For about fourteen years, from 1863 to 1876, the work of N.A. Nekrasov on the most significant work in his work - the poem "To whom in Rus' it is good to live." Despite the fact that, unfortunately, the poem was never finished and only some of its chapters have come down to us, later arranged by textologists in chronological order, Nekrasov's work can rightfully be called an "encyclopedia of Russian life." In terms of the breadth of coverage of events, the detail of the depiction of characters, and the amazing artistic accuracy, it is not inferior to
"Eugene Onegin" A.S. Pushkin.
In parallel with the depiction of folk life, the poem raises questions of morality, touches upon the ethical problems of the Russian peasantry and the entire Russian society of that time, since it is the people who always act as the bearer of moral norms and universal ethics in general.
The main idea of the poem follows directly from its title: who in Rus' can be considered a truly happy person?
To the people. According to Nekrasov, those who fight for justice and "the happiness of their native corner" live well in Rus'.
The peasants-heroes of the poem, looking for the "happy" one, do not find him either among the landowners, or among the priests, or among the peasants themselves. The poem depicts the only happy person - Grisha Dobrosklonov, who devoted his life to the struggle for people's happiness. Here the author expresses, in my opinion, an absolutely indisputable idea that one cannot be a true citizen of one's country without doing anything to improve the situation of the people, who are the strength and pride of the Fatherland.
True, Nekrasov's happiness is very relative: the "people's protector" Grisha "fate prepared ... consumption and Siberia." However, it is difficult to argue with the fact that fidelity to duty and a clear conscience are necessary conditions for true happiness.
In the poem, the problem of the moral fall of the Russian person is also acute, due to his terrifying economic situation, put in such conditions in which people lose their human dignity, turning into lackeys and drunkards. So, the stories of a lackey, the “beloved slave” of Prince Peremetyev, or the courtyard man of Prince Utyatin, the song “About the exemplary serf, Jacob the faithful” are a kind of parable, instructive examples of what spiritual servility, moral degradation led to serfdom of peasants, and before of all - courtyards, corrupted by personal dependence on the landowner. This is Nekrasov's reproach to the great and powerful people in their inner strength, resigned to the position of a slave.
The lyrical hero of Nekrasov actively protests against this slave psychology, calls the peasantry to self-consciousness, calls on the entire Russian people to free themselves from centuries of oppression and feel like a Citizen. The poet perceives the peasantry not as a faceless mass, but as a people-creator, he considered the people to be the real creator of human history.
However, the most terrible consequence of centuries of slavery, according to the author of the poem, is that many peasants are satisfied with their humiliated position, because they cannot imagine a different life for themselves, they cannot imagine how it is possible to exist differently. For example, the lackey Ipat, servile to his master, reverently and almost proudly tells how the master dipped him in the winter in an ice-hole and forced him to play the violin while standing in a flying sleigh. Kholui of Prince Peremetyev is proud of his "lordly" illness and the fact that "he licked the plates with the best French truffle."
Considering the perverted psychology of the peasants as a direct consequence of the autocratic serf system, Nekrasov also points to another product of serfdom - unrestrained drunkenness, which has become a real disaster for the Russian village.
For many men in the poem, the idea of happiness comes down to vodka. Even in the fairy tale about the chiffchaff, seven truth-seekers, when asked what they would like, answer: “If we only had bread ... but a bucket of vodka.” In the chapter "Rural Fair" wine flows like a river, there is a massive soldering of the people. The men return home drunk, where they become a real misfortune for their family. We see one such peasant, Vavilushka, who drank “to a penny”, who laments that he cannot even buy goat shoes for his granddaughter.
Another moral problem that Nekrasov touches upon is the problem of sin. The poet sees the path to the salvation of the human soul in the atonement of sin. So do Girin, Savely, Kudeyar; not such is the elder Gleb. Burmister Yermil Girin, having sent the son of a lonely widow as a recruit, thereby saving his own brother from soldiering, atones for his guilt by serving the people, remains faithful to him even in a moment of mortal danger.
However, the most serious crime against the people is described in one of Grisha's songs: the village headman Gleb hides the news of emancipation from his peasants, thus leaving eight thousand people in the bondage of slavery. According to Nekrasov, nothing can atone for such a crime.
The reader of the Nekrasov poem has a feeling of acute bitterness and resentment for the ancestors, who hoped for better times, but were forced to live in “empty volosts” and “tightened provinces” more than a hundred years after the abolition of serfdom.
Revealing the essence of the concept of "people's happiness", the poet points out that the only true way to achieve it is the peasant revolution. The idea of retribution for people's suffering is most clearly formulated in the ballad "On Two Great Sinners", which is a kind of ideological key to the entire poem. The robber Kudeyar throws off the "burden of sins" only when he kills Pan Glukhovsky, known for his atrocities. The murder of a villain, according to the author, is not a crime, but a feat worthy of a reward. Here Nekrasov's idea comes into conflict with Christian ethics. The poet conducts a hidden polemic with F.M. Dostoevsky, who argued the inadmissibility and impossibility of building a just society on blood, who believed that the very thought of murder is already a crime. And I can't help but agree with these statements! One of the most important Christian commandments says: "Thou shalt not kill!" After all, a person who takes the life of his own kind, thereby kills the person in himself, commits a grave crime before life itself, before God.
Therefore, justifying violence from the position of revolutionary democracy, the lyrical hero of Nekrasov calls Russia "to the ax" (in the words of Herzen), which, as we know, led to a revolution that turned into the worst sin for its perpetrators and the greatest disaster for our people.
Many questions arise before the debaters in the work of N.A. Nekrasov. The main one is who lives happily?
The problem of happiness in the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" goes beyond the usual understanding of the philosophical concept of "happiness". But this is understandable. The men of the lowest class are trying to solve the problem. It seems to them that the free, and the rich, and cheerful can be happy.
Components of happiness
Literary critics try to explain to the reader who the author wanted to present as a result of truly happy. Their opinions differ. This confirms the genius of the poet. He managed to make people think, search, think. The text leaves no one indifferent. There is no exact answer in the poem. The reader has the right to remain in his opinion. He, as one of the wanderers, is looking for an answer, going far beyond the scope of the poem.
The views of individual studies are interesting. They propose to consider happy men who are looking for an answer to a question. Wanderers are representatives of the peasantry. They are from different villages, but with "talking" names that characterize the life of the country's population. Bare-footed, hungry, in clothes with holes, after lean years, survivors of diseases, fires, walkers receive a self-assembly tablecloth as a gift. Her image is expanded in the poem. Here she not only feeds and waters. The tablecloth keeps shoes, clothes. Walk a man around the country, all the problems of everyday life remain aside. Wanderers meet different people, listen to stories, sympathize and empathize. Such a journey during the harvest and the usual labor affairs is a real happiness. To be away from a distressed family, a poor village. It is clear that not all of them realize how happy they were in their search. The peasant became free, but this did not bring him prosperity and the opportunity to live according to his desires. Happiness stands opposite serfdom. Slavery becomes the antonym of the desired concept. It is impossible to collect all the components of national happiness into a single whole.
Each class has its own goals:
- Men are a good harvest;
- The priests are a rich and large parish;
- Soldier - maintaining health;
- Women are kind relatives and healthy children;
- The landlords are a large number of servants.
A man and a gentleman cannot be happy at the same time. The abolition of slavery led to the loss of the foundations of both estates. Truth-seekers have traveled many roads, conducted a survey of the population. From stories about the happiness of some, you want to roar at the top of your voice. People become happy from vodka. That is why there are so many drinkers in Rus'. Both the peasant, and the priest, and the gentleman want to pour grief.
Ingredients of True Happiness
In the poem, the characters try to imagine a good life. The author tells the reader that everyone's perception of the environment is different. What does not please some, for others - the highest pleasure. The beauty of Russian landscapes captivates the reader. Remained in Rus' people with feelings of nobility. They are not changed by poverty, rudeness, illness and hardships of fate. There are few of them in the poem, but they are in every village.
Yakim Nagoi. Hunger and the hard life of a peasant did not kill the desire for beauty in his soul. During a fire, he saves paintings. Yakim's wife saves the icons. This means that in the soul of a woman lives faith in the spiritual transformation of people. Money remains in the background. And they've been hoarding them for years. The amount is amazing - 35 rubles. So impoverished is our Motherland in the past! Love for the beautiful distinguishes a man, instills faith: wine will not flood the "bloody rain" of the peasant's soul.
Ermil Girin. The disinterested peasant managed to win the lawsuit against the merchant with the help of the people. They lent him their last pennies without fear of being deceived. Honesty did not find its happy ending in the fate of the hero. He gets into prison. Ermil experiences mental anguish when he replaces his brother in recruitment. The author believes in the peasant, but understands that a sense of justice does not always lead to the desired result.
Grigory Dobrosklonov. The protector of the people is the prototype of the revolutionary-minded part of the inhabitants, a new emerging movement in Rus'. They try to change their native corner, refuse their own well-being, do not seek peace for themselves. The poet warns that the hero will become famous and glorious in Rus', the author sees them walking ahead and singing hymns.
Nekrasov believes: wrestlers will be happy. But who will know and believe in their happiness? History tells the opposite: hard labor, exile, consumption, death - this is not all that awaits them in the future. Not everyone will be able to convey their ideas to the people, many will remain outcasts, unrecognized geniuses.
The answer to the question "Who is living well in Rus'?" may not be found. Doubts penetrate the souls of readers. Happiness is a strange category. It can come for a moment from the joy of ordinary life, leads to a state of bliss from wine, barely perceptible in moments of love and affection. What needs to be done to make everyone happy in the understanding of a simple person? Changes must affect the structure and way of the country. Who is capable of carrying out such reforms? Will the will give this feeling to a person? There are even more questions than at the beginning of the reading of the poem. This is the task of literature: to make you think, evaluate, plan actions.
The poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” occupies a central place in the work of Nekrasov. It has become a kind of artistic result of more than thirty years of the author's work. All the motives of Nekrasov's lyrics are developed in the poem, all the problems that worried him are rethought, and his highest artistic achievements are used.
Nekrasov not only created a special genre of socio-philosophical poem. He subordinated it to his super-task: show an evolving picture of Russia in its past, present and future. Starting to write “in hot pursuit”, that is, immediately after the reform of 1861 of the year, a poem about a liberated, resurgent people, Nekrasov infinitely expanded the original idea. The search for “lucky ones” in Rus' took him from the present to the origins: the poet seeks to realize not only the results of the abolition of serfdom, but also the very philosophical nature of the concepts of happiness, freedom, honor, peace because without this philosophical reflection it is impossible to understand the essence of the present moment and see the future of the people.
The fundamental novelty of the genre explains the fragmentation of the poem, built from internally open chapters. United image-symbol of the road, the poem breaks up into stories, the fate of dozens of people. Each episode in itself could become the plot of a song or a story, a legend or a novel. All together, in unity, they make up the fate of the Russian people, its historical path from slavery to freedom. That is why only in the last chapter does the image of the “people's protector” Grisha Dobrosklonov appear - the one who will lead people to freedom.
The author's task determined not only genre innovation, but also the whole originality of the work's poetics. Nekrasov repeatedly addressed in lyrics to folklore motifs and images. He builds a poem about folk life entirely on a folklore basis. All the main genres of folklore are “involved” to one degree or another in “Who in Rus' should live well”: a fairy tale, a song, an epic, a legend
The problematics of the work is built on the correlation of folklore images and specific historical realities. The problem of national happiness is the ideological center of the work!!!.Images of seven wandering men - a symbolic image of Russia, which started off (work not completed).
"Who in Rus' to live well" - work of critical realism:
A) historicism(reflection of the contradictions of the life of peasants in the time of Uniform Russia (see above),
B) Depiction of typical characters in typical circumstances(a collective image of seven peasants, typical images of a priest, a landowner, peasants),
C) The original features of Nekrasov's realism- the use of folklore traditions, in which he was a follower of Lermontov and Ostrovsky.
Genre originality: Nekrasov used traditions folk epic, which allowed a number of researchers to interpret the genre "Who lives well in Rus'" as an epic (Prologue, a journey of men across Rus', a generalized people's view of the world - seven men). The poem is characterized by abundant use genres of folklore: a) Fairy Tale (Prologue)
b) Bylina (traditions) - Saveliy, Holy Russian hero,
c) Song - ritual (wedding, harvesting, lamentation songs) and labor,
d) Parable (Woman's parable), e) Legend (About two great sinners), f) Proverbs, sayings, riddles.
The poem reflected the contradictions of Russian reality in the post-reform period:
a) Class contradictions (ch. "Landowner", "Last child"),
b) Contradictions in the peasant consciousness (on the one hand, the people are a great worker, on the other, a drunken ignorant mass),
c) The contradictions between the high spirituality of the people and ignorance, inertia, illiteracy, downtroddenness of the peasants (Nekrasov's dream of the time when the peasant "will carry Belinsky and Gogol from the market"),
d) Contradictions between strength, the rebellious spirit of the people and humility, long-suffering, humility (the images of Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero, and Jacob the faithful, an exemplary serf).
The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov was based on N. A. Dobrolyubov. The reflection of the evolution of the people's consciousness is associated with the images of seven men who are gradually approaching the truth of Grisha Dobrosklonov from the truth of the priest, Ermila Girin, Matrena Timofeevna, Savely. Nekrasov does not claim that the peasants accepted this truth, but this was not the author's task.
The poem is written in a “free” language, as close as possible to common speech. The researchers call the verse of the poem Nekrasov's "brilliant find". Free and flexible poetic meter, independence from rhyme opened up the opportunity to generously convey the originality of the national language, while retaining all its accuracy, aphorism and special proverbial turns; organically weave into the fabric of the poem village songs, sayings, lamentations, elements of a folk tale (a magical tablecloth treats wanderers), skillfully reproduce the fervent speeches of peasants drunk at the fair, and the expressive monologues of peasant speakers, and the absurdly self-satisfied reasoning of a tyrant landowner. Colorful folk scenes full of life and movement, many characteristic faces and figures - all this creates the unique polyphony of the Nekrasov poem, in which the voice of the author himself seems to disappear, and instead of it the voices and speeches of his countless characters are heard.
fairy tale motifs: in Prolog: social welfare(heroes, fairy-tale beginning “In what year - count, in what year - guess, chpor about happiness, everyday elements), magical( magic items) about Ivan the Fool, about animals( talking bird, fairy tale about the bird kingdom)
Songs: lyrical, social, ritual, author's cry
Pagan and Christian beliefs: wedding ceremony - braiding, ceremony after the wedding - sleigh ride, etc.
Peasant images are divided into 2 types:
Worked on the estate (Ipat, Yakov, Proshka)
Who is in the fields
On a psychological basis:
Serfs in the shower (Klim, Ipat, Jacob faithful, Yegorka Shutov)
Strive for freedom
Poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who in Rus' should live well” is the final work of the poet’s work. The poet reflects the themes of people's happiness and grief, talks about human values.
Happiness for the heroes of the poem
The main characters of the work are seven men who go in search of happiness in Mother Russia. The heroes talk about happiness in disputes.
The first on the way of wanderers is a priest. For him, happiness is peace, honor and wealth. But he has neither one, nor the other, nor the third. He also convinces the heroes that happiness apart from the rest of society is completely impossible.
The landowner sees happiness in having power over the peasants. For peasants, harvest, health and satiety are important. Soldiers dream of being able to survive in difficult battles. The old woman finds happiness in a noble harvest of turnips. For Matryona Timofeevna, happiness lies in the dignity of a person, nobility and disobedience.
Ermil Girin
Ermil Girin sees his happiness in helping the people. Ermil Girin was respected and appreciated by the men for his honesty and justice. But once in his life he stumbled and sinned - he fenced off his nephew from recruitment and sent another guy. Having accomplished such an act, Yermil almost hanged himself from the torment of conscience. But the mistake was corrected, and Yermil took the side of the rebellious peasants, and for this he was put in jail.
Understanding Happiness. Grisha Dobrosklonov
Gradually, the search for a lucky man in Rus' develops into an awareness of the concept of Happiness. The happiness of the people is represented by the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the protector of the people. While still a child, he set himself the goal of fighting for the happiness of a simple peasant, for the good of the people. It is in achieving this goal - happiness for a young man. For the author himself, this understanding of the problem of happiness in Rus' is close.
Happiness in the perception of the author
The main thing for Nekrasov is to contribute to the happiness of the people around him. By itself, a person cannot be happy. Happiness will become available to the people only when the peasantry acquires its own civic position, when it learns to fight for its future.
For about fourteen years, from 1863 to 1876, the work of N.A. Nekrasov on the most significant work in his work - the poem "To whom in Rus' it is good to live." Despite the fact that, unfortunately, the poem was never finished and only some of its chapters have come down to us, later arranged by textologists in chronological order, Nekrasov's work can rightfully be called an "encyclopedia of Russian life." In terms of the breadth of coverage of events, the detail of the depiction of characters, and the amazing artistic accuracy, it is not inferior to A.S. Pushkin.
In parallel with the depiction of folk life, the poem raises questions of morality, touches upon the ethical problems of the Russian peasantry and the entire Russian society of that time, since it is the people who always act as the bearer of moral norms and universal ethics in general.
The main idea of the poem follows directly from its title: who in Rus' can be considered a truly happy person?
One of the main categories of morality underlying the concept of national happiness, according to the author. Is fidelity to the duty to the Motherland, serving one's people. According to Nekrasov, those who fight for justice and "the happiness of their native corner" live well in Rus'.
The peasants-heroes of the poem, looking for the "happy" one, do not find him either among the landowners, or among the priests, or among the peasants themselves. The poem depicts the only happy person - Grisha Dobrosklonov, who devoted his life to the struggle for people's happiness. Here the author expresses, in my opinion, an absolutely indisputable idea that one cannot be a true citizen of one's country without doing anything to improve the situation of the people, who are the strength and pride of the Fatherland.
True, Nekrasov's happiness is very relative: the "people's protector" Grisha "fate prepared ... consumption and Siberia." However, it is difficult to argue with the fact that fidelity to duty and a clear conscience are necessary conditions for true happiness.
In the poem, the problem of the moral fall of the Russian person is also acute, due to his terrifying economic situation, put in such conditions in which people lose their human dignity, turning into lackeys and drunkards. So, the stories of a lackey, the “beloved slave” of Prince Peremetyev, or the courtyard man of Prince Utyatin, the song “About the exemplary serf, Jacob the faithful” are a kind of parable, instructive examples of what spiritual servility, moral degradation led to serfdom of peasants, and before of all - courtyards, corrupted by personal dependence on the landowner. This is Nekrasov's reproach to the great and powerful people in their inner strength, resigned to the position of a slave.
The lyrical hero of Nekrasov actively protests against this slave psychology, calls the peasantry to self-consciousness, calls on the entire Russian people to free themselves from centuries of oppression and feel like a Citizen. The poet perceives the peasantry not as a faceless mass, but as a people-creator, he considered the people to be the real creator of human history.
However, the most terrible consequence of centuries of slavery, according to the author of the poem, is that many peasants are satisfied with their humiliated position, because they cannot imagine a different life for themselves, they cannot imagine how it is possible to exist differently. For example, the lackey Ipat, servile to his master, reverently and almost proudly tells how the master dipped him in the winter in an ice-hole and forced him to play the violin while standing in a flying sleigh. Kholui of Prince Peremetyev is proud of his "lordly" illness and the fact that "he licked the plates with the best French truffle."
Considering the perverted psychology of the peasants as a direct consequence of the autocratic serf system, Nekrasov also points to another product of serfdom - unrestrained drunkenness, which has become a real disaster for the Russian village.
For many men in the poem, the idea of happiness comes down to vodka. Even in the fairy tale about the chiffchaff, seven truth-seekers, when asked what they would like, answer: “If we only had bread ... but a bucket of vodka.” In the chapter "Rural Fair" wine flows like a river, there is a massive soldering of the people. The men return home drunk, where they become a real misfortune for their family. We see one such peasant, Vavilushka, who drank “to a penny”, who laments that he cannot even buy goat shoes for his granddaughter.
Another moral problem that Nekrasov touches upon is the problem of sin. The poet sees the path to the salvation of the human soul in the atonement of sin. So do Girin, Savely, Kudeyar; not such is the elder Gleb. Burmister Yermil Girin, having sent the son of a lonely widow as a recruit, thereby saving his own brother from soldiering, atones for his guilt by serving the people, remains faithful to him even in a moment of mortal danger.
However, the most serious crime against the people is described in one of Grisha's songs: the village headman Gleb hides the news of emancipation from his peasants, thus leaving eight thousand people in the bondage of slavery. According to Nekrasov, nothing can atone for such a crime.
The reader of the Nekrasov poem has a feeling of acute bitterness and resentment for the ancestors, who hoped for better times, but were forced to live in “empty volosts” and “tightened provinces” more than a hundred years after the abolition of serfdom.
Revealing the essence of the concept of "people's happiness", the poet points out that the only true way to achieve it is the peasant revolution. The idea of retribution for people's suffering is most clearly formulated in the ballad "On Two Great Sinners", which is a kind of ideological key to the entire poem. The robber Kudeyar throws off the "burden of sins" only when he kills Pan Glukhovsky, known for his atrocities. The murder of a villain, according to the author, is not a crime, but a feat worthy of a reward. Here Nekrasov's idea comes into conflict with Christian ethics. The poet conducts a hidden polemic with F.M. Dostoevsky, who argued the inadmissibility and impossibility of building a just society on blood, who believed that the very thought of murder is already a crime. And I can't help but agree with these statements! One of the most important Christian commandments says: "Thou shalt not kill!" After all, a person who takes the life of his own kind, thereby kills the person in himself, commits a grave crime before life itself, before God.
Therefore, justifying violence from the position of revolutionary democracy, the lyrical hero of Nekrasov calls Russia "to the ax" (in the words of Herzen), which, as we know, led to a revolution that turned into the worst sin for its perpetrators and the greatest disaster for our people.
