The story in Russia to live well Nekrasov. ON THE

The prologue tells about the events that take place in the poem itself. Those. about how seven peasants from the villages of Zaplatovo, Neurozhayko, Dyryavino, Znobishino, Razutovo, Neyolovo, Gorelovo started a dispute on the topic “Who lives at ease, freely in Russia?”. It is not without reason that Nikolai Alekseevich gives this acute social issue to the illiterate and ignorant class, which the peasants were considered to be at the end of the 19th century, this is a very bold step - to entrust the search for justice, and humanly - happiness, to ordinary peasants. After all, each of them judges in his own way “who is more at ease” a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar. In the work, the poet included such fabulous conventions as a prophetic bird, a self-assembled tablecloth. And the men, leaving their affairs, set off on the difficult path of seeking justice and happiness.

Chapter I Pop.

On the way, the peasants meet different wanderers: artisans, beggars, the same peasant-bast worker, coachmen, and soldiers. But the peasants do not ask them questions about happiness: “Soldiers shave with an awl, Soldiers warm themselves with smoke, What happiness is there? ". Toward evening, the men met the priest. From his plaintive speeches, it turns out that "the landowners went bankrupt", alluding to the abolition of serfdom by Alexander II the Liberator in 1861. The priest's ideal of happiness is "peace, wealth, honor." But in real life he did not have this, in connection with the impoverishment of the landowners and peasants, and the rich, well-fed lifestyle of the priest came to an end.

Chapter II Country Fair.

In this chapter, the peasants go to the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask the people about happiness there. They hear different things: someone buys something, sells something, and someone, even having squandered all their savings, cannot buy gifts for their relatives. Russian people know how to relax, and therefore they walk in a big way, as if they are living the last day. Having seen enough, the men set off on their journey.

Chapter III. Drunk night.

At the fair, the peasants met a new character in the poem - Pavlusha Veretennikov. It is he who broadcasts to our "heroes" about the terrible trait of a Russian person - drunkenness. Yakim Nagoi, in turn, counter-argues with the statement that grief has to be poured with wine. The poet generally created Yakim Nagogo as the embodiment of a plowman-worker who is capable of reflection.

Chapter IV. Happy.

In this chapter, the image of the hero Yermila Girin is painted with new colors. The main emphasis is on the scene with the merchant Altynnikov, about the purchase of the mill. To "victory" over the merchant, Girin needs 1000 rubles as soon as possible. Yermila decides to ask for help from the people to lend him this amount. And on the market day on the market square he carries out his plan. The peasants, imbued with the position of Girin, "give, who is rich in what." This story is somehow correlated with the search for human happiness. The travelers, having carefully listened to the story, wanted to meet him, but this was not destined to come true, because. Yermila is in prison. And among the people about him there is a good reputation as defenders of peasant interests.

Chapter V. Landowner.

The fifth chapter of the poem is devoted to the story of the landowner Obolt-Obolduev about his life. The key words of the description of the past life are: “the chest of the landowner breathed freely and easily”: “Whoever I want, I will have mercy, Whom I want, execution. Law is my wish! The fist is my police! ". Now everything has changed, the peasants prefer theft, as a simpler and easier business than work. In the course of the story, the landowner realizes how worthless his life is: “... What did I study? What did I see around? I smoked the sky of God, I wore the royal livery, I littered the people's treasury, And I thought to live like this for a century. The chapter ends with tears of the landowners and his feeling of being a deeply unhappy person.

PART II. LATER

Dedicated to the history of Prince Utyatin. He still cannot believe that the reform to free the peasants forever deprived him of his landlord privileges. The princely sons ask the peasant people, at least outwardly, to preserve the former forms of the "landlord-peasant" relationship. In the text, this is displayed by the words: "Keep quiet, bow down, but do not contradict the sick, we will reward you." The peasants seem to express their agreement: “We were joking, fooling around ...” . At the end of the second part, the fact of the weak self-consciousness of the peasants becomes clear.

PART III. PEASANT WOMAN.

The author composed the third part of the poem from the prologue and eight chapters. The narration comes from the perspective of Matryona Timofeevna, whom everyone around considers lucky, although Matryona herself does not think so. She tells the men about her life. Her confession includes the stories of the Holy Russian hero Savely, which he tells on his own. The life of Matrena Timofeevna is filled with tragedy. Its history begins in the distant past, at a time when the abolition of serfdom was only dreamed of. Knowing the situations in which Matrena Timofeevna found herself, it is difficult to believe in the human savagery through which she had to go. Matryona left her firstborn to grandfather Saveliy. He did not keep track of the baby and the pigs ate the baby.

The police, ignoring her grief, not considering this an excuse, accused her of conspiring with a convict. The doctor, in front of Matryona, performs an autopsy on a small body, the mother's grief knows no bounds, and she spends all the time at her son's grave. Grandfather Savely, feeling guilty, goes into the forests, and then to repentance in the "Sand Monastery". Her troubles did not end there: soon, she also buries her parents. Matryona gives birth every year. The husband's parents - the father-in-law with the mother-in-law - do not love her and are trying to get out of the world. My husband was out of turn recruited for 25 years. Matrena works alone for all. Unable to withstand the onslaught, she asks for help from the governor. While waiting, she loses consciousness, and when she comes to, she finds out that she has given birth to a son.

The Governor is doing her best for Matryona. The husband is returned home. As a result of her confession, Matrena tells the peasants: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women!” An old woman in the same village gave a very accurate description of the female share: “The keys to female happiness, From our free will, Abandoned, lost From God himself! »

IV PART. PIR FOR THE WHOLE WORLD

Nekrasov included an introduction and five chapters in his final part of the poem. According to the plot, the fourth part continues the second: the death of Prince Utyatin led to the celebration of the peasant people, the discussion of the meadows that were promised to the sons of the prince. This is reflected in the text with the words: “On the day of the death of the old prince, the Peasants did not foresee that they would not hire meadows, but would gain litigation.” "Our" men from seven villages are present at the feast as guests: they listen to songs, stories about Kudeyar, about Yakov, about the elder Gleb. But sooner or later, everything comes to an end and “Our wanderers fell asleep under the willow.” The songs of Grisha Dobrosklonov reflect the thoughts of the people of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov himself. Consists of an introduction and five chapters.

The plot of the fourth part continues the second part: Prince Utyatin died, and the peasants arranged a feast for the whole world, discussing the issue of the meadows promised by the sons of the prince (“On the day of the death of the old prince // The peasants did not foresee, // That there were no hired meadows, // And litigation). Wanderers are present as guests: they listen to songs, stories about Jacob, about Kudeyar, about the elder Gleb. But now the great feast is over. “Having fallen asleep, our wanderers remained under the willow.” Meanwhile, the author talks about Grisha Dobrosklonov. Grisha Dobrosklonov sings songs that reflect the thoughts of the people of Nekrasov himself: “You are poor, You are plentiful, You are powerful, You are powerless, Mother Russia! ..” conclude the work with lines that express the general deep meaning of the entire poem: “ If our wanderers would be under their native roof, if they could know what was happening with Grisha". With these lines, the author answers the question with which he titled his work. The intellectual democrat Grisha Dobrosklonov lives well in Russia. Who is a democratic revolutionary who is ready to fight for the happiness of the people. The feeling that prompted Nekrasov to write a poem is nothing more than a feeling of true sincere love for the Russian people. This fact determines the incompleteness of the poem.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky spoke about Nekrasov in his essays: “... Nekrasov's love for the people was, as it were, the outcome of his own grief in itself. In serving his people with his heart and talent, he found his purification before himself. The people were a real inner need of it not only for verses. In love for him, he found his justification. With his feelings for the people, he raised his spirit.< .. >He bowed before the truth of the people ... " .These words express Nekrasov's need for the love of the people, which served as a source of inspiration for his poetry.

A brief retelling of "To whom it is good to live in Russia" in abbreviation was prepared by Oleg Nikov for the reader's diary.

Illustration by Sergei Gerasimov "Dispute"

One day, seven men converge on the high road - recent serfs, and now temporarily liable "from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavin, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhayka, too." Instead of going their own way, the men start a dispute about who in Russia lives happily and freely. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky man in Russia: a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar.

During the argument, they do not notice that they gave a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue to argue over vodka - which, of course, little by little turns into a fight. But even a fight does not help to resolve the issue that worries the men.

The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the men, Pahom, 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 peasants 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 peasants give a vow to find out "who lives happily, freely in Russia."

The first possible "lucky man" they met along the way is a priest. (It was not for the oncoming soldiers and beggars to ask about happiness!) But the priest's answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the peasants. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the pop does not possess any of these benefits. In haymaking, in stubble, in the dead of autumn night, in severe frost, he must go where there are sick, dying and being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of grave sobs and orphan sorrow - so that his hand does not rise to take copper nickels - a miserable reward for the demand. The landlords, who formerly lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only in Russia, but also in distant foreign land; there is no hope for their reward. Well, the peasants themselves know what honor the priest is: they feel embarrassed when the priest blames obscene songs and insults against priests.

Realizing that the Russian pop is not among the lucky ones, the peasants go to the festive fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask the people about happiness there. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded-up house with the inscription "school", a paramedic's hut, and a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village of drinking establishments, in each of which they barely manage to cope with the thirsty. Old man Vavila cannot buy his granddaughter goat's shoes, 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 a treasured gift for him.

Wandering peasants watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the officers are picking up book goods - but by no means Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of fat generals unknown to anyone and works about "my lord stupid." They also see how a busy trading day ends: rampant drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the peasants are indignant at Pavlusha Veretennikov's attempt to measure the peasant by the master's measure. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Russia: he will not endure either overwork or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would have poured out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo - one of those who "work to death, drink half to death." Yakim believes that only pigs walk the earth and do not see the sky for a century. During a fire, he himself did not save money accumulated over a lifetime, but useless and beloved pictures that hung in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Russia.

Wandering men do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Russia. But even for the promise to give water to the lucky ones for free, they fail to find those. For the sake of gratuitous booze, both an overworked worker, and a paralyzed former courtyard, who for forty years licked 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 Ermil Girin, a steward in the estate of Prince Yurlov, who has earned universal respect for his justice and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy the mill, the peasants lent it to him without even asking for a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in jail.

About the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform, the ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the peasant wanderers. He recalls how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who belonged undividedly to him. Obolt-Obolduev tells with tenderness how, on the twelfth holidays, he invited his serfs to pray in the manor's house - despite the fact that after that he had to drive women from all over the estate to wash the floors.

And although the peasants themselves know that life in serf times was far from the idyll drawn by Obolduev, they nevertheless understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who at once lost his usual way of life, and the peasant.

Desperate to find a happy man among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. The surrounding peasants recall that Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klin, whom everyone considers lucky. But Matrona herself thinks differently. In confirmation, she tells the wanderers the story of her life.

Before her marriage, Matryona lived in a non-drinking and prosperous peasant family. She married Philip Korchagin, a stove-maker from a foreign village. 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 Saveliy, who lived out his life in the family after hard labor, where he ended up for the murder of the hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: a peasant cannot be defeated, because he "bends, but does not break."

The birth of the first-born Demushka brightened up the life of Matryona. But soon her mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and old grandfather Savely did not follow the baby and fed him to the pigs. In front of Matryona, the judges who arrived from the city performed an autopsy of her child. Matryona could not forget her first child, although after she had five sons. One of them, the shepherd Fedot, once allowed a she-wolf to carry away a sheep. Matrena took upon herself 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 to the soldiers. Matryona was then helped by the governor Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying.

By all peasant standards, the life of Matryona Korchagina can be considered happy. But it is impossible to tell about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unrequited mortal insults, 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 from God himself.

In the midst of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims up 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 to hide the abolition of serfdom from the landowner Utyatin, who has lost his mind. For this, the relatives of the Last Duck-Duck promise the peasants floodplain meadows. But after the long-awaited death of the Afterlife, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.

Here, near the village of Vakhlachin, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvée, hungry, soldier's, salty - and stories about serf times. One of these stories is about the serf of the exemplary Jacob the faithful. Yakov's only joy was to please his master, the petty landowner Polivanov. Samodur Polivanov, in gratitude, beat Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey's soul. By old age, Polivanov lost his legs, and Yakov began to follow him as if he were a child. But when Yakov's nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the serf beauty Arisha, out of jealousy, Polivanov sent the guy to the recruits. Yakov began to drink, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, in a lackey way. Having brought 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 serf, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror.

Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the peasants by God's wanderer Iona Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the ataman of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber prayed for sins for a long time, but all of them were released to him only after he killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky in a surge of anger.

The wandering men also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the elder, who hid the last will of the late widower admiral for money, who decided to free his peasants.

But not only wandering peasants think about the happiness of the people. The son of a sacristan, seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives in Vakhlachin. In his heart, love for the deceased mother merged with love for the whole of Vahlachina. For fifteen years, Grisha knew for sure whom he was ready to give his life, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all mysterious Russia as a miserable, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible strength that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in her. Such strong souls, like those of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the angel of mercy himself calls for an honest path. Fate prepares Grisha "a glorious path, a loud name of the people's intercessor, consumption and Siberia."

If the wandering men knew what was happening in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would surely understand that they could already return to their native roof, because the goal of their journey had been achieved.

retold

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Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov
Who lives well in Russia

© Lebedev Yu. V., introductory article, comments, 1999

© Godin I. M., heirs, illustrations, 1960

© Design of the series. Publishing house "Children's Literature", 2003

* * *

Y. Lebedev
Russian odyssey

In the "Diary of a Writer" for 1877, F. M. Dostoevsky noticed a characteristic feature that appeared in the Russian people of the post-reform period - "this is a multitude, an extraordinary modern multitude of new people, a new root of Russian people who need the truth, one truth without conditional lies, and who, in order to achieve this truth, will give everything resolutely. Dostoevsky saw in them "the advancing future Russia."

At the very beginning of the 20th century, another writer, V. G. Korolenko, made a discovery that struck him from a summer trip to the Urals: North Pole - in the distant Ural villages there were rumors about the Belovodsk kingdom and their own religious and scientific expedition was being prepared. Among ordinary Cossacks, the conviction spread and grew stronger that “somewhere out there, “beyond the distance of bad weather”, “beyond the valleys, beyond the mountains, beyond the wide seas” there is a “blissful country”, in which, by the providence of God and the accidents of history, it has been preserved and flourishes throughout inviolability is the complete and whole formula of grace. This is a real fairy-tale country of all ages and peoples, colored only by the Old Believer mood. In it, planted by the Apostle Thomas, the true faith blooms, with churches, bishops, a patriarch and pious kings ... This kingdom knows neither tatba, nor murder, nor self-interest, since true faith gives rise to true piety there.

It turns out that back in the late 1860s, the Don Cossacks wrote off with the Urals, collected a fairly significant amount and equipped Cossack Varsonofy Baryshnikov and two comrades to search for this promised land. Baryshnikov set off on a journey through Constantinople to Asia Minor, then to the Malabar coast, and finally to the East Indies ... The expedition returned with disappointing news: they could not find Belovodye. Thirty years later, in 1898, the dream of the Belovodsk kingdom flares up with renewed vigor, funds are found, a new pilgrimage is equipped. On May 30, 1898, a "deputation" of the Cossacks boarded a steamboat departing from Odessa for Constantinople.

“From that day, in fact, the foreign trip of the deputies of the Urals to the Belovodsk kingdom began, and among the international crowd of merchants, military men, scientists, tourists, diplomats traveling around the world out of curiosity or in search of money, fame and pleasure, three people got mixed up, as it were from another world, who were looking for ways to the fabulous Belovodsk kingdom. Korolenko described in detail all the vicissitudes of this unusual journey, in which, for all the curiosity and strangeness of the conceived enterprise, the same Russia of honest people, noted by Dostoevsky, "who need only the truth", who "strive for honesty and truth is unshakable and indestructible, and for the word of truth each of them will give his life and all his advantages.

By the end of the 19th century, not only the top of Russian society was drawn into the great spiritual pilgrimage, all of Russia, all of its people, rushed to it. “These Russian homeless wanderers,” Dostoevsky noted in a speech about Pushkin, “continue their wandering to this day and, it seems, will not disappear for a long time.” For a long time, “for the Russian wanderer needs precisely world happiness in order to calm down - he will not reconcile cheaper.”

“There was, approximately, such a case: I knew one person who believed in a righteous land,” said another wanderer in our literature, Luka, from M. Gorky's play “At the Bottom”. - There must be, he said, a righteous country in the world ... in that, they say, land - special people inhabit ... good people! They respect each other, they help each other - without any difficulty - and everything is nice and good with them! And so the man was going to go ... to look for this righteous land. He was poor, he lived badly ... and when it was already so difficult for him that at least lie down and die, he did not lose his spirit, but everything happened, he only smiled and said: “Nothing! I will endure! A few more - I’ll wait ... and then I’ll give up this whole life and go to the righteous land ... “He had one joy - this land ... And in this place - in Siberia, it was something - they sent an exiled scientist ... with books, with plans he, a scientist, and with all sorts of things ... A man says to a scientist: “Show me, do me a favor, where is the righteous land and how is the road there?” Now the scientist has opened the books, laid out the plans ... looked, looked - no nowhere righteous land! “That's right, all the lands are shown, but the righteous one is not!”

Man - does not believe ... Should, he says, be ... look better! And then, he says, your books and plans are useless if there is no righteous land ... The scientist - offended. My plans, he says, are the most correct, but there is no righteous land at all. Well, then the man got angry - how so? Lived, lived, endured, endured and believed everything - there is! but according to the plans it turns out - no! Robbery! .. And he says to the scientist: “Oh, you ... such a bastard! You are a scoundrel, not a scientist ... “Yes, in his ear - one! And more!.. ( After a pause.) And after that he went home - and strangled himself!”

The 1860s marked a sharp historical turning point in the destinies of Russia, which from now on broke away from a sub-legal, “home-bound” existence and the whole world, all the people set off on a long path of spiritual quest, marked by ups and downs, fatal temptations and deviations, but the righteous path is precisely in passion , in the sincerity of his inescapable desire to find the truth. And perhaps for the first time, Nekrasov's poetry responded to this deep process, which embraced not only the "tops", but also the very "lower classes" of society.

1

The poet began work on the grandiose concept of the “folk book” in 1863, and ended up mortally ill in 1877, with a bitter consciousness of the incompleteness, incompleteness of his plan: “One thing that I deeply regret is that I did not finish my poem “To whom in Russia to live well". It “should have included all the experience given to Nikolai Alekseevich by studying the people, all the information about him accumulated“ by word of mouth ”for twenty years,” recalled G. I. Uspensky about conversations with Nekrasov.

However, the question of the “incompleteness” of “Who should live well in Russia” is highly controversial and problematic. First, the confessions of the poet himself are subjectively exaggerated. It is known that a writer always has a feeling of dissatisfaction, and the larger the idea, the sharper it is. Dostoevsky wrote about The Brothers Karamazov: "I myself think that even one tenth of it was not possible to express what I wanted." But on this basis, do we dare to consider Dostoevsky's novel a fragment of an unfulfilled plan? The same is with "Who in Russia to live well."

Secondly, the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia” was conceived as an epic, that is, a work of art depicting with the maximum degree of completeness and objectivity an entire era in the life of the people. Since folk life is boundless and inexhaustible in its countless manifestations, the epic in any of its varieties (epic poem, epic novel) is characterized by incompleteness, incompleteness. This is its specific difference from other forms of poetic art.

"This song is tricky
He will sing to the word
Who is the whole earth, Russia baptized,
It will go from end to end."
Himself her Christ's servant
Not finished singing - sleeping eternal sleep -

this is how Nekrasov expressed his understanding of the epic plan in the poem "Peddlers". The epic can be continued indefinitely, but you can also put an end to some high segment of its path.

Until now, researchers of Nekrasov’s work are arguing about the sequence of the arrangement of the parts of “Who Lives Well in Russia”, since the dying poet did not have time to make final orders on this matter.

It is noteworthy that this dispute itself involuntarily confirms the epic nature of “Who should live well in Russia”. The composition of this work is built according to the laws of the classical epic: it consists of separate, relatively autonomous parts and chapters. Outwardly, these parts are connected by the theme of the road: seven men-truth-seekers wander around Russia, trying to resolve the question that haunts them: who lives well in Russia? In the Prologue, a clear outline of the journey seems to be outlined - meetings with the landowner, official, merchant, minister and tsar. However, the epic is devoid of a clear and unambiguous purposefulness. Nekrasov does not force the action, he is in no hurry to bring it to an all-permissive result. As an epic artist, he strives for the completeness of recreating life, for revealing the whole variety of folk characters, all the indirectness, all the winding paths, paths and roads of the people.

The world in the epic narrative appears as it is - disordered and unexpected, devoid of rectilinear movement. The author of the epic allows "retreats, visits to the past, jumps somewhere sideways, to the side." According to the definition of the modern literary theorist G. D. Gachev, “the epic is like a child walking through the cabinet of curiosities of the universe. Here his attention was attracted by one hero, or a building, or a thought - and the author, forgetting about everything, plunges into him; then he was distracted by another - and he just as fully surrenders to him. But this is not just a compositional principle, not just the specifics of the plot in the epic ... The one who, while narrating, makes “digressions”, unexpectedly long lingers on one or another subject; he who succumbs to the temptation to describe both this and that and chokes with greed, sinning against the pace of the narration - he thereby speaks of the extravagance, abundance of being, that he (being) has nowhere to hurry. Otherwise: it expresses the idea that being reigns over the principle of time (whereas the dramatic form, on the contrary, sticks out the power of time - it was not without reason that, it would seem, only the “formal” demand for the unity of time was born there too).

The fairy tale motifs introduced into the epic “Who Lives Well in Russia” allow Nekrasov to freely and naturally handle time and space, easily transfer the action from one end of Russia to the other, slow down or speed up time according to fairy laws. What unites the epic is not an external plot, not a movement towards an unambiguous result, but an internal plot: slowly, step by step, the contradictory, but irreversible growth of the people's self-consciousness, which has not yet come to a conclusion, is still on difficult roads of search, becomes clear in it. In this sense, the plot-compositional looseness of the poem is not accidental: it expresses with its lack of assembly the variegation and diversity of folk life, thinking about itself in different ways, evaluating its place in the world, its destiny in different ways.

In an effort to recreate the moving panorama of folk life in its entirety, Nekrasov also uses all the wealth of oral folk art. But the folklore element in the epic also expresses the gradual growth of people's self-consciousness: the fairy-tale motifs of the Prologue are replaced by epic epic, then lyrical folk songs in Peasant Woman and, finally, songs by Grisha Dobrosklonov in A Feast for the Whole World, striving to become folk and already partially accepted and understood by the people. The men listen to his songs, sometimes nod in agreement, but they have not yet heard the last song, "Rus", he has not yet sung it to them. That is why the finale of the poem is open to the future, not resolved.

Would our wanderers be under the same roof,
If only they could know what happened to Grisha.

But the wanderers did not hear the song "Rus", which means they did not yet understand what the "embodiment of the happiness of the people" is. It turns out that Nekrasov did not finish his song, not only because death interfered. In those years, people's life itself did not sing his songs. More than a hundred years have passed since then, and the song begun by the great poet about the Russian peasantry is still being sung. In "The Feast" only a glimpse of the future happiness is outlined, which the poet dreams of, realizing how many roads lie ahead until his real incarnation. The incompleteness of “Who is to live well in Russia” is fundamental and artistically significant as a sign of a folk epic.

“Who should live well in Russia” both in general and in each of its parts resembles a peasant secular gathering, which is the most complete expression of democratic people's self-government. At such a meeting, the inhabitants of one village or several villages that were part of the "world" decided all the issues of joint secular life. The meeting had nothing to do with the modern meeting. There was no chairman leading the discussion. Each community member, at will, entered into a conversation or skirmish, defending his point of view. Instead of voting, the principle of general consent was used. The dissatisfied were persuaded or retreated, and in the course of the discussion, a “worldly sentence” ripened. If there was no general agreement, the meeting was postponed to the next day. Gradually, in the course of heated debates, a unanimous opinion matured, agreement was sought and found.

An employee of the Nekrasov’s “Notes of the Fatherland”, the populist writer H. N. Zlatovratsky described the original peasant life as follows: “It’s already the second day that we have gathering after gathering. You look out the window, then at one end of the village, then at the other end of the village crowds of owners, old people, children: some are sitting, others are standing in front of them, with their hands behind their backs and attentively listening to someone. This someone waves his arms, bends his whole body, shouts something very convincingly, falls silent for a few minutes and then again begins to convince. But then suddenly they object to him, they object somehow at once, the voices rise higher and higher, they shout at the top of their lungs, as befits for such a vast hall as the surrounding meadows and fields, everyone speaks, not embarrassed by anyone or anything, as befits a free gathering of equals. Not the slightest sign of officiality. Sergeant Major Maksim Maksimych himself is standing somewhere on the side, like the most invisible member of our community... Here everything goes straight, everything becomes an edge; if someone, out of cowardice or out of calculation, takes it into his head to get away with silence, he will be ruthlessly brought to clean water. Yes, and there are very few of these faint-hearted, at especially important gatherings. I have seen the humblest, most unrequited men who<…>at gatherings, in moments of general excitement, completely transformed and<…>they gained such courage that they managed to outdo the obviously brave men. In the moments of its apogee, the gathering becomes simply an open mutual confession and mutual exposure, a manifestation of the widest publicity.

The whole epic poem by Nekrasov is a flaring up, gradually gaining strength, worldly gathering. It reaches its pinnacle in the final "Feast for the World". However, the general "worldly sentence" is still not pronounced. Only the path to it is outlined, many of the initial obstacles have been removed, and on many points there has been movement towards a common agreement. But there is no result, life has not stopped, gatherings have not been stopped, the epic is open to the future. For Nekrasov, the process itself is important here, it is important that the peasantry not only thought about the meaning of life, but also set off on a difficult, long path of truth-seeking. Let's try to take a closer look at it, moving from the "Prologue. Part One" to "Peasant Woman", "Last Child" and "Feast for the Whole World".

2

In the Prologue, the meeting of the seven men is narrated as a great epic event.

In what year - count
In what land - guess
On the pillar path
Seven men got together...

So epic and fairy-tale heroes converged on a battle or on a feast of honors. The epic scale acquires time and space in the poem: the action is carried out to the whole of Russia. The tightened province, Terpigorev district, Pustoporozhnaya volost, the villages of Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaina can be attributed to any of the Russian provinces, districts, volosts and villages. The general sign of the post-reform ruin is captured. Yes, and the very question that excited the peasants concerns the whole of Russia - peasant, noble, merchant. Therefore, the quarrel that arose between them is not an ordinary event, but great controversy. In the soul of every grain grower, with his own private destiny, with his worldly interests, a question has awakened that concerns everyone, the entire people's world.

To each his own
Left the house before noon:
That path led to the forge,
He went to the village of Ivankovo
Call Father Prokofy
Baptize the child.
Pahom honeycombs
Carried to the market in the Great,
And two brothers Gubina
So simple with a halter
Catch a stubborn horse
They went to their own herd.
It's high time for everyone
Return your way -
They are walking side by side!

Each peasant had his own path, and suddenly they found a common path: the question of happiness united the people. And therefore, we are no longer ordinary peasants with their own individual fate and personal interests, but guardians of the entire peasant world, truth-seekers. The number "seven" in folklore is magical. Seven Wanderers- an image of a large epic scale. The fabulous coloring of the Prologue raises the narrative above everyday life, above peasant life, and gives the action an epic universality.

The fairy-tale atmosphere in the Prologue is ambiguous. Giving the events a nationwide sound, it also turns into a convenient device for the poet to characterize the national self-consciousness. Note that Nekrasov playfully manages with a fairy tale. In general, his handling of folklore is more free and uninhibited in comparison with the poems "Pedlars" and "Frost, Red Nose". Yes, and he treats the people differently, often makes fun of the peasants, provokes readers, paradoxically sharpens the people's view of things, makes fun of the limitations of the peasant worldview. The intonation structure of the narrative in “Who Lives Well in Russia” is very flexible and rich: here is the author’s good-natured smile, and indulgence, and light irony, and bitter joke, and lyrical regret, and sorrow, and meditation, and appeal. The intonational and stylistic polyphony of the narration in its own way reflects a new phase of folk life. Before us is the post-reform peasantry, which has broken with the immovable patriarchal existence, with centuries of worldly and spiritual settledness. This is already wandering Russia with awakened self-awareness, noisy, discordant, prickly and uncompromising, prone to quarrels and disputes. And the author does not stand aside from her, but turns into an equal participant in her life. He either rises above the disputants, then he is imbued with sympathy for one of the disputing parties, then he is touched, then he is indignant. As Russia lives in disputes, in search of truth, so the author is in a tense dialogue with her.

In the literature about “Who is to live well in Russia”, one can find the assertion that the dispute of the seven wanderers that opens the poem corresponds to the original compositional plan, from which the poet subsequently retreated. Already in the first part, there was a deviation from the intended plot, and instead of meeting with the rich and noble, the truth-seekers began to question the crowd.

But after all, this deviation immediately takes place at the “upper” level. Instead of a landowner and an official, scheduled by the peasants for questioning, for some reason there is a meeting with a priest. Is it by chance?

First of all, we note that the “formula” of the dispute proclaimed by the peasants signifies not so much the original intention as the level of national self-consciousness, manifested in this dispute. And Nekrasov cannot but show the reader his limitations: peasants understand happiness in a primitive way and reduce it to a well-fed life, material security. What is worth, for example, such a candidate for the role of a lucky man, who is proclaimed "merchant", and even "fat-bellied"! And behind the argument of the peasants - who lives happily, freely in Russia? - immediately, but still gradually, muffled, another, much more significant and important question arises, which is the soul of the epic poem - how to understand human happiness, where to look for it and what does it consist of?

In the final chapter "A Feast for the Whole World", Grisha Dobrosklonov gives the following assessment of the current state of people's life: "The Russian people are gathering strength and learning to be a citizen."

In fact, this formula contains the main pathos of the poem. It is important for Nekrasov to show how the forces that unite him are maturing in the people and what kind of civic orientation they are acquiring. The idea of ​​the poem is by no means reduced to making the wanderers carry out successive meetings according to the program they have outlined. A completely different question turns out to be much more important here: what is happiness in the eternal, Orthodox Christian understanding of it, and is the Russian people capable of combining peasant "politics" with Christian morality?

Therefore, folklore motifs in the Prologue play a dual role. On the one hand, the poet uses them to give the beginning of the work a high epic sound, and on the other hand, to emphasize the limited consciousness of the debaters, who deviate in their idea of ​​happiness from the righteous to the evil ways. Recall that Nekrasov spoke about this more than once a long time ago, for example, in one of the versions of the "Song of Eremushka", created back in 1859.

change pleasure,
To live does not mean to drink and eat.
There are better aspirations in the world,
There is a nobler good.
Despise the wicked ways:
There is debauchery and vanity.
Honor the covenants forever right
And learn from Christ.

The same two paths, sung over Russia by the angel of mercy in "A Feast for the Whole World," are now opening up before the Russian people, who are celebrating the wake of the fortress and facing a choice.

In the middle of the world
For a free heart
There are two ways.
Weigh the proud strength
Weigh the firm will:
How to go?

This song resounds over Russia coming to life from the lips of the messenger of the Creator himself, and the fate of the people will directly depend on which path the wanderers will take after long wanderings and windings along the Russian country roads.

In the meantime, the poet is pleased only with the very desire of the people to seek the truth. And the direction of these searches, the temptation of wealth at the very beginning of the path cannot but cause bitter irony. Therefore, the fabulous plot of the Prologue also characterizes the low level of peasant consciousness, spontaneous, vague, with difficulty making its way to universal questions. People's thought has not yet acquired clarity and clarity, it is still merged with nature and is sometimes expressed not so much in words as in action, in deeds: instead of thinking, fists are used.

Men still live according to the fairy-tale formula: "go there - I don't know where, bring that - I don't know what."

They walk like they're running
Behind them are gray wolves,
What is further - then sooner.
…
Probably b, whole night
So they went - where, not knowing ...

Isn't that why the disturbing, demonic element grows in the Prologue. “The woman on the other side”, “the clumsy Durandikha”, turns into a laughing witch before the eyes of the peasants. And Pahom scatters his mind for a long time, trying to understand what happened to him and his companions, until he comes to the conclusion that the "goblin's glorious joke" played a trick on them.

In the poem, a comic comparison of the dispute between the peasants with the fight of bulls in a peasant herd arises. And the cow, lost in the evening, came to the fire, stared at the peasants,

I listened to crazy speeches
And began, my heart,
Moo, moo, moo!

Nature responds to the destructiveness of the dispute, which develops into a serious fight, and in the person of not so much good as sinister forces, representatives of folk demonology, enlisted in the category of forest evil spirits. Seven eagle owls flock to look at the arguing wanderers: from seven large trees “midnight owls laugh”.

And a raven, a smart bird,
Ripe, sitting on a tree
By the fire itself
Sitting and praying to hell
To be slammed to death
Someone!

The commotion grows, spreads, covers the entire forest, and it seems that the “spirit of the forest” itself laughs, laughs at the peasants, responds to their skirmish and carnage with malicious intentions.

A booming echo woke up
Went for a walk, a walk,
It went screaming, shouting,
As if to tease
Stubborn men.

Of course, the author's irony in the Prologue is good-natured and condescending. The poet does not want to strictly judge the peasants for the wretchedness and extreme limitation of their ideas about happiness and a happy person. He knows that this limitation is connected with the harsh everyday life of a peasant, with such material deprivations, in which suffering itself sometimes takes on soulless, ugly and perverted forms. This happens every time a people is deprived of their daily bread. Recall the song "Hungry" that sounded in "Feast":

The man is standing
swaying
A man is walking
Don't breathe!
From its bark
swelled up,
Longing trouble
Exhausted…

3

And in order to shade the limited peasant understanding of happiness, Nekrasov brings the wanderers in the first part of the epic poem not with the landowner and not with the official, but with the priest. A priest, a spiritual person, in his way of life closest to the people, and in line of duty called to keep a thousand-year-old national shrine, very accurately compresses ideas of happiness, vague for the wanderers themselves, into a capacious formula.

What is happiness, in your opinion?
Peace, wealth, honor -
Isn't that right, dear ones? -

They said yes...

Of course, the priest himself ironically distances himself from this formula: “This, dear friends, is happiness in your opinion!” And then, with visual persuasiveness, he refutes with all his life experience the naivety of each hypostasis of this triune formula: neither "peace", nor "wealth", nor "honor" can be put at the foundation of a truly human, Christian understanding of happiness.

The priest's story makes the men think about a lot. The commonplace, ironically condescending assessment of the clergy reveals its untruth here. According to the laws of epic narration, the poet trustingly surrenders to the priest's story, which is constructed in such a way that behind the personal life of one priest, the life of the entire clergy rises and rises to its full height. The poet is in no hurry, in no hurry with the development of the action, giving the hero a full opportunity to utter everything that lies on his soul. Behind the life of a priest, the life of all of Russia in its past and present, in its various estates, opens on the pages of the epic poem. Here are dramatic changes in the estates of the nobility: the old patriarchal-noble Russia, which lived settled, in customs and customs close to the people, is fading into the past. The post-reform burning of life and the ruin of the nobles destroyed its age-old foundations, destroyed the old attachment to the family village nest. “Like a Jewish tribe,” the landlords scattered around the world, adopted new habits, far from Russian moral traditions and traditions.

In the story, the priest unfolds before the eyes of the savvy peasants a “great chain”, in which all the links are firmly connected: if you touch one, it will respond in another. The drama of the Russian nobility drags drama into the life of the clergy. To the same extent this drama is aggravated by the post-reform impoverishment of the muzhik.

Our poor villages
And in them the peasants are sick
Yes, sad women
Nurses, drinkers,
Slaves, pilgrims
And eternal workers
Lord give them strength!

The clergy cannot be at peace when the people, their drinker and breadwinner, are in poverty. And the point here is not only the material impoverishment of the peasantry and nobility, which entails the impoverishment of the clergy. The main trouble of the priest is something else. The misfortunes of a peasant bring deep moral suffering to sensitive people from the clergy: “It’s hard to live on such pennies!”

It happens to the sick
You will come: not dying,
Terrible peasant family
At the moment when she has to
Lose the breadwinner!
You admonish the deceased
And support in the rest
You try your best
The spirit is awake! And here to you
The old woman, the mother of the deceased,
Look, stretching with a bony,
Callused hand.
The soul will turn
How they tinkle in this hand
Two copper coins!

The priest's confession speaks not only of the suffering associated with social "disorders" in a country that is in a deep national crisis. These "disorders" that lie on the surface of life must be eliminated; a righteous social struggle is possible and even necessary against them. But there are other, deeper contradictions connected with the imperfection of human nature itself. It is precisely these contradictions that reveal the vanity and cunning of people who seek to present life as sheer pleasure, as thoughtless intoxication with wealth, ambition, complacency, which turns into indifference to one's neighbor. Pop in his confession deals a crushing blow to those who profess such a morality. Talking about parting words to the sick and dying, the priest speaks about the impossibility of peace of mind on this earth for a person who is not indifferent to his neighbor:

Go where you are called!
You go unconditionally.
And let only the bones
One broke,
Not! every time it gets wet,
The soul will hurt.
Do not believe, Orthodox,
There is a limit to habit.
No heart to endure
Without some trepidation
death rattle,
grave sob,
Orphan sorrow!
Amen!.. Now think
What is the peace of the ass?..

It turns out that a completely free from suffering, “freely, happily” living person is a stupid, indifferent, morally flawed person. Life is not a holiday, but hard work, not only physical, but also spiritual, requiring self-denial from a person. Indeed, Nekrasov himself affirmed the same ideal in the poem “In Memory of Dobrolyubov”, the ideal of high citizenship, surrendering to which it is impossible not to sacrifice oneself, not to consciously reject “worldly pleasures”. Is it not for this reason that the priest lowered his eyes when he heard the question of the peasants, far from the Christian truth of life - “Is the priestly life sweet?” And with the dignity of an Orthodox minister, he turned to the wanderers:

… Orthodox!
It's a sin to grumble at God
Bear my cross with patience...

And his whole story is, in fact, an example of how every person who is ready to lay down his life “for his friends” can bear the cross.

The lesson taught to the wanderers by the priest has not yet gone to their benefit, but nevertheless brought confusion into the peasant consciousness. The men unanimously took up arms against Luka:

- What did you take? stubborn head!
Country club!
That's where the argument gets in!
"Nobles bell -
The priests live like princes.”
…
Well, here's your praise
Popov's life!

The irony of the author is not accidental, because with the same success it was possible to “finish” not only Luka, but each of them individually and all of them together. The peasant scolding is again followed by the shadow of Nekrasov, who makes fun of the limitedness of the people's initial ideas about happiness. And it is no coincidence that after meeting with the priest, the nature of the behavior and way of thinking of wanderers change significantly. They become more and more active in dialogues, more and more energetically intervene in life. And the attention of the wanderers is beginning to capture more and more powerfully not the world of masters, but the people's environment.

PART ONE

PROLOGUE

In what year - count
In what land - guess
On the pillar path
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily liable,
tightened province,
County Terpigorev,
empty parish,
From adjacent villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
Crop failure, too,
Agreed - and argued:
Who has fun
Feel free in Russia?

Roman said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official,
Luke said: ass.
Fat-bellied merchant! -
Gubin brothers said
Ivan and Mitrodor.
Old man Pahom pushed
And he said, looking at the ground:
noble boyar,
Minister of the State.
And Prov said: to the king ...

Man what a bull: vtemyashitsya
In the head what a whim -
Stake her from there
You won’t knock out: they rest,
Everyone is on their own!
Is there such a dispute?
What do passers-by think?
To know that the children found the treasure
And they share...
To each his own
Left the house before noon:
That path led to the forge,
He went to the village of Ivankovo
Call Father Prokofy
Baptize the child.
Pahom honeycombs
Carried to the market in the Great,
And two brothers Gubina
So simple with a halter
Catch a stubborn horse
They went to their own herd.
It's high time for everyone
Return your way -
They are walking side by side!
They walk like they're running
Behind them are gray wolves,
What is further - then sooner.
They go - they perekorya!
They shout - they will not come to their senses!
And time does not wait.

They didn't notice the controversy
As the red sun set
How the evening came.
Probably a whole night
So they went - where not knowing,
When they meet a woman,
Crooked Durandiha,
She did not shout: “Venerable!
Where are you looking at night
Thinking of going?..”

Asked, laughed
Whipped, witch, gelding
And jumped off...

"Where? .." - exchanged glances
Here are our men
They stand, they are silent, they look down...
The night has long gone
Frequent stars lit up
In high skies
The moon surfaced, the shadows are black
The road was cut
Zealous walkers.
Oh shadows! black shadows!
Who won't you chase?
Who won't be beaten?
Only you, black shadows,
You can not catch - hug!

To the forest, to the path
He looked, was silent Pahom,
I looked - I scattered my mind
And he said at last:

"Well! good joke
He played a trick on us!
After all, we are without a little
Thirty miles away!
Home now toss and turn -
We are tired - we will not reach,
Come on, there's nothing to be done.
Let's rest until the sun! .. "

Having dumped the trouble on the devil,
Under the forest along the path
The men sat down.
They lit a fire, formed,
Two ran for vodka,
And the rest for a while
The glass is made
I pulled the birch bark.
The vodka came soon.
Ripe and snack -
The men are feasting!

Russian streams and rivers
Good in spring.
But you, spring fields!
On your seedlings are poor
It's not fun to watch!
"No wonder in the long winter
(Our wanderers interpret)
It snowed every day.
Spring has come - the snow has affected!
He is humble for the time being:
Flies - silent, lies - silent,
When he dies, then he roars.
Water - everywhere you look!
The fields are completely flooded
To carry manure - there is no road,
And the time is not early -
The month of May is coming!
Dislike and old,
It hurts more than that for new
Trees for them to look at.
Oh huts, new huts!
You are smart, let it build you
Not an extra penny
And the blood trouble!

Wanderers met in the morning
More and more people are small:
His brother is a peasant-bast worker,
Artisans, beggars,
Soldiers, coachmen.
Beggars, soldiers
Strangers didn't ask
How is it easy for them, is it difficult
Lives in Russia?
Soldiers shave with an awl
Soldiers warm themselves with smoke -
What happiness is here?

The day was already drawing to a close,
They go the way,
The pop is coming towards.

The peasants took off their hats.
bow low,
Lined up in a row
And gelding savrasom
Blocked the way.
The priest raised his head
He looked and asked with his eyes:
What do they want?

“No way! we are not robbers!” -
Luka said to the priest.
(Luke is a squat man,
With a wide beard.
Stubborn, verbose and stupid.
Luke looks like a mill:
One is not a bird mill,
What, no matter how it flaps its wings,
Probably won't fly.)

"We are gentle men,
Of the temporary
tightened province,
County Terpigorev,
empty parish,
Roundabout villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
Crop failure too.
Let's go on something important:
We have a concern
Is it such a concern
Which of the houses has risen,
With work unfriended us,
Got off food.
You give us the right word
To our peasant speech
Without laughter and without cunning,
According to conscience, according to reason,
Answer truthfully
Not so with your care
We will go to another…”

- I give you the right word:
When you ask a thing
Without laughter and without cunning,
In truth and reason
How should you answer.
Amen! .. -

"Thanks. Listen!
Walking the path,
We got together casually
They agreed and argued:
Who has fun
Feel free in Russia?
Roman said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official,
And I said: ass.
Kupchin fat-bellied, -
Gubin brothers said
Ivan and Mitrodor.
Pahom said: to the brightest
noble boyar,
Minister of the State.
And Prov said: to the king ...
Man what a bull: vtemyashitsya
In the head what a whim -
Stake her from there
You won’t beat it: no matter how they argued,
We did not agree!
Argued - quarreled,
Quarreled - fought,
Podravshis - dressed up:
Don't go apart
Do not toss and turn in the houses,
Don't see your wives
Not with the little guys
Not with old old people,
As long as our dispute
We won't find a solution
Until we get it
Whatever it is - for sure:
Who wants to live happily
Feel free in Russia?
Tell us Godly
Is the priest's life sweet?
You are like - at ease, happily
Do you live, honest father? .. "

Downcast, thinking
Sitting in a cart, pop
And he said: - Orthodox!
It's a sin to grumble at God
Bear my cross with patience
I live ... but how? Listen!
I'll tell you the truth, the truth
And you are a peasant mind
Dare! -
"Get started!"

What is happiness, in your opinion?
Peace, wealth, honor -
Isn't that right, dear ones?

They said yes...

- Now let's see, brethren,
What is the ass peace?
Start, confess, it would be necessary
Almost from birth
How to get a diploma
the priest's son
At what cost popovich
The priesthood is bought
Let's better shut up!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Our roads are difficult.
We have a large income.
sick, dying,
Born into the world
Do not choose time:
In stubble and haymaking,
In the dead of autumn night
In winter, in severe frosts,
And in the spring flood -
Go where you are called!
You go unconditionally.
And let only the bones
One broke,
Not! every time it gets wet,
The soul will hurt.
Do not believe, Orthodox,
There is a limit to habit.
No heart to endure
Without some trepidation
death rattle,
grave sob,
Orphan sorrow!
Amen!.. Now think.
What is the peace of the ass?..

The peasants thought little
Letting the priest rest
They said with a bow:
"What else can you tell us?"

- Now let's see, brethren,
What is the ass honor?
The task is tricky
Wouldn't make you angry...

Say, Orthodox
Who do you call
Foal breed?
Chur! respond to demand!

The peasants hesitated.
They are silent - and the pop is silent ...

Who are you afraid to meet?
Walking the path?
Chur! respond to demand!

They groan, shift,
Silent!
- Who are you talking about?
You are fairy tales,
And obscene songs
And any bullshit? ..

Powerful mother,
Popov's innocent daughter
Seminarian of any -
How do you honor?
Who is after, like a gelding,
Shout: ho-ho-ho? ..

The kids got down
They are silent - and the pop is silent ...
The peasants thought
And pop with a big hat
Waving in my face
Yes, I looked at the sky.
In the spring, that the grandchildren are small,
With the ruddy sun-grandfather
Clouds are playing
Here is the right side
One continuous cloud
Covered - clouded
She froze and cried:
Rows of gray threads
They hung to the ground.
And closer, above the peasants,
From small, torn,
Merry clouds
Laughing red sun
Like a girl from sheaves.
But the cloud has moved
Pop hat is covered -
Be heavy rain.
And the right side
Already bright and joyful
There the rain stops.
Not rain, there is a miracle of God:
There with golden threads
Skeins are scattered…

“Not by themselves ... by parents
We are somehow ... ”- the Gubin brothers
They finally said.
And the others agreed:
“Not by themselves, by their parents!”
And the priest said, “Amen!
Sorry Orthodox!
Not in condemnation of the neighbor,
And at your request
I told you the truth.
Such is the honor of the priest
in the peasantry. And the landowners...

“You are past them, the landowners!
We know them!"

- Now let's see, brethren,
Otkudova wealth
Popovskoe is coming?..
During the near
Russian Empire
Noble estates
It was full.
And the landowners lived there,
eminent owners,
Which are no longer there!
Be fruitful and multiply
And they let us live.
What weddings were played there,
What babies were born
On free bread!
Although often cool,
However, well-meaning
Those were the gentlemen
The parish was not alienated:
They got married with us
Our children were baptized
They came to us to repent,
We buried them
And if it happened
That the landowner lived in the city,
So probably die
He came to the village.
When he dies by accident
And then punish firmly
Bury in the parish.
You look to the rural temple
On the funeral chariot
Six horses heirs
The deceased is being transported -
The ass is a good amendment,
For the laity, a holiday is a holiday ...
And now it's not!
Like a Jewish tribe
The landowners scattered
Through a distant foreign land
And in native Russia.
No more pride now
Lie in native possession
Next to fathers, with grandfathers,
And many possessions
They went to the barryshniks.
oh damn bones
Russian, nobility!
Where are you not buried?
What land are you not in?

Then, an article… schismatics…
I'm not sinful, I didn't live
Nothing from the schismatics.
Luckily, there was no need
In my parish is
Living in Orthodoxy
two-thirds of the parishioners.
And there are such volosts
Where almost entirely schismatics,
So how to be an ass?

Everything in the world is changeable
The world itself will pass...
Laws that used to be strict
To the dissenters, softened,
And with them and priestly
Income mat came.
The landlords moved
They don't live in estates.
And die of old age
They don't come to us anymore.
wealthy landowners,
devout old ladies,
who died out
who settled down
Close to monasteries
Nobody is now a cassock
Don't give a pop!
No one will embroider the air ...
Live with some peasants
Collect worldly hryvnias,
Yes pies on holidays
Yes, eggs oh saint.
The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give, but there is nothing ...

And that's not for everyone
And sweet peasant penny.
Our favors are meager,
Sands, swamps, mosses,
The cattle walks from hand to mouth,
Bread itself is born, friend,
And if it gets good
Cheese is the land-nurse,
So a new problem:
Nowhere to go with bread!
Lock the need, sell it
For a real trifle
And there - a crop failure!
Then pay exorbitant prices
Sell ​​the cattle.
Pray Orthodox!
Great disaster threatens
And this year:
Winter was fierce
Spring is rainy
It would be necessary to sow for a long time,
And on the fields - water!
Have mercy, Lord!
Send a cool rainbow
To our skies!
(Taking off his hat, the shepherd is baptized,
And listeners too.)
Our poor villages
And in them the peasants are sick
Yes, sad women
Nurses, drinkers,
Slaves, pilgrims
And eternal workers
Lord give them strength!
With such works pennies
Life is hard!
It happens to the sick
You will come: not dying,
Terrible peasant family
At the moment when she has to
Lose the breadwinner!
You admonish the deceased
And support in the rest
You try your best
The spirit is awake! And here to you
The old woman, the mother of the deceased,
Look, stretching with a bony,
Callused hand.
The soul will turn
How they tinkle in this hand
Two copper coins!
Of course, it's clean
For demanding retribution,
Do not take - so there is nothing to live with.
Yes, a word of comfort
Freeze on the tongue
And as if offended
Go home... Amen...

Finished the speech - and the gelding
Pop lightly slapped.
The peasants parted
They bowed low.
The horse moved slowly.
And six comrades
As if they were talking
Attacked with accusations
With selected big swearing
On poor Luke:
- What did you take? stubborn head!
Country club!
That's where the argument gets in! -
"Nobles bell -
Priests live like princes.
They go under the sky
Popov's tower,
The priest's patrimony is buzzing -
loud bells -
For the whole world of God.
Three years I, robots,
Lived with the priest in the workers,
Raspberry - not life!
Popova porridge - with butter.
Popov pie - with filling,
Popovy cabbage soup - with smelt!
Popov's wife is fat,
Popov's daughter is white,
Popov's horse is fat,
Popov's bee is full,
How the bell tolls!
- Well, here's your praise
Popov's life!
Why was he yelling, swaggering?
Climbed into a fight, anathema?
Wasn't he thinking of taking
What is a beard with a shovel?
So with a goat beard
Walked the world before
Than the forefather Adam,
And it's considered a fool
And now the goat! ..

Luka stood silent,
I was afraid they wouldn't slap
Comrades on the side.
It became so,
Yes, fortunately the peasant
The road bent
The priest's face is strict
Appeared on a hillock ...

CHAPTER II. VILLAGE FAIR

No wonder our wanderers
They scolded the wet
Cold spring.
The peasant needs spring
And early and friendly,
And here - even a wolf howl!
The sun does not warm the earth
And rainy clouds
Like milk cows
They go to heaven.
Driven snow, and greenery
No weed, no leaf!
Water is not removed
The earth does not dress
Green bright velvet
And like a dead man without a shroud,
Lies under a cloudy sky
Sad and naked.

Pity the poor peasant
And more sorry for the cattle;
Feeding scarce supplies,
The owner of the twig
Chased her into the meadows
What is there to take? Chernekhonko!
Only on Nicholas of the spring
The weather turned up
Green fresh grass
The cattle enjoyed.

The day is hot. Under the birches
The peasants are making their way
They chat among themselves:
"We're going through one village,
Let's go another - empty!
And today is a holiday
Where did the people disappear to? .. "
They go through the village - on the street
Some guys are small
In the houses - old women,
And even locked up
Castle gates.
The castle is a faithful dog:
Doesn't bark, doesn't bite
He won't let you into the house!
Passed the village, saw
Mirror in green frame
With the edges of a full pond.
Swallows soar over the pond;
Some mosquitoes
Agile and skinny
Hopping, as if on dry land,
They walk on the water.
Along the banks, in the broom,
The corncrakes creak.
On a long, rickety raft
With a roll, the priest is thick
It stands like a plucked haystack,
Tucking the hem.
On the same raft
Sleeping duck with ducklings...
Chu! horse snore!
The peasants looked
And they saw over the water
Two heads: a man's.
curly and swarthy,
With an earring (the sun blinked
On that white earring)
Another - horse
With a rope, fathoms at five.
The man takes the rope in his mouth,
The man swims - and the horse swims,
The man neighed, and the horse neighed.
Float, scream! Under the grandmother
Under the little ducks
The raft is moving.

I caught up with the horse - grab it by the withers!
Jumped up and went to the meadow
Child: the body is white,
And the neck is like pitch;
Water flows in streams
From horse and rider.

“And what do you have in the village
Neither old nor small
How did the whole nation die?
- We went to the village of Kuzminskoe,
Today there is a fair
And a temple feast. -
“How far is Kuzminskoe?”

- Yes, it will be three miles.

"Let's go to the village of Kuzminskoye,
Let's see the holiday-fair! -
The men decided
And they thought to themselves:
Isn't that where he hides?
Who lives happily? .. "

Kuzminsky rich,
And what's more, it's dirty.
Trading village.
It stretches along the slope,
Then it descends into the ravine.
And there again on the hill -
How can there not be dirt here?
Two churches in it are old,
One old believer
Another Orthodox
House with the inscription: school,
Empty, packed tightly
Hut in one window
With the image of a paramedic,
Bleeding.
There is a dirty hotel
Decorated with a sign
(With a big nosed teapot
Tray in the hands of the carrier,
And small cups
Like a goose by goslings,
That teapot is surrounded)
There are permanent shops
Like a county
Gostiny Dvor…

Wanderers came to the square:
Lots of goods
And apparently invisible
To the people! Isn't it fun?
It seems that there is no way of the godfather,
And, as if before the icons,
Men without hats.
Such a sidekick!
Look where they go
Peasant hats:
In addition to the wine warehouse,
Taverns, restaurants,
A dozen damask shops,
Three inns,
Yes, "Rensky cellar",
Yes, a couple of zucchini.
Eleven zucchini
Set for the holiday
Village tents.
With each five trays;
Carriers - youngsters
Accustomed, camel,
And they can't keep up with everything
Don't deal with surrender!
Look what stretched out
Peasant hands with hats
With scarves, with mittens.
Oh, Orthodox thirst,
How big are you!
Just to douse the darling,
And there they will get hats,
How will the market go?

By drunken heads
The sun is playing...
Intoxicating, loud, festive,
Variegated, red all around!
The pants on the guys are plush,
striped vests,
Shirts of all colors;
The women are wearing red dresses,
The girls have braids with ribbons,
They float with winches!
And there are still tricks
Dressed in the capital -
And expands and pouts
Hem on hoops!
If you step in - they will undress!
At ease, new fashionistas,
You fishing tackle
Wear under skirts!
Looking at elegant women,
Furious Old Believer
Tovarke says:
"Be hungry! be hungry!
See how the seedlings got wet,
What spring flood
Worth to Petrov!
Ever since the women started
Dress up in red chintzes, -
Forests do not rise
But at least not this bread!

- Why are the chintzes red?
Did you do something wrong here, mother?
I will not apply my mind! -
“And those French chintzes -
Painted with dog blood!
Well… understand now?…”

They huddled on horseback,
On the hill, where they are piled
Roe deer, rakes, harrows,
Bagry, cart looms,
Rims, axes.
There was a brisk trade
With godfather, with jokes,
With a healthy, loud laugh.
And how not to laugh?
The guy is kinda tiny
I went, I tried rims:
Bent one - do not like it
Bent the other, pushed.
And how will the rim straighten -
A flick on the man's forehead!
A man roars over the rim,
"Elm club"
Scolds the fighter.
Another came with different
Wooden handicraft -
And dumped the whole cart!
Drunk! The axle is broken
And he began to do it -
The ax is broken! changed my mind
A man with an ax
Scolds him, reproaches him,
As if doing the job:
“You scoundrel, not an ax!
Empty service, don't give a damn
And he did not help.
All your life you bowed
And there was no affection!

Wanderers went to the shops:
Love the handkerchiefs
Ivanovo chintz,
Harnesses, new shoes,
The product of the Kimryaks.
At that shoe shop
The strangers laugh again:
Here are the goat's shoes
Grandfather traded for granddaughter
Asked about the price five times
He turned in his hands, looked around:
First class product!
"Well, uncle! two kopecks
Pay, or get lost!” -
The merchant told him.
- And you wait! – Admire
An old man with a tiny shoe,
This is how he speaks:
- My son-in-law does not care, and the daughter will be silent,

Sorry granddaughter! hung herself
On the neck, fidget:
“Buy a hotel, grandfather.
Buy it! - silk head
The face tickles, caresses,
Kissing the old man.
Wait, barefoot crawler!
Wait, yule! gantry
Buy boots...
Vavilushka boasted,
Both old and small
Promised gifts,
And he drank himself to a penny!
How I shameless eyes
Will I show my family?

My son-in-law does not care, and my daughter will be silent,
Wife - do not care, let him grumble!
And I’m sorry for the granddaughter! .. - Went again
About granddaughter! Killing!..

The people gathered, listening,
Do not laugh, pity;
Happen, work, bread
He would have been helped
And take out two two-kopeck coins -
So you will be left with nothing.
Yes, there was a man
Pavlusha Veretennikov
(What kind, rank,
The men did not know
However, they were called "master".
He was much more of a baluster,
He wore a red shirt
Cloth undershirt,
Lubricated boots;
He sang Russian songs smoothly
And I loved listening to them.
It was taken down by many
In the inns,
In taverns, in taverns.)
So he rescued Vavila -
I bought him shoes.
Vavilo grabbed them
And he was! - for joy
Thanks even to the bar
Forgot to say old man
But other peasants
So they were disappointed
So happy, like everyone
He gave the ruble!
There was also a shop
With pictures and books
Ofeny stocked up
With your goods in it.
"Do you need generals?" -
The merchant-burner asked them.
“And give the generals!
Yes, only you in conscience,
To be real -
Thicker, more menacing."

“Wonderful! how you look! -
The merchant said with a smile,
It's not about the complexion…”

- And in what? kidding, friend!
Rubbish, perhaps, it is desirable to sell?
Where are we going with her?
You're naughty! Before the peasant
All generals are equal
Like cones on a spruce:
To sell the shabby one,

Year: 1877 Genre: poem

Russia is a country in which even poverty has its charms. After all, the poor, who are the labor force of the landowners of that time, have time to reflect and see what the fat landowner will never see.

Once upon a time, on the most ordinary road, where there was a crossroads, men, of whom there were as many as seven, accidentally met. These men are the most ordinary poor men who were brought together by fate itself. The peasants have recently left the serfs, now they are temporarily liable. They, as it turned out, lived very close to each other. Their villages were adjacent - the village of Zaplatov, Razutov, Dyryavin, Znobishin, as well as Gorelova, Neelova and Neurozhayka. The names of the villages are very peculiar, but to some extent, they reflect their owners.

The men are simple people, and willing to talk. That is why, instead of just continuing their long journey, they decide to talk. They argue about which of the rich and noble people lives better. A landowner, an official, an al boyar or a merchant, or maybe even a sovereign father? Each of them has their own opinions, which they cherish and do not want to agree with each other. The dispute flares up more strongly, but nevertheless, I want to eat. You can't live without food, even if you feel bad and sad. When they argued, without noticing it themselves, they walked, but in the wrong direction. They suddenly noticed it, but it was too late. The peasants gave the maz a full thirty versts.

It was too late to return home, and therefore we decided to continue the dispute right there on the road, surrounded by wild nature. They quickly build a fire to keep warm, because it is already evening. Vodka - to help them. The argument, as it always happens with ordinary men, develops into a brawl. The fight ends, but it does not give any result. As always happens, the decision to be here is unexpected. One of the company of men, sees a bird and catches it, the bird's mother, in order to free her chick, tells them about the self-assembly tablecloth. After all, the peasants on their way meet many people who, alas, do not have the happiness that the peasants are looking for. But they do not despair of finding a happy person.

Read the summary To whom in Russia to live well Nekrasov chapter by chapter

Part 1. Prologue

Met on the road seven temporarily assigned men. They began to argue who lives funny, very freely in Russia. While they were arguing, evening came, they went for vodka, lit a fire and began to argue again. The argument turned into a fight, while Pahom caught a small chick. A mother bird arrives and asks to let her child go in exchange for a story about where to get a self-assembled tablecloth. The comrades decide to go wherever they look until they find out who in Russia has a good life.

Chapter 1. Pop

The men go on a hike. Steppes, fields, abandoned houses pass, they meet both the rich and the poor. They asked the soldier they met about whether he lives happily, in response the soldier said that he shaves with an awl and warms himself with smoke. They passed by the priest. We decided to ask how he lives in Russia. Pop argues that happiness is not in well-being, luxury and tranquility. And he proves that he does not have peace, at night and during the day they can call to the dying, that his son cannot learn to read and write, that he often sees sobs with tears at the coffins.

The priest asserts that the landowners have scattered over their native land, and now there is no wealth from this, as the priest used to have wealth. In the old days, he attended the weddings of rich people and made money on it, but now everyone has left. He told that he would come to a peasant family to bury the breadwinner, and there was nothing to take from them. The priest went on his way.

Chapter 2

Wherever men go, they see stingy housing. The pilgrim washes his horse in the river, the men ask him where the people from the village have disappeared. He replies that the fair is today in the village of Kuzminskaya. The men, having come to the fair, watch how honest people dance, walk, drink. And they look at how one old man asks the people for help. He promised his granddaughter to bring a gift, but he does not have two hryvnias.

Then a gentleman appears, as they call a young man in a red shirt, and buys shoes for the old man's granddaughter. At the fair you can find everything your heart desires: books by Gogol, Belinsky, portraits and so on. Travelers watch a performance with the participation of Petrushka, people give the actors drinks and a lot of money.

Chapter 3

Returning home after the holiday, people from drunkenness fell into ditches, women cursed, complaining about life. Veretennikov, the one who bought the shoes for his granddaughter, was walking arguing that the Russian people are good and smart, but drunkenness often spoils everything, being a big minus for people. The men told Veretennikov about Nagoi Yakim. This guy lived in St. Petersburg and after a quarrel with a merchant ended up in prison. Once he gave his son different pictures, hung on the walls and he admired them more than his son. Once there was a fire, so instead of saving money, he began to collect pictures.

His money melted, and then only eleven rubles were given by merchants for them, and now pictures are hanging on the walls in the new house. Yakim said that the peasants did not lie and said that sadness would come and the people would be sad if they stopped drinking. Then the young people began to sing a song, and they sang so well that one girl passing by could not even hold back her tears. She complained that her husband was very jealous and she was sitting at home. After the story, the men began to remember their wives, realized that they were missing them and decided to quickly find out who lives well in Russia.

Chapter 4

Travelers, passing by the idle crowd, are looking for happy people in it, promising them a drink. The clerk was the first to come to them, knowing that happiness is not in luxury and wealth, but in faith in God. He told me that he believes and that he is happy. Following the old woman talks about her happiness, the turnip in her garden has grown huge and appetizing. In response, she hears ridicule and advice to go home. After the soldier tells the story that after twenty battles he remained alive, that he survived the famine and did not die, that he was happy with this. Gets a glass of vodka and leaves. Stonecutter wields a large hammer, his strength is immeasurable.

In response, the thin man ridicules him, advising him not to show off his strength, otherwise God will take away that strength. The contractor boasts that he carried objects weighing fourteen pounds with ease to the second floor, but recently he lost his strength and was about to die in his native city. A nobleman came to them, told them that he lived with the mistress, ate very well with them, he drank drinks from other people's glasses and developed a strange illness. He was mistaken several times in the diagnosis, but in the end it turned out that it was gout. The wanderers drive him out so that he does not drink wine with them. Then the Belarusian told that happiness is in bread. The beggars see happiness in large alms. The vodka is running out, but they haven’t really found a happy one, they are advised to seek happiness from Ermila Girin, who runs the mill. Yermil is ordered to sell it, wins the auction, but he has no money.

He went to ask the people in the square for a loan, collected money, and the mill became his property. The next day, he returned to all the kind people who helped him in difficult times, their money. Travelers were amazed that the people believed in the words of Yermila and helped. Good people said that Yermila was a clerk for the colonel. He worked honestly, but he was driven away. When the colonel died and it was time to choose a steward, everyone unanimously chose Yermila. Someone said that Yermila did not correctly judge the son of a peasant woman, Nenila Vlasyevna.

Yermila was very sad that he could let down a peasant woman. He ordered the people to judge him, the young man was fined. He quit his job and rented a mill, determined his own order on it. Travelers were advised to go to Kirin, but the people said that he was in jail. And then everything is interrupted because, on the side of the road, a footman is being punished for stealing. The wanderers asked to continue the story, in response they heard a promise to continue at the next meeting.

Chapter 5

The wanderers meet a landowner who takes them for thieves and even threatens them with a gun. Obolt Obolduev, having understood people, started a story about the antiquity of his family, that while serving the sovereign he had a salary of two rubles. He recalls feasts rich in various foods, servants, which he had a whole regiment. Regrets the lost unlimited power. The landowner told how kind he was, how people prayed in his house, how spiritual purity was created in his house. And now their gardens have been cut down, houses have been dismantled brick by brick, the forest has been plundered, there is not a trace left of the former life. The landowner complains that he was not created for such a life, having lived in the village for forty years, he will not be able to distinguish barley from rye, but they demand that he work. The landowner weeps, the people sympathize with him.

Part 2

Wanderers, walking past the hayfield, decide to mow a bit, they are bored with work. The gray-haired man Vlas drives the women from the fields, asking them not to interfere with the landowner. In the river in boats the landowners are catching fish. We moored and went around the hayfield. The wanderers began to question the peasant about the landowner. It turned out that the sons, in collusion with the people, deliberately indulge the master so that he does not deprive them of their inheritance. The sons beg everyone to play along with them. One peasant Ipat, without playing along, serves, for the salvation that the master gave him. Over time, everyone gets used to the deception and live like that. Only the peasant Agap Petrov did not want to play these games. Utyatin grabbed the second blow, but again he woke up and ordered Agap to be flogged in public. The sons put the wine in the stable and asked to shout loudly so that the prince could hear up to the porch. But soon Agap died, they say from the prince's wine. The people stand in front of the porch and play a comedy, one rich man breaks down and laughs out loud. The peasant woman saves the situation, falls at the feet of the prince, claiming that her little son was laughing. As soon as Utyatin died, all the people breathed freely.

Part 3. Peasant woman

To ask about happiness, they send to the neighboring village to Matryona Timofeevna. There is hunger and poverty in the village. Someone in the river caught a small fish and talks about the fact that once the fish were caught larger.

Theft is rampant, someone is dragging something to carry away. Travelers find Matryona Timofeevna. She insists that she does not have time to rant, it is necessary to clean the rye. Wanderers help her, during the work Timofeevna begins to willingly talk about her life.

Chapter 1

The girl in her youth had a strong family. She lived in her parents' house without knowing the troubles, there was enough time to have fun and work. One day, Philip Korchagin appeared, and the father promised to marry his daughter. Matrena resisted for a long time, but eventually agreed.

Chapter 2. Songs

Further, the story is already about life in the house of the father-in-law and mother-in-law, which is interrupted by sad songs. They beat her once for her slowness. The husband leaves for work, and she has a child. She calls him Demushka. Her husband's parents began to scold often, but she endures everything. Only the father-in-law, old man Savely, felt sorry for his daughter-in-law.

Chapter 3

He lived in the upper room, did not like his family and did not let him into his house. He told Matryona about his life. In his youth, he was a Jew in a serf family. The village was deaf, through thickets and swamps it was necessary to get there. The landowner in the village was Shalashnikov, only he could not get to the village, and the peasants did not even go to him when called. The quitrent was not paid, the police were given fish and honey as tribute. They went to the master, complained that there was no quitrent. Threatened with a flogging, the landowner nevertheless received his tribute. After some time, a notification arrives that Shalashnikov has been killed.

The rogue came instead of the landowner. He ordered to cut trees if there is no money. When the workers came to their senses, they realized that they had cut a road to the village. The German robbed them to the last penny. Vogel built a factory and ordered a ditch to be dug. The peasants sat down to rest at lunch, the German went to scold them for their idleness. They pushed him into the ditch. He went to hard labor, twenty years later he escaped from there. During hard labor he saved up money, built a hut and now lives there.

Chapter 4

The daughter-in-law scolded the maiden for not working much. She began to leave her son to grandfather. Grandfather ran to the field, told about what he overlooked and fed Demushka to the pigs. The grief of the mother was not enough, but also the police began to come often, they suspected that she had killed the child on purpose. She mourned for a long time. And Savely calmed her down.

Chapter 5

As the child died, so did the work. The father-in-law decided to teach a lesson and beat the bride. She began to beg to kill her, the father took pity. Around the clock, the mother mourned at the grave of her son. In winter, the husband returned. Grandfather went out of grief from the beginning to the forest, then to the monastery. After Matryona gave birth every year. And again came a series of troubles. Timofeevna's parents died. Grandfather returned from the monastery, asked for forgiveness from his mother, said that he had prayed for Demushka. But he did not live long, he died very hard. Before his death, he spoke about three ways of life for women and two ways for men. Four years later, a praying man came to the village.

She talked about some beliefs, advised not to breastfeed babies on fast days. Timofeevna did not listen, then she regretted it, says God punished her. When her child, Fedot, was eight years old, he began to pasture sheep. And somehow they came to complain about him. It is said that he fed the sheep to the she-wolf. Mother began to question Fedot. The child said that he did not have time to blink an eye, as out of nowhere, a she-wolf appeared and grabbed a sheep. He ran after him, caught up, but the sheep was dead. The she-wolf howled, it was clear that somewhere in the hole she had babies. He took pity on her and handed over the dead sheep. They tried to flog Fetoda, but the mother took all the punishment upon herself.

Chapter 6

Matryona Timofeevna said that it was not easy for her son to see the she-wolf then. Believes that it was a harbinger of hunger. The mother-in-law spread all the gossip around the village about Matryona. She said that her daughter-in-law croaked hunger because she knew how to do such things. She said that her husband was protecting her.

After the hunger strike, they began to take the guys from the villages to the service. First they took her husband's brother, she was calm that in difficult times her husband would be with her. But in no queue they took away her husband. Life becomes unbearable, mother-in-law and father-in-law begin to pester her even more.

Picture or drawing Who lives well in Russia

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