The image of the peasant in Russian literature. Analysis of the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", Images of Peasants Formulate the collective character traits of Russian peasants

The most extensive in conception and execution of the work of N. A. Nekrasov, a synthesis of the main motifs of his poetry, truly an encyclopedia of an entire era in the life of the Russian people, is the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia”. Presumably, work on it began in 1863. In the first issue of Sovremennik in 1866, the Prologue of the poem was published. In 1869-1870. a new Nekrasov magazine - "Notes of the Fatherland" - places the chapters of the first part. Two parts - "Last Child" and "Peasant Woman" were written almost simultaneously and published in 1873-1874. (the sequence of these parts within the poem has been and remains controversial). Finally, the part that was destined to be the last, “A Feast for the Whole World”, belongs to 1876.

Thus, the poem remained unfinished. Within the framework of the work, there is no meeting of peasants with an official, merchant, "noble boyar, minister of the sovereign", the tsar, while Nekrasov wanted to satisfy the curiosity of all seven peasants. “One thing that I deeply regret is that I did not finish my poem “Who in Russia should live well,” the poet said before his death. It is easy to see that at first he worked with greater intensity. After the end of the first part, the work progressed with difficulty, with interruptions, life did not give an unambiguous answer to the questions posed in the poem, and when Nekrasov was “exasperated” in a conversation, “whoever lives happily, freely in Russia,” he answered half-jokingly and evasively: “Hmel ".

The guiding thread in understanding the intent and content of the poem is Nekrasov's interest in the historical destinies of the Russian peasantry, although peasant happiness is only spoken of in an ironic sense - this is the holey and hunchbacked happiness of the peasants of the Tightened Province. But until the question of the contentment and happiness of the Russian peasant, representing the overwhelming majority of the people - his name is legion - is not resolved, no one can be happy in Russia. What are the Nekrasov wanderers looking for? They themselves speak of this in the chapter "Last Child":

We are looking for, Uncle Vlas,

unworn province,

Not gutted volost,

Izbytkova village.

They search and do not find. The question of the fate of the peasantry is the question of why there is no happiness for the peasant and where are the "keys to this happiness."

The poem was begun by Nekrasov immediately after the reform, and therefore in it, as in other works of the poet of this period, reflections are natural about whether the life of the people has changed for the better. The poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" contains an attempt, if not to give an answer, then at least to raise this question in all its depth and complexity. “Peasant orders are endless,” says the heroine of the head of “Peasant Woman” Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina. Dependence remained the same after the reform, only changing its forms:

... You work alone

And a little work is over,

Look, there are three equity holders:

God, king, and lord.

And although the peasants have no reason, like Obolt-Obolduev, to yearn for recent times, they are forced to admit that in the bitter lamentations of the landowner (“On all of you, Mother Russia, - Like brands on a criminal, - Like a brand on a horse, - Two the words are scrawled - "Take away and drink") has its own truth. The feudal order was based on arbitrariness, non-economic coercion (“whom I want - I will have mercy, whom I want - I will execute”), but it was still a certain “order”. Now, says Obolt-Obolduev, "the fields are unfinished, the crops are not sown, there is no trace of order!" And Nekrasov's "temporarily liable" perceive a new, only emerging way of life, not without fear.

In the part of the poem called “A Feast for the Whole World”, the festive Vakhlachina, who was reminded of the great peasant sin, suddenly sees herself not as the tipsy and courageous peasants imagined, but as she really is:

The proud people are gone

With a confident walk

Wahlaki remained,

Not eating enough

Unsalted slurped,

Which instead of the master

The fight will be volost.

Under these conditions, a type of behavior of the Russian peasant is formed, in which patience and anger, cunning and naivety, diligence and apathy, benevolence and irascibility are intricately intertwined.

Where is the exit? The answer to this question is neither simple nor unambiguous. It is given by the entire system of images of the work. This answer contains not only confidence, but also bitter thoughts and doubts. Russia, great and miserable, mighty and powerless, in all its diverse manifestations appears in the poem.

What is the greatness of peasant Russia? First of all, in hard work, truly heroic, but poorly rewarded and, most often, forced labor. The greatness of peasant Russia lies in the fact that, crushed by slavery, it retained faith in a better life, trust and cordiality. A random passerby, a wanderer, a stranger in a Russian village will be given food and lodging for the night, they will be happy to talk with him.

The poverty of peasant Russia is in its darkness, ignorance, backwardness (including moral backwardness), reaching the point of savagery. Wanderers are surprised to see how Vakhlaks beat a person for no reason at all.

In the poet's field of vision are such common phenomena of Russian folk life as drunkenness and foul language. “Without swearing, as usual, - A word will not be said, - Crazy, indecent, - She is the most audible of all!” (from the chapter “Drunken Night”). This feature of popular communication receives an aphoristic expression: "... a peasant does not bark - it is one thing to be silent." The scale of people's drunkenness in the image of Nekrasov is truly monstrous. Not without reason, in the conditionally fabulous Prologue, the magic bird-chiffchaff warns the peasants:

And you can ask for vodka

In day exactly on a bucket.

If you ask more

And one and two - it will be fulfilled

At your request,

And in the third be trouble!

The cherished "bucket" greatly facilitates the search for a happy wanderer, opens souls and unties tongues. The old plowman Yakim Nagoi says about himself:

He works to death.

Drinks half to death.

The squalor of peasant Russia lies in its age-old patience. I recall the contemptuous remarks of the old rebel Savely: “The dead ... the lost ...”, “Oh, you, Aniki warriors! - With old men, with women - you only have to fight! God, the king and master are not only the masters of the peasant, they are often idols that he is accustomed to worship. Of course, Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero, is a type of Russian peasant, but an exemplary serf, Jacob the faithful, is also a type of Russian peasant. Slave dependence gives rise to "real dogs" who are proud of their slavish fate - up to such as the courtier Prince Peremetyev, who is proud that he licked plates "with the best French truffle", drank foreign drinks from glasses and was ill with a noble disease, "whatever from the first persons in the empire, ”or the courtier of Prince Utyatin Ipat, who, to old age, proudly tells how a master who was on a spree bought him in the winter in an ice hole.

Nekrasov cherishes the idea of ​​unity, solidarity of the peasants, the peasant "peace". The scene is expressive when, in the lawsuit of the conscientious, honest and beloved by the peasants, Yermila Ilyich Girin, with the merchant Altynnikov, the support of the peasants helps him win:

The merchant Altynnikov is rich,

And he can't resist

Against the worldly treasury...

But the "world" is poorly aware of its own interests, unduly trusting in its masters; in The Last, for example, the peasant community allows the landowner to mock the peasants - in the hope of the word of honor of his heirs - to give them meadows after the death of Prince Utyatin. But the Last One dies, and the Vahlaks are still litigating for the meadows with the young Ducks.

The writer is especially interested in the best manifestations of the Russian peasant character, the emergence of self-consciousness among the people. The rudiments of this self-consciousness are already there in those crushed by need and overwork. Yakima Nagogo. This man has been roasting under the sun behind a plow for thirty years. And now this miserable wretched plowman delivers a passionate, dignified monologue in defense of the peasant. Yakim is characterized by the rudiments of an aesthetic sense, and an understanding of people and their relationships, and he lives "not by bread alone."

With special lyricism and penetration, confession is presented in the poem Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina. Self-esteem was given to her at a high price. Matryona Timofeevna had to experience both mockery of her maternal feeling, and arrogant harassment by the master's manager Sitnikov, and a whip. And the affectionate intercession of the governor's wife, who saved Matrena Timofeevna's husband, Philip, from St. Petersburg, from recruitment, is not able to erase from the heart of the bitter insults and insults she has endured.

"Angry Heart" Matrena Timofeevna is no exception. Even the incorrigible serf Yakov the Faithful is sickened by continuous abuse, and his suicide is also a kind of ray of light in the dark kingdom. The accumulation of combustible material in the people's environment is obvious, and therefore this environment must put forward its leaders, "protectors". Types of people's intercessors also appear in Nekrasov's poem.

A vivid embodiment of peasant strength and rebellion is Savely, "Holy Russian hero". Indeed, there is something in him from an epic hero who lifted a terrible thrust and went into the ground "with an effort." It is no coincidence that when she saw a monument to Ivan Susanin in the provincial town, Matryona Timofeevna recalls her grandfather Saveliy:

It is made of forged copper,

Exactly Savely grandfather,

The man in the square.

Savely - from the breed of those peasants who, under the leadership of Razin and Pugachev, hung and threw nobles from the bell towers, shook Moscow and all landlord Russia. A former convict, who, under the Russian word "Naddai!" together with other peasants, he buried the German steward in the ground and, in his own words, “was more ferocious than the beast”, Savely, however, until the end of his life proudly bears his human dignity: “Branded, but not a slave! ..”. Savely still keeps the memory of those ancient times, when the peasant community, using dense forests and marshy swamps, really defended freedom, when Korezina staunchly stood up for her rights even under the rods. But these times are in the past, and the heroic spirit of grandfather Savely is far from real life. He passes away unconquered, but in the conviction that the fate of the Russian peasant cannot be changed and "the truth cannot be found."

And yet, the memory of liberty is alive in the Russian peasant, just as the legend of the robber Kudeyar, who atoned for his sins by killing the landowner Pan Glukhovsky, "rich, noble, the first in that direction," is alive. Nekrasov, therefore, allows violence as one of the possible ways in the just reorganization of social relations. But not only through violence is it possible to change the relationship between people for the better. Another path is indicated by the poet in the image of Yermila Girin.

Ermil Girin- a literate peasant, which in itself was a rarity. Even more rare were his conscientiousness and unselfishness, which manifested themselves even at the time when the twenty-year-old Yermil was a clerk in the office. And this is in a country where a bribe was as common as drunkenness and foul language! The peasants appreciated Girin and elected him headman. Once Yermil stumbled: he saved his brother from recruitment by putting another young guy out of line, and he experienced this wrong step as a real tragedy, achieving justice and resigning from the post of headman. And in his new position, becoming the owner of the mill, which he bargained with Altynnikov, Girin remained true to himself:

... And he became thicker than before

All the people love:

I took it for a prayer in good conscience,

Didn't stop the people

<…>

The order was strict!

If people of different classes were like Yermil - the peasants would not have to look for a happy man for a long time, it would not be necessary to restore justice with the help of violence. But people who look like Yermil are an exceptional phenomenon in Russia, and the story about Yermil ends with the fact that he is in prison. On the path of law and justice, it is impossible to achieve justice ...

The image of Grigory Dobrosklonov. Grigory is the son of a semi-poor village deacon who survived a difficult childhood, the early death of his mother and survived thanks to compassionate fellow villagers. Grigory Dobrosklonov is a child of Vakhlachina, he is well acquainted with the peasant share and peasant labor, but his path is different. He is a seminarian, dreams of a university, but from childhood he knows for sure who his mind and knowledge will belong to. The poet's cherished thought about the return of the debt to the people by the intelligentsia is expressed here in the simplest version, but there is no doubt that Nekrasov thereby explores the problem of the formation of a democratic intelligentsia as a whole, the genesis of its firm devotion to the interests of the peasantry, "humiliated" and "offended", and at the same time the same time - her tragic loneliness, indicated in the fate of Grigory Dobrosklonov. In the songs of Grigory Dobrosklonov one can see the poet's historical optimism, a foreboding of fundamental changes in Russian life.

However, it is impossible not to see that the image of the “people's protector” is extremely romanticized, and only at the level of romanticized consciousness can Gregory feel happy (“If only our wanderers were under their native roof, If only they could know what was happening with Grisha”) . Against the backdrop of the people's backwardness, so convincingly shown in the life of his native Vakhlachina, the extreme rarity among the people among people like Yermil Girin, the extreme scarcity and in the most intelligent environment of people for whom "the share of the people, their happiness, light and freedom" is really the most precious thing. ”, the ending of the poem remains open, and it should be remembered that, according to Nekrasov’s plan, “A Feast for the Whole World” does not complete his work. Is there enough strength in the people's milieu for moral renewal? Is the Russian people able to arrange their lives happily, will they learn to “be a citizen” or will they, with their “golden” heart, be destined to end up in the backyards of civilization? Will the "people's intercessors" remain faithful to the precepts of the "angel of mercy"? There is no answer to these questions in the poem, just as the poem itself is not completed; this answer is lost in the fog of historical perspective...

Despite the incompleteness, “To Whom It Is Good to Live in Russia” is not only Nekrasov's largest work, but also one of the largest in Russian poetry. In terms of the scale and depth of the depiction of folk life, the diversity of the poetic narrative, the comprehension of the folk character both in its mass manifestations and in individual destinies, “Who Lives Well in Russia” is indeed a folk epic. Starting from the "Prologue", the folk poetic element organically enters the fabric of a literary work: fairy tale and song motifs, lamentations (especially in the chapter "Peasant Woman"), small genres - sayings, proverbs, riddles. But it must be borne in mind that Nekrasov approached folklore not as an imitator, a timid epigone, but as a self-confident and exacting master, a mature poet who had a certain attitude towards the people and their word. And he never treated folklore blindly, but disposed of it completely freely, subordinated it to his ideological tasks and his own, Nekrasov style.

Source (in abbreviation): Russian literary classics of the 19th century: Textbook / Ed. A.A. Slinko and V.A. Svitelsky. - Voronezh: Native speech, 2003

“Images of peasants in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Russia"

Poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Russia" was created in the last period of the poet's life (1863-1876). The ideological idea of ​​the poem is indicated already in its title, and then it is repeated in the text: who in Russia has a good life? In the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia” N.A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their plight. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question, “who lives happily, freely in Russia”, who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The poet speaks about the essence of the royal manifesto in the words of the people: "You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us." The poet touched upon the topical problems of his time, condemned slavery and oppression, glorified the freedom-loving, talented, strong-willed Russian people. The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. They live in the villages: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, the desire to find a happy person in Russia. Traveling, the peasants meet different people, give them an assessment, determine their attitude to the priest, to the landowner, to the peasant reform, to the peasants. The peasants do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of ​​happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the king. Peasants-truth-seekers have a sense of their own dignity. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, higher, smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the love of the people for work, their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matrena Timofeevna's crop is dying, the men offer her help without hesitation. The peasants of the Illiterate province are just as willing to help mow the grass. “Like teeth from hunger” everyone has a nimble hand.

Traveling in Russia, men meet various people. The disclosure of the images of the heroes met by the truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the position of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility.

After listening to the story of the priest about his "happiness", having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants cut him off: you are past them, the landowners! We know them! Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the word of the nobility, they need a "Christian word." “Give me a Christian word! Nobility with a scolding, With a push and with a denture, That is unsuitable for us! They have self-respect. In the chapter "Happy" they angrily see off a sexton, a yard clerk, who boasted of his servile position: "Get out!" They sympathize with the terrible story of the soldier and say to him: “Here, drink, servant! There is nothing to argue with you. You are happy - there is no word.

The author pays the main attention to the peasants. The images of Yakim Nagogoy, Yermila Girin, Saveliy, Matrena Timofeevna combine both common, typical features of the peasantry, such as hatred for all “shareholders” who drain their vitality, and individual features.

More fully, Nekrasov reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before the masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position. Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under a harrow from heat and rain. His portrait testifies to constant hard work:

And myself to mother earth

He looks like: a brown neck,

Like a layer cut off with a plow,

brick face...

The chest is sunken, like a depressed belly. Bends near the eyes, near the mouth, like cracks in the dry earth ... Reading the description of the peasant's face, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him. “You work alone, and as soon as the work is over, look, there are three equity holders: God, the king and the master!” Throughout his long life, Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, starved, went to prison, and, "like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland." But still he finds in himself the strength to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his hut with pictures, loves and uses a well-aimed word, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the seasonal industry. And his voice is the voice of the most resolute peasants. Yakim understands that the peasantry is a great force. He is proud to belong to him. He knows the strength and weakness of the "peasant soul":

Soul that black cloud -

Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary

Thunders rumble from there ...

And everything ends with wine ...

Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the true reason for this situation - the need to work for "shareholders". The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Russia: he “once lived in St. Petersburg”, but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “stripped like a velcro” and “took a plow”.

The writer treats his hero Yermil Girin with great sympathy, a village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants: twisted ... ”Yermil acted not in good conscience only once, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness." The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, showing exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not afraid of the jail, took the side of the peasants when: “the patrimony of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled ...” Ermil Girin is the defender of peasant interests. If the protest of Yakim Nagogoi is spontaneous, then Yermil Girin rises to a conscious protest.

Another hero of the work is Savely. Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero - a fighter for the cause of the people. Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He reflects on whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights, their oppressed state. Saveliy comes to the conclusion: it is better to “not tolerate” than to “endure”, and he calls for a protest. In his youth, he, like all peasants, for a long time endured cruel abuse from the landowner Shalashnikov, his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the living German Vogel in the ground. "Twenty years of strict penal servitude, twenty years of settlement" Savely received for this. Returning to his native village as an old man, Savely retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" he said about himself. Savely to old age retained a clear mind, cordiality, responsiveness. In the poem, he is shown as a people's avenger: "our axes lay - for the time being!" He speaks contemptuously of the passive peasants, calling them "the dead ... the lost." Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, raising him very high, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom. The image of Savely is given in one chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters.

nekrasov poem peasantry rus

In the last chapter, entitled "A Woman's Parable", a peasant woman speaks of the common female share: "The keys to women's happiness, to our free will are abandoned, lost from God himself." But Nekrasov is sure that the "keys" must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobrosklonov's songs: “You are still a slave in the family, but the mother is already a free son!”

With great love, Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, who expressed the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors. However, the writer did not close his eyes to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who are corrupted by the masters and have become accustomed to their slavish position. In the chapter "Happy" the truth-seeking peasants meet with a "broken-down courtyard man" who considers himself lucky because he was Prince Peremetiev's favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his "daughter - together with the young lady studied both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess." And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the rest of the overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the meanness of his lackey position. The court yard of Prince Utyatin Ipat did not even believe that the "freedom" was announced to the peasants: "And I am the princes Utyatin Kholop - and that's the whole story!"

From childhood to old age, the master, as best he could, mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted: “He ransomed me, the last slave, in the winter in the hole! Yes, how wonderful! Two ice-holes: he will lower it in a seine into one, he will instantly pull it out into the other and bring vodka. ” Ipat could not forget the master's "favors" that, after swimming in the hole, the prince would "bring vodka", then he would plant "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person."

The obedient slave is also shown in the image of "an exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful." Yakov served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... casually blew with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and gratified the master until his old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Jacob "stupid". First, he "drank it dead", and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.

With deep indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain." For images of courtyard peasants who became slaves of their masters and abandoned true peasant interests, the poet finds words of angry contempt: a slave, a serf, a dog, Judas.

The poem also notes such a feature of the Russian peasantry as religiosity. It's a way to get away from reality. God is the supreme judge, from whom the peasants seek protection and justice. Faith in God is the hope for a better life.

Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization: “people of the servile rank are real dogs sometimes: the harder the punishment, the dearer they are to the Lord.” Creating various types of peasants, Nekrasov claims that there are no happy ones among them, that even after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants are still destitute and bloodless. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest, and he believes that with the help of such people in the future in Russia everyone will live well, and first of all, a good life will come for the Russian people. “The limits of the Russian people have not yet been set: there is a wide path ahead of them” N.A. Nekrasov in the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” recreated the life of the peasantry in post-reform Russia, revealed the typical character traits of Russian peasants, showing that this is a force to be reckoned with, which is gradually beginning to realize its rights.

N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” was created over a period of more than ten years (1863-1876). The main problem that interested the poet was the position of the Russian peasant under serfdom and after “liberation”. About the essence of the royal manifesto, N. A. Nekrasov speaks in the words of the people: “You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us.” Pictures of folk life are written with epic breadth, and this gives the right to call the poem an encyclopedia of Russian life of that time.

Drawing numerous images of peasants, various characters, the author divides the heroes, as it were, into two camps: slaves and fighters. Already in the prologue we get acquainted with the peasants-truth-seekers. They live in villages with characteristic names: v Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. The purpose of their journey is to find a happy person in Russia. Traveling, the peasants meet different people. After listening to a story about his “happiness”, having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants say:

You are past them, the landowners!

We know them!

Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the "noble" word, they need the "Christian word":

Give me a Christian word!

Noble with a scolding,

With a push and with a poke,

That is unsuitable for us.

Truth seekers are hardworking, always striving to help others. Hearing from a peasant woman that there are not enough working hands to remove the bread in time, the peasants offer:

And what are we, godfather?

Come on sickles! All seven

How will we become tomorrow - by evening

We will harvest all your rye!

Just as willingly, they help the peasants of the Illiterate province mow the grass.

Most fully, Nekrasov reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not reproach their masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position.

Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under a harrow from heat and rain.

The chest is sunken; like a depressed

Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth

Bends like cracks

On dry land...

Reading the description of the appearance of a peasant, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece of land, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him:

You work alone

And a little work is over,

Look, there are three equity holders:

God, king and lord!

Throughout his long life, Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, starved, went to prison, and, "like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland." But still, he finds the strength in himself to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his house with pictures, loves a well-aimed word, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in a latrine trade. And his voice is the voice of the most advanced peasants: . Every peasant has

Soul that black cloud -

Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary

Thunders rumble from there,

Pour bloody rain...

FROM the poet has great sympathy for his hero Yermil Girin, the village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants,

At seven years of a worldly penny

Didn't squeeze under the nail

At the age of seven, he did not touch the right one,

Didn't let the guilty

I didn't bend my heart...

Only once did Yermil act out of conscience, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought by "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness."

The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, show exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not being afraid of the prison, took the side of the peasants when "the patrimony of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled." Ermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests.

The next and most striking image in this series is Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero, a fighter for the cause of the people. In his youth, he, like all peasants, for a long time endured cruel bullying from the landowner Shalashnikov and his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the German Vogel alive in the ground. "Twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of settlement" Savely received for this. Returning as an old man to his native village, he retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" he says about himself. Savely to old age retained a clear mind, cordiality, responsiveness. In the poem, he is shown as a people's avenger:

...Our axes

They lay - for the time being!

He speaks contemptuously of the passive peasants, calling them "dead ... lost."

Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom.

This image is given in the same chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters. Matrena Timofeevna goes through many trials. She lived freely and cheerfully in her parents' house, and after marriage she had to work like a slave, endure the reproaches of her husband's relatives, in the fights of her husband. She found joy only in work and in children. She had a hard time with the death of her son Demushka, a year of hunger, and begging. But in difficult times, she showed firmness and perseverance: she fussed about the release of her husband, who was illegally taken as a soldier, she even went to the governor himself. She stood up for Fedotushka when they wanted to punish him with rods. Recalcitrant, resolute, she is always ready to defend her rights, and this brings her closer to Savely. Having told wanderers about her hard life, she says that “it’s not de-lo to look for a happy woman among women.” In a chapter entitled "A Woman's Parable", a Yankee peasant speaks of the female lot:

Keys to female happiness

From our free will

Abandonedlost

God himself.

But Nekrasov is sure that the "keys" must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobroskponov's songs:

You are still in the family as long as a slave,

But the mother is already a free son!

Nekrasov, with a special feeling, created images of truth-seekers, fighters, in which the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors was expressed. However, the poet could not help but turn to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who have become accustomed to their slave position. In the chapter "Happy", the truth-seekers meet with a courtyard man who considers himself happy because he was Prince Peremetiev's favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his daughter, along with the young lady, “learned both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess.” And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the remnants of overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the baseness of his lackey position. The courtyard of Prince Utyatin, Ipat, did not even believe that the “freedom” was declared to the peasants:

And I am the Utyatin princes

Serf - and the whole tight tale!

From childhood to old age, the master in every possible way mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted: ... redeemed

Me, the last slave,

In the winter in the hole!

Yes, how wonderful!

Two holes:

In one he will lower in the net,

In another moment it will pull out -

And bring vodka.

Ipat could not forget the master's "favors": the fact that after swimming in the hole the prince "brings vodka", he will plant him "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person."

A submissive slave is also "an exemplary slave - faithful Jacob." He served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... seemed to blow with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and pleased the master until his very old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Yakov “fooled”: first he “drank the dead”, and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.

With indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain."

To characterize the yard peasants, deprived of a sense of their own dignity, the poet finds contemptuous words: slave, serf, dog, Judas. Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization:

People of the servile rank -

Real dogs sometimes:

The more severe the punishment

So dear to them, gentlemen.

Creating various types of peasants, Ne-krasov claims: there are no happy ones among them, the peasants, even after the abolition of serfdom, are still destitute and dispossessed, only the forms of oppression have changed. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest. And therefore the poet believes that a good life will come in Russia in the future:

More Russian people

No limits set:

Before him is a wide path.

Introduction

Starting work on the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", Nekrasov dreamed of creating a large-scale work that would reflect all the knowledge about the peasants he had accumulated over his life. From early childhood, before the eyes of the poet, there was a "spectacle of the disasters of the people", and the first childhood impressions prompted him to further study the way of peasant life. Hard work, human grief, and at the same time - the enormous spiritual strength of the people - all this was noticed by Nekrasov's attentive gaze. And it is precisely because of this that in the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia”, the images of the peasants look so reliable, as if the poet personally knew his heroes. It is logical that the poem, in which the people are the main character, has a large number of peasant images, but it is worth looking at them more closely - and we will be struck by the diversity and liveliness of these characters.

The image of the main characters-wanderers

The first peasants the reader meets are the truth-seekers who argued about who lives well in Russia. For the poem, it is not so much their individual images that are important, but the whole idea that they express - without them, the plot of the work would simply fall apart. And, nevertheless, Nekrasov endows each of them with a name, a native village (the names of the villages are already eloquent in themselves: Gorelovo, Zaplatovo ...) and certain traits of character and appearance: Luka is an inveterate debater, Pahom is an old man. And the views of the peasants, despite the integrity of their image, are different, each does not deviate from his views until the fight. On the whole, the image of these peasants is a group image, and therefore the most basic features, characteristic of almost any peasant, stand out in it. This is extreme poverty, stubbornness and curiosity, the desire to find the truth. Note that describing the peasants dear to his heart, Nekrasov still does not embellish their images. He also shows vices, mainly general drunkenness.

The peasant theme in the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” is not the only one - during their journey, the peasants will meet both the landowner and the priest, they will hear about the life of different classes - merchants, nobles, clergy. But all other images in one way or another serve to more fully reveal the main theme of the poem: the life of peasants in Russia immediately after the reform.

Several mass scenes are introduced into the poem - a fair, a feast, a road along which many people are walking. Here Nekrasov portrays the peasantry as a single entity that thinks the same way, speaks unanimously and even sighs at the same time. But at the same time, the images of the peasants depicted in the work can be divided into two large groups: honest working people who value their freedom and peasant slaves. In the first group, Yakim Nagoi, Ermil Girin, Trofim and Agap are especially distinguished.

Positive images of peasants

Yakim Nagoi is a typical representative of the poorest peasantry, and he himself looks like “mother earth”, like “a layer cut off by a plow”. All his life he works "to death", but at the same time remains a beggar. His sad story: he once lived in St. Petersburg, but started a lawsuit with a merchant, ended up in prison because of her and returned from there “like a peeled Velcro” - nothing surprises listeners. There were many such destinies in Russia at that time ... Despite hard work, Yakim has enough strength to stand up for his compatriots: yes, there are many drunken men, but there are more sober ones, they are all great people "in work and in revelry." Love for the truth, for honest work, the dream of transforming life (“there should be thunder”) - these are the main components of the image of Yakim.

Trofim and Agap complement Yakim in some way, each of them has one main character trait. In the image of Trofim, Nekrasov shows the infinite strength and patience of the Russian people - Trofim once demolished fourteen pounds, and then returned home barely alive. Agap is a lover of truth. He is the only one who refuses to participate in the performance for Prince Utyatin: “The possession of peasant souls is over!”. When they force him, he dies in the morning: it is easier for a peasant to die than to bend back under the yoke of serfdom.

Ermil Girin is endowed by the author with intelligence and incorruptible honesty, for which he is chosen as burgomaster. He “didn’t twist his soul”, and once having strayed from the right path, he could not live not by the truth, he brought repentance before the whole world. But honesty and love for their compatriots do not bring happiness to the peasants: the image of Yermila is tragic. At the time of the story, he is sitting in prison: this is how his help to the rebellious village turned out.

Images of Matryona and Savely

The life of the peasants in Nekrasov's poem would not have been fully depicted without the image of a Russian woman. To reveal the "women's share", which "woe is not life!" the author chose the image of Matrena Timofeevna. “Beautiful, strict and swarthy,” she tells in detail the story of her life, in which she was happy only then, how she lived with her parents in the “girls hall”. After that, hard work began, along with men, work, nit-picking relatives, and the death of the firstborn mangled the fate. Under this story, Nekrasov singled out a whole part in the poem, nine chapters - much more than the stories of the rest of the peasants occupy. This well conveys his special attitude, love for a Russian woman. Matryona impresses with her strength and stamina. She bears all the blows of fate without a murmur, but at the same time she knows how to stand up for her loved ones: she lies down under the rod instead of her son and saves her husband from the soldiers. The image of Matryona in the poem merges with the image of the people's soul - long-suffering and long-suffering, which is why the woman's speech is so rich in songs. These songs are often the only way to pour out your longing...

Another curious image adjoins the image of Matrena Timofeevna - the image of the Russian hero, Savely. Living out his life in the family of Matrona (“he lived a hundred and seven years”), Savely thinks more than once: “Where are you, strength, gone? What were you good for?" The strength was all gone under rods and sticks, wasted during overwork on the German and wasted away in hard labor. The image of Savely shows the tragic fate of the Russian peasantry, heroes by nature, leading a completely unsuitable life for them. Despite all the hardships of life, Savely did not become embittered, he is wise and affectionate with the disenfranchised (the only one in the family protects Matryona). Shown in his image is the deep religiosity of the Russian people, who were looking for help in faith.

The image of the peasant-serfs

Another type of peasants depicted in the poem are serfs. The years of serfdom have crippled the souls of some people who are accustomed to crawling and can no longer imagine their lives without the power of the landowner over themselves. Nekrasov shows this on the examples of the images of the serfs Ipat and Yakov, as well as the headman Klim. Jacob is the image of a faithful serf. He spent his whole life fulfilling the whims of his master: “Jakov had only joy: / To groom, protect, appease the master.” However, one cannot live with the master “ladok” - as a reward for the exemplary service of Yakov, the master gives his nephew as a recruit. It was then that Jacob's eyes were opened, and he decided to take revenge on his offender. Klim becomes the boss thanks to the grace of Prince Utyatin. A bad owner and a lazy worker, he, singled out by a master, flourishes from a sense of self-importance: “Proud pig: scratched / O master's porch!”. Using the example of the headman, Klima Nekrasov shows how terrible yesterday's serf who got into the bosses is one of the most disgusting human types. But it is difficult to lead an honest peasant heart - and in the village Klim is sincerely despised, not afraid.

So, from the various images of the peasants “Who should live well in Russia”, a whole picture of the people is formed as a huge force, already gradually beginning to rise up and realize its power.

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