Retelling plan
1. The dispute of the peasants about "who lives happily, freely in Russia."
2. Meeting with the priest.
3. A drunken night after the fair.
4. The story of Yakim Nagogo.
5. The search for a happy man among men. The story of Yermila Girin.
6. The peasants meet the landowner Obolt-Obolduev.
7. The search for a happy man among women. History of Matrena Timofeevna.
8 Meeting with an eccentric landowner.
9. Parable about the exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful.
10. The story of two great sinners - Ataman Kudeyar and Pan Glukhovsky. The story of the "peasant sin".
11. Thoughts of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
12. Grisha Dobrosklonov - "the people's protector."
retelling
Part I
Prologue
The poem begins with the fact that seven men met on a pole path and argued about "who lives happily, freely in Russia." “Roman said: to the landowner, Demyan said: to the official, Luka said: to the priest. Fat-bellied merchant! - said the Gubin brothers, Ivan and Mitrodor. The old man Pakhom puckered up and said, looking at the ground: to the noble boyar, the minister of the sovereign. And Prov said: to the king. They argued all day and did not even notice how night fell. The peasants looked around them, realized that they had gone far from home, and decided to rest before the way back. As soon as they had time to settle down under a tree and drink vodka, their dispute began with renewed vigor, it even came to a fight. But then the peasants saw that a small chick crawled up to the fire, having fallen out of the nest. Pahom caught him, but then a warbler appeared and began to ask the men to let her chick go, and for this she told them where the self-collected tablecloth was hidden. The men found a tablecloth, had dinner and decided that they would not return home until they found out "who lives happily, freely in Russia."
Chapter I. Pop
The next day the men set off. At first they met only peasants, beggars and soldiers, but the peasants did not ask them, “How is it for them - is it easy, is it difficult to live in Russia.” Finally in the evening they met the priest. The peasants explained to him that they had a concern that “had risen from the houses, unfriended us with work, discouraged us from eating”: “Is the priestly life sweet? How do you live freely, happily, honest father? And the pop begins his story.
It turns out that there is no peace, no wealth, no honor in his life. There is no rest, because in a large county "a sick, dying, born into the world does not choose time: in reaping and haymaking, in the dead of autumn night, in winter, in severe frosts and in spring floods." And always the priest must go to fulfill his duty. But the most difficult thing, the priest admits, is to watch how a person dies and how his relatives cry over him. There is no priest and honor, because among the people he is called "a foal breed"; meeting a priest on the road is considered a bad omen; about the priest they compose “joke tales, and obscene songs, and all kinds of blasphemy,” and they make a lot of jokes about the priest’s family. Yes, and it is difficult for a priest to acquire wealth. If in former times, before the abolition of serfdom, there were many landlord estates in the county, in which weddings and christenings were constantly celebrated, now only poor peasants remain who cannot generously pay the priest for his work. Pop himself says that his “soul will turn over” to take money from the poor, but then he will have nothing to feed his family with. With these words, the priest leaves the men.
Chapter 2
The men continued their journey and ended up in the village of Kuzminskoye, at the fair, they decided to look for a lucky one here. “Wanderers went around the shops: they admire handkerchiefs, Ivanovo calicoes, harnesses, new shoes, a product of the Kimryaks. At the shoe shop they meet old man Vavila, who admires the goat's shoes, but does not buy them: he promised his little granddaughter to buy shoes, and other family members - various gifts, but drank all the money. Now he is ashamed to appear in front of his granddaughter. The assembled people listen to him, but cannot help, because no one has extra money. But there was one person, Pavel Veretennikov, who bought Vavila shoes. The old man was so deeply moved that he ran away, forgetting even to thank Veretennikov, “but the other peasants were so comforted, so happy, as if he gave everyone a ruble.” The wanderers go to a booth where they watch a comedy with Petrushka.
Chapter 3
Evening comes, and the travelers leave the “vibrant village”. They walk along the road, and everywhere they meet drunk people who return home after the fair. From all sides, drunken conversations, songs, complaints about the hard life, the cries of the fighting can be heard from the wanderers.
At the road post travelers meet Pavel Veretennikov, around whom the peasants have gathered. Veretennikov writes down in his little book the songs and proverbs that the peasants sing to him. “The Russian peasants are smart,” says Veretennikov, “one thing is not good, that they drink to the point of stupefaction, fall into ditches, fall into ditches - it’s a shame to look!” After these words, a peasant approaches him, who explains that the peasants drink because of the hard life: “There is no measure for Russian hops. Have you measured our grief? Is there a measure for work? Wine brings down a peasant, but grief does not bring down? Work is not falling? And the peasants drink to forget, to drown their grief in a glass of vodka. But then the man adds: “We have a drinking non-drinking family for our family! They don’t drink, but they also toil, it would be better if they drank, stupid, but such is their conscience. When asked by Veretennikov what his name is, the peasant replies: “Yakim Nagoi lives in the village of Bosovo, he works to death, drinks half to death! ..”, and the rest of the peasants began to tell Veretennikov the story of Yakim Nagoi. He once lived in St. Petersburg, but he was put in prison after he decided to compete with the merchant. He was stripped to the bone, and so he returned to his homeland, where he took up the plow. Since then, for thirty years he has been "fried on a strip under the sun." He bought pictures for his son, which he hung around the hut, and he liked to look at them himself. But one day there was a fire. Yakim, instead of saving the money he had accumulated throughout his life, saved the pictures, which he then hung in a new hut.
Chapter 4
People who called themselves happy began to converge under the linden. A sexton came, whose happiness consisted "not in sables, not in gold", but "in complacency." The pock-marked old woman came. She was happy because she had a large turnip born. Then a soldier came, happy because "he was in twenty battles, and not killed." The bricklayer began to tell that his happiness lies in the hammer with which he earns money. But then another bricklayer came up. He advised not to brag about his strength, otherwise grief could come out of it, which happened to him in his youth: the contractor began to praise him for his strength, but once he put so many bricks on a stretcher that the peasant could not bear such a burden and after that he completely fell ill. The yard man, the footman, also came to the travelers. He declared that his happiness lay in the fact that he had a disease that only noble people suffer from. All sorts of people came to brag about their happiness, and as a result, the wanderers passed their sentence on peasant happiness: “Hey, peasant happiness! Leaky, with patches, humpbacked, with corns, get the hell out of here!”
But then a man approached them, who advised them to ask about happiness from Yermila Girin. When the travelers asked who this Yermila was, the man told them. Yermila worked at a mill that belonged to no one, but the court decided to sell it. Bidding was arranged, in which Yermila began to compete with the merchant Altynnikov. As a result, Yermila won, only they immediately demanded money from him for the mill, and Yermila did not have that kind of money with him. He asked for half an hour, ran to the square and asked the people to help him. Ermila was a respected person among the people, so each peasant gave him as much money as he could. Yermila bought the mill, and a week later he came back to the square and gave back all the money he had lent. And each took as much money as he lent him, no one appropriated too much, even one more ruble remained. The audience began to ask why Ermila Girin was in such high esteem. The narrator said that in his youth Yermila was a clerk in the gendarmerie corps and helped every peasant who turned to him with advice and deed and did not take a penny for it. Then, when a new prince arrived in the patrimony and dispersed the gendarme office, the peasants asked him to elect Yermila as the mayor of the volost, as they trusted him in everything.
But then the priest interrupted the narrator and said that he did not tell the whole truth about Yermila, that he also had a sin: instead of his younger brother, Yermila recruited the only son of the old woman, who was her breadwinner and support. Since then, his conscience haunted him, and one day he almost hanged himself, but instead demanded that he be tried as a criminal in front of all the people. The peasants began to ask the prince to take the old woman's son from the recruits, otherwise Yermila would hang herself out of conscience. In the end, the son was returned to the old woman, and Yermila's brother was sent to recruit. But Yermila's conscience still tormented him, so he resigned his position and began working at the mill. During a riot in the patrimony, Yermila ended up in prison ... Then there was a cry from a lackey, who was flogged for theft, and the priest did not have time to tell the story to the end.
Chapter 5
The next morning we met the landowner Obolt-Obolduev and decided to ask if he lives happily. The landowner began to tell that he was "of an eminent family", his ancestors were known three hundred years ago. This landowner lived in the old days "like in Christ's bosom", he had honor, respect, a lot of land, several times a month he arranged holidays that "any Frenchman" could envy, went hunting. The landowner kept the peasants in strictness: “Whomever I want, I will have mercy, whoever I want, I will execute. The law is my desire! The fist is my police! But then he added that he “punished - loving”, that the peasants loved him, they celebrated Easter together. But the travelers only laughed at his words: “Kolom knocked them down, or what, you pray in the manor’s house? ..” Then the landowner began to sigh that such a carefree life had passed after the abolition of serfdom. Now the peasants no longer work on the landed estates, and the fields have fallen into disrepair. Instead of a hunting horn, the sound of an ax is heard in the forests. Where once there were manor houses, drinking establishments are now being built. After these words, the landowner began to cry. And the travelers thought: "The great chain broke, it broke - it jumped: at one end on the gentleman, on the other at the peasant! .."
peasant woman
Prologue
The travelers decided to look for a happy man among women. In one village they were advised to find Matryona Timofeevna and ask around. The men set off on their journey and soon reached the village of Klin, where “Matryona Timofeevna” lived, a portly woman, wide and thick, about thirty-eight years old. She is beautiful: her hair is gray, her eyes are large, strict, her eyelashes are the richest, she is stern and swarthy. She is wearing a white shirt, and a short sundress, and a sickle over her shoulder. The peasants turned to her: “Tell me in a divine way: what is your happiness?” And Matrena Timofeevna began to tell.
Chapter 1
As a girl, Matrena Timofeevna lived happily in a large family, where everyone loved her. Nobody woke her up early, they allowed her to sleep and gain strength. From the age of five, she was taken out into the field, she went after the cows, brought breakfast to her father, then she learned how to harvest hay, and got used to work. After work, she sat at the spinning wheel with her friends, sang songs, and went dancing on holidays. Matryona was hiding from the guys, she did not want to fall into captivity from a girl's will. But all the same, she found a groom, Philip, from distant lands. He began to marry her. Matrena did not agree at first, but the guy fell in love with her. Matrena Timofeevna admitted: “While we were bargaining, it must be, so I think, then there was happiness. And hardly ever again!” She married Philip.
Chapter 2. Songs
Matrena Timofeevna sings a song about how the groom's relatives pounce on the daughter-in-law when she arrives in new house. Nobody likes her, everyone makes her work, and if she doesn't like her work, then they can beat her. This is how it happened with new family Matryona Timofeevna: “The family was huge, grumpy. I got from the girl's will to hell! Only in her husband could she find support, and it happened that he beat her. Matrena Timofeevna sang about a husband who beats his wife, and his relatives do not want to intercede for her, but only order to beat her even more.
Soon Matryona's son Demushka was born, and now it was easier for her to endure the reproaches of her father-in-law and mother-in-law. But here she was again in trouble. The master's steward began to pester her, but she did not know where to escape from him. Only grandfather Savely helped Matryona cope with all the troubles, only he loved her in a new family.
Chapter 3
“With a huge gray mane, tea, not cut for twenty years, with a huge beard, grandfather looked like a bear”, “grandfather’s back is arched”, “he has already turned, according to fairy tales, a hundred years.” “Grandfather lived in a special room, he did not like families, he did not let him into his corner; and she was angry, barked, his own son honored him with “branded, convict”. When the father-in-law began to become very angry with Matryona, she and her son went to Savely and worked there, and Demushka played with his grandfather.
Once Savely told her the story of his life. He lived with other peasants in impenetrable swampy forests, where neither the landowner nor the police could reach. But one day the landowner ordered them to come to him and sent the police after them. The peasants had to obey. The landowner demanded quitrent from them, and when the peasants began to say that they had nothing, he ordered them to be whipped. Again the peasants had to obey, and they gave the landowner their money. Now every year the landowner came to collect dues from them. But then the landowner died, and his heir sent a German manager to the estate. At first, the German lived quietly, became friends with the peasants. Then he began to order them to work. The peasants did not even have time to come to their senses, as they cut a road from their village to the city. Now you can safely drive to them. The German brought his wife and children to the village and began to rob the peasants even worse than the former landowner had robbed. The peasants put up with him for eighteen years. During this time, the German managed to build a factory. Then he ordered to dig a well. He did not like the work, and he began to scold the peasants. And Savely and his comrades dug it in a hole dug for a well. For this he was sent to hard labor, where he spent twenty years. Then he returned home and built a house. The men asked Matrena Timofeevna to continue talking about their woman's life.
Chapter 4
Matrena Timofeevna took her son to work. But the mother-in-law said that she should leave him to grandfather Savely, since you can’t earn much with a child. And so she gave Demushka to her grandfather, and she herself went to work. When she returned home in the evening, it turned out that Savely had dozed off in the sun, did not notice the baby, and the pigs trampled him. Matryona “rolled around in a ball”, “coiled like a worm, called, woke up Demushka - but it was too late to call.” The gendarmes arrived and began to interrogate, “didn’t you kill the child by agreement with the peasant Savely?” Then the doctor came to open the corpse of the child. Matryona began to ask him not to do this, sent curses at everyone, and everyone decided that she had lost her mind.
At night, Matryona came to her son's coffin and saw Savely there. At first she shouted at him, blamed Dema for the death, but then the two of them began to pray.
Chapter 5
After Demushka's death, Matrena Timofeevna did not talk to anyone, Savelia could not see, she did not work. And Savely went to repentance in the Sand Monastery. Then Matrena, together with her husband, went to her parents and set to work. Soon she had more children. So four years passed. Matryona's parents died, and she went to cry at her son's grave. He sees that the grave has been tidied up, there is an icon on it, and Savely lies on the ground. They talked, Matrena forgave the old man, told him about her grief. Soon Savely died, and he was buried next to Dema.
Another four years have passed. Matryona resigned herself to her life, worked for the whole family, only she did not give her children an offense. A pilgrimage came to them in the village and began to teach them how to live properly, in a divine way. She forbade breastfeeding on fasting days. But Matrena did not listen to her, she decided that it would be better for God to punish her than she would leave her children hungry. So grief came to her. When her son Fedot was eight years old, his father-in-law gave him to the shepherdess. Once the boy did not look after the sheep, and one of them was stolen by a she-wolf. For this, the village headman wanted to flog him. But Matryona threw herself at the feet of the landowner, and he decided instead of his son to punish his mother. Matryona was carved. In the evening she came to see how her son was sleeping. And the next morning, she didn’t show herself to her husband’s relatives, but went to the river, where she began to cry and call for the protection of her parents.
Chapter 6
Two new troubles came to the village: first, a lean year came, then recruitment. The mother-in-law began to scold Matryona for calling trouble, because on Christmas she put on a clean shirt. And then they also wanted to send her husband to recruits. Matryona did not know where to go. She herself did not eat, she gave everything to her husband's family, and they also scolded her, looked angrily at her children, since they were extra mouths. So Matryona had to "send children around the world" so that they asked for money from strangers. Finally, her husband was taken away, and the pregnant Matryona was left all alone.
Chapter 7
Her husband was recruited at the wrong time, but no one wanted to help him return home. Matryona, who had been carrying her child for the last few days, went to seek help from the governor. She left home at night without telling anyone. Arrived in the city in the early morning. The porter at the governor's palace told her to try to come in two hours, then the governor might receive her. On the square, Matryona saw a monument to Susanin, and he reminded her of Savely. When the carriage drove up to the palace and the governor's wife got out of it, Matryona threw herself at her feet with pleas for intercession. Here she felt unwell. The long road and fatigue affected her health, and she gave birth to a son. The governor helped her, baptized the baby herself and gave him a name. Then she helped save Matrena's husband from recruitment. Matryona brought her husband home, and his family bowed at her feet and obeyed her.
Chapter 8
Since then, they called Matryona Timofeevna the governor. She began to live as before, worked, raised children. One of her sons has already been recruited. Matrena Timofeevna told the travelers: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women”: “The keys to female happiness, from our free will, are abandoned, lost from God himself!”
Last
The travelers went to the banks of the Volga and saw how the peasants were working in the hayfield. “We haven’t worked for a long time, let’s mow!” - the wanderers asked the local women. After work, they sat down to rest on a haystack. Suddenly they see: three boats are floating along the river, in which music is playing, beautiful ladies, two mustachioed gentlemen, children and an old man are sitting. As soon as the peasants saw them, they immediately began to work even harder.
The old landowner went ashore, walked around the entire hayfield. "The peasants bowed low, the steward in front of the landowner, like a demon before matins, wriggled." And the landowner scolded them for their work, ordered them to dry the already harvested hay, which was already dry. The travelers were surprised why the old landowner behaved this way with the peasants, because they are now free people and are not under his rule. Old Vlas began to tell them.
“Our landowner is special, exorbitant wealth, an important rank, a noble family, all the time he was weird, fooled.” But serfdom was abolished, but he did not believe it, he decided that he was being deceived, he even scolded the governor about this, and by the evening he had a stroke. His sons were afraid that he might deprive them of their inheritance, and they agreed with the peasants to live as before, as if the landowner was still their master. Some peasants happily agreed to continue serving the landowner, but many could not agree. For example, Vlas, who was then a steward, did not know how he would have to carry out the "stupid orders" of the old man. Then another peasant asked to be made a steward, and "the old order went." And the peasants gathered together and laughed at the stupid orders of the master. For example, he ordered a seventy-year-old widow to be married to a six-year-old boy so that he would support her and build her a new house. He ordered the cows not to moo when they pass by the manor house, because they wake up the landowner.
But then there was the peasant Agap, who did not want to obey the master and even reproached other peasants for obedience. Once he was walking with a log, and the master met him. The landowner realized that the log was from his forest, and began to scold Agap for stealing. But the peasant could not stand it and began to laugh at the landowner. The old man had a stroke again, they thought that now he would die, but instead he issued a decree to punish Agap for disobedience. All day long, young landowners, their wives, the new steward and Vlas, went to Agap, persuaded Agap to pretend, and gave him wine to drink all night. The next morning they locked him in the stable and ordered him to scream as if he was being beaten, but in fact he was sitting and drinking vodka. The landowner believed, and he even felt sorry for the peasant. Only Agap, after so much vodka, died in the evening.
Wanderers went to look at the old landowner. And he sits surrounded by sons, daughters-in-law, courtyard peasants and has lunch. He began to ask whether the peasants would soon collect the master's hay. The new steward began to assure him that the hay would be harvested in two days, then he declared that the peasants would not go anywhere from the master, that he was their father and god. The landowner liked this speech, but suddenly he heard that one of the peasants laughed in the crowd, and ordered that the guilty one be found and punished. The steward went, and he himself thinks how he should be. He began to ask the wanderers that one of them would confess: they are strangers, the master could not do anything to them. But the travelers did not agree. Then the steward's godfather, a cunning woman, fell at the master's feet, began to lament, saying that it was her only silly son who laughed, and begged the master not to scold him. Barin took pity. Then he fell asleep and died in his sleep.
Feast - for the whole world
Introduction
The peasants arranged a holiday, to which the whole estate came, they wanted to celebrate their newfound freedom. The peasants sang songs.
I. Bitter time - bitter songs
Funny. The song sings that the master took the cow from the peasant, the zemstvo court took away the chickens, the tsar took the sons into recruits, and the master took the daughters to himself. “It is glorious for the people to live in holy Russia!”
Corvee. The poor peasant Kalinushka has wounds all over his back from beatings, he has nothing to wear, nothing to eat. Everything he earns has to be given to the master. The only joy in life is to come to a tavern and get drunk.
After this song, the peasants began to tell each other how hard it was to be in corvée. One recalled how their mistress Gertrud Alexandrovna ordered them to be beaten mercilessly. And the peasant Vikenty told the following parable.
About the exemplary lackey - Jacob the faithful. There lived a landowner in the world, very stingy, even drove his daughter away when she got married. This master had a faithful servant Yakov, who loved him more than his own life, did everything to please the master. Yakov never asked his master for anything, but his nephew grew up and wanted to marry. Only the master also liked the bride, so he did not allow Yakov's nephew to marry, but gave him as a recruit. Yakov decided to take revenge on his master, only his revenge was as servile as life. The master's legs hurt, and he could not walk. Yakov took him to a dense forest and hanged himself in front of his eyes. The master spent the whole night in the ravine, and in the morning the hunters found him. He did not recover from what he saw: “You, sir, will be an exemplary slave, faithful Jacob, to remember until the day of judgment!”
II. Wanderers and pilgrims
There are different pilgrims in the world. Some of them only hide behind the name of God in order to profit at someone else's expense, since it is customary to receive pilgrims in any home and feed them. Therefore, they most often choose rich houses where you can eat well and steal something. But there are also real pilgrims who bring the word of God to a peasant's house. Such people go to the poorest house so that God's mercy descends on it. Ionushka, who led the story "About two great sinners", also belongs to such pilgrims.
About two great sinners. Ataman Kudeyar was a robber and killed and robbed many people in his life. But his conscience tormented him, so much so that he could neither eat nor sleep, but only remembered his victims. He disbanded the whole gang and went to pray at the tomb of the Lord. He wanders, prays, repents, but it does not get easier for him. The sinner returned to his homeland and began to live under a centuries-old oak tree. One day he hears a voice that tells him to cut down an oak tree with the very knife with which he used to kill people, then all his sins will be forgiven. For several years the old man worked, but could not cut down the oak tree. Once he met Pan Glukhovskoy, about whom they said that he was cruel and evil person. When the pan asked what the elder was doing, the sinner said that he so wanted to atone for his sins. Pan began to laugh and said that his conscience did not torment him at all, although he had ruined many lives. “A miracle happened to the hermit: he felt furious anger, rushed to Pan Glukhovsky, plunged a knife into his heart! Just now, the bloodied pan fell headlong on the saddle, a huge tree collapsed, the echo shook the whole forest. So Kudeyar prayed for his sins.
III. Both old and new
“Great is the sin of the nobility,” the peasants began to say after Jon’s story. But the peasant Ignatius Prokhorov objected: "Great, but he shouldn't be against the sin of the peasant." And he told the following story.
Peasant sin. For courage and courage, the widower admiral received eight thousand souls from the empress. When the time came for the admiral to die, he called the headman to him and handed him a chest in which lay free for all the peasants. After his death, a distant relative came and, promising the headman golden mountains and freedom, begged him for that casket. So eight thousand peasants remained in the lord's bondage, and the headman committed the most serious sin: he betrayed his comrades. “So here it is, the sin of the peasant! Indeed, a terrible sin! the men decided. Then they sang the song "Hungry" and again started talking about the sin of the landowners and peasants. And now Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of a deacon, said: “The snake will give birth to snakes, and the support is the sins of the landowner, the sin of Jacob the unfortunate, the sin of Gleb gave birth! There is no support - there is no landowner, leading a zealous slave to a noose, there is no support - there is no courtyard, who takes revenge on his villain by suicide, there is no support - there will be no new Gleb in Russia! Everyone liked the boy’s speech, began to wish him wealth and a smart wife, but Grisha replied that he didn’t need wealth, but that “every peasant lived freely, cheerfully in all of holy Russia.”
IV. good times good songs
In the morning the travelers fell asleep. Grisha and his brother took their father home, they sang songs along the way. When the brothers put their father to bed, Grisha went for a walk around the village. Grisha studies at the seminary, where he is poorly fed, so he is thin. But he doesn't think about himself at all. All his thoughts are occupied only by his native village and peasant happiness. "Fate prepared a glorious path for him, a loud name of the people's intercessor, consumption and Siberia." Grisha is happy because he can be an intercessor and take care of ordinary people, of his homeland. Seven men finally found a happy man, but they did not even guess about this happiness.
Who lives well in Russia
Part one
PROLOGUE
“Seven men came together on a pillared path” and began to argue, “who in Russia has a good life.” The men spent the whole day in their pores. After drinking vodka, they even had a fight. One of the peasants, Pahom, is twirling a chiffchaff that has flown up to the fire. In exchange for freedom, she tells the peasants how to find a self-assembled tablecloth. Having found it, the debaters decide without answering the question: “Who lives happily, freely in Russia?” - do not return home.
CHAPTER ONE POP
On the road, the peasants meet peasants, coachmen, soldiers. They don't even ask them this question. Finally they meet the priest. Om replies to their question that he does not have any happiness in life. All funds go to the priest's son. At any time of the day or night, he himself can be called to the dying, he has to endure the sorrows of families in which relatives or people close to the family die. There is no respect for the priest, he is called the "breed of the foal", they compose draz-ilki, indecent songs about the priests. After talking with the priest, the men go on.
CHAPTER TWO RURAL FAIR
At the fair, fun, people drink, bargain, walk. Everyone rejoices at the deed of the "master" Pavlusha Veretennikov. He bought shoes for the granddaughter of a peasant who drank all the money without buying gifts for his relatives.
In the booth there is a performance - a comedy with Petrushka. After the performance, people drink with the actors, give them money.
From the fair, the peasants also carry printed materials - these are stupid little books and portraits of generals with many orders. The famous lines are devoted to this, expressing the hope for the cultural growth of the people:
When a peasant is not Blucher And not my lord stupid - Belinsky and Gogol From the market will carry?
CHAPTER THREE DRUNK NIGHT
After the fair, everyone returns home drunk. The men notice the women arguing in the ditch. Each proves that her home is the worst. Then they meet Veretennikov. He says that all the troubles come from the fact that Russian peasants drink without measure. The men begin to prove to him that if there were no sadness, then people would not drink.
Every peasant has a Soul - like a black cloud - Wrathful, formidable - but it would be necessary for Thunders to thunder from there, To pour bloody rains, And everything ends with wine.
They meet a woman. She tells them about her jealous husband, who watches over her even in her sleep. Men miss their wives and want to return home as soon as possible.
CHAPTER FOUR HAPPY
With the help of a self-collection tablecloth, the men take out a bucket of vodka. They walk in a festive crowd and promise to treat vodka to those who prove that they are happy. The emaciated deacon proves that he is happy by faith in God and the Kingdom of Heaven; the old woman says that she is happy that her turnip has ugly - they don’t give them vodka. A soldier comes up next, shows off his medals, and says he's happy because he wasn't killed in any of the battles he's been in. The soldier is treated to vodka. The bricklayer got home alive after a serious illness - this is what makes him happy.
The yard man considers himself happy, because, while licking the master's plates, he got a "noble disease" - gout. He puts himself above the men, they drive him away. A Belarusian sees his happiness in bread. Wanderers bring vodka to a peasant who survived hunting a bear.
People tell strangers about Yermila Girin. He asked people for a loan of money, then returned everything to the last ruble, although he could deceive them. People believed him, because he honestly served as a clerk and treated everyone carefully, did not take someone else's, did not shield the guilty. But once a fine was imposed on Yermila because instead of his brother he sent the son of a peasant woman, Nenila Vlasyevna, to recruit. He repented, and the peasant woman's son was returned. But Yermila still feels guilty for her act. People advise wanderers to go to Yermila and ask him. The story of Girin is interrupted by the cries of a drunken footman who has been caught stealing.
CHAPTER FIVE LANDMAN
In the morning the wanderers meet the landowner Obolt-Obolduev. He takes the wanderers for robbers. Realizing that they are not robbers, the landowner hides the gun and tells the wanderers about his life. His family is very ancient; he recalls the sumptuous feasts that used to take place. The landowner was very kind: on holidays he let peasants into his house to pray. The peasants voluntarily brought him gifts. Now the gardens of the landlords are being plundered, the houses are being dismantled, the peasants are working badly, reluctantly. The landowner is called upon to study and work when he cannot even tell a barley ear from a rye ear. At the end of the conversation, the landowner sobs.
Last
(From the second part)
Seeing the haymaking, the peasants, longing for work, take the scythes from the women and begin to mow. Here an old gray-haired landowner sails in boats with servants, barchats, ladies. Orders to dry one stack - it seems to him that it is wet. Everyone is trying to curry favor with the master. Vlas tells the story of the master.
When serfdom was abolished, he had a stroke, as he became extremely furious. Fearing that the master would deprive them of their inheritance, the sons persuaded the peasants to pretend that serfdom still existed. Vlas refused the post of burmister. Having no conscience, Klim Lavin takes his place.
Satisfied with himself, the prince walks around the estate and gives stupid orders. Trying to do a good deed, the prince fixes the crumbling house of a seventy-year-old widow and orders her to be married to a minor neighbor. Not wanting to obey Prince Utyatin, the peasant Aran tells him everything. Because of this, the prince had a second blow. But he survived again, not justifying the hopes of the heirs, and demanded the punishment of Agap. The heirs persuaded Petrov to shout louder in the stable after drinking a damask of wine. Then he was taken home drunk. But soon he, poisoned by wine, died.
At the table, everyone submits to the whims of Utyatin. The "rich St. Petersburg worker" suddenly arrived for a while, unable to stand it, laughs.
Utyatin demands to punish the guilty. Burmistrova's godfather throws herself at the master's feet and says that her son laughed. Having calmed down, the prince drinks champagne, revels and after a while falls asleep. They take him away. The duckling grabs the third blow - he dies. With the death of the master, the expected happiness did not come. Litigation began between the peasants and the heirs.
peasant woman
(From the third part)
PROLOGUE
Wanderers come to the village of Klin to ask Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina about happiness. Some men fishing complain to strangers that there used to be more fish. Matryona Timofeevna has no time to talk about her life, because she is busy harvesting. When the wanderers promise to help her, she agrees to talk to them.
CHAPTER ONE BEFORE MARRIAGE
When Matryona was a girl, she lived "like in Christ's bosom." Having drunk with the matchmakers, the father decides to marry his daughter to Philip Korchagin. After persuasion, Matrena agrees to marriage.
CHAPTER TWO SONG
Matrena Timofeevna compares her life in her husband's family with hell. “The family was huge, quarrelsome...” True, the husband got a good one - her husband beat her only once. And so he even "ride on a sled" and "gave a silk handkerchief." She named her son Matryona Demushka.
In order not to quarrel with her husband's relatives, Matryona does all the work assigned to her, does not answer the scolding of her mother-in-law and father-in-law. But the old grandfather Savely - the father of the father-in-law - takes pity on the young woman and talks to her kindly.
CHAPTER THREE
Matrena Timofeevna begins the story about grandfather Saveliy. Compares him to a bear. Grandfather Saveliy did not let his relatives into his room, for which they were angry with him.
Peasants during Savely's youth paid dues only three times a year. The landowner Shalashnikov could not get to the remote village himself, so he ordered the peasants to come to him. They have not come. Twice the peasants paid tribute to the police: sometimes with honey and fish, sometimes with skins. After the third arrival of the police, the peasants decided to go to Shalashnikov and say that there was no quitrent. But after the flogging, they still gave away some of the money. The hundred-ruble notes sewn under the lining did not get to the landowner.
The German, sent by the son of Shalashnikov, who died in battle, first asked the peasants to pay as much as they could. Since the peasants could not pay, they had to earn dues. Only later did they realize that they were building a road to the village. And, therefore, now they can not hide from the tax collectors!
The peasants began a hard life and lasted eighteen years. Angry, the peasants buried the German alive. They were all sent to prison. Savely failed to escape, and he spent twenty years in hard labor. Since then, it has been called "convict".
CHAPTER FOUR
Because of her son, Matryona began to work less. Mother-in-law demanded to give Demushka to grandfather. Falling asleep, the grandfather overlooked the child, he was eaten by pigs. The arriving police accuse Matryona of deliberately killing the child. She is declared insane. Demushka is buried in a closed coffin.
CHAPTER FIVE THE WOLF
After the death of his son, Matryona spends all the time at his grave, unable to work. Savely takes the tragedy hard and goes to the Sand Monastery for repentance. Every year Matryona gives birth to children. Three years later, Matryona's parents die. At the grave of his son, Matryona meets with grandfather Savely, who came to pray for the child.
Matryona's eight-year-old son Fedot is sent to guard the sheep. One sheep was stolen by a hungry she-wolf. Fedot, after a long pursuit, overtakes the she-wolf and takes away the sheep from her, but, seeing that the cattle is already dead, he returns it to the she-wolf - she has become terribly thin, it is clear that she is feeding children. For the act of Fedotushka, the mother is punished. Matrena believes that her disobedience is to blame, she fed Fedot with milk on a fast day.
CHAPTER SIX
HARD YEAR
When the lack of bread came, the mother-in-law blamed Matryona for the bey. She would have been killed for this, if not for her intercessor husband. Matrona's husband is recruited. Her life in the house of her father-in-law and mother-in-law became even harder.
CHAPTER SEVEN
GOVERNOR
Pregnant Matryona goes to the governor. Having given two rubles to the lackey, Matryona meets with the governor's wife, asking her for protection. Matryona Timofeevna gives birth to a child in the governor's house.
Elena Alexandrovna has no children of her own; she takes care of Matrena's child as if it were her own. The envoy sorted everything out in the village, Matrena's husband was returned.
CHAPTER EIGHT
WOMAN'S PARABLE
Matrena tells the wanderers about her current life, saying that among the women they will not find a happy one. To the question of the wanderers, did Matryona tell them everything, the woman replies that there is not enough time to list all her troubles. He says that women are already slaves from their very birth.
The keys to women's happiness, From our free will Abandoned, lost From God himself!
Feast - for the whole world
INTRODUCTION
Klim Yakovlich started a feast in the village. The parish deacon Trifon came with his sons Savvushka and Grisha. They were hardworking, kind guys. The peasants argued about how they should dispose of the meadows after the death of the prince; guessed and sang songs: "Merry", "Corvee".
The peasants remember the old order: they worked during the day, drank and fought at night.
They tell the story of the faithful servant Jacob. Yakov's nephew Grisha asked to marry his girlfriend Arisha. The landowner himself likes Arish, so the master sends Grisha to the soldiers. After a long absence, Yakov returns to the master. Later, Yakov, in front of the master, hangs himself in a dense forest. Left alone, the master cannot get out of the forest. In the morning a hunter found him. The master admits his guilt and asks to be executed.
Klim Lavin defeats the merchant in a fight. The pilgrim Ionushka talks about the power of faith; how the Turks drowned the monks of Athos in the sea.
ABOUT TWO GREAT SINNERS
Father Pitirim told this ancient story to Ionushka. Twelve robbers with ataman Kudeyar lived in the forest and robbed people. But soon the robber began to imagine the people he had killed, and he began to ask the Lord to forgive him his sins. To atone for his sins, Kudeyar needed to cut down an oak with the same hand and the same knife that he used to kill people. When he began to saw, pan Glukhovsky rode by, who honored only women, wine and gold, but mercilessly tortured, tortured and hanged peasants. Angry, Kudeyar plunged a knife into the sinner's heart. The burden of sins immediately fell.
OLD AND NEW
Jonah swims away. The peasants are again arguing about sins. Ignat Prokhorov tells the story of a will, according to which eight thousand serfs would have been freed if the headman had not sold it.
Soldier Ovsyannikov and his niece Ustinyushka arrive on the wagon. Ovsyannikov sings a song that there is no truth. They do not want to give the soldier a pension, and yet he was repeatedly wounded in numerous battles.
GOOD TIME - GOOD SONGS
Savva and Grisha take their father home and sing a song that freedom comes first. Grisha goes to the fields and remembers his mother. Sings a song about the future of the country. Grigory sees a barge hauler and sings the song "Rus", calling her mother.
A poem by N.A. Nekrasov's "Who Lives Well in Russia", on which he worked for the last ten years of his life, but did not have time to fully realize, cannot be considered unfinished. It contains everything that made up the meaning of the spiritual, ideological, life and artistic searches of the poet from youth to death. And this "everything" found a worthy - capacious and harmonious - form of expression.
What is the architectonics of the poem "Who should live well in Russia"? Architectonics is the “architecture” of a work, the construction of a whole from separate structural parts: chapters, parts, etc. In this poem, it is complex. Of course, the inconsistency in the division of the huge text of the poem gives rise to the complexity of its architectonics. Not everything is added, not everything is uniform and not everything is numbered. However, this does not make the poem less amazing - it shocks anyone who is able to feel compassion, pain and anger at the sight of cruelty and injustice. Nekrasov, creating typical images of unjustly ruined peasants, made them immortal.
The beginning of the poem -"Prologue" - sets the tone of the whole work.
Of course, this is a fabulous beginning: no one knows where and when, no one knows why seven men converge. And a dispute flares up - how can a Russian person be without a dispute; and the peasants turn into wanderers, wandering along an endless road to find the truth hidden either behind the next turn, or behind the nearby hill, or not at all achievable.
In the text of the Prologue, whoever does not appear, as if in a fairy tale: a woman - almost a witch, and a gray hare, and small jackdaws, and a chick, and a cuckoo ... Seven eagle owls look at the wanderers in the night, the echo echoes their cries, an owl, a cunning fox - everyone has been here. In the groin, examining a small birdie - a chick of a warbler - and seeing that she is happier than a peasant, he decides to find out the truth. And, as in a fairy tale, the mother warbler, helping out the chick, promises to give the peasants plenty of everything they ask for on the road, so that they only find the truthful answer, and shows the way. The Prologue is not like a fairy tale. This is a fairy tale, only literary. So the peasants give a vow not to return home until they find the truth. And the wandering begins.
Chapter I - "Pop". In it, the priest defines what happiness is - “peace, wealth, honor” - and describes his life in such a way that none of the conditions for happiness is suitable for it. The calamities of the peasant parishioners in impoverished villages, the revelry of the landowners who left their estates, the desolated local life - all this is in the bitter answer of the priest. And, bowing low to him, the wanderers go further.
Chapter II wanderers at the fair. The picture of the village: "a house with an inscription: school, empty, / Clogged tightly" - and this is in the village "rich, but dirty." There, at the fair, a familiar phrase sounds to us:
When a man is not Blucher
And not my lord foolish—
Belinsky and Gogol
Will it carry from the market?
In Chapter III "Drunken Night" bitterly describes the eternal vice and consolation of the Russian serf peasant - drunkenness to the point of unconsciousness. Pavlusha Veretennikov reappears, known among the peasants of the village of Kuzminsky as a “master” and met by wanderers there, at the fair. He records folk songs, jokes - we would say, he collects Russian folklore.
Having recorded enough
Veretennikov told them:
"Smart Russian peasants,
One is not good
What they drink to stupefaction
Falling into ditches, into ditches—
It's a shame to look!"
This offends one of the men:
There is no measure for Russian hops.
Did they measure our grief?
Is there a measure for work?
Wine brings down the peasant
And grief does not bring him down?
Work not falling?
A man does not measure trouble,
Copes with everything
Whatever come.
This peasant, who stands up for everyone and defends the dignity of a Russian serf, is one of the most important heroes of the poem, the peasant Yakim Nagoi. Surname this - speaking. And he lives in the village of Bosov. The story of his unthinkably hard life and ineradicable proud courage is learned by wanderers from local peasants.
Chapter IV wanderers walk around in the festive crowd, bawling: “Hey! Is there somewhere happy? - and the peasants in response, who will smile, and who will spit ... Pretenders appear, coveting the drink promised by the wanderers "for happiness". All this is both scary and frivolous. Happy is the soldier who is beaten, but not killed, did not die of hunger and survived twenty battles. But for some reason this is not enough for the wanderers, although it is a sin to refuse a soldier a glass. Pity, not joy, are also caused by other naive workers who humbly consider themselves happy. The stories of the "happy" are getting scarier and scarier. There is even a type of princely "slave", happy with his "noble" illness - gout - and the fact that at least it brings him closer to the master.
Finally, someone sends the wanderers to Yermil Girin: if he is not happy, then who is! The story of Yermila is important for the author: the people raised money so that, bypassing the merchant, the peasant would buy a mill on the Unzha (a large navigable river in the Kostroma province). The generosity of the people, giving their last for a good cause, is a joy for the author. Nekrasov is proud of the men. After that, Yermil gave everything to his own, there was a ruble that was not given away - the owner was not found, and the money was collected enormously. Ermil gave the ruble to the poor. The story follows about how Yermil won the trust of the people. His incorruptible honesty in the service, first as a clerk, then as a lord's manager, his help for many years created this trust. It seemed that the matter was clear - such a person could not but be happy. And suddenly the gray-haired priest announces: Yermil is in jail. And he was planted there in connection with the rebellion of the peasants in the village of Stolbnyaki. How and what - the strangers did not have time to find out.
In Chapter V - "The Landlord" - the carriage rolls out, in it - and indeed the landowner Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is described comically: a plump gentleman with a "pistol" and a paunch. Note: he has a "speaking", as almost always with Nekrasov, name. “Tell us Godly, is the landowner’s life sweet?” the strangers stop him. The landowner's stories about his "root" are strange to the peasants. Not feats, but disgrace to please the queen and the intention to set fire to Moscow - these are the memorable deeds of illustrious ancestors. What is the honor for? How to understand? The story of the landowner about the charms of the former master's life somehow does not please the peasants, and Obolduev himself bitterly recalls the past - it is gone, and gone forever.
To adapt to a new life after the abolition of serfdom, one must study and work. But labor - not a noble habit. Hence the grief.
"The Last". This part of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" begins with a picture of haymaking in water meadows. The royal family appears. The appearance of an old man is terrible - the father and grandfather of a noble family. The ancient and vicious prince Utyatin is alive because, according to the story of the peasant Vlas, his former serfs conspired with the lord's family to depict the former serfdom for the sake of the prince's peace of mind and so that he would not refuse his family, due to a whim of an senile inheritance. The peasants were promised to give back the water meadows after the death of the prince. The "faithful slave" Ipat was also found - at Nekrasov, as you have already noticed, and such types among the peasants find their description. Only the peasant Agap could not stand it and scolded the Last One for what the world was worth. Punishment in the stable with whips, feigned, turned out to be fatal for the proud peasant. The last one died almost in front of our wanderers, and the peasants are still suing for the meadows: "The heirs compete with the peasants until this day."
According to the logic of the construction of the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia”, then follows, as it were, hersecond part , entitled"Peasant Woman" and having its own"Prologue" and their chapters. The peasants, having lost faith in finding a happy man among the peasants, decide to turn to the women. There is no need to retell what and how much "happiness" they find in the share of women, peasants. All this is expressed with such a depth of penetration into the suffering woman's soul, with such an abundance of details of the fate, slowly told by a peasant woman, respectfully referred to as "Matryona Timofeevna, she is a governor", that at times it touches to tears, then it makes you clench your fists with anger. Happy she was one of her first women's night Yes, when was it!
Songs created by the author on a folk basis are woven into the narrative, as if sewn on the canvas of a Russian folk song (Chapter 2. "Songs" ). There, the wanderers sing with Matryona in turn, and the peasant woman herself, recalling the past.
My disgusting husband
Rises:
For a silk whip
Accepted.
choir
The whip whistled
Blood splattered...
Oh! leli! leli!
Blood splattered...
To match the song was the married life of a peasant woman. Only her grandfather, Saveliy, took pity on her and consoled her. “There was also a lucky man,” recalls Matryona.
A separate chapter of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" is dedicated to this powerful Russian man -"Savelius, Holy Russian hero" . The title of the chapter speaks of its style and content. The branded, former convict, heroic build, the old man speaks little, but aptly. “To not endure is an abyss, to endure is an abyss,” are his favorite words. The old man buried alive in the ground for the atrocities against the peasants of the German Vogel, the master's manager. The image of Saveliy is collective:
Do you think, Matryonushka,
The man is not a hero?
And his life is not military,
And death is not written for him
In battle - a hero!
Hands twisted with chains
Legs forged with iron
Back ... dense forests
Passed on it - broke.
And the chest? Elijah the prophet
On it rattles-rides
On a chariot of fire...
The hero suffers everything!
Chapter"Dyomushka" the worst thing happens: the son of Matryona, left at home unattended, is eaten by pigs. But this is not enough: the mother was accused of murder, and the police opened the child in front of her eyes. And even more terrible, that Savely the hero himself, a deep old man who fell asleep and overlooked the baby, was innocently guilty of the death of his beloved grandson, who awakened the suffering soul of his grandfather.
In chapter V - "She-wolf" - the peasant woman forgives the old man and endures everything that is left for her in life. Chasing after the she-wolf who carried away the sheep, Matryona's son Fedotka the shepherd pity the beast: the hungry, powerless, with swollen nipples mother of the wolf cubs sits down in front of him on the grass, suffers beatings, and the little boy leaves her the sheep, already dead. Matryona accepts punishment for him and lays down under the whip.
After this episode, Matryona’s song lamentations on a gray stone above the river, when she, an orphan, calls a father, then a mother for help and comfort, complete the story and create a transition to a new year of disasters -Chapter VI "A Difficult Year" . Hungry, “Looks like kids / I was like her,” Matryona recalls the she-wolf. Her husband is shaved into the soldiers without a term and out of turn, she remains with her children in the hostile family of her husband - a "parasite", without protection and help. The life of a soldier is a special topic, revealed in detail. Soldiers flog her son with rods in the square - you can’t even understand why.
A terrible song precedes the escape of Matryona alone on a winter night (Head of the Governor ). She rushed backward onto the snowy road and prayed to the Intercessor.
And the next morning Matryona went to the governor. She fell at her feet right on the stairs so that her husband would be returned, and she gave birth. The governor turned out to be a compassionate woman, and Matryona returned with a happy child. They nicknamed the Governor, and life seemed to get better, but then the time came, and they took the eldest as a soldier. “What else do you want? - Matryona asks the peasants, - the keys to women's happiness ... are lost, ”and cannot be found.
The third part of the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia”, which is not called that, but has all the signs of an independent part - a dedication to Sergei Petrovich Botkin, an introduction and chapters - has a strange name -"Feast for the whole world" . In the introduction, a kind of hope for the freedom granted to the peasants, which is still not visible, illuminates the face of the peasant Vlas with a smile for almost the first time in his life. But the first chapter"Bitter Time - Bitter Songs" - represents either a stylization of folk couplets telling about famine and injustice under serfdom, then mournful, “drawn-out, sad” Vakhlat songs about inescapable forced anguish, and finally, “Corvee”.
Separate chapter - story"About an exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful" - begins as if about a serf of the slavish type that Nekrasov was interested in. However, the story takes an unexpected and sharp turn: unable to bear the insult, Yakov first took to drink, fled, and when he returned, he brought the master into a swampy ravine and hanged himself in front of him. A terrible sin for a Christian is suicide. The wanderers are shocked and frightened, and a new dispute begins - a dispute about who is the most sinful of all. Tells Ionushka - "humble praying mantis".
A new page of the poem opens -"Wanderers and Pilgrims" , for her -"About two great sinners" : a tale about Kudeyar-ataman, a robber who killed an uncountable number of souls. The story goes in an epic verse, and, as if in a Russian song, the conscience wakes up in Kudeyar, he accepts hermitage and repentance from the saint who appeared to him: to cut off the century-old oak with the same knife with which he killed. The work is many years old, the hope that it will be possible to complete it before death is weak. Suddenly, the well-known villain Pan Glukhovsky appears on horseback in front of Kudeyar and tempts the hermit with shameless speeches. Kudeyar cannot withstand the temptation: a knife is in the pan's chest. And - a miracle! - collapsed century-old oak.
The peasants start a dispute about whose sin is heavier - "noble" or "peasant".In the chapter "Peasant sin" Also, in an epic verse, Ignatius Prokhorov talks about the Judas sin (sin of betrayal) of a peasant headman who was tempted to pay a heir and hid the will of the owner, in which all eight thousand souls of his peasants were set free. The listeners shudder. There is no forgiveness for the destroyer of eight thousand souls. The despair of the peasants, who admitted that such sins are possible among them, pours out in a song. "Hungry" - a terrible song - a spell, the howl of an unsatisfied beast - not a man. A new face appears - Grigory, the young godson of the headman, the son of a deacon. He consoles and inspires the peasants. After groaning and thinking, they decide: To all the fault: grow stronger!
It turns out that Grisha is going "to Moscow, to Novovorsitet." And then it becomes clear that Grisha is the hope of the peasant world:
"I don't need any silver,
No gold, but God forbid
So that my countrymen
And every peasant
Lived freely and cheerfully
All over holy Russia!
But the story continues, and the wanderers become witnesses of how an old soldier, thin as a chip, hung with medals, drives up on a hay wagon and sings his song - “Soldier's” with the refrain: “The light is sick, / There is no bread, / There is no shelter, / There is no death,” and to others: “German bullets, / Turkish bullets, / French bullets, / Russian sticks.” Everything about the soldier's share is collected in this chapter of the poem.
But here's a new chapter with a peppy title"Good time - good songs" . song new hope Savva and Grisha sing on the Volga bank.
The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of a sexton from the Volga, of course, combines the features of Nekrasov's dear friends - Belinsky, Dobrolyubov (compare the names), Chernyshevsky. They could sing this song too. Grisha barely managed to survive the famine: his mother's song, sung by peasant women, is called "Salty". A piece watered with mother's tears is a substitute for salt for a starving child. “With love for the poor mother / Love for the whole vakhlachin / Merged, - and for fifteen years / Gregory already knew for sure / That he would live for happiness / Poor and dark native corner.” Images of angelic forces appear in the poem, and the style changes dramatically. The poet moves on to marching three lines, reminiscent of the rhythmic tread of the forces of good, inevitably crowding out the obsolete and evil. "Angel of Mercy" sings an invocative song over a Russian youth.
Grisha, waking up, descends into the meadows, thinks about the fate of his homeland, and sings. In the song, his hope and love. And firm confidence: “Enough! /Finished with the past calculation, /Finished calculation with the master! / The Russian people gathers strength / And learns to be a citizen.
"Rus" is the last song of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
Source (abridged): Mikhalskaya, A.K. Literature: A basic level of: Grade 10. At 2 o'clock. Part 1: account. allowance / A.K. Mikhalskaya, O.N. Zaitsev. - M.: Bustard, 2018
The work of Russian literature of the 19th century does not lose its relevance. The search for happiness can continue. Slightly changed in manners modern Russia. A summary of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” by chapters and parts will help you find the right episode and understand the plot.
1 part
Prologue
Seven men from different villages gathered on the road and began to argue about who lives happily and freely in Russia. The meeting place and the name of the villages are chosen by the author with meaning. Uyezd - Terpigorev (we endure grief), volost - Pustoporozhnaya (empty or empty). Villages with names that convey the main characteristics of the life of peasants:
- clothing from patches - Zaplatovo;
- leaky things - Dyryavino;
- without shoes - Razutovo;
- shivering from illness and fear - Znobishino;
- burnt houses - Gorelovo;
- no food - Neelovo;
- constant crop failures - Crop failure.
- landowner;
- official;
- merchant;
- boyar;
- minister;
- tsar.
"Everything will do the tablecloth"
Promised foam. The bird warned that one should not ask the tablecloth for more food than the stomach can withstand, and only 1 bucket of vodka. If these conditions are not met, for 3 times the desire will lead to trouble. The men found a tablecloth, arranged a feast. They decided that they would find out who lives happily on Russian soil, only then they will return home.
1 chapter. Pop
The peasants continued on their way. They met many people, but no one was interested in life. All the wanderers were close to them: a lapotnik, an artisan, a beggar, a coachman. The soldier could not be happy. He shaves with an awl, warms himself with smoke. Closer to the night they met a pop. The peasants stood in a row and bowed to the holy man. Luka began to ask the priest if he had a free life. The priest thought for a moment and began to speak. He simply kept silent about the years of study. The priest has no rest. He is called to the sick, dying. The heart aches and hurts for orphans and people leaving for another world. The priest has no honor. They call him names hurtful words, avoid on the way, compose fairy tales. They do not like either the priest's daughter or the priest. Not held in high esteem by the pop of all classes. Where does the priest get his wealth from? Previously, there were many nobles in Russia. Children were born in estates, weddings were played. Everyone went to the priests, wealth grew and multiplied. Now in Russia everything has changed. The landowners scattered throughout the foreign land, leaving only ruined possessions in their homeland. The priest complains about the schismatics who have appeared, who live among the Orthodox. The life of priests is becoming more and more difficult, only poor peasants give income. What can they give? Only a dime and a pie for the holiday. The priest finished his dreary story and moved on. The men attacked Luka, who claimed that the priests live freely.Chapter 2 rural fair
Comrades go further and get to the fair in the village of Kuzminskoe. They hope to meet someone there who is truly happy. The village is rich commercial and dirty. In Kuzminsky there is everything that is found in Russia.- Dirty hotel with a beautiful sign and a tray with dishes.
- Two churches: Orthodox and Old Believers.
- School.
- Medical assistant's hut, where the sick bleed.
Chapter 3 drunken night
The men were moving along the road, meeting drunks. They are"crawled, lay, rode, floundered."
Sober wanderers walked, looking around and listening to speeches. Some were so bad that it becomes terrifying how the Russian people drink too much. In the ditch, the women are arguing about who lives harder. One goes as if to hard labor, the other is beaten by sons-in-law.
The wanderers hear the familiar voice of Pavlusha Veretennikov. He praises the smart Russian people for proverbs and songs, but is upset because of drunkenness to the point of stupefaction. But the man does not allow him to write down the thought. He began to prove that the peasants drink on time. In suffering people in the field, who works and feeds the whole country? For a drinking family - a non-drinking family. And trouble comes to everyone the same way. Ugly drunken men are no worse than those who were eaten by midges, eaten by swamp reptiles. One of the drunks was Yakim Nagoi. The worker decided to compete with the merchant and ended up in prison. Yakim loved paintings, because of them he almost burned down during a fire. Taking pictures, I did not have time to pull out the rubles. They merged into a lump, lost their value. The men decided that they could not overcome the hops of a Russian person.
Chapter 4 Happy
Wanderers are looking for the lucky one in the festive crowd at the bazaar. But all the arguments they meet seem absurd. There are no truly happy people. Peasant happiness does not impress wanderers. They are sent to Yermil Girin. He collected money from people in an hour. All the peasants chipped in and helped Yermil to buy the mill, to resist the merchant Altynnikov. A week later, Yermil returned everything to the penny, no one demanded more from him, no one was offended. Someone did not take one ruble from Girin, he gave it to the blind. The men decided to find out what kind of witchcraft Yermil owns. Kirin faithfully served as the headman. But he could not send his brother to the army, he replaced him with a peasant. The act exhausted Yermil's soul. He returned the peasant home, and sent his brother to the service. He resigned as headman and took the mill on lease. Fate still took revenge on the peasant, he was put in jail. The wanderers go further, realizing that this is not the happiest person in Russia.Chapter 5 landowner
Wanderers meet the landowner. The ruddy landowner was 60 years old. And here the author tried. He chose a special surname for the hero - Obolt-Obolduev Gavrila Afanasyevich. The landowner decided that they were going to rob him. He drew a pistol, but the men calmed him down and explained the essence of their argument. Gavrila Afanasyevich was amused at the question of the peasants. He laughed his fill and began to talk about his life. He started with a family tree. The men quickly understood what was being said. The ancestor of the landowner was Oboldui, who is already more than 2 and a half centuries old. He entertained the empress by playing with animals. On the other hand, the clan originates from the prince who tried to set fire to Moscow and was executed for it. The landowner was famous, the older the tree, the better the family. The wealth of the family was such that it seemed that one could not think about the future. The forests are full of hares, the rivers are full of fish, the arable land is flooded with grain. Houses were built with greenhouses, gazebos and parks. The landowners were celebrating and walking. Hunting was a favorite pastime. But gradually the power of the Russian landowner is leaving with it. Peasants if the master of gifts from all over the vast country. The long life ended quickly. Houses sorted out brick by brick, everything began to fall into disrepair. There is land left to work on. The landowner does not know how to work, he spends his whole life"lived by someone else's work."
The peasants realized that the landowner was not the one they were looking for.
2 part. Last
Chapter 1
The wanderers reached the Volga. There was a lot of fun going around. The wanderers saw how the wonderful old man swaggered over the peasants. He forced to scatter the heroic haystack. It seemed to him that the hay had not dried up. It turned out to be Prince Utyatin. The wanderers were surprised why the peasants behave this way, if they have long been given freedom and the patrimony does not belong to the prince, but to them. Vlas explains to his comrades what the matter is.Chapter 2
The landowner was very rich and important. He did not believe that serfdom had been abolished. He got hit. The children and their wives arrived. Everyone thought that the old man would die, but he recovered. The heirs of their father's anger were afraid. One of the ladies said that serfdom was returned. I had to persuade the serfs to continue to behave as before, before the free. They promised to pay for all the quirks of the parent. The prince's orders were as ridiculous as they were absurd. One of the old men could not stand it and told the prince. He was ordered to be punished. Agap was persuaded to drink and scream as if he was being beaten. They made the old man drunk to death, he died by morning.Chapter 3
The peasants, believing in the promises of their heirs, behave like serfs. The Prince of the Last is dying. But no one fulfills the promises, the promised lands do not pass to the peasants. There is a lawsuit going on.3 part. peasant woman
The men decided to look for happy people among the women. They were advised to find Matryona Timofeeva Korchagina. Wanderers go through the fields, admiring the rye. Wheat does not please them, it does not feed everyone. We reached the desired village - Klin. The peasants were surprised at every step. Strange, absurd work went on throughout the village. Everything around was destroyed, broken or spoiled. Finally, they saw reapers and reapers. beautiful girls changed the situation. Among them was Matrena Timofeevna, popularly nicknamed the governor's wife. The woman was about 37 - 38 years old. The appearance of a woman attracts with beauty:- big stern eyes;
- wide tight posture;
- rich eyelashes;
- swarthy skin.
1 chapter. before marriage
Matryona was happy in her parents' house. Everyone treated her well: father, brother, mother. The girl grew up hardworking. She has been helping with housework since she was 5 years old. A kind worker grew up, a lover of singing and dancing. Matryona was in no hurry to get married. But the stove-maker Philip Korchagin appeared. The girl thought it over all night, cried, but after looking at the guy more carefully, she agreed. Happiness was only on the night of the matchmaking, as Matryona said.Chapter 2 Songs
Wanderers and a woman sing songs. They talk about a heavy share in someone else's house. Matrena continues the story of her life. The girl got into a huge family. The husband went to work, advised his wife to be silent and endure. Matrena worked for her older sister-in-law, the devout Martha, looked after her father-in-law, and gratified her mother-in-law. It occurred to Philip's mother that rye would be best grown from stolen seeds. The father-in-law went to steal, he was caught, beaten and thrown into the barn half dead. Matryona praises her husband, and the wanderers ask if he beat her. The woman tells. Philip was beaten for a slow answer to a question when his wife lifted a heavy pot and could not speak. The wanderers sang new song about her husband's whip and relatives. Matrena gave birth to a son, Demushka, when her husband again went to work. The trouble came again: the master's manager, Abram Gordeevich Sitnikov, liked the woman. He didn't let go. Of the whole family, only grandfather Savely felt sorry for Matryona. She went to him for advice.Chapter 3 Saveliy, Holy Russian hero
Grandfather Savely looked like a bear. He did not cut his hair for 20 years, bent from the years he had lived. According to the documents, my grandfather was already over 100 years old. He lived in a corner - in a special room. He did not let his family members in, they did not like him. Even his own son scolded his father. They called grandfather branded. But Savely was not offended:"Branded, but not a slave!"
Grandfather rejoiced at the failures of the family: they were waiting for matchmakers - beggars came under the windows, the father-in-law was beaten in a drinking tavern. Grandfather collects mushrooms and berries, catches birds. In winter he talks to himself on the stove. The old man has many sayings and favorite sayings. Matryona and her son went to the old man. The grandfather told the woman why he was called branded in the family. He was a convict, he buried the German Vogel alive in the ground. Savely tells the woman how they lived. Times were good for the peasants. The master could not get to the village because there were no roads. Only bears disturbed the inhabitants, but even those men coped easily without guns:
"with a knife and a horn."
Grandfather tells when he was frightened, from which his back bent. He stepped on a sleepy bear, was not afraid, drove a horn into her and raised her like a chicken. The back crunched from heaviness, in youth it ached a little, and in old age it bent. In a lean year, Shalashnikov reached them. The landowner began to tear "three skins" from the peasants. When Shalashnikov died, a German, a strange and quiet man, was sent to the village. He forced them to work, unbeknownst to themselves, the peasants cut a clearing to the village, a road appeared. With her came hard labor. The German grip is to let it go around the world. Russian heroes endured, did not break. Peasants
"the axes lay for the time being."
The German ordered to dig a well and came to scold him for his slowness. Hungry men stood and listened to his whining. Savely gently pushed him with his shoulder, the others did the same. They carefully threw the German into the pit. He shouted, demanded a rope and a ladder, but Savely said:
"Give it up!"
The pit was quickly dug up, as if it never happened. Next came penal servitude, prison, and flogging. The old man's skin has become like dressed, the grandfather jokes, that's why it has been worn "for a hundred years", that it has endured so much. Grandfather returned to his homeland while there was money, he was loved, then they began to hate him.
Chapter 4
Matrena continues the story of her life. She loved her son Demushka, took him everywhere with her, but her mother-in-law demanded to leave the child with her grandfather. The woman was loading compressed sheaves of rye when she saw Savely crawling towards her. The old man roared. He fell asleep and did not notice how the pigs ate the child. Matryona experienced terrible grief, but even more terrible were the interrogations of the police officer. He found out whether Matryona cohabited with Savely, whether she had killed her son in conspiracy, poured arsenic. The mother asked to bury Demushka according to the Christian custom, but they began to cut the child, “torment and plast”. The woman almost went crazy with anger and grief, she cursed Savely. Having gone crazy in her mind, she went into oblivion, when she woke up, she saw that her grandfather was reading a prayer over a small coffin. Matryona began to chase the old man, and he asked for forgiveness and explained that Demushka had melted the old man's petrified heart. All night Savely read a prayer over the child, and the mother held a candle in her hands.Chapter 5
It has been 20 years since the son died, and the woman still regrets his fate. Matryona stopped working, she was not afraid of her father-in-law's reins. I could not make any more promises with my grandfather Savely. The old man sat out of grief in his room for 6 days, went into the forest. He wept so that the whole forest moaned with him. In autumn, grandfather went to the Sand Monastery to repent for what he had done. Life began to go on as usual: children, work. Parents died, Matrena went to cry at Demushka's grave. There she met Savelia. He prayed for Dema, Russian suffering, for the peasantry, asked to remove anger from his mother's heart. Matrena reassured the old man, saying that she had forgiven him a long time ago. Savely asked to look at him as before. The kind look of the woman delighted the grandfather. The “hero” died hard: he did not eat for 100 days and dried up. He lived for 107 years, asked to be buried next to Demushka. The request was fulfilled. Matrena worked for the whole family. The son was given at the age of 8 as a shepherd. He did not follow the sheep, and the she-wolf carried it away. The mother did not let the crowd flog her son. Fedot said that the huge she-wolf grabbed the sheep and ran. The boy rushed after her, boldly took away the animal from the gray one, but took pity on her. The she-wolf was covered in blood, her nipples were cut with grass. She howled as plaintively as a mother weeps. The boy gave her the sheep, came to the village and told everything honestly. The headman ordered the shepherd to be forgiven, and the woman to be punished with rods.Chapter 6
A hungry year has come to the village. The peasants were looking for reasons in their neighbors, Matryona was almost killed for a clean shirt, dressed in Christmas. The husband was taken into the army, poverty became almost unbearable. Matryona sends the children to beg. The woman cannot stand it and leaves the house at night. She sings to the wanderers a song that she likes very much.Chapter 7
Matryona ran at night to ask for help in the city from the governor. All night the woman walked, praying to God to herself. In the morning I reached the Cathedral Square. I learned that the porter's name was Makar and began to wait. He promised to start in two hours. The woman walked around the city, looked at the monument to Susanin, which reminded her of Savely, was frightened by the cry of a drake that fell under the knife. I returned to the governor's house early, managed to talk with Makar. A lady in a sable coat came down the stairs, Matryona threw herself at her feet. She asked so much that she began to give birth in the governor's house. The lady baptized the boy, chose the name Liodor for him. Elena Alexandrovna (lady) returned Philip. Matrena wishes the lady only joy and goodness. The husband's family is grateful to the daughter-in-law, with a man in the house, hunger is not so terrible.Chapter 8
The woman was defamed in the district, they began to call a new name - the governor. Matryona has 5 sons, one is already in the army. Korchagina sums up her story:"... It's not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women! ...".
Wanderers are trying to find out if the woman told them everything about her life, but she only tells them about troubles and grief:
- Anthrax;
- Work instead of a horse;
- Scourge and loss of the firstborn.
4 part. A feast for the whole world
The wanderers settled down at the end of the village under the willow. They remember the master - the Last. Under the feast, they begin to sing and share stories.Song Merry. It is sung like a dance priests and courtyard people. Only vakhlak did not sing. A song about the hard lot of a Russian peasant.
“It is glorious for the people to live in holy Russia”:
He has no milk - the master took the cow for offspring, there are no chickens - the judges of the Zemstvo council ate, the children are taken away: the king - the boys, the master - the daughters.
Barshine song. The second song is sad and drawn out. The hero of the story is the unkempt Kalinushka. His only back is painted from a rod and whips. Grief drowns Kalinushka in a tavern, he sees his wife only on Saturday, he will "backfire" on her from the master's stables.
About the exemplary lackey - Yakov Verny. The story is told by the courtyard Vikenty Alexandrovich. The protagonist story - master, cruel and evil. For bribes, he bought a village for himself and established his own law. The cruelty of the master was in relation not only to the courtyards. He gave his own daughter in marriage, flogged the guy and "chased away (the children) naked." Polivanov had a serf - Yakov. He served his master like a faithful dog. The serf took care of the master, humored him as best he could. The old man began to get sick, his legs gave out. Jacob carried him in his arms like a child. Jacob's nephew Grisha grew up. Yakov asked permission to marry the girl Arisha, but the master himself liked the girl, he sent Grigory to recruit. The serf was on fire. He drank for 2 weeks, the master felt what it was like for him without an assistant. Yakov returned and devotedly again began to look after the landowner. They went to visit their sister. The landowner settled down carelessly in the carriage, Yakov took him to the forest. The master was frightened when he saw that they had turned off the road to the ravine. Frightened, he decided that he was waiting for death. But the serf laughed evilly:
"Found the murderer!",
Jacob did not want
"... dirty your hands with murder ...".
He made a rope and hanged himself in front of the master. He lay all night in a ravine, driving away birds and wolves. The hunter found him the next morning. The master understood what sin he had committed against the faithful serf.
A story about two great sinners. Ionushka began to tell the story of Father Pitirim from Solovki. Twelve robbers with ataman Kudeyar rampaged in Russia. Suddenly, the robber Kudeyar woke up conscience. He began to argue with her, trying to gain the upper hand. He cut off the beauty's head, killed the captain. But conscience won. Disbanded the ataman gang, went to pray. For a long time he sat under the oak, asking God. The Lord heard the sinner. He suggested that he cut down a centuries-old tree with a knife. The chieftain set to work, but the oak did not give in to him. Pan Glukhovsky came to him. He began to boast that he kills easily and sleeps peacefully, without remorse. Kudeyar could not stand it, plunged a knife into the heart of the pan. The oak collapsed at the same moment. One sinner was forgiven by God for sins, freeing the world from another villain.
Peasant sin. The widower-ammiral received 8,000 souls from the empress for his service. Ammiral leaves a will to the headman. Freemen are hidden in the casket. After the death of the emmiral, a relative finds out from Gleb, where the free will is kept and burns the will. A peasant's sin is a betrayal among one's own. He is not forgiven even by God.
Song Hungry. The peasants sing it in chorus, like a beaten march, the words are approaching in a cloud and dragging the soul. A song about hunger, a man's constant desire for food. He is ready to eat everything alone, dreams of a cheesecake with big table. The song is not sung with a voice, but with a hungry gut.
Grisha Dobrosklonov joins the wanderers. He tells the peasants that the main thing for him is to achieve a good life for the peasants. They sing a song about the share of people's and working life. The people ask God for few things - light and freedom.
Epilogue. Grisha Dobrosklonov
Gregory lived in the family of a poor, seedy peasant. He was the son of a deacon, who boasted of his children, but did not think about their food. Grigory remembered the song that his mother sang to him. Song "Salty". The essence of the song is that the mother managed to salt her son's piece of bread with her tears. The guy grew up with love for his mother in his heart. Already at the age of 15, he knows for whom he will give his life. There are two roads in front of a person:- Spacious, where people inhumanly fight among themselves for the sake of passions and sin.
- Close, where honest people suffer and fight for the oppressed.
Content:
Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" tells about the journey of seven peasants across Russia in search of a happy person. The work was written in the late 60's - mid 70's. 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 “To whom it is good to live in Russia” is written in blank verse and stylized as Russian folk tales.
main characters
Roman, Demyan, Luka, Gubin Brothers Ivan and Mitrodor, Pakhom, Prov - seven peasants who went to look for a happy man.
Other characters
Ermil Girin is the first "candidate" for the title of lucky man, an honest steward, very respected by the peasants.
Matrena Korchagina is a peasant woman who is known in her village as a “lucky woman”.
Savely is the grandfather of her husband Matryona Korchagina. Centennial old man.
Prince Utyatin is an old landowner, a tyrant, to whom his family, in agreement with the peasants, does not speak about the abolition of serfdom.
Vlas is a peasant, steward of a village that once belonged to Utyatin.
Grisha Dobrosklonov - a seminarian, the son of a deacon, who dreams of the liberation of the Russian people; the revolutionary democrat N. Dobrolyubov was the prototype.
Part 1
Prologue
Seven men converge on the "pillar path": Roman, Demyan, Luka, the Gubin brothers, the old man Pakhom and Prov. The county from which they come is called by the author Terpigorev, and the “adjacent villages” from which the peasants come are referred to as Zaplatovo, Dyryaevo, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo and Neurozhayko, thus, the poem uses the artistic device of “talking” names .
The men got together and argued:
Who has fun
Feel free in Russia?
Each of them insists on his own. One shouts that the landowner lives most freely, the other that the official, the third - the priest, "fat-bellied merchant", "noble boyar, minister of the sovereign", or the tsar.
From the outside, it seems that the men found a treasure on the road and are now dividing it among themselves. The peasants have already forgotten what business they left the house on, and they go no one knows where until night falls. Only here the peasants stop and, "blaming the trouble on the goblin", sit down to rest and continue the argument. Soon it comes to a fight.
Roman hits Pakhomushka,
Demyan hits Luka.
The fight alarmed the whole forest, the echo woke up, the animals and birds got worried, the cow mooed, the cuckoo forged, the jackdaws squeaked, the fox, eavesdropping on the peasants, decides to run away.
And here at the foam
With fright, a tiny chick
Fell from the nest.
When the fight is over, the men pay attention to this chick and catch it. It is easier for a bird than for a peasant, Pahom says. If he had wings, he would fly all over Russia to find out who lives best on it. “We don’t even need wings,” the rest add, they would only have bread and “a bucket of vodka,” as well as cucumbers, kvass and tea. Then they would have measured the whole "Mother Russia with their feet."
While the men are interpreting in this way, a chiffchaff flies up to them and asks to let her chick go free. For him, she will give a royal ransom: everything desired by the peasants.
The men agree, and the chiffchaff shows them a place in the forest where a box with a self-assembled tablecloth is buried. Then she enchants clothes on them so that they do not wear out, so that the bast shoes do not break, the footcloths do not decay, and the louse does not breed on the body, and flies away "with her dear chick." In parting, the warbler warns the peasants: they can ask for food from the self-collection tablecloth as much as they like, but you can’t ask for more than a bucket of vodka a day:
And one and two - it will be fulfilled
At your request,
And in the third be trouble!
The peasants rush to the forest, where they really find a self-assembled tablecloth. Overjoyed, they arrange a feast and give a vow: not to return home until they know for sure, "who lives happily, freely in Russia?"
Thus begins their journey.
Chapter 1. Pop
Far away stretches a wide path lined with birch trees. On it, the peasants mostly come across “small people” - peasants, artisans, beggars, soldiers. Travelers don’t even ask them anything: what kind of happiness is there? Toward evening, the men meet the priest. The men block his way and bow low. In response to the priest's silent question: what do they need?, Luka talks about the dispute and asks: "Is the priest's life sweet?"
The priest thinks for a long time, and then replies that, since it is a sin to grumble at God, he will simply describe his life to the peasants, and they themselves will realize whether it is good.
Happiness, according to the priest, consists in three things: "peace, wealth, honor." The priest knows no rest: his rank is obtained by hard work, and then no less difficult service begins, the crying of orphans, the cries of widows and the groans of the dying do little to promote peace of mind.
The situation with respect is no better: the priest serves as an object for witticisms of the common people, obscene tales, anecdotes and fables are composed about him, which do not spare not only himself, but also his wife and children.
The last thing remains, wealth, but even here everything has changed a long time ago. Yes, there were times when the nobles honored the priest, played magnificent weddings and came to their estates to die - that was the work of the priests, but now "the landowners have scattered in distant foreign land." So it turns out that the pop is content with rare copper nickels:
The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give, but there is nothing ...
Having finished his speech, the priest leaves, and the debaters attack Luka with reproaches. They unanimously accuse him of stupidity, that it was only in appearance that the priestly housing seemed free to him, but he could not figure it out deeper.
What did you take? stubborn head!
The men would probably have beaten Luka, but here, fortunately for him, at the bend in the road, the “priestly strict face” is once again shown ...
Chapter 2
The men continue on their way, and their road goes through empty villages. Finally, they meet the rider and ask him where the inhabitants have disappeared.
They went to the village of Kuzminskoe,
Today there is a fairground...
Then the wanderers decide to also go to the fair - what if the one “who lives happily” is hiding there?
Kuzminskoye is a rich, though dirty village. It has two churches, a school, 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 do not have time to pour for everyone:
Oh, Orthodox thirst,
How big are you!
There are a lot of drunk people around. A peasant scolds a broken ax, grandfather Vavila is sad next to him, who promised to bring shoes to his granddaughter, but drank all the money. The people feel sorry for him, but no one can help - they themselves have no money. Fortunately, there happens to be a "master", Pavlusha Veretennikov, and it is he who buys shoes for Vavila's granddaughter.
They sell at the fair and ofen, but the most base books, as well as portraits of “thicker” generals, are in demand. And no one knows if the time will come when a man:
Belinsky and Gogol
Will you carry it from the market?
By evening, everyone is so drunk that even the church with the bell tower seems to stagger, and the peasants leave the village.
Chapter 3
It's worth a quiet night. The men walk along the "hundred-voiced" road and hear snippets of other people's conversations. They talk about officials, about bribes: “And we are fifty kopecks to the clerk: We made a request,” women's songs are heard with a request to “fall in love.” One drunk guy buries his clothes in the ground, assuring everyone that he is "burying his mother." At the road post, the wanderers again meet Pavel Veretennikov. He talks with the peasants, writes down their songs and sayings. Having written down enough, Veretennikov blames the peasants for drinking a lot - "it's a shame to look!" They object to him: the peasant drinks mainly from grief, and it is a sin to condemn or envy him.
The objector's name is Yakim Goly. Pavlusha also writes his story in a book. Even in his youth, Yakim bought his son popular prints, and he himself loved to look at them no less than a child. When a fire broke out in the hut, he first of all rushed to tear pictures from the walls, and so all his savings, thirty-five rubles, burned down. For a fused lump, they now give him 11 rubles.
After listening to stories, the wanderers sit down to refresh themselves, then one of them, Roman, remains at the bucket of vodka for the guard, and the rest again mix with the crowd in search of a happy one.
Chapter 4
Wanderers walk in the crowd and call the happy one to come. If such a person appears and tells them about his happiness, then he will be treated to glory with vodka.
Sober people chuckle at such speeches, but a considerable queue is lined up from drunk people. The deacon comes first. His happiness, in his words, "is in complacency" and in the "kosushka", which the peasants will pour. The deacon is driven away, and an old woman appears, in which, on a small ridge, "up to a thousand raps were born." The next torturing happiness is a soldier with medals, "a little alive, but I want to drink." His happiness lies in the fact that no matter how they tortured him in the service, he nevertheless remained alive. They also come with a huge hammer, a peasant who overstrained himself in the service, but still, barely alive, drove home, a courtyard man with a "noble" disease - gout. The latter boasts that for forty years he stood at the table of the most illustrious prince, licking plates and drinking foreign wine from glasses. The men drive him away too, because they have a simple wine, “not according to your lips!”.
The line to the wanderers does not become smaller. The Belarusian peasant is happy that he eats his fill here rye bread, because at home they baked bread only with chaff, and this caused terrible pain in the stomach. A man with a folded cheekbone, a hunter, is happy that he survived in a fight with a bear, while the bears killed the rest of his comrades. Even the beggars come: they are happy that there is alms on which they are fed.
Finally, the bucket is empty, and the wanderers realize that this way they will not find happiness.
Hey, happiness man!
Leaky, with patches,
Humpbacked with calluses
Get off home!
Here one of the people who approached them advises “ask Yermila Girin”, because if he does not turn out to be happy, then there is nothing to look for. Yermila is a simple man who has earned the great love of the people. Wanderers are told the following story: once Ermila had a mill, but for debts...
decided to sell it. Bidding began, the merchant Altynnikov really wanted to buy the mill. Yermila was able to outbid him, but the trouble is that he did not have money with him to make a deposit. Then he asked for an hour's reprieve and ran to the market square to ask the people for money.
And a miracle happened: Yermil received money. Very soon, the thousand necessary for the ransom of the mill turned out to be with him. And a week later, on the square, there was an even more wonderful sight: Yermil "counted on the people", handed out all the money and honestly. There was only one extra ruble left, and Yermil asked until sunset whose it was.
Wanderers are perplexed: by what sorcery did Yermil receive such trust from the people. They are told that this is not witchcraft, but the truth. Girin served as a clerk in the office and never took a penny from anyone, but helped with advice. Soon the old prince died, and the new one ordered the peasants to choose a burgomaster. Yermila shouted unanimously, “six thousand souls, with the whole patrimony” - although he is young, he loves the truth!
Only once did Yermil "disguise" when he did not recruit his younger brother, Mitriy, replacing him with the son of Nenila Vlasyevna. But the conscience after this act tortured Yermila so much that he soon tried to hang himself. Mitrius was handed over to the recruits, and the son of Nenila was returned to her. Yermil, for a long time, did not walk on his own, “he resigned from his post,” but instead rented a mill and became “more than the former people love.”
But here the priest intervenes in the conversation: all this is true, but it is useless to go to Yermil Girin. He is sitting in prison. The priest begins to tell how it happened - the village of Stolbnyaki rebelled and the authorities decided to call Yermila - his people would listen.
The story is interrupted by cries: the thief has been caught and is being flogged. The thief turns out to be the same lackey with a "noble disease", and after the flogging, he flies away as if he had completely forgotten about his illness.
The priest, meanwhile, says goodbye, promising to finish telling the story at the next meeting.
Chapter 5
On their further journey, the peasants meet the landowner Gavrila Afanasyich Obolt-Obolduev. The landowner is at first frightened, suspecting robbers in them, but, having figured out what the matter is, he laughs and begins to tell his story. He leads his noble family from the Tatar Oboldui, who was skinned by a bear for the amusement of the empress. She granted cloth to the Tatar 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 more "attracted hearts with affection"! All the courtyards loved him, gave him gifts, and he was like a father to them. But everything changed: the peasants and the land were taken away from the landowner. The sound of an ax is heard from the forests, everyone is being ruined, instead of estates drinking houses are multiplying, because now no one needs a letter at all. And they shout to the landowners:
Wake up, sleepy landowner!
Get up! — learn! work hard!..
But how can a landowner work, accustomed to something completely different from childhood? They did not learn anything, and “thought to live like this for a century,” but it turned out differently.
The landowner began to sob, and the good-natured peasants almost wept with him, thinking:
The great chain is broken
Torn - jumped:
One end on the master,
Others for a man! ..
Part 2
Last
The next day, the peasants go to the banks of the Volga, to a huge hay meadow. As soon as they got into a conversation with the locals, music was heard and three boats moored to the shore. They have a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, little barchats, 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 a dry haystack to be spread: the hay is still damp. The absurd order is immediately executed.
Strangers marvel:
Grandpa!
What a wonderful old man.
It turns out that the old man - Prince Utyatin - having learned about the abolition of serfdom, "fooled", and came down with a stroke. His sons were told that they had betrayed the landlord's ideals, that they could not defend them, and if so, they were left without an inheritance. The sons were frightened and persuaded the peasants to fool the landowner a little, so that after his death they would give the village poem meadows. The old man was told that the tsar ordered the serfs to be returned back 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: “You have fun!
And I am the Utyatin princes
Slave - and the whole story here!
But Agap Petrov cannot come to terms with the fact that even in the wild someone will push him around. Once he told the master everything directly, and he had a stroke. When he woke up, he ordered Agap to be whipped, and the peasants, in order not to reveal the deceit, led him to the stable, where they put a bottle of wine in front of him: drink and shout louder! Agap died the same night: it was hard for him to bow down...
Wanderers are present at the feast of the Last, where he speaks about the benefits of serfdom, and then lies down in the boat and falls asleep in it with songs. The village of Vahlaki sighs with sincere relief, but no one gives them the meadows - the trial continues to this day.
Part 3
peasant woman
"Not everything between men
Find a happy
Let's feel the women! ”-
With these words strange
Iki go to Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna, the governor, beautiful woman 38 years old, who, however, already calls herself an old woman. She talks about her life. Then she was only happy, how she grew up in her parents' house. But girlhood quickly rushed by, and now Matryona is already being wooed. Philip becomes her betrothed, handsome, ruddy and strong. He loves his wife, but soon goes to work, and leaves her with his large, but alien to Matryona, family.
Matryona works for her elder sister-in-law, and for a strict mother-in-law, and for 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 “Holy Russian hero”, who lives out his life after twenty years of hard labor, regrets Matryona. He went to hard labor for the murder of a German manager who did not give the peasants 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 does not work much with him. The grandfather looks after the child, but one day he falls asleep, and the pigs eat the child. After some time, Matrena meets Savely at the grave of Demushka, who has gone to repentance in the Sand Monastery. She forgives him and takes him home, where the old man soon dies.
Matryona also 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 Matrena took the punishment upon herself. When she was pregnant with Liodorushka, she had to go to the city to ask for the return of her husband, who had been taken into the soldiers. Right in the waiting room, Matryona gave birth, and the governor, Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying, helped her. Since then, Matryona has been "denounced as a lucky woman, nicknamed the governor's wife." But what kind of happiness is there?
This is what Matryonushka tells 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
A feast for the whole world
There is a feast in the village of Vakhlachina. Everyone gathered here: both wanderers, and Klim Yakovlich, and Vlas the headman. Among the feasters are two seminarians, Savvushka and Grisha, good simple guys. They, at the request of the people, sing a “jolly” song, then the turn comes for different stories. There is a story about “an exemplary slave - Jacob the faithful”, who all his life went after the master, fulfilled all his whims and even rejoiced at the master's beatings. Only when the master gave his nephew to the soldiers, Yakov took to drink, but soon returned to the master. And yet, Yakov did not forgive him, and was able to take revenge on Polivanov: he brought him, with his legs off, into the forest, and there he hung himself on a pine tree above the master.
There is a dispute about who is the most sinful of all. God's wanderer Jonah tells the story of "two sinners", about the robber Kudeyar. The Lord awakened a conscience in him and imposed a penance on him: cut down a huge oak tree in the forest, then his sins will be forgiven him. 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 the story of the headman. He hid the last will of his master, who decided to release his peasants before his death. But the headman, tempted by money, tore free.
The crowd is subdued. Songs are sung: "Hungry", "Soldier's". But the time will come in Russia for good songs. Confirmation of this is two brothers-seminarians, Savva and Grisha. The seminarian Grisha, the son of a deacon, has known since the age of fifteen that he wants to devote his life to the happiness of the people. Love for his mother merges in his heart with love for the whole vakhlachin. Grisha walks along his edge and sings a song about Russia:
You are poor
You are abundant
You are powerful
You are powerless
Mother Russia!
And his plans will not be lost: fate prepares Grisha "a glorious path, a loud name of the people's intercessor, consumption and Siberia." In the meantime, Grisha sings, and it is a pity that the wanderers do not hear him, because then they would understand that they had 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 Russia, which, with torment, 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, the ruining Russian people, the problems of women, the ineradicable slave psychology and the main problem of people's happiness. Most of these problems, unfortunately, to one degree or another still remain relevant today, which is why the work is very popular, and a number of quotations from it have become part of everyday speech. The compositional device of the wanderings of the main characters brings the poem closer to an adventure novel, thanks to which it is read easily and with great interest.
A brief retelling of “To whom it is good to live in Russia” conveys only the most basic content of the poem; for a more accurate idea of the work, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with full version"To whom in Russia it is good to live."
