Year of writing:

1877

Reading time:

Description of the work:

The well-known poem Who Lives Well in Rus' was written in 1877 by the Russian writer Nikolai Nekrasov. It took many years to create it - Nekrasov worked on the poem from 1863-1877. It is interesting that Nekrasov had some ideas and thoughts back in the 50s. He thought of capturing in the poem Who Lives Well in Rus' as much as possible everything he knew about the people and heard from people’s mouths.

Read below summary poem Who Lives Well in Rus'.

One day, seven men—recent serfs, but now temporarily bound “from adjacent villages—Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhaika, etc.—come together on a highway.” Instead of going their own way, the men start an argument about who lives happily and freely in Rus'. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky person in Rus': 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. 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 Rus'.”

The first possible “lucky person” they meet along the way turns out to be a priest. (It was not the place 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 severe 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 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 Rus', but also in distant foreign lands; there is no hope for their retribution. Well, the men themselves know how much respect the priest deserves: they feel embarrassed when the priest reproaches him for obscene songs 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 as 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 at 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 Rus': 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 Rus'.

Male wanderers do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Rus'. 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, who 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 men 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, hit both the master, who was immediately deprived of his usual way of life, and the peasant.

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.”

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 first-born, although after that she had five sons. One of them, the shepherd boy 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. Matryona 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.

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 greater love in the lackey’s soul. As Polivanov grew older, his legs became weak, and Yakov began to follow him like a 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 Dobrosklonov, lives on Vakhlachin. 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 Rus' as a wretched, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible force 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.

One day, seven men—recent serfs, but now temporarily bound “from adjacent villages—Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhaika, etc.—come together on a highway.” Instead of going their own way, the men start an argument about who lives a fun and easy life in Rus'. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky person in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar.

The first possible “lucky person” they met along the way turns out to be a priest. (It was not the place 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 severe 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 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 Rus', but also in distant foreign lands; there is no hope for their retribution. Well, the men themselves know how much respect the priest deserves: they feel embarrassed when the priest reproaches him for obscene songs 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 for some reason calls “the master,” buys the treasured gift for him.

The wandering men 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 at 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 Rus': 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 Rus'.

The ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the wandering men 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 manor’s house - despite the fact that after this he had to drive the women away from the entire estate to wash the floors.

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 first-born, 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.

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 have just sat down to rest, immediately jump 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 - corvee songs, hunger songs, soldier songs, salt songs - 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 greater love in the lackey’s soul. As Polivanov grew older, his legs became weak, and Yakov began to follow him like a 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.

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.

If the wandering men knew what was going on 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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“Who lives well in Rus'” by Nekrasov summary

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” (Poem) Retelling

“Who lives well in Rus'”

(Poem)

Retelling

In a fairy-tale form, the author depicts a dispute between seven peasants about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.” The dispute escalates into a fight, then the peasants make peace and decide among themselves to ask the king, the merchant and the priest who is happier, without receiving an answer they go along Russian soil in search of the lucky one.

The first peasants meet a priest who assures them that the “priest’s life” is very difficult. He says that peasants and landowners are equally poor and have stopped bringing money to church. The peasants sincerely sympathize with the priest.

The author depicts many interesting faces in this chapter, where he depicts a fair where seven men ended up in search of happiness. The attention of the peasants is attracted by the trading of pictures: here the author expresses the hope that sooner or later the time will come when a man “not my stupid lord, but Belinsky and Gogol from the market.”

After the fair, the folk festivities, “bad night,” begin. Many peasants get drunk, except for seven travelers and a certain gentleman who writes down folk songs and his observations of peasant life in a book; the author himself is probably embodied in this image in the poem. One of the men - Yakim Nagoy - reproaches the master and does not order to portray all Russian people as drunkards. Yakim claims that in Rus' there is a non-drinking family for every one drinker, but it is easier for those who drink, since all workers suffer from life equally. Both in work and in revelry, the Russian man loves scope, he cannot live without it. The seven travelers already wanted to go home, and they decided to look for a happy one in the large crowd.

The travelers began to invite other men to a bucket of vodka, promising a treat to the one who proved that he was lucky. There are a lot of “lucky” people: the soldier is glad that he survived both foreign bullets and Russian sticks; the young stonecutter boasts of his strength; the old stonecutter is happy that he managed to get sick from St. Petersburg to his native village and did not die on the way; The bear hunter is glad to be alive. When the bucket was empty, “our wanderers realized that they had wasted vodka for nothing.” Someone suggested that Ermil Girin should be considered happy. He is happy with his own truthfulness and people's love. He helped people more than once, and people repaid him kindly when they helped him buy a mill that a clever merchant wanted to take over. But, as it turned out, Yermil is in prison: apparently, he suffered for his truth.

The next person the seven peasants met was the landowner Gavrilo Afanasyevich. He assures them that his life is not easy either. Under serfdom, he was the absolute owner of rich estates, “lovingly” he carried out trials and reprisals against the peasants. After the abolition of the “fortress,” order disappeared and the manorial estates fell into disrepair. The landowners lost their former income. “Idle scribblers” tell the landowners to study and work, but this is impossible, since the nobleman was created for another life - “to smoke God’s heaven” and “to litter the people’s treasury,” since this allows him to be born: among the ancestors of Gavrila Afanasyevich there was also a leader with a bear, Obolduev, and Prince Shchepin, who tried to set fire to Moscow for the sake of robbery. The landowner ends his speech with a sob, and the peasants were ready to cry with him, but then changed their minds.

Last One

The wanderers end up in the village of Vakhlaki, where they see strange orders: the local peasants of their own free will became “inhumans of God” - they retained serfdom depending on wild landowner, the out-of-mind Prince Utyatin. The travelers begin to ask one of the locals, Vlas, where such order comes from in the village.

The extravagant Utyatin could not believe in the abolition of serfdom, so “arrogance cut him off”: the prince suffered a blow from anger. The prince's heirs, whom he blamed for the loss of the men, were afraid that the old man would deprive them of their estate before his imminent death. Then they persuaded the men to play the role of serfs, promising to give up the flood meadows. The Vahlaks agreed - partly because they were accustomed to slave life and even found pleasure in it.

The wanderers witness how the local mayor praises the prince, how the villagers pray for Utyatin’s health and sincerely cry with joy that they have such a benefactor. Suddenly the prince suffered a second blow, and the old man died. Since then, the peasants have truly lost peace: an endless dispute over the flood meadows began between the Vakhlaks and their heirs.

Feast for the whole world

Introduction

The author describes a feast given by one of the Vakhlaks, the restless Klim Yakovlevich, on the occasion of the death of Prince Utyatin. The travelers, together with Vlas, joined the feasting. Seven wanderers are interested in listening to Vakhlat songs.

The author shifts to literary language many folk songs. First, he cites “bitter” ones, that is, sad ones, about peasant grief, about poor life. The bitter songs open with a lamentation with the ironic saying “It’s a glorious life for the people in holy Rus'!” The sub-chapter concludes with a song about the “exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful,” who punished his master for bullying. The author summarizes that the people are able to stand up for themselves and punish the landowners.

At the feast, travelers learn about the pilgrims who feed on what they hang on the people’s neck. These slackers take advantage of the gullibility of the peasant, whom they are not averse to rising above if possible. But among them there were also those who served the people faithfully and truly: they treated the sick, helped bury the dead, and fought for justice.

The men at the feast are discussing whose sin is greater - the landowner's or the peasant's. Ignatius Prokhorov claims that the peasant is greater. As an example, he cites a song about a widower admiral. Before his death, the admiral ordered the headman to free all the peasants, but the headman did not fulfill the last will of the dying man. The great sin of the Russian peasant is that he can sell his peasant brother for a pretty penny. Everyone agreed that this is a great sin, and for this sin all men in Rus' will suffer forever in slavery.

By morning the feast was over. One of the Vakhlaks composes a cheerful song in which he puts his hope for a bright future. In this song, the author describes Russia as “poor and abundant” as a country where great people’s power lives. The poet foresees that the time will come and a “hidden spark” will flare up:

An innumerable host is rising!

The strength in her will be indestructible!

These are the words of Grishka, the only lucky person in the poem.

Peasant woman

The wanderers began to think that they should give up searching for the happy ones among the men, and would rather check the women. There is an abandoned estate right on the way of the peasants. The author paints a depressing picture of the desolation of a once rich economy, which turned out to be unnecessary for the master and which the peasants themselves cannot manage. Here they were advised to look for Matryona Timofeevna, “she’s the governor’s wife,” whom everyone considers happy. The travelers met her in a crowd of reapers and persuaded her to talk about their woman’s “happiness.”

The woman admits that she was happy as a girl while her parents cherished her. With parental affection, all the chores around the house seemed like easy fun: while weaving yarn, the girl sang until midnight and danced while working in the fields. But then she found a betrothed - stove maker Philip Korchagin. Matryona got married, and her life changed dramatically.

The author intersperses his story with folk songs in his own literary adaptation. These songs speak about a difficult fate married woman, who ended up in someone else’s family, about the bullying of her husband’s relatives. Matryona found support only from grandfather Savely.

Grandfather was not liked in his own family and was “branded a convict.” Matryona was afraid of him at first, frightened by his terrible, “bearish” appearance, but soon she saw in him a kind, warm-hearted person and began to ask for advice in everything. One day Savely told Matryona his story. This Russian hero went to hard labor for killing a German manager who mocked the peasants.

The peasant woman talks about her great grief: how, through the fault of her mother-in-law, she lost her beloved son Demushka. The mother-in-law insisted that Matryona not take the child with her to the stubble. The daughter-in-law obeyed and with a heavy heart left the boy with Savely. The old man did not keep an eye on the baby, and he was eaten by pigs. The “boss” arrived and started an investigation. Having not received a bribe, he ordered an autopsy of the child to be performed in front of the mother, suspecting her of “conspiracy” with Savely.

The woman was ready to hate the old man, but then she recovered. And the grandfather, out of remorse, went into the forests. Matryona met him four years later at Dyomushka’s grave, where she came to mourn a new grief - the death of her parents. The peasant woman again brought the old man into the house, but Savely soon died, continuing to joke and instruct people until his death. Years passed, Matryona's other children grew up. The peasant woman fought for them, wished them happiness, was ready to please her father-in-law and mother-in-law so that the children could live well. His father-in-law gave his eight-year-old son Fedot as a shepherd, and disaster struck. Fedot chased the she-wolf who had kidnapped the sheep, and then took pity on her, since she was feeding the cubs. The headman decided to punish the boy, but the mother stood up and accepted the punishment for her son. She herself was like a she-wolf, ready to lay down her life for her children.

The “year of the comet” has arrived, foreshadowing a crop failure. The bad premonitions came true: “the lack of bread has arrived.” The peasants, mad with hunger, were ready to kill each other. Trouble does not come alone: the husband-breadwinner was “deceived, not in God’s way” into becoming a soldier. The husband's relatives began to mock Matryona, who was pregnant with Liodorushka, more than ever, and the peasant woman decided to go to the governor for help.

Secretly, the peasant woman left her husband's house and went to the city. Here she managed to meet with governor Elena Alexandrovna, to whom she addressed her request. In the governor's house, the peasant woman gave birth to Liodorushka, and Elena Alexandrovna baptized the baby and insisted that her husband rescue Philip from the conscription.

Since then, in the village, Matryona has been hailed as lucky and even nicknamed “the governor.” The peasant woman ends the story with a reproach that it was not the travelers’ business to “look for a happy woman among the women.” God's companions are trying to find the keys to female happiness, but they are lost somewhere far away, maybe swallowed by some fish: “In what seas that fish walks - God has forgotten!..”

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“The Poem of the Mountain” and “The Poem of the End” by Marina Tsvetaeva as the Old Testament and the New Testament Tsvetaeva’s two Prague poems are perhaps the culmination of her work. They belong to the number highest achievements in the genre of Russian poem of the 20th century - a genre marked by such milestones as

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“He sang the embodiment of people’s happiness” (based on the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”) I. Folk motifs in Nekrasov’s poetry.1. Democracy of Nekrasov's creativity.II. “He groans across the fields, along the roads...”1. The tragedy of serfdom.2. Post-reform contradictions

From the author's book

Bykova N. G. N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'” In January 1866, the next issue of the Sovremennik magazine was published in St. Petersburg. It opened with lines that are now familiar to everyone: In what year - calculate, In what land - guess... These words seemed to promise to introduce

From the author's book

76. “Can you feel it? So good?..” Do you feel it? So good? I love the trembling in your hands And the trembling in your lips: I love you still... Your laughter on thin stems... Always changeably different, Still the same, new in everything - I love you, I love you while suffering, In longing for the new and

The work of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is dedicated to the deep problems of the Russian people. The heroes of his story, ordinary peasants, go on a journey in search of a person to whom life does not bring happiness. So who can live well in Rus'? A summary of the chapters and an annotation to the poem will help you understand the main idea of the work.

The idea and history of the creation of the poem

Nekrasov’s main idea was to create a poem for the people, in which they could recognize themselves not only in the general idea, but also in the little things, everyday life, behavior, see their strengths and weaknesses, and find their place in life.

The author succeeded in his idea. Nekrasov collected for years required material, planning his work entitled “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” much more voluminous than the one that came out at the end. As many as eight full-fledged chapters were planned, each of which was supposed to be a separate work with a complete structure and idea. The only thing unifying link- seven ordinary Russian peasants, men who travel around the country in search of the truth.

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” four parts, the order and completeness of which is a source of controversy for many scholars. Nevertheless, the work looks holistic and leads to a logical end - one of the characters finds the very recipe for Russian happiness. It is believed that Nekrasov completed the ending of the poem, already knowing about his imminent death. Wanting to bring the poem to completion, he moved the end of the second part to the end of the work.

It is believed that the author began to write “Who can live well in Rus'?” around 1863 - shortly after. Two years later, Nekrasov completed the first part and marked the manuscript with this date. The subsequent ones were ready by 72, 73, 76 years of the 19th century, respectively.

Important! The work began to be published in 1866. This process turned out to be long and lasted four years. The poem was difficult to accept by critics, the highest authorities of that time brought down a lot of criticism on it, the author, along with his work, was persecuted. Despite this, “Who can live well in Rus'?” was published and well received by ordinary people.

Annotation to the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”: it consists of the first part, which contains a prologue introducing the reader to the main characters, five chapters and excerpts from the second (“The Last One” of 3 chapters) and the third part (“Peasant Woman”) "of 7 chapters). The poem ends with the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” and an epilogue.

Prologue

“Who can live well in Rus'?” begins with a prologue, the summary of which is as follows: meet seven main characters- ordinary Russian men from the people who came from the Terpigorev district.

Each one comes from their own village, the name of which, for example, was Dyryaevo or Neelovo. Having met, the men begin to actively argue with each other about who will truly live well in Rus'. This phrase will be the leitmotif of the work, its main plot.

Each offers a variant of the class that is now thriving. These were:

butts;
landowners;
officials;
merchants;
boyars and ministers;
tsar.

Guys argue so much it's getting out of control a fight starts- the peasants forget what they were going to do, they go to no one known direction. In the end, they wander into the wilderness, decide not to go anywhere else until the morning and wait out the night in a clearing.

Because of the noise, the chick falls out of the nest, one of the wanderers catches it and dreams that if it had wings, it would fly around all of Rus'. Others add that you can do without wings, if only you had something to drink and a good snack, then you can travel until you are old.

Attention! The bird - the mother of the chick, in exchange for her child, tells the men where it is possible find the treasure- a self-assembled tablecloth, but warns that you cannot ask for more than a bucket of alcohol per day - otherwise there will be trouble. The men actually find the treasure, after which they promise each other not to leave each other until they find the answer to the question of who should live well in this state.

First part. Chapter 1

The first chapter tells about the meeting of the men with the priest. They walked for a long time, and they met ordinary people - beggars, peasants, soldiers. The disputants did not even try to talk to those, because they knew from themselves that the common people had no happiness. Having met the priest's cart, the wanderers block the path and talk about the dispute, asking main question they are trying to find out who lives well in Rus', Are the priests happy?.

Pop responds as follows:

A person has happiness only if his life combines three features - peace, honor and wealth.
He explains that priests have no peace at all, starting from how troublesome it is for them to obtain rank and ending with the fact that every day they listen to the cries of dozens of people, which does not add peace to life.
Lots of money now It's hard for priests to make money, since the nobles, who previously performed rituals in their native villages, now do it in the capital, and the clergy have to live off the peasants alone, from whom there is a meager income.
The people of the priests also do not indulge them with respect, they make fun of them, avoid them, there is no way to hear a good word from anyone.

After the priest’s speech, the men shyly hide their eyes and understand that the life of priests in the world is not at all sweet. When the clergyman leaves, the debaters attack the one who suggested that the priests have a good life. Things would have come to a fight, but the priest appeared on the road again.

Chapter 2

The men walk along the roads for a long time, and almost no one meets them; they can ask who can live well in Rus'. In the end they find out that in the village of Kuzminskoye rich fair, since the village is not poor. There are two churches, a closed school and even a not very clean hotel where you can stay. It's no joke, there is a paramedic in the village.

The most important thing is that there are as many as 11 taverns here who do not have time to pour drinks for the merry people. All peasants drink a lot. There is an upset grandfather standing at the shoe store, who promised to bring boots to his granddaughter, but drank the money away. The master Pavlusha Veretennikov appears and pays for the purchase.

Books are also sold at the fair, but people are interested in the most mediocre books; neither Gogol nor Belinsky are in demand or interesting to the common people, despite the fact that these writers defend interests of ordinary people. At the end, the heroes get so drunk that they fall to the ground, watching as the church “shakes.”

Chapter 3

In this chapter, the debaters again find Pavel Veretennikov, who actually collects folklore, stories and expressions of the Russian people. Pavel tells the peasants around him that they drink too much alcohol, and for them a drunken night is happiness.

Yakim Golyy objects to this, arguing that simple the peasant drinks a lot not from own desire, and because he works hard, he is constantly haunted by grief. Yakim tells his story to those around him - having bought his son pictures, Yakim loved them no less, so when the fire happened, he was the first to take these pictures out of the hut. In the end, the money he had saved throughout his life was gone.

After listening to this, the men sit down to eat. Afterwards, one of them remains to watch the bucket of vodka, and the rest again head into the crowd to find a person who considers himself happy in this world.

Chapter 4

Men walk the streets and promise to treat him to vodka happy person from the people in order to find out who lives well in Rus', but only deeply unhappy people who want to drink to console themselves. Those who want to brag about something good find that their petty happiness does not answer the main question. For example, a Belarusian is happy that they make rye bread here, which doesn’t give him stomach cramps, so he’s happy.

As a result, the bucket of vodka runs out, and the debaters understand that they will not find the truth this way, but one of those who came says to look for Ermila Girin. We respect Ermil very much in the village, the peasants say that it is very good man. They even tell the story that when Girin wanted to buy a mill, but there was no money for a deposit, he raised a whole thousand in loans from the common people and managed to deposit the money.

A week later, Yermil gave away everything he had borrowed, and until the evening he asked those around him who else to approach and give the last remaining ruble.

Girin earned such trust by the fact that, while serving as a clerk for the prince, he did not take money from anyone, but on the contrary, ordinary people helped, so when they were going to choose a burgomaster, they chose him, Yermil justified the appointment. At the same time, the priest says that he is unhappy, since he is already in prison, and he does not have time to tell why, since a thief is discovered in the company.

Chapter 5

Next, the travelers meet a landowner, who, in response to the question of who can live well in Rus', tells them about his noble roots - the founder of his family, the Tatar Oboldui, was skinned by a bear for the laughter of the empress, who in return presented many expensive gifts.

The landowner complains, that the peasants were taken away, so there is no more law on their lands, forests are cut down, drinking establishments are multiplying - the people do what they want, and this makes them poor. He goes on to say that he was not used to working since childhood, but here he has to do it because the serfs were taken away.

Contritely, the landowner leaves, and the men feel sorry for him, thinking that on the one hand, after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants suffered, and on the other, the landowners, that this whip lashed all classes.

Part 2. The last one - summary

This part of the poem talks about the extravagant Prince Utyatin, who, upon learning that serfdom had been abolished, fell ill with a heart attack and promised to disinherit his sons. Those, frightened by such a fate, persuaded the men to play along with the old father, bribing them with a promise to donate the meadows to the village.

Important! Characteristics of Prince Utyatin: a selfish person who loves to feel power, therefore he is ready to force others to do completely meaningless things. He feels complete impunity and thinks that this is where the future of Russia lies.

Some peasants willingly played along with the lord’s request, while others, for example Agap Petrov, could not come to terms with the fact that in the wild they had to bow before someone. Finding yourself in a situation in which it is impossible to achieve the truth, Agap Petrov dies from pangs of conscience and mental anguish.

At the end of the chapter, Prince Utyatin rejoices at the return of serfdom, speaks of its correctness at his own feast, which is attended by seven travelers, and at the end calmly dies in the boat. At the same time, no one is giving the meadows to the peasants, and the trial on this issue is not over to this day, as the men found out.

Part 3. Peasant woman

This part of the poem is dedicated to the search female happiness, however, it ends with the fact that there is no happiness and such happiness will never be found. The wanderers meet the peasant woman Matryona - a beautiful, stately woman of 38 years old. At the same time Matryona is deeply unhappy, considers himself an old woman. She has a difficult fate; she had joy only in childhood. After the girl got married, her husband left to work, leaving his pregnant wife in her husband’s large family.

The peasant woman had to feed her husband's parents, who only mocked her and did not help her. Even after giving birth, they were not allowed to take the child with them, since the woman did not work enough with him. The baby was looked after by an elderly grandfather, the only one who treated Matryona normally, but due to his age, he did not look after the baby; he was eaten by pigs.

Matryona also gave birth to children afterwards, but she could not forget her first son. The peasant woman forgave the old man who had gone to the monastery out of grief and took him home, where he soon died. She herself, pregnant, came to the governor’s wife, asked to return my husband due to the difficult situation. Since Matryona gave birth right in the waiting room, the governor’s wife helped the woman, which is why people began to call her happy, which in fact was far from the case.

In the end, the wanderers, having not found female happiness and having not received an answer to their question - who can live well in Rus', moved on.

Part 4. A feast for the whole world - the conclusion of the poem

It happens in the same village. The main characters have gathered at a feast and are having fun, telling different stories to find out which of the people in Rus' will live well. The conversation turned to Yakov, a peasant who revered the master very much, but did not forgive him when he gave his nephew as a soldier. As a result, Yakov took his owner into the forest and hanged himself, but he could not get out because his legs did not work. What follows is a long debate about who is more sinful in this situation.

The men share different stories about the sins of peasants and landowners, deciding who is more honest and righteous. The crowd as a whole is quite unhappy, including the men - the main characters, only the young seminarian Grisha wants to devote himself to serving the people and their well-being. He loves his mother very much and is ready to pour it out on the village.

Grisha walks and sings that a glorious path awaits ahead, a resounding name in history, he is inspired by this, and is not even afraid of the expected outcome - Siberia and death from consumption. The debaters do not notice Grisha, but in vain, because this the only happy person in the poem, having understood this, they could find the answer to their question - who can live well in Russia.

When finishing the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”, the author wanted to finish his work differently, but approaching death forced add optimism and hope at the end of the poem, to give “light at the end of the road” to the Russian people.

N.A. Nekrasov, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - summary

WHO LIVES WELL IN RUSSIA

The men argue and do not notice how evening comes. They lit a fire, went for vodka, had a snack and again began to argue about who was living “fun, freely in Rus'.” The argument escalated into a fight. At this time, a chick flew up to the fire. I caught him with my groin. A warbler bird appears and asks to let the chick go. In return, she tells you how to find a self-assembled tablecloth. Pakhom releases the chick, the men follow the indicated path and find a self-assembled tablecloth. The men decide not to return home until they find out “for certain,” “Who lives happily, // Freely in Russia.”

Chapter I Pop

The men hit the road. They meet peasants, artisans, coachmen, soldiers, and the travelers understand that the life of these people cannot be called happy. Finally they meet a priest. He proves to the peasants that the priest has no peace, no wealth, no happiness - a diploma is difficult for a priest's son to get, and the priesthood is even more expensive. The priest can be called at any time of the day or night, in any weather. The priest has to see the tears of orphans and the death rattle of a dying man. But there is no honor for the priest - they make up “jokey tales // And obscene songs, // And all sorts of blasphemy” about him. The priest has no wealth either - rich landowners almost no longer live in Rus'. The men agree with the priest. They move on.

Chapter II Rural fair

The men see meager living everywhere. A man bathes his horse in the river. The wanderers learn from him that all the people have gone to the fair. The men go there. At the fair, people bargain, have fun, walk, and drink. One man is crying in front of the people - he drank all his money, and his granddaughter is waiting for a treat at home. Pavlusha Veretennikov, nicknamed “the gentleman,” bought boots for his granddaughter. The old man is very happy. Wanderers watch a performance in a booth.

Chapter III Drunken Night

People return drunk after the fair.

People walk and fall

As if from behind the rollers the enemies are shooting at the men with grapeshot.

Some guy is burying a little girl, claiming at the same time that he is burying his mother. Women are quarreling in the ditch: who has a worse home? Yakim Nagoy says that “there is no measure for Russian drunkenness,” but it is also impossible to measure the people’s grief.

What follows is a story about Yakima Nagy, who previously lived in St. Petersburg, then went to prison due to a lawsuit with a merchant. Then he came to live in his native village. He bought pictures with which he covered the hut and which he loved very much. There was a fire. Yakim rushed to save not the accumulated money, but pictures, which he later hung in the new hut. The people, returning, sing songs. Wanderers are sad about own home, about wives.

Chapter IV Happy

Wanderers walk among the festive crowd with a bucket of vodka. They promise it to someone who convinces him that he is truly happy. The first to arrive is the sexton, who says that he is happy because he believes in the kingdom of heaven. They don't give him vodka. An old woman comes up and says that she has a very large turnip in her garden. They laughed at her and didn’t give her anything either. A soldier comes with medals and says that he is happy that he is alive. They brought it to him.

A stonecutter approaches and talks about his happiness - about his enormous strength. His opponent is a thin man. He says that at one time God punished him for boasting in the same way. The contractor praised him at the construction site, and he was happy - he took the fourteen-pound burden and carried it to the second floor. Since then he has withered away. He goes home to die, an epidemic begins in the carriage, the dead are unloaded at the stations, but he still remains alive.

A servant comes, boasts that he was the prince’s favorite slave, that he licked plates with the remains of gourmet food, drank foreign drinks from glasses, and suffers from the noble disease of gout. He is driven away. A Belarusian comes up and says that his happiness lies in bread, which he just can’t get enough of. At home, in Belarus, he ate bread with chaff and bark. A man who had been killed by a bear came and said that his comrades died while hunting, but he remained alive. The man received vodka from the wanderers. Beggars boast that they are happy because they receive food often. The wanderers realize that they wasted vodka on “peasant happiness.” They are advised to ask Yermil Girin, who owned the mill, about happiness. By court decision, the mill is being sold at auction. Yermil won the bargain with the merchant Altynnikov; the clerks demanded a third of the price immediately, contrary to the rules. Yermil did not have money with him, which needed to be deposited within an hour, and it was a long way to go home.

He went out to the square and asked people to borrow as much as they could. They collected more money than was needed. Yermil gave the money, the mill became his, and the next Friday he paid off the debts. The wanderers wonder why the people believed Girin and gave him money. They answer him that he achieved this with the truth. Girin served as a clerk in the estate of Prince Yurlov. He served for five years and did not take anything from anyone, he was attentive to everyone. But he was kicked out, and a new clerk came in his place - a scoundrel and a grabber. After the death of the old prince, the new owner drove out all the old henchmen and ordered the peasants to elect a new mayor. Everyone unanimously elected Ermil. He served honestly, but one day he still committed a crime - his younger brother Mitriy was “protected”, and Nenila Vlasyevna’s son became a soldier instead.

Since that time, Yermil has been sad - he doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, he says he’s a criminal. He said that let them judge according to their conscience. Nenila Vlasvna’s son was returned, but Mitri was taken away, and a fine was imposed on Ermila. For another year after that, he was not himself, then he resigned from his position, no matter how much they begged him to stay.

The narrator advises going to Girin, but another peasant says that Yermil is in prison. A riot broke out and government troops were needed. To avoid bloodshed, they asked Girin to address the people.

The story is interrupted by the screams of a drunken footman suffering from gout - now he is suffering from a beating for theft. The wanderers are leaving.

Chapter V Landowner

The landowner Obolt-Obolduev was “ruddy-faced, // Stately, stocky, // Sixty years old; // Gray, long mustache, // Well done grips.” He mistook the men for robbers and even pulled out a pistol. But they told him what was the matter. Obolt-Obolduev laughs, gets out of the stroller and talks about the life of the landowners.

First, he talks about the antiquity of his family, then he recalls the old times, when “Not only Russian people, // Russian nature itself // Submissive to us.” Then the landowners lived well - luxurious feasts, a whole regiment of servants, their own actors, etc. The landowner recalls the dog hunt, unlimited power, how he christened himself with his entire estate “on Easter Sunday.”

Now there is decline everywhere - “The noble class // As if everything was hidden, // Died out!” The landowner cannot understand why the “idle scribblers” encourage him to study and work, after all, he is a nobleman. He says that he has lived in the village for forty years, but cannot distinguish a barley ear from a rye ear. The peasants think:

The great chain has broken,

It tore and splintered:

One end for the master,

Others don't care!..

The Last One (From the second part)

The wanderers walk and see hayfields. They take the women's braids and start mowing them. Music can be heard from the river - it’s a landowner riding in a boat. The gray-haired man Vlas urges the women on - they shouldn’t upset the landowner. Three boats moor to the shore, containing a landowner with his family and servants.

The old landowner walks around the hay, complains that the hay is damp, and demands that it be dried. He leaves with his retinue for breakfast. The wanderers ask Vlas (he turned out to be the burgomaster) why the landowner gives orders if serfdom is abolished. Vlas replies that they have a special landowner: when he learned about the abolition of serfdom, he had a stroke - the left half of his body was paralyzed, he lay motionless.

The heirs arrived, but the old man recovered. His sons told him about the abolition of serfdom, but he called them traitors, cowards, etc. Out of fear that they would be disinherited, his sons decide to indulge him in everything.

That’s why they persuade the peasants to make a joke, as if the peasants were returned to the landowners. But some peasants did not need to be persuaded. Ipat, for example, says: “And I am the servant of the princes Utyatin - and that’s the whole story!” He remembers how the prince harnessed him to a cart, how he bathed him in an ice hole - he dipped him into one hole, pulled him out of another - and immediately gave him vodka.

The prince put Ipat on the box to play the violin. The horse stumbled, Ipat fell, and the sleigh ran over him, but the prince drove away. But after some time he returned. Ipat is grateful to the prince that he did not leave him to freeze. Everyone agrees to pretend that serfdom was not abolished.

Vlas does not agree to be burgomaster. Klim Lavin agrees to be it.

Klim has a conscience made of clay,

And Minin’s beard,

If you look, you'll think so

That you won’t find a more dignified and sober peasant.

The old prince walks around and gives orders, the peasants laugh at him on the sly. The man Agap Petrov did not want to obey the orders of the old landowner, and when he caught him cutting down the forest, he told Utyatin directly about everything, calling him a fool. Ducky got the second blow. But contrary to the expectations of the heirs old prince recovered again and began to demand public flogging of Agap.

The latter is being persuaded by the whole world. They took him to the stables, put a glass of wine in front of him and told him to shout louder. He shouted so loudly that even Utyatin took pity. The drunk Agap was carried home. Soon he died: “The unscrupulous Klim ruined him, anathema, blame!”

Utyatin is sitting at the table at this time. Peasants stand at the porch. Everyone is putting on a comedy, as usual, except for one guy - he laughs. The guy is a newcomer, local customs are funny to him. Utyatin again demands punishment for the rebel. But the wanderers do not want to blame. Burmistro's godfather saves the situation - she says that it was her son who laughed - a foolish boy. Utyatin calms down, has fun and swaggers over dinner. After lunch he dies. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But the joy of the peasants was premature: “With the death of the Last One, the lord’s affection disappeared.”

Peasant Woman (From the third part)

The wanderers decide to look for a happy man among women. They are advised to go to the village of Klin and ask Matryona Timofeevna, nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Arriving in the village, the men see “poor houses.” The footman he met explains that “The landowner is abroad, //And the steward is dying.” The wanderers meet Matryona Timofeevna.

Matryona Timofeevna, a dignified woman,

Wide and dense

About thirty-eight years old.

Beautiful; gray streaked hair,

The eyes are big, strict,

The richest eyelashes,

Severe and dark.

The wanderers talk about their goal. The peasant woman replies that she has no time to talk about life now - she has to go reap rye. The men offer help. Matryona Timofeevna talks about her life.

Chapter I Before Marriage

Matrena Timofeevna was born into a friendly, non-drinking family and lived “like Christ in the bosom.” It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Then Matryona Timofeevna met her betrothed:

There's a stranger on the mountain!

Philip Korchagin - St. Petersburg resident,

Stove maker by skill.

Chapter II Songs

Matryona Timofeevna ends up in someone else's house.

The family was huge

Grumpy... I ended up in hell from the maiden holiday!

My husband went to work

I advised to remain silent and be patient...

As ordered, so done:

I walked with anger in my heart.

And the little girl didn’t say too much to anyone.

In winter Philippus came,

He brought a silk handkerchief and took him for a ride on a sleigh On Catherine’s day,

And it was as if there was no grief!..

She says that her husband beat her only once, when her husband’s sister arrived and he asked to give her shoes, but Matryona hesitated. Philip went back to work, and Matryona’s son Demushka was born on Kazanskaya. Life in her mother-in-law's house has become even more difficult, but she endures:

Whatever they tell me, I work,

No matter how much they scold me, I remain silent.

Of the entire family, only grandfather Savely felt sorry for Matryona Timofeevna’s husband.

Chapter III Savely, Holy Russian hero

Matryona Timofeevna talks about Savelia.

With a huge gray mane,

Tea, twenty years uncut,

With a huge beard

Grandfather looked like a bear...<…>

... He's already hit the nail on the head,

According to fairy tales, a hundred years.

Grandfather lived in a special room,

Didn't like families

He didn’t let me into his corner;

And she was angry, barking,

His "branded, convict"

My own son was honoring.

Savely will not be angry,

He will go to his little room,

He reads the holy calendar, crosses himself, and suddenly says cheerfully:

“Branded, but not a slave!”...

Savely tells Matryona why he is called “branded.” During his youth, the serf peasants of his village did not pay quitrents and did not go to corvée, because they lived in remote places and it was difficult to get there. The landowner Shalashnikov tried to collect rent, but was not very successful in this.

Shalashnikov tore excellently,

But I received not so much great income.

Soon Shalashnikov (he was a military man) is killed near Varna. His heir sends a German governor.

He forces the peasants to work. They themselves do not notice how they are cutting a clearing, i.e. it has now become easy to get to them.

And then hard labor came to the Korezh peasant -

Ruined to the bone!<…>

The German has a death grip:

Until he lets you go around the world,

Without moving away, he sucks!

This went on for eighteen years. The German built a factory and ordered the digging of a well. The German began to scold those who were digging the well for idleness (Savely was among them). The peasants pushed the German into a hole and buried the hole. Next - hard labor, Savely tried to escape from it, but he was caught. He spent twenty years in hard labor, another twenty in a settlement.

Chapter IV Demushka

Matryona Timofeevna gave birth to a son, but her mother-in-law does not allow her to be with the child, since her daughter-in-law has started working less.

The mother-in-law insists that Matryona Timofeevna leave her son with his grandfather. Savely neglected to look after the child: “The old man fell asleep in the sun, // Fed Demidushka to the pigs // Silly grandfather!..” Matryona blames her grandfather, cries. But it didn't end there:

The Lord was angry

He sent uninvited guests, Unrighteous judges!

A doctor, a police officer, and the police appear in the village and accuse Matryona of intentionally killing a child. The doctor performs an autopsy, despite Matryona’s requests “without desecration // To give the child // an honest burial.” They call her crazy. Grandfather Savely says that her madness lies in the fact that she went to the authorities without taking with her “neither a ruble nor a new one.” Demushka is buried in a closed coffin. Matryona Timofeevna cannot come to her senses, Savely, trying to console her, says that her son is now in heaven.

Chapter V She-Wolf

After Demushka died, Matryona “was not herself” and could not work. The father-in-law decided to teach her a lesson with the reins. The peasant woman bent down at his feet and asked: “Kill!” The father-in-law retreated. Day and night Matryona Timofeevna is at her son’s grave. Closer to winter, my husband arrived. Savely after the death of Demushka “He lay hopelessly for six days, // Then he went into the forests. // Grandfather sang so, so cried, // That the forest groaned! And in the fall // He went to repentance // To the Sand Monastery.” Every year Matryona gives birth to a child. Three years later, Matryona Timofeevna’s parents die. She goes to her son's grave to cry. Meets grandfather Savely there. He came from the monastery to pray for the “Deme of the Poor, for all the suffering Russian peasantry.” Saveliy did not live long - “in the fall, the old man got some kind of deep wound on his neck, he died with difficulty...”. Savely spoke about the share of the peasants:

There are three paths for men:

Tavern, prison and penal servitude,

And the women in Rus'

Three loops: white silk,

The second is red silk,

And the third - black silk,

Choose any one!..

Four years have passed. Matryona came to terms with everything. One day a pilgrim pilgrim comes to the village, she talks about the salvation of the soul, demands from mothers that they fast days did not feed babies milk. Matryona Timofeevna did not listen. “Yes, apparently God is angry,” says the peasant woman. When her son Fedot was eight years old, he was sent to herd sheep. One day they brought Fedot and said that he had fed a sheep to a she-wolf. Fedot says that a huge, emaciated she-wolf appeared, grabbed the sheep and started running. Fedot caught up with her and took away the sheep, which was already dead. The she-wolf looked into his eyes pitifully and howled. It was clear from the bleeding nipples that she had wolf cubs in her lair. Fedot took pity on the she-wolf and gave her the sheep. Matryona Timofeevna, trying to save her son from flogging, asks for mercy from the landowner, who orders not the assistant shepherd to be punished, but “the impudent woman.”

Chapter VI Difficult Year

Matryona Timofeevna says that the she-wolf did not appear in vain - there was a shortage of bread. The mother-in-law told the neighbors that the famine was caused by Matryona, who put on a clean shirt on Christmas.

For my husband, for my protector,

I got off cheap;

And one woman was killed with stakes for the same thing.

Don't joke with the hungry!..

After the lack of bread came the recruitment drive. My brother's eldest husband was drafted into the army, so the family did not expect trouble. But Matryona Timofeevna’s husband is taken as a soldier out of turn. Life gets even harder. The children had to be sent around the world. The mother-in-law became even more grumpy.

Okay, don't get dressed,

Don't wash yourself white

The neighbors have sharp eyes,

Tongues out!

Walk on the quieter streets

Carry your head lower

If you're having fun, don't laugh

Don't cry out of sadness!..

Chapter VII Governor's wife

Matryona Timofeevna is going to the governor. She has difficulty getting to the city because she is pregnant. He gives a ruble to the doorman to let him in. He says to come in two hours. Matryona Timofeevna arrives, the doorman takes another ruble from her. The governor's wife arrives and Matryona Timofeevna rushes to her asking for intercession. The peasant woman becomes ill. When she comes to, she is told that she has given birth to a child. The governor's wife, Elena Aleksandrovna, was very fond of Matryona Timofeevna, and looked after her son as if she were her own (she herself had no children). A messenger is sent to the village to sort everything out. My husband was returned.

Chapter VIII The Woman's Parable

The men ask if Matryona Timofeevna told them everything. She says that everyone, besides the fact that they survived the fire twice, got sick three times

anthrax, that instead of a horse she had to walk “in a harrow.” Matryona Timofeevna recalls the words of the holy praying mantis who went to the “heights of Athens”:

The keys to women's happiness,

From our free will Abandoned, lost from God himself!<…>

Yes, they are unlikely to be found...

What kind of fish swallowed those sacred keys,

In what seas is that fish walking - God has forgotten!

Feast for the whole world Introduction

There is a feast in the village. The feast was organized by Klim. They sent for the parish sexton Tryphon. He came with his seminarian sons Savvushka and Grisha.

... The eldest was already nineteen years old;

Now I looked at the protodeacon, and Gregory had a thin, pale face and thin, curly hair,

With a hint of red.

Simple guys, kind,

They mowed, reaped, sowed And drank vodka on holidays With the peasantry on an equal basis.

The clerk and the seminarians began to sing.

Bitter times - bitter songs

Merry “Eat the prison, Yasha!” There’s no milk!”

- “Where is our cow?”

Take away, my light!

The master took her home for the offspring.”

“Where are our chickens?” - The girls are screaming.

“Don’t yell, you fools!

The zemstvo court ate them;

I took another cart and promised to wait..."

It is glorious to live in holy Rus'!

Then the Vakhlaks sang:

Corvee

Kalinushka is poor and unkempt,

He has nothing to show off,

Only the back is painted,

You don't know behind your shirt.

From the bast shoe to the collar, the skin is all torn,

The belly swells with chaff.

Twisted, twisted,

Flogged, tormented,

Kalina barely walks.

He'll knock on the innkeeper's feet,

Sorrow will drown in wine,

Only on Saturday will it come back to haunt the wife from the master's stable...

The men remember the old order. One of the men recalls how one day their lady decided to mercilessly beat the one “who would say a strong word.” The men stopped arguing, but as soon as the will was announced, they lost their souls so much that “Priest Ivan was offended.” Another man talks about the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful. The greedy landowner Polivanov had a faithful servant, Yakov. He was devoted to the master without limit.

Yakov appeared like this from his youth, Yakov had only joy:

To care for the master, to take care of him, to please him, and to rock his little nephew.

Jacob's nephew Grisha grew up and asked the master for permission to marry the girl Arina.

However, the master himself liked her. He gave Grisha as a soldier, despite Yakov's pleas. The slave started drinking and disappeared. Polivanov feels bad without Yakov. Two weeks later the slave returned. Polivanov is going to visit his sister, Yakov is taking him. They drive through the forest, Yakov turns into a remote place - Devil's Ravine. Polivanov is frightened and begs for mercy. But Yakov says that he is not going to get his hands dirty with murder, and hangs himself from a tree. Polivanov is left alone. He spends the whole night in the ravine, screaming, calling people, but no one responds. In the morning a hunter finds him. The landowner returns home, lamenting: “I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!

After the story, the men start an argument about who is more sinful - the innkeepers, the landowners, the peasants or the robbers. Klim Lavin fights with a merchant. Jonushka, the “humble mantis,” talks about the power of faith. His story is about the holy fool Fomushka, who called people to escape to the forests, but he was arrested and taken to prison. From the cart, Fomushka shouted: “They beat you with sticks, rods, whips, you will be beaten with iron rods!” In the morning, a military team arrived and the pacification and interrogations began, i.e. Fomushka’s prophecy “almost came true.” Jonah talks about Euphrosyne, the messenger of God, who during the cholera years “buries, heals, and tends to the sick.” Jonah Lyapushkin - praying mantis and wanderer. The peasants loved him and argued about who would be the first to shelter him. When he appeared, everyone brought out icons to meet him, and Jonah followed those whose icons he liked best. Jonah tells a parable about two great sinners.

About two great sinners

The story was told to Jonah in Solovki by Father Pitirim. Twelve robbers howled, whose chieftain was Kudeyar. They lived in a dense forest, plundered a lot of wealth, and killed a lot of innocent souls. From near Kyiv, Kudeyar took himself a beautiful girl. Unexpectedly, “the Lord awakened the conscience” of the robber. Kudeyar “He took off his mistress’s head // And spotted Yesaul.” He returned home “an old man in monastic robes” and prayed to God for forgiveness day and night. The saint of the Lord appeared in front of Kudeyar. He pointed to a huge oak tree and said: “With the same knife that you robbed, // Cut it with the same hand!”<…>As soon as the tree collapses, // The chains of sin will fall.” Kudeyar begins to do what he was told. Time passes, and Pan Glukhovsky drives by. He asks what Kudeyar is doing.

The Elder heard a lot of cruel and terrible things about the master, and as a lesson to the sinner, he told his secret.

Pan grinned: “I haven’t been drinking salvation for a long time,

In the world I honor only a woman,

Gold, honor and wine.

You have to live, old man, in my opinion:

How many slaves do I destroy?

I torment, torture and hang,

I wish I could see how I’m sleeping!”

The hermit becomes furious, attacks the master and plunges a knife into his heart. At that very moment the tree collapsed, and the load of sins fell from the old man.

Both old and new Peasant sin

One admiral for military service, for the battle with the Turks near Ochakov, the empress awarded eight thousand souls of peasants. Dying, he gives the casket to Gleb the elder. The casket is ordered to be taken care of, since it contains a will according to which all eight thousand souls will receive freedom. After the death of the admiral, a distant relative appears on the estate, promises the headman a lot of money, and the will is burned. Everyone agrees with Ignat that this is a great sin. Grisha Dobrosklonov talks about the freedom of the peasants, that “there will be no new Gleb in Russia.” Vlas wishes Grisha wealth and a smart and healthy wife. Grisha in response:

I don't need any silver

Not gold, but God willing,

So that my fellow countrymen and every peasant may live freely and cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'!

A cart with hay is approaching. The soldier Ovsyannikov is sitting on the cart with his niece Ustinyushka. The soldier made his living with the help of a raik - a portable panorama that showed objects through a magnifying glass. But the instrument broke. The soldier then came up with new songs and began to play the spoons. Sings a song.

Soldier's Toshen light,

There is no truth

Life is sickening

The pain is severe.

German bullets

Turkish bullets,

French bullets

Russian sticks!

Klim notices that in his yard there is a log on which he has been chopping wood since his youth. She is “not as wounded” as Ovsyannikov. However, the soldier did not receive full board, since the doctor’s assistant, when examining the wounds, said that they were second-rate. The soldier submits a petition again.

Good time - good songs

Grisha and Savva take their father home and sing:

Share of the people

His happiness.

Light and freedom First of all!

We ask God a little:

Honest work Do it skillfully Give us strength!

Working life -

For a friend there is a direct road to the heart,

Away from the threshold

Coward and lazy!

Isn't it heaven?

Dividing the people

His happiness.

Light and freedom First of all!

Father fell asleep, Savvushka took up his book, and Grisha went into the field. Grisha has a thin face - they were underfed by the housekeeper at the seminary. Grisha remembers his mother Domna, whose favorite son he was. Sings a song:

In the midst of the world below For a free heart There are two paths.

Weigh the proud strength,

Weigh your strong will, -

Which way to go?

One spacious road is rough,

The passions of a slave

It's huge,

The greedy crowd is heading towards temptation.

About sincere life,

About a lofty goal The thought there is ridiculous.

Grisha sings a song about the bright future of his Motherland: “You are still destined to suffer a lot, // But you will not die, I know.” Grisha sees a barge hauler who, having completed his work, the coppers jingling in his pocket, goes to the tavern. Grisha sings another song.

You're miserable too

You are also abundant

You are mighty

You are also powerless

Mother Rus'!

Grisha is pleased with his song:

He heard the immense strength in his chest, The blessed sounds delighted his ears, The radiant sounds of the noble hymn - He sang the embodiment of the people's happiness!..

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