Plot basis poems are the search for a happy in Rus'. N. A. Nekrasov aims to cover as widely as possible all aspects of the life of the Russian village in the period immediately after the abolition of serfdom. And therefore, the poet cannot do without describing the life of Russian landowners, especially since who, if not them, in the opinion of peasant walkers, should live “happily, at ease in Rus'”. The peasants and the master are irreconcilable, eternal enemies. “Praise the grass in a haystack, and the master in a coffin,” says the poet. As long as gentlemen exist, there is not and cannot be happiness for the peasant - this is the conclusion to which N. A. Nekrasov leads the reader of the poem with iron consistency.

Nekrasov looks at the landlords through the eyes of the peasants, without any idealization and sympathy, drawing their images. The landowner Shalashnikov is shown as a cruel tyrant and oppressor, subjugating his own peasants by “military force”. Mr. Polivanov is cruel and greedy, unable to feel a sense of gratitude and accustomed to doing only as he pleases.

Episodic references to "masters" are present throughout the text of the poem, but in the chapter "Landlord" and part "Last Child" the poet completely shifts his gaze from people's Rus' landowner Rus' and introduces the reader to the discussion of the most critical moments social development Russia.

The meeting of the peasants with Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev, the hero of the chapter "The Landowner", begins with misunderstanding and irritation of the landowner. It is these feelings that determine the whole tone of the conversation. Despite the fantastic nature of the situation when the landowner confesses to the peasants, N. A. Nekrasov manages to very subtly convey the experiences of the former serf-owner, who cannot bear the thought of the freedom of the peasants. In a conversation with the seekers of the truth, Obolt-Obolduev constantly “breaks down”, his words sound mockingly:

... Put on your hats,

Sit down, gentlemen)

The poet angrily tells satirically about the life of the landowners in the recent past, when "the chest of the landowner breathed freely and easily." Obolt-Obolduev speaks of those times with pride and sadness. The master, who owned “baptized property”, was a sovereign king in his patrimony, where everything “subdued” him:

No contradiction,

Whom I want - I have mercy,

Whom I want - I execute, -

recalls the former landowner. In conditions of complete impunity, the rules of behavior of the landlords, their habits and views were formed:

Law is my wish!

The fist is my police!

sparkling blow,

a crushing blow,

Cheekbone blow!..

But the landowner immediately stops short, trying to explain that strictness, in his opinion, came only from love. And he recalls, perhaps, even scenes dear to the heart of the peasant: a common prayer with the peasants during the all-night service, the gratitude of the peasants for the lord's mercy. It's all gone. “Now Rus' is not the same!” - Obolt-Obolduev says bitterly, talking about the desolation of estates, drunkenness, thoughtless cutting down of gardens. And the peasants do not interrupt, as at the beginning of a conversation, the landowner, because they know that all this is true. The abolition of serfdom really hit "one end on the master, the other on the peasant."

The chapter "The Landowner" brings the reader to an understanding of the reasons why serf Rus' could not be happy. N. A. Nekrasov leaves no illusions, showing that a peaceful solution to the age-old problem of landowners and peasants is impossible. Obolt-Obolduev is a typical image of a feudal lord who was accustomed to living according to special standards and considered the labor of the peasants a reliable source of his abundance and well-being. But in the part “Last Child”, the poet shows that the habit of ruling is just as characteristic of the landowners as the peasants - the habit of submitting. Prince Utyatin is a gentleman who "has been acting weird and fooling all his life." Even after the 1861 reform, he remained a cruel feudal despot. The news of the royal decree causes Utyatin to have a stroke, and the peasants play a ridiculous comedy, helping the landowner to remain convinced that serfdom returned. The “last child” becomes the personification of the master's arbitrariness and the desire to outrage the human dignity of the serfs. Completely unaware of his peasants, the prince gives ridiculous orders: he orders a six-year-old boy to be married to a seventy-year-old widow, he appoints a deaf-mute as a watchman, he orders the shepherds to calm the herd so that the cows do not wake up the master with their lowing. Not only are the orders of the “last child” absurd, even more absurd and strange is he himself, stubbornly refusing to come to terms with the abolition of serfdom.

From the pictures of the past, N. A. Nekrasov moves on to the post-reform years and convincingly proves that old Rus' is changing its appearance, but the feudal lords have remained the same. Fortunately, their slaves are gradually beginning to change, although there is still a lot of humility in the Russian peasant. There is still no movement of popular strength that the poet dreams of, but the peasants are no longer waiting for new troubles, the people are awakening, and this gives the author reason to hope that Rus' will be transformed.

“The Legend of the Two Great Sinners” sums up the original reflections of N. A. Nekrasov about sin and happiness. In accordance with the ideas of the people about good and evil, the murder of the cruel pan Glukhovsky, who, boasting, teaches the robber:

You have to live, old man, in my opinion:

How many slaves I destroy

I torture, I torture, I hang,

And I would like to see how I sleep! -

becomes a way to cleanse your soul from sins. This is a call addressed to the people, a call to get rid of tyrants.

Images of landowners in N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who should live well in Rus'”

The problem of finding happiness is the central motive to which all the events in the poem are subordinated. Question: "Who lives happily, freely in Rus'?" - the most important in the life of the entire peasantry of post-reform Russia. Initially, it seems to the peasants that for happiness it is enough to be full. But as you get to know different characters, the concept of happiness changes. A journey that seven temporarily bound peasants embark on to find the answer to main question, allows the author to enter the most different heroes, their biographies, stories, detailed descriptions. Among the numerous heroes, the wanderers meet the landowner Obolt-Obolduev with his views on a happy life. The noble understanding of happiness is wealth, possession of property:

You used to be in a circle

Alone like the sun in the sky

Your villages are humble,

Your forests are dense

Your fields are all around!

There are fish in the river splashing:

"Fat-fat until the time!"

There the hare stalks the meadow:

"Walk-walk until autumn!"

Everything amused the master,

Lovingly weed each

Whispered: "I'm yours!" General obedience also delighted the mind of the master:

And we knew honor.

Not only Russian people,

Russian nature itself

Subdued us.

Will you go to the village -

Peasants fall at their feet

You will go to forest cottages -

centennial trees

The forests will bow!

Will you go arable land, cornfield -

The whole field is a ripe ear

Creeps at the feet of the master,

Pleasing to the eye and ear!

Obolt-Obolduev reveled in his power over the people who belonged to him: There is no contradiction in anyone, Whom I want - I will have mercy, Whom I want - I will execute. The law is my desire! The fist is my police! A sparkling blow, a furious blow, a cheek-bone blow!.. And with such an attitude on his part, Obolt-Oblduev sincerely believes that the peasants belonging to him treated him well: But, I will say without boasting, the peasant loved me! The landowner sincerely longs for those times when he had unlimited power over the peasants. Hearing the ringing of bells, he bitterly says: They are not ringing for a peasant! In the life of a landowner They call! .. Oh, a wide life! Sorry, goodbye forever! Farewell to landlord Rus'! Now Rus' is not the same! .. Much has changed for him and his family after the abolition of serfdom:

It's embarrassing to go through the countryside, A man sits - he won't move, Not noble pride - You feel bile in your chest. In the forest, not a hunting horn Sounds - a robber's ax, Shalyat !., but what can you do? Who will save the forest! .. The fields are unfinished, The crops are not sown, There is no trace of order! Of course, Gavrila Afanasyevich's feelings can be understood when he regrets the devastated estate:

My God!

Dismantled brick by brick

Beautiful landowner's house

Extensive landowner's garden,

cherished for centuries,

Under the ax of a peasant

All lay down - the man admires,

How much wood came out!

Callous soul of a peasant

Will he think

What an oak, now felled by him,

My grandfather with his own hand

Once planted!

What's under that mountain ash

Our kids frolicked

And Ganichka and Vera

Hooked with me?

What is here, under this linden,

My wife confessed to me

How heavy is she

Gavryusha, our firstborn,

And hid on my chest

Like a cherry blossom

Pretty face!

Obolt-Obolduev is proud of his noble origin, the thought of labor is offensive to him:

Work hard! Whom did you think

I'm not a peasant-bast worker,

I am by the grace of God

Russian noble!

Russia is not German

We have delicate feelings

We are proud!

Noble estates

We do not learn how to work.

I'll tell you without boasting

I live almost without a break

Forty years in the village

And from a rye ear

I can’t distinguish barley,

And they sing to me: "Work hard!" The landowner even finds an excuse for his idleness and the idle life of the entire nobility:

And if indeed

We misunderstood our duty

And our purpose

Not that the name is ancient,

Dignity of nobility

Keep up the hunt

Feasts, every luxury

And live by someone else's work,

It should have been so before

To say ... We must pay tribute to Obolt-Obolduev - he admits his worthlessness:

I smoked the sky of God

He wore the livery of the king,

Littered the people's treasury

And he thought to live like this for a century ... Gavrila Afanasyevich is very proud of his noble origin, and after all, his ancestors received royal mercy not for some kind of service to the state, but by chance:

My ancestor Oboldui

For the first time commemorated

In old Russian letters

Two centuries and a half

Back to that. Says

That letter: "Tatar

Obolt Obolduev

Given the end of the good

Priced at two rubles:

Wolves and foxes

He entertained the empress,

On the day of the royal name day,

Released a wild bear

With his own, and Oboldueva

That bear skinned him... This meeting of seven wanderers with Obolt-Obolduev, their remarks in the course of his story testify to the fact that the ideals of the masters are alien to the muzhiks. Their conversation is a clash of irreconcilable points of view. Phrases of wanderers, starting with the naive-innocent (“Forests are not ordered to us - they have seen every tree!”) And ending with socially sharp (“The bone is white, the bone is black, And look, they are so different, they are different and even! And they thought to themselves: “Kolom knocked them down, why are you praying in a manor’s house? ..”, “Yes, it was for you, place-kam, life is enviable, you don’t have to die!”), open to the reader that abyss, which exists between them and the masters.

Gavrila Afanasyevich, who retained in his soul a human attitude towards his serfs, understands that he depends on the peasants and owes his well-being to them. He yearns for the old days, but resigns himself to the abolition of the fortress region. But Prince Utyatin does not want to believe that he has lost power over his serfs. The image of this landowner is less attractive:

Thin! Like winter hares

All white, and a white hat,

High, with a band

From red cloth.

beak nose,

Like a hawk

Mustache gray, long

And - different eyes:

One healthy - glows,

And the left one is cloudy, cloudy,

Like a pewter. Accustomed to power, he very painfully accepted the news of the royal Manifesto. The Vakhlak peasants say this about it:

Our landlord is special,

Wealth is immeasurable

An important rank, a noble family,

All the century he was freaking out, fooling around,

And suddenly a thunderstorm struck...

He does not believe: the robbers are lying!

mediator, corrector

Chased away! fooling around the old way

Became very suspicious

Don't bow - shit!

The governor himself to the master

Arrived: argued for a long time,

In the dining room, the servants heard;

Angry so that by the evening

Enough of his blow!

the whole half of the left

Repulsed: as if dead,

And like the earth is black...

Lost for a dime!

It is known, not self-interest,

And arrogance cut him off,

He lost his sorinko. Seeing the peasants of the village of Vahlaki, Pakhom called them heroes. But the author further narration shows the humility and ignorance of the peasants. In the decision to “keep silent until the death of the old man” about the agreement with the heirs, the agreement to support the rumor that “the peasants were ordered to turn back the landowners” is much from the former humiliation and humility. The people - a hero and a hard worker - dooms themselves to voluntary slavery. By this, N. A. Nekrasov shows that the peasants have not lost faith in the ability to negotiate with the landlords, in the opportunity to benefit for themselves, while maintaining the old system of relationships. A prime example this is the "foolishness" of Klim in front of the master:

Who are we to listen to?

Who to love? Hope

Peasantry on whom?

We drink troubles

We wash with tears

Where should we rebel?

All yours, all master's -

Our old houses

And sick bellies

And we ourselves are yours!

The grain that is thrown into the ground

And garden vegetables

And hair on unkempt

Man's head -

Everything is yours, everything is master's!

In the graves of our great-grandfathers,

Old grandfathers on the stoves

And in the shaky little children -

Everything is yours, everything is master's!

And again he said: “Fathers!

We live for your grace

Like Christ in the bosom:

Try it without a master

Peasant live like this!

Where are we without gentlemen?

Fathers! leaders!

If we didn't have landlords,

Let's not make bread

Don't stock up on herbs!

Guardians! Guardians!

And the world would have collapsed long ago

Without the mind of the master,

Without our simplicity! It is written in your family To watch over the stupid peasantry, And for us to work, listen, Pray for the masters! It is not surprising that the old man, after such words, is ready to talk for hours about his rights: And for sure: for almost an hour, the Last One spoke! His tongue did not obey: The old man spattered with saliva, Hissed! And he was so upset That his right eye twitched, And the left suddenly widened And - round, like an owl's - Spinning like a wheel. The rights of the nobility, sanctified by centuries, Merits, the name of the ancient Landowner commemorated, Tsar’s wrath, God’s Threatened the peasants if they rebelled, And firmly ordered, So that she didn’t think trifles, The patrimony did not indulge, But obeyed the masters! Believing in deceit, the paralyzed prince continues his tyranny:

A spring carriage rolls through the village:

Get up! down with the card!

God knows what will come from

Branit, reproaches; with a threat

Come on - be quiet!

He sees a plowman in the field

And for his own lane

Oblaet: and lazy something,

And we are couch potatoes!

And the strip worked

Like never on a master

The man didn't work...

Found that the hay is wet

He flared up: "Good Lord

Fester? I'm you scammers

I myself will rot in the barshchina!

Dry it now!..”

...(The wanderers tried:

Dry senzo!) The orders of the Afterlife are meaningless and absurd. For example, to fix financial situation widow Terentievna, who “begs Christ’s alms”, the master ordered “to marry Gavrila Zhokhov on that widow Terentyev, fix the hut again so that they live in it, the fruit and the fox and rule the tax.”

And that widow is under seventy,

And the groom is six years old!

Another order: "Cows

Yesterday we chased until the sun

Near the bar yard

And so mumbled, stupid,

What woke up the master -

So the shepherds are ordered

Keep killing the cows!”

Another order: "At the watchman,

At the under Sofronov,

The dog is disrespectful:

Barked at the master

So drive out the underworld

And the watchman to the landlord

The estate is assigned

Eremka! .. "Rolled

Again the peasants with laughter:

Eremka the one from birth

Deaf fool! The men are humorous about the antics of the Last-sha ("Well, laughter, of course! ..", "Here's the rank laughing again."), but the consequences of the comedy played out are sad. The joke turned into a disaster - Aran Petrov died, only person, who dares to enter into open conflict with an old man who has gone out of his mind. He does not want to endure moral humiliation and throws Utyatin in the eye:

Hush! Shut up!

Peasant souls possession

It's over. You are the last!

The men explain the cause of Agap's death in this way:

Don't be such an opportunity

Aran would not have died!

The man is raw, special,

The head is restless

And here: go, lie down!

And learn a lesson for themselves:

Praise the grass in a haystack

And the master is in a coffin! In the three chapters of the poem: “About an exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful”, “About two great sinners” and “Peasant's sin”, images of landowners also appear. And only in the last of them does the gentleman commit good deed- Before death, he grants freedom to his peasants. And in the first two, the theme of cruel mockery of the peasants again sounds. Polivanov all his life, from childhood, mocks the faithful serf Yakov:

In the teeth of an exemplary slave,

Jacob the faithful

Like he was blowing with his heel. Pan Glukhovsky is also not distinguished by virtue, and even boasts of his atrocities:

Pan chuckled: "Salvation

I haven't had tea for a long time

In the world I honor only a woman,

Gold, honor and wine.

You have to live, old man, in my opinion:

How many slaves I destroy

I torment, I torture and hang,

And I would like to see how I sleep! The theme of the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor sounds in the poem. The author shows that the existing conflict between the landowner and the peasant cannot be resolved peacefully and raises the question of the ways for the peasantry to reach freedom and happiness.

Definitely bad guys. Nekrasov describes various perverted relations between landowners and serfs. The young lady, who whipped the peasants for swearing, seems kind and affectionate compared to the landowner Polivanov. He bought a village for bribes, in it he “freed himself, drank, drank bitter”, was greedy and stingy. The faithful serf Yakov took care of the master, even when his legs were taken away. But the master shaved his only nephew Yakov into a soldier, seduced by his bride.

Separate chapters are devoted to two landowners.

Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev.

Portrait

To describe the landowner, Nekrasov uses diminutive suffixes and speaks of him with disdain: a round gentleman, mustachioed and pot-bellied, ruddy. He has a cigar in his mouth, and he carries a C grade. In general, the image of the landowner is sugary and not formidable at all. He is middle-aged (sixty years old), "dignified, stocky", with a long gray mustache and valiant gimmicks. The contrast of tall men and a squat gentleman should make the reader smile.

Character

The landowner was frightened by the seven peasants and drew a pistol as plump as himself. The fact that the landowner is afraid of the peasants is typical of the time of writing this chapter of the poem (1865), because the peasants who received the release were happy to take revenge on the landowners if possible.

The landowner boasts of his "noble" origin, described with sarcasm. He says that Obolt Obolduev is a Tatar who entertained the queen with a bear two and a half centuries ago. Another of his maternal ancestor, three hundred years ago, tried to set fire to Moscow and rob the treasury, for which he was executed.

Lifestyle

Obolt-Obolduev cannot imagine his life without comfort. Even talking with the peasants, he asks the servant for a glass of sherry, a pillow and a carpet.

The landowner recalls with nostalgia old days(before the abolition of serfdom), when all nature, peasants, fields and forests worshiped the master and belonged to him. Noble houses argued in beauty with churches. The life of the landowner was a continuous holiday. The landowner kept many servants. He worked in the fall canine hunting- primordially Russian fun. During the hunt, the landowner's chest breathed freely and easily, "the spirit was transferred to the old Russian orders."

Obolt-Obolduev describes the order of the landowner's life as the absolute power of the landowner over the serfs: "There is no contradiction in anyone, whom I want - I will have mercy, whom I want - I will execute." The landowner can indiscriminately beat the serfs (the word hit repeats three times, there are three metaphorical epithets to it: sparkling, furious, cheekbones). At the same time, the landowner claims that he punished lovingly, that he took care of the peasants, set tables for them in the landowner's house on a holiday.

The landowner considers the abolition of serfdom to be similar to breaking the great chain that binds the lords and the peasants: “Now we don’t beat the peasant, but we don’t have paternal mercy on him either.” The estates of the landowners have been dismantled brick by brick, the forests have been cut down, the peasants are robbing. The economy also fell into decay: "The fields are unfinished, the crops are not sown, there is no trace of order!" The landowner does not want to work on the land, and what his purpose is, he no longer understands: “I smoked the sky of God, wore the royal livery, littered the treasury of the people and thought to live like this for a century ...”

Last

So the peasants called their last landowner, Prince Utyatin, under whom serfdom was abolished. This landowner did not believe in the abolition of serfdom and became so angry that he had a stroke.

Fearing that the old man would deprive him of his inheritance, his relatives told him that they had ordered the peasants to be returned to the landowners, and they themselves asked the peasants to play this role.

Portrait

The latter is an old old man, thin as hares in winter, white, with a beak like a hawk's nose, long gray mustaches. Seriously ill, he combines the helplessness of a weak hare and the ambition of a hawk.

Character traits

The last petty tyrant, "fools in the old way", because of his whims, both his family and the peasants suffer. For example, I had to spread a ready stack of dry hay just because the old man thought it was wet.

The landowner Prince Utyatin is arrogant, he believes that the nobles have betrayed their age-old rights. His white hat- a sign of landlord power.

Utyatin never valued the lives of his serfs: he bathed them in an ice-hole, forced them to play the violin on horseback.

In his old age, the landowner began to demand even greater nonsense: he ordered to marry a six-year-old to a seventy-year-old, to appease the cows so that they would not moo, instead of a dog, appoint a deaf-mute fool as a watchman.

Unlike Obolduev, Utyatin does not find out about his changed status and dies, "as he lived, as a landowner."

• The image of Saveliy in Nekrasov's poem "Who should live well in Rus'"
• The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov in Nekrasov's poem "Who should live well in Rus'"

The poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” was written by Nekrasov in the post-reform era, when the landlord essence of the reform became clear, which doomed the peasants to ruin and new bondage. The main, key idea of ​​the poem is the idea of ​​the inevitability of the collapse of the unjust and cruel autocratic-feudal system. The poem was supposed to lead the reader to the conclusion that the happiness of the people is possible only without the Obolt-Obolduevs and the Utyatins, when the people become the true master of their lives. Nekrasov defined the main content of the reform in the words of the peasants:
The great chain is broken
Torn - jumped:
One end on the master,
Others - for a man! ..
In the poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus',” Nekrasov showed two worlds - the world of masters, landowners and the world of the peasantry. The writer puts the point of view of the peasant as the basis for characterizing the landowners.
One of them is Obolt-Obolduev. Already the name of the landowner is a peculiar characteristic. According to Dahl's dictionary, stunned meant: "an ignorant, uncouth blockhead." Obolt-Obolduev embodied typical features serf-owners. Hero is 60 years old. He radiates with health, he has "valiant tricks", he is distinguished by a passionate love for earthly joys, for her pleasures. He is a good family man, not a tyrant. his own negative traits(“The fist is my police”, “I will execute anyone I want”) Nekrasov depicts as class features of the landowners-serfs. Everything that the landowner boasts of depreciates, acquires a different meaning. The mocking, hostile attitude that arose between the peasants and the landowner is a sign of class discord. When meeting with the peasants, the landowner grabs his pistol. Obolt-Obolduev refers to his word of honor of the nobility, and the peasants declare: “No, you are not noble to us, noble with a scolding, with a push and with a dent, it is unsuitable for us!”. Obolt-Obolduev treats the liberation of the peasants with mockery, and the peasants speak to him in an independent tone. Two worlds of interests, two irreconcilable camps are in a state of unrelenting struggle and "calibrate" their forces. The nobleman still revels in the "family tree", is proud of his father, who grew up in a family close to the royal family. And the peasants oppose the concept of “family tree” with the everyday, humorous: “We saw any tree.” The writer constructs a dialogue between the peasants and the landlords in such a way that the reader's understanding of the people's attitude towards the nobility becomes extremely clear. As a result of the conversation, the men understood the main thing: what does “the bone is white, the bone is black” and how much “they are different and respected”. The master’s words: “A man loved me” - they contrast the serfs’ stories “about their difficult crafts, alien sides, about St. Petersburg, about Astrakhan, about Kiev, about Kazan”, where the “benefactor” sent the peasants to work and from where “over the , eggs and living creatures, everything that was collected for the landowner from time immemorial, voluntary peasants brought us gifts! The solemn story of the landowner about the "good" life ends unexpectedly scary picture. In Kuzminsky they buried the victim of a drunken revelry - a peasant. The wanderers did not condemn, but wished: "Peace to the peasant and the kingdom of heaven." Obolt-Obolduev took the death knell differently: “They are not ringing for a peasant! They call for landlord life! He lives in a tragic time for his class. He has no spiritual, social relationship with the breadwinner. The great chain broke, and “... the peasant is sitting - he won’t move, not noble pride - you feel bile in your chest. In the forest, it’s not a hunting horn, it sounds like a robber’s ax.
Peasants continue to be connoisseurs of events in the chapter "the last one". Wanderers on the Volga saw unusual picture: the "free" people agreed to play "comedy" with the prince, who believed that serfdom had been returned. It is the joke that helps the poet to discover the failure of old relationships, to punish the past with laughter, which still lives and hopes, despite internal bankruptcy, to be restored. The emasculation of the Last One stands out especially expressively against the backdrop of a healthy Vakhlat world. In the characterization of Prince Utyatin, the question of the further decline of the landlord class acquires a special meaning. Nekrasov emphasizes the physical flabbiness and moral impoverishment of the landowner. "The latter is not only feeble old man, he's a degenerate type." The writer brings his image to the grotesque. The old man who has gone out of his mind amuses himself with amusements, lives in the world of ideas of "untouched" feudalism. Family members create artificial serfdom for him, and he swaggers over the slaves. His anecdotal orders (on the marriage of an old widow to a six-year-old boy, on the punishment of the owner of an “irrespectful” dog that barked at the master), with all their seeming exclusivity, create a real idea that tyranny is limitless in its absurdity and can only exist under conditions of serfdom.
The image of the Afterlife becomes a symbol of death, a symbol extreme forms expressions of serfdom.
People hate him and his kind. Despising, the peasants realized: maybe it’s more profitable to endure, “to keep quiet until the death of the old man.” The sons of Utyatin, afraid of losing their inheritance, persuade the peasants to play a stupid and humiliating comedy, pretending that the feudal system is alive. Nekrasov mercilessly exposes all the inhumanity and moral ugliness of this "last child" of feudal times. Peasant hatred for the landowner, for the master, was also reflected in those proverbs with which the peasants characterize the master landowner. Starosta Vlas says:
Praise the grass in a haystack

And the master is in the coffin!
More difficult and at the same time somehow simpler than Obolt-Obolduev and Prince Utyatin, the Shalashnikovs, father and son, as well as their manager, the German Vogel, spoke to the peasants. Matrena Timofeevna tells about them from the words of the hero Holy Russian Savely. Vogel acts before us. If Shalashnikov, according to Saveliy, beat the peasants out of quitrent, then the German Vogel “until he let him go around the world, without leaving, he sucks!” Nekrasov deepens the characterization of the nobility and forms of slavery. The Shalashnikovs are Russian serf-owners. The son can give orders: forgive Fyodor's "underage shepherd", and "probably punish" Matryona Timofeevna. But serfdom in the hands of a German is an unbearable thing. The German, “slowly, sawed,” sawed every day, without getting tired and without letting the hungry peasants take a break from overwork. In the third part of the poem - "Peasant Woman" Nekrasov contrasted the triumphant despotism of the landowners with the heroism of the people, introduced us to a number of representatives from the peasants, pointed out the weaknesses that are the reason that the victory has not yet come. Close-up two new representatives of the people are depicted - Matryona Korchagina and grandfather Savely. In the poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus',” Nekrasov resolutely advocates a conscious and active struggle against landlord arbitrariness, for retribution against the oppressors. This was reflected in the new, democratic humanism of the poet, who denied the possibility of "reconciliation" and demanded vengeance for the crimes of the ruling classes.

Looking for people's happiness

Not eternal care
Nor the yoke of long slavery,
Not a tavern by ourselves
More Russian people
Limits not set
Before him is a wide path.



Beautiful, gray hair,
The eyes are large, stern,
Eyelashes are the richest
Stern and swarthy.

But Grisha Dobrosklonov is a completely different matter. This an image that is also associated with Nekrasov's idea of ​​a perfect man. But here the poet's dream of a perfect life joins this. At the same time, the ideal of the poet receives modern household features. Dobrosklonov is exceptionally young. True, he, a raznochinets by origin, the son of an "unrequited laborer," had to go through a hungry childhood and a difficult youth while studying at the seminary. But now it's over.

What will live for happiness

... The path is glorious, the name is loud
people's protector,
Consumption and Siberia.

In search of people's happiness

Nekrasov's lofty ideas about a perfect life and a perfect man forced him to write great poem"To whom in Rus' to live well". Nekrasov worked on this work for many years. The poet gave part of his soul to this poem, putting into it his thoughts about Russian life and its problems.
The journey of the seven wanderers in the poem is a search beautiful person living happily. At least, this is an attempt to find one in their long-suffering land. I find it hard to understand Nekrasov's poem without understanding Nekrasov's ideal, which is somewhat close to the peasant's ideal, although it is much broader and deeper.
A particle of the Nekrasov ideal is already visible in the seven wanderers. Of course, in many ways they are still dark people, deprived of correct ideas about the life of the "tops" and "bottoms" of society. Therefore, some of them think that an official should be happy, others - a priest, a "fat-bellied merchant", a landowner, a tsar. And for a long time they will stubbornly adhere to these views, defending them, until life brings clarity. But what sweet, kind men they are, what innocence and humor shine on their faces! These are eccentric people, or rather, with an eccentric. Later, Vlas will tell them this: "We are strange enough, and you are more wonderful than us!"
Wanderers hope to find a corner of paradise on their land - Untouched province, Undisturbed volost, Redundant village. Naive, of course, desire. But that's why they are people with a weirdo, to want, to go and look. In addition, they are truth-seekers, one of the first in Russian literature. It is very important for them to get to the bottom of the meaning of life, to the essence of what happiness is. Nekrasov greatly appreciates this quality among his peasants. Seven men are desperate debaters, they often "shout - they won't come to their senses." But it is precisely the dispute that pushes them forward along the road of boundless Russia. "They care about everything" - everything that they see, they wind it on their mustache, they notice it.
Tenderly and lovingly wanderers relate to the nature around them. They are sensitive and attentive to herbs, bushes, trees, flowers, they can understand animals and birds and talk to them. Turning to the bird, Pahom says: "Give us your wings. We will fly around the whole kingdom." Each of the wanderers has its own character, its own view of things, its own face, and at the same time, together they represent something soldered, united, inseparable. They often even speak in unison. This image is beautiful, it’s not for nothing that the sacred number seven unites the peasants.
Nekrasov in his poem draws a real sea folk life. Here are beggars, and soldiers, and artisans, and coachmen; here is a peasant with rims, and a peasant who overturned a wagon, and a drunken woman, and a bear hunter; here are Vavilushka, Olenushka, Parashenka, Trofim, Fedosey, Proshka, Vlas, Klim Lavin, Ipat, Terentyeva and many others. Without closing his eyes to the hardships of people's life, Nekrasov shows the poverty and destitution of the peasants, recruitment, exhausting work, lack of rights and exploitation. The poet does not hide the darkness of the peasants, their drunken spree.
But we clearly see that even in slavery the people managed to save their living soul, your heart of gold. The author of the poem conveys diligence, responsiveness to other people's suffering, spiritual nobility, kindness, feeling dignity, prowess and gaiety, moral purity characteristic of the peasant. Nekrasov claims that "good soil is the soul of the Russian people." It is hard to forget how the widow Efrosinya selflessly takes care of the sick during cholera / how the peasants help Vavila and the disabled soldier with "work, bread". Different ways the author reveals "the gold of the heart of the people", as it is said in the song "Rus".
The craving for beauty is one of the manifestations of the spiritual wealth of the Russian people. deep meaning has an episode when, during a fire, Yakim Nagoi saves not the money he collected with such difficulty, but the pictures he loved so much. I also remember a peasant singer who had a very beautiful voice with which he "captured the hearts of the people." That is why Nekrasov so often, speaking of peasants, uses nouns with endearing suffixes: an old woman, soldiers, children, a clearing, a path. He is convinced that neither the burdensome "work"
Not eternal care
Nor the yoke of long slavery,
Not a tavern by ourselves
More Russian people
Limits not set
Before him is a wide path.
The anger of the heart, which sometimes manifests itself in action among the peasants, in their resolute struggle against the oppressors, has special meaning for Nekrasov. It shows people full of thirst for social justice. These are Ermil Girin, Vlas, Agap Petrov, the peasants who hate the Last, participating in the rebellion in Stolbnyaki, Kropilnikov, Kudeyar.
Among these characters important place occupied by Savely. The poet gives him the features of a hero. They are already evident in the appearance of old Korchagin: with his “great gray mane .., with a huge beard, grandfather looked like a bear.” he used to hunt bears alone, but the main thing is that he despises slavish obedience and courageously stands for popular interest. It is curious that he himself notes the heroic features in the peasant: "The back ... the dense forests passed through it - they broke ... The hero endures everything!" But sometimes it doesn't work. From silent patience, Saveliy and his friends from Korezhin pass to passive, and then to open, active protest. This is evidenced by the story of the German mocker Vogel. The story is cruel, but its ending is caused by popular anger which the men have accumulated. The result was twenty years of hard labor and whips, "twenty years of settlement." But Saveliy also endures and overcomes these ordeals.
Nekrasov praises the mighty forces lurking among the people, and that spiritual beauty, which was preserved by this centennial grandfather. He can be touched at the sight of a squirrel in the forest, admire "every flower", treat his granddaughter, Matryona Timofeevna, tenderly and touchingly. There is something epic in this Nekrasov hero, not without reason they call him, like Svyatogora, "the hero of the Holy Russian." I would put an epigraph to a separate theme of Saveliy's words: "Branded, but not a slave!"
To the words of the grandfather, his granddaughter Matrena Timofeevna listens to his biography. It seems to me that in her image Nekrasov also embodied some facet of his aesthetic ideal. Spiritual beauty captured here folk character. Matryona Korchagina embodies the best, heroic traits inherent in a Russian woman, which she carried through suffering, hardship and trials. Nekrasov gave this image such great importance, enlarged it so much that he needed to devote a whole third of the poem to it. It seems to me that Matrena Timofeevna absorbed all the best that was planned separately in Troika, and in Orina, the soldier’s mother, and in Daria from the poem Frost, Red Nose. The same impressive beauty, then the same grief, the same unbrokenness, it's hard to forget appearance heroines:
Matryona Timofeevna - Possessive woman,
Wide and dense, Thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful, gray hair,
The eyes are large, stern,
Eyelashes are the richest
Stern and swarthy.
Remains in the memory of her confession female soul in front of the wanderers, in which she told both about how she was intended for happiness, and about her happy moments of life (“I had happiness in girls”), and about the difficult female lobe. Narrating the tireless work of Korchagina (shepherding from the age of six, working in the field, behind a spinning wheel, household chores, slave labor in marriage, raising children), Nekrasov reveals another, important side her aesthetic ideal: like her grandfather Savely, Matrena Timofeevna carried through all the horrors of her life human dignity, nobility and disobedience.
“I carry an angry heart...” - the heroine sums up her long, hard-won story about a sad life. Some kind of majesty and heroic power emanates from her image. No wonder she is from the Korchagin family. But she, like many other people met by wanderers in their wanderings and searches, cannot be called happy.
But Grisha Dobrosklonov is a completely different matter. This is an image with which Nekrasov's idea of ​​a perfect man is also associated. But here the poet's dream of a perfect life joins this. At the same time, the poet's ideal acquires modern everyday features. Dobrosklonov is exceptionally young. True, he, a raznochinets by origin, the son of an "unrequited laborer," had to go through a hungry childhood and a difficult youth while studying at the seminary. But now it's over.
Grisha's life connected him with work, everyday life, the needs of his fellow countrymen, peasants, and his native Vakhlachina. The peasants help him with food, and he rescues the peasants with his labor. Grisha mows, reaps, sows with the peasants, wanders in the forest with their children, rejoices in peasant songs, peers at the work of artel workers and barge haulers on the Volga:
... fifteen years old Grigory already knew for sure
What will live for happiness
Wretched and dark native corner.
Being there, "where it is difficult to breathe, where grief is heard," Nekrasov's hero becomes the spokesman for aspirations ordinary people. Vakhlachina, “with her blessing, placed such a messenger in Grigory Dobrosklonov.” And for him the share of the people, their happiness become an expression of their own happiness.
With his features, Dobrosklonov resembles Dobrolyubov: origin, surnames, seminary education, general illness - consumption, a penchant for poetic creativity. It can even be considered that the image of Dobrosklonov develops the ideal that is drawn by Nekrasov in the poem "In Memory of Dobrolyubov", a little "lowering him to the ground" and a little "warming" him. Like Dobrolyubov. Fate prepared Grisha
... The path is glorious, the name is loud
people's protector,
Consumption and Siberia.
In the meantime, Grisha wanders in the fields, meadows of the Volga region, absorbing the natural and peasant worlds that open up to the front. He seems to be merged with "high curly birches", just as young, just as bright. It is no coincidence that he writes poetry and songs. This feature of him makes the image of Grisha especially attractive. "Merry", "The share of the people", "In a moment of despondency, oh motherland", "Burlak", "Rus" - in these songs it is easy to hear the main themes: the people and the suffering, but rising to freedom of the Fatherland. In addition, he hears the song of the angel of mercy "among the far world" and goes - according to her call - to "the humiliated and offended." In this he sees his happiness and feels himself a harmonious person living true life. He is one of those sons of Rus', whom she sent "on honest paths", as they are marked with the "seal of the gift of God."
Gregory is not afraid of the upcoming trials, because he believes in the triumph of the cause to which he devoted his whole life. He sees that the people of many millions themselves are awakening to struggle.
The army rises innumerable,
The power in it will be indestructible!
This thought fills his soul with joy and confidence in victory. The poem shows what a strong effect the words of Gregory have on the peasants and on the seven wanderers, what they infect with faith in the future, in happiness for all of Rus'. Grigory Dobrosklonov - the future leader of the peasantry, the spokesman for his anger and reason.
Our wanderers would howl under their native roof,
If only they could know what happened to Grisha.
He heard immense strength in his chest,
Gracious sounds delighted his ears,
Sounds of the radiant hymn of the noble -
He sang the embodiment of the happiness of the people.
Nekrasov offers his own solution to the question of how to unite the peasantry and the Russian intelligentsia. Only the joint efforts of the revolutionaries and the people can bring Russian peasantry on the broad road of freedom and happiness. In the meantime, the Russian people are only on their way to "a feast for the whole world."


Introduction

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

The image of the main characters-wanderers

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

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

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

Positive images of peasants

Yakim Nagoi - typical representative the poorest peasantry, and himself similar to "mother earth", to "a layer cut off by a plow".

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

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

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

Images of Matryona and Savely

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

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

The image of the peasant-serfs

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

So from various images peasants "Who should live well in Rus'" develops whole picture people as a huge force, already beginning to rise little by little and realize its power.

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