Essays on literature: The image of Rus' in the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead souls. Working on " Dead souls" Gogol began back in 1835 on the advice of Pushkin and on the plot suggested by him. The writer himself repeatedly emphasized the grandeur and breadth of his plan: "... what a huge, what an original plot! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in him!” he reported to Zhukovsky in 1836. In “Dead Souls” Gogol posed the most pressing and painful questions modern life. He showed the decomposition of the serf system, the historical doom of its representatives. At the same time, Gogol gave a devastating assessment of those manifestations of new, bourgeois tendencies, the desire for enrichment, the bearer of which is Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov.

The very title of the poem - “Dead Souls” - had enormous revealing power; it carried, according to Herzen, “something terrifying”, “he could not name it otherwise; not the revision - dead souls, but all these Nozdryovs. and all those like them are dead souls, and we meet them at every step” “A district sentimental dreamer”, “a weakling”, in the words of Belinsky. Manilov, it would seem, is not only harmless, but also pleasant in his manner. He is helpful, kind, hospitable. Manilov dreams of the “prosperity of a friendly life” and makes fantastic plans for future improvements. But this is an empty phrase-monger, a “sky-smoker” whose words are at odds with his deeds. Korobochka is a greedy hoarder, “club-headed,” as Gogol called her, a money-grubber devoid of any other feelings. Petty greed, stinginess, petty greed, suspicion, a complete lack of any interests distinguish this provincial landowner, one of those mothers of small landowners who cry about crop failures, losses and keep their heads somewhat to one side, and meanwhile collect little money in motley bags placed along dresser drawers."

A striking type, combining arrogance, deceit, importunity, unscrupulousness and complete indiscriminateness in the means to achieve his selfish and base goals, is the rogue and scoundrel Nozdryov. The landowner Sobakevich symbolizes the gloomy and ponderous serf life. This is an avid and convinced serf owner, cynically exposing his rude and misanthropic nature. He is hostile to everything new; the very thought of “enlightenment” is hateful to him. Plyushkin closes this gallery - the limit of human degradation, a terrible caricature of the owner. Among the world's images of the miser, created by Shakespeare, Moliere, Pushkin, Balzac. Plyushkin occupies a special place, standing out for the loss of everything human. Stinginess became his disease, his passion. This is not so much a comic as a tragic figure.

The terrible in its immobility and inertia world of landowners clinging to the old, living in the sphere of patriarchal-serfdom, is opposed by the clever and enterprising swindler Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, on whose purchase of “dead souls” - serfs who were still on the revision lists, the plot of the poem is based. Chichikov is a man of a new formation. He is a businessman, an “acquirer”, a “knight of a penny”, in whom the negative features of the penetration of new bourgeois-capitalist trends into Russia and the growing importance of monetary relations have already been reflected. Chichikov's ostentatious well-being is just a mask covering boundless selfishness and spiritual uncleanliness. Gogol’s satire and “laughter” in “Dead Souls” are imbued with bitter reflection, the tense, mournful feeling of the author. Showing all the ugliness and spiritual wretchedness of his heroes, he constantly experiences the loss of humanity in them. This is “laughter through tears,” as the writer defined the originality of his creative method. The poem was enthusiastically welcomed by Belinsky, who saw in it “a purely Russian, national creation, snatched from a hiding place folk life, as true as it is patriotic, mercilessly pulling back the veil from reality and breathing passionate, bloody love for the fertile grain of Russian life: an immensely artistic creation...

“Dead Souls” is the pinnacle in the work of N.V. Gogol. In the poem, the author made deep artistic discoveries and generalizations. The basis ideological plan The works contain the writer’s thoughts about the people and the future of Russia. For Gogol, as for many other writers, the theme of Rus' is connected with the theme of the people. The work creates a collective collective image people. By visiting the landowners' estates with Chichikov, the reader can draw certain conclusions about the situation of the peasants. Manilov’s vision of the hero flashed “gray log huts” and the enlivening figures of two women dragging “tattered nonsense.” Plyushkin’s peasants live in even more terrible poverty: “... the logs on the huts were dark and old; many of the roofs were leaking like a sieve... The windows in the huts were without glass, others were covered with a rag or a zipun...” For someone who “feeds people poorly,” they “die like flies,” many become drunkards or are on the run. The peasants also have a hard time living with the fist of Sobakevich and the tight-fisted Korobochka. The landowner's village is a source of honey, lard, and hemp, which Korobochka sells. She also bargains with the peasants themselves - she “gave in” to the archpriest of the third year “two girls for a hundred rubles each.” One more detail: the girl Pelageya from the lord’s servants, about eleven years old, sent by Korobochka to show Selifan the way, does not know where the right is and where the left is. This child is growing like a weed. Korobochka shows concern about the girl, but nothing more than about the thing: “... just be careful: don’t bring her, the merchants have already brought one from me.” The landowners depicted in the poem are not villains, but ordinary people typical of their environment, but they own souls. For them, a serf is not a person, but a slave. Gogol shows the peasant's defenselessness before the landowner's tyranny. The serf owner controls the fate of a person and can sell or buy him: alive or even dead. Thus, Gogol creates a generalized image of the Russian people, showing how many troubles beset them: crop failures, illnesses, fires, the power of landowners, economic and economical, stingy and zealous. Serfdom has a destructive effect on the working people. The peasants develop dull obedience, indifference to own destiny. The poem shows downtrodden men Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, driven by Plyushkin Proshka in huge boots, stupid girl Pelageya, drunkards and lazy people Petrushka and Selifan. The author sympathizes with the plight of the peasants. He did not remain silent about the popular riots. The officials and Plyushkin recalled how recently, because of assessor Dobryazhkin’s predilection for village women and girls, the state-owned peasants of the villages Vshivaya arrogance and Zadirailovo wiped out the zemstvo police from the face of the earth. Provincial society is very worried at the thought of the possibility of a rebellion among the restless peasants of Chichikov when they are resettled in the Kherson region. In the generalized image of the people, the author highlights colorful figures and bright or tragic destinies. The author’s thoughts about the peasants no longer living on the land are put into Chichikov’s mouth. For the first time in the poem, truly living people are shown, but the cruel irony of fate is that they are already buried in the ground. The dead exchanged places with the living. In Sobakevich’s list, merits are noted in detail, professions are listed; Each peasant has his own character, his own destiny. Cork Stepan, a carpenter, “ran throughout the province with a stopper in his belt and boots on his shoulders.” Maxim Telyatnikov, a shoemaker, “studied with a German... it would have been a miracle, not a shoemaker,” and he sewed boots from rotten leather - and the shop was deserted, and he went “to drink and wallow in the streets.” Carriage maker Mikheev is a folk craftsman. He made durable carriages that were famous throughout the area. In Chichikov’s imagination, young, healthy, hard-working, gifted people who passed away in the prime of life are resurrected. The author’s generalization sounds with bitter regret: “Eh, Russian people! He doesn’t like to die his own death!” The broken fates of Plyushkin's runaway peasants cannot but evoke sympathy. Some of them are toiling around prisons, some have gone to barge haulers and are dragging their feet “to one endless song, like Rus'.” Thus, Gogol, among the living and the dead, finds the embodiment of various qualities of the Russian character. His homeland is people's Rus', not local bureaucratic Russia. In the lyrical part of “Dead Souls,” the author creates abstract symbolic images and motifs that reflect his thoughts about the present and future of Rus', “apt Russian word", "miracle road", "My Rus'", "three bird". The author admires the accuracy of the Russian word: “The Russian people express themselves strongly! and if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity...” The accuracy of expressions reflects the lively, lively mind of the Russian peasant, who is able to describe a phenomenon or a person with one line. This amazing gift of the people is reflected in the proverbs and sayings they created. In his lyrical digression Gogol paraphrases one of these proverbs: “What is pronounced accurately is the same as what is written, cannot be cut down with an ax.” The author is convinced that the Russian people have no equal in terms of creative power. His folklore reflects one of the main qualities of a Russian person - sincerity. A well-aimed, lively word escapes from the man “from under his very heart.” The image of Rus' in the author's digressions is permeated with lyrical pathos. The author creates an ideal, sublime image that attracts with “secret power.” It’s not for nothing that he talks about the “wonderful, beautiful distance” from which he looks at Russia. This is an epic distance, the distance of “mighty space”: “ooh!” what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus'!..” Vivid epithets convey the idea of ​​the amazing, unique beauty of Russia. The author is also amazed by the distance of historical time. Rhetorical questions contain statements about the uniqueness of the Russian world: “What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place where he can turn around and walk?” The heroes depicted in the story of Chichikov’s adventures are devoid of epic qualities; these are not heroes, but ordinary people with their weaknesses and vices. In the epic image of Russia created by the author, there is no place for them: they disappear, just as “like dots, icons, low cities stick out inconspicuously among the plains.” At the end of the poem, Gogol creates a hymn to the road, a hymn to movement - the source of “wonderful ideas, poetic dreams,” “wonderful impressions.” "Rus-troika" - capacious symbolic image. The author is convinced that Russia has a great future. A rhetorical question, addressed to Rus', is imbued with the belief that the country’s road is the road to light, miracle, rebirth: “Rus, where are you rushing?” Rus'-troika ascends into another dimension: “the horses are a whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels are mixed into one smooth circle” “and all inspired by God rushes.” The author believes that the Rus' Troika is flying along the path of spiritual transformation, that in the future there will appear real, “virtuous” people, living souls capable of saving the country.

The pinnacle of N.V. Gogol’s work is the poem “Dead Souls,” in which the great Russian writer truthfully depicts the life of Russia in the 30s of the 19th century. Why did Gogol call his work a poem? Typically, a poem means a large work of poetry with a narrative or lyrical plot. However, before us prose work in the genre of travel novel.

The fact is that the writer’s plan was not fully realized: the second part of the book was partially preserved, and the third was never written. According to the author’s plan, the finished work was supposed to correlate with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The three parts of “Dead Souls” were supposed to correspond to the three parts of Dante’s poem: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”. The first part presents the circles of Russian hell, and in other parts the reader should have seen the moral cleansing of Chichikov and other heroes.

Gogol hoped that with his poem he would really help the “resurrection” of the Russian people. Such a task required a special form of expression. Indeed, already some fragments of the first volume are endowed with a high epic content. Thus, the troika, in which Chichikov leaves the city of NN, imperceptibly transforms into a “bird troika”, and then becomes a metaphor for all of Rus'. The author, together with the reader, seems to fly high above the earth and from there contemplates everything that is happening. After the mustiness of the ossified way of life, movement, space, and a feeling of air appear in the poem.

The movement itself is called “God’s miracle,” and rushing Rus' is called “inspired by God.” The strength of the movement is growing, and the writer exclaims: “Oh, horses, horses, what kind of horses! Are there whirlwinds in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear burning in every vein of yours?..” Rus', where are you rushing to? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; The air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; “everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.”

Now it becomes clear why Chichikov acts as a “fan of fast driving.” It was he who, according to Gogol’s plan, was to be spiritually reborn in the next book, to merge in soul with Russia. In general, the idea of ​​“travelling all over Rus' with the hero and bringing out many different characters” gave the writer the opportunity to build the composition of the poem in a special way. Gogol shows all social strata of Russia: officials, serf owners and ordinary Russian people.

The image of the simple Russian people is inextricably linked in the poem with the image of the Motherland. Russian peasants are in the position of slaves. Gentlemen can sell, exchange them; The Russian peasant is valued as a simple commodity. Landowners do not see serfs as people. Korobochka says to Chichikov: “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl, she knows the way, just watch!” Don’t bring it, merchants have already brought one from me.” The housewife is afraid of losing part of her household, not thinking at all about the human soul. Even a dead peasant becomes an object of sale and purchase, a means of profit. The Russian people are dying from hunger, epidemics, and the tyranny of the landowners.

The writer figuratively speaks about the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if you don’t go yourself, but only send one of your caps to your place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.”

Ingenuity and resourcefulness are emphasized in the image of Eremey Sorokoplekhin, who “traded in Moscow, bringing in one rent for five hundred rubles.” The efficiency of ordinary peasants is recognized by the gentlemen themselves: “Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.” Love for the working people, the breadwinner, can be heard in every author’s word. Gogol writes with great tenderness about the “quick Yaroslavl peasant” who brought together the Russian troika, about the “lively people”, “the lively Russian mind”.

The so-called central world. He imperceptibly merges into the narrative at the very beginning of the poem, but it story line doesn't come into contact with him often. At first it is almost invisible, but then, along with the development of the plot, the description of this world is revealed. At the end of the first volume, the description turns into the anthem of all Rus'. Gogol figuratively compares Rus' “with a brisk and unstoppable troika” rushing forward.

Russian people are remarkably good at using the richness of the folk language. “The Russian people are expressing themselves strongly!” - exclaims Gogol, saying that there is no word in other languages, “which would be so sweeping, lively, so bursting out from under the very heart, so seething and vibrantly trembling, like an aptly spoken Russian word.”

However, all the talents and virtues of the ordinary Russian people greatly highlight their difficult situation. “Oh, Russian people! He doesn’t like to die his own death!” - Chichikov argues, looking through endless lists of dead peasants. Gogol depicted the truthful and joyless present of Russian peasants in his unforgettable poem.

But the great realist writer was always confident that life in Russia would change. It will become brighter and more joyful. N. A. Nekrasov spoke about Gogol: “He preaches love with a hostile word of denial.”

As a true patriot of his country, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol passionately wanted to see the Russian people happy, and castigated contemporary Russia with a destructive laugh in his wonderful work. He denied feudal Rus' with its “dead souls” and expressed hope that the future of his beloved Motherland does not belong to landowners or “knights of a penny,” but to the keeper of unprecedented opportunities - the great Russian people.

Even greatest genius would not go far if he wanted to produce everything from himself... If there is anything good in us, it is strength and the ability to use means outside world and make them serve our higher purposes.

The poem "Dead Souls" is the pinnacle of N.V. Gogol's creativity. In it, the great Russian writer truthfully depicted the life of Russia in the 30s of the 19th century. But why does Gogol call his work a poem? After all, a poem is usually understood as a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot. But before us is a prose work written in the genre of a travel novel.

The thing is that the writer’s plan was not fully realized: the second part of the book was partially preserved, and the third was never written. According to the author’s plan, the finished work was supposed to correlate with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The three parts of “Dead Souls” were supposed to correspond to the three parts of Dante’s poem: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”. The first part presents the circles of Russian hell, and in other parts the reader should have seen the moral cleansing of Chichikov and other heroes.

Gogol hoped that with his poem he would really help the “resurrection” of the Russian people. Such a task required a special form of expression. Indeed, already some fragments of the first volume are endowed with a high epic content. Thus, the troika, in which Chichikov leaves the city of NN, imperceptibly transforms into a “bird troika”, and then becomes a metaphor for all of Rus'. The author, together with the reader, seems to fly high above the earth and from there contemplates everything that is happening. After the mustiness of the ossified way of life, movement, space, and a feeling of air appear in the poem.

The movement itself is called “God’s miracle,” and rushing Rus' is called “inspired by God.” The strength of the movement is growing, and the writer exclaims: “Oh, horses, horses, what kind of horses! Are there whirlwinds in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear burning in every vein of yours?.." Rus', where are you rushing? Give me an answer. Doesn’t give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; the air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give her way.”

Now it becomes clear why Chichikov acts as a “fan of fast driving.” It was he who, according to Gogol’s plan, was to be spiritually reborn in the next book, to merge with the soul of Russia. In general, the idea of ​​“travelling all over Rus' with the hero and bringing out a multitude of very diverse characters” gave the writer the opportunity to build the composition of the poem in a special way. Gogol shows all layers of Russia: officials, serf owners and ordinary Russian people.

The image of the simple Russian people is inextricably linked in the poem with the image of the Motherland. Russian peasants are in the position of slaves. Gentlemen can sell, exchange them; The Russian peasant is valued as a simple commodity. Landowners do not see serfs as people. Korobochka says to Chichikov: “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl, she knows the way, just watch out! Don’t bring her, the merchants have already brought me one.” The housewife is afraid of losing part of her household, not thinking at all about the human soul. Even a dead peasant becomes an object of sale and purchase, a means of profit. The Russian people are dying from hunger, epidemics, and the tyranny of the landowners.

The writer figuratively speaks about the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if you don’t go yourself, but only send one of your caps to your place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.” In the poem you can meet Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minay, who are unable to separate their horses on the road. Pelageya, the yard servant, doesn’t know where the right side is and where the left side is. But what could this unfortunate girl learn from her “club-headed” mistress?! After all, for officials and landowners, peasants are drunkards, stupid people, incapable of anything. Therefore, some serfs run away from their masters, unable to bear such a life, preferring prison to returning home, like the peasant Popov from the Plyushkin estate. But Gogol paints not only terrible pictures of the people’s fate.

Great writer shows how talented and rich in soul a Russian person is. Images of wonderful artisans and folk craftsmen appear before the reader’s eyes. With what pride Sobakevich speaks about his dead peasants! Carriage maker Mikheev made excellent carriages and did his work conscientiously. “And Cork Stepan, the carpenter? I’ll lay my head down if you can find such a man anywhere,” Sobakevich convinces Chichikov, talking about this heroic man. Brickmaker Milushkin “could install a stove in any house,” Maxim Telyatnikov sewed beautiful boots, and “even if he was intoxicated.” The Russian man was not a drunkard, says Gogol. These people were used to working well and knew their craft.

Ingenuity and resourcefulness are emphasized in the image of Eremey Sorokoplekhin, who “traded in Moscow, bringing in one rent for five hundred rubles.” The efficiency of ordinary peasants is recognized by the gentlemen themselves: “Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.” Love for the working people, the breadwinner, can be heard in every author’s word. Gogol writes with great tenderness about the “quick Yaroslavl peasant” who brought together the Russian troika, about the “lively people”, “the lively Russian mind”.

The Russian person is remarkably good at using the richness of the folk language. “The Russian people are expressing themselves strongly!” - exclaims Gogol, saying that there is no word in other languages, “which would be so sweeping, lively, so bursting out from under the very heart, so seething and vibrant, like a well-spoken Russian word.”

But all the talents and virtues of the common people highlight their difficult situation even more. “Eh, the Russian people! They don’t like to die their own death!” - Chichikov argues, looking through endless lists of dead peasants. Gogol painted a bleak but truthful present in his poem.

However, the great realist writer had the bright confidence that life in Russia would change. N. A. Nekrasov wrote about Gogol: “He preaches love with a hostile word of denial.”

A true patriot of his country, who passionately wanted to see the Russian people happy, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol castigated the Russia of his time with destructive laughter. Denying feudal Rus' with its “dead souls,” the writer expressed in the poem the hope that the future of the Motherland does not belong to landowners or “knights of a penny,” but to the great Russian people, who keep within themselves unprecedented possibilities.

The time of writing the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" - mid-19th century. This is the time when serfdom became obsolete. What is replacing them? This is the question that worried the author of the poem. Work by N.V. Gogol is a meditation on the fate of Russia.

The work was perceived ambiguously: some of Gogol’s contemporaries saw in the poem a caricature of modern reality, others also noticed a poetic picture of Russian life.

In the poem, the world of oppressors - “dead souls” - is contrasted with the long-suffering Russian people, poor, but full hidden life and internal forces of Rus'.

N.V. Gogol depicted ordinary Russian people with great skill in the poem. Reading the poem, we get acquainted with the serfs of the landowners Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. These are powerless people, but all of them, living and dead, appear before us as great workers. These serfs with their labor created wealth for the landowners, only they themselves live in need and die like flies. They are illiterate and downtrodden. Such are Chichikov’s servant Petrushka, the coachman Selifan, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Proshka, the girl Pelageya, who “does not know where the right is and where the left is.”

Gogol depicted reality “through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to him tears.” But through these “tears”, in this social depression, Gogol saw living soul“the lively people” and the quickness of the Yaroslavl peasant. He spoke with admiration and love about the abilities of the people, their courage, prowess, hard work, endurance, and thirst for freedom. “Russian people are capable of anything and will get used to any climate. Send him to live in Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.”

The serf hero, carpenter Probka, “would be fit for the guard.” He set out with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders throughout the province. Carriage maker Mikheev created carriages of extraordinary strength and beauty. Stove maker Milushkin could install a stove in any house. Talented shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov - “whatever pricks with an awl, then the boots, then thank you.” Eremey Sorokoplekhin brought five hundred rubles per quitrent! However, “...there is no life for the Russian people, all the Germans are in the way, and the Russian landowners are tearing their skin off.”

Gogol values ​​the people’s natural talent, lively mind, and keen observation: “How apt is everything that has come out of the depths of Russia... the lively Russian mind, which does not reach into its pocket for a word, does not sit on it like a hen, but slams it right in like a passport, for eternal wear." Gogol saw in the Russian word, in Russian speech, a reflection of the character of his people.

The poem shows peasants who do not put up with their slave status and flee from the landowners to the outskirts of Russia. Abakum Fyrov, unable to withstand the oppression of captivity from the landowner Plyushkin, flees to the wide Volga expanse. He “walks noisily and cheerfully on the grain pier, having made contracts with the merchants.” But it’s not easy for him to walk with the barge haulers, “dragging the strap to one endless song, like Rus'.” In the songs of barge haulers, Gogol heard an expression of the people’s longing and desire for a different life, for a wonderful future: “It is still a mystery,” Gogol wrote, “this immense revelry that is heard in our songs rushes somewhere past life and the song itself, as if burning with the desire for a better homeland, for which man has been yearning since the day of his creation.”

The theme of peasant revolt appears in chapters nine and ten. The peasants of the village Vshivaya Spes, Borovki and Zadiraylovo killed the assessor Drobyazhkin. The trial chamber hushed up the case, since Drobyazhkin is dead, let it be in favor of the living. But the murderer was not found among the men, and the men did not hand over anyone.

Captain Kopeikin was crippled in the war. He could not work and went to St. Petersburg to seek help for himself, but the nobleman told him to wait, and when Kopeikin tired of him, he rudely replied: “Look for a means of living,” and even threatened to call the police chief. And the captain went to look for funds in the dense forests, among a gang of robbers.

Rus' is full of hidden life and inner strength. Gogol sincerely believes in the strength of the Russian people and the great future of Russia: “Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you, open, deserted and even everything in you; ...but what incomprehensible... force attracts you? Why is your sad... song heard and heard? What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there are places where he can turn around and walk?”

Ardent faith in the hidden but immense strength of his people, love for his homeland allowed Gogol to imagine its great and wonderful future. In lyrical digressions, he paints Rus' in the symbolic image of a “three bird,” embodying the power of the inexhaustible forces of the Motherland. The poem ends with a thought about Russia: “Rus, where are you rushing, give me the answer? Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; the air thunders and becomes torn by the wind; “everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.”

Even the greatest genius would not be far off if he wanted to produce everything from himself... If there is anything good in us, it is the power and ability to use the means of the external world and make them serve our highest goals.
Goethe.
The poem “Dead Souls” is the pinnacle of N.V. Gogol’s creativity. In it, the great Russian writer truthfully depicted the life of Russia in the 30s of the 19th century. But why does Gogol call his work a poem? After all, a poem is usually understood as a large poetic work with a narrative or lyrical plot. But before us is a prose work written in the genre of a travel novel.
The thing is that the writer’s plan was not fully realized: the second part of the book was partially preserved, and the third was never written. According to the author’s plan, the finished work was supposed to correlate with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The three parts of “Dead Souls” were supposed to correspond to the three parts of Dante’s poem: “Hell”, “Purgatory”, “Paradise”.
The first part presents the circles of Russian hell, and in other parts the reader should have seen the moral cleansing of Chichikov and other heroes.
Gogol hoped that with his poem he would really help the “resurrection” of the Russian people. Such a task required a special form of expression. Indeed, already some fragments of the first volume are endowed with a high epic content. Thus, the troika, in which Chichikov leaves the city of NN, imperceptibly transforms into a “bird troika”, and then becomes a metaphor for all of Rus'. The author, together with the reader, seems to fly high above the earth and from there contemplates everything that is happening.
After the mustiness of the ossified way of life, movement, space, and a feeling of air appear in the poem.
The movement itself is called “God’s miracle,” and rushing Rus' is called “inspired by God.” The strength of the movement is growing, and the writer exclaims: “Oh, horses, horses, what kind of horses! Are there whirlwinds in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear burning in every vein of yours?..” Rus', where are you rushing? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; The air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.”
Now it becomes clear why Chichikov acts as a “fan of fast driving.” It was he who, according to Gogol’s plan, was to be spiritually reborn in the next book, to merge with the soul of Russia. In general, the idea of ​​“travelling all over Rus' with the hero and bringing out a wide variety of characters gave the writer the opportunity to build the composition of the poem in a special way. Gogol shows all layers of Russia: officials, serf owners and ordinary Russian people.
The image of the simple Russian people is inextricably linked in the poem with the image of the Motherland. Russian peasants are in the position of slaves. Gentlemen can sell, exchange them; The Russian peasant is valued as a simple commodity. Landowners do not see serfs as people. Korobochka says to Chichikov: “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl, she knows the way, just watch!” don’t bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me.” The housewife is afraid of losing part of her household, not thinking at all about the human soul. Even a dead peasant becomes an object of sale and purchase, a means of profit. The Russian people are dying from hunger, epidemics, and the tyranny of the landowners.
The writer figuratively speaks about the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if you don’t go yourself, but only send one of your caps to your place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.” In the poem you can meet Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minay, who are unable to separate their horses on the road. Pelageya, the yard servant, doesn’t know where the right side is and where the left side is. But what could this unfortunate girl learn from her “club-headed” mistress?! After all, for officials and landowners, peasants are drunkards, stupid people, incapable of anything. Therefore, some serfs run away from their masters, unable to bear such a life, preferring prison to returning home, like the peasant Popov from the Plyushkin estate. But Gogol paints not only terrible pictures of the people’s fate. The great writer shows how talented and rich in soul the Russian people are. Images of wonderful artisans and folk craftsmen appear before the reader’s eyes. With what pride Sobakevich speaks about his dead peasants! Carriage maker Mikheev made excellent carriages and did his work conscientiously. “And Cork Stepan, the carpenter? I’ll lay my head if you find such a man anywhere,” Sobakevich convinces Chichikov, talking about this heroic man. Brickmaker Milushkin “could install a stove in any house,” Maxim Telyatnikov sewed beautiful boots, and “even if he was intoxicated.” The Russian man was not a drunkard, says Gogol. These people were used to working well and knew their craft.
Ingenuity and resourcefulness are emphasized in the image of Eremey Sorokoplekhin, who “traded in Moscow, bringing in one rent for five hundred rubles.” The efficiency of ordinary peasants is recognized by the gentlemen themselves: “Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.” Love for the working people, the breadwinner, can be heard in every author’s word. Gogol writes with great tenderness about the “efficient Yaroslavl peasant” who assembled the Russian troika, about the “lively people”, “the lively Russian mind”.
Moving with Chichikov from landowner to landowner, the reader seems to sink deeper and deeper into the “stunning mud” of vulgarity, pettiness, and depravity. The negative traits gradually thicken, and the gallery of landowners, starting with the comic Manilov, is concluded by Plyushkin, who is not so much funny as disgusting.
The main subject of the image for Gogol was the nobility of Russia, but in the depths of the picture - in Chichikov’s reflections on the list of fugitives and in the author’s digressions - folk Rus', full of daring and courage, with a “sweeping” word and a “sweeping” will.
The theme of the people is one of the central themes of the poem. In addressing this topic, Gogol departs from the traditional approach and identifies two aspects in its understanding. On the one hand, this is an ironic and sometimes satirical depiction of the life of a people, and a real people at that. Gogol emphasizes the stupidity, ignorance, laziness, and drunkenness characteristic of the Russian peasant. On the other hand, this is an image of the deep foundations of the Russian character. Gogol notes the inexhaustible diligence of the Russian peasant, intelligence and ingenuity, and heroic strength. The Russian person is a jack of all trades. And it is no coincidence that Gogol draws attention to the rebellious qualities of serfs - this proves that an uncontrollable desire for freedom lives in Russian people. It is also noteworthy that the dead peasants appear before us as living people, because after death their deeds remained.
Images of serfs occupy a significant place in “Dead Souls”. Some of them run through the entire work, while others are mentioned by the author only in connection with individual events and scenes. The footman Petrushka and the coachman Selifan, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Proshka and the girl Pelageya, who “doesn’t know where the right is and where the left” are depicted in a humorous way. Narrow spiritual world these downtrodden people. Their actions cause bitter laughter. Drunk Selifan makes lengthy speeches addressed to the horses. Petrushka, reading books, watches how some words are formed from individual letters, not at all interested in the content of what he read: “If they turned him up to chemistry, he wouldn’t refuse it either.” The clueless Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai cannot separate horses that are entangled in the lines.
Gogol reveals the great drama of the enslaved people. Feudal oppression, unlimited power over the peasants of boxes and plushkins cripples the living soul of the people, dooming them to ignorance and poverty.
However, Gogol also shows the bright sides of people's life. Serfs are hardworking, any work is successful in their hands. The carriages of the carriage maker Mikheev were famous throughout the area. The carpenter Stepan Probka “proceeded throughout the province with an ax in his belt,” and what a hero he was - “three arshins and an inch tall!” Such a giant and strong man can only serve in the guard. The brickmaker Milushkin could install a stove in any house, and the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov sewed such good boots that he could wear them all his life. Despite the oppression of serfdom, the peasants did not become slaves by nature. They flee from landowners' estates to the outskirts of Russia, where life is more free. Abakum Fogrov moved to the Volga, works and walks with a gang of barge haulers. “Russian people are capable of anything and get used to any climate. Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.” True to the truth of life, Gogol did not ignore the popular riots. The peasants of the villages of Lousy Arrogance and Borovki “razed off the face of the earth the zemstvo government in the person of an assessor, some Drobyazhkin.”
Deep faith in the Russian people is heard in the lyrical conclusion of the poem - in the poetic comparison of Russia with the “brisk, irresistible troika” racing uncontrollably into the distance, in front of which, “squinting”, other peoples and states shun.

Essay on literature on the topic: The image of Rus' and the Russian people in the poem “Dead Souls”

Other writings:

1. Every artist has a creation that he considers the main work of his life, into which he has invested his most cherished, innermost thoughts, his whole heart. “Dead Souls” was such a work of life for N.V. Gogol. The writer's biography of this artist lasted twenty-three Read More......
2. Gogol began work on “Dead Souls” back in 1835 on the advice of Pushkin and on the plot suggested by him. The writer himself has repeatedly emphasized the grandeur and breadth of his plan: “...what a huge, what an original plot! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it!” Read More......
3. The “ideological core” of I. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” is “the thought of tragic fate folk." Throughout the work, the author mentions people of the “low class”. Although among the images of serfs such bright characters do not stand out, their diversity reveals the whole picture Read More ......
4. My thoughts, my name, my works will belong to Russia. Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol began writing the poem in 1835 on the persistent advice of Pushkin. After many years of wandering around Europe, Gogol settled in Rome, where he devoted himself entirely to working on the poem. Read More......
5. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol began writing the poem in 1835 on the persistent advice of Pushkin. After many years of wandering around Europe, Gogol settled in Rome, where he devoted himself entirely to working on “Dead Souls.” He considered the creation of this work as the fulfillment of an oath given Read More......
6. The plot of the poem was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. Gogol’s attention was especially attracted by the opportunity to show with the help of a “road” plot the whole of Russia, with its characteristic types, situations, characters. “What an original story! What a varied bunch! All Rus' will appear in it,” wrote Gogol. In the previous Read More ......
7. Gogol reveals the great drama of the enslaved people. Feudal oppression, unlimited power over the peasants of the boxes and Plyushkins cripples the living soul of the people, dooming them to ignorance and poverty. However, Gogol also sees and shows the bright sides of people's life. Serfs are hardworking. Any work Read More ......
8. “Dead Souls” is not accidentally called a poem by the author. Despite the fact that this work is written in prose, it often contains a variety of poetic devices, including numerous lyrical digressions. This technique is universal; different authors use it to Read More......

Interest in Gogol's works continues unabated even today. Probably the reason is that Gogol was able to most fully show the character traits of a Russian person and the beauty of Russia. In the article “What, finally, is the essence of Russian poetry and what is its peculiarity,” begun even before “Dead Souls,” Gogol wrote: “Our poetry has not expressed to us anywhere the Russian person completely, nor in the form in which he should be, not in the reality in which it exists.” This outlines the problem that Gogol was going to solve in Dead Souls.

In the poem Gogol depicts two opposite worlds: on the one hand, real Russia is shown with its injustice, acquisitiveness and robbery, on the other - perfect image future fair and great Russia. This image is mainly presented in the lyrical digressions and reflections of the writer himself. “Dead Souls” begins with a depiction of city life, sketches of pictures of the city and a description of bureaucratic society. Five chapters of the poem are devoted to the depiction of officials, five to landowners, and one to the biography of Chichikov. As a result, it is recreated big picture Russia with a huge number characters various positions and states that Gogol snatches from the general mass, because in addition to officials and landowners, Gogol also describes other urban and rural residents - townspeople, servants, peasants. All this adds up to a complex panorama of Russian life, its present.

Typical representatives of this present in the poem are the unruly landowner, the petty, “club-headed” Korobochka, the careless playmaker Nozdryov, the tight-fisted Sobakevich and the miser Plyushkin. Gogol, with evil irony, shows the spiritual emptiness and limitation, stupidity and money-grubbing of these degenerate landowners. These people have so little humanity left that they can fully be called “gaps in humanity.” The world of Dead Souls is scary, disgusting and immoral. This is a world devoid of spiritual values. Landowners and inhabitants of the provincial city are not its only representatives. Peasants also live in this world.

But Gogol is by no means inclined to idealize them. Let us remember the beginning of the poem, when Chichikov entered the city. Two men, examining the chaise, determined that one wheel was not in order and Chichikov would not go far.

Gogol did not hide the fact that the men were standing near the tavern. Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Manilov’s serf, are shown as clueless in the poem, asking to earn money, while he himself goes to drink. The girl Pelageya does not know where the right is and where the left is.

Pro-shka and Mavra are downtrodden and intimidated. Gogol does not blame them, but rather laughs good-naturedly at them. Describing coachman Selifan and footman Petrushka - Chichikov's courtyard servants, the author shows kindness and understanding. Petrushka is overwhelmed by a passion for reading, although he is more attracted not by what he reads, but by the process of reading itself, as if from the letters “some word always comes out, which sometimes the devil knows what it means.” We do not see high spirituality and morality in Selifan and Petrushka, but they are already different from Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minay. Revealing the image of Selifan, Gogol shows the soul of the Russian peasant and tries to understand this soul.

Let us remember what he says about the meaning of scratching the back of the head among the Russian people: “What did this scratching mean? and what does it even mean? Are you annoyed that the meeting planned for the next day with your brother didn’t work out...

or has a sweet-hearted sweetheart already started in a new place... Or is it just a pity to leave a warm place in a person’s kitchen under a sheepskin coat, in order to again be dragged through the rain and slush and all sorts of road adversity? An exponent of an ideal future Russia is Russia, described in lyrical digressions. The people are also represented here.

This people may consist of “dead souls,” but they have a lively and lively mind, they are a people “full of the creative abilities of the soul...”. It was among such people that a “bird-three” could appear, which the coachman can easily control. This is, for example, the efficient man from Yaroslavl, who “with one ax and a chisel” made a miracle crew. Chichikov bought him and other dead peasants.

By rewriting them, he pictures them in his imagination earthly life: “My fathers, how many of you are crammed here! What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime?” The dead peasants in the poem are contrasted with the living peasants with their poor inner world. They are endowed with fabulous, heroic features. Selling the carpenter Stepan, the landowner Sobakevich describes him like this: “What kind of power she was! If he had served in the guard, God knows what they would have given him, three arshins and an inch in height.” Image of the people in Gogol's poem gradually develops into the image of Russia.

Here, too, one can see the contrast between real Russia and ideal Russia. future Russia. At the beginning of the eleventh chapter, Gogol gives a description of Russia: “Rus! Rus! I see you...” and “How strange, and alluring, and carrying, and wonderful in the word: road!” But these two lyrical digressions are broken by the phrases: “Hold it, hold it, you fool!” - Chichikov shouted to Selifan.

“Here I am with a broadsword!” - shouted a courier with a mustache as long as he was galloping towards. “Don’t you see, the devil take your soul: a government carriage” In lyrical digressions, the author refers to the “immense space”, “mighty space” of the Russian land. In the last chapter of the poem, Chichikov’s chaise, the Russian troika, turns into a symbolic image of Russia, rapidly rushing into an unknown distance. Gogol, being a patriot, believes in a bright and happy future for his Motherland. Gogol's Russia in the future is a great and powerful country.

Essays on literature: The image of Rus' in N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”

“Rus, Rus'! I see you from my wonderful, beautiful distance, I see you.”

“Dead Souls” is a work encyclopedic in scope vital material. This is an artistic exploration of root issues contemporary writer public life. Compositionally, the main place in the poem is occupied by the image of the landowner and bureaucratic world. But its ideological core is the thought of the tragic fate of the people. This topic is vast, just as the topic of knowledge of all of Russia is vast.

Starting to work on the second volume, Gogol (who was then living abroad) turned to his friends with tireless requests to send him materials and books on history, geography, folklore, ethnography, statistics of Russia, Russian chronicles, and especially “memories of those characters and persons with whom someone happened to meet in their lifetime, images of those cases where there is a smell of Russia.”

But the main way to comprehend Russia is to understand the nature of Russian people. What, according to Gogol, is the path of this knowledge? This path is impossible without knowing yourself. As Gogol wrote to Count Alexander Petrovich Tolstoy, “only first find the key to your own soul, and when you find it, then with the same key you will unlock the souls of everyone.”

This is the path Gogol took in the course of implementing his plan: knowledge of Russia through Russian national character, the human soul in general and your own in particular. Russia itself is thought of by Gogol as also in development, as is the national character. The motif of movement, road, path permeates the entire poem. The action develops as Chichikov travels. “Pushkin found that the plot of Dead Souls was good for me because it gave me complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out many different characters.”

The road in the poem appears primarily in its direct, real meaning - these are the country roads along which Chichikov’s chaise travels - sometimes potholes, sometimes dust, sometimes impassable mud. In the famous lyrical digression of the 11th chapter, this road with a rushing chaise quietly turns into a fantastic path along which Rus' flies among other peoples and states. mysterious ways Russian history (“Rus', where are you going, give me an answer? It doesn’t give an answer”) intersect with the paths of world development. It seems that these are the very roads along which Chichikov wanders. It is symbolic that Chichikov is led out of the outback Korobochka onto the road by the illiterate girl Pelageya, who does not know where the right is and where the left is. So the end of the path and its goal are unknown to Russia itself, moving unknown where on some inspiration (“rushing, all inspired by God!”)

So, not only Russia is in motion and development, but also the author himself. His fate is inextricably linked with the fate of the poem and the fate of the country. “Dead Souls” was supposed to solve the mystery of the historical destiny of Russia and the mystery of the life of its author. Hence Gogol’s pathetic appeal to Russia: “Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible connection lies between us? Why are you looking like that, and why has everything in you turned its eyes full of expectation to me?”

Rus', the people, their fate... “Living souls” - this must be understood broadly. It's about about “low-class people” depicted in the poem not in close-up in the general panorama of events. But the significance of those few episodes in which people's life is directly depicted is common system the works are extremely large.

The type representing Russia is very diverse. From the young girl Pelageya to the nameless, dead or runaway workers Sobakevich and Plyushkin, who do not act, but are only mentioned in passing, we see a vast gallery of characters, a multi-colored image of people's Russia.

The wide scope of the soul, natural intelligence, skill, heroic prowess, sensitivity to the word, striking, accurate - in this and in many other ways Gogol manifests himself true soul people. The strength and sharpness of the people's mind was reflected, according to Gogol, in the glibness and accuracy of the Russian word (chapter five); the depth and integrity of folk feeling is in the sincerity of the Russian song (chapter eleven); breadth and generosity of soul in brightness, unbridled fun national holidays(chapter seven).

Depicting the noisy revelry on the grain pier, Gogol rises to the poetic glorification of folk life: “The barge-haul gang is having fun, saying goodbye to their mistresses and wives, tall, slender, in monists and ribbons, round dances, songs, the whole square is in full swing.”

The living strength of the people is also emphasized in the reluctance of the peasants to endure oppression. The murder of assessor Drobyakin, the mass flight from the landowners, the ironic mockery of the “orders” - all these manifestations of popular protest are briefly but persistently mentioned in the poem.

Glorifying the people and national character, the writer does not stoop to vanity or blindness. And in this accuracy and honesty of his view lies an effective attitude towards Russian life, energetic, not contemplative. Gogol sees how high and good qualities are distorted in the kingdom of dead souls, how peasants, driven to despair, perish. The fate of one man makes the author exclaim: “Eh, Russian people! He doesn’t like to die his own death!” The destruction of good inclinations in a person emphasizes how life contemporary to Gogol, serfdom still not abolished, is destroying the people. Against the backdrop of the majestic, endless expanses of Russia, the lyrical landscapes that permeate the poem, real pictures of life seem especially bitter. “Isn’t it here, in you, that a boundless thought will be born, when you yourself are endless? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place where he can turn around and walk?” - Gogol exclaims, thinking about the possibilities of the Motherland.

Reflecting on the image of Russia in the poem “Dead Souls”, I would make the following conclusion: discarding all the “lyrical moments”, this work is an excellent guide to the study of Russia early XIX century from a civil, political, religious, philosophical and economic point of view. No need for thick volumes historical encyclopedias. You just need to read Dead Souls.

"Dead Souls" is the pinnacle in the work of N.V. Gogol. In the poem, the author made deep artistic discoveries and generalizations. The ideological concept of the work is based on the writer’s thoughts about the people and the future of Russia. For Gogol, as for many other writers, the theme of Rus' is connected with the theme of the people. The work creates a collective collective image of the people.

By visiting the landowners' estates with Chichikov, the reader can draw certain conclusions about the situation of the peasants. Manilov’s vision of the hero flashed “gray log huts” and the enlivening figures of two women dragging “tattered nonsense.” Plyushkin’s peasants live in even more terrible poverty: “... the logs on the huts were dark and old; many of the roofs were see-through, like a sieve... The windows in the huts were without glass, others were covered with a rag or a zipun...” The one who “feeds people poorly ", they are "dying like flies", many become drunkards or are on the run. The peasants also have a hard time living with the fist of Sobakevich and the tight-fisted Korobochka. The landowner's village is a source of honey, lard, and hemp, which Korobochka sells. She also bargains with the peasants themselves - she “gave in” to the archpriest of the third year “two girls for a hundred rubles each.” One more detail: the girl Pelageya from the lord’s servants, about eleven years old, sent by Korobochka to show Selifan the way, does not know where the right is and where the left is. This child is growing like a weed. Korobochka shows concern about the girl, but nothing more than about the thing: “... just be careful: don’t bring her, the merchants have already brought one from me.”

The landowners depicted in the poem are not villains, but ordinary people typical of their environment, but they own souls. For them, a serf is not a person, but a slave. Gogol shows the peasant's defenselessness before the landowner's tyranny. The serf owner controls the fate of a person and can sell or buy him: alive or even dead. Thus, Gogol creates a generalized image of the Russian people, showing how many troubles beset them: crop failures, illnesses, fires, the power of landowners, economic and economical, stingy and zealous.

Serfdom has a destructive effect on the working people. The peasants develop dull humility and indifference to their own fate. The poem shows downtrodden men Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, driven by Plyushkin Proshka in huge boots, stupid girl Pelageya, drunkards and lazy people Petrushka and Selifan. The author sympathizes with the plight of the peasants. He did not remain silent about the popular riots. The officials and Plyushkin recalled how recently, because of assessor Dobryazhkin’s predilection for village women and girls, the state-owned peasants of the villages Vshivaya arrogance and Zadirailovo wiped out the zemstvo police from the face of the earth. Provincial society is very worried at the thought of the possibility of a rebellion among the restless peasants of Chichikov when they are resettled in the Kherson region.

In the generalized image of the people, the author highlights colorful figures and bright or tragic destinies. The author’s thoughts about the peasants no longer living on the land are put into Chichikov’s mouth. For the first time in the poem, truly living people are shown, but the cruel irony of fate is that they are already buried in the ground. The dead exchanged places with the living. In Sobakevich’s list, merits are noted in detail, professions are listed; Each peasant has his own character, his own destiny. Cork Stepan, a carpenter, “went all over the province with a stopper in his belt and boots on his shoulders.” Maxim Telyatnikov, a shoemaker, “studied with a German... it would have been a miracle, not a shoemaker,” and he sewed boots from rotten leather - and the shop was deserted, and he went “to drink and wallow in the streets.” Carriage maker Mikheev is a folk craftsman. He made durable carriages that were famous throughout the area.

In Chichikov’s imagination, young, healthy, hard-working, gifted people who passed away in the prime of life are resurrected. The author's generalization sounds with bitter regret: “Eh, the Russian people! They don’t like to die their own death!” The broken fates of Plyushkin's runaway peasants cannot but evoke sympathy. Some of them are toiling around prisons, others have gone to barge haulers and are dragging their feet “to one endless song, like Rus'.”

Thus, Gogol, among the living and the dead, finds the embodiment of various qualities of the Russian character. His homeland is people's Rus', not local bureaucratic Russia. In the lyrical part of “Dead Souls” the author creates abstract symbolic images and motifs that reflect his thoughts about the present and future of Rus' - “an apt Russian word”, “miracle road”, “My Rus'”, “troika bird”. The author admires the accuracy of the Russian word: “The Russian people express themselves strongly! And if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity...” The accuracy of expressions reflects the lively, lively mind of the Russian peasant, who is able to describe a phenomenon or a person with one line. This amazing gift of the people is reflected in the proverbs and sayings they created. In his lyrical digression, Gogol paraphrases one of these proverbs: “What is pronounced accurately is the same as what is written, cannot be cut down with an ax.” The author is convinced that the Russian people have no equal in terms of creative power. His folklore reflects one of the main qualities of a Russian person - sincerity. A well-aimed, lively word escapes from the man “from under his very heart.”

The image of Rus' in the author's digressions is permeated with lyrical pathos. The author creates an ideal, sublime image that attracts with “secret power.” It’s not for nothing that he talks about the “wonderful, beautiful distance” from which he looks at Russia. This is an epic distance, the distance of “mighty space”: “wow! what a sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth! Rus'!..” Bright epithets convey the idea of ​​the amazing, unique beauty of Russia. The author is also amazed by the distance of historical time. Rhetorical questions contain statements about the uniqueness of the Russian world: “What does this vast expanse prophesy? Isn’t it here, isn’t limitless thought born in you, when you yourself are endless? Isn’t it here that a hero should be, when there is a place for him to turn around and walk?” The heroes depicted in the story of Chichikov's adventures are devoid of epic qualities; they are not heroes, but ordinary people with their weaknesses and vices. In the epic image of Russia created by the author, there is no place for them: they disappear, just like “dots, icons, low cities stick out inconspicuously among the plains.”

At the end of the poem, Gogol creates a hymn to the road, a hymn to movement - the source of “wonderful ideas, poetic dreams,” “wonderful impressions.” "Rus-troika" is a capacious symbolic image. The author is convinced that Russia has a great future. The rhetorical question addressed to Rus' is permeated with the belief that the country’s road is the road to light, miracle, rebirth: “Rus, where are you rushing?” Rus'-troika ascends into another dimension: “the horses are a whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels are mixed into one smooth circle” “and all inspired by God rushes.” The author believes that the Rus' Troika is flying along the path of spiritual transformation, that in the future there will appear real, “virtuous” people, living souls capable of saving the country.