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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Work test

The name of Nekrasov is forever fixed in the consciousness of the Russian people as the name of a great poet who came to literature with his new word and was able to express the high patriotic ideals of his time in unique images and sounds.
Speaking about Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” it must be said that the poem is not finished. The poet began work on the grandiose plan of a “people's book” in 1863, and ended up terminally ill in 1877. As he said: “One thing I deeply regret is that I did not finish the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” However, Belinsky believed that incompleteness is a sign of the true. The question of the “incompleteness” of the poem is highly controversial. After all, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was conceived as an epic, that is, a work of art depicting with the maximum degree of completeness an entire era in the life of the people. Since folk life is limitless and inexhaustible in its countless manifestations, epics in any variety are characterized by incompleteness. The epic can be continued indefinitely, but you can put an end to almost any part of its path. That is, the individual parts of the poem are connected by some common phenomenon. For example, in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” all parts are united only by wandering peasants (excluding the parts “Last One” and “Feast for the Whole World”). This allows you to freely rearrange the parts. That is, there is a loose order of parts. If the order had been fixed, the part “The Last One” would have followed not the first part, but the second, and “The Peasant Woman” would have been located after the third part, “A Feast for the Whole World.” The composition of the work is built according to the laws of classical epic: it consists of separate, relatively autonomous parts and chapters. Outwardly, these topics are connected by the theme of the road: seven truth-seekers wander around Rus', trying to resolve the question that haunts them: who can live well in Rus'? And therefore, rearranging the parts does not eliminate the meaning and charm of the poem.
The genre originality of the poem is its mixing of fairy-tale motifs and real facts of history. For example, the number seven in folklore is magical. The Seven Wanderers are an image of a large epic cast. The fabulous flavor of the Prologue raises the narrative above everyday life, above peasant life and gives the action an epic universality. At the same time, the events are attributed to the post-reform era. A specific sign of men - “temporarily obliged” - indicates the real situation of the peasants at that time. But it’s not just the magical number of wanderers that creates the fabulous atmosphere. In the Prologue, the meeting of seven men is narrated as a great epic event:
In what year - calculate
In what land - guess
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together...
This is how epic and fairy-tale heroes came together for a battle or an honorable feast. But here, along with fairy-tale motifs, the general sign of post-reform ruin is captured, expressed in the names of the villages: Zaplatovo, Razutovo, Zlobishino, Neurozhaika. Terpigoreva County, Empty Volost, Smart Province - all this also tells us about the plight of the provinces, districts, and volosts after the reforms of 1861.
And yet the men live and act as in a fairy tale: “Go there, I don’t know where, bring that, I don’t know what.” The poem makes a comic comparison of a men's argument with a bullfight in a peasant herd. According to the laws of the epic, it unfolds, as in Gogol’s “Dead Souls,” but also acquires an independent meaning. A cow with a bell, straying from the herd, came to the fire, fixed her eyes on the men,
I listened to crazy speeches
And I began, my dear,
Moo, moo, moo!
Nature and animals also participate in the peasant dispute:
And the raven, a smart bird,
Arrived, sitting on a tree
Right by the fire,
Sits and prays to the devil,
To be slapped to death
Which one!
The commotion grows, spreads, covers the entire forest:
A booming echo woke up,
Let's go for a walk,
Let's go scream and shout
As if to tease
Stubborn men.
The poet approaches the very essence of the dispute with irony. The men do not yet understand that the question of who is happier - the priest, the landowner, the merchant, the official or the tsar - reveals the limitations of their ideas about happiness, which come down to material security. But for the peasants of that time, the issue of security was the most important. And not only in Russia this question worried people, which is why the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” has a prominent place not only in Russian, but also in world poetry.
The genre originality of N. A.-Nekrasov’s poem lies in the author’s amazing ability to combine a fairy-tale atmosphere with the political problems of the 60s of the 19th century. And also in writing a wonderful epic poem, accessible to all people at any age.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who can live well in Rus'? This question still worries many people, and this fact explains the increased attention to Nekrasov’s legendary poem. The author managed to raise a topic that has become eternal in Russia - the topic of asceticism, voluntary self-denial in the name of saving the fatherland. It is the service of a high goal that makes a Russian person happy, as the writer proved with the example of Grisha Dobrosklonov.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is one of Nekrasov’s last works. When he wrote it, he was already seriously ill: he was struck by cancer. That's why it's not finished. It was collected bit by bit by the poet’s close friends and arranged the fragments in random order, barely catching the confused logic of the creator, broken by a fatal illness and endless pain. He was dying in agony and yet was able to answer the question posed at the very beginning: Who lives well in Rus'? He himself turned out to be lucky in a broad sense, because he faithfully and selflessly served the interests of the people. This service supported him in the fight against his fatal illness. Thus, the history of the poem began in the first half of the 60s of the 19th century, around 1863 (serfdom was abolished in 1861), and the first part was ready in 1865.

The book was published in fragments. The prologue was published in the January issue of Sovremennik in 1866. Later other chapters were published. All this time, the work attracted the attention of censors and was mercilessly criticized. In the 70s, the author wrote the main parts of the poem: “The Last One,” “The Peasant Woman,” “A Feast for the Whole World.” He planned to write much more, but due to the rapid development of the disease he was unable to and settled on “The Feast...”, where he expressed his main idea regarding the future of Russia. He believed that such holy people as Dobrosklonov would be able to help his homeland, mired in poverty and injustice. Despite the fierce attacks of reviewers, he found the strength to stand for a just cause to the end.

Genre, genus, direction

ON THE. Nekrasov called his creation “the epic of modern peasant life” and was precise in his formulation: the genre of the work is “Who can live well in Rus'?” - epic poem. That is, at the heart of the book, not one type of literature coexists, but two: lyricism and epic:

1. Epic component. There was a turning point in the history of the development of Russian society in the 1860s, when people learned to live in new conditions after the abolition of serfdom and other fundamental transformations of their usual way of life. This difficult historical period was described by the writer, reflecting the realities of that time without embellishment or falsehood. In addition, the poem has a clear linear plot and many original characters, which indicates the scale of the work, comparable only to a novel (epic genre). The book also incorporates folklore elements of heroic songs telling about the military campaigns of heroes against enemy camps. All these are generic signs of the epic.
2. Lyrical component. The work is written in verse - this is the main property of lyrics as a genre. The book also contains space for the author's digressions and typically poetic symbols, means of artistic expression, and features of the characters' confessions.

The direction within which the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was written is realism. However, the author significantly expanded its boundaries, adding fantastic and folklore elements (prologue, opening, symbolism of numbers, fragments and heroes from folk legends). The poet chose the form of travel for his plan, as a metaphor for the search for truth and happiness that each of us carries out. Many researchers of Nekrasov’s work compare the plot structure with the structure of a folk epic.

Composition

The laws of the genre determined the composition and plot of the poem. Nekrasov finished writing the book in terrible agony, but still did not have time to finish it. This explains the chaotic composition and many branches from the plot, because the works were shaped and restored from drafts by his friends. In the last months of his life, he himself was unable to clearly adhere to the original concept of creation. Thus, the composition “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”, comparable only to the folk epic, is unique. It was developed as a result of the creative development of world literature, and not the direct borrowing of some well-known example.

1. Exposition (Prologue). The meeting of seven men - the heroes of the poem: “On a pillared path / Seven men came together.”
2. The plot is the characters' oath not to return home until they find the answer to their question.
3. The main part consists of many autonomous parts: the reader gets acquainted with a soldier, happy that he was not killed, a slave, proud of his privilege to eat from the master's bowls, a grandmother, whose garden yielded turnips to her delight... While the search for happiness stands still, depicts the slow but steady growth of national self-awareness, which the author wanted to show even more than the declared happiness in Rus'. From random episodes, a general picture of Rus' emerges: poor, drunk, but not hopeless, striving for a better life. In addition, the poem has several large and independent inserted episodes, some of which are even included in autonomous chapters (“The Last One,” “The Peasant Woman”).
4. Climax. The writer calls Grisha Dobrosklonov, a fighter for people's happiness, a happy person in Rus'.
5. Denouement. A serious illness prevented the author from completing his great plan. Even those chapters that he managed to write were sorted and designated by his proxies after his death. You must understand that the poem is not finished, it was written by a very sick person, therefore this work is the most complex and confusing of Nekrasov’s entire literary heritage.
6. The final chapter is called “A Feast for the Whole World.” All night long the peasants sing about the old and new times. Grisha Dobrosklonov sings kind and hopeful songs.

What is the poem about?

Seven men met on the road and argued about who would live well in Rus'? The essence of the poem is that they looked for the answer to this question on the way, talking with representatives of different classes. The revelation of each of them is a separate story. So, the heroes went for a walk in order to resolve the dispute, but only quarreled and started a fight. In the night forest, during a fight, a bird's chick fell from its nest, and one of the men picked it up. The interlocutors sat down by the fire and began to dream of also acquiring wings and everything necessary for their journey in search of the truth. The warbler turns out to be magical and, as a ransom for her chick, tells people how to find a self-assembled tablecloth that will provide them with food and clothing. They find her and feast, and during the feast they vow to find the answer to their question together, but until then not to see any of their relatives and not to return home.

On the road they meet a priest, a peasant woman, the showroom Petrushka, beggars, an overextended worker and a paralyzed former servant, an honest man Ermila Girin, the landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev, the insane Last-Utyatin and his family, the servant Yakov the faithful, God's wanderer Jonah Lyapushkin , but none of them were happy people. Each of them is associated with a story of suffering and misadventures full of genuine tragedy. The goal of the journey is achieved only when the wanderers stumbled upon seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, who is happy with his selfless service to his homeland. With good songs, he instills hope in the people, and this is where the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” ends. Nekrasov wanted to continue the story, but did not have time, but he gave his heroes a chance to gain faith in the future of Russia.

The main characters and their characteristics

About the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” we can say with confidence that they represent a complete system of images that organizes and structures the text. For example, the work emphasizes the unity of the seven wanderers. They do not show individuality or character; they express common features of national self-awareness for all. These characters are a single whole; their dialogues, in fact, are collective speech, which originates from oral folk art. This feature makes Nekrasov’s poem similar to the Russian folklore tradition.

1. Seven wanderers represent former serfs “from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neelova, Neurozhaika and also.” They all put forward their versions of who should live well in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a sovereign minister or a tsar. Their character is characterized by persistence: they all demonstrate a reluctance to take someone else's side. Strength, courage and the desire for truth are what unites them. They are passionate and easily angered, but their easygoing nature compensates for these shortcomings. Kindness and responsiveness make them pleasant interlocutors, even despite some meticulousness. Their disposition is harsh and harsh, but life did not spoil them with luxury: the former serfs always bent their backs working for the master, and after the reform no one bothered to provide them with a proper home. So they wandered around Rus' in search of truth and justice. The search itself characterizes them as serious, thoughtful and thorough people. The symbolic number “7” means a hint of luck that awaited them at the end of the journey.
2. Main character– Grisha Dobrosklonov, seminarian, son of a sexton. By nature he is a dreamer, a romantic, loves to compose songs and make people happy. In them he talks about the fate of Russia, about its misfortunes, and at the same time about its mighty strength, which will one day come out and crush injustice. Although he is an idealist, his character is strong, as are his convictions to devote his life to the service of truth. The character feels a calling to be the people's leader and singer of Rus'. He is happy to sacrifice himself to a high idea and help his homeland. However, the author hints that a difficult fate awaits him: prison, exile, hard labor. The authorities do not want to hear the voice of the people, they will try to silence them, and then Grisha will be doomed to torment. But Nekrasov makes it clear with all his might that happiness is a state of spiritual euphoria, and you can only know it by being inspired by a lofty idea.
3. Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina- the main character, a peasant woman, whom her neighbors call lucky because she begged her husband from the wife of the military leader (he, the only breadwinner of the family, was supposed to be recruited for 25 years). However, the woman's life story reveals not luck or fortune, but grief and humiliation. She experienced the loss of her only child, the anger of her mother-in-law, and everyday, exhausting work. Her fate is described in detail in an essay on our website, be sure to check it out.
4. Savely Korchagin- grandfather of Matryona’s husband, a real Russian hero. At one time, he killed a German manager who mercilessly mocked the peasants entrusted to him. For this, a strong and proud man paid with decades of hard labor. Upon his return, he was no longer good for anything; the years of imprisonment trampled his body, but did not break his will, because, as before, he stood up for justice. The hero always said about the Russian peasant: “And it bends, but does not break.” However, without knowing it, the grandfather turns out to be the executioner of his own great-grandson. He did not look after the child, and the pigs ate him.
5. Ermil Girin- a man of exceptional honesty, mayor in the estate of Prince Yurlov. When he needed to buy the mill, he stood in the square and asked people to chip in to help him. After the hero got back on his feet, he returned all the borrowed money to the people. For this he earned respect and honor. But he is unhappy, because he paid for his authority with freedom: after a peasant revolt, suspicion fell on him about his organization, and he was imprisoned.
6. Landowners in the poem“Who lives well in Rus'” are presented in abundance. The author portrays them objectively and even gives some images a positive character. For example, governor Elena Alexandrovna, who helped Matryona, appears as a people's benefactor. Also, with a touch of compassion, the writer portrays Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev, who also treated the peasants tolerably, even organized holidays for them, and with the abolition of serfdom, he lost ground under his feet: he was too accustomed to the old order. In contrast to these characters, the image of the Last-Duckling and his treacherous, calculating family was created. The relatives of the old, cruel serf owner decided to deceive him and persuaded the former slaves to participate in the performance in exchange for profitable territories. However, when the old man died, the rich heirs brazenly deceived the common people and drove him away with nothing. The apogee of noble insignificance is the landowner Polivanov, who beats his faithful servant and gives his son as a recruit for trying to marry his beloved girl. Thus, the writer is far from denigrating the nobility everywhere; he is trying to show both sides of the coin.
7. Serf Yakov- an indicative figure of a serf peasant, an antagonist of the hero Savely. Jacob absorbed the entire slavish essence of the oppressed class, overwhelmed by lawlessness and ignorance. When the master beats him and even sends his son to certain death, the servant humbly and resignedly endures the insult. His revenge was consistent with this humility: he hanged himself in the forest right in front of the master, who was crippled and could not get home without his help.
8. Jonah Lyapushkin- God's wanderer who told the men several stories about the life of people in Rus'. It tells about the epiphany of Ataman Kudeyara, who decided to atone for his sins by killing for good, and about the cunning of Gleb the elder, who violated the will of the late master and did not release the serfs on his orders.
9. Pop- a representative of the clergy who complains about the difficult life of a priest. The constant encounter with grief and poverty saddens the heart, not to mention the popular jokes addressed to his rank.

The characters in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are diverse and allow us to paint a picture of the morals and life of that time.

Subject

• The main theme of the work is Liberty- rests on the problem that the Russian peasant did not know what to do with it, and how to adapt to new realities. The national character is also “problematic”: people-thinkers, people-seekers of truth still drink, live in oblivion and empty talk. They are not able to squeeze slaves out of themselves until their poverty acquires at least the modest dignity of poverty, until they stop living in drunken illusions, until they realize their strength and pride, trampled upon by centuries of humiliating state of affairs that were sold, lost and bought.
• Happiness theme. The poet believes that a person can get the highest satisfaction from life only by helping other people. The real value of being is to feel needed by society, to bring goodness, love and justice into the world. Selfless and selfless service to a good cause fills every moment with sublime meaning, an idea, without which time loses its color, becomes dull from inaction or selfishness. Grisha Dobrosklonov is happy not because of his wealth or his position in the world, but because he is leading Russia and his people to a bright future.
• Homeland theme. Although Rus' appears in the eyes of readers as a poor and tortured, but still a beautiful country with a great future and a heroic past. Nekrasov feels sorry for his homeland, devoting himself entirely to its correction and improvement. For him, his homeland is the people, the people are his muse. All these concepts are closely intertwined in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The author's patriotism is especially clearly expressed at the end of the book, when the wanderers find a lucky man who lives in the interests of society. In the strong and patient Russian woman, in the justice and honor of the heroic peasant, in the sincere good-heartedness of the folk singer, the creator sees the true image of his state, full of dignity and spirituality.
• Theme of labor. Useful activity elevates Nekrasov's poor heroes above the vanity and depravity of the nobility. It is idleness that destroys the Russian master, turning him into a self-satisfied and arrogant nonentity. But the common people have skills and true virtue that are really important for society, without them there will be no Russia, but the country will manage without noble tyrants, revelers and greedy seekers of wealth. So the writer comes to the conclusion that the value of each citizen is determined only by his contribution to the common cause - the prosperity of the homeland.
• Mystical motive. Fantastic elements appear already in the Prologue and immerse the reader in the fabulous atmosphere of the epic, where one must follow the development of the idea, and not the realism of the circumstances. Seven eagle owls on seven trees - the magic number 7, which promises good luck. A raven praying to the devil is another mask of the devil, because the raven symbolizes death, grave decay and infernal forces. He is opposed by a good force in the form of a warbler bird, which equips the men for the journey. A self-assembled tablecloth is a poetic symbol of happiness and contentment. “The Wide Road” is a symbol of the open ending of the poem and the basis of the plot, because on both sides of the road travelers are presented with a multifaceted and authentic panorama of Russian life. The image of an unknown fish in unknown seas, which has absorbed “the keys to female happiness,” is symbolic. The crying she-wolf with bloody nipples also clearly demonstrates the difficult fate of the Russian peasant woman. One of the most striking images of the reform is the “great chain”, which, having broken, “split one end over the master, the other over the peasant!” The seven wanderers are a symbol of the entire people of Russia, restless, waiting for change and seeking happiness.

Issues

• In the epic poem, Nekrasov touched on a large number of pressing and topical issues of the time. The main problem in “Who can live well in Rus'?” - the problem of happiness, both socially and philosophically. It is connected with the social theme of the abolition of serfdom, which greatly changed (and not for the better) the traditional way of life of all segments of the population. It would seem that this is freedom, what else do people need? Isn't this happiness? However, in reality, it turned out that the people, who, due to long slavery, do not know how to live independently, found themselves thrown to the mercy of fate. A priest, a landowner, a peasant woman, Grisha Dobrosklonov and seven men are real Russian characters and destinies. The author described them based on his rich experience of communicating with people from the common people. The problems of the work are also taken from life: disorder and confusion after the reform to abolish serfdom really affected all classes. No one organized jobs or at least land plots for yesterday's slaves, no one provided the landowner with competent instructions and laws regulating his new relations with workers.
• The problem of alcoholism. The wanderers come to an unpleasant conclusion: life in Rus' is so difficult that without drunkenness the peasant will completely die. He needs oblivion and fog in order to somehow pull the burden of a hopeless existence and hard labor.
• The problem of social inequality. The landowners have been torturing the peasants with impunity for years, and Savelia has had her whole life ruined for killing such an oppressor. For deception, nothing will happen to the relatives of the Last One, and their servants will again be left with nothing.
• The philosophical problem of searching for truth, which each of us encounters, is allegorically expressed in the journey of seven wanderers who understand that without this discovery their lives become worthless.

Idea of ​​the work

A road fight between men is not an everyday quarrel, but an eternal, great dispute, in which all layers of Russian society of that time figure to one degree or another. All its main representatives (priest, landowner, merchant, official, tsar) are summoned to the peasant court. For the first time, men can and have the right to judge. For all the years of slavery and poverty, they are not looking for retribution, but for an answer: how to live? This expresses the meaning of Nekrasov’s poem “Who can live well in Rus'?” - growth of national self-awareness on the ruins of the old system. The author’s point of view is expressed by Grisha Dobrosklonov in his songs: “And fate, the companion of the Slav’s days, lightened your burden! You are still a slave in the family, but the mother of a free son!..” Despite the negative consequences of the reform of 1861, the creator believes that behind it lies a happy future for the fatherland. At the beginning of change it is always difficult, but this work will be rewarded a hundredfold.

The most important condition for further prosperity is overcoming internal slavery:

Enough! Finished with past settlement,
The settlement with the master has been completed!
The Russian people are gathering strength
And learns to be a citizen

Despite the fact that the poem is not finished, Nekrasov voiced the main idea. Already the first of the songs in “A Feast for the Whole World” gives an answer to the question posed in the title: “The share of the people, their happiness, light and freedom, above all!”

End

In the finale, the author expresses his point of view on the changes that have occurred in Russia in connection with the abolition of serfdom and, finally, sums up the results of the search: Grisha Dobrosklonov is recognized as the lucky one. It is he who is the bearer of Nekrasov’s opinion, and in his songs Nikolai Alekseevich’s true attitude to what he described is hidden. The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” ends with a feast for the whole world in the literal sense of the word: this is the name of the last chapter, where the characters celebrate and rejoice at the happy completion of the search.

Conclusion

In Rus', it is good for Nekrasov’s hero Grisha Dobrosklonov, since he serves people, and, therefore, lives with meaning. Grisha is a fighter for truth, a prototype of a revolutionary. The conclusion that can be drawn based on the work is simple: the lucky one has been found, Rus' is embarking on the path of reform, the people are reaching through thorns to the title of citizen. The great meaning of the poem lies in this bright omen. It has been teaching people altruism and the ability to serve high ideals, rather than vulgar and passing cults, for centuries. From the point of view of literary excellence, the book is also of great importance: it is truly a folk epic, reflecting a controversial, complex, and at the same time the most important historical era.

Of course, the poem would not be so valuable if it only taught lessons in history and literature. She gives life lessons, and this is her most important property. The moral of the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is that it is necessary to work for the good of your homeland, not to scold it, but to help it with deeds, because it is easier to push around with a word, but not everyone can and really wants to change something. This is happiness - to be in your place, to be needed not only by yourself, but also by the people. Only together can we achieve significant results, only together can we overcome the problems and hardships of this overcoming. Grisha Dobrosklonov tried to unite and unite people with his songs so that they would face change shoulder to shoulder. This is his holy purpose, and everyone has it; it is important not to be lazy to go out on the road and look for it, as the seven wanderers did.

Criticism

The reviewers were attentive to Nekrasov’s work, because he himself was an important person in literary circles and had enormous authority. Entire monographs were devoted to his phenomenal civic lyricism with a detailed analysis of the creative methodology and ideological and thematic originality of his poetry. For example, here is how the writer S.A. spoke about his style. Andreevsky:

He brought the anapest, abandoned on Olympus, out of oblivion and for many years made this heavy but flexible meter as common as the airy and melodious iambic had remained from the time of Pushkin to Nekrasov. This rhythm, favored by the poet, reminiscent of the rotational movement of a barrel organ, allowed him to stay on the boundaries of poetry and prose, joke around with the crowd, speak smoothly and vulgarly, insert a funny and cruel joke, express bitter truths and imperceptibly, slowing down the beat, in more solemn words, move into floridity.

Korney Chukovsky spoke with inspiration about Nikolai Alekseevich’s thorough preparation for work, citing this example of writing as a standard:

Nekrasov himself constantly “visited Russian huts,” thanks to which both soldier and peasant speech became thoroughly known to him from childhood: not only from books, but also in practice, he studied the common language and from a young age became a great connoisseur of folk poetic images and folk forms thinking, folk aesthetics.

The poet's death came as a surprise and a blow to many of his friends and colleagues. As you know, F.M. spoke at his funeral. Dostoevsky with a heartfelt speech inspired by impressions from a poem he recently read. In particular, among other things, he said:

He, indeed, was highly original and, indeed, came with a “new word.”

First of all, his poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” became a “new word”. No one before him had understood so deeply the peasant, simple, everyday grief. His colleague in his speech noted that Nekrasov was dear to him precisely because he bowed “to the people’s truth with all his being, which he testified to in his best creations.” However, Fyodor Mikhailovich did not support his radical views on the reorganization of Russia, however, like many thinkers of that time. Therefore, criticism reacted to the publication violently, and in some cases aggressively. In this situation, the honor of his friend was defended by the famous reviewer, master of words Vissarion Belinsky:

N. Nekrasov in his last work remained true to his idea: to arouse the sympathy of the upper classes of society for the common people, their needs and requirements.

Quite caustically, recalling, apparently, professional disagreements, I. S. Turgenev spoke about the work:

Nekrasov's poems, collected into one focus, are burned.

The liberal writer was not a supporter of his former editor and openly expressed his doubts about his talent as an artist:

In the white thread stitched, seasoned with all sorts of absurdities, painfully hatched fabrications of the mournful muse of Mr. Nekrasov - there is not even a penny of it, poetry.”

He truly was a man of very high nobility of soul and a man of great intelligence. And as a poet he is, of course, superior to all poets.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

The idea for the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” arose in the early 1860s. Nekrasov continued to work on the poem until the end of his life, but never managed to complete it. Therefore, when publishing the poem, serious difficulties arose - the sequence of chapters remained unclear, the author's intention could only be approximately guessed. Researchers of Nekrasov’s work settled on three main options for the arrangement of chapters in the poem. The first was based on the sequence of seasons in the poem and the author’s notes and proposed the following order: “Prologue and first part” - “Last child” - “Feast for the whole world” - “Peasant woman”. The second swapped the chapters “A Feast for the Whole World” and “The Peasant Woman.” With this arrangement, the concept of the poem looked more optimistic - from serfdom to funerals “on the support”, from satirical pathos to pathetic. The third and most common version - most likely, it was the one you came across when reading the poem (“Prologue and first part” - “Peasant Woman” - “Lastly” - “Feast for the whole world”) - also had its own logic. The feast organized on the occasion of the death of the Last One smoothly turns into a “feast for the whole world”: according to the content of the chapters “The Last One” and “Feast for the whole world” are very closely related. In the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World,” there is finally a truly happy person.

We will rely on the third option, simply because it was the one that became generally accepted when the poem was published, but at the same time we will remember that the poem remained unfinished and we are dealing with a reconstruction, and not the actual author’s intention.

Nekrasov himself called his work “an epic of modern peasant life.” Epic is one of the most ancient literary genres. The first and most famous epic, which all authors turning to this genre were guided by, is Homer's Iliad. Homer gives an extremely broad cross-section of the life of the Greeks at a decisive moment for the nation, the period of the ten-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans - at a turning point, the people, like the individual, reveal themselves more clearly. With the simplicity of a Greek commoner, Homer does not miss even the smallest details of the life and military way of life of his heroes. The listed features have become genre-forming; we can easily find them in any epic, including in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” including.

Nekrasov tries to touch all facets of people's life, pays attention to the most insignificant details of people's life; The action of the poem is timed to coincide with the culminating moment for the Russian peasantry - the period that came after the abolition of serfdom in 1861.

The compositional core of the epic was the journey of seven men, which made it possible to extremely expand the boundaries of the artistic space of the poem. The seven wanderers are, as it were, one whole; they are poorly distinguishable from each other; whether they speak in turn or in chorus, their lines flow together. They are only eyes and ears. Unlike the poem “Frost, Red Nose,” in “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov tries to be completely invisible, hide behind the canopy and show the people’s point of view on what is happening. Sometimes, for example, in the famous passage about Belinsky and Gogol, which the man has not yet carried from the market, the author’s voice still breaks through, but this is one of the few exceptions.