.” During the fire, he lost most of his property, since the first thing he did was rush to save the pictures that he bought for his son (“And he himself didn’t smaller than a boy/ Loved to look at them"). However, even in the new house, the hero returns to the old ways and buys new pictures. Countless adversities only strengthen his firm life position. In Chapter III of the first part (“ drunken night") N. pronounces a monologue, where his beliefs are formulated extremely clearly: hard labor, the results of which go to three shareholders (God, the king and the master), and sometimes are completely destroyed by fire; disasters, poverty - all this justifies peasant drunkenness, and it is not worth measuring the peasant “by the master’s standard.” This point of view on the problem of popular drunkenness, widely discussed in journalism in the 1860s, is close to the revolutionary democratic one (according to N. G. Chernyshevsky and N. A. Dobrolyubov, drunkenness is a consequence of poverty). It is no coincidence that this monologue was subsequently used by the populists in their propaganda activities, and was repeatedly rewritten and reprinted separately from the rest of the text of the poem.

Obolt-Obolduev Gavrila Afanasyevich - “The gentleman is round, / Mustachioed, pot-bellied, / With a cigar in his mouth... ruddy, / Stately, stocky, / Sixty years old... Well done, / Hungarian with Brandenburs, / Wide pants" Among the famous ancestors of O. is a Tatar who entertained the empress wild animals, and an embezzler who plotted the arson of Moscow. The hero is proud of his family tree. Previously, the master “smoked... God’s heaven, / Wore the royal livery, / Wasted the people’s treasury / And thought to live like this forever,” but with the abolition of serfdom, “the great chain broke, / It broke and sprang: / One end hit the master, / For others, it’s a man!” With nostalgia, the landowner recalls the lost benefits, explaining along the way that he is sad not for himself, but for his motherland.

A hypocritical, idle, ignorant despot, who sees the purpose of his class in “the ancient name, / The dignity of the nobility / To support with hunting, / With feasts, with all kinds of luxury / And to live by the labor of others.” On top of that, O. is also a coward: he mistakes unarmed men for robbers, and they do not soon manage to persuade him to hide the pistol. Comic effect is intensified by the fact that accusations against oneself come from the lips of the landowner himself.

Ovsyanikov- soldier. “...He was fragile on his legs, / Tall and skinny to the extreme; / He was wearing a frock coat with medals / Hanging like on a pole. / It’s impossible to say that he had a kind / face, especially / When he drove the old one - / Damn the devil! The mouth will snarl, / The eyes are like coals!” With his orphan niece Ustinyushka, O. traveled around the villages, earning a living from the district committee, when the instrument became damaged, he composed new sayings and performed them, playing along with himself on spoons. O.'s songs are based on folklore sayings and raesh poems recorded by Nekrasov in 1843-1848. while working on “The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikovaya. The lyrics of these songs sketch out life path soldier: the war near Sevastopol, where he was crippled, a negligent medical examination, where the old man’s wounds were rejected: “Second-rate! / According to them, the pension”, subsequent poverty (“Come on, with George - around the world, around the world”). In connection with the image of O., a topic that is relevant both for Nekrasov and for later Russian literature arises railway. The cast iron in the soldier’s perception is an animated monster: “It snorts in the peasant’s face, / Crushes, maims, tumbles, / Soon the entire Russian people / Will sweep cleaner than a broom!” Klim Lavin explains that the soldier cannot get to the St. Petersburg “Committee for the Wounded” for justice: the tariff on the Moscow-Petersburg road has increased and made it inaccessible to the people. The peasants, the heroes of the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World,” are trying to help the soldier and together collect only “rubles.”

Petrov Agap- “rude, unyielding,” according to Vlas, a man. P. did not want to put up with voluntary slavery; they calmed him down only with the help of wine. Caught by the Last One in the act of a crime (carrying a log from the master’s forest), he broke down and explained his real situation to the master in the most impartial terms. Klim Lavin staged a brutal reprisal against P., getting him drunk instead of flogging him. But from the humiliation suffered and excessive intoxication, the hero dies by the morning of the next day. Such a terrible price is paid by peasants for a voluntary, albeit temporary, renunciation of freedom.

Polivanov- “...a gentleman of low birth”, however small funds did not in the least interfere with the manifestation of his despotic nature. He is characterized by the whole range of vices of a typical serf owner: greed, stinginess, cruelty (“with relatives, not only with peasants”), voluptuousness. By old age, the master’s legs were paralyzed: “The eyes are clear, / The cheeks are red, / The plump arms are as white as sugar, / And there are shackles on the legs!” In this trouble, Yakov became his only support, “friend and brother,” but the master repaid him with black ingratitude for his faithful service. Terrible revenge serf, the night that P. had to spend in a ravine, “driving away birds and wolves with groans,” force the master to repent (“I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!”), but the narrator believes that he will not be forgiven: “You will, master, exemplary slave, / faithful Jacob, / remember until the day of judgment!

Pop- according to Luke’s assumption, the priest “lives cheerfully, / At ease in Rus'.” The village priest, who was the first to meet the wanderers on the way, refutes this assumption: he has neither peace, nor wealth, nor happiness. With what difficulty “the priest’s son gets a letter,” Nekrasov himself wrote in the poetic play “Rejected” (1859). In the poem, this theme will appear again in connection with the image of seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov. The priest’s career is restless: “The sick, the dying, / Born into the world / They do not choose time,” no habit will protect from compassion for the dying and orphans, “every time it gets wet, / The soul gets sick.” Pop enjoys dubious honor in peasant environment: associated with him folk superstitions, he and his family are regular characters in obscene jokes and songs. The priest's wealth was previously due to the generosity of parishioners and landowners, who, with the abolition of serfdom, left their estates and scattered, “like the Jewish tribe... Across distant foreign lands / And across native Rus'.” With the transfer of schismatics to the supervision of civil authorities in 1864, the local clergy lost another serious source of income, and with peasant labors“It’s hard to live on pennies.”

Savely- the Holy Russian hero, “with a huge gray mane, / Tea, not cut for twenty years, / With a huge beard, / Grandfather looked like a bear.” Once in a fight with a bear, he injured his back, and in his old age it bent. Home village S, Korezhina, is located in the wilderness, and therefore the peasants live relatively freely (“The zemstvo police / Have not come to us for a year”), although they endure the atrocities of the landowner. The heroism of the Russian peasant lies in patience, but there is a limit to any patience. S. ends up in Siberia for burying a hated German manager alive. Twenty years of hard labor, an unsuccessful attempt to escape, twenty years of settlement did not shake the rebellious spirit in the hero. Having returned home after the amnesty, he lives with the family of his son, Matryona’s father-in-law. Despite his venerable age (according to revision tales, his grandfather is a hundred years old), he leads an independent life: “He didn’t like families, / didn’t let them into his corner.” When they reproach him for his convict past, he cheerfully replies: “Branded, but not a slave!” Tempered by harsh trades and human cruelty, S.’s petrified heart could only be melted by Dema’s great-grandson. An accident makes the grandfather the culprit of Demushka's death. His grief is inconsolable, he goes to repentance at the Sand Monastery, tries to beg for forgiveness from the “angry mother.” Having lived one hundred and seven years, before his death he pronounces a terrible sentence on the Russian peasantry: “For men there are three roads: / Tavern, prison and penal servitude, / And for women in Rus' / Three nooses... Climb into any one.” The image of S, in addition to folklore, has social and polemical roots. O. I. Komissarov, who saved Alexander II from the assassination attempt on April 4, 1866, was a Kostroma resident, a fellow countryman of I. Susanin. Monarchists saw this parallel as proof of the thesis about the love of the Russian people for kings. To refute this point of view, Nekrasov settled in Kostroma province, the original patrimony of the Romanovs, the rebel S, and Matryona catches the similarities between him and the monument to Susanin.

Trophim (Trifon) - “a man with shortness of breath, / Relaxed, thin / (Sharp nose, like a dead one, / Thin arms like a rake, / Long legs like knitting needles, / Not a man - a mosquito).” A former bricklayer, a born strongman. Yielding to the provocation of the contractor, he “carried one at the extreme / Fourteen pounds” to the second floor and broke himself. One of the most vivid and terrible images in the poem. In the chapter “Happy,” T. boasts of the happiness that allowed him to get from St. Petersburg to his homeland alive, unlike many other “feverish, feverish workers” who were thrown out of the carriage when they began to rave.

Utyatin (Last One) - "thin! / Like winter hares, / All white... Nose with beak like a hawk, / Gray mustache, long / And - different eyes: / The healthy one glows, / And the left one is cloudy, cloudy, / Like a tin penny!” Having “exorbitant wealth, / An important rank, a noble family,” U. does not believe in the abolition of serfdom. As a result of an argument with the governor, he becomes paralyzed. “It was not self-interest, / But arrogance cut him off.” The prince's sons are afraid that he will deprive them of their inheritance in favor of their side daughters, and they persuade the peasants to pretend to be serfs again. Peasant world allowed “the dismissed master to show off / During the remaining hours.” On the day of the arrival of wanderers - seekers of happiness - in the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, the Last One finally dies, then the peasants arrange a “feast for the whole world.” The image of U. has a grotesque character. The absurd orders of the tyrant master will make the peasants laugh.

Shalashnikov- landowner, former owner Korezhin, military man. Taking advantage of the distance from provincial town, where the landowner stood with his regiment, the Korezhin peasants did not pay quitrent. Sh. decided to extract the quitrent by force, tore the peasants so much that “the brains were already shaking / In their little heads.” Savely remembers the landowner as consummate master: “He knew how to flog! / He tanned my skin so well that it lasts for a hundred years.” He died near Varna, his death put an end to the relative prosperity of the peasants.

Yakov- “about the exemplary slave - Yakov the faithful”, a former servant tells in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”. "People serf rank- / Sometimes real dogs: / The more severe the punishment, / The dearer the Lord is to them.” So was Ya. until Mr. Polivanov, having coveted his nephew’s bride, sold him as a recruit. The exemplary slave took to drinking, but returned two weeks later, taking pity on the helpless master. However, his enemy was already “torturing him.” Ya takes Polivanov to visit his sister, halfway turns into the Devil's Ravine, unharnesses the horses and, contrary to the master's fears, does not kill him, but hangs himself, leaving the owner alone with his conscience for the whole night. This method of revenge (“to drag dry misfortune” - to hang oneself in the domain of the offender in order to make him suffer for the rest of his life) was indeed known, especially among the eastern peoples. Nekrasov, creating the image of Ya., turns to the story that A.F. Koni told him (who, in turn, heard it from the watchman of the volost government), and only slightly modifies it. This tragedy is another illustration of the destructiveness of serfdom. Through the mouth of Grisha Dobrosklonov, Nekrasov summarizes: “No support - no landowner, / Drives a zealous slave to the noose, / No support - no servant, / Taking revenge / on his villain by suicide.”

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 bright, original characters - these are seven simple Russian men who got together and argued about who “lives freely and cheerfully 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 common people, Nekrasov made a lot of effort, 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 combined general plot about how seven ordinary men argued about who lives well in Rus' and who is truly happy. The plot of the poem touches on serious philosophical and social problems, built 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 recognize themselves as 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. Ideological ending The work becomes 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 main character poems - the entire Russian people, perceived as a single whole. The images of the wandering men (Roman, Demyan, Luka, the brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin, the old man Pakhom and Prov) are practically not revealed, their characters are not drawn, they act and express themselves as a single organism, while the images of the people they meet, on the contrary, are painted very carefully, with a lot of details and nuances.

One of the brightest representatives of a man from the people can be called the son of the parish clerk Grigory Dobrosklonov, who was presented by Nekrasov as people's defender, educator and savior. He is one of the key characters and the entire final chapter is devoted to the description of his image. Grisha, like no one else, is close to the people, understands their dreams and aspirations, wants to help them and composes wonderful “good songs” for people that bring joy and hope to those around them. Through his lips, the author proclaims his views and beliefs, gives answers to the pressing social and moral questions raised in the poem. Characters such as seminarian Grisha and honest mayor Yermil Girin do not seek happiness for themselves, they dream of making all people happy at once and devote their entire lives to this. main idea 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.

Main female character the poem is Matryona Korchagina, her description tragic fate, typical of all Russian women, is the subject of the entire third chapter. 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 her strength mother's love, endurance and strong character, sincerely pities her and sympathizes with all Russian women, for Matryona’s fate is the fate of all peasant women of that time, suffering from lawlessness, poverty, religious fanaticism and superstition, and lack of qualified medical care.

The poem also describes the images of landowners, their wives and sons (princes, nobles), depicts the landowners' servants (lackeys, servants, courtyard servants), priests and other clergy, kind governors and cruel German managers, artists, soldiers, wanderers, a huge number minor characters, which give the folk lyric-epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” that unique polyphony and epic breadth, making this work a real masterpiece and the pinnacle of everything literary creativity Nekrasova.

Analysis of the poem

The problems raised in the work are diverse and complex; they affect the lives of the most diverse layers of society, and this is a difficult transition to a new lifestyle, problems of drunkenness, poverty, obscurantism, greed, cruelty, oppression, desire to change something, etc.

However, the key problem is still of this work- 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 for emphasis folk style The work contains iambic tetrameter.

To make the poem understandable to the common man it uses many common words and expressions: village, breveshko, yarmonka, pustpoplyas, etc. The poem contains a large number of various 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 folk song to improve ease of perception, at that time the use of folklore was considered the best way communication between the intelligentsia and the common people.

In the poem the author used such means 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, 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 performed in folk style Total literary heritage Nekrasova. The elements and images of Russian used by the poet folklore give the work a bright originality, colorfulness and rich national flavor. What Nekrasov did in search of happiness main theme 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 its fairy tales, epics, legends, songs and other various folklore sources as a search for a treasure, a happy land, a 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.

In the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who lives well in Rus'?” seven wandering peasants are looking for a happy one in Rus'. The poet wrote this poem for several decades, but never completed it. The wanderers did not meet the happy one and the poem remained with an open ending. But can any of the heroes of the work be called happy? What is needed for happiness, from the point of view of the heroes and the poet himself?

The poem shows the crisis state of the Russian world. Firstly, there is poverty and hunger. Let us remember the names of the villages from which the wanderers came: Dyryavino, Zaplatovo, Neurozhaika... Secondly, after the abolition of serfdom, “the great chain broke,” and hit “one end on the master, the other on the peasant”: no one knows how to arrange their life what value system to rely on.

This is why many of the heroes of the poem are unhappy - even those who deserve it. For example, Savely, who was a “hero of Holy Russia”, strong, stubborn, served hard labor, watched how a pig killed his great-grandson Demushka, and spent a long time atone for his sin, etc. “The keys to women’s happiness” have also been lost in Rus'. Matryona Timofeevna, a peasant woman who was a kind, good wife, a wonderful mother, was deprived of happiness because of all the worries placed on her shoulders around the house, housework, because of her hungry life, and lack of support.

But even those who feel happy often have poor ideas about happiness. Wanderers in search happy person traveled all over Rus'. Nekrasov uses the technique of “poetic polyphony,” as if “giving the floor” to the Russian people themselves. As it turned out, for some, happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor, for others in the opportunity to pour vodka into their “happy” life. In the chapter “Happy” we see how people measure their happiness, if it can be called such, for the opportunity to “sip free wine.” Some have grown up to a thousand, others see happiness in the recognition of their owners: “I’m happy, God knows! The first boyar, Prince Peremetyev, had me as his favorite slave.” The landowner's happiness is an idle life, feasts, hunting, power over people. The author writes: “Hey, peasant happiness! Leaky with patches, hunchbacked with calluses...” This primitive idea of ​​happiness, which every “happy” person talked about, does not bring true happiness to any of them.

The owner of true happiness in the poem is Grisha Dobrosklonov. Despite the life of “poorer than the last shabby peasant” and hard everyday work, he has a desire for spiritual development. He has a craving for beauty, for creativity, for dreams. Grisha is a poet, he composes songs about Russia, about the people, and is preparing to devote himself to the fight for the people’s happiness. This is what distinguishes him from the other heroes of this poem. But the wanderers never met Grisha and did not find the happy one.

“Who can live well in Rus'?” is an epic poem. In it, thanks to the image of the road and the travel plot, a panoramic picture of Russian life appears, a picture people's grief, discord, etc. There cannot be truly happy people if life as a whole is organized unreasonably and is in a state of crisis. But on the whole, the poem is not tragic in nature, since, according to the author, healthy and strong principles are still preserved in Russian life; they only need to be given the opportunity to mature and manifest themselves.

Thus, N. Nekrasov believes that happiness lies in constant movement, development, and creativity. This is what gives meaning to a person's life. This is why Grisha Dobrosklonov becomes happy in the poem.