Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow . Radishchev A.

The narrative opens with a letter to a friend Alexei Mikhailovich Kutuzov, in which Radishchev explains his feelings that forced him to write this book. This is a kind of blessing for work.

Taking the road, our traveler goes to the commissioner for horses, but they don’t give horses, they say that they don’t, although there are up to twenty nags in the stable. Twenty kopecks had an effect "on the coachmen." They harnessed the troika behind the commissar's back, and the traveler went on. The driver pulls a mournful song, and the traveler reflects on the character of the Russian people. If a Russian wants to disperse anguish, then he goes to a tavern; what is not for him, climbs into a fight. The traveler asks God why he turned away from people?

Discourse on a disgusting road that cannot be crossed even in summer rains. In the station hut, the traveler meets an unsuccessful writer - a nobleman who wants to hand him his literary work "on the loss of privileges by the nobles." The traveler gives him copper pennies, and offers to give the “labor” to the peddlers by weight, so that they use paper for “wrapping”, since it is not suitable for anything else.

The traveler sees a peasant plowing on a holiday and wonders if he is a schismatic? The peasant is Orthodox, but he is forced to work on Sunday, because. six days a week he goes to corvée. The peasant says that he has three sons and three daughters, the eldest is only ten years old. So that the family does not starve, he has to work at night. He works diligently for himself, but somehow for the master. In the family, he is one worker, and the master has many of them. The peasant envies the quitrent and state peasants, it is easier for them to live, then he harnesses the horses so that they can rest, while he himself works without rest. The traveler mentally curses all the exploiting landowners and himself for offending his Petrushka when he was drunk.

The traveler meets with a university friend, Chelishchev, who recounted his adventure in the raging Baltic, where he almost died because the official refused to send help, saying: "That's not my position." Now Chelishchev is leaving the city - "a host of lions", so as not to see these villains.

Spasskaya field

The traveler got caught in the rain and asked to dry off in the hut. There he hears her husband's story about an official who loves "usters" (oysters). For the fulfillment of his whim - the delivery of oysters - he gives ranks, rewards from the state treasury. The rain is over. The traveler continued on his way with a companion who asked for it. The fellow traveler tells his story, how he was a merchant, trusting dishonest people, got on trial, his wife died in childbirth, which began due to experiences a month earlier. A friend helped this unfortunate man to escape. The traveler wants to help the fugitive, in a dream he imagines himself to be an all-powerful ruler, whom everyone admires. This dream shows him the wanderer Direct View, she removes the thorns from his eyes that prevent him from seeing the truth. The author states that the tsar was known among the people as "a deceiver, a hypocrite, a pernicious comedian." Radishchev shows the discrepancy between the words and deeds of Catherine; the ostentatious splendor, magnificent, decorative facade of the empire hides behind it terrible pictures of oppression. Pryamozora addresses the king with words of contempt and anger: “Know that you are ... the first robber, the first traitor to the general silence, the most fierce enemy, directing his anger at the inside of the weak.” Radishchev shows that there are no good kings, they pour out their favors only on the unworthy.

Podberezie

The traveler meets a young man who is going to St. Petersburg to study with his uncle. Here are the arguments of the young man about the lack of an education system that is detrimental to the country. He hopes that the descendants will be happier in this regard, because. will be able to learn.

Novgorod

The traveler admires the city, remembering its heroic past and how Ivan the Terrible set out to destroy the Novgorod Republic. The author is indignant: what right did the tsar have to “appropriate Novgorod”?

The traveler then goes to a friend, Karp Dementich, who married his son. Everyone sits at the table together (master, young people, guest). The traveler draws portraits of the hosts. And the merchant talks about his business. As "was launched into the world", now the son trades.

Bronnitsy

The traveler goes to the sacred hill and hears the formidable voice of the Almighty: “Why did you want to know the secret?” “What are you looking for, foolish child?” Where once there was a “great city”, the traveler sees only poor shacks.

The traveler meets his friend Krestyankin, who once served, and then retired. Krestyankin, a very conscientious and warm-hearted person, was the chairman of the criminal chamber, but left the post, seeing the futility of his efforts. Krestyankin tells about a certain nobleman who began his career as a court stoker, tells about the atrocities of this unscrupulous man. The peasants could not stand the bullying of the landlord family and killed everyone. Krestyankin acquitted the "guilty" who had been driven to death by the landowner. No matter how hard Krestyankin fought for a fair solution to this case, nothing came of it. They were executed. And he retired, so as not to be an accomplice in this villainy. The traveler receives a letter that tells of a strange wedding between “a 78-year-old young man and a 62-year-old young woman,” a certain widow engaged in pandering, and in her old age who decided to marry a baron. He marries money, and in her old age she wants to be called "Your Nobility." The author says that without the Buryndins, the light would not have stood for even three days, he is outraged by the absurdity of what is happening.

Seeing the parting of the father with his sons going to work, the traveler recalls that out of a hundred serving noblemen, ninety-eight "become rakes." He grieves that he will soon have to part with his eldest son. The author's reasoning leads him to the conclusion: “Tell the truth, father of children, tell me, true citizen! Wouldn't you like to strangle your son, rather than let him go to the service? Because in the service, everyone cares about their pocket, and not about the good of the motherland. The landowner, calling on the traveler to witness how hard it is for him to part with his sons, tells them that they do not owe him anything, but must work for the good of the fatherland, for this he raised and unlived them, taught them the sciences and forced them to think. He admonishes his sons not to stray from the true path, not to lose their pure and high souls.

Yazhelbitsy

Passing by the cemetery, the traveler sees a heartbreaking scene when the father, throwing himself on the coffin of his son, does not allow him to be buried, crying that they do not bury him with his son in order to end his torment. For he is guilty that the son was born weak and sick, and how much he lived, he suffered so much. The traveler mentally reasons that he, too, probably passed on to his sons diseases with the vices of youth.

This ancient town is known for the amorous disposition of unmarried women. The traveler says that everyone knows "Valdai bagels and shameless girls." Then he tells the legend of a sinful monk who drowned in a storm in the lake, swimming to his beloved.

The traveler sees many well-dressed women and girls. He admires their healthy appearance, reproaching the noblewomen that they disfigure their figures, dragging themselves into corsets, and then die from childbirth, because for years they have spoiled their bodies for the sake of fashion. The traveler is talking to Annushka, who at first behaves sternly, and then, talking, she told that her father had died, she lives with her mother and sister, and wants to get married. But for the groom they ask for a hundred rubles. Vanyukha wants to go to St. Petersburg to work. But the traveler says: "Do not let him go there, there he will learn to drink, wean himself from peasant labor." He wants to give money, but the family won't take it. He is amazed at their nobility.

Project in the future

Written on behalf of another traveler, even more progressive in his views than Radishchev. Our traveler finds papers left by his brother. Reading them, he finds arguments similar to his thoughts about the perniciousness of slavery, the malevolent nature of the landlords, and the lack of enlightenment.

Vyshny Volochok

The traveler admires the locks and man-made canals. He talks about a landowner who treated the peasants like slaves. They worked all day for him, and he gave them only meager food. The peasants did not have their own allotments and cattle. And this “barbarian” flourished. The author calls on the peasants to ruin the estate and tools of this nonhuman, who treats them like oxen.

Vydropusk (again written according to someone else's notes)

Project of the future

The author says that the kings imagined themselves to be gods, surrounded themselves with a hundred servants and imagined that they were useful to the fatherland. But the author is sure that this order should be changed. The future is in education. Only then will there be justice when people become equal.

The traveler meets a man who wants to open a free printing press. What follows is a discussion of the perniciousness of censorship. “What harm will it be if books are printed without the stigma of a policeman?” The author argues that the benefits of this are obvious: "The rulers are not free to excommunicate the people from the truth." The author in "A Brief Narrative of the Origin of Censorship" says that censorship and the Inquisition have the same roots. And tells the story of printing and censorship in the West. And in Russia… in Russia, what happened with censorship, he promises to tell “another time”.

The traveler sees a round dance of young women and girls. And then there is a description of the shameful public sale of peasants. The 75-year-old man is waiting to whom they will give him. His 80-year-old wife was the breadwinner of the mother of a young master who ruthlessly sells his peasants. There is also a 40-year-old woman, the breadwinner of the master himself, and the entire peasant family, including the baby, going under the hammer. It is dreadful for the traveler to see this barbarism.

The traveler listens to the arguments of the tavern interlocutor “after dinner” about the poetry of Lomonosov, Sumarokov and Trediakovsky. The interlocutor reads excerpts from the ode “Liberty” by Radishchev, allegedly written by him, which he is taking to St. Petersburg to be published. The traveler liked the poem, but he did not have time to tell the author about it, because he hastily left.

Here the traveler sees recruiting, hears the cries and cries of the peasants, learns about the many violations and injustices that are happening at the same time. The traveler listens to the story of the courtyard Vanka, who was brought up and taught together with a young master, called Vanyusha, sent abroad not as a slave, but as a comrade. But the old gentleman favored him, and the young one hated and envied his successes. The old man is dead. The young owner got married, and his wife hated Ivan, humiliated him in every possible way, and then decided to marry him to a dishonored yard girl. Ivan called the landowner "an inhuman woman", then he was sent to the soldiers. Ivan is glad of such a fate. Then the traveler saw three peasants, whom the landowner sold as recruits, because. he needed a new carriage. The author is amazed by the lawlessness that is happening around.

Many works were dedicated to the Russian peasantry. Some authors glorified the village, others tried to find the truth beyond the windows of the brilliant palaces of St. Petersburg. The most truthful work of the late 18th century is Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The narrative is saturated with the severity of the position of the serfs.

In contact with

Who wrote the work

Radishchev A.N. was born on August 20, 1749 in Upper Ablyazovo, Saratov province. Childhood years passed under the supervision of his father. He owned an estate on the territory of the Kaluga province.

Education

Primary education was conducted according to the Book of Hours and the Psalter, but the father, who was fluent in a couple of foreign languages, could pass on part of the knowledge to his son.

In 1756, the future writer was entrusted to his maternal uncle, who was the brother of the first rector of Moscow University. Proximity to academia gave the opportunity to study with prominent teachers of the gymnasium.

Six years later, Radishchev receives the title of page at, the next place of study is the Page Corps. Here they were not taught to reveal the secrets of nature, on the contrary, to slavishly serve the imperial person.

Since 1766 - a student at the University of Leipzig (Germany), studied law. Europe introduced the young man to freethinking.

Service

Returning to, Alexander Nikolayevich held the positions of titular adviser, chief auditor under General Bruce, an employee of the College of Commerce. An employee of the St. Petersburg customs, 10 years later (1790) he became its head. The first echoes of the future work were born there, and the main characters had to show the plight of the peasant population.

Literary, publishing field

Radishchev worked on translations of foreign classics, published anonymously in the journal "The Painter". The flourishing of the ideas of freedom and independence (the American and French revolutions) created favorable conditions for the composition of Radishchev's entire life - "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" (May 1790). The author wrote about the cruelty of serfdom, shed light on the sad pages of the social life of the then empire.

Further fate

For anti-government activities and "an attempt on the sovereign's health," Radishchev was to be executed by hanging. If it had been fulfilled, no one would have known who wrote "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow." The final verdict was 10 year link.

He was a member of the legislative commission, but poor health interrupted the life of a great statesman in his fifty-third year of life (September 12, 1802). According to one version, he did not recover after burning his eldest son's epaulette, others point to natural death, as reported by written sources.

Interesting! After reading the essay, Empress Catherine II was so indignant at the impudence of Alexander Nikolayevich that she said the following words: “A rebel is worse! The one, even though he pretended to be a tsar, professed a monarchical system, but this one thought up a revolution in Russia to establish a republic. This suggests that the genre of the work did not please the ruling person.

Genre and composition structure

Alexander Nikolayevich was inspired by the journey of the Russian Empress through Novorossia, Crimea. Specially prepared villages were supposed to show the high standard of living of the peasantry. The writer also planned to make his own trip in order to study the true state of affairs. The nature of the presentation has become a screen for the censor who considered the essay a guide.

The genre of the work is a sentimental journey, one of the most popular literary trends of the late 18th century. The structure of the essay consists of incoherent fragments of the narrative. The main characters are both ordinary serfs and landowners, service people.

The titles of the chapters correspond to the settlements that came across on the way of an anonymous traveler.

The creator managed to draw a plausible picture of the destructive impact of serfdom on provincial life. Some lines strongly condemn autocracy, willfulness of the landlord class.

So, the anonymous narrator is faced with bad roads (Krestsy), widespread bribes, narrow-minded people. Some serfs have to work on Sundays to support themselves. Others are sold after the ruin of their landowner, the finale is a wedding procession filled with grief. Young people marry at the behest of the owner, and not at the behest of the heart.

The epigraph of "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" are lines from Trediakovsky's poem. The words "The monster is oblo, mischievous, huge, staring and barking" describes the "rotting" of the upper class of that time.

The main character of the essay

Radishchev gives an example of the first intelligent nobleman of an average hand, capable of soberly assess the situation, observe and draw conclusions. It is very important for the author, because the chapter "Spasskaya Polist" shows the opposite side of the then nobility.

From fragmentary phrases it is easy to understand that the main character is an anonymous traveler who regrets his imminent departure from St. Petersburg. Obviously, he is a widower, but has adult children, being a middle-class nobleman. Youth taught him to be absurd with others, he is a favorite of public women. The heroes of the work with all diligence try to express the thoughts, ideas and aspirations of the author.

Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Illustration for the plot

Condensed narrative piece by piece

As mentioned above, the titles of the chapters of "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" are towns and villages located on the path of a nobleman. So let's get to the summary:

1. Introduction - a middle-aged intellectual leaves the walls of the capital in a wagon.
2. Sophia - in need of fresh horses, the nobleman asks the commissar for help, he is too lazy to work at night. He says that there are no horses, but the coachmen, for a piece-rate, harness the “found” quadrupeds for the traveler. Miracle is just around the corner.
3. Tosna - angry with the quality of the roads, the traveler meets with the research official. He wrote a work that makes it possible to prove the antiquity of the family to any nobleman. The thought sounds Boasting an ancient breed" is evil.
4. Lyubani - the pedestrian crossing ends with a meeting with the "sinful" serf, he plows the field on Sunday afternoon. To a dumb question, the peasant replies that he has to work for the landowner for six days, but somehow he needs to feed himself. The narrator is ashamed of belonging to his class.
5. Wonderful - here the hero meets a friend. He talks about a terrible walk on the sea. Underwater rocks hooked on the ship's hull, then slowly goes to the bottom. The helmsman Pavel volunteered to swim to the shore for help. They refused to listen to him, as the chief deigned to sleep. The sailor nevertheless found indifferent people, and Mr. Ch was saved. Having expressed claims to the chief, he heard that he was not obliged by rank to save drowning people.
6. Spasskaya Polist - the chapter tells about willfulness of a high-ranking official. He loves oysters, so he sends subordinates for seafood, granting them promotions. The clatter of hooves sways the author; in a dream, he sees himself as a ruler who is satisfied with the state of affairs of sovereign affairs. However, the healer Truth removes the "bandage" from his eyes, the arbitrariness of the landlords and the unfortunate people become a reality.
7. Podberezie - here the hero meets a seminarian who is eager to study in St. Petersburg. He complains about the quality of education. The dropped notes of the young man tell about Martinism, the author speaks negatively about mystic Masons.
8. Novgorod - a nobleman reflects on the greatness of the beginnings of a democratic society. Did he have the right to destroy the republican stronghold in Russia?
9. From the chronicle of Novgorod - the writer visits the house of a merchant-swindler who does not send paid goods. Main laws don't work, trading require amendments.
10. Bronnitsy - on the site of an ancient temple, Radishchev says that a person is a creation of God, but everyone creates his own destiny.
11. Zaitsovo is a story about a cruel gentleman who was beaten to death by starving, exhausted peasants. The chairman of the criminal chamber, Krestyankin, did not find any corpus delicti, but the superiors demand that those responsible be punished.
12. The sacrum is one of the most touching scenes for Radishchev. In the sacrum we see how grown-up sons say goodbye to their father, for whom difficult days of loneliness come.
13. Yazhelbitsy - in the cemetery, the writer sees his father at the funeral of his own son. The old man blames himself in tears, as the child was born sick. An intellectual recalls his "venereal disease", reflects on methods fight against corruption.
14. Edrovo - to the accompaniment of the wedding of the peasant woman Anna and Vanyusha, the traveler speaks out about unequal marriages, defends the human right to personal happiness.
15. Khotilov - the traveler finds papers where his friend shows a negative attitude towards autocracy and serfdom, as the epigraph tells us.
16. Vyshhy Volochok - against the backdrop of eared fields and an abundance of goods, the narrator recalls the atrocities of the landlords against the peasants. Radishchev does not understand how society can praise such egoists.
17. Vydropusk - the project of new ranks at the court, lost by his friend, becomes the subject of study. The main message of the story is that the ruler is characterized not luxury and a crowd of courtiers, but his actions.
18. Torzhok - an unknown citizen is trying to achieve the abolition of censorship in his native land. He believes that society is the best censor for any book.
19. Copper - shows the sale of peasants after the ruin of their landowner. Some families are divided between different owners, the law is on their side.
20. Tver - as in Chudovo, here the "newfangled poet" complains about the literary wretchedness of his contemporaries. He is concerned about the development of poetry.
21. Gorodnya - we see the farewell of the peasants to the army. Some were forced by need, others were given away by their owners, and still others are looking for glory.
22. Zavidovo - against the background of the impudence of the assistant of "His Excellency", the hero regrets the habit of the people to humiliate themselves in front of "high ranks". Rural people - a bargaining chip (Copper).
23. Klin - a blind old man sings at the station, he refuses to accept a ruble from a nobleman. The old man asks for something warm, the handkerchief he received was with him until his death.
24. Pawns - dining in the hut of the peasants, the traveler sees the gravity of the situation of the serfs. The basic idea - the people cannot afford the goods they produce themselves.
25. Black mud - a wedding on the orders of the landowner. Young people hate each other, but they know who is at the origin of their marriage. The traveler speaks about the crime of forced marriage.
26. The word about Lomonosov is a farewell chord to the chapters, Radishchev reflects on the significance of the Russian scientist in literature and literature.

The monster is oblo, mischievous, huge, staring and barking.
"Tilemachida", volume II, book. XVIII, verse 514*.

The book is preceded by the words: “I looked around me - my soul became wounded by the sufferings of mankind. He turned my eyes to my insides - and saw that the calamities of a person come from a person, and often only from the fact that he looks indirectly at the objects surrounding him.

Departure – Sofia – Lyubani

After dinner with friends, the narrator sets off on a journey, settling in a wagon.

At the inn with the beautiful name Sophia, he presents a traveler (a document giving the right to receive postal horses), but the sleeping commissar lies that there are no horses. The traveler goes to the stable and sees that there are about twenty horses there, a pair of which could drag him to his next destination. In anger, the traveler was even going to beat the couch potato - "he intended to commit a crime on the back of the commissar." However, he pulled himself together, gave the coachmen a small bribe - and now he is on his way again.

“... My cabman sang a song, as usual, a mournful one. Whoever knows the voices of Russian folk songs admits that there is something in them, a sorrow of the soul that signifies. In them you will find the education of the soul of our people. Look at the Russian man; you will find it thoughtfully. If he wants to disperse boredom, have fun, then he goes to a tavern. In his joy he is impulsive, courageous, grumpy. If something happens not according to him, then soon a dispute or battle begins. A barge hauler going to a tavern hanging his head and returning covered with blood from slaps in the face, a lot can be solved hitherto ordained in Russian history.

At the Lyuban station, the traveler sees a peasant who works on arable land, despite the fact that it is Sunday.

“Don’t you have time to work all week, that you don’t let down even on Sunday, and even in the heat of the day?”

- In a week, sir, six days, and we go to corvée six times a week; yes, in the evening we carry the hay left in the forest to the master's yard, if the weather is good; and women and girls for a walk go on holidays to the forest for mushrooms and berries.

The peasant told the inquisitive gentleman that he worked for himself not only on holidays, but also at night. Gives horses a break: one plows, the other rests. But he does not allow himself to rest, he has three children, they want everything to eat.

The peasant works for the master without much effort: “Although stretch out at the master’s work, they won’t say thank you ... Nowadays, it’s still believed that villages are given away, as they say, for rent. And we call it to give head. The mercenary skins the men; does not even leave us a better time. In winter, he does not let him go to the cab, nor to work in the city; all work for him, so that he pays per capita (taxes, taxes) for us. The most diabolical invention of giving your peasants to someone else to work. At least you can complain about a bad clerk, but who about a mercenary (tenant)?

The state peasants have at least some kind of protection, while the peasants belonging to the landlord have no rights. The law will then pay attention to them when they commit some criminal offense.

“Beware, hard-hearted landowner, I see your condemnation on the forehead of each of your peasants!” exclaims the justly angry author.

And immediately he feels pangs of conscience: after all, he, too, oppresses his serf servant Petrushka. He even allows himself to beat him.

“If I hit someone, he can hit me too. Remember that day when Petrushka was drunk and did not have time to dress you. Remember his slap. Oh, if he then, although drunk, would come to his senses and answer you in proportion to your question!

Who gave you power over him?

- Law".

Radishchev leads the reader to the idea that such a law is unjust.

Spasskaya field

In this chapter, Radishchev develops a metaphorical vision of unjust power. It seems to him that he is “king, khan, king, bey, nabob, sultan.” In a word, someone sitting on a throne.

Government officials, noble women, military leaders and pundits close to the throne, mature people and youth - all flatter the ruler and glorify him.

This obsequious outpouring of delight pleases the king. He rewards those who know how to flatter especially well.

But now his gaze stops at a woman who is the only one of all "who showed a look of contempt and indignation." It's a Stratgaze wanderer, an eye doctor, but not an ordinary one. Pryamvzora is a symbolic image of the Truth, which helps spiritual insight.

“There is a thorn in both eyes,” said the wanderer, “and you judged everything so resolutely.

The stern woman removed thick horny thorns from the eyes of the person sitting on the throne. And he could see the price of flattery. The price of those who praise in the face, and laugh behind the eyes, thinking only about their own benefit.

Pryamozora urged the ruler to expel the liars. She showed him the truth: “My clothes, so shiny, were stained with blood and soaked with tears. On my fingers I saw the remains of a human brain; my feet were in mud. Those around me were even more stingy. Their whole interior seemed black and burned by the dull fire of insatiability. They cast distorted glances at me and at each other, dominated by rapacity, envy, deceit and hatred. My commander, sent to conquer, was drowning in luxury and fun. There was no subordination in the troops; my warriors were revered worse than cattle.

Instead of being known as merciful among my people, I was known as a deceiver, a hypocrite and a pernicious comedian.

The gullible ruler thought that he was helping the poor, orphans and widows, but cunning and liars sought his mercy!

This vision chapter is a message to all who have power over people and are called to distribute wealth fairly.

Podberezye - Novgorod - Bronnitsy

In educational institutions - the dominance of dark and incomprehensible Latin. How nice it would be if modern subjects were taught in modern Russian!

Radishchev criticizes the educational plans of Catherine II, who only promised to open new universities (for example, in Pskov), but limited herself to only promises.

The author is also critical of the development of Christianity, which “in the beginning was humbly, meek, hiding in deserts and dens, then it intensified, raised its head, removed its path, indulged in superstition, raised up a leader, expanded his power, and the pope became the all-powerful of kings.”

Martin Luther (1483-1546) - the reformer of the church, the founder of the so-called Lutheranism, directed against the dogmas of Catholicism and the abuses of the Roman popes, began the transformation, papal power and superstition began to collapse.

But the path of mankind is such that people constantly vacillate from superstition to freethinking.

The task of the writer is to expose the extremes and enlighten at least one reader.

Approaching Novgorod, Radishchev recalls the massacre of Ivan IV with Novgorod in 1570. Novgorod was annexed to Moscow (1478) by the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III. “What right did he have to rage against them; what right did he have to assign Novgorod? Is it that the first great Russian princes lived in this city? Or that it was written by the king of all Russia? Or that the Novgorodians were a Slavic tribe? But what is the right when force is at work?

What is the right of the people?

Examples of all times show that the right without force was always in execution revered as an empty word.

Zaitsovo

In Zaitsovo, the narrator meets his old friend, who told him about the career of a certain local nobleman, who began his service as a stoker, and after begging for retirement, was awarded the rank of collegiate assessor and found a chance to buy a village in his native places, where he settled with his considerable family.

Having got out "from rags to riches", the assessor became the master of several hundred of his own kind. And it turned his head.

“He was greedy, saved money, cruel by nature, quick-tempered, vile, and therefore haughty over his weakest. From this you can judge how he treated the peasants. They were at the former landowner's dues, he put them on arable land; he took away all their land from them, bought all their cattle at a price he himself determined, forced them to work all week for himself, and so that they would not die of hunger, he fed them in the master's yard, and then once a day ... If someone seemed lazy to him, then whipped with rods, whips, batogs or cats (a multi-tailed whip).

It happened that his men robbed a passer-by in order to get food on the road, and then killed another. He did not give them to court for that, but hid them at home, announced to the government that they fled; saying that there would be no profit for him if the peasant was flogged with a whip and sent to work for a crime. If one of the peasants stole something from him, he whipped him as if for laziness or for an impudent or witty answer, but in addition he put on stocks, shackles, and a slingshot around his neck. His cohabitant had full power over the women.

Her sons and daughters were her helpers in carrying out her orders. The sons themselves flogged the peasants with whips or cats. The women and girls of the daughter were beaten on the cheeks or dragged by the hair. In their free time, the sons went around the village or in the field to play and mess with girls and women, and none of them escaped their violence. The daughters, having no suitors, vented their boredom on the spinners, of whom they mutilated many.

There was a peasant girl in the village, not bad-looking, who had been arranged for a young peasant from the same village. The assessor's middle son liked her, and did everything he could to win her over; but the peasant woman was faithful in her promise given to the groom ... On Sunday there should have been a wedding ... "

The nobleman lured the girl into a cage and subjected her to wild violence. The unfortunate woman resisted, but two more brothers helped the scoundrel to hold her back.

The groom found out about what had happened and broke the head of one of the villains with a stake. The father of wicked sons called to himself for punishment both the groom and his father.

"How dare you. - said the old assessor, - raise a hand against your master? And even if he slept the night with your bride on the eve of your wedding, then you should be grateful to him for this. You won't marry her; she will remain in my house, and you will be punished.”

“According to this decision, he ordered the groom to be whipped with cats mercilessly, giving him to the will of his sons. He endured the beatings courageously; He watched in an untimid spirit as they began to torture his father in the same way. But he could not endure, as he saw that the master's children wanted to lead the bride into the house. The punishment took place in the yard. In an instant, he grabbed her from the hands of her kidnappers ... "

The peasants stood up for the offended bride and groom and beat the assessor himself and his three sons to death.

A friend of Radishchev was to judge the peasants and doom them to eternal hard labor. Mercy and justice told him that only years of cruel treatment had compelled the peasants to such a desperate act of protest.

“A person will be born into the world equal in everything to another. We all have the same, we all have reason and will ... "

And again, Radishchev, already through the mouth of his friend, asks the question: is there a law that is fair for all people, and not only for the rich and noble?

Is it possible to intercede for serfs?

Krestsy — Yazhelbitsy

In the village of Krestsy, the narrator witnesses how a noble father sends his sons to military service.

“Tell the truth, loving father, tell me, O true citizen! Wouldn't you like to strangle your son rather than let him go to the service?

The army service appears to the author as a hotbed of servility, stupid careerism and cruelty. Radishchev, through the mouth of a rather enlightened father of two adult sons, talks about education. He expresses the bold idea that children are not obliged to their parents for either birth or, as he puts it, "nurture."

“When I treat a stranger, when I feed feathered chicks, when I give food to a dog that licks my right hand, do I do this for their sake? Joy, amusement or benefit in that I find my own. It is with the same motive that children are brought up. Born into the world, you have become citizens of the society in which you live. It was my duty to bring you up; for if he had allowed an untimely death to come to you, there would have been a murderer. If I was more diligent (more diligent) in your upbringing than many are, then I followed the feeling of my heart.

Father and mother did a lot for the education and upbringing of children. However, the noble nobleman does not see his merit in this either: “Praising you, they praise me. O my friends, sons of my heart!

I have had many positions in relation to you, but you do not owe me anything; I seek your friendship and your love."

The father tried not to force the children too much, to give them freedom. However, he did not indulge them, he tried not to pamper them. Often the children went barefoot and lightly dressed, ate modestly: “Our labors were the best seasoning in our dinner. Remember with what pleasure we dined in a village unknown to us, not having found the way to the house. How delicious rye bread and rustic kvass seemed to us then!

Sons going to work do not know social tricks, they do not know how to dance and compliment the ladies. However, their father instilled in them a love for art (music and painting), taught them how to run, swim, shoot, ride a horse, fencing, as well as simple peasant labor (and plow, and milk a cow, and cook soup and porridge).

“While teaching you information about the sciences, I did not leave you to acquaint you with various peoples, having studied you in foreign languages. But first of all, my concern was that you know your own, that you know how to explain your thoughts verbally and in writing on it, so that this explanation is at ease in you and does not produce sweat on your face. English, and then Latin, I tried to make others better known to you.

In his father's speech, Radishchev outlines his own views on the principles of upbringing: they are in neatness, moderation, restraint, naturalness, closeness to nature, mercy.

The young are warned against servility to the strong, against self-interest and arrogance, and against brutality towards people dependent on them.

The judge of a person on the righteous path should be his own conscience.

In the chapter "Yazhelbitsy" Radishchev addresses a difficult but necessary topic. Carnal pleasures with promiscuous women lead many people to sexually transmitted diseases.

Radishchev warns the younger generation against intemperance.

Edrovo

In this chapter, the writer compares secular beauties with village girls. How much healthier, more natural, rosier and more beautiful are those who grew up in nature, without court tricks!

“... I love rural women or peasant women because they do not yet know pretense, do not impose on themselves the masks of feigned love, and when they love, they love with all their hearts and sincerely ...”

The narrator especially liked one girl of about twenty, Anyuta, who told him:

“I don’t have a father, he has been dead for about two years now, I have a mother and a little sister. Father left us five horses and three cows. There are plenty of small livestock and birds; but there is no worker in the house. I was married to a rich house for a ten-year-old guy; but I didn't want to. What do I need in such a child; I will not love him. And when he comes at the right time, then I will grow old, and he will hang around with strangers. Yes, they say that the father-in-law himself sleeps with young daughters-in-law while the sons grow up. I did not want to go to his family for that. I want my equal. I will love my husband, and he will love me too, I have no doubt about that. I don’t like to walk with the good fellows, but I want to get married, sir. Do you know what for?

Last summer, a year ago, our neighbor's son got married to my friend, with whom I always went to get-togethers. Her husband loves her, and she loves him so much that in the tenth month, after the wedding, she bore him a son.

Every evening she goes out to nurse him outside the gate. She doesn't look at him. It seems as if the boy already loves his mother. As she tells him: aha, aha, he will laugh. I'm in tears every day; I wish I had a guy like that...

The touched traveler found out that Anyuta has a loved one, whom she, however, cannot marry, since a hundred rubles is needed for a dowry - a huge amount for peasants.

The traveler offered the necessary money to Anyuta's mother, but she refused.

“I compared this venerable mother with her sleeves rolled up behind a sourdough or with a pail beside a cow with city mothers. The peasant woman did not want to take from me an immaculate, well-meaning hundred rubles, which, in proportion to the fortunes, should be five, ten, fifteen thousand or more for a colonel, adviser, major, general's wife.

Again, the comparison is not in favor of urban noblewomen.

It turns out that the wedding will still take place. Ivan, Anyuta's fiancé, relies on his own hands - he will earn everything that is missing.

In the afterword, Radishchev is indignant at the habit of marrying primarily for property considerations: “If the husband is ten years old and the wife is twenty-five, as often happens in the peasantry; or if the husband is fifty, and the wife is fifteen or twenty years old, as happens in the nobility, can there be mutual pleasure of the senses?

Khotilov - Vydropusk

The chapters are written from the perspective of a traveler friend. They express revolutionary views on a state structure that enslaves the majority of its citizens for the prosperity of a minority in power by birthright.

The author addresses all conquering kings, using the example of Alexander the Great: “The fruit of your conquest will be—do not flatter yourself—murder and hatred. You will abide the tormentor in the memory of your descendants; you will be executed, knowing that your new servants abhor you and ask for your death.

About the serfs, the author says: “The field is alien to them, the fruit of it (her) does not belong to them. And for this they work it lazily; and they do not worry about whether in the midst of labor (...) The field of slavery, yielding incomplete fruit, mortifies the citizens. There is nothing more harmful than the constant view of the objects of slavery. On the one hand, arrogance will be born, and on the other, timidity. There can be no connection here, except violence.

Radishchev directly calls for the release of the peasants from the shackles of slavery and the restoration of the natural equality of all.

Proposals of an unknown friend of Radishchev regarding the reforms of the civil system:

Separation of rural slavery and domestic slavery. “This last thing is destroyed first of all, and it is forbidden for the villagers and everyone, according to the villages in the revision written, to take home. If the landlord takes the farmer into his house for services or work, then the farmer becomes free ”;

- to allow peasants to enter into marriage without requiring the consent of their master. Prohibit taking withdrawal money (groom's payment for the bride, if she is a serf of another landowner);

- to allow the peasant to acquire an immovable estate, that is, to buy land;

- to allow the unrestricted acquisition of liberties by paying the master for a holiday known sum;

- Prohibit arbitrary punishment without trial.

"Disappear the barbaric habit, destroy the power of the tigers!" the legislator tells us.

"This is followed by the complete abolition of slavery."

Torzhok

This chapter is about free printing and counteracting the harsh laws of censorship.

“Censorship is done by the nurse of reason, wit, imagination, everything great and elegant ...

The best way to encourage good is non-obstruction, permission, freedom in thoughts. Search is harmful in the realm of science: it thickens the air and closes the breath.

A book that goes through ten censorships before it reaches the light is not a book, but a work of the Holy Inquisition; often mutilated, flogged with a sword, a prisoner with a gag in his mouth, but a slave always ... In the realms of truth, in the realm of thought and spirit, no earthly authority can give decisions and should not ...

Words are not always the essence of deeds, reflections are not crimes ...

If a madman, in his dream, not only in his heart, but with a loud voice, says: “There is no God,” a loud and hasty echo is heard in the mouths of all madmen: “There is no God, there is no God.” But what of that? Echo - sound; hits the air, shakes it up and disappears. It rarely leaves a line on the mind, and even then a weak one; never in the heart. God will always be God, we feel even those who do not believe in him...

A schismatic will not throw himself into the fire from a printed book, but from a cunning example. To ban tomfoolery is the same as to encourage it. Give him free rein; everyone will see what is stupid and what is smart. What is forbidden is what you want.”

Radishchev in these chapters gives a historical and geographical insight into censorship in America, France, and Germany.

Copper

This chapter depicts the sale of serfs.

“There are always a lot of hunters for cheap things. The day and hour of the sale has come. Buyers are coming. In the hall where it is produced, convicts stand motionless for sale.

An old man of 75 years old, leaning on an elm club, is eager to guess who fate will give him into his hands, who will close his eyes. With his master's father, he was in the Crimean campaign, under Field Marshal Munnich; in the Frankfurt battle, he carried his wounded master on his shoulders. Return home, was the uncle of his young master. In infancy (of a young master) he saved him from drowning, rushing after him into the river, where this one fell, moving on a ferry, and with the danger of his life saved him. In his youth, he bought him out of prison, where he was imprisoned for debts when he was a non-commissioned officer in the guard.

An old woman of eighty years old, his wife, was the nurse of the mother of her young master; she was his nanny and had oversight of the house until the very hour that she was brought out to this marketplace.

During all the time of her service, she did not steal anything from her masters, did not self-serve in anything, never lied, and if sometimes she annoyed them, then only with her honesty.

A woman in her forties, a widow, nurse of her young master. And to this day she still feels a certain tenderness for him. Her blood flows in his veins.

She is his second mother, and he owes his belly more to her than to his natural mother. She conceived him in joy, and in his infancy did not worry about him ... "

A hard-hearted owner sells devoted serfs, who have repeatedly proved to him in practice their not slavish, but human love.

He sells because he squandered his estate. Sells because he does not see people in them. He sells because the structure of society has corrupted him and instilled a consumer attitude towards the human dignity of serfs.

Gorodnya

The recruiting kit strikes the impressionable soul of the traveler.

“In one crowd, an old woman of about fifty, holding a twenty-year-old guy by the head, yelled:

“My dear child, to whom are you leaving me?” To whom do you entrust the parental home? Our fields will be overgrown with grass, moss - our hut. I, your poor elderly mother, must wander the world. Who will warm my decrepitude from the cold, who will shelter it from the heat? Who will give me drink and food?

The recruit's bride also cried, because she would not have to become a wife and babysit common kids.

Before the military reform of 1870, the Russian army was replenished by recruiting from peasants who were obliged to supply one recruit from a hundred. You had to serve in the army for twenty-five years - the best years of your life.

State and economic (serfs who passed from the monasteries to the economic board) peasants instead of themselves exhibited serfs specially bought from the landowners. Landowner speculation with serfs during recruiting was repeatedly banned, but was not eradicated.

The narrator was surprised by the joy of another recruit. This man said that it is better to hope for happiness in the soldiery than to disappear with an unmerciful master as a serf.

The old master raised his uncle's son (a serf tutor) on a par with his own son. Moreover, the serf was more successful in the sciences than the young master.

The master and his young servant were sent abroad for five years. Upon their return, the landowner promised to give the serf youth freedom. However, without waiting for the return of his son, the good master died.

Recruit says:

“A week after our arrival in Moscow, my former master fell in love with a fair-faced girl, but who, with bodily beauty, combined the meanest soul and a cruel and stern heart. Brought up in the arrogance of her origin, she honored only appearance, nobility, and wealth as excellent. In two months she became the wife of my master and my mistress. Until that time, I did not feel a change in my condition, I lived in the house of my master as his companion. Although he did not order me anything, I sometimes warned him of his desires, feeling his power and my fate. As soon as the young mistress crossed the threshold of the house in which she was determined to be in charge, I felt the burden of my lot. The first evening after the wedding and the next day, on which I was introduced to her by her husband as his partner, she was busy with the usual cares of the new marriage; but in the evening, when, at a fairly crowded meeting, everyone came to the table and sat down at the first dinner at the newlyweds, and I, as my custom, sat down in my place at the lower end, the new mistress said quite loudly to her husband: if he wants her to sit at a table with guests, then the serfs would not plant him for it.

Thus began a series of humiliations. An educated and sensitive young man was punished physically (flogged with cats) and forced to suffer mentally. In the end, for impudence and disobedience, the guy was identified as a recruit. The soldier's share was preferable to him than the service of a hard-hearted mistress.

And there were many more recruit tears: someone wept for their old helpless parents, someone for their young wife, and someone for their native lands.

Pawns

In a peasant's hut, the narrator is having breakfast with his supplies. The mistress's son asks him for a piece of sugar - "boyar food".

The hostess addresses him reproachfully:

“Are you not drinking the tears of your peasants when they eat the same bread as we do?”

The dough consisted of three-quarters of chaff and one part of wholemeal flour. The traveler after these words, as if for the first time, looks at the inside of the hut.

“Four walls, half covered like the entire ceiling, with soot; the floor was cracked, at least an inch overgrown with mud; a stove without a chimney and smoke that fills the hut every morning in winter and summer.

In the windows, instead of glass, a bubble will be stretched.

From dishes - two or three pots. And that hut is happy if in one of them every day there are empty (without meat) cabbage soup!

In the hut there is a trough for feeding pigs or calves that sleep in the hut in winter. The air is stuffy, there is a burning candle in it - as if in a fog.

From clothes - a linen shirt, shoes with bast shoes for going out.

This is where the source of state excess, strength, and power is revered in justice; but the weakness, shortcomings and abuses of laws and their rough, so to speak, side are immediately visible. Here you can see the greed of the nobility, robbery, our torment and defenseless poverty.

Greedy beasts, insatiable leeches, what do we leave the peasant? What we cannot take away is air. Yes, one air. We often take from him not only the gift of the earth, bread and water, but also light itself. The law forbids taking his life. But not instantly. How many ways to take her away from him gradually! On the one hand, almost omnipotence; on the other hand, weakness is defenseless. For the landowner in relation to the peasant is the legislator, the judge, the executor of his decision and, at his will, the plaintiff, against whom the defendant does not dare to say anything, ”radishchev goes from describing the hut to a direct accusation of the power of the nobles over the serfs.

The story ends with a chapter where the work and genius of Lomonosov, the son of a simple fisherman who became a great scientist, is exalted.

Having gone to Moscow after dinner with friends, the hero woke up only at the next postal station - Sofia. With difficulty waking the caretaker, he demanded horses, but was refused because of the night time. I had to give vodka to the coachmen, they harnessed it, and the journey continued.

In Tosna, the hero meets a solicitor who was busy compiling ancient genealogies for young nobles. On the way from Tosna to Lyuban, the traveler sees a peasant who plowed "with great care", despite the fact that it was Sunday. The plowman said that six days a week his family cultivates the land of the masters and, in order not to die of hunger, he is forced to work on a holiday, although this is a sin. The hero reflects on the cruelty of the landlords and at the same time reproaches himself for the fact that he also has a servant over whom he has power.

In Chudov, the hero is overtaken by his friend Ch. and tells why he had to hastily leave Petersburg. Ch., for the sake of entertainment, sailed on a twelve-oared boat from Kronstadt to Sisterbek. On the way, a storm broke out, and the boat was squeezed between two stones by raging waves. It filled with water, and it seemed that death was inevitable. But two brave rowers made an attempt to swim over the rocks and swim to the shore, which was a mile and a half away. One succeeded, and, having got ashore, he ran to the house of the local chief, so that he urgently detached boats to save the rest. But the chief deigned to rest, and the sergeant, his subordinate, did not dare to wake him up. When, through the efforts of others, the unfortunate were nevertheless saved, Ch. tried to reason with the chief, but he said: "That is not my position." Indignant, Ch. “almost spat in his face and went out.” Not finding sympathy for his act among his Petersburg acquaintances, he decided to leave this city forever.

On the way from Chudovo to Spassky Polest, a fellow traveler sits next to the hero and tells him his sad story. Having trusted a partner in matters of ransom, he was deceived, lost his entire fortune and was brought under criminal court. His wife, surviving what had happened, gave birth prematurely and died three days later, and the premature baby also died. Friends, seeing that they had come to take him into custody, put the unfortunate man in a wagon and ordered him to go "wherever his eyes look." The hero was touched by what his fellow traveler told, and he is thinking about how to bring this case to the ears of the supreme authority, "for it can only be impartial." Realizing that he is unable to help the unfortunate man in any way, the hero imagines himself to be the supreme ruler, whose state seems to be prospering, and everyone sings his praise. But here the wanderer of Direct-look removes the thorn in the eyes of the ruler, and he sees that his reign was unjust, that bounties were poured out on the rich, flatterers, traitors, unworthy people. He understands that power is the duty to observe the law and right. But it all turned out to be just a dream.

At the Podberezye station, the hero meets a seminarian who complains about modern education. The hero reflects on the science and work of the writer, whose task he sees as enlightenment and praise of virtue.

Arriving in Novgorod, the hero remembers that this city in ancient times had people's rule, and questions the right of Ivan the Terrible to annex Novgorod. “But what is the right when force is at work?” he asks. Distracted from his thoughts, the hero goes to dine with his friend Karp Dementievich, formerly a merchant, and now an eminent citizen. The conversation turns to trade affairs, and the traveler understands that the introduced bill system does not guarantee honesty, but, on the contrary, promotes easy enrichment and theft.

In Zaitsev, at the post office, the hero meets an old friend of Mr. Krestyankin, who served in the criminal chamber. He retired, realizing that in this position he could not benefit the fatherland. He saw only cruelty, bribery, injustice. Krestyankin told the story of a cruel landowner whose son raped a young peasant woman. The bridegroom of the girl, protecting the bride, broke the rapist's head. Together with the groom there were several more peasants, and according to the Code of the Criminal Chamber, the narrator had to sentence them all to death or life imprisonment. He tried to justify the peasants, but none of the local nobles supported him, and he was forced to resign.

In Krestsy, the hero witnesses the separation of his father from his children, who are going to serve. The father reads them instructions on the rules of life, urges them to be virtuous, to comply with the prescriptions of the law, to restrain passions, and not to servility to anyone. The hero shares his father's thoughts that the power of parents over children is negligible, that the union between parents and children should be "based on tender feelings of the heart" and that a father should not see his son as his slave.

In Yazhelbitsy, passing by a cemetery, the hero sees that a burial is taking place there. At the grave, the father of the deceased is crying, saying that he is the killer of his son, since he "poured poison into his head." It seems to the hero that he hears his condemnation. He, in his youth, indulging in lust, had been ill with a "stinking disease" and is afraid

Will it pass on to his children? Thinking about who is the cause of the spread of the "stinking disease", the traveler blames the state for this, which opens the way to vices and protects public women.

In Valdai, the hero recalls a legend about a monk of the Iversky Monastery who fell in love with the daughter of a Valdai resident. As Leander swam across the Hellespont, so this monk swam across Lake Valdai to meet his beloved. But one day the wind rose, the waves raged, and in the morning the body of a monk was found on a distant shore.

In Yedrovo, the hero meets a young peasant girl, Anyuta, and talks to her about her family and fiancé. He wonders how much nobility in the way of thinking of the villagers. Wishing to help Anyuta get married, he offers her fiancé money for acquiring. But Ivan refuses to take them, saying: "I, master, have two hands, I will run the house with them." The hero reflects on marriage, condemning the customs that still exist, when an eighteen-year-old girl could be married to a ten-year-old child. Equality is the basis of family life, he believes.

On the way to Khotilovo, the hero is visited by thoughts about the injustice of serfdom. The fact that one person can enslave another, he calls "a brutal custom": "enslavement is a crime," he says. Only those who cultivate the land have rights to it. And a state where two-thirds of its citizens are deprived of their civil status cannot "be called blessed." The hero of Radishchev understands that work under compulsion yields fewer fruits, and this prevents the "multiplication of the people." In front of the post station, he picks up a paper that expresses the same thoughts, and learns from the postman that one of his friends was the last person passing by. He, apparently, forgot his compositions at the post station, and the hero takes the forgotten papers for some reward. They defined a whole program for the liberation of peasants from serfdom, and also contained a provision on the destruction of court officials.

In Torzhok, the hero meets a man who sends a petition to St. Petersburg for permission to start printing in the city, free from censorship. They talk about the harmfulness of censorship, which “like a nanny, leads a child on the harness”, and this “child”, that is, the reader, will never learn to walk (think) on his own. Society itself must serve as censorship: it either recognizes the writer or rejects it, just as the audience provides recognition for a theatrical performance, and not the director of the theater. Here the author, referring to the notebook received by the hero from the person he met, tells about the history of censorship.

On the way to Mednoe, the traveler continues to read the papers of his acquaintance. It tells about the auctions that take place if any landowner goes bankrupt. And among other property from the auction are people. An old man of seventy-five, the uncle of a young master, an old woman of eighty, his wife, a nurse, a widow of forty, a young woman of eighteen, her daughter and granddaughter of the old people, her baby - they all do not know what fate awaits them, into whose hands they will fall.

The conversation about Russian versification, which the hero has with a friend at the tavern table, brings them back to the theme of liberty. A friend reads excerpts from his ode with that title.

In the village of Gorodnya, recruitment is taking place, which has caused the sobbing of the crowding people. Cry mothers, wives, brides. But not all recruits are dissatisfied with their fate. One "lord's man", on the contrary, is glad to get rid of the power of his masters. He was brought up by a kind gentleman together with his son, went abroad with him. But the old master died, and the young one got married, and the new lady put the serf in his place.

In Peshki, the hero surveys a peasant's hut and is surprised at the poverty prevailing here. The hostess asks him for a piece of sugar for the child. The author in a lyrical digression addresses the landowner with a condemning speech: “Hard-hearted landowner! look at the children of the peasants who are subject to you. They are almost naked." He promises him God's punishment, because he sees that there is no righteous judgment on earth.

The "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" ends with "The Tale of Lomonosov". The hero refers to the fact that these notes were given to him by the "Parnassian judge", with whom he dined in Tver. The author focuses on the role of Lomonosov in the development of Russian literature, calling him "the first in the path of Russian literature."

A.M.K.
The narrative opens with a letter to a friend Alexei Mikhailovich Kutuzov, in which Radishchev explains his feelings that forced him to write this book. This is a kind of blessing for work.
Departure
After saying goodbye to friends, the author-narrator leaves, suffering from parting. He dreams that he is alone, but, fortunately, there was a pothole, he woke up, and then they drove up to the station.
Sofia
Taking the road, our traveler goes to the commissioner for horses, but they don’t give horses, they say that they don’t, although there are up to twenty nags in the stable. Twenty kopecks had an effect "on the coachmen." They harnessed the troika behind the commissar's back, and the traveler went on. The driver pulls a mournful song, and the traveler reflects on the character of the Russian people. If a Russian wants to disperse anguish, then he goes to a tavern; what is not for him, climbs into a fight. The traveler asks God why he turned away from people?
Tosna
Discourse on a disgusting road that cannot be crossed even in summer rains. In the station hut, the traveler meets an unsuccessful writer - a nobleman who wants to hand him his literary work "on the loss of privileges by the nobles." The traveler gives him copper pennies, and offers to give the “labor” to the peddlers by weight, so that they use paper for “wrapping”, since it is not suitable for anything else.
Lyubani
The traveler sees a peasant plowing on a holiday and wonders if he is a schismatic? The peasant is Orthodox, but he is forced to work on Sunday, because. six days a week he goes to corvée. The peasant says that he has three sons and three daughters, the eldest is only ten years old. So that the family does not starve, he has to work at night. He works diligently for himself, but somehow for the master. In the family, he is one worker, and the master has many of them. The peasant envies the quitrent and state peasants, it is easier for them to live, then he harnesses the horses so that they can rest, while he himself works without rest. The traveler mentally curses all the exploiting landowners and himself for offending his Petrushka when he was drunk.
Chudovo
The traveler meets with a university friend, Chelishchev, who recounted his adventure in the raging Baltic, where he almost died because the official refused to send help, saying: "That's not my position." Now Chelishchev is leaving the city - "a host of lions", so as not to see these villains.
Spasskaya field
The traveler got caught in the rain and asked to dry off in the hut. There he hears her husband's story about an official who loves "usters" (oysters). For the fulfillment of his whim - the delivery of oysters - he gives ranks, rewards from the state treasury. The rain is over. The traveler continued on his way with a companion who asked for it. The fellow traveler tells his story, how he was a merchant, trusting dishonest people, got on trial, his wife died in childbirth, which began due to experiences a month earlier. A friend helped this unfortunate man to escape. The traveler wants to help the fugitive, in a dream he imagines himself to be an all-powerful ruler, whom everyone admires. This dream shows him the wanderer Direct View, she removes the thorns from his eyes that prevent him from seeing the truth. The author states that the tsar was known among the people as "a deceiver, a hypocrite, a pernicious comedian." Radishchev shows the discrepancy between the words and deeds of Catherine; the ostentatious splendor, magnificent, decorative facade of the empire hides behind it terrible pictures of oppression. Pryamozora addresses the king with words of contempt and anger: “Know that you are ... the first robber, the first traitor to the general silence, the most fierce enemy, directing his anger at the inside of the weak.” Radishchev shows that there are no good kings, they pour out their favors only on the unworthy.
Podberezie
The traveler meets a young man who is going to St. Petersburg to study with his uncle. Here are the arguments of the young man about the lack of an education system that is detrimental to the country. He hopes that the descendants will be happier in this regard, because. will be able to learn.
Novgorod
The traveler admires the city, remembering its heroic past and how Ivan the Terrible set out to destroy the Novgorod Republic. The author is indignant: what right did the tsar have to “appropriate Novgorod”?
The traveler then goes to a friend, Karp Dementich, who married his son. Everyone sits at the table together (master, young people, guest). The traveler draws portraits of the hosts. And the merchant talks about his business. As "was launched into the world", now the son trades.
Bronnitsy
The traveler goes to the sacred hill and hears the formidable voice of the Almighty: “Why did you want to know the secret?” “What are you looking for, foolish child?” Where once there was a “great city”, the traveler sees only poor shacks.
Zaitsev
The traveler meets his friend Krestyankin, who once served, and then retired. Krestyankin, a very conscientious and warm-hearted person, was the chairman of the criminal chamber, but left the post, seeing the futility of his efforts. Krestyankin tells about a certain nobleman who began his career as a court stoker, tells about the atrocities of this unscrupulous man. The peasants could not stand the bullying of the landlord family and killed everyone. Krestyankin acquitted the "guilty" who had been driven to death by the landowner. No matter how hard Krestyankin fought for a fair solution to this case, nothing came of it. They were executed. And he retired, so as not to be an accomplice in this villainy. The traveler receives a letter that tells of a strange wedding between “a 78-year-old young man and a 62-year-old young woman,” a certain widow engaged in pandering, and in her old age who decided to marry a baron. He marries money, and in her old age she wants to be called "Your Nobility." The author says that without the Buryndins, the light would not have stood for even three days, he is outraged by the absurdity of what is happening. Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow
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sacrums
Seeing the parting of the father with his sons going to work, the traveler recalls that out of a hundred serving noblemen, ninety-eight "become rakes." He grieves that he will soon have to part with his eldest son. The author's reasoning leads him to the conclusion: “Tell the truth, father of children, tell me, true citizen! Wouldn't you like to strangle your son, rather than let him go to the service? Because in the service, everyone cares about their pocket, and not about the good of the motherland. The landowner, calling on the traveler to witness how hard it is for him to part with his sons, tells them that they do not owe him anything, but must work for the good of the fatherland, for this he raised and unlived them, taught them the sciences and forced them to think. He admonishes his sons not to stray from the true path, not to lose their pure and high souls.
Yazhelbitsy
Passing by the cemetery, the traveler sees a heartbreaking scene when the father, throwing himself on the coffin of his son, does not allow him to be buried, crying that they do not bury him with his son in order to end his torment. For he is guilty that the son was born weak and sick, and how much he lived, he suffered so much. The traveler mentally reasons that he, too, probably passed on to his sons diseases with the vices of youth.
Valdai
This ancient town is known for the amorous disposition of unmarried women. The traveler says that everyone knows "Valdai bagels and shameless girls." Then he tells the legend of a sinful monk who drowned in a storm in the lake, swimming to his beloved.
Edrovo
The traveler sees many well-dressed women and girls. He admires their healthy appearance, reproaching the noblewomen that they disfigure their figures, dragging themselves into corsets, and then die from childbirth, because for years they have spoiled their bodies for the sake of fashion. The traveler is talking to Annushka, who at first behaves sternly, and then, talking, she told that her father had died, she lives with her mother and sister, and wants to get married. But for the groom they ask for a hundred rubles. Vanyukha wants to go to St. Petersburg to work. But the traveler says: "Do not let him go there, there he will learn to drink, wean himself from peasant labor." He wants to give money, but the family won't take it. He is amazed at their nobility.
Khotilov
Project in the future
Written on behalf of another traveler, even more progressive in his views than Radishchev. Our traveler finds papers left by his brother. Reading them, he finds arguments similar to his thoughts about the perniciousness of slavery, the malevolent nature of the landlords, and the lack of enlightenment.
Vyshny Volochok
The traveler admires the locks and man-made canals. He talks about a landowner who treated the peasants like slaves. They worked all day for him, and he gave them only meager food. The peasants did not have their own allotments and cattle. And this “barbarian” flourished. The author calls on the peasants to ruin the estate and tools of this nonhuman, who treats them like oxen.
Vydropusk (again written according to someone else's notes)
Project of the future
The author says that the kings imagined themselves to be gods, surrounded themselves with a hundred servants and imagined that they were useful to the fatherland. But the author is sure that this order should be changed. The future is in education. Only then will there be justice when people become equal.
Torzhok
The traveler meets a man who wants to open a free printing press. What follows is a discussion of the perniciousness of censorship. “What harm will it be if books are printed without the stigma of a policeman?” The author argues that the benefits of this are obvious: "The rulers are not free to excommunicate the people from the truth." The author in "A Brief Narrative of the Origin of Censorship" says that censorship and the Inquisition have the same roots. And tells the story of printing and censorship in the West. And in Russia... in Russia, what happened with censorship, he promises to tell “another time”.
Copper
The traveler sees a round dance of young women and girls. And then there is a description of the shameful public sale of peasants. The 75-year-old man is waiting to whom they will give him. His 80-year-old wife was the breadwinner of the mother of a young master who ruthlessly sells his peasants. There is also a 40-year-old woman, the breadwinner of the master himself, and the entire peasant family, including the baby, going under the hammer. It is dreadful for the traveler to see this barbarism.
Tver
The traveler listens to the arguments of the tavern interlocutor “after dinner” about the poetry of Lomonosov, Sumarokov and Trediakovsky.