Year: 1877 Genre: poem

Rus' is a country in which even poverty has its charms. After all, the poor, who are slaves to the power of the landowners of that time, have time to reflect and see what the overweight landowner will never see.

Once upon a time, on the most ordinary road, where there was an intersection, men, of whom there were seven, accidentally met. These men are the most ordinary poor men whom fate itself brought together. The men just recently left serfdom, and are now temporarily in bondage. They, as it turned out, lived very close to each other. Their villages were adjacent - the villages of Zaplatova, Razutova, Dyryavina, Znobishina, as well as Gorelova, Neelova and Neurozhaika. The names of the villages are very peculiar, but to some extent, they reflect their owners.

Men are simple people and willing to talk. That's 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, a boyar or a merchant, or maybe even a sovereign father? Each of them has their own opinion, which they cherish, and do not want to agree with each other. The argument flares up more and more, but nevertheless, I want to eat. You cannot live without food, even if you feel bad and sad. When they argued, without noticing it, they walked, but in the wrong direction. Suddenly they noticed it, but it was too late. The men gave a distance of as much as thirty miles.

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

Read the summary of Who Lives Well in Rus' by Nekrasov chapter by chapter

Part 1. Prologue

Seven temporary men met on the road. They began to argue about who lives funny, very freely in Rus'. 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 Pakhom caught a small chick. The mother bird flies in 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 lives well in Rus'.

Chapter 1. Pop

Men go on a hike. They pass through steppes, fields, abandoned houses, meeting both rich and poor. They asked the soldier they met about whether he was living a happy life, and the soldier responded by saying that he shaved with an awl and warmed himself with smoke. We passed by the priest. We decided to ask him how life was in Rus'. Pop claims that happiness does not lie in prosperity, luxury and tranquility. And he proves that he has no peace of mind, night and day they can call him to the dying man, that his son cannot learn to read and write, that he often sees sobs and tears at the coffins.

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

Chapter 2. Country Fair

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

Then a gentleman appears, as the young man in a red shirt is called, 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 Petrushka, people give the actors drinks and a lot of money.

Chapter 3. Drunken night

Returning home after the holiday, people fell into ditches from drunkenness, women fought, complaining about life. Veretennikov, the one who bought the shoes for his granddaughter, walked along arguing that Russians are good and smart people, but drunkenness spoils everything, being a big disadvantage for people. The men told Veretennikov about Nagy Yakima. This guy lived in St. Petersburg and after a quarrel with a merchant he went to prison. One day he gave his son various pictures that hung on the walls, and he admired them more than his son. One day there was a fire, so instead of saving money, he started collecting pictures.

His money melted and then merchants gave only eleven rubles for it, and now the pictures hang on the walls in the new house. Yakim said that men don’t lie and said that sadness will come and people will be sad if they stop drinking. Then the young people began to hum the song, and they sang so well that one girl passing by couldn’t even hold back her tears. She complained that her husband was very jealous and she sat at home as if on a leash. After the story, the men began to remember their wives, realized that they missed them, and decided to quickly find out who was living well in Rus'.

Chapter 4. Happy

Travelers, passing by an idle crowd, look for happy people in it, promising to pour them a drink. The clerk came to them first, knowing that happiness does not lie in luxury and wealth, but in faith in God. He talked about what he believes and that makes him happy. Next, 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. Afterwards the soldier tells the story that after twenty battles he remained alive, that he survived hunger and did not die, that this made him happy. He gets a glass of vodka and leaves. The stonecutter wields a large hammer and has immense strength.

In response, the thin man ridicules him, advising him not to boast about his strength, otherwise God will take away his strength. The contractor boasts that he carried objects weighing fourteen pounds with ease to the second floor, but lately he had lost his strength and was about to die in his hometown. A nobleman came to them and told them that he lived with his mistress, ate very well with them, drank drinks from other people's glasses and developed a strange illness. He was wrong in his diagnosis several times, but in the end it turned out that it was gout. The wanderers kick him out so that he does not drink wine with them. Then the Belarusian said that happiness is in bread. Beggars see happiness in giving a lot. The vodka is running out, but they haven’t found a truly happy person, they are advised to look for happiness from Ermila Girin, who runs the mill. Yermil is awarded to sell it, wins the auction, but 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 their money to all the good people who helped him in difficult times. The travelers were amazed that the people believed Ermila’s words and helped. Good people said that Ermila was the colonel’s clerk. He worked honestly, but he was driven away. When the colonel died and the time came to choose a mayor, everyone unanimously chose Yermil. Someone said that Ermila did not correctly judge the son of the peasant woman Nenila Vlasyevna.

Ermila was very sad that he could let the peasant woman down. He ordered the people to judge him, and the young man was fined. He quit his job and rented a mill and established his own order on it. They advised travelers to go to Girin, but the people said that he was in prison. And then everything is interrupted because a lackey is whipped on the side of the road for theft. The wanderers asked for the continuation of the story, and in response they heard a promise to continue at the next meeting.

Chapter 5. Landowner

The wanderers meet a landowner who mistakes them for thieves and even threatens them with a pistol. Obolt Obolduev, having understood the people, started a story about the antiquity of his family, that while serving the sovereign he had a salary of two rubles. He remembers feasts rich in various foods, servants, of whom 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, their houses have been dismantled brick by brick, the forest has been plundered, not a trace remains of their former life. The landowner complains that he is not created for such a life; after living in the village for forty years, he will not be able to distinguish barley from rye, but they demand that he work. The landowner is crying, the people sympathize with him.

Part 2. The Last One

The wanderers, walking past the hayfield, decide to mow a little, they are bored with their work. The gray-haired man Vlas drives the women out of the fields and asks them not to disturb the landowner. Landowners catch fish in boats in the river. We moored and went around the hayfield. The wanderers began to ask the man about the landowner. It turned out that the sons, in collusion with the people, were deliberately indulging the master so that he would not deprive them of their inheritance. The sons beg everyone to play along with them. One man, Ipat, serves without playing along, for the salvation that the master gave him. Over time, everyone gets used to deception and lives like that. Only the man Agap Petrov did not want to play these games. Utyatina grabbed the second blow, but again he woke up and ordered Agap to be publicly flogged. The sons put the wine in the stable and asked them to shout loudly so that the prince could hear them up to the porch. But soon Agap died, they say from the prince’s wine. People stand in front of the porch and play a comedy; one rich man can’t stand it and laughs loudly. A peasant woman saves the situation and falls at the prince’s feet, claiming that it was her stupid little son who laughed. As soon as Utyatin died, all the people breathed freely.

Part 3. Peasant woman

They send to the neighboring village to Matryona Timofeevna to ask about happiness. There is hunger and poverty in the village. Someone caught a small fish in the river and talks about how once upon a time a larger fish was caught.

Theft is rampant, people are trying to steal something. Travelers find Matryona Timofeevna. She insists that she doesn’t have time to rant, she needs to remove the rye. The wanderers help her; while working, Timofeevna begins to willingly talk about her life.

Chapter 1. Before marriage

In her youth, the girl had a strong family. She lived in her parents' house without knowing any troubles; she had enough time to have fun and work. One day Philip Korchagin appeared, and the father promised to give his daughter as a wife. Matryona resisted for a long time, but eventually agreed.

Chapter 2. Songs

Next, the story is 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 being slow. Her husband leaves for work, and she gives birth to a child. She calls him Demushka. Her husband's parents began to scold her often, but she endured everything. Only the father-in-law, old man Savely, felt sorry for his daughter-in-law.

Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero

He lived in an upper room, did not like his family and did not allow them into his house. He told Matryona about his life. In his youth he was a Jew in a serf family. The village was remote, you had to get there through thickets and swamps. The landowner in the village was Shalashnikov, but he could not get to the village, and the peasants did not even go to him when called. The rent was not paid; the police were given fish and honey as tribute. They went to the master and complained that there was no rent. Having threatened with flogging, the landowner still received his tribute. After some time, a notification comes that Shalashnikov has been killed.

The rogue came instead of the landowner. He ordered trees to be cut down if there was 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 idleness. They pushed him into a ditch and buried him alive. He ended up in hard labor and escaped from there twenty years later. During hard labor he saved up money, built a hut and now lives there.

Chapter 4. Demushka

The daughter-in-law scolded the girl for not working enough. She began to leave her son to his grandfather. Grandfather ran to the field and told him that he had overlooked and fed Demushka to the pigs. The mother’s grief was not enough, but the police began to come often, they suspected that she had killed the child on purpose. She mourned him for a long time. And Savely kept reassuring her.

Chapter 5. Patrimony

As soon as you die, the work stops. The father-in-law decided to teach a lesson and beat the bride. She began to beg to kill her, and her father took pity. The mother mourned at her son’s grave all day and night. In winter, my husband returned. Grandfather left from grief, first into the forest, then into the monastery. After that, Matryona gave birth every year. And again a series of troubles began. Timofeevna's parents died. Grandfather returned from the monastery, asked his mother for forgiveness, and said that he had prayed for Demushka. But he never lived long; he died very hard. Before his death, he spoke about three paths of life for women and two paths for men. Four years later, a praying mantis comes to the village.

She kept talking about some beliefs and advised against feeding babies with breast milk on fasting days. Timofeevna did not listen, then she regretted it, she says God punished her. When her child, Fedot, was eight years old, he began to herd sheep. And somehow they came to complain about him. They say that he fed the sheep to the she-wolf. Fedot’s mother began to question him. The child said that before he could blink an eye, a she-wolf appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the sheep. He ran after him and caught up, but the sheep was dead. The she-wolf howled, it was clear that she had cubs somewhere in the hole. He took pity on her and gave her the dead sheep. They tried to flog Fetod, but his mother took all the punishment upon herself.

Chapter 6. Difficult year

Matryona Timofeevna said that it was not easy for the she-wolf to see her son like that. He believes that this was a harbinger of famine. My mother-in-law spread all the gossip around the village about Matryona. She said that her daughter-in-law cawed out 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 children from villages to serve. They took her husband's brother first, she was calm that her husband would be with her in difficult times. But my husband was also taken away from the queue. Life becomes unbearable, her mother-in-law and father-in-law begin to mock her even more.

Picture or drawing Who lives well in Rus'

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Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” tells about the journey of seven peasants across Russia in search of a happy person. The work was written in the late 60s to mid 70s. XIX century, after the reforms of Alexander II and the abolition of serfdom. It tells about a post-reform society in which not only many old vices have not disappeared, but many new ones have appeared. According to the plan of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, the wanderers were supposed to reach St. Petersburg at the end of the journey, but due to the illness and imminent death of the author, the poem remained unfinished.

The work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is written in blank verse and stylized as Russian folk tales. We invite you to read online a summary of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov, chapter by chapter, prepared by the editors of our portal.

Main characters

Novel, Demyan, Luke, Gubin brothers Ivan and Mitrodor, Groin, Prov- seven peasants who went to look for a happy man.

Other characters

Ermil Girin- the first “candidate” for the title of lucky man, an honest mayor, very respected by the peasants.

Matryona Korchagina(Governor's wife) - a peasant woman, known in her village as a “lucky woman”.

Savely- grandfather of Matryona Korchagina’s husband. A hundred year old man.

Prince Utyatin(The Last One) is an old landowner, a tyrant, to whom his family, in agreement with the peasants, does not talk about the abolition of serfdom.

Vlas- peasant, mayor of a village that once belonged to Utyatin.

Grisha Dobrosklonov- seminarian, son of a clerk, dreaming of the liberation of the Russian people; the prototype was the revolutionary democrat N. Dobrolyubov.

Part 1

Prologue

Seven men converge on the “pillar path”: Roman, Demyan, Luka, the Gubin brothers (Ivan and Mitrodor), old man Pakhom and Prov. The district from which they come is called by the author Terpigorev, and the “adjacent villages” from which the men come are called Zaplatovo, Dyryaevo, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo and Neurozhaiko, thus the poem uses the artistic device of “speaking” names .

The men got together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?

Each of them insists on his own. One shouts that life is most free for the landowner, another that for the official, the third for the priest, “the fat-bellied merchant,” “the noble boyar, the sovereign’s minister,” or the tsar.

From the outside it seems as if the men found a treasure on the road and are now dividing it among themselves. The men have already forgotten what business they left the house for (one was going to baptize a child, the other was going to the market...), and they go to God knows where until night falls. Only here do the men stop and, “blaming the trouble on the devil,” sit down to rest and continue the argument. Soon it comes to a fight.

Roman is pushing Pakhomushka,
Demyan pushes Luka.

The fight alarmed the whole forest, an echo woke up, animals and birds became worried, a cow mooed, a cuckoo croaked, jackdaws squeaked, the fox, who had been eavesdropping on the men, decided to run away.

And then there’s the warbler
Tiny chick with fright
Fell from the nest.

When the fight is over, the men pay attention to this chick and catch it. It’s easier for a bird than for a man, says Pakhom. If he had wings, he would fly all over Rus' to find out who lives best in it. “We wouldn’t even need wings,” the others add, they would just have some bread and “a bucket of vodka,” as well as cucumbers, kvass and tea. Then they would measure all of “Mother Rus' with their feet.”

While the men are interpreting this, a warbler flies up to them and asks them to let her chick go free. For him she will give a royal ransom: everything the men want.

The men agree, and the warbler shows them a place in the forest where a box with a self-assembled tablecloth is buried. Then she enchants their clothes so that they do not wear out, so that their bast shoes do not break, their foot wraps do not rot, and lice do not breed on their bodies, and flies away “with her birth chick.” In parting, the chiffchaff warns the peasant: they can ask for as much food from the self-assembled tablecloth as they want, but you can’t ask for more than a bucket of vodka a day:

And once and twice - it will be fulfilled
At your request,
And the third time there will be trouble!

The peasants rush into the forest, where they actually find a self-assembled tablecloth. Delighted, they throw a feast and make a vow: not to return home until they find out for sure “who lives happily and at ease in Rus'?”

This is how their journey begins.

Chapter 1. Pop

A wide path lined with birch trees stretches far away. On it, the men come across mostly “small people” - peasants, artisans, beggars, soldiers. Travelers don’t even ask them anything: what kind of happiness is there? Towards evening, the men meet the priest. The men block his path and bow low. In response to the priest’s silent question: what do they want?, Luka talks about the dispute that started and asks: “Is the priest’s life sweet?”

The priest thinks for a long time, and then answers that, since it is a sin to grumble against God, he will simply describe his life to the men, and they will figure out for themselves whether it is good.

Happiness, according to the priest, lies in three things: “peace, wealth, honor.” The priest knows no peace: his rank is earned by hard work, and then an equally difficult service begins; the cries of orphans, the cries of widows and the groans of the dying contribute little to peace of mind.

The situation is no better with honor: the priest serves as an object for the witticisms of the common people, obscene tales, anecdotes and fables are written about him, which do not spare not only himself, but also his wife and children.

The last thing that remains is wealth, but even here everything has changed long ago. Yes, there were times when the nobles honored the priest, played magnificent weddings and came to their estates to die - that was the job of the priests, but now “the landowners have scattered across distant foreign lands.” So it turns out that the priest is content with rare copper nickels:

The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give it, but there’s nothing...

Having finished his speech, the priest leaves, and the disputants attack Luke with reproaches. They unanimously accuse him of stupidity, of the fact that it was only at first glance that the priest’s housing seemed comfortable to him, but he could not figure it out deeper.

What did you take? stubborn head!

The men would probably have beaten Luka, but then, fortunately for him, at the bend of the road, “the priest’s stern face” appears once again...

Chapter 2. Rural fair

The men continue their journey, and their road goes through empty villages. Finally they meet the rider and ask him where the villagers have gone.

We went to the village of Kuzminskoye,
Today there is a fair...

Then the wanderers decide to also go to the fair - what if it is there that the one “who lives happily” is hiding?

Kuzminskoye is a rich, albeit dirty village. It has two churches, a school (closed), a dirty hotel and even a paramedic. That’s why the fair is rich, and most of all there are taverns, “eleven taverns,” and they don’t have time to pour a drink for everyone:

Oh Orthodox thirst,
How great are you!

There are a lot of drunk people around. A man scolds a broken ax, and Vavil’s grandfather, who promised to bring shoes for his granddaughter, but drank away all the money, is sad next to him. The people feel sorry for him, but no one can help - they themselves have no money. Fortunately, a “master” happens, Pavlusha Veretennikov, and he buys shoes for Vavila’s granddaughter.

Ofeni (booksellers) also sell at the fair, but the most low-quality books, as well as thicker portraits of generals, are in demand. And no one knows whether the time will come when a man:

Belinsky and Gogol
Will it come from the market?

By evening everyone gets so drunk that even the church with its bell tower seems to be shaking, and the men leave the village.

Chapter 3. Drunken night

It's a quiet night. The men walk along the “hundred-voice” road and hear snatches of other people’s conversations. They talk about officials, about bribes: “And we give fifty dollars to the clerk: We have made a request,” women’s songs are heard asking them to “love.” One drunk guy buries his clothes in the ground, assuring everyone that he is “burying his mother.” At the road sign, the wanderers again meet Pavel Veretennikov. He talks with peasants, writes down their songs and sayings. Having written down enough, Veretennikov blames the peasants for drinking a lot - “it’s a shame to see!” They object to him: the peasant drinks mainly out of grief, and it is a sin to condemn or envy him.

The objector's name is Yakim Goly. Pavlusha also writes down his story in a book. Even in his youth, Yakim bought popular prints for his son and he loved looking at them just as much as the child. When there was a fire in the hut, the first thing he did was rush to tear pictures from the walls, and so all his savings, thirty-five rubles, were burned. Now he gets 11 rubles for a melted lump.

Having heard enough stories, the wanderers sit down to refresh themselves, then one of them, Roman, remains at the guard’s bucket of vodka, and the rest again mix with the crowd in search of the happy one.

Chapter 4. Happy

Wanderers walk in the crowd and call for the happy one to appear. If such a one appears and tells them about his happiness, then he will be treated to vodka.

Sober people laugh at such speeches, but a considerable queue of drunk people forms. The sexton comes first. His happiness, in his words, “lies in complacency” and in the “kosushechka” that the men pour out. The sexton is driven away, and an old woman appears who, on a small ridge, “up to a thousand turnips were born.” The next to try his luck is a soldier with medals, “he’s barely alive, but he wants a drink.” His happiness is that no matter how much he was tortured in the service, he still remained alive. A stonecutter with a huge hammer also comes, a peasant who overstrained himself in the service but still made it home barely alive, a yard man with a “noble” disease - gout. The latter boasts that for forty years he stood at the table of His Serene Highness, licking plates and finishing glasses of foreign wine. The men drive him away too, because they have simple wine, “not for your lips!”

The queue for travelers is not getting smaller. The Belarusian peasant is happy that here he eats his fill of rye bread, because in his homeland they baked bread only with chaff, and this caused terrible cramps in the stomach. A man with a folded cheekbone, a hunter, is happy that he survived the fight with the bear, while the rest of his comrades were killed by the bears. Even beggars come: they are happy that there is alms to feed them.

Finally, the bucket is empty, and the wanderers realize that they will not find happiness this way.

Hey, man's happiness!
Leaky, with patches,
Humpbacked with calluses,
Go home!

Here one of the people who approached them advises them to “ask Ermila Girin,” because if he doesn’t turn out to be happy, then there’s nothing to look for. Ermila is a simple man who has earned the great love of the people. The wanderers are told the following story: Ermila once had a mill, but they decided to sell it for debts. The bidding began; the merchant Altynnikov really wanted to buy the mill. Ermila was able to beat his price, but the problem was that he didn’t have the money with him to make a deposit. Then he asked for an hour's delay and ran to the market square to ask the people for money.

And a miracle happened: Yermil received the money. Very soon he had the thousand he needed to buy out the mill. And a week later there was an even more wonderful sight on the square: Yermil was “calculating the people”, he distributed the money to everyone and honestly. There was only one extra ruble left, and Yermil kept asking until sunset whose it was.

The wanderers are perplexed: by what witchcraft did Yermil gain such trust from the people. They are told that this is not witchcraft, but the truth. Girin served as a clerk in an office and never took a penny from anyone, but helped with advice. The old prince soon died, and the new one ordered the peasants to elect a burgomaster. Unanimously, “six thousand souls, the whole estate,” Yermila shouted - although young, he loves the truth!

Only once did Yermil “betray his soul” when he did not recruit his younger brother, Mitri, replacing him with the son of Nenila Vlasyevna. But after this act, Yermil’s conscience tormented him so much that he soon tried to hang himself. Mitri was handed over as a recruit, and Nenila’s son was returned to her. Yermil, for a long time, was not himself, “he resigned from his position,” but instead rented a mill and became “more loved by the people than before.”

But here the priest intervenes in the conversation: all this is true, but going to Yermil Girin is useless. He is sitting in prison. The priest begins to tell how it happened - the village of Stolbnyaki rebelled and the authorities decided to call Yermil - his people will listen.

The story is interrupted by shouts: they caught the thief and flogged him. The thief turns out to be the same footman with the “noble illness”, and after the flogging he runs away as if he had completely forgotten about his illness.
The priest, meanwhile, says goodbye, promising to finish telling the story the next time they meet.

Chapter 5. Landowner

On their further journey, the men meet the landowner Gavrila Afanasich Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is frightened at first, suspecting them to be robbers, but, having figured out what the matter is, he laughs and begins to tell his story. He traces his noble family back to the Tatar Oboldui, who was skinned by a bear for the amusement of the empress. She gave the Tatar cloth for this. Such were the noble ancestors of the landowner...

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

However, not all strictness; the landowner admits that he “attracted hearts more with affection”! All the servants loved him, gave him gifts, and he was like a father to them. But everything changed: the peasants and land were taken away from the landowner. The sound of an ax can be heard from the forests, everyone is being destroyed, drinking houses are springing up instead of estates, because now no one needs a letter at all. And they shout to the landowners:

Wake up, sleepy landowner!
Get up! - study! work!..

But how can a landowner, who has been accustomed to something completely different since childhood, work? They didn’t learn anything, and “thought they’d live like this forever,” but it turned out differently.

The landowner began to cry, and the good-natured peasants almost cried with him, thinking:

The great chain has broken,
Torn and splintered:
One way for the master,
Others don't care!..

Part 2

Last One

The next day, the men go to the banks of the Volga, to a huge hay meadow. They had barely started talking with the locals when music began and three boats moored to the shore. They are a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, little barchat, servants and a gray-haired old gentleman. The old man inspects the mowing, and everyone bows to him almost to the ground. In one place he stops and orders the dry haystack to be swept away: the hay is still damp. The absurd order is immediately carried out.

The wanderers marvel:
Grandfather!
What a wonderful old man?

It turns out that the old man - Prince Utyatin (the peasants call him the Last One) - having learned about the abolition of serfdom, “beguiled” and fell ill with a stroke. It was announced to his sons that they had betrayed the landowner ideals, were unable to defend them, and if so, they would be left without an inheritance. The sons got scared and persuaded the peasants to fool the landowner a little, with the idea that after his death they would give the village flood meadows. The old man was told that the tsar ordered the serfs to be returned to the landowners, the prince was delighted and stood up. So this comedy continues to this day. Some peasants are even happy about this, for example, the courtyard Ipat:

Ipat said: “Have fun!
And I am the Utyatin princes
Serf - and that’s the whole story!”

But Agap Petrov cannot come to terms with the fact that even in freedom someone will push him around. One day he told the master everything directly, and he had a stroke. When he woke up, he ordered Agap to be flogged, and the peasants, so as not to reveal the deception, took him to the stable, where they placed a bottle of wine in front of him: drink and shout louder! Agap died that same night: it was hard for him to bow down...

The wanderers attend the feast of the Last One, where he gives a speech about the benefits of serfdom, and then lies down in a boat and falls asleep in eternal sleep while listening to songs. The village of Vakhlaki sighs with sincere relief, but no one is giving them the meadows - the trial continues to this day.

Part 3

Peasant woman

“Not everything is between men
Find the happy one
Let’s feel the women!”

With these words, the wanderers go to Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna, the governor, a beautiful woman 38 years old, who, however, already calls herself an old woman. She talks about her life. Then I was only happy, as I was growing up in my parents’ house. But girlhood quickly flew by, and now Matryona is already being wooed. Her betrothed is Philip, handsome, ruddy and strong. He loves his wife (according to her, he only beat him once), but soon he goes to work, and leaves her with his large, but alien to Matryona, family.

Matryona works for her older sister-in-law, her strict mother-in-law, and her father-in-law. She had no joy in her life until her eldest son, Demushka, was born.

In the whole family, only the old grandfather Savely, the “hero of the Holy Russian”, who is living out his life after twenty years of hard labor, feels sorry for Matryona. He ended up in hard labor for the murder of a German manager who did not give the men a single free minute. Savely told Matryona a lot about his life, about “Russian heroism.”

The mother-in-law forbids Matryona to take Demushka into the field: she doesn’t work with him much. The grandfather looks after the child, but one day he falls asleep and the child is eaten by pigs. After some time, Matryona meets Savely at the grave of Demushka, who has gone to repentance at the Sand Monastery. She forgives him and takes him home, where the old man soon dies.

Matryona had other children, but she could not forget Demushka. One of them, the shepherdess Fedot, once wanted to be whipped for a sheep carried away by a wolf, but Matryona took the punishment upon herself. When she was pregnant with Liodorushka, she had to go to the city and ask for the return of her husband, who had been taken into the army. Matryona gave birth right in the waiting room, and the governor’s wife, Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying, helped her. Since then, Matryona “has been glorified as a lucky woman and nicknamed the governor’s wife.” But what kind of happiness is that?

This is what Matryonushka says to the wanderers and adds: they will never find a happy woman among women, the keys to female happiness are lost, and even God does not know where to find them.

Part 4

Feast for the whole world

There is a feast in the village of Vakhlachina. Everyone gathered here: the wanderers, Klim Yakovlich, and Vlas the elder. Among the feasting are two seminarians, Savvushka and Grisha, good, simple guys. They, at the request of the people, sing a “funny” song, then it’s their turn for different stories. There is a story about an “exemplary slave - Yakov the faithful,” who followed his master all his life, fulfilled all his whims and rejoiced even in the master’s beatings. Only when the master gave his nephew as a soldier did Yakov start drinking, but soon returned to the master. And yet Yakov did not forgive him, and was able to take revenge on Polivanov: he took him, with his legs swollen, into the forest, and there he hanged himself on a pine tree above the master.

A dispute ensues about who is the most sinful. God's wanderer Jonah tells the story of “two sinners,” about the robber Kudeyar. The Lord awakened his conscience and imposed a penance on him: cut down a huge oak tree in the forest, then his sins will be forgiven. But the oak fell only when Kudeyar sprinkled it with the blood of the cruel Pan Glukhovsky. Ignatius Prokhorov objects to Jonah: the peasant’s sin is still greater, and tells a story about the headman. He hid the last will of his master, who decided to set his peasants free before his death. But the headman, seduced by money, tore up his freedom.

The crowd is depressed. Songs are sung: “Hungry”, “Soldier’s”. But the time will come in Rus' for good songs. This is confirmed by two seminarian brothers, Savva and Grisha. Seminarian Grisha, the son of a sexton, has known for sure since the age of fifteen that he wants to devote his life to the people’s happiness. Love for his mother merges in his heart with love for all Vakhlachin. Grisha walks along his land and sings a song about Rus':

You're miserable too
You are also abundant
You are mighty
You are also powerless
Mother Rus'!

And his plans will not be lost: fate is preparing for Grisha “a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.” In the meantime, Grisha sings, and it’s a pity that the wanderers can’t hear him, because then they would understand that they have already found a happy person and could return home.

Conclusion

This ends the unfinished chapters of the poem by Nekrasov. However, even from the surviving parts, the reader is presented with a large-scale picture of post-reform Rus', which with pain is learning to live in a new way. The range of problems raised by the author in the poem is very wide: the problems of widespread drunkenness, ruining the Russian people (it’s not for nothing that a bucket of vodka is offered as a reward to the happy one!), problems of women, ineradicable slave psychology (revealed in the example of Yakov, Ipat) and the main problem of national happiness. Most of these problems, unfortunately, to one degree or another remain relevant today, which is why the work is very popular, and a number of quotes from it have entered everyday speech. The compositional method of the main characters' journey brings the poem closer to an adventure novel, making it easy to read and with great interest.

A brief retelling of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” conveys only the most basic content of the poem; for a more accurate idea of ​​the work, we recommend that you read the full version of “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”

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Description

The poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov does not need additional announcements, retellings, or presentations. Work " Who can live well in Rus'?"is a real pearl of Russian classical literature. This work is life. Sad, sometimes with sorrow, sometimes cheerfully and cheerfully, this audiobook tells about the life of the Russian people, peasants, priests, landowners, women, men, drunkards and workers.

Seven simple men, recent serfs, met by chance on the road and they argued about who should live freely and cheerfully in Rus'. And they were so overcome by this question that they decided to leave their homes, wives and children, not to work, not to go out, until they found out who was living well in Mother Rus'. The rescued chick reveals to the men the secret of where to find a self-assembled tablecloth, and nothing now prevents the debaters from going on a journey across Rus' in search of a truly happy person.

The first contender for a happy life is the priest on the path of men. But the well-fed and red-cheeked priest convinces the men that happiness lies in honor, wealth and peace, but the poor priest has none of this. All his life he has to look at the dying, accept copper coins from peasants. One joy was from the landowners, who served well and weddings were celebrated widely. But they scattered throughout Rus', into foreign countries. And the poor priests have to be content with peasant crumbs and endure obscene jokes from the common people.

Leaving the priest, the men go to the fair in Kuzminskoye, to look for the lucky one among the cheerful people. At the fair they meet a variety of people. Here is a kindly drunken grandfather, and women who buy books not by Gogol and Belinsky, but by unnecessary fat generals. Here they observe widespread drunkenness and fights. On their way out of the city, they meet Pavlusha Veretennikov, who loves simple men, but scolds them for their constant drunkenness. But Yakim Nagoy colorfully, from the heart, truthfully shows the life of a simple peasant and brings to the conclusion that disappearing in any case, and drunkenness at least gives the opportunity to forget. The life of a simple peasant is hard, and stopping drunkenness will bring eternal sadness to Rus'.

To find a happy person, our wanderers offer vodka and wine to the one who proves that he lives happily. And then the sick, the beggars, soldiers, peasants, old and young, began to prove that no one was happier than him. The soldier is happy that he did not die in twenty battles, in the barracks, or in illness. The lame man sees his happiness in a noble illness. The poor grandmother is happy that the turnips have grown this year. The mason rejoices in his youth and strength. The bear hunter, although crooked on one side, is happy that the bear did not tear him to death. “The ragged beggars, having heard the smell of foam, And they came to prove how happy they are.”

They told the peasant wanderers about Ermila Girin, who was respected and held in esteem, and all the peasants helped him and believed in him. But after the peasant revolt, Ermila was placed in prison. And if it were not for this end of his fate, honest Ermila could be considered a happy person.

Finally, the disputants met a landowner - sixty-year-old, ruddy Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev. Of course, life is hard for the landowner after the introduction of new orders and the abolition of serfdom. The landowner painted an idyll of life, which was destroyed by the abolition of serfdom. There is no longer that hunt in the forests, there is no longer that obedient peasant, there is no longer the opportunity to rule strictly but kindly.

Not finding a happy one among the men, the wanderers went with their self-assembled tablecloth to the women and found Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina. And although she works well, has honor, money and a good attitude, there is no happiness in her destiny. Its history is long and full of sadness and sorrow. Starting from the time when her husband took her into the abusive family, how her first-born son died, how she suffered from hunger and began to feed the family. No, there is no point in looking for happy women.

How much the men will have to go through, how many stories they will have to listen to. Where they will find a happy person, and how their journey will end, you can find out by listening to the audiobook “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” The excellent, professional work of Alexander Sinitsa, who voiced the book, allows us to fully appreciate Nekrasov’s easy speech. At the same time, the depth of the images and the poignancy of the plots are complemented not only by the excellent voice acting of Alexander Titmouse, but also by the appropriate musical accompaniment.

ON THE. Nekrasov was always not just a poet - he was a citizen who was deeply concerned about social injustice, and especially about the problems of the Russian peasantry. The cruel treatment of landowners, the exploitation of female and child labor, a joyless life - all this was reflected in his work. And in 18621, the seemingly long-awaited liberation came - the abolition of serfdom. But was this actually liberation? It is to this topic that Nekrasov devotes “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - his most poignant, most famous - and his last work. The poet wrote it from 1863 until his death, but the poem still came out unfinished, so it was prepared for printing from fragments of the poet’s manuscripts. However, this incompleteness turned out to be significant in its own way - after all, for the Russian peasantry, the abolition of serfdom did not become the end of the old life and the beginning of a new one.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is worth reading in its entirety, because at first glance it may seem that the plot is too simple for such a complex topic. A dispute between seven men about who should live well in Rus' cannot be the basis for revealing the depth and complexity of the social conflict. But thanks to Nekrasov’s talent in revealing characters, the work gradually reveals itself. The poem is quite difficult to understand, so it is best to download its entire text and read it several times. It is important to pay attention to how different the peasant’s and the master’s understanding of happiness is: the first believes that this is his material well-being, and the second believes that this is the least possible number of troubles in his life. At the same time, in order to emphasize the idea of ​​​​the spirituality of the people, Nekrasov introduces two more characters who come from his midst - these are Ermil Girin and Grisha Dobrosklonov, who sincerely want happiness for the entire peasant class, and so that no one is offended.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is not idealistic, because the poet sees problems not only in the noble class, which is mired in greed, arrogance and cruelty, but also among the peasants. This is primarily drunkenness and obscurantism, as well as degradation, illiteracy and poverty. The problem of finding happiness for yourself personally and for the entire people as a whole, the fight against vices and the desire to make the world a better place are still relevant today. So even in its unfinished form, Nekrasov’s poem is not only a literary, but also a moral and ethical example.

In January 1866, the next issue of the Sovremennik magazine was published in St. Petersburg. It opened with lines that are now familiar to everyone:

In what year - calculate

Guess which land...

These words seemed to promise to introduce the reader into an entertaining fairy-tale world, where a warbler bird speaking human language and a magic tablecloth would appear... So N. began with a sly smile and ease.

A. Nekrasov his story about the adventures of seven men who argued about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.”

Already in the “Prologue” a picture of peasant Rus' was visible, the figure of the main character of the work stood up - the Russian peasant, as he really was: in bast shoes, onuchakh, an army coat, unfed, having suffered grief.

Three years later, publication of the poem resumed, but each part was met with severe persecution by the tsarist censors, who believed that the poem was “notable for its extreme ugliness of content.” The last chapter written, “A Feast for the Whole World,” came under particularly sharp attack. Unfortunately, Nekrasov was not destined to see either the publication of “The Feast” or a separate edition of the poem. Without abbreviations or distortions, the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was published only after the October Revolution.

The poem occupies a central place in Nekrasov’s poetry, is its ideological and artistic pinnacle, the result of the writer’s thoughts about the fate of the people, about their happiness and the paths that lead to it. These thoughts worried the poet throughout his life and ran like a red thread through all his poetic work.

By the 1860s, the Russian peasant became the main hero of Nekrasov’s poetry. “Peddlers”, “Orina, the soldier’s mother”, “Railway”, “Frost, Red Nose” are the most important works of the poet on the way to the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.

He devoted many years to working on the poem, which the poet called his “favorite brainchild.” He set himself the goal of writing a “people's book”, useful, understandable to the people and truthful. “I decided,” said Nekrasov, “to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” This will be an epic of peasant life.” But death interrupted this gigantic work; the work remained unfinished. However, despite this, it retains ideological and artistic integrity.

Nekrasov revived the genre of folk epic in poetry. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a truly folk work: both in its ideological sound, and in the scale of the epic depiction of modern folk life, in posing the fundamental questions of the time, and in heroic pathos, and in the widespread use of poetic traditions of oral folk art, the closeness of the poetic language to living speech forms of everyday life and song lyricism.

At the same time, Nekrasov’s poem has features characteristic specifically of critical realism. Instead of one central character, the poem primarily depicts the folk environment as a whole, the living conditions of different social circles. The people's point of view on reality is expressed in the poem already in the very development of the theme, in the fact that all of Rus', all events are shown through the perception of wandering peasants, presented to the reader as if in their vision.

The events of the poem unfold in the first years after the reform of 1861 and the liberation of the peasants. The people, the peasantry, are the true positive heroes of the poem. Nekrasov pinned his hopes for the future on him, although he was aware of the weakness of the forces of peasant protest and the immaturity of the masses for revolutionary action.

In the poem, the author created the image of the peasant Savely, the “hero of the Holy Russian”, “the hero of the homespun”, who personifies the gigantic strength and fortitude of the people. Savely is endowed with the features of the legendary heroes of the folk epic. This image is associated by Nekrasov with the central theme of the poem - the search for ways to people's happiness. It is no coincidence that Matryona Timofeevna says about Savely to wanderers: “He was also a lucky man.” Savely’s happiness lies in his love of freedom, in his understanding of the need for active struggle of the people, who can only achieve a “free” life in this way.

The poem contains many memorable images of peasants. Here is the smart old mayor Vlas, who has seen a lot in his time, and Yakim Nagoy, a typical representative of the working agricultural peasantry. However, Yakim Naga portrays the poet as not at all like the downtrodden, dark peasant of the patriarchal village. With a deep consciousness of his dignity, he ardently defends the people's honor and makes a fiery speech in defense of the people.

An important role in the poem is occupied by the image of Yermil Girin - a pure and incorruptible “protector of the people”, who takes the side of the rebel peasants and ends up in prison.

In the beautiful female image of Matryona Timofeevna, the poet draws the typical features of a Russian peasant woman. Nekrasov wrote many moving poems about the harsh “female share,” but he had never written about a peasant woman so fully, with such warmth and love as is depicted in the poem Matryonushka.

Along with the peasant characters of the poem, who evoke love and sympathy, Nekrasov also depicts other types of peasants, mostly courtyards - lordly hangers-on, sycophants, obedient slaves and outright traitors. These images are drawn by the poet in the tones of satirical denunciation. The more clearly he saw the protest of the peasantry, the more he believed in the possibility of their liberation, the more irreconcilably he condemned slavish humiliation, servility and servility. Such are the “exemplary slave” Yakov in the poem, who ultimately realizes the humiliation of his position and resorts to pitiful and helpless, but in his slavish consciousness, terrible revenge - suicide in front of his tormentor; the “sensitive lackey” Ipat, who talks about his humiliations with disgusting relish; informer, “one of our own spy” Yegor Shutov; elder Gleb, seduced by the promises of the heir and agreed to destroy the will of the deceased landowner about the liberation of eight thousand peasants (“Peasant Sin”).

Showing the ignorance, rudeness, superstition, and backwardness of the Russian village of that time, Nekrasov emphasizes the temporary, historically transient nature of the dark sides of peasant life.

The world poetically recreated in the poem is a world of sharp social contrasts, clashes, and acute contradictions in life.

In the “round”, “ruddy-faced”, “pot-bellied”, “mustachioed” landowner Obolt-Obolduev, whom the wanderers met, the poet reveals the emptiness and frivolity of a man who is not used to thinking seriously about life. Behind the guise of a good-natured man, behind Obolt-Obolduev’s courteous courtesy and ostentatious cordiality, the reader sees the arrogance and malice of the landowner, barely restrained disgust and hatred for the “men”, for the peasants.

The image of the landowner-tyrant Prince Utyatin, nicknamed by the peasants the Last One, is marked with satire and grotesquery. A predatory look, “a nose with a beak like a hawk,” alcoholism and voluptuousness complement the disgusting appearance of a typical representative of the landowner environment, an inveterate serf owner and despot.

At first glance, the development of the plot of the poem should consist in resolving the dispute between the men: which of the persons they named lives happier - the landowner, the official, the priest, the merchant, the minister or the tsar. However, developing the action of the poem, Nekrasov goes beyond the plot framework set by the plot of the work. Seven peasants are no longer looking for happiness only among representatives of the ruling classes. Going to the fair, in the midst of the people, they ask themselves the question: “Isn’t he hiding there, who lives happily?” In “The Last One” they directly say that the purpose of their journey is to search for people’s happiness, a better peasant lot:

We are looking, Uncle Vlas,

Unflogged province,

Ungutted parish,

Izbytkova village!..

Having begun the narrative in a semi-fairy-tale humorous tone, the poet gradually deepens the meaning of the question of happiness and gives it an increasingly acute social resonance. The author's intentions are most clearly manifested in the censored part of the poem - “A feast for the whole world.” The story about Grisha Dobrosklonov that began here was to take a central place in the development of the theme of happiness and struggle. Here the poet speaks directly about that path, about that “path” that leads to the embodiment of national happiness. Grisha’s happiness lies in the conscious struggle for a happy future for the people, so that “every peasant can live freely and cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'.”

The image of Grisha is the final one in the series of “people’s intercessors” depicted in Nekrasov’s poetry. The author emphasizes in Grisha his close proximity to the people, lively communication with the peasants, in whom he finds complete understanding and support; Grisha is depicted as an inspired dreamer-poet, composing his “good songs” for the people.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the highest example of the folk style of Nekrasov poetry. The folk song and fairy-tale element of the poem gives it a bright national flavor and is directly related to Nekrasov’s faith in the great future of the people. The main theme of the poem - the search for happiness - goes back to folk tales, songs and other folklore sources, which talked about the search for a happy land, truth, wealth, treasure, etc. This theme expressed the most cherished thought of the masses, their desire for happiness, the age-old dream of the people about a fair social system.

Nekrasov used in his poem almost the entire genre diversity of Russian folk poetry: fairy tales, epics, legends, riddles, proverbs, sayings, family songs, love songs, wedding songs, historical songs. Folk poetry provided the poet with rich material for judging peasant life, life, and the customs of the village.

The style of the poem is characterized by a wealth of emotional sounds, a variety of poetic intonation: the sly smile and leisurely narration in the “Prologue” is replaced in subsequent scenes by the ringing polyphony of a seething fair crowd, in “The Last One” - by satirical ridicule, in “The Peasant Woman” - by deep drama and lyrical emotion, and in “A Feast for the Whole World” - with heroic tension and revolutionary pathos.

The poet subtly feels and loves the beauty of the native Russian nature of the northern strip. The poet also uses the landscape to create an emotional tone, to more fully and vividly characterize the character’s state of mind.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” has a prominent place in Russian poetry. In it, the fearless truth of pictures of folk life appears in an aura of poetic fabulousness and the beauty of folk art, and the cry of protest and satire merged with the heroism of the revolutionary struggle.