In Russia, living well is a theme. Analysis of the poem "who lives well in Russia"

Nekrasov's poem, which has become a true epic of folk life, has absorbed all the main themes of the poet's work. The main idea of ​​this work, rendered in its title, gives the poem not only national, but also universal significance. Drawing the state of post-reform Russia, the poet emphasizes that in an atmosphere of change, stable, unchanging principles stand out most clearly. There is a theme here that is closely related to the most important theme of the poet’s late lyrics: the chains of serfdom broke up, but the suffering of the people remained, there was an indelible mark left by centuries of slavery:

The great chain was torn, It was torn - it jumped: One end hit the gentleman, The other one hit the peasant! ..

The fact that the life of the people is still hard, the reader will already know in the "Prologue", where he meets wanderers who have to look for a happy one. It's "seven temporary"

The tightened province of Zaplatov, Dyryavin, Terpigorev Uyezd, Razutov, Zlobishin, Empty Volost, Gorelov, Neelova - From adjacent villages: Crop failure also ...

The very names of these villages speak eloquently of the position of the people in post-reform Russia. But this theme appears most clearly in the further course of the search for the happy, who must embody the people's dream of happiness:

We are looking for, Uncle Vlas, Unworn province, Ungutted volost, Izbytkov village! ..

In the chapter “Happy”, the stories of the “happy ones” sound bitter irony, which show the wretchedness and unbearable hardship of the life of the people, when a person, poor, sick, crippled, is happy only because he remained alive after all the suffering he endured. Such is the "muzhik's happiness" - "leaky with patches, humpbacked with corns." All subsequent meetings of peasant wanderers confirm the idea that the share of the people is still difficult.

This is especially true of the female share - another favorite theme of Nekrasov's work, which reappears with all its might in the part "Peasant Woman", which tells about the fate of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina. She, like many other Russian women, can draw a bitter conclusion:

It's not a matter - between the women To look for a happy one! ..

But the poet also sees the bright sides of people's life, which are connected with those richest opportunities that are inherent in it. This is a working people, the creator of all the material and spiritual values ​​​​with which the country is rich:

We are a little Working life - We ask God: A direct friend An honest thing To the heart is dear, To do skillfully Away from the threshold, Give us strength! Coward and lazy!

This theme is closely related to the theme of heroism inherent in the Russian national character. This is not only a heroic force, which is concentrated in the image of Savely, but the ability to stand up for the truth, for your happiness:

The army rises - Innumerable! The power in it will be indestructible!

That is why the words of the poet about the centuries-old humility and long-suffering of the people, which are also a hallmark of the national character, sound so bitter:

That is why we endured, That we are heroes. In that Russian heroism.

Savely says so, but it is not for nothing that the poet shows him, and with him the whole people, not only in humility, but also when his patience comes to an end. Saveliy tells how, unable to withstand the bullying of the German Vogel, the peasants buried him in the ground alive:

And no matter how the German ruled, Yes, our axes lay - for the time being!

It is significant that, in accordance with the laws of the epic, the national motivation here coincides with the social one. The poet claims that the people experience a similar antipathy towards the representatives of the church, although these feelings are not fully motivated. Calling the priests “a foal breed,” the peasants cannot answer why they treat them this way: “Not by themselves ... by their parents,” is all they can say. This is also a feature of epic consciousness, epic experience, which cannot be explained by the everyday experience of one generation. It is nationwide, primordial and dates back to the time of the forefathers.

But on the other hand, the hatred of the peasants for the oppressors-landowners is marked quite clearly. She clearly appears in the chapter "Landlord" and in the part "Last Child", where another major theme of Nekrasov's creativity arises - a satirical depiction of the enslavers and exploiters of the people. At the same time, the poet shows that the people's consciousness does not accept the position of the landowner Obolt-Obolduev, who longs for the times when he had unlimited power:

The law is my desire! The fist is my police!

With great doubt, the peasants listen to the story of how, after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants agree to play "gum" for the old landowner Utyatin, portraying his serfs. For this, the landowner's heirs promise the peasants, after the death of the old master, to give them water meadows. But it turns out that even in this capacity, serfdom is destructive: unable to withstand the humiliation, the peasant Agap dies. After all, serfdom cripples not only physically, but also morally. With bitterness, Nekrasov shows the people of the “servant rank” existing among the people, to whom the people themselves treat with great contempt. The poet experiences even greater pain, talking about how the people drown their grief in wine:

Every peasant has a soul like a black cloud - wrathful, formidable - and it would be necessary for thunders to thunder from there, to pour bloody rains, and everything ends with wine.

This thought runs through the entire chapter “Drunk Night”, it sounds further, but already here the appearance among the people of such people is shown who are able to soberly assess the situation of the people and try to find other ways to resist the hardships of life. After all, a sense of truth, justice, a sense of dignity are also inherent in the people's consciousness. This idea is reflected in such vivid images of the poem as Yakim Nagoi and Yermil Girin. Together with them, the work includes the themes of the awakening of the people's consciousness, its desire for truth, the ability to stand up for a common cause with the whole world (the scene of buying a mill). The democrat poet saw that popular protest was limited, elemental, faith in the tsar-father remained unchanged. Only the people's intercessor Grisha Dobrosklonov was given the opportunity to fully understand the roots of all the people's troubles: "Get strong with everything with wine," - and therefore the final part of the poem is connected with the theme of people's intercessors, summing up the development of her artistic idea.

But in the previous parts of the poem, the poet says more than once that the people have an inherent desire for truth and beauty, creative forces are alive in it, a mighty spirit that allows, in spite of everything, with their work to create everything that the Russian land is proud of: material from the site

In slavery, the saved Heart is free - Gold, gold The heart of the people!

Of course, Nekrasov sees that the protest that is ripening among the people is spontaneous and inconsistent, and his aesthetic needs are still limited to popular prints, which Yakim Nagoi cherishes so much. But the poet dreams of that time

When the people are not Blucher And not my lord stupid, Belinsky and Gogol From the market will suffer.

It is not for nothing that the chapter “Village Fair” is of such importance in the poem, in which, in the atmosphere of a wide national holiday, a theatrical spectacle arises - a folk performance, a bala-gan with its inexhaustible humor, reckless fun, and sometimes, angry ridicule of the oppressors of the people. This festive, joyful, free element of folk life is felt even more in the last chapter, “A Feast for the Whole World,” which is entirely built on a folk song basis. All this shows that the main ideological basis of the poem is the author's belief that such a people is worthy of happiness, worthy of a better share that will be won back by them:

In moments of despondency, O Motherland! I am thinking ahead. You are still destined to suffer a lot, But you will not die, I know. Enough! Finished with the last calculation, Finished with the master! The Russian people are gathering strength And learning to be a citizen.

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Nekrasov always dreamed that the Russian peasant would take at least the first step towards liberation: he would comprehend his fate, understand the causes of misfortunes, and consider the ways of liberation.

In this poem, the poet accomplishes the impossible, turning his dream into reality himself. That is why the poem turned out to be fabulous, very close to folklore.

The plot of the fairy tale poem is that seven peasants - temporarily obliged peasants - abandon their household chores and affairs and, having agreed and argued with each other to their heart's content, they go around Russia to look for a happy one, or, as they themselves say, “whoever lives happily, freely in Russia.

First, their starting understanding of happiness is naive and primitive: at the beginning of the poem they understand happiness exclusively as wealth and contentment. Therefore, the first "suspects" are the landowner, priest, even the king. On their way, they learn many destinies, get acquainted with the life stories of people of various classes and wealth, from the social bottom to the very top. Their idea of ​​happiness is gradually corrected, and the travelers themselves receive not only the necessary life experience, but also the pleasure of their search.

In essence, this is a poem-tale, in form - a poem-journey. Traveling not only in space (in Russia), but also in the spheres of life, from top to bottom.

Main character groups

Peasants-truth-seekers, wanderers, thinking about their fate and looking for a happy life in Russia.

Peasants-serfs, voluntary slaves, causing contempt or pity. Among them are “an exemplary slave - Jacob the faithful”, a yard servant Ipat, Gleb the headman.

The masters of life, the oppressors of the people, depicted evil, and sometimes with sympathy. Among them are a landowner, a priest, and others.

People's defenders who took the first steps towards the struggle for people's happiness. This is the robber Kudeyar, Savely - the Holy Russian hero, Yakim Nagoi, Ermil Girin, Matryona Timofeevna, Grigory Dobrosklonov.

The idea and composition of the poem

This poem became the main Nekrasov book. He conceived and started it in 1863, shortly after the abolition of serfdom, and wrote until his death, almost 15 years, but never finished.

Of the four large fragments, only "part one" was conceived by Nekrasov as complete, completed. The chapters "The Last Child" and "A Feast for the Whole World", connected both by plot and by the time of action, have the author's notes "from the second part", and "The Peasant Woman" has the subtitle "from the third part". Almost nothing else is clear. Looking at the parts, we must guess at the possible whole.

Today, the chapters are usually arranged in the order of the author's work on them: “Part One” - “Last Child” - “Peasant Woman” - “A Feast for the Whole World”. It is precisely such a composition that is prompted by the logic of the change in the ideas of peasant truth-seekers about a happy person, although Nekrasov did not have time to build parts and chapters in the order he needed.

The idea of ​​the poem

The main idea of ​​the poem is that the reform of 1861 did not bring relief and happiness to either the “master” or the “muzhik”:

The great chain is broken

Torn - jumped:

One end - on the master,

Others - for a man! ..

For the priest, happiness lies in the feudal past, when the church was maintained by rich landlords, and the ruin of the landowners led to the impoverishment of the peasants and the decline of the clergy.

Two landowners Obolt-Obolduev (chapter V1 of part) and Utyatin-prince (chapter "The Last") yearn for the forever lost paradise of serf Russia, when noble happiness consisted in idleness, luxury, gluttony, self-will and autocracy. The wealth of the “progressive” landowner is based on extortions from quitrent peasants, and the landowner’s peace is a belief in the idyll of a single family of a feudal landowner (father) and peasants (children), where the father can punish in a paternal way, or maybe generously pardon. The happiness of Prince Utyatin from the chapter "Last Child" lies in the satisfaction of lust for power and in tyranny, conceited pride in one's origin. And now - wealth has been lost, peace has been lost (peasants-robbers are all around), no one favors noble honor (wanderers call the landlords "scoundrels"), and the landowner himself received a speaking surname, which combines a fool, a fool and a balda.

What is happiness in the eyes of the people? In the chapter “Happy”, those who like to drink a gratuitous cup talk about their happiness as the absence of unhappiness (“Country Fair”). The soldier is happy that in twenty battles he “was, not killed”, “I was mercilessly beaten with sticks”, but remained alive. The old woman rejoices that she will not die of hunger, as many raps were born "on a small ridge." The bricklayer, who overstrained himself at work, is glad that he finally got to his native village:

Hey, happiness man!

Leaky with patches

Humpbacked with calluses.

The people in the concept of happiness are content with small things, taking for it even small luck. The gallery of happy people ends with an ironic paradox: the parade of “lucky ones” is completed by the beggars, for whom happiness lies in receiving alms.

But here the peasant Fedosey from the village of Dymoglotov calls the wanderers happy - Yermila Girin. At first he is a clerk, then he is chosen as a steward. He retreated from the truth only once, saving his “little brother Mitriy” from recruitment, but then repents publicly, receives forgiveness, successfully fights for the mill with the merchant Altynnikov, collecting money from everyone, and then honestly returns it to those who donated. The end of Girin's story is shrouded in mystery: he was called to help pacify the peasants of the "landowner Obrubkov", and then it is reported that "he is sitting in prison" (obviously, he turned out to be on the side of the rebels).

In the chapter "Peasant Woman" Nekrasov creates a wonderful image of Matryona Timofeevna, who has passed all the tests possible for a Russian woman: family "hell" in her husband's house, the terrible death of a child, public punishment at the whim of a tyrant-landlord, her husband's soldierhood. But she continues to rule the house, raise children. The author saw the happiness of a Russian peasant woman through the eyes of wanderers in unbending steadfastness and great patience.

Another “lucky one” is Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero: “branded, but not a slave!” - endured, endured, but his patience came to an end, however, after 18 years of humiliation. For swearing at the German manager, nine men, led by Savely, bury him alive in the ground, for which he receives years of hard labor. After serving his sentence, Savely becomes the unwitting culprit of the death of his grandson, leaves to wander, repents and dies, having lived to "one hundred and seven years."

There are three paths for men:

Tavern, jail and hard labor ...

Only in the epilogue does a truly happy character appear - Grigory Dobrosklonov. Growing up in the family of a sexton, he lives an ordinary difficult peasant life, but with the help of fellow villagers he enters the seminary and chooses his own path, in which the word is the main weapon. This is the way of the poet - the people's intercessor.

Nekrasov's happiest person is not a tsar, not a drunk, not a slave, not a landowner, but a poet singing radiant hymns about people's happiness. The songs composed by Grisha are one of the strongest points in the poem.

Thus, following the questions of Gogol “Rus, where are you rushing to?”, Herzen “Who is to blame?”, Chernyshevsky “What to do?” Nekrasov poses another eternal Russian question: “Who is living well in Russia?”

In February 1861, serfdom was abolished in Russia. This progressive event greatly stirred up the peasants and caused a wave of new problems. Nekrasov described the main one in the poem "Elegy", where there is an aphoristic line: "The people are freed, but are the people happy?". In 1863, Nikolai Alekseevich began to work on a poem "Who in Russia to live well", which addresses the problems of all segments of the country's population after the abolition of serfdom.

Despite the rather simple, folklore style of narration, the work is quite difficult for correct perception, since it touches on serious philosophical issues. For many of them, Nekrasov was looking for answers all his life. And the poem itself, which was created for a long 14 years, was never completed. Of the planned eight parts, the author managed to write four that do not follow one after another. After the death of Nikolai Alekseevich, the publishers faced a problem: in what order should the parts of the poem be published. Today we are getting acquainted with the text of the work in the order proposed by Korney Chukovsky, who meticulously worked with the writer's archives.

Some of Nekrasov's contemporaries argued that the author had the idea of ​​the poem back in the 50s, before the abolition of serfdom. Nikolai Alekseevich wanted to fit into one work everything he knew about the people and heard from many people. To some extent, he succeeded.

Many genre definitions have been selected for the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia". Some critics claim that this is a "poem-journey", others speak of it as a "Russian Odyssey". The author himself considered his work epic because it depicts the life of the people at a turning point in history. Such a period can be a war, a revolution, and in our case, the abolition of serfdom.

The author tried to describe the current events through the eyes of ordinary people and using their vocabulary. As a rule, there is no main character in the epic. Nekrasov's poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" fully meets these criteria.

But the question of main character The poem has been raised more than once; it haunts literary critics to this day. If approached formally, then the main characters can be considered arguing men who went to look for happy people in Russia. Perfect for this role Grisha Dobrosklonov- People's educator and savior. It is quite possible to admit that the main character in the poem is the entire Russian people. This is clearly reflected in the mass scenes of festivities, fairs, haymaking. Important decisions are made in Russia by the whole world, even a sigh of relief after the death of the landowner escaped from the peasants at the same time.

Plot The work is quite simple - seven men accidentally met on the road, who started a dispute on the topic: who lives well in Russia? To solve it, the heroes set off on a journey across the country. On a long journey, they meet a variety of people: merchants, beggars, drunkards, landowners, a priest, a wounded soldier, a prince. The disputants also had a chance to see many pictures from life: a prison, a fair, birth, death, weddings, holidays, auctions, elections of a burgomaster, etc.

Seven men are not described by Nekrasov in detail, their characters are practically not disclosed. Wanderers go together towards the same goal. But the characters of the second plan (the village headman, Saveliy, the serf Yakov and others) are drawn brightly, with many small details and nuances. This allows us to conclude that the author, in the person of seven men, created a conditionally allegorical image of the people.

Problems that Nekrasov raised in his poem are very diverse and relate to the life of different strata of society: greed, poverty, illiteracy, obscurantism, swagger, moral degradation, drunkenness, arrogance, cruelty, sinfulness, the difficulty of transitioning to a new way of life, unlimited patience and a thirst for rebellion , oppression.

But the key problem of the work is the concept of happiness, which each character decides on their own. For wealthy people, such as the priest and the landowner, happiness is personal well-being. It is very important for a man to be able to get away from troubles and misfortunes: the bear chased, but did not catch up, they beat him hard at work, but they did not beat him to death, etc.

But there are characters in the work who do not seek happiness only for themselves, they strive to make all people happy. Such heroes are Yermil Girin and Grisha Dobrosklonov. In the mind of Gregory, love for his mother grew into love for the whole country. In the soul of the guy, the poor and unfortunate mother was identified with the same poor country. And the seminarian Grisha considers the enlightenment of the people the goal of his life. From the way Dobrosklonov understands happiness, the main idea of ​​the poem follows: this feeling can only be fully felt by the person who is ready to devote his life to the struggle for the happiness of the people.

Oral folk art can be considered the main artistic means of the poem. The author makes extensive use of folklore in the pictures of the life of the peasants and in the description of the future protector of Russia, Grisha Dobrosklonov. Nekrasov uses folk vocabulary in the text of the poem in different ways: as a direct stylization (the prologue is composed), the beginning of a fairy tale (self-assembled tablecloth, the mythical number seven) or indirectly (lines from folk songs, references to various legends and epics).

The language of the work is stylized as a folk song. There are many dialectisms in the text, numerous repetitions, diminutive suffixes in words, stable constructions in descriptions. Because of this, the work “Who Lives Well in Russia” is perceived by many as folk art. In the middle of the nineteenth century, folklore was studied not only from the point of view of science, but also as a way for the intelligentsia to communicate with the people.

Having analyzed in detail Nekrasov’s work “Who Lives Well in Russia”, it is easy to understand that even in its unfinished form it is a literary heritage and is of great value. And today the poem is of great interest to literary critics and readers. Studying the historical features of the Russian people, we can conclude that they have changed a little, but the essence of the problem has remained the same - the search for one's happiness.

• Images of landlords in Nekrasov's poem "Who should live well in Russia"

Before you is an excellent essay-reasoning for grade 10 on the topic “Nekrasov’s poem “Who should live well in Russia?” - encyclopedia of folk life. The essay is designed primarily for students in grade 10, but can be used in other classes.

This essay analyzes the main theme of the work - the life of the common people in Russia. The author of the work pays attention to the style of the poem, analyzing those artistic means that help Nekrasov achieve poetic accuracy in creating this encyclopedia of folk life.

Essay-reasoning "Nekrasov's poem" Who in Russia should live well? - encyclopedia of folk life "

Nekrasov's poem "Who should live well in Russia?" called an epic poem. An epic is a work of art that depicts an entire era in the life of a people with maximum completeness. In the center of Nekrasov's work is the image of post-reform Russia. Nekrasov wrote his poem for twenty years, collecting material for it. "by word of mouth". The poem is unusually broad coverage of folk life. The author wanted to depict in it all social strata: from the peasant to the king. But, unfortunately, the poem was never finished, the death of the poet prevented. In this way the main theme of the work was the life of the people, the life of the peasants.

This life appears before us with extraordinary brightness and distinctness. All the hardships and misfortunes that the people have to endure, all this difficulty and severity of its existence. Despite the reform of 1861, which freed the peasants, they found themselves in an even worse situation: not having their own land, they fell into even greater bondage.

This motif of the hungry life of a poor peasant, whom " longing - trouble exhausted ” sounds with particular force in folk songs, of which there are quite a few in the work. In an effort to recreate the picture of folk life in its entirety, Nekrasov also uses all the richness of folk culture, all the multicolored folklore.

However, recalling the folk talent with expressive songs, Nekrasov does not soften the colors, immediately showing poverty and rude morals, religious prejudices and drunkenness in peasant life. The situation of the people is depicted with the utmost distinctness by the names of those places where the truth-seeking peasants come from:

County Terpigorev,

empty parish,

From adjacent villages

Zaplatova, Dyryavina,

Razutova, Znobishina,

Gorelova, Neelova -

Crop failure too...

The poem very clearly depicts the joyless, disenfranchised, hungry life of the people and " peasant happiness, full of holes with patches, humpbacked with calluses ", and " hungry courtyards, abandoned by the master to the mercy of fate " - all people " who did not eat to their fill, slurped unsalted «.

A whole network of bright and varied images rises before us: along with inactive serfs like Yakov, Gleb, Sidor, Ipat, images of Matryona Timofeevna, the hero Saveliy, Yakim Nagogoy, Ermil Girin, the headman of Vlas, the seven truth-seekers and others, who have retained true humanity and spiritual nobility, and others appear. These best of the peasants in the poem retained the ability to self-sacrifice, each of them has his own task in life, his own reason to “search for the truth”, but all of them together testify that peasant Russia has already awakened, come to life. There are already people who can sincerely say these words:

I don't need any silver

No gold, but God forbid

So that my countrymen

And every peasant

Life was easy, fun

All over holy Russia!

For example, in Yakima Nagoi, a peculiar character of a people's truth-seeker, a peasant righteous man is presented. Yakim Nagoi is able to deeply understand what is the strength and weakness of the peasant soul:

Every peasant has

The soul is like a black cloud

Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary

Thunder rumble from there,

pouring bloody rain

And everything ends with wine!

Yakov Nagoy lives the same hard-working, beggarly life, like all the peasantry. But, endowing him with a rebellious disposition and a craving for the sublime (a story with pictures), Nekrasov is trying to outline in this image the desire of the peasantry for spiritual life, to show that a protest against existing living conditions is already brewing in the souls of the people. But while it is little noticeable and does not declare itself.

Yermil Girin is also remarkable. A literate peasant, he served as a clerk, became famous throughout the district for his justice, intelligence and disinterested devotion to the people. Yermil showed himself to be an exemplary headman when the people chose him for this position. However, Nekrasov does not make him an ideal righteous man. Ermil, taking pity on his younger brother, appoints Vlasyevna's son as a recruit, and then, in a fit of repentance, almost commits suicide. The story of Ermil ends sadly. He is imprisoned for his performance during the riot. The image of Ermil tells us about the spiritual forces lurking in the Russian people, the richness of the moral qualities of the peasant.

However, the peasant protest turns directly into a revolt in the chapter “ Saveliy - Holy Russian hero". The murder of a German oppressor, which happened spontaneously, personifies large-scale peasant revolts, which also arose spontaneously, as a response to cruel oppression by the landlords.

Savely the hero is the most positive image in the poem. The spirit of a rebel lives in him, hatred for the oppressors, but at the same time such human qualities as sincere love, fortitude, a sense of human dignity, understanding of life and the ability to deeply empathize with the grief of others are preserved.

It was these heroes, and not the meek and submissive, that were close to Nekrasov. The poet saw that the consciousness of the peasantry was awakening, a stormy protest against oppression was brewing. With pain and bitterness, he realized the suffering of the people, but still looked with hope into their future, sometimes into " hidden spark » mighty internal forces:

The army rises

innumerable,

Her strength seems to be unstoppable.

The peasant theme in the poem is inexhaustible, multifaceted, the main motive of the poem is the motive of the search for peasant happiness. Here we can also recall the “happy” peasant woman Matrena Timofeevna, whose image absorbed everything that a Russian peasant woman could experience and experience. Her tremendous willpower, with so many sufferings and hardships, was characteristic of all Russian women, the most destitute and downtrodden creatures in Russia.

Of course, there are many more interesting images in the poem: serf exemplary Jacob the faithful “who managed to take revenge on his master; hard-working peasants from the chapter "The Last", who are forced to break a comedy in front of the old prince Utyatin, pretending that there was no abolition of serfdom, and many other images.

All these images, even episodic, create a mosaic, bright canvas of the poem, echo each other. That is why, I think, it is possible to call Nekrasov’s poem “Who in Russia should live well?” encyclopedia of folk life. The poet, as an epic artist, strove for the completeness of the reconstruction of life, to reveal the whole diversity of folk characters. The poem, based on folklore material, gives the impression of being performed for many voices.

“Who is living well in Russia?” The poem begins with this question. The heroes who set out to look for "who lives happily, freely in Russia" ask questions to representatives of different classes and receive different answers. Sometimes opposite ideals of happiness appear before us. However, the main goal of the heroes is to find “muzhik happiness”. Who are they happy? How to combine personal happiness with public? These are the questions the author asks himself and his characters.

For the landowner Obolt-Obolduev and Prince Utyatin, happiness is a thing of the past. These heroes regret the times of serfdom: "string" allowed them to be self-willed, spend time in idleness and gluttony, the fun of dog hunting ... "Peace, wealth, honor" - this is the formula for happiness that the pop brings, but in reality it turns out that there is no peace, no wealth, no honor in the life of a clergyman.

The peasant world appears before us in the chapter "Happy". It would seem that now, judging by the title of the chapter, we will get the answer to the main question of the poem. Is it so? The happiness of a soldier lies in the fact that the poor fellow was not killed in battles, not beaten with sticks, punishing for “great and small” offenses. The stonemason is happy that, by working, he drives away the need from the family. A Belarusian peasant, having suffered from hunger in the past, rejoices in satiety in the present ... Thus, happiness for these people consists in the absence of misfortune.

Further in the poem, images of people's intercessors appear. A clear conscience, the trust of people - this is Yermila Girin's happiness. For Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, endowed with fortitude, self-esteem, the idea of ​​happiness is associated with family and children. For Savely, happiness is freedom. But do they have what they say? ..

Nobody lives well in Russia. Why are there no happy people in Russia? Is serfdom alone, the habit of slavery, to blame? Will the country move towards happiness if the memory of serfdom disappears? This is how Grisha Dobrosklonov is inclined to think. But for Nekrasov, this is only part of the truth. Let us recall the "Elegy" ("Let the changeable fashion speak to us..."): "The people are liberated, but are the people happy? ..".

The problem of happiness is translated by the author into a moral plane. The key theme of the poem is the theme of sin. Numerous peasant sins, uniting with the master's, fall like a heavy cross on Russia. Everyone is sinful, even the best: Yermila Girin shielded his brother from recruitment at the cost of widow's tears; Savely responded to oppression with murder... Is happiness possible at the expense of another? And what are they all the same - the paths leading to people's happiness? True happiness is the struggle for the people's welfare. Living for others is the ideal of Grisha Dobrosklonov. From the author's point of view, the only possible path to happiness is the path of redemption, sacrifice, asceticism. Matryona Korchagina lies down under the whip, Savely exhausts himself with a vow, Ermila Girin goes to prison, Grisha chooses "the glorious path, the loud name of the people's intercessor, consumption and Siberia."

Despite everything, the ending of the poem is optimistic. The author leads us to the conclusion that, firstly, the happiness of the people will be possible only when they become the full owner of their land. Secondly, only one who fulfills his duty to the people can be happy, sees the goal of life in his liberation from the sin of slavery, servility, poverty, drunkenness, savagery, and therefore - in universal happiness. Only in the struggle "for the embodiment of the happiness of the people" does a person "life freely, cheerfully in Russia."