Russia is a country in which even poverty has its charms. After all, the poor, who are a slave to the power of the landowners of that time, have time to reflect and see what the fat landowner will never see.
Once upon a time, on the most ordinary road, where there was a crossroads, men, of whom there were as many as seven, accidentally met. These men are the most ordinary poor men who were brought together by fate itself. The peasants have recently left the serfs, now they are temporarily liable. They, as it turned out, lived very close to each other. Their villages were adjacent - the village of Zaplatov, Razutov, Dyryavin, Znobishina, as well as Gorelova, Neelova and Neurozhayka. The names of the villages are very peculiar, but to some extent, they reflect their owners.
The men are simple people, and willing to talk. That is why, instead of just continuing their long journey, they decide to talk. They argue about which of the rich and noble people lives better. A landowner, an official, an al boyar or a merchant, or maybe even a sovereign father? Each of them has their own opinions, which they cherish and do not want to agree with each other. The dispute flares up more strongly, but nevertheless, I want to eat. You can't live without food, even if you feel bad and sad. When they argued, without noticing it themselves, they walked, but in the wrong direction. They suddenly noticed it, but it was too late. The peasants gave the maz a full thirty versts.
It was too late to return home, and therefore we decided to continue the dispute right there on the road, surrounded by wild nature. They quickly build a fire to keep warm, because it is already evening. Vodka - to help them. The argument, as it always happens with ordinary men, develops into a brawl. The fight ends, but it does not give any result. As always happens, the decision to be here is unexpected. One of the company of men, sees a bird and catches it, the bird's mother, in order to free her chick, tells them about the self-assembly tablecloth. After all, the peasants on their way meet many people who, alas, do not have the happiness that the peasants are looking for. But they do not despair of finding a happy person.
Read the summary To whom in Russia to live well Nekrasov chapter by chapter
Part 1. Prologue
Met on the road seven temporarily assigned men. They began to argue who lives funny, very freely in Russia. While they were arguing, evening came, they went for vodka, lit a fire and began to argue again. The argument turned into a fight, while Pahom caught a small chick. A mother bird arrives and asks to let her child go in exchange for a story about where to get a self-assembled tablecloth. The comrades decide to go wherever they look until they find out who in Russia has a good life.
Chapter 1. Pop
The men go on a hike. Steppes, fields, abandoned houses pass, they meet both the rich and the poor. They asked the soldier they met about whether he lives happily, in response the soldier said that he shaves with an awl and warms himself with smoke. They passed by the priest. We decided to ask how he lives in Russia. Pop argues that happiness is not in well-being, luxury and tranquility. And he proves that he does not have peace, at night and during the day they can call to the dying, that his son cannot learn to read and write, that he often sees sobs with tears at the coffins.
The priest asserts that the landowners have scattered over their native land, and now there is no wealth from this, as the priest used to have wealth. In the old days, he attended the weddings of rich people and made money on it, but now everyone has left. He told that he would come to a peasant family to bury the breadwinner, and there was nothing to take from them. The priest went on his way.
Chapter 2
Wherever men go, they see stingy housing. The pilgrim washes his horse in the river, the men ask him where the people from the village have disappeared. He replies that the fair is today in the village of Kuzminskaya. The men, having come to the fair, watch how honest people dance, walk, drink. And they look at how one old man asks the people for help. He promised his granddaughter to bring a gift, but he does not have two hryvnias.
Then a gentleman appears, as they call a young man in a red shirt, and buys shoes for the old man's granddaughter. At the fair you can find everything your heart desires: books by Gogol, Belinsky, portraits and so on. Travelers watch a performance with the participation of Petrushka, people give the actors drinks and a lot of money.
Chapter 3
Returning home after the holiday, people from drunkenness fell into ditches, the women fought, complaining about life. Veretennikov, the one who bought the shoes for his granddaughter, was walking, arguing that the Russian people are good and smart, but drunkenness spoils everything, being a big minus for people. The men told Veretennikov about Nagoi Yakim. This guy lived in St. Petersburg and after a quarrel with a merchant ended up in prison. Once he gave his son different pictures, hung on the walls and he admired them more than his son. Once there was a fire, so instead of saving money, he began to collect pictures.
His money melted, and then only eleven rubles were given by merchants for them, and now pictures are hanging on the walls in the new house. Yakim said that the peasants did not lie and said that sadness would come and the people would be sad if they stopped drinking. Then the young people began to sing a song, and they sang so well that one girl passing by could not even hold back her tears. She complained that her husband was very jealous and she was sitting at home as if on a leash. After the story, the men began to remember their wives, realized that they were missing them and decided to quickly find out who lives well in Russia.
Chapter 4
Travelers, passing by the idle crowd, are looking for happy people in it, promising them a drink. The clerk was the first to come to them, knowing that happiness is not in luxury and wealth, but in faith in God. He told me that he believes and that he is happy. Following the old woman talks about her happiness, the turnip in her garden has grown huge and appetizing. In response, she hears ridicule and advice to go home. After the soldier tells the story that after twenty battles he remained alive, that he survived the famine and did not die, that he was happy with this. Gets a glass of vodka and leaves. Stonecutter wields a large hammer, his strength is immeasurable.
In response, the thin man ridicules him, advising him not to show off his strength, otherwise God will take away that strength. The contractor boasts that he carried objects weighing fourteen pounds with ease to the second floor, but recently he lost his strength and was about to die in his native city. A nobleman came to them, told them that he had lived with his mistress, ate very well with them, drank drinks from other people's glasses and had developed a strange illness. He was mistaken several times in the diagnosis, but in the end it turned out that it was gout. The wanderers drive him out so that he does not drink wine with them. Then the Belarusian told that happiness is in bread. The beggars see happiness in large alms. The vodka is running out, but they haven’t really found a happy one, they are advised to seek happiness from Ermila Girin, who runs the mill. Yermil is ordered to sell it, wins the auction, but he has no money.
He went to ask the people in the square for a loan, collected money, and the mill became his property. The next day, he returned to all the kind people who helped him in difficult times, their money. Travelers were amazed that the people believed in the words of Yermila and helped. Good people said that Yermila was a clerk for the colonel. He worked honestly, but he was driven away. When the colonel died and it was time to choose a steward, everyone unanimously chose Yermila. Someone said that Yermila did not correctly judge the son of a peasant woman, Nenila Vlasyevna.
Yermila was very sad that he could let down a peasant woman. He ordered the people to judge him, the young man was fined. He quit his job and rented a mill, determined his own order on it. Travelers were advised to go to Kirin, but the people said that he was in jail. And then everything is interrupted because, on the side of the road, a lackey is whipped for theft. The wanderers asked to continue the story, in response they heard a promise to continue at the next meeting.
Chapter 5
The wanderers meet a landowner who takes them for thieves and even threatens them with a gun. Obolt Obolduev, having understood people, started a story about the antiquity of his family, that while serving the sovereign he had a salary of two rubles. He recalls feasts rich in various foods, servants, which he had a whole regiment. Regrets the lost unlimited power. The landowner told how kind he was, how people prayed in his house, how spiritual purity was created in his house. And now their gardens have been cut down, houses have been dismantled brick by brick, the forest has been plundered, there is not a trace left of the former life. The landowner complains that he was not created for such a life, having lived in the village for forty years, he will not be able to distinguish barley from rye, but they demand that he work. The landowner weeps, the people sympathize with him.
Part 2
Wanderers, walking past the hayfield, decide to mow a bit, they are bored with work. The gray-haired man Vlas drives the women from the fields, asking them not to interfere with the landowner. In the river in boats the landowners are catching fish. We moored and went around the hayfield. The wanderers began to ask the peasant about the landowner. It turned out that the sons, in collusion with the people, deliberately indulge the master so that he does not deprive them of their inheritance. The sons beg everyone to play along with them. One peasant Ipat, without playing along, serves, for the salvation that the master gave him. Over time, everyone gets used to the deception and live like that. Only the peasant Agap Petrov did not want to play these games. Utyatin grabbed the second blow, but again he woke up and ordered Agap to be flogged in public. The sons put the wine in the stable and asked to shout loudly so that the prince could hear up to the porch. But soon Agap died, they say from the prince's wine. The people stand in front of the porch and play a comedy, one rich man breaks down and laughs out loud. The peasant woman saves the situation, falls at the feet of the prince, claiming that her stupid little son was laughing. As soon as Utyatin died, all the people breathed freely.
Part 3. Peasant woman
To ask about happiness, they send to the neighboring village to Matryona Timofeevna. There is hunger and poverty in the village. Someone in the river caught a small fish and talks about the fact that once the fish were caught larger.
Theft is rampant, someone is dragging something away. Travelers find Matryona Timofeevna. She insists that she does not have time to rant, it is necessary to clean the rye. Wanderers help her, during the work Timofeevna begins to willingly talk about her life.
Chapter 1
The girl in her youth had a strong family. She lived in her parents' house without knowing the troubles, there was enough time to have fun and work. One day, Philip Korchagin appeared, and the father promised to marry his daughter. Matrena resisted for a long time, but eventually agreed.
Chapter 2. Songs
Further, the story is already about life in the house of the father-in-law and mother-in-law, which is interrupted by sad songs. They beat her once for her slowness. The husband leaves for work, and she has a child. She calls him Demushka. Her husband's parents began to scold often, but she endures everything. Only the father-in-law, old man Savely, felt sorry for his daughter-in-law.
Chapter 3
He lived in the upper room, did not like his family and did not let him into his house. He told Matryona about his life. In his youth, he was a Jew in a serf family. The village was deaf, through thickets and swamps it was necessary to get there. The landowner in the village was Shalashnikov, only he could not get to the village, and the peasants did not even go to him when called. The quitrent was not paid, the police were given fish and honey as tribute. They went to the master, complained that there was no quitrent. Threatened with a flogging, the landowner nevertheless received his tribute. After some time, a notification arrives that Shalashnikov has been killed.
The rogue came instead of the landowner. He ordered to cut trees if there is no money. When the workers came to their senses, they realized that they had cut a road to the village. The German robbed them to the last penny. Vogel built a factory and ordered a ditch to be dug. The peasants sat down to rest at lunch, the German went to scold them for their idleness. They pushed him into a ditch and buried him alive. He went to hard labor, twenty years later he escaped from there. During hard labor he saved up money, built a hut and now lives there.
Chapter 4
The daughter-in-law scolded the maiden for not working much. She began to leave her son to his grandfather. Grandfather ran to the field, told about what he overlooked and fed Demushka to the pigs. The grief of the mother was not enough, but also the police began to come often, they suspected that she had killed the child on purpose. The baby was buried in a closed coffin, she mourned for a long time. And Savely calmed her down.
Chapter 5
As you die, so the work got up. The father-in-law decided to teach a lesson and beat the bride. She began to beg to kill her, the father took pity. Around the clock, the mother mourned at the grave of her son. In winter, the husband returned. Grandfather went out of grief from the beginning to the forest, then to the monastery. After Matryona gave birth every year. And again came a series of troubles. Timofeevna's parents died. Grandfather returned from the monastery, asked for forgiveness from his mother, said that he had prayed for Demushka. But he did not live long, he died very hard. Before his death, he spoke about three ways of life for women and two ways for men. Four years later, a praying man came to the village.
She talked about some beliefs, advised not to breastfeed babies on fast days. Timofeevna did not listen, then she regretted it, says God punished her. When her child, Fedot, was eight years old, he began to pasture sheep. And somehow they came to complain about him. It is said that he fed the sheep to the she-wolf. Mother began to question Fedot. The child said that he did not have time to blink an eye, as out of nowhere, a she-wolf appeared and grabbed a sheep. He ran after him, caught up, but the sheep was dead. The she-wolf howled, it was clear that somewhere in the hole she had babies. He took pity on her and handed over the dead sheep. They tried to flog Fethod, but the mother took all the punishment upon herself.
Chapter 6
Matryona Timofeevna said that it was not easy for her son to see the she-wolf then. Believes that it was a harbinger of hunger. The mother-in-law spread all the gossip around the village about Matryona. She said that her daughter-in-law croaked hunger because she knew how to do such things. She said that her husband was protecting her. And so, if it weren’t for her son, they would have long ago been beaten to death with stakes for such things.
After the hunger strike, they began to take the guys from the villages to the service. First they took her husband's brother, she was calm that in difficult times her husband would be with her. But in no queue they took away her husband. Life becomes unbearable, mother-in-law and father-in-law begin to mock her even more.
Picture or drawing Who lives well in Russia
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Summary Who lives well in Russia
Nekrasov worked on the work “To whom it is good to live in Russia” for several years, giving the poem all the strength of his soul.
In the work we see the journey of the seven wanderers in the poem. They are trying to find a person who would live happily. It seems to one of them that an official is happy, to others - a priest, a merchant, a landowner or a king. Wanderers want to find on the ground the Untouched province, the Ungutted volost, the Surplus village. It is important for them to get to the bottom of what happiness is. All seven men are arguing, they are often at each other, but it is the arguing that pushes them forward. In search of happiness.
They love the environment. They watch herbs, bushes, flowers, understand the voices of animals and birds. Each of them has its own way of looking at things, its own character. Meanwhile, all of them together represent something common, inseparable.
Nekrasov in the poem shows all aspects of folk life. He describes the life of the poor, and soldiers, and artisans, and coachmen. We see the poverty of the peasants, recruitment, exhausting labor, lack of rights and exploitation.
But even in slavery, the people of Russia still have a living soul. Nekrasov shows the Russian people as hardworking, responsive to the suffering of others, with self-respect, daring and cheerful. It shows people who are full of thirst for social justice. These are Ermil Girin, Vlas, Agap Petrov, peasants who hate the Last, participating in the rebellion in Stolbnyaki, Kropilnikov, Kudeyar.
Savely occupies an important place in the poem. He is endowed with the features of a hero. His mighty prowess is already manifested in the fact that he alone went to the bear. He despises slavish obedience and stands for the interests of the people. There is something epic in this image. In the image of Savely's granddaughter, Nekrasov embodied his aesthetic ideal, he carried all the positive features inherent in a Russian woman through suffering and life's trials. Nekrasov to dedicate a whole third of the poem to the image of Matryona. She confesses to strangers, talks about her happy moments in life, and about the difficult female lot. From the age of six, she grazed cattle, worked in the field, spun, and busied herself around the house. And then - slave labor in marriage and raising children. But, despite the hard life, she remained noble and rebellious.
But Nekrasov presents the image of a perfect man in the person of Grisha Dobrosklonov. Dobrosklonov is young. He is a raznochinets by origin, the son of a laborer. He had to endure a hungry childhood. Then he studied at the seminary. Life connected him with labor, the needs of his fellow countrymen. He rescues the peasants with his labor, and the peasants help him with food. Grisha knows all the peasant work - he mows, reaps, sows. He is the spokesman for the aspirations of the common people. Gregory is not afraid of the upcoming trials, as he sees that the people themselves are awakening to struggle, and this thought fills his soul with joy.
“Not everyone between men is looking for a happy one, let's feel the women!” - decide the strangers. They are advised to go to the village of Klin and ask Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna, whom everyone called the "governor's wife".
Wanderers come to the village: Whatever the hut - with a prop, Like a beggar with a crutch; And from the roofs the straw is fed to the Cattle. Stand like skeletons, Wretched houses. At the gate, the wanderers meet a lackey, who explains that "the landowner is abroad, and the steward is dying." Some men catch small fish in the river, complaining that there used to be more fish. Peasants and serfs steal everything they can: One serf was tormented At the door: copper handles Unscrewed; the other was carrying some kind of tiles... A gray-haired courtyard offers to buy foreign books for wanderers, gets angry that they refuse: Why do you need smart books?
Drinking signs for you Yes, the word "forbidden", What is found on the poles, Enough to read! The wanderers hear how a beautiful bass sings a song in an incomprehensible language. It turns out that “the singer of Novo-Arkhangelskaya, the gentlemen lured him from Little Russia.
They promised to take him to Italy, but they left. Finally, the wanderers meet Matrena Timofeevna. Matrena Timofeevna A portly woman, Broad and thick, Thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful; hair with gray hair, Big, strict eyes, Eyelashes of the richest, Harsh and swarthy. The wanderers tell why they set off on their journey, Matrena Timofeevna replies that she has no time to talk about her zhiani - she has to reap rye. The wanderers promise to help her harvest the rye, Matryona Timofeevna "began to open her whole soul to our wanderers." Chapter 1 Before marriage I was lucky in the girls: We had a good, non-drinking family. For father, for mother, Like Christ in the bosom, Residential ...
There was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. Finally, “the betrothed turned up”: On the mountain - a stranger! Philip Korchagin - St. Petersburg worker, By skill a stove-maker. The father took a walk with the matchmakers, promised to give his daughter away. Matryona does not want to go after Philip, he persuades, says that he will not offend. In the end, Matrena Timofeevna agrees. Chapter 2 Songs Matrena Timofeevna finds herself in a strange house - to her mother-in-law and father-in-law.
The narrative is interrupted from time to time by songs about the hard lot of a girl who got married "to the wrong side." The family was huge, Grumpy... I got to Hell from a girl's Holi! My husband went to work, He advised me to be silent, endure... As ordered, so done: I went with anger in my heart, And I didn’t say a word to anyone. Filippushka came in the winter, He brought a silk handkerchief, Yes, he rode it on a sled On Catherine's day, And it was as if there was no grief!
» Matryona Timofeevna replies that only once, when her husband's sister arrived and he asked to give her shoes, and Matryona Timofeevna hesitated. On the Annunciation, Philip again goes to work, and on Kazanskaya, Matryona had a son, who was named Demushka. Life in the house of her husband's parents has become even more difficult, but Matryona endures: Whatever they tell - I work, No matter how they scold - I am silent. Of the whole family of her husband, One Savely, grandfather, Father of the father-in-law, took pity on me ... Matryona Timofeevna asks the wanderers whether to tell about grandfather Savely, they are ready to listen. Chapter 3 Saveliy, Holy Russian hero With a huge gray mane, Tea, uncut for twenty years, With a huge beard, Grandfather looked like a bear ...
He already knocked, 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 his “branded, convict”. Saveliy will not be angry, He will go to his little room, Read the holy calendar, cross himself Yes, and suddenly say cheerfully: “Branded, but not a slave” ... One day Matryona asks Savely why he is called branded and hard labor.
Grandfather tells her his life. In the years of his youth, the peasants of his village were also serfs, “but we didn’t know either the landlords or the German managers then.
We didn’t rule the corvee, we didn’t pay dues, and so, when we judge, we’ll send it three times a year. ” The places were deaf, and no one could get there through the thickets and swamps. “Our landowner Shalashnikov through animal paths with his regiment - he was a military man - he tried to approach us, but he turned his skis!
"Then Shalashnikov sends an order - to appear, but the peasants do not go. The police swooped down (there was a drought) - “we are a tribute to her with honey, fish”, when they arrived another time - with “animal skins”, and the third time they did not give anything. They put on old bast shoes, full of holes, and went to Shalashnikov, who was stationed with a regiment in the provincial town. They came and said there was no dues. Shalashnikov ordered them to be flogged. Shalashnikov thrashed him hard, and he had to “split them up”, get the money and bring half a cap of “lobanchiks” (semi-imperials). Shalashnikov immediately calmed down, even drank with the peasants.
They set off on their way back, the two old men laughed that they were carrying home hundred-ruble notes sewn in the lining. Excellently fought Shalashnikov, And not so hot great Incomes received. Soon a notification arrives that Shalashnikov has been killed near Varna. The heir invented a remedy: He sent a German to us. Through dense forests, Through swampy marshes, A rogue came on foot! And at first he was quiet: "Pay what you can."
We can't do anything! "I'll notify the gentleman." - Notify! .. - That ended. The German, Christian Christian Vogel, meanwhile gained confidence in the peasants, saying: "If you can't pay, then work." They are interested in what the job is. He replies that it is desirable to dig in the swamp with grooves, cut down the trees where it is planned.
The peasants did as he asked, they see - it turned out to be a clearing, a road. Caught up, it's too late. And then hard labor came to the Korezsky peasant - Ruined to the bone!
And he fought ... like Shalashnikov himself! Yes, he was simple: he will attack With all his military strength, Just think: he will kill! And sun the money - it will fall off, Give or take a tick swollen In a dog's ear. The German has a deadly grip: Until he lets him go around the world, Without moving away, he sucks! This life continued for eighteen years. The German built a factory, ordered to dig a well.
It was dug by nine people, including Savely. After working until noon, we decided to rest. Then a German appeared, began to scold the peasants for idleness. The peasants pushed the German into the pit, Savely shouted "Naddy!", and Vogel was buried alive. Then there was “hard labor and whips in advance; they didn’t tear it out - they anointed it, there’s a bad rag there!
Then ... I fled from hard labor ...
Caught! They didn’t pat on the head either.” And life was not easy. Twenty years of strict hard labor.
Twenty years of settlement. I saved up money, According to the royal manifesto, I got back to my homeland, I built this hill, And I have been living here for a long time.
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" has its own unique feature. All the names of the villages and the names of the heroes clearly reflect the essence of what is happening. In the first chapter, the reader can get acquainted with seven men from the villages of Zaplatovo, Dyryaevo, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neyolovo, and Neurozhayko, who are arguing about who lives well in Russia, and in no way cannot come to an agreement. No one is even going to yield to another ... So unusually begins the work that Nikolai Nekrasov conceived in order, as he writes, "to present in a coherent story everything that he knows about the people, everything that happened to be heard from his lips ..."
The history of the creation of the poem
Nikolai Nekrasov began working on his work in the early 1860s and finished the first part five years later. The prologue was published in the January issue of the Sovremennik magazine for 1866. Then painstaking work began on the second part, which was called "Last Child" and was published in 1972. The third part, entitled "Peasant Woman", was released in 1973, and the fourth, "A Feast for the Whole World" - in the fall of 1976, that is, three years later. It is a pity that the author of the legendary epic did not manage to fully complete his plan - the writing of the poem was interrupted by an untimely death - in 1877. However, even after 140 years, this work remains important for people, it is read and studied by both children and adults. The poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" is included in the compulsory school curriculum.
Part 1. Prologue: who is the happiest in Russia
So, the prologue tells how seven men meet on a high road, and then go on a journey to find a happy man. Who in Russia lives freely, happily and cheerfully - this is the main question of curious travelers. Each, arguing with the other, believes that he is right. Roman shouts that the landowner has the best life, Demyan claims that the official lives wonderfully, Luka proves that it’s still a priest, the rest also express their opinion: “noble boyar”, “fat-bellied merchant”, “sovereign minister” or the tsar .
Such a disagreement leads to a ridiculous fight, which is observed by birds and animals. It is interesting to read how the author displays their surprise at what is happening. Even the cow “came to the fire, stared at the peasants, listened to crazy speeches and began, cordially, to moo, moo, moo! ..”
At last, having kneaded each other's sides, the peasants came to their senses. They saw a tiny warbler chick flying up to the fire, and Pahom took it in his hands. The travelers began to envy the little bird that could fly wherever it wanted. They talked about what everyone wants, when suddenly ... the bird spoke in a human voice, asking to release the chick and promising a large ransom for it.
The bird showed the peasants the way to where the real tablecloth was buried. Blimey! Now you can definitely live, not grieve. But the quick-witted wanderers also asked that their clothes not wear out. “And this will be done by a self-assembled tablecloth,” said the warbler. And she kept her promise.
The life of the peasants began to be full and cheerful. But they have not yet resolved the main question: who still lives well in Russia. And friends decided not to return to their families until they find the answer to it.
Chapter 1. Pop
On the way, the peasants met the priest and, bowing low, asked him to answer “in conscience, without laughter and without cunning,” whether he really lives well in Russia. What the pop said dispelled the ideas of the seven curious about his happy life. No matter how severe the circumstances are - a dead autumn night, or a severe frost, or a spring flood - the priest has to go where he is called, without arguing or contradicting. The work is not easy, besides, the groans of people leaving for another world, the weeping of orphans and the sobs of widows completely upset the peace of the priest's soul. And only outwardly it seems that pop is held in high esteem. In fact, he is often the target of ridicule by the common people.
Chapter 2
Further, the road leads purposeful wanderers to other villages, which for some reason turn out to be empty. The reason is that all the people are at the fair, in the village of Kuzminskoye. And it was decided to go there to ask people about happiness.
The life of the village evoked not very pleasant feelings among the peasants: there were a lot of drunks around, everywhere it was dirty, dull, uncomfortable. Books are also sold at the fair, but low-quality books, Belinsky and Gogol are not to be found here.
By evening, everyone becomes so drunk that it seems that even the church with the bell tower is shaking.
Chapter 3
At night, the men are on their way again. They hear the conversations of drunk people. Suddenly, attention is attracted by Pavlush Veretennikov, who makes notes in a notebook. He collects peasant songs and sayings, as well as their stories. After everything that has been said is captured on paper, Veretennikov begins to reproach the assembled people for drunkenness, to which he hears objections: “The peasant drinks mainly because he is in grief, and therefore it is impossible, even a sin, to reproach for it.
Chapter 4
Men do not deviate from their goal - by all means to find a happy person. They promise to reward with a bucket of vodka the one who tells that it is he who lives freely and cheerfully in Russia. Drinkers peck at such a "tempting" offer. But no matter how hard they try to colorfully paint the gloomy everyday life of those who want to get drunk for free, nothing comes out of them. Stories of an old woman who has born up to a thousand turnips, a sexton rejoicing when they pour him a pigtail; the paralyzed former courtyard, who for forty years licked the master's plates with the best French truffle, does not impress the stubborn seekers of happiness on Russian soil.
Chapter 5
Maybe luck will smile on them here - the searchers assumed a happy Russian person, having met the landowner Gavrila Afanasich Obolt-Obolduev on the road. At first he was frightened, thinking that he saw the robbers, but after learning about the unusual desire of the seven men who blocked his path, he calmed down, laughed and told his story.
Maybe before the landowner considered himself happy, but not now. Indeed, in the old days, Gavriil Afanasyevich was the owner of the entire district, a whole regiment of servants and arranged holidays with theatrical performances and dances. Even the peasants did not hesitate to invite the peasants to pray in the manor house on holidays. Now everything has changed: the family estate of Obolt-Obolduev was sold for debts, because, left without peasants who knew how to cultivate the land, the landowner, who was not used to working, suffered heavy losses, which led to a deplorable outcome.
Part 2
The next day, the travelers went to the banks of the Volga, where they saw a large hay meadow. Before they had time to talk with the locals, they noticed three boats at the pier. It turns out that this is a noble family: two gentlemen with their wives, their children, servants and a gray-haired old gentleman named Utyatin. Everything in this family, to the surprise of travelers, occurs according to such a scenario, as if there was no abolition of serfdom. It turns out that Utyatin was very angry when he found out that the peasants were given freedom and came down with a stroke, threatening to deprive his sons of their inheritance. To prevent this from happening, they came up with a cunning plan: they persuaded the peasants to play along with the landowner, posing as serfs. As a reward, they promised the best meadows after the death of the master.
Utyatin, hearing that the peasants were staying with him, perked up, and the comedy began. Some even liked the role of serfs, but Agap Petrov could not come to terms with the shameful fate and told the landowner everything to his face. For this, the prince sentenced him to flogging. The peasants also played a role here: they took the “rebellious” to the stable, put wine in front of him and asked him to shout louder, for appearances. Alas, Agap could not bear such humiliation, got very drunk and died the same night.
Further, the Last (Prince Utyatin) arranges a feast, where, barely moving his tongue, he delivers a speech about the advantages and benefits of serfdom. After that, he lies down in the boat and gives up the spirit. Everyone is glad that they finally got rid of the old tyrant, however, the heirs are not even going to fulfill their promise to those who played the role of serfs. The hopes of the peasants were not justified: no one gave them meadows.
Part 3. Peasant woman.
No longer hoping to find a happy man among the men, the wanderers decided to ask the women. And from the lips of a peasant woman named Korchagina Matryona Timofeevna they hear a very sad and, one might say, terrible story. Only in her parents' house she was happy, and then, when she married Philip, a ruddy and strong guy, a hard life began. Love did not last long, because the husband went to work, leaving his young wife with his family. Matryona works tirelessly and sees no support from anyone except old Savely, who lives a century after hard labor, which lasted twenty years. Only one joy appears in her difficult fate - the son of Demushka. But suddenly a terrible misfortune befell the woman: it is impossible to even imagine what happened to the child because the mother-in-law did not allow her daughter-in-law to take him into the field with her. Due to an oversight of the boy's grandfather, the pigs eat him. What grief for a mother! She mourns Demushka all the time, although other children were born in the family. For their sake, a woman sacrifices herself, for example, she takes upon herself the punishment when they want to flog her son Fedot for a sheep that was carried away by wolves. When Matryona was carrying another son, Lidor, in her womb, her husband was unfairly taken into the army, and his wife had to go to the city to look for the truth. It’s good that the governor’s wife, Elena Alexandrovna, helped her then. By the way, in the waiting room Matryona gave birth to a son.
Yes, the life of the one who was called “lucky” in the village was not easy: she constantly had to fight for herself, for her children, and for her husband.
Part 4. A feast for the whole world.
At the end of the village of Valakhchina, a feast was held, where everyone was gathered: the wandering peasants, and Vlas the headman, and Klim Yakovlevich. Among the celebrating - two seminarians, simple, kind guys - Savvushka and Grisha Dobrosklonov. They sing funny songs and tell different stories. They do it because ordinary people ask for it. From the age of fifteen, Grisha knows for sure that he will devote his life to the happiness of the Russian people. He sings a song about a great and mighty country called Russia. Isn't this the lucky one that the travelers were so stubbornly looking for? After all, he clearly sees the purpose of his life - in serving the disadvantaged people. Unfortunately, Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov died untimely, before he had time to finish the poem (according to the author's plan, the peasants were to go to St. Petersburg). But the reflections of the seven wanderers coincide with the thought of Dobrosklonov, who thinks that every peasant should live freely and cheerfully in Russia. This was the main intention of the author.
The poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov became legendary, a symbol of the struggle for the happy everyday life of ordinary people, as well as the result of the author's reflections on the fate of the peasantry.
“To whom it is good to live in Russia” - a summary of the poem by N.A. Nekrasov
4.7 (93.33%) 3 votesOne day, seven men converge on the high road - recent serfs, and now temporarily liable "from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavin, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhayka, too." Instead of going their own way, the peasants start a dispute about who lives happily and freely in Russia. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky man in Russia: a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar.
During the argument, they do not notice that they gave a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, little by little turns into a fight. But even a fight does not help to resolve the issue that worries the men.
The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the men, Pahom, catches a warbler chick, and in order to free the chick, the warbler tells the men where they can find a self-assembled tablecloth. Now the peasants are provided with bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass, tea - in a word, everything they need for a long journey. And besides, the self-assembled tablecloth will repair and wash their clothes! Having received all these benefits, the peasants give a vow to find out "who lives happily, freely in Russia."
The first possible "lucky man" they met along the way is a priest. (It was not for the oncoming soldiers and beggars to ask about happiness!) But the priest's answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the peasants. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the pop does not possess any of these benefits. In haymaking, in stubble, in a dead autumn night, in severe frost, he must go where there are sick, dying and being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of grave sobs and orphan sorrow - so that his hand does not rise to take copper nickels - a miserable reward for the demand. The landlords, who formerly lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only in Russia, but also in distant foreign land; there is no hope for their reward. Well, the peasants themselves know what honor the priest is: they feel embarrassed when the priest blames obscene songs and insults against priests.
Realizing that the Russian pop is not among the lucky ones, the peasants go to the festive fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask the people there about happiness. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded-up house with the inscription "school", a paramedic's hut, a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village of drinking establishments, in each of which they barely manage to cope with the thirsty. Old man Vavila cannot buy his granddaughter goat's shoes, because he drank himself to a penny. It’s good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone calls “master” for some reason, buys a treasured gift for him.
Wandering peasants watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the officers pick up book goods - but by no means Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of fat generals unknown to anyone and works about "my lord stupid." They also see how a busy trading day ends: rampant drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the peasants are indignant at Pavlusha Veretennikov's attempt to measure the peasant by the master's measure. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Russia: he will not endure either overwork or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would have poured out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo - one of those who "work to death, drink half to death." Yakim believes that only pigs walk the earth and do not see the sky for a century. During a fire, he himself did not save money accumulated over a lifetime, but useless and beloved pictures that hung in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Russia.
Wandering peasants do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Russia. But even for the promise to give water to the lucky ones for free, they fail to find those. For the sake of a gratuitous drink, both an overworked worker, and a former courtyard stricken with paralysis, who for forty years licked the master's plates with the best French truffle, and even ragged beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky.
Finally, someone tells them the story of Ermil Girin, a steward in the estate of Prince Yurlov, who has earned universal respect for his justice and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy the mill, the peasants lent it to him without even asking for a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in jail.
About the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform, the ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the peasant wanderers. He recalls how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who belonged undividedly to him. Obolt-Obolduev tells with tenderness how, on the twelfth holidays, he invited his serfs to pray in the manor's house - despite the fact that after that they had to drive women from all over the estate to wash the floors.
And although the peasants themselves know that life in serf times was far from the idyll drawn by Obolduev, they nevertheless understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who at once lost his usual way of life, and the peasant.
Desperate to find a happy man among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. The surrounding peasants recall that Matrena Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klin, whom everyone considers lucky. But Matrona herself thinks otherwise. In confirmation, she tells the wanderers the story of her life.
Before her marriage, Matryona lived in a non-drinking and prosperous peasant family. She married Philip Korchagin, a stove-maker from a foreign village. But the only happy night for her was that night when the groom persuaded Matryona to marry him; then the usual hopeless life of a village woman began. True, her husband loved her and beat her only once, but soon he went to work in St. Petersburg, and Matryona was forced to endure insults in her father-in-law's family. The only one who felt sorry for Matryona was grandfather Saveliy, who lived out his life in the family after hard labor, where he ended up for the murder of the hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: a peasant cannot be defeated, because he "bends, but does not break."
The birth of the first-born Demushka brightened up the life of Matryona. But soon her mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and old grandfather Savely did not follow the baby and fed him to the pigs. In front of Matryona, judges who arrived from the city performed an autopsy of her child. Matryona could not forget her first child, although after she had five sons. One of them, the shepherd Fedot, once allowed a she-wolf to carry away a sheep. Matrena took upon herself the punishment assigned to her son. Then, being pregnant with her son Liodor, she was forced to go to the city to seek justice: her husband, bypassing the laws, was taken to the soldiers. Matryona was then helped by the governor Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying.
By all peasant standards, the life of Matryona Korchagina can be considered happy. But it is impossible to tell about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unrequited mortal insults, and about the blood of the firstborn. Matrena Timofeevna is convinced that a Russian peasant woman cannot be happy at all, because the keys to her happiness and free will are lost from God himself.
In the midst of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims up to the shore in three boats. The mowers, who have just sat down to rest, immediately jump up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs to hide the abolition of serfdom from the landowner Utyatin, who has lost his mind. For this, the relatives of the Last Duck-Duck promise the peasants floodplain meadows. But after the long-awaited death of the Afterlife, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.
Here, near the village of Vahlachin, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvée, hungry, soldier's, salty - and stories about serf times. One of these stories is about the serf of the exemplary Jacob the faithful. Yakov's only joy was to please his master, the petty landowner Polivanov. Samodur Polivanov, in gratitude, beat Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey's soul. By old age, Polivanov lost his legs, and Yakov began to follow him like a child. But when Yakov's nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the serf beauty Arisha, out of jealousy, Polivanov sent the guy to the recruits. Yakov began to drink, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, in a lackey way. Having brought the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself right above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful servant, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror.
Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the peasants by God's wanderer Iona Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the ataman of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber prayed for sins for a long time, but all of them were released to him only after he killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky in a surge of anger.
The wandering men also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the headman, who hid the last will of the late widower admiral for money, who decided to free his peasants.
But not only wandering peasants think about the happiness of the people. The son of a sacristan, seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives in Vakhlachin. In his heart, love for the deceased mother merged with love for the whole of Vahlachina. For fifteen years, Grisha knew for sure to whom he was ready to give his life, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all mysterious Russia as a miserable, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible strength that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in her. Such strong souls, like those of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the angel of mercy himself calls for an honest path. Fate prepares Grisha "a glorious path, a loud name of the people's intercessor, consumption and Siberia."
If the wandering men knew what was happening in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would surely understand that they could already return to their native roof, because the goal of their journey had been achieved.
