Nekrasov began working on the poem in 1863, when “Frost, Red Nose” was written, and continued until his death. But if the poem “Frost...” can be compared with a tragedy, the content of which is the death of a person in a heroic struggle against elements beyond his control, then “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is an epic where an individual person finds the meaning and happiness of his existence in unity with the world of people and the world as God's creation. Nekrasov is interested in the holistic image of the people, and the individual images highlighted in the poem are given as episodic, the history of their lives only temporarily surfaces on the surface of the epic stream. Therefore, Nekrasov’s poem can be called “ folk epic ", and her poetic form emphasizes the kinship with the folk epic. Nekrasov’s epic is “molded” from various folklore genres: fairy tales, tales, riddles, proverbs, spiritual poems, work and ritual songs, drawn-out lyric songs, parables, etc.

Nekrasov's epic had a clear social task. In this sense, his work is quite topical and relevant. In the 60-70s, the movement of “going to the people” began, the practice of “small deeds”, when the Russian intelligentsia voluntarily went to villages, organized schools and hospitals, tried to rebuild the life and work of peasants, and lead them on the path of education and culture. At the same time, interest in peasant culture itself is increasing: Russian folklore is being collected and systematized (the image of such a collector, Pavlusha Veretennikov, is in the poem). But the surest way to study the situation of the people was statistics, a science that at that time received the most rapid development. In addition, these people: teachers, doctors, statisticians, land surveyors, agronomists, folklorists - left us a series of wonderful essays about the life and everyday life of post-reform Russia. Nekrasov also makes a sociological cross-section of village life in his poem: almost all types of Russian pass before us rural population, from beggar to landowner. Nekrasov is trying to see what happened to peasant Russia as a result of the reform of 1861, which upended the entire habitual way of life. In what ways has Rus' remained the same Russia, what is irretrievably gone, what has appeared, what is eternal and what is transitory in the life of the people?

It is generally accepted that with his poem Nekrasov answers the question he posed in one of his poems: “The people have been liberated, but are the people happy? “In fact, this is a rhetorical question. It is clear that he is unhappy, and then there is no need to write a poem. But the question that became the title: “Who can live well in Rus'? “—translates Nekrasov’s quest from the philosophical and sociological areas to the ethical area. If not the people, then who is living well?

To answer the main question, “strange” people, i.e. wanderers, set off on the road - seven men. But these people are strange in the usual sense. A peasant is a sedentary person, tied to the land, for whom there are no vacations or weekends, whose life obeys only the rhythm of nature. And they set off to wander, and even when - at the most difficult time! But this strangeness of theirs is a reflection of the revolution that all peasant Rus' is experiencing. All of it has moved, started from its place, all of it is in motion, like spring streams, now transparent, clean, now muddy, carrying winter debris, now calm and majestic, now seething and unpredictable.

Therefore, the composition of the poem is based on motives of the road and search. They allow you to walk throughout Rus' and see it in its entirety. But how to show all of Rus'? The author uses the technique of panoramic image, when the image is created by a series of generalized pictures, crowd scenes, from which individual persons and episodes are selected.

GENRE ORIGINALITY OF THE POEM

This task - to comprehensively explore the life and existence of the Russian people, to penetrate into the depths of their souls - largely determines the genre originality of the poem. We have to agree with L.A. Evstigneeva, who determines genre “Who lives well in Rus'”- How " epic review, montage of various kinds of events subordinated to the development of the central thought of the author" “The consistent implementation of the plot scheme outlined in the Prologue,” writes the researcher, “Nekrasov replaces with a sequence of analytical judgments about the people, their present situation, the fate of Russia and the future of the revolutionary movement. An innovative plot is born, later called centrifugal, which brings Nekrasov closer to the literary process late XIX- beginning of the twentieth century."

The exact definitions of the poem are "encyclopedia of folk life" or "The epic of people's life"- assume not only the writer’s ability to draw a generalized portrait of all classes of Russian society, but also to give a kind of “philosophy of life” of the people, to recreate it in a poem national character. The author’s focus on polyphony is subordinated to this task, the topic chosen by the author. In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” a significant place is occupied by dialogues of often unnamed, undescribed characters, polylogues, each of which can be developed into a separate narrative. But the extreme brevity of the dialogues and polylogues does not prevent one from imagining the character of the interlocutors or even their fate. The desire to recreate the life and existence of the people determines the multi-heroic nature of the narrative: each hero enters the narrative with his own destiny and with his own intimate story.

Folklore genres - riddles, proverbs, sayings and - most importantly - songs play a special role in the narration. It is known how Nekrasov perceives songs: “folk poetry for Nekrasov was not only the custodian of the poetic ideas of the peasantry, but also the result of the life of the masses as a whole, the focus of national artistic thinking, the best expressive of the Russian national character.”

The people in Nekrasov’s poem cry out their pain, complain and grieve, open their souls to the reader and themselves try to understand the secrets of their soul and their heart.

COMPOSITION OF THE POEM

This issue is also debatable. First of all, because researchers do not have a common opinion in deciding the question: what principle to adhere to when forming the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - whether to take as a basis the time of creation of the parts or the chronology of the peasants’ journey. Considering the time of writing the parts, they should go in the following sequence: Prologue; First part; "Last One"; "Peasant Woman"; "A feast for the whole world." But such a composition is contradicted by the author’s will: according to Nekrasov’s notes, “The Last One” and “A Feast for the Whole World” are plot-related: the poet classified both of these chapters as the second part, and “The Peasant Woman” as the third part. Thus, the composition should be different: Prologue, First Part, “Last One,” “Feast for the Whole World,” “Peasant Woman.”

There is another justification for just such a composition - the duration of action of the parts. The men's journey was supposed to cover several months, and time in chapters, as V.V. showed. Gippius, “calculated according to the calendar.” The Prologue takes place at the beginning of spring. “In the chapter “Pop,” the researcher noted, “the wanderers say: “and the time is not early, the month of May is approaching.” In the chapter “Rural Fair” there is a mention: “The weather only stared at St. Nicholas of the spring”; Apparently, the fair itself takes place on St. Nicholas Day (May 9). "The Last One" also begins exact date: “Petrovka. It's a hot time. Haymaking is in full swing." This means that the chapter is valid on June 29 (old style). In “A Feast for the Whole World” the haymaking is already over: the peasants are going to the market with hay. Finally, in “The Peasant Woman” there is a harvest and, as K.I. Chukovsky, in the draft versions there is even the name of the month - August.

However, not all researchers agree with this composition. The main objection: such an arrangement of parts distorts the pathos of the poem. As K.I. wrote in the comments to the poem. Chukovsky, “demanding that we finish the poem with “The Peasant Woman,” V.V. Gippius first of all ignores the fact that in “The Peasant Woman” (in its last chapter) “notes of liberal servility” were heard, contrary to the entire content of the poem.<...>. This chapter is called “The Governor’s Lady.” After all the curses on the hated system, which caused so much suffering to the enslaved peasant woman, in this chapter a noble aristocrat appears, the wife of the governor, who saves the peasant woman from all her torments.<...>The entire poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” will be completed with a hymn to the benevolent lady<...>. And then to Nekrasov’s question: “Where are you, the secret of the people’s contentment?” - there will be only one answer: in lordly affection, in lordly philanthropy.” K.I. Chukovsky proposed another version of the composition: Prologue and first part; "Peasant Woman"; “The Last One” and “A Feast for the Whole World.” This composition is adopted in most publications, although both the author's will and the time calendar that underlies the parts are violated.

Objecting to Chukovsky, researchers point out that “The Peasant Woman” ends not with a hymn to the “governor,” but with a bitter “Woman’s Parable” - a kind of conclusion in thinking about the inevitability of tragedy in the fate of a woman. In addition, ideological arguments, of course, should not determine the composition. Guided, first of all, by the time of creation of the parts, the author’s will and the logic of the development of the author’s thought, some researchers propose publishing the chapter “Peasant Woman” after “The Last One,” but ending the poem with “A Feast for the Whole World,” pointing out that the “Feast” “directly is connected with the chapter “The Last One” and is its continuation.”

Description of the presentation by individual slides:

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One day, seven men - recent serfs, and now temporarily obliged "from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhaika, etc." meet on the main road. Instead of going their own way, the men start an argument about who lives happily and freely in Russia. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky person in Russia: a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar. While arguing, they do not notice that they have taken a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, little by little develops into a fight. But a fight does not help resolve the issue that worries the men. The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the men, Pakhom, catches a warbler chick, and in order to free the chick, the warbler tells the men where they can find a self-assembled tablecloth. Now the men are provided with bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass, tea - in a word, everything they need for a long journey.

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And besides, a self-assembled tablecloth will repair and wash their clothes! Having received all these benefits, the men make a vow to find out “who lives happily and freely in Russia.” The first possible “lucky person” they meet along the way turns out to be a priest. (It was not right for the soldiers and beggars they met to ask about happiness!) But the priest’s answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the men. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the priest does not possess any of these benefits. In the haymaking, in the harvest, in the dead of autumn night, in the bitter frost, he must go to where there are the sick, the dying and those being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of funeral sobs and orphan's sadness - so much so that his hand does not rise to take copper coins - a pitiful reward for the demand. The landowners, who previously lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only throughout Russia, but also in distant foreign lands; there is no hope for their retribution. Well, the men themselves know how much respect a priest deserves: they feel embarrassed when a priest criticizes obscene songs

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and insults towards priests. Realizing that the Russian priest is not one of the lucky ones, the men go to a holiday fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask people about happiness. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded up house with the sign “school”, a paramedic’s hut, a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village there are drinking establishments, in each of which they barely have time to cope with thirsty people. Old man Vavila cannot buy goatskin shoes for his granddaughter because he drank himself to a penny. It’s good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone calls “master” for some reason, buys him the treasured gift. Male wanderers watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the ladies stock up on books - but not Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of unknown fat generals and works about “my lord stupid”. They also see how a busy trading day ends: widespread drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the men are indignant

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Pavlusha Veretennikov’s attempt to measure the peasant against the master’s standard. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Russia: he will not withstand either backbreaking labor or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would pour out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo - one of those who “works until they die, drinks until they die.” Yakim believes that only pigs walk on the earth and never see the sky. During the fire, he himself did not save the money he had accumulated throughout his life, but the useless and beloved pictures hanging in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Russia. Male wanderers do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Russia. But even for the promise of giving free water to the lucky ones, they fail to find them. For the sake of free booze, both the overworked worker, the paralyzed former servant who spent forty years licking the master’s plates with the best French truffle, and even ragged beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky. Finally, someone tells them the story of Yermil Girin, the mayor in the estate of Prince Yurlov,

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who has earned universal respect for his justice and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy the mill, the men lent it to him without even requiring a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in prison. The ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the wandering peasants about the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform. He remembers how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who completely belonged to him. Obolt-Obolduev talks with emotion about how on the twelve holidays he invited his serfs to pray in the master's house - despite the fact that after this he had to drive the women away from the entire estate to wash the floors. And although the men themselves know that life in serfdom was far from the idyll depicted by Obolduev, they still understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, simultaneously hit the master, who was immediately deprived of his usual

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lifestyle, and by man. Desperate to find someone happy among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. The surrounding peasants remember that Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klin, whom everyone considers lucky. But Matryona herself thinks differently. In confirmation, she tells the wanderers the story of her life. Before her marriage, Matryona lived in a teetotal and wealthy peasant family. She married a stove-maker from a foreign village, Philip Korchagin. But the only happy night for her was that night when the groom persuaded Matryona to marry him; then the usual hopeless life of a village woman began. True, her husband loved her and beat her only once, but soon he went to work in St. Petersburg, and Matryona was forced to endure insults in her father-in-law’s family. The only one who felt sorry for Matryona was grandfather Savely, who was living out his life in the family after hard labor, where he ended up for the murder of a hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: it is impossible to defeat a peasant, because he “bends, but does not break.”

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The birth of Demushka's first child brightened Matryona's life. But soon her mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and the old grandfather Savely did not keep an eye on the baby and fed him to pigs. In front of Matryona's eyes, judges who had arrived from the city performed an autopsy on her child. Matryona could not forget her firstborn, although after that she had five sons. One of them, the shepherd Fedot, once allowed a she-wolf to carry away a sheep. Matryona accepted the punishment assigned to her son. Then, being pregnant with her son Liodor, she was forced to go to the city to seek justice: her husband, bypassing the laws, was taken into the army. Matryona was then helped by the governor Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying. By all peasant standards, Matryona Korchagina’s life can be considered happy. But it is impossible to tell about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unpaid mortal grievances, and about the blood of the firstborn. Matrena Timofeevna is convinced that a Russian peasant woman cannot be happy at all, because the keys to her happiness and free will are lost to God himself.

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At the height of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims to the shore in three boats. The mowers, who had just sat down to rest, immediately jumped up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs hide the abolition of serfdom from the crazy landowner Utyatin. The relatives of the Last-Duckling promise the men floodplain meadows for this. But after the long-awaited death of the Last One, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain. Here, near the village of Vakhlachina, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvée, hunger, soldier, salty - and stories about serfdom. One of these stories is about the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful. Yakov's only joy was pleasing his master, the small landowner Polivanov. Tyrant Polivanov, in gratitude, hit Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even more in the lackey’s soul. great love. In his old age, Polivanov's legs became weak, and Yakov began to follow him, like

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behind the child. But when Yakov’s nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the beautiful serf Arisha, Polivanov, out of jealousy, gave the guy as a recruit. Yakov started drinking, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, the lackey. Having taken the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself right above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful servant, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror. Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the men by God's wanderer Jonah Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the chieftain of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber atoned for his sins for a long time, but all of them were forgiven him only after he, in a surge of anger, killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky. The wandering men also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the elder, who for money hid the last will of the late widower admiral, who decided to free his peasants. But it is not only wandering men who think about the people’s happiness. The sexton’s son, seminarian Grisha, lives on Vakhlachin

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Dobrosklonov. In his heart, love for his late mother merged with love for all of Vakhlachina. For fifteen years Grisha knew for sure who he was ready to give his life to, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all the mysterious Russia as a wretched, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible power that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in it. Such strong souls as Grisha Dobrosklonov’s are called by the angel of mercy to an honest path. Fate is preparing for Grisha “a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.” If the wandering men knew what was happening in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would probably understand that they could already return to their native shelter, because the goal of their journey had been achieved.

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The idea of ​​the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” occupies a special place both in the history of Russian classical literature and in the poet’s creative heritage. It represents a synthesis of Nekrasov’s poetic activity, the completion of many years of creative work of the revolutionary poet. Everything that Nekrasov developed in individual works for thirty years, collected here in a single plan, grandiose in content, scope and courage. It merged all the main lines of his poetic quest, and most fully expressed the socio-political and aesthetic principles of the poet. The poem was created over many years. Nekrasov worked intensively on it for ten years, but he nurtured individual images and collected material for even longer. Working on it with extraordinary intensity and unrelenting energy, the poet showed

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Greater demands on yourself. This extraordinary author’s exactingness and passion for the material were largely due to the fact that Nekrasov attached exceptional importance to the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” as a work that synthesizes his creative quests and assigned it big hopes. Dying, the poet deeply regretted that he had not finished his favorite creation, in which he summarized all his life and poetic experience. In one of the letters to S.I. Ponomarev, the editor of the posthumous edition of Nekrasov’s works, the poet’s sister A.A. Butkevich, claiming that -. the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” “was my brother’s favorite brainchild,” quotes Nekrasov’s original words on this matter: “The one thing I deeply regret is that I did not finish my poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Considering it his patriotic duty to “glorify the suffering of the patience of an amazing people,” Nekrasov more than once complained with pain to friends and relatives that his poetry, entirely devoted to the interests and aspirations of the people, supposedly “before the people

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I didn’t get there.” This. often served as the subject of bitter thoughts and painful torment of the poet. He thought of filling this gap with his last major creation - the folk poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, both in terms of the time spent on its creation and the significance that Nekrasov attached to it, occupies a central place in the poet’s work, despite the fact that the plan underlying it was far from being fully realized. Nekrasov began writing the poem after the peasant reform of 1861, although some images of it appeared to the poet back in the 50s. The date of writing of the poem has not yet been precisely established, since the author himself did not leave clear instructions on this matter. N. G. Potanin assumed that Nekrasov began the poem in 1850. This opinion was refuted by Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky, and then by K. Chukovsky, who dates the initial chapters to 1863. The indicated date is confirmed by the fact that in one of the first versions of the chapter “Landowner” there are the following lines:

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Yes, petty officials, Yes, stupid intermediaries, Yes, Polish exiles. The poem was published in separate chapters. The “Prologue” of the poem first appeared in print in 1866 in the Sovremennik magazine. In 1869, the same prologue, without changes, was published together with the first chapter “Pop” in No. 1 of “Notes of the Fatherland”, and in No. 2 (February) chapters two (“Rural Fair”) and third (“Rural Fair”) were placed. drunken night"). In the same magazine for 1870, in No. 2, two chapters of the first part were published: “Happy” and “Landowner”. Then part of the poem under the title “Last One” was published in No. 3 of “Otechestvennye zapiski” for 1872 and part “Peasant Woman” in No. 1 of “Otechestvennye zapiski” for 1874. As for the last - fourth part of the poem, it was during his lifetime The poet never appeared in print, although the dying Nekrasov really wanted this.

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Censors twice cut it out of the book “Notes of the Fatherland” that was ready for release (1876, No. 9 and 1877, No. 1). And only three years after the poet’s death, in 1881, Saltykov-Shchedrin, who replaced Nekrasov in Otechestvennye zapiski, still managed to print this part, but with significant censorship cuts. The poem was repeatedly subjected to severe censorship persecution, to which the poet reacted very painfully. Having briefly outlined the contents of the printed chapter of the poem, the censor concludes: “In its general content and direction, the said first chapter of this poem does not contain anything contrary to censorship regulations, since the rural clergy itself seems humiliated due to the peasant’s lack of education, poor due to their environment, which itself has nothing, so in this poem only civil grief pours out on the helplessness of the rural population and the clergy. However, concessions to censorship, alterations and corrections did not help the poet. The censors cut “A Feast for the Whole World” from

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January book of “Notes of the Fatherland” for 1887. This new reprisal of censorship still did not completely kill Nekrasov’s hopes for the possibility of “A Feast for the Whole World” appearing in print. Having met with the chief censor, he literally begged him to allow the publication of this final chapter of the poem. In response to the arguments for Nekrasov’s request, the censor began to refer to the fact that if he missed the poems, he could lose his job: “Don’t deprive us of a piece of bread, we are family people. Do not plant your poems on the ruins of our existence. Finish your career good deed: postpone the printing of these verses." But even after this episode, Nekrasov still decided not to lay down his arms. Having learned from Dostoevsky that the head of the Main Directorate for Press Affairs, V.V. Grigoriev, considered it possible to publish part of “A Feast for the Whole World,” he turned to him with a request to read his poem. When editing the poem, textual critics had to solve a difficult task - to establish in what order to print individual parts and chapters of the poem, since the author himself did not leave sufficiently precise instructions on this matter and worked on

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in separate parts, either simultaneously, or in such a sequence as was determined by creative intent. Print them. in the order in which they were written turned out to be impossible, although the poet’s heirs published them that way. Back in 1920, Chukovsky rejected this principle on the grounds that in Nekrasov’s archives he found his own handwritten note that “A Feast for the Whole World” should be located directly after “The Last One.” Based on this instruction from the poet, Chukovsky published the last chapters in this order: “The Last One,” “A Feast for the Whole World,” “The Peasant Woman.” Initially, Nekrasov thought to give in the poem a broad picture of the life of all classes of Russian society in the years immediately following the so-called “liberation” of the peasants. But the surviving draft versions indicate that Nekrasov’s plan was much broader and that the poet was going to begin work on chapters dedicated to the meeting of inquisitive wanderers with an official, a merchant and a tsar.

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Nekrasov called the genre of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” a poem. However, in terms of genre, it was not similar to any of the famous Russian poems. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a folk heroic poem. Nekrasov combined the features of three genres: a “peasant” poem depicting the life of a peasant, a satirical review depicting the enemies of the people, and a heroic revolutionary poem revealing images of fighters for the people’s happiness. Nekrasov strives to merge these three lines of his artistic creativity. The first line is most fully represented in the poem. The depiction of folk.life is encyclopedic. The most complete reflection of this trait is given precisely in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The second and third lines, due to the incompleteness of the poem, are not superior to his other works.

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Nekrasov managed to show himself more clearly in other works both as a satirist and as a poet heroic epic. In the poem “Contemporaries,” he masterfully “brands and castigates the people’s enemy” - the capitalists and the pack of those who served the owners of money and those in power. The images of revolutionary fighters are more developed and more emotionally depicted in his poem “Russian Women”. The revolutionary solution to the pressing issues of our time in the conditions of censorship terror could not receive a more complete artistic expression even under the pen of Nekrasov. Nekrasov’s ideological and, on this basis, emotional attitude to reality determined, within the framework of the new genre, the use of various techniques and means inherent not only in epic, but also in lyrical and dramatic genres. Here both a calm epic story and various songs (historical, social, everyday, propaganda, satirical, intimate lyrical) are organically merged; here legends, lamentations, fantasy of fairy tales, beliefs, metaphorical ideas appeared in synthetic unity,

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characteristic of a person of religious perception, and lively, realistic dialogue, proverbs, sayings inherent in a materialistic worldview; here and biting satire, disguised in allegory, in omissions, in allegorical form. The wide coverage of reality required the introduction into the framework of the main event of a large number of independently developed episodes, necessary as links in a single artistic chain. In terms of genre, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is in many ways closer to a prose narrative than to the lyric-epic poems characteristic of Russian literature of the first half of the 20th century.

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The plot and composition of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” The theme of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (1863-1877) is an image of post-reform Russia for ten to fifteen years after the abolition of serfdom. The reform of 1861 is an extremely important event in Russian history, because it radically changed the life of the entire state and the entire people. After all, serfdom determined the economic, political, and cultural situation in Russia for approximately three hundred years. And now it has been canceled and normal life has been disrupted. Nekrasov formulates this idea in the poem like this: The great chain broke, It broke and came apart: One end hit the master, The other hit the peasant. (“Landowner”)

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The idea of ​​the poem is a discussion about human happiness in modern world It is formulated in the title itself: who lives well in Rus'. The plot of the poem is based on a description of the journey across Rus' of seven temporarily obliged men. Men are looking happy person and on their way they meet the most different people, listen to stories about different human destinies. This is how the poem unfolds a broad picture of contemporary Russian life for Nekrasov. A short exposition of the plot is placed in the prologue of the poem: In what year - calculate, In what land - guess, Seven men came together on a high road: Seven temporarily obliged, Tightened province, Terpigoreva County, Empty volost, From adjacent villages -

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Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razugova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neelova, Neurozhaika, etc. The men met by chance, because each was going about his own business: one had to go to the blacksmith, another was in a hurry to invite the priest to a christening, the third was going to sell honeycombs at the market, the Gubin brothers had to catch their stubborn horse, etc. The plot of the poem begins with the oath of the seven heroes: Do not toss and turn in the houses, Do not see your wives. Neither with small children, nor with old people. Until a solution is found to the controversial matter - Who lives happily, at ease in Rus'? (prologue)

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Already in this dispute between the men, Nekrasov presents a plan for the development of the plot action in the work - who the wanderers will meet: Roman said: to the landowner, Demyan said: to the official, Luka said: to the priest. To the fat-bellied merchant! - Said the Gubin brothers, Ivan and Mitrodor. Old man Pakhom strained and said, looking at the ground: To the noble boyar, to the sovereign's minister. And Prov said: to the king. (prologue) As you know, Nekrasov did not finish the poem, so the planned plan was not fully implemented: the peasants talked with the priest (chapter “Pop”), with the landowner Obolt-Obolduev (chapter “Landowner”), observed the “happy life” of the nobleman - the prince Duck (chapter

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"Last One") All the travelers’ interlocutors cannot call themselves happy; they are dissatisfied with their lives, everyone complains about difficulties and deprivations. However, even in the unfinished poem there is a climax in the meeting of the men in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” (in different editions the title of the chapter is written differently - “A Feast for the Whole World” or “A Feast for the Whole World”) with a happy man - Grisha Dobrosklonov. True, the men did not understand that they were seeing a happy man in front of them: this young man was very different in appearance from a man who, according to peasant ideas, could be called happy. After all, the wanderers were looking for a man with good health, with wealth, with a good family and, of course, with a clear conscience - that’s what happiness is, according to men. Therefore, they calmly pass by the beggar and unnoticed seminarian. Nevertheless, it is he who feels happy, despite the fact that he is poor, in poor health, and, according to Nekrasov, he has a short and hard life: Fate was preparing a glorious Path for him, the loud name of the People's Intercessor,

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Consumption and Siberia. (“A feast for the whole world”) So, the climax is literally in the last lines of the poem and practically coincides with the denouement: Our wanderers would be under their own roof, If only they could know what was happening to Grisha. (“A feast for the whole world”) Consequently, the first feature of the composition of the poem is the coincidence of the climax and denouement. The second feature is that, in fact, the entire poem, excluding the prologue, where the plot is located, represents the development of an action constructed in a very complex manner. The general plot of the poem described above is threaded with numerous life stories of heroes met by travelers. The individual stories within the poem are united by the cross-cutting theme of the road and the main idea of ​​the work. This construction has been used more than once in literature, starting with Homer’s “Odyssey” and ending with N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls.” In other words, the poem is compositionally

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looks like a motley mosaic picture, which is made up of many pebble pieces. Collected together, individual stories heard by wanderers create a broad panorama of post-reform Russian reality and the recent serf past. Each private story-story has its own more or less complete plot and composition. The life of Yakim Nagogo, for example, is described very briefly in the chapter “Drunken Night.” This middle-aged peasant worked hard and a lot all his life, as his portrait definitely indicates: His chest is sunken; like a depressed Belly; at the eyes, at the mouth Bends, like cracks On the dried earth... But the hero managed to maintain his powers of observation, his clear mind, and his unusual interest in knowledge for a peasant: during the fire, he saved not the thirty-five rubles accumulated over his entire life, but pictures , which

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He bought them for his son, hung them on the walls, and he loved looking at them just as much as the boy. It is Yakim who gives the answer to Mr. Veretennikov when he reproaches the peasants for drunkenness: There is no measure for Russian drunkenness, But have they measured our grief? Is there a limit to the work? More detailed stories with a detailed plot dedicated to Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina; Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero; Ermila Girin; Yakov the faithful exemplary slave. ABOUT the last hero, the devoted servant of Mr. Polivanov, is told in the chapter “A feast for the whole world.” The plot of the action is beyond the scope of the story: even in his youth, Yakov had only joy: to groom, take care of, please and rock his young nephew.

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The author briefly describes the thirty-three years of the wild life of Mr. Polivanov, until his legs became paralyzed. Yakov, like a kind nurse, looked after his master. The climax of the story comes when Polivanov “thanked” his faithful servant: he gave Yakov’s only relative, his nephew Grisha, as a recruit, because this fellow wanted to marry a girl who the master himself liked. The denouement of the story about the exemplary slave comes quite quickly - Yakov takes his master to the remote Devil's Ravine and hangs himself before his eyes. This denouement simultaneously becomes the second climax of the story, since the master receives a terrible moral punishment for his atrocities: Jacob hangs over the master, sways rhythmically, The master rushes about, sobs, screams, One echo responds! So the faithful servant refuses, as he did before, to forgive the master everything. Before death, humanity awakens in Jacob

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dignity, and it does not allow killing a legless disabled person, even one as soulless as Mr. Polivanov. The former slave leaves his offender to live and suffer: The master returned home, lamenting: “I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me! You, master, will be an exemplary slave, Remember faithful Jacob until the day of judgment! In conclusion, it should be repeated that Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is compositionally constructed in a complex way: the overall plot includes complete stories that have their own plots and compositions. The stories are dedicated to individual heroes, primarily peasants (Ermil Girin, Yakov the faithful, Matryona Timofeevna, Saveliy, Yakim Nagoy, etc.). This is somewhat unexpected, because in the dispute between the seven men, representatives of all classes of Russian society are named (landowner, official, priest, merchant), even the tsar - everyone except the peasant.

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The poem was written over about fifteen years, and during this time its plan changed somewhat in comparison with the original plan. Gradually, Nekrasov comes to the conclusion that the main figure in Russian history is the peasant who feeds and protects the country. It is the mood of the people that plays an increasingly noticeable role in the state, therefore, in the chapters “Peasant Woman”, “Last One”, “Feast for the Whole World” people from the people become the main characters. They are unhappy, but they have strong characters(Savely), wisdom (Yakim Nagoy), kindness and responsiveness (Vakhlaks and Grisha Dobrosklonov). It is not for nothing that the poem ends with the song “Rus”, in which the author expressed his faith in the future of Russia. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was not finished, but it can be considered as a complete work, since the idea stated at the beginning found its complete expression: Grisha Dobrosklonov turns out to be happy, who is ready to give his life for happiness ordinary people. In other words, while working on the poem, the author replaced the peasant understanding of happiness with a populist one: the happiness of an individual is impossible without the happiness of the people.

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Moral problems in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” N.A.’s work continued for about fourteen years, from 1863 to 1876. Nekrasov on the most significant work in his work - the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”. Despite the fact that, unfortunately, the poem was never completed and only individual chapters of it have reached us, later arranged by textual critics in chronological order, Nekrasov’s work can rightfully be called “an encyclopedia of Russian life.” In terms of the breadth of coverage of events, the detailed depiction of characters, and amazing artistic accuracy, it is not inferior to “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin. In parallel with the depiction of folk life, the poem raises questions of morality, touches on the ethical problems of the Russian peasantry and the entire Russian society of that time, since it is the people who always act as the bearer of moral norms and universal ethics in general.

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The main idea of ​​the poem follows directly from its title: who in Rus' can be considered a truly happy person? One of the main categories of morality underlying the concept of national happiness, according to the author. Loyalty to duty to the Motherland, service to one’s people. According to Nekrasov, it’s good in Rus' lives by, who fights for justice and “happiness of their native corner.” The peasant heroes of the poem, looking for “happy”, do not find it either among the landowners, or among the priests, or among the peasants themselves. The poem depicts the only happy person - Grisha Dobrosklonov, who devoted his life to the struggle for people's happiness. Here the author expresses, in my opinion, an absolutely indisputable idea that one cannot be a true citizen of one’s country without doing anything to improve the situation of the people, who constitute the strength and pride of the Fatherland. True, Nekrasov’s happiness is very relative: for the “people's protector” Grisha, “fate was preparing... consumption and Siberia.” However, it is difficult to argue with the fact that fidelity to duty and a clear conscience are necessary conditions real happiness.

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The poem also acutely addresses the problem of the moral decline of Russian people, who, due to their horrific economic situation, are placed in conditions in which people lose their human dignity, turning into lackeys and drunkards. Thus, the stories of the footman, the “beloved slave” of Prince Peremetyev, or the yard man of Prince Utyatin, the song “About the exemplary slave, the faithful Yakov” are a kind of parables, instructive examples of what kind of spiritual servility and moral degradation the serfdom of the peasants led to, and before of all - servants, corrupted by personal dependence on the landowner. This is Nekrasov’s reproach to a great people, powerful in their inner strength, who have resigned themselves to the position of a slave. Nekrasov’s lyrical hero actively protests against this slave psychology, calls the peasantry to self-awareness, calls on the entire Russian people to free themselves from centuries-old oppression and feel like citizens. The poet perceives the peasantry not as a faceless mass, but as a creative people; he considered the people the real creator of human history.

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However, the most terrible consequence of centuries of slavery, according to the author of the poem, is that many peasants are satisfied with their humiliated position, because they cannot imagine another life for themselves, they cannot imagine how they can exist in any other way. For example, the footman Ipat, subservient to his master, talks with reverence and almost with pride about how the master dipped him into an ice hole in winter and forced him to play the violin while standing in a flying sleigh. Prince Peremetyev’s lackey is proud of his “lordly” illness and the fact that “he licked the plates with the best French truffle.” Considering the perverted psychology of the peasants as a direct consequence of the autocratic serfdom system, Nekrasov also points to another product of serfdom - incessant drunkenness, which has become a real disaster in the Russian countryside. For many men in the poem, the idea of ​​happiness comes down to vodka. Even in the fairy tale about the warbler, seven truth-seekers, when asked what they would like, answer: “If only we had some bread... and a bucket of vodka.” In the chapter “Rural Fair”

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Wine is flowing like a river, people are getting drunk en masse. The men return home drunk, where they become a real disaster for their family. We see one such man, Vavilushka, who drank to the last penny, and who laments that he cannot even buy goatskin boots for his granddaughter. Other moral problem which Nekrasov touches on is the problem of sin. The poet sees the path to the salvation of a person’s soul in the atonement of sin. This is what Girin, Savely, Kudeyar do; Elder Gleb is not like that. Burmister Ermil Girin, having sent the son of a lonely widow as a recruit, thereby saving his own brother from soldiering, atones for his guilt by serving the people, remaining faithful to them even in a moment of mortal danger. However, the most serious crime against the people is described in one of Grisha’s songs: the village headman Gleb withholds the news of emancipation from his peasants, thus leaving eight thousand people in the bondage of slavery. According to Nekrasov, nothing can atone for such a crime. The reader of Nekrasov’s poem has a feeling of acute bitterness and resentment for their ancestors, who hoped for better times, but

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forced to live in “empty volosts” and “tightened up provinces” more than a hundred years after the abolition of serfdom. Revealing the essence of the concept of “people's happiness,” the poet points out that the only true way to achieve it is a peasant revolution. The idea of ​​retribution for the people's suffering is most clearly formulated in the ballad “About Two Great Sinners,” which is a kind of ideological key to the entire poem. The robber Kudeyar throws off the “burden of sins” only when he kills Pan Glukhovsky, known for his atrocities. Killing a villain, according to the author, is not a crime, but a feat worthy of a reward. Here Nekrasov’s idea comes into conflict with Christian ethics. The poet conducts a hidden polemic with F.M. Dostoevsky, who asserted the inadmissibility and impossibility of building a just society on blood, who believed that the very thought of murder is already a crime. And I can’t help but agree with these statements! One of the most important Christian commandments is: “Thou shalt not kill!” After all, a person who takes the life of his own kind, thereby kills the person in himself, commits a serious crime against

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Author's position in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov worked on his work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” for many years, giving him part of his soul. And throughout the entire period of creation of this work, the poet did not leave high ideas about a perfect life and a perfect person. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the result of the author’s many years of thoughts about the fate of the country and the people. So, who can live well in Rus'? This is exactly how the poet poses the question and tries to answer it. The plot of the poem, like the plot folk tales, built as a journey of old peasants in search of a happy person. Wanderers are looking for him among all classes of the then Rus', but the main objective theirs is to find “peasant happiness.” The poem addresses the most important question of our time: “The people are liberated, but are the people happy?”

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Another question arises here: what are the paths leading to people's happiness? The author has deep sympathy for those peasants who do not resign themselves to their slave position. This is Savely, and Matryona Timofeevna, and Grisha Dobrosklonov, and Ermil Girin. To answer the question of who lives well in Rus', Nekrasov looks around all of Rus' and at first does not find a positive answer to this question, because the poem was begun in 1863, immediately after the abolition of serfdom. But later, already in the 70s, when progressive youth went “to the people”, finding happiness in serving them, the poet came to the conclusion that serving the people is happiness. In the manner of " people's defender"Grisha Dobrosklonova, the poet answers the question posed in the poem. Grisha Dobrosklonov is described in the last part of the poem, entitled “A Feast for the Whole World.” Heavy life path seminarian Grisha. The son of a semi-poor sexton and a “unrequited farm laborer,” he lived through a hungry childhood and harsh youth. And Gregory has a thin, pale face and thin, curly hair, with a tinge of redness.

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At the seminary, the seminarians were “underfed by the money grabber,” and during the holidays Grisha worked as a laborer in his native village of Vakhlachino. He was a responsive and loving son, and “in the boy’s heart, with love for his poor mother, love for all the Vakhlachina merged.” And Grisha Dobrosklonov firmly decided to devote his life to the struggle for the liberation of the people: ... and for fifteen years Gregory already knew firmly that he would live for the happiness of his wretched and dark native corner. Strong-willed, freedom-loving, alien to personal interests, Grisha Dobrosklonov does not follow the beaten path, but chooses hard way fighting for the rights of the oppressed. The people, seeing him as their messenger, bless him for a righteous fight. Go to the humiliated, Go to the offended - Be the first there!

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So, it is with the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov that Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov connects his idea of ​​a perfect person, in him he sees an aesthetic and moral ideal. The idea of ​​a perfect person sees him as an aesthetic and moral ideal. Raising his readers to its most complete embodiment, the poet answers the question of the poem - who lives well in Rus'. All of Nekrasov’s work is dedicated to the people, and, seriously ill, he never stopped thinking about them. The poem “To the Sowers” ​​is a call to continue the social struggle. Sowers – public figures, people's intercessors who must bring “seeds of truth” to the people. Why is Belinsky an ideal for Nekrasov? Perhaps the reason for this is that it was thanks to Belinsky that Nekrasov became a great poet. When Belinsky read Nekrasov’s poem “ Railway“, with tears in his eyes he approached him and said: “Do you know that you are a poet - and a true poet!”

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In Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov saw a revolutionary ready to burn in the flames of struggle, noted his ability to subjugate personal life high social goals, a rare ability for self-sacrifice. Dobrolyubov always believed in high ideals; his spiritual purity amazed Nekrasov.

“My favorite child,” Nekrasov wrote in his manuscript about the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Later, in one of his letters to the journalist P. Bezobrazov, the poet himself defined the genre of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”: “This will be a modern epic peasant life».

And here the modern reader will immediately have many questions, because when we hear the word epic, we are reminded of large-scale works, for example, the epics of Homer or the multi-volume works of Tolstoy. But does even an unfinished work have the right to be called an epic?

First, let’s figure out what is meant by the concept of “epic”. The problematic of the epic genre involves consideration of the life not of an individual hero, but of an entire people. Any significant events in the history of this people are selected to depict. Most often, such a moment is war. However, at the time Nekrasov created the poem, there is no war going on in Russia, and the poem itself does not mention military actions. And yet, in 1861, another event, no less significant for people’s life, took place in Russia: the abolition of serfdom. It causes a wave of controversy in high circles, as well as confusion and a complete restructuring of life among the peasants. It is to this turning point that Nekrasov devotes his epic poem.

The genre of the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” required the author to comply with certain criteria, first of all, scale. The task of showing the life of an entire people is not at all easy, and it was this that influenced Nekrasov’s choice of a plot with travel as the main plot-forming element. Travel is a common motif in Russian literature. Gogol also addressed him in “ Dead souls”, and Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”), even in the Middle Ages there was a popular genre of “walking” - “Walking across the three seas”. This technique allows the work to depict a full-fledged picture of folk life, with all its customs, joys and sorrows. In this case, the main plot fades into the background, and the narrative breaks up into many separate kaleidoscopic parts, from which at the same time gradually emerges three-dimensional picture life. The peasants' stories about their destinies give way to lingering lyrical songs, the reader gets acquainted with a rural fair, sees folk festivals, elections, learns about attitudes towards women, grieves with the beggar and has fun with the drunk.

It is characteristic that parts sometimes deviate so strongly from each other in the plot that they can be swapped without harm to the composition of the work. This at one time gave rise to long debates about correct location chapters of the poem (Nekrasov did not leave clear instructions on this).

At the same time, such a “patchwork” of the work is compensated by the internal continuous development of the plot - one of mandatory conditions for the epic genre. The people's soul, sometimes very contradictory, sometimes despairing under the weight of troubles and yet not completely broken, moreover, constantly dreaming of happiness - this is what the poet shows the reader.

Among the features of the genre “Who Lives Well in Rus'” can also be mentioned the huge layer of folklore elements included in the text of the poem, from directly introduced songs, proverbs, sayings to implicit references to one or another epic, the use of phrases like “Savely, the Russian hero.” Here Nekrasov’s love for the common people is clearly visible, his sincere interest in the topic - it’s not for nothing that it took so many years (more than 10) to collect material for the poem! Note that the inclusion of folklore elements in the text is also considered a sign of an epic - this allows you to more fully depict the features folk character and way of life.

The genre peculiarity of the poem is also considered to be its bizarre combination of historical facts with fairy-tale motifs. In the beginning, written according to all the laws of fairy tales, seven (magic number) peasants set off on their journey. The beginning of their journey is accompanied by miracles - a warbler speaks to them, and they find a self-assembled tablecloth in the forest. But their further path will not follow a fairy tale.

A skillful combination of a fairy-tale, light-hearted plot with serious political problems Post-reform Rus' was favorably distinguished by Nekrasov’s work immediately after the publication of parts of the poem: it looked interesting against the backdrop of monotonous pamphlets and at the same time made one think. This also allowed the epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” not to lose its interest for the reader today.

Work test

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the pinnacle of N. A. Nekrasov’s creativity. He himself called it “his favorite child.” Nekrasov devoted many years of tireless work to his poem, putting into it all the information about the Russian people, accumulated, as the poet said, “by word of mouth” for twenty years. In no other work of Russian literature have the

The same is true of the characters, habits, views, hopes of the Russian people, as in this poem.
The plot of the poem is very close to the folk tale about the search for happiness and truth. The poem opens with a “Prologue” - the most rich chapter in folklore elements. It is in it that the main problem of the poem is constant: “who lives cheerfully, at ease in Rus'.” The heroes of the poem are seven (one of the traditional significant numbers) men are going to “The ungutted province, the ungutted volost, the Izbytkova village.” The seven men who argued in the “Prologue” are endowed with the best qualities of the people’s character: pain for their people, selflessness, and a burning interest in the main issues of life. They are interested in the basic question of what is truth and what is happiness.

The description of what the truth-seekers saw during their wanderings in Rus', the stories about themselves of the imaginary “happy” ones to whom the peasants turned, constitutes the main content of the poem.

The composition of the work is built according to the laws of classical epic: it consists of separate parts and chapters. Outwardly, these parts are connected by the theme of the road: seven truth-seekers wander around Rus', trying to resolve the question that haunts them: who can live well in Rus'? And here one of the most important motifs of Russian folklore sounds - the motif of wandering. Even the heroes of Russian fairy tales went to look for common happiness, to find out whether it even exists - peasant happiness. The very nature of the poem is also combined with a Russian fairy tale. The journey of the Nekrasov peasants is, in essence, a spiritual journey.

The first chapter of “Pop” opens with the image of a “wide path.” This is one of the important poetic symbols of Russian literature, which embodies the idea of ​​movement, striving forward. This is an image not only of life, but also spiritual path person.
The meeting with the priest in the first chapter of the first part of the poem shows that the peasants do not have their own peasant understanding of happiness. The men do not yet understand that the question of who is happier - the priest, the landowner, the merchant or the tsar - reveals the limitations of their ideas about happiness. These ideas come down only to material interest. It is no coincidence that the priest proclaims the formula for happiness, and the peasants passively agree. “Peace, wealth, honor” - this is the priest’s formula for happiness. But his story makes men think about a lot. The life of the priest reveals the life of Russia in its past and present, in its different classes. Like the laity, among priests only the highest clergy live well. But the clergy cannot be happy when the people, their breadwinner, are unhappy. All this indicates a deep crisis that has gripped the entire country.

In the next chapter, “Country Fair,” the main character is the crowd, wide and diverse. Nekrasov creates paintings in which the people themselves speak, talk about themselves, revealing the best and most unsightly features of their lives.

creates pictures in which the people themselves speak, talk about themselves, revealing the best and most unsightly features of their lives. But in everything: both in beauty and in ugliness, the people are not pitiful and petty, but large, significant, generous and

In the next chapter, “Drunken Night,” the festive feast reaches its climax. From the depths of the folk world emerges a strong peasant character, Yakim Nagoy. He appears as a symbol of working peasant life: “There are splinters at the eyes, at the mouth, like cracks in dry earth.” For the first time in Russian literature, Nekrasov creates a realistic portrait of a peasant worker. Defending the sense of peasant pride through labor, Yakim sees social injustice towards the people.

You work alone
And the work is almost over,
Look, there are three shareholders standing:
God, king and lord!
In the image of Yakim, the author shows the emergence of spiritual needs among the peasants. “Spiritual bread is higher than earthly bread.”

In the chapter “Happy” the entire peasant kingdom is involved in a dialogue, in a dispute about happiness. In their miserable life, even a tiny bit of luck already seems like happiness. But at the end of the chapter there is a story about a happy man. This story about Ermil Girin moves the action of the epic forward and marks a higher level of the people's idea of ​​happiness. Like Yakim, Yermil is endowed with a keen sense of Christian conscience and honor. It would be given that he has “everything that is needed for happiness: peace of mind, money, and honor.” But at a critical moment in his life, Yermil sacrifices this happiness for the sake of the people’s truth and ends up in prison.

In the fifth chapter of the first part, “The Landowner,” the wanderers treat the masters with obvious irony. They already understand that noble “honor” is worth little. The wanderers spoke to the master as boldly and uninhibitedly as Yakim Nagoy. The landowner Obolt-Obolduev is most astonished by the fact that former serfs shouldered the burden of the historical question “Who can live well in Rus'?” As in the case with the priest, the story of the landowner and about the landowner is not just an accusation. It is also about a general catastrophic crisis that engulfs everyone. Therefore, in subsequent parts of the poem, Nekrasov leaves the intended plot scheme and artistically explores the life and poetry of the people.

In the chapter “Peasant Woman,” Matryona Timofeevna appears before the wanderers, embodying best qualities Russian female character. Harsh conditions honed special female character- independent, accustomed to relying on his own strength everywhere and in everything.

The theme of spiritual slavery is central to the chapter “The Last One.” A terrible “comedy” is played out by the characters in this chapter. For the sake of the half-mad Prince Utyatin, they agreed to pretend that serfdom had not been abolished. This proves that no reform makes yesterday’s slaves free, spiritually valuable people.
The chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” is a continuation of “The Last One.” This depicts a fundamentally different state of the world. This is people's Rus' that has already woken up and spoken at once. New heroes are drawn into the festive feast of spiritual awakening. The whole people sings songs of liberation, judges the past, evaluates the present, and begins to think about the future.

liberation, judges the past, evaluates the present, and begins to think about the future. Sometimes these songs are contrasting to each other. For example, the story “About the exemplary slave - Yakov the Faithful” and the legend “About two great sinners”. Yakov takes revenge on the master for all the bullying in a servile manner, committing suicide in front of his eyes. The robber Kudeyar atones for his sins, murders and violence not with humility, but with the murder of the villain - Pan Glukhovsky. Thus, popular morality justifies righteous anger against the oppressors and even violence against them.

According to the original plan, the peasants had to make sure that it was impossible to find a happy person in Rus'. But he appeared in life - “a new hero new era", common democrat. The author introduces a new face into the poem - the people's intercessor Grisha Dobrosklonov, who sees his happiness in serving the people. Despite the fact that Grisha’s personal fate was difficult (“Fate had prepared for him a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia”), he believes in a bright future for the people as a result of the struggle. And as if in response to growth national consciousness The songs of Grisha begin to sound, knowing that people's happiness can only be achieved as a result of a nationwide struggle for the “Unflogged province, Ungutted volost, Izbytkovo village.”

The poem, conceived about the people and for the people, becomes an accusatory act against the landowners.