Is it possible to call Saveliy a people's intercessor and why? Images of people's intercessors in the poem by N.A.

The theme of the “people's protector” runs through the entire work of N. A. Nekrasov, it also sounds in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Many writers and poets have tried to answer the question “What to do?” Nekrasov also looked for an answer to this in his work. What to strive for in life? What is the real man in Russia?

What needs to be done to make everyone happy? - he asked himself. The poet believed that to resolve these issues, people are needed who are able to join the fight and lead others. He showed such characters in the images of Yakim Nagogo, Ermila Girin, Savely Korchagin, Grisha Dobrosklonov. In Yakima, Nagom is a kind of folk truth-teller. He lives a miserable life, like all the peasantry, but is distinguished by his rebellious disposition. Yakim is ready to stand up for his rights. This is what he says about the people:

Every peasant

Soul, like a black cloud,

Angry, menacing - and it should be

Thunder will roar from there,

It's raining bloody rains.

Ermila Girin is a man whom the people themselves chose as mayor, recognizing his justice. While still a clerk, Ermila gained authority among the people for the fact that

He will advise

And he will make inquiries;

Where there is enough strength, it will help out,

Doesn't ask for gratitude

And if you give it, he won’t take it!

But Yermila was also guilty: he shielded his younger brother from recruiting, but the people forgave him for his sincere repentance. Only Ermila’s conscience was not at peace: he left the mayor’s office and hired a mill. And again the people fell in love with him for his goodness, for his even attitude towards the landowner and the poor, for his kindness.

The “gray-haired priest” characterizes Ermila this way:

He had everything he needed

For happiness and tranquility,

And money and honor,

An enviable, true honor,

Not bought with money,

Not with fear: with the strict truth.

With intelligence and kindness.

From the priest’s statement it is clear that Girin achieved honor through “strict truth”, “intelligence and kindness”. He is concerned about the attitude of the people towards him, but Ermila himself judges himself even more strictly. He strives to alleviate the situation of the peasants, to help them financially, although he himself was not yet ready for a revolutionary action. Girin is already satisfied that his conscience is clear, that he makes the lives of others at least a little easier.

Savely the hero represents a different type of Russian peasant. He is the embodiment of strength and courage. Despite the rods and hard labor, he did not accept his fate. “Branded, but not a slave,” he says about himself. embodies the best traits of the Russian character: love for the homeland and people, hatred of oppressors, self-esteem. His favorite word - “push” - helps to see in him a person who knows how to cheer up his comrades, rally them, and captivate them. Savely is one of those who stood up well for the “patrimony.” Together with the men, he executes the hated manager, the German Vogel. People like Savely will not stand by at the time of peasant unrest.

The most conscientious of the “people’s defenders” is Grisha Dobrosklonov.

He devotes his entire life to the struggle, lives among the people, knows their needs, and is educated. The future of Russia, the poet believes, belongs to people like Grisha Dobrosklonov, for whom “I prepared a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.” The songs of Grisha Dobrosklonov reflect his thoughts about life’s ideals, his hopes for a bright future:

Share of the people

His happiness

Light and freedom

First of all.

In a moment of despondency, O Motherland!

My thoughts fly forward.

You are still destined to suffer a lot,

But you won't die, I know.

Saved in slavery

Free heart -

Gold, gold

People's heart!

The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov helps to understand that truly happy is the one on whose side the truth is, on whom the people rely, who chooses an honest path for himself, being a “people's defender.” The theme of popular intercession is widely represented in the poem. Intercessor is one of Nekrasov’s key words. A people's defender is one who not only pities and sympathizes with the peasants, but also serves the people, expresses their interests, confirming this with actions and deeds. The image of such a person is not the only one in the poem. His features were refracted in Ermil Girin, Savelia, Grisha Dobrosklonov, and partly in Yakima Nagy

So, Girin acted as a real defender of worldly interests: he defended the mill, which everyone needed. He sincerely, with pure thoughts, turned to the people for help, and people collected money for him, completely trusting him and not sparing their last penny. Then he settled accounts with everyone. His honesty and selflessness are evidenced by the fact that he did not appropriate the “extra ruble” that he had left, but, not finding the owner, gave the money to the blind.

How did Girin win the honor and respect of almost the entire district? The short answer: only the truth. People were drawn to him even when Yermil held the positions of clerk and mayor. He was “loved by all the people” because one could always turn to him for help and advice, and Yermil never demanded a reward

Where there is enough strength, it will help out,

Doesn't ask for gratitude

And give - but he won’t take!

Only once did a case occur when the hero, as they say, “became his soul”: Girin “excluded” his brother from recruiting, instead of whom another person had to become a soldier. The realization that he acted dishonestly, unfairly, leads Girin almost to suicide. And only repentance in front of all the people frees him from the torment of conscience. The story about Ermil Girin suddenly ends, and we learn that he nevertheless suffered for the people’s cause, he was sent to prison.

It is impossible not to mention another national hero - Yakim Nagoy. It would seem that there is nothing unusual in his fate: once he lived in St. Petersburg, because of a lawsuit with a merchant he went to prison. Then he returned to his homeland and became a plowman. It is better than Nekrasov himself to imagine this image, which has become a generalized image of the Russian peasant:

The chest is sunken, as if depressed

Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth of the Bend,

like cracks on dry ground...

But in the eyes of people, Yakim was a special person: during the fire, he rushed to save not money, but pictures that he lovingly collected for his son and looked at them in fascination. Having talked about this peculiar folk “collector,” Nekrasov opened a page in the life of a peasant, in which not only work and “drinking” could be the main ones

The image of the people's intercessor was vividly embodied in Savely, the Holy Russian hero. Already in this very definition there is a special meaning: heroes in epics have always been protectors of the Russian land. Saveliy has powerful physical strength. But Nekrasov showed that his heroism is not only based on this - Savely is characterized by will, patience, perseverance, and self-esteem. This hero is a rebel, he is capable of protest. However, his “intercession” was expressed not only in the fact that he saved Korezhina from the German, who had tortured the peasants with extortions. Savely is also a kind of folk philosopher and ascetic. His religiosity and ability to repent are symbols of high folk morality. Saveliy’s main prayer is for the people:

For all the suffering, Russian

Peasantry I pray!

Grisha Dobrosklonov in the poem is also a people's intercessor. Even as a child, he was imbued with acute pity and love for all the “Vahlachina”. Although Nekrasov does not say directly, it seems that “intercession” will be effective, Dobrosklonov will actually be able to change the lives of the people. The road is open in front of Grisha, along which they walk

Only strong souls

Loving,

To fight, to work

For the bypassed

For the oppressed.

This hero is marked with the “seal of God’s gift.” According to Nekrasov, he is capable of suffering and sacrificing his life for the people.

Thus, the people's intercessor in the poem is presented as a person of exceptional destiny. This is an ascetic, that is, one who brings action, and a righteous man. He necessarily comes from the people, he is familiar to the smallest detail with the life of peasants. The person who was chosen as an “intercessor” is smart, conscientious, and mental inner work is constantly happening in him. And most importantly, he is able to understand all the complexity and inconsistency of the peasant’s soul and live a pure and simple life together with his people.

N. A. Nekrasov worked on his poem for a long time - from the 1860s until the end of his life. During his lifetime, individual chapters of the work were published, but it was published in full only in 1920, when K.I. Chukovsky decided to release the complete collected works of the poet. In many ways, the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is built on elements of Russian folk art; the language of the poem is close to that which was understandable to the peasants of that time.

Main characters

Despite the fact that Nekrasov planned to highlight the life of all classes in his poem, the main characters of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are still peasants. The poet paints their life in gloomy tones, especially sympathizing with women. The most striking images of the work are Ermila Girin, Yakim Nagoy, Savely, Matryona Timofeevna, Klim Lavin. At the same time, not only the world of the peasantry appears before the reader’s eyes, although the main emphasis is placed on it.

Often, schoolchildren receive as homework a brief description of the characters in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” and their characteristics. To get a good grade, you must mention not only the peasants, but also the landowners. This is Prince Utyatin with his family, Obolt-Obolduev, the generous governor’s wife, and the German manager. The work as a whole is characterized by the epic unity of all the acting characters. However, at the same time, the poet presented many personalities and individualized images.

Ermila Girin

This hero “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, according to those who know him, is a happy person. The people around him appreciate him, and the landowner shows respect. Ermila is engaged in a socially useful activity - she runs a mill. He works on it without deceiving ordinary peasants. Girin enjoys the trust of everyone. This manifests itself, for example, in the situation of collecting money for an orphan mill. Ermila finds herself in the city without money, and the mill is put up for sale. If he does not have time to return for the money, then it will go to Altynnikov - this will not hurt anyone. Then Girin decides to appeal to the people. And people come together to do a good thing. They believe that their money will be used for good.

This hero of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was a clerk and helped those who do not know it learn to read and write. However, the wanderers did not consider Ermila happy, because he did not pass the most difficult test - power. Instead of his brother, Girin becomes a soldier. Ermila repents of what she did. He can no longer be considered happy.

Yakim Nagoy

One of the main characters of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is Yakim Nagoy. He defines himself this way: “he works himself to death and drinks until he is half to death.” The story of Nagogo is simple and at the same time very tragic. He once lived in St. Petersburg, but went to prison and lost his estate. After that, he had to settle in the village and take up exhausting work. In the work, he is entrusted with protecting the people themselves.

Human spiritual needs are ineradicable

During a fire, Yakim loses most of his possessions, as he begins to save the pictures that he acquired for his son. However, even in his new home, Nagoy returns to his old ways and buys other pictures. Why does he decide to save these things, which at first glance are simple trinkets? A person tries to preserve what is most dear to him. And these pictures turn out to be more valuable to Yakim than money acquired through hellish labor.

The life of the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is an ongoing work, the results of which fall into the wrong hands. But the human soul cannot be content with an existence in which there is only room for endless hard labor. The spirit of the Naked requires something high, and these pictures, oddly enough, are a symbol of spirituality.

Endless adversity only strengthens his position in life. In Chapter III, he pronounces a monologue in which he describes his life in detail - it is hard labor, the results of which end up in the hands of three shareholders, disasters and hopeless poverty. And with these disasters he justifies his drunkenness. It was the only joy for the peasants, whose only occupation was hard work.

The place of a woman in the poet's work

Women also occupy a significant place in Nekrasov’s work. The poet considered their lot to be the most difficult - after all, it was on the shoulders of Russian peasant women that the duty of raising children, preserving the hearth and love in the harsh Russian conditions fell. In the work “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the heroes (or rather, heroines) bear the heaviest cross. Their images are described in most detail in the chapter entitled “Drunken Night.” Here you can encounter the difficult fate of women working as servants in cities. The reader meets Daryushka, who is emaciated from back-breaking work, women whose situation in the house is worse than hell - where the son-in-law constantly takes up the knife, “look, he’ll kill him.”

Matryona Korchagina

The culmination of the female theme in the poem is the part called “Peasant Woman”. Its main character is Matryona Timofeevna, whose last name is Korchagina, whose life is a generalization of the life of a Russian peasant woman. On the one hand, the poet demonstrates the severity of her fate, but on the other, the unbending will of Matryona Korchagina. The people consider her “happy,” and wanderers set off to see this “miracle” with their own eyes.

Matryona gives in to their persuasion and talks about her life. She considers her childhood the happiest time. After all, her family was caring, no one drank. But soon the moment came when it was necessary to get married. Here she seemed to be lucky - her husband loved Matryona. However, she becomes the youngest daughter-in-law and has to please everyone. She couldn't even count on a kind word.

Only with grandfather Savely Matryona could open her soul and cry. But even her grandfather, although not of his own free will, caused her terrible pain - he did not look after the child. After this, the judges accused Matryona herself of murdering the baby.

Is the heroine happy?

The poet emphasizes the heroine’s helplessness and in the words of Savelya tells her to endure, because “we won’t find the truth.” And these words become a description of Matryona’s entire life, who had to endure losses, grief, and insults from the landowners. Only once does she manage to “find the truth” - to “beg” her husband from the unfair soldiery from the landowner Elena Alexandrovna. Perhaps this is why Matryona began to be called “happy.” Or perhaps because she, unlike some of the other heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus',” did not break down, despite any adversity. According to the poet, a woman’s share is the hardest. After all, she has to suffer from lack of rights in the family, and worry about the lives of loved ones, and do backbreaking work.

Grisha Dobrosklonov

This is one of the main characters of “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” He was born into the family of a poor clerk, who was also lazy. His mother was the image of a woman that was described in detail in the chapter entitled “Peasant Woman.” Grisha managed to understand his place in life at a young age. This was facilitated by hard work, a hungry childhood, a generous character, resilience and perseverance. Grisha became a fighter for the rights of all the humiliated, he stood for the interests of the peasants. What came first for him was not personal needs, but social values. The main features of the hero are unpretentiousness, high efficiency, the ability to sympathize, education and a sharp mind.

Who can find happiness in Rus'

Throughout the entire work, the poet tries to answer the question about the happiness of the heroes “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Perhaps Grisha Dobrosklonov is the happiest character. After all, when a person does a good deed, he has a pleasant feeling of his own worth. Here the hero saves an entire people. Since childhood, Grisha has seen unhappy and oppressed people. Nekrasov considered the ability to compassion to be the source of patriotism. For the poet, a person who sympathizes with the people starts a revolution is Grisha Dobrosklonov. His words reflect the hope that Rus' will not perish.

Landowners

Among the heroes of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” as was indicated, there are many landowners. One of them is Obolt-Obolduev. When the peasants ask him if he is happy, he only laughs in response. Then, with some regret, he recalls the past years, which were full of prosperity. However, the reform of 1861 abolished serfdom, although it was not completed. But even the changes that have occurred in social life cannot force the landowner to work and honor the results of the work of other people.

Matching him is another hero of Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - Utyatin. All his life he “been weird and foolish,” and when social reform came, he was struck down. His children, in order to receive an inheritance, put on a real performance together with the peasants. They convince him that he will not be left with anything, and serfdom still reigns in Rus'.

Grandfather Savely

The characterization of the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” would be incomplete without a description of the image of grandfather Savely. The reader gets to know him already when he lived a long and hard life. In his old age, Savely lives with his son’s family; he is Matryona’s father-in-law. It is worth noting that the old man does not like his family. After all, household members do not have the best characteristics.

Even in his own circle, Savely is called “branded, a convict.” But he is not offended by this and gives a worthy answer: “Branded, but not a slave.” Such is the character of this hero “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” A brief description of Savely’s character can be supplemented by the fact that he is not averse to sometimes making fun of members of his family. The main thing that is noted when meeting this character is his difference from the others, both from his son and from the other inhabitants of the house.

Nekrasov, the great Russian writer, created many works in which he sought to reveal something new to the world. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is no exception. The most important hero for revealing the theme is Grisha Dobrosklonov, a simple peasant with complex desires and thoughts.

Prototype

The last to be mentioned, but the first most important image of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is Grisha Dobrosklonov. According to the poet’s sister Butkevich A.A., the artist Dobrolyubov became the hero. Butkevich said this for a reason. Firstly, such statements were made by Nekrasov himself, and secondly, this is confirmed by the consonance of surnames, the character of the hero and the attitude of the prototype towards selfless and purposeful fighters acting on the side of the people.

Tverdokhlebov I. Yu. believes that the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov is a kind of cast of the features of such famous figures as Belinsky, Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, who together create the ideal of a hero of the revolution. It should also be noted that Nekrasov did not ignore a new type of public figure - a populist, who combined the features of both a revolutionary and a religious activist.

Common features

The image of Grigory Dobrosklonov demonstrates that he is a prominent representative of the propagandist of the revolution, who seeks to prepare the masses for the fight against capitalist foundations. The features of this hero embodied the most romantic features of revolutionary youth.

When considering this hero, we must also take into account that Nekrasov began to create him in 1876, i.e., at a time when “going to the people” was already complicated by many factors. Some scenes of the work confirm that Grisha was preceded by “wandering” propagandists.

As for Nekrasov’s attitude towards ordinary working people, here he expressed his special attitude. He is a revolutionary who lived and grew up in Vakhlachin. People's Defender Grisha Dobrosklonov is a hero who knows his people well, understands all the troubles and sorrows that have befallen them. He is one of them, therefore he does not raise doubts or suspicions among an ordinary man. Grisha is the poet's hope, his bet on representatives of the revolutionary peasantry.

Composite image

The poet himself notes that in the image of Grisha he captured the features that were characteristic of the revolutionary-minded youth of the 1860-1870s, the French communards and progressive representatives of the peasantry. Researchers claim that the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov is somewhat schematic. But this is easily explained by the fact that Nekrasov was creating a new historical type of hero and could not fully portray in him everything he wanted. This was influenced by the conditions that accompanied the creation of the new type, and by the historical features of the time.

Nekrasov reveals his vision of a public figure, concretizing the deep historical roots of the people's struggle, depicting the spiritual and political connection of the hero with the fate and hopes of the people, systematizing them in the images of specific personalities and individual characteristics of the biography.

Characteristics of the hero

The image of the people's defender Grisha Dobrosklonov describes a simple guy from the people who wants to fight with the established social strata. He stands on the same level as ordinary peasants and is no different from them. Already at the very beginning of his life’s journey, he learned what need, hunger and poverty were, and realized that these phenomena must be resisted. For him, the order that reigned in the seminary was the result of an unjust social structure. Already during his studies, he realized all the hardships of seminary life and was able to comprehend them.

In the 60s of the 19th century, seminarians grew up reading the works of freedom-loving Russian authors. Many writers emerged from among clerical students, for example, Pomyalovsky, Levitov, Chernyshevsky and others. Revolutionary tempering, closeness to the people and natural abilities make the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov a symbol of the people's leader. The character of the young seminarian contains characteristic youthful traits, such as spontaneity and shyness, combined with dedication and strong will.

Hero's feelings

Grisha Dobrosklonov is full of love, which he pours out on his suffering mother, on his homeland and people. The poem even contains a specific reflection of his love for ordinary people, whom he helps “to the best of his ability.” He reaps, mows, sows and celebrates holidays together with ordinary peasants. He loves spending time with other kids, wandering through the forest and picking mushrooms.

He sees his personal, personal happiness in the happiness of others, in peasant joy. It is not so easy to protect the humiliated, but Grisha Dobrosklonov does everything to ease the fate of the disadvantaged.

Revealing the image

Grisha reveals his feelings through songs, and through them he points the way to the happiness of a simple man. The first song is addressed to the intelligentsia, whom the hero seeks to encourage to protect the common people - this is what Grisha Dobrosklonov is all about. The characteristics of the next song can be explained simply: he motivates the people to fight, strives to teach the peasants “to be citizens.” After all, this is precisely the goal of his life - he longs to improve the life of the poor class.

The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov is revealed not only in songs, but also in his noble, radiant anthem. The seminarian devotes himself to chanting the time when revolution will become possible in Rus'. To explain whether there will be a revolution in the future or whether it has already sprouted its first shoots, Nekrasov used the image of the “third year,” which is mentioned four times in the poem. This is not a historical detail, the city burned to the ground is a symbol of the overthrow of the fortress foundations.

Conclusion

The awareness of wandering men who are trying to figure out who is living well in Rus', how they can use their powers to improve the lives of the people, is the result of the poem. They realized that the only way to make people happy is to eradicate the “fortress”, to make everyone free - Grisha Dobrosklonov pushes them to such an idea. The characteristics of his image emphasize the existence of two main problem lines: who is “happier” and who is “more sinful” - which are resolved as a result. The happiest for Grisha are the fighters for the people's happiness, and the most sinful are the traitors of the people. Grigory Dobrosklonov is a new revolutionary hero, the engine of historical force that will consolidate freedom.

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. V.’s first appearance in the text is accompanied by a 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 his daily life is rich in unnoticed good deeds, for example, in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” by his initiative, the peasants are collecting money for the soldier Ovsyanikov. The image of V. is devoid of external concreteness: for Nekrasov, he is, first of all, a representative of the peasantry. His difficult fate (“Not so much in Belokamennaya / On the pavement passed, / As in the soul of the peasant / Offenses passed..." ) - 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 / He shielded his younger brother Mitri.” 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 tend 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. The real prototype could have been 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 his parents' house, 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 her delirium, she draws terrible pictures of the life of a soldier and 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”. Her further fate is also full of troubles: one of her 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, but the image of Pan Glukhovsky is quite realistic. Among the possible prototypes is the 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, no less than the 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 position in life. 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 Tsar 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 trousers.” Among O.'s eminent ancestors are a Tatar who amused the empress with 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. The comic effect is enhanced 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. / You can’t 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 text of these songs fragmentarily outlines the soldier’s life path: 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., the theme of the railway, relevant both for Nekrasov and for later Russian literature, arises. 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 means did not in the least prevent 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. The terrible revenge of the slave, the night that P. had to spend in the ravine, “driving away the groans of birds and wolves,” 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 You, master, are an 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 among the peasantry: folk superstitions are associated with him, he and his family are constant 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 the schismatics to the supervision of civil authorities in 1864, the local clergy lost another serious source of income, and it was difficult to live on “kopecks” from peasant labor.

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. S’s native village, Korezhina, is located in the wilderness, and therefore the peasants live relatively freely (“The zemstvo police / Haven’t 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 the rebel S in the Kostroma province, the original patrimony of the Romanovs, and Matryona catches the similarity 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 a beak like a hawk, / Gray mustache, long / And - different eyes: / One 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. The 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 of Korezhina, military man. Taking advantage of the distance from the provincial town, where the landowner and his regiment were stationed, 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 an unsurpassed 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 of the servile rank are / Sometimes mere 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.”

“He was also lucky”... With such ironic words the image of grandfather Savely is introduced into Nekrasov’s poem. He lived a long, difficult life and is now living out his life in the family of Matryona Timofeevna. The image of Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov is very important, because he embodies the idea of ​​Russian heroism. The theme of strength, endurance and long-suffering of the people in the poem grows from chapter to chapter (remember the story of the strongman at the fair, which serves as a prerequisite for the story of Savely) and is ultimately resolved in the image of the hero Savely.

Savely comes from remote forest regions, where even “the devil looked for a way for three years.” The very name of this region breathes power: Korega, from “to distort”, i.e. bend, break. A bear can damage something, and Savely himself “looked like a bear.” He is also compared with other animals, for example, with the elk, and it is emphasized that he is much more dangerous than a predator when he walks through the forest “with a knife and a spear.” This strength stems from a deep knowledge of one’s land, complete unity with nature. Savely’s love for his land is visible, his words “My forest!

“sound much more convincing than the same statement from the lips of the landowner Obolt-Obolduev.

But the master’s hand will reach into any, even the most impassable region. Savely's free life ends with the arrival of a German manager in Korega. At first, he seemed harmless and did not even demand the due tribute, but set a condition: to work off the money by cutting wood. Simple-minded men built a road out of the forest and then they realized how much they had been deceived: gentlemen came to Korezhina along this road, the German brought his wife and children, and began to suck all the juice out of the village.

“And then came hard labor
To the Korezh peasant -
Ruined me to the bone!”

For a long time, the peasants endured the bullying of the German - he beats them and forces them to work beyond measure. A Russian peasant can endure a lot, that’s why he is a hero, says Savely.
This is what he says to Matryona, to which the woman answers ironically: even a mouse can eat such a hero. In this episode, Nekrasov outlines an important problem of the Russian people: their irresponsibility, unpreparedness for decisive action. It is not for nothing that Saveliy’s characterization coincides with the image of the most motionless of the epic heroes - Svyatogor, who at the end of his life was rooted into the ground.

“To not endure is an abyss, to endure is an abyss.” This is how the hero Savely thinks, and this simple but wise folk philosophy leads him to rebellion. Under the word he invented, “Pump it up!” the hated German manager is buried in the ground. And although Savely ends up in hard labor for this act, the beginning of liberation has already been made. For the rest of his life, the grandfather will be proud of the fact that, although he is “branded,” he is not a slave!

But how does his life develop next? He spent more than twenty years in hard labor, and his settlements were taken away for another twenty. But even there Savely did not give up, he worked, was able to raise money, and, returning to his homeland, built a hut for himself and his family. And yet his life was not allowed to end peacefully: while his grandfather had money, he enjoyed the love of his family, and when they ran out, he was met with dislike and ridicule. The only joy for him, as well as for Matryona, is Demushka. He sits on the old man’s shoulder “like an apple in the top of an old apple tree.” But something terrible happens: through his, Savely’s, fault, the grandson dies. And it was this event that broke the man who had gone through the whips and hard labor. The grandfather will spend the rest of his life in a monastery and wandering, praying for remission of sins. That is why Nekrasov calls it Holy Russian, showing another feature inherent in all people: deep, sincere religiosity. Grandfather Savely lived for “one hundred and seven years,” but his longevity did not bring him happiness, and his strength, as he himself recalls bitterly, “was gone in small ways.”

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Savely embodies precisely this deeply hidden strength of the Russian peasant and his enormous, although so far unrealized, potential. It is worth waking up the people, convincing them to abandon humility for a while, and then they themselves will win happiness, this is what Nekrasov is talking about with the help of the image of the hero Savely.

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