ON THE. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”: description, characters, analysis of the poem. Poem “Who Lives Well in Rus' Topics of the Poem Who Lives Well in Rus'

The theme of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (1863-1877) is a depiction of post-reform Russia for ten to fifteen years after the abolition of serfdom. The reform of 1861 is an extremely important event in Russian history, because it radically changed the life of the entire state and the entire people. After all, serfdom determined the economic, political, and cultural situation in Russia for approximately three hundred years. And now it has been canceled and normal life has been disrupted. Nekrasov formulates this idea in the poem as follows:

The great chain has broken,
Torn and splintered:
One way for the master,
Others don't care. (“Landowner”)

The idea of ​​the poem is a discussion about human happiness in the modern world. It is formulated in the title itself: who lives well in Rus'.

The plot of the poem is based on a description of the journey across Rus' of seven temporarily obliged men. The men are looking for a happy person and on their way they meet a variety of people, listen to stories about different human destinies. This is how the poem unfolds a broad picture of contemporary Russian life for Nekrasov.

A short exposition of the plot is placed in the prologue of the poem:

In what year - calculate
Guess what land?
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
From adjacent villages -
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razugova, Znobishina,

Gorelova, Neelova,
Bad harvest too.

The men met by chance, because each was going about his own business: one had to go to the blacksmith, another was in a hurry to invite the priest to a christening, the third was going to sell honeycombs at the market, the Gubin brothers had to catch their stubborn horse, etc. The plot of the poem begins with the oath of the seven heroes:

Don't toss and turn in the houses,
Don't see any of your wives.
Not with the little guys
Not with old people.
As long as the matter is moot
No solution will be found -
Who lives happily?
Free in Rus'? (prologue)

Already in this dispute between the men, Nekrasov presents a plan for the development of the plot action in the work - who the wanderers will meet:

Roman said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official,
Luke said: ass.
To the fat-bellied merchant! —
The Gubin brothers said,
Ivan and Metrodor.
Old man Pakhom pushed
And he said, looking at the ground:
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister.
And Prov said: to the king. (prologue)

As you know, Nekrasov did not finish the poem, so the planned plan was not fully completed: the peasants talked with the priest (chapter “Pop”), with the landowner Obolt-Obolduev (chapter “Landowner”), observed the “happy life” of the nobleman - Prince Utyatin (chapter "Last One") All the travelers’ interlocutors cannot call themselves happy; they are dissatisfied with their lives, everyone complains about difficulties and deprivations.

However, even in the unfinished poem there is a climax in the meeting of the men in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” (in different editions the title of the chapter is written differently - “A Feast for the Whole World” or “A Feast for the Whole World”) with a happy man - Grisha Dobrosklonov. True, the men did not understand that they were seeing a happy man in front of them: this young man looked very unlike a man who, according to peasant ideas, could be called happy. After all, the wanderers were looking for a person with good health, with income, with a good family and, of course, with a clear conscience - that’s what happiness is, according to the men. Therefore, they calmly pass by the beggar and unnoticed seminarian. Nevertheless, it is he who feels happy, despite the fact that he is poor, in poor health, and, according to Nekrasov, has a short and difficult life ahead of him:

Fate had in store for him
The path is glorious, the name is loud
People's Defender,
Consumption and Siberia. (“Feast for the whole world”)

So, the climax is literally in the last lines of the poem and practically coincides with the denouement:

If only our wanderers could be under their own roof,
If only they could know what was happening to Grisha. (“Feast for the whole world”)

Consequently, the first feature of the composition of the poem is the coincidence of the climax and denouement. The second feature is that, in fact, the entire poem, excluding the prologue, where the plot is located, represents the development of an action constructed in a very complex manner. The general plot of the poem described above is threaded with numerous life stories of heroes met by travelers. The individual stories within the poem are united by the cross-cutting theme of the road and the main idea of ​​the work. This construction has been used more than once in literature, starting with Homer’s “Odyssey” and ending with N.V. Gogol’s “Dead Souls.” In other words, the poem is compositionally similar to a motley mosaic picture, which is made up of many pebble pieces. Collected together, individual stories heard by wanderers create a broad panorama of post-reform Russian reality and the recent serf past.

Each private story-story has its own more or less complete plot and composition. The life of Yakim Nagogo, for example, is described very briefly in the chapter “Drunk Night.” This middle-aged peasant worked hard and a lot all his life, as his portrait definitely indicates:

The chest is sunken; as if pressed in
Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth

Bends like cracks
On dry ground...

He bought it for his son
Hung them on the walls
And he himself is no less than a boy
Loved looking at them.

It is Yakim who gives the answer to Mr. Veretennikov when he reproaches the peasants for drunkenness:

There is no measure for Russian hops,
Have they measured our grief?
Is there a limit to the work?

More detailed stories with a detailed plot are dedicated to Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina; Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero; Ermila Girin; Yakov the faithful exemplary slave.

The last hero, the devoted servant of Mr. Polivanov, is described in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World.” The plot of the action is outside the scope of the story: even in his youth

Yakov had only joy:
To groom, protect, please the master
Yes, rock my little nephew.

The author briefly describes the thirty-three years of the wild life of Mr. Polivanov, until his legs became paralyzed. Yakov, like a kind nurse, looked after his master. The climax of the story comes when Polivanov “thanked” his faithful servant: he gave Yakov’s only relative, his nephew Grisha, as a recruit, because this fellow wanted to marry a girl who the master himself liked. The denouement of the story about the exemplary slave comes quite quickly - Yakov takes his master to the remote Devil's Ravine and hangs himself in front of his eyes. This denouement simultaneously becomes the second climax of the story, since the master receives a terrible moral punishment for his atrocities:

Hanging
Yakov swings rhythmically over the master,
The master rushes about, sobs, screams,
One echo responds!

So the faithful servant refuses, as he did before, to forgive the master everything. Before death, human dignity awakens in Yakov, and it does not allow him to kill a legless disabled person, even one as soulless as Mr. Polivanov. The former slave leaves his offender to live and suffer:

The master returned home, wailing:
“I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!
You, master, will be an exemplary slave,
Jacob the faithful
Remember until judgment day!

In conclusion, it should be repeated that Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is compositionally constructed in a complex way: the overall plot includes complete stories that have their own plots and compositions. The stories are dedicated to individual heroes, primarily peasants (Ermil Girin, Yakov the faithful, Matryona Timofeevna, Saveliy, Yakim Nagoy, etc.). This is somewhat unexpected, because in the dispute between the seven men, representatives of all classes of Russian society are named (landowner, official, priest, merchant), even the tsar - everyone except the peasant.

The poem was written over about fifteen years, and during this time its plan changed somewhat in comparison with the original plan. Gradually, Nekrasov comes to the conclusion that the main figure in Russian history is the peasant who feeds and protects the country. It is the mood of the people that plays an increasingly noticeable role in the state, therefore, in the chapters “Peasant Woman”, “Last One”, “Feast for the Whole World” people from the people become the main characters. They are unhappy, but have strong characters (Savely), wisdom (Yakim Nagoy), kindness and responsiveness (Vahlaks and Grisha Dobrosklonov). It is not for nothing that the poem ends with the song “Rus”, in which the author expressed his faith in the future of Russia.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was not finished, but it can be considered as a complete work, since the idea stated at the beginning found its complete expression: Grisha Dobrosklonov turns out to be happy, who is ready to give his life for the happiness of ordinary people. In other words, while working on the poem, the author replaced the peasant understanding of happiness with a populist one: the happiness of an individual is impossible without the happiness of the people.

Nekrasov's poem, which became a true epic of people's life, absorbed all the main themes of the poet's work. The main idea of ​​this work, expressed in its title, gives the poem not only national, but also universal significance. Drawing the state of post-reform Russia, the poet emphasizes that in an atmosphere of change, stable, unchanging principles appear most clearly. Here is a theme that is closely related to the most important theme of the poet’s later lyrics: the chains of serfdom fell apart, but the suffering of the people remained, an indelible mark left by centuries of slavery remained:

The great chain broke, It broke and sprang apart: One end hit the master, The other hit the peasant!..

The reader learns that the life of the people remains difficult in the Prologue, where he meets the wanderers who will have to look for happiness. These are the “seven temporarily obliged”

The tightened provinces of Zaplatov, Dyryavina, Terpigoreva County, Razutov, Zlobishina, Empty Pozhnaya Volost, Gorelov, Neelova - From adjacent villages: Unharvest also...

The very names of these villages speak eloquently about the situation of the people in post-reform Russia. But this theme appears most clearly in the further course of the search for the happy one, who should embody the people's dream of happiness:

We are looking, Uncle Vlas, for the unworn province, the ungutted volost, the village of Izbytkov!..

In the chapter “Happy”, the stories of the “happy” sound with bitter irony, which show the wretchedness and unbearable severity of the life of the people, when a person, beggar, sick, crippled, is happy only because he remained alive after all the suffering he endured. This is “peasant happiness” - “holey with patches, hunchbacked with calluses.” All subsequent meetings of peasant wanderers confirm the idea that the lot of the people remains difficult.

This is especially true of the female lot - another favorite theme of Nekrasov’s work, which appears again with all its force in the part “Peasant Woman”, which tells about the fate of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina. She, like many other Russian women, can sum it up bitterly:

It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women!..

But the poet also sees the bright sides of people’s life, which are associated with the rich possibilities that lie within him. This is a working people, the creator of all the material and spiritual values ​​in which the country is rich:

We are a little bit of a working life - We ask God: Direct to a friend An honest deed is dear to the heart, Do it skillfully Away from the threshold, Give us strength! Coward and lazy!

This theme is closely related to the theme of heroism inherent in the Russian national character. This is not only heroic strength, which is concentrated in the image of Savely, but the ability to stand up for the truth, for one’s happiness:

The army is rising - Innumerable! The strength in her will be indestructible!

That is why the poet’s words about the age-old humility and long-suffering of the people, which is also a distinctive feature of the national character, sound so bitter:

That’s why we endured, Because we are heroes. This is Russian heroism.

Savely says so, but it is not for nothing that the poet shows him, and with him the whole people, not only in submission, but also when his patience comes to an end. Savely tells how, unable to withstand the abuse of the German Vogel, the peasants buried him alive in the ground:

And no matter how the German ruled, our axes lay - for the time being!

It is significant that, in accordance with the laws of the epic, the national motivation here coincides with the social one. The poet claims that the people experience similar antipathy towards representatives of the church, although these feelings are not entirely motivated. Calling priests “a foal breed,” men cannot answer why they treat them this way: “Not themselves... because of their parents,” is all they can say. This is also a feature of epic consciousness, epic experience, which cannot be explained by the everyday experience of one generation. It is national, primordial and goes back to the times of the forefathers.

But the hatred of the peasants for the oppressor landowners is quite clearly indicated. She clearly appears in the chapter “The Landowner” and in the part “The Last One,” where another important theme of Nekrasov’s work arises - a satirical depiction of the enslavers and exploiters of the people. At the same time, the poet shows that the popular consciousness does not accept the position of the landowner Obolt-Obolduev, who yearns for the times when he had unlimited power:

The law is my desire! The fist is my police!

With great doubt, the men listen to the story of how, after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants agreed to play “gum” for the old landowner Utyatin, portraying his serfs. For this, the landowner's heirs promise the peasants to give them the flood meadows after the death of the old master. But it turns out that even in this capacity, serfdom is destructive: unable to withstand the humiliation, the peasant Agap dies. After all, serfdom cripples not only physically, but also morally. With bitterness, Nekrasov shows people of “servile rank” existing among the people, whom the people themselves treat with great contempt. The poet experiences even greater pain when he talks about how people drown their grief in wine:

Every peasant has a Soul like a black cloud - Angry, menacing - and it would be necessary for Thunder to thunder from there, Bloody rains to fall, And everything ends in wine.

This idea runs through the entire chapter “Drunken Night”, it continues further, but already here it is shown the emergence among the people of people who are able to soberly assess the situation of the people and try to find other ways to confront the hardships of life. After all, a sense of truth, justice, and a sense of dignity are also inherent in the people's consciousness. This idea is reflected in such vivid images of the poem as Yakim Nagoy and Ermil Girin. Along with them, the work includes themes of the awakening of the people's consciousness, their desire for truth, the ability to stand up for a common cause with the whole world (the scene of the purchase of a mill). The democratic poet saw that popular protest was limited and spontaneous, and faith in the Tsar-Father remained unchanged. Only the people's intercessor Grisha Dobrosklonov was given the opportunity to fully understand the roots of all the people's troubles: “It's the fault of everything,” - and therefore the final part of the poem, summing up the development of its artistic idea, is connected with the theme of the people's intercessors.

But in the previous parts of the poem, the poet more than once says that the people have an inherent desire for truth and beauty, creative forces are alive in them, a powerful spirit that allows, no matter what, through their labor, to create everything that the Russian land is proud of: Material from the site

Saved in slavery, the heart is free - Gold, gold, the heart of the people!

Of course, Nekrasov sees that the protest ripening among the people is spontaneous and inconsistent, and its aesthetic needs are still limited to popular prints, which Yakim Nagoy values ​​so much. But the poet dreams of that time

When the people will not carry Blucher and my stupid lord, Belinsky and Gogol from the market.

It is not for nothing that the chapter “Rural Fair” is of such importance in the poem, in which, in the atmosphere of a wide national holiday, a theatrical spectacle arises - a folk performance, a bala-gan with its inexhaustible humor, reckless fun, and sometimes, angry ridicule of the oppressors of the people. This festive, joyful, free element of folk life is felt even more in the last chapter, “A Feast for the Whole World,” built entirely on a folk song basis. All this shows that the main ideological basis of the poem is the author’s belief that such a people are worthy of happiness, worthy of a better share that will be won for them:

In moments of despondency, O Motherland! My thoughts fly forward. You are still destined to suffer a lot, But you will not die, I know. Enough! The settlement with the past has been completed, the settlement with the master has been completed! The Russian people are gathering strength and learning to be citizens.

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One of the most famous works of Nikolai Nekrasov is the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, which is distinguished not only by its deep philosophical meaning and social acuity, but also by its bright, original characters - these are seven simple Russian men who got together and argued about who “ life is free and joyful in Rus'.” The poem was first published in 1866 in the Sovremennik magazine. The publication of the poem was resumed three years later, but the tsarist censorship, seeing the content as an attack on the autocratic regime, did not allow it to be published. The poem was published in full only after the revolution in 1917.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” became the central work in the work of the great Russian poet; it is his ideological and artistic pinnacle, the result of his thoughts and reflections on the fate of the Russian people and on the roads leading to their happiness and well-being. These questions worried the poet throughout his life and ran like a red thread through his entire literary activity. Work on the poem lasted 14 years (1863-1877) and in order to create this “folk epic”, as the author himself called it, useful and understandable for the common people, Nekrasov made a lot of efforts, although in the end it was never finished (8 chapters were planned, 4 were written). A serious illness and then the death of Nekrasov disrupted his plans. Plot incompleteness does not prevent the work from having an acute social character.

Main storyline

The poem was begun by Nekrasov in 1863 after the abolition of serfdom, so its content touches on many problems that arose after the Peasant Reform of 1861. The poem has four chapters, they are united by a common plot about how seven ordinary men argued about who lives well in Rus' and who is truly happy. The plot of the poem, touching on serious philosophical and social problems, is structured in the form of a journey through Russian villages, their “speaking” names perfectly describe the Russian reality of that time: Dyryavina, Razutov, Gorelov, Zaplatov, Neurozhaikin, etc. In the first chapter, called “Prologue,” the men meet on a highway and start their own dispute; in order to resolve it, they go on a trip to Russia. On the way, the disputing men meet a variety of people, these are peasants, merchants, landowners, priests, beggars, and drunkards, they see a wide variety of pictures from people’s lives: funerals, weddings, fairs, elections, etc. .

Meeting different people, the men ask them the same question: how happy they are, but both the priest and the landowner complain about the deterioration of life after the abolition of serfdom, only a few of all the people they meet at the fair admit that they are truly happy.

In the second chapter, entitled “The Last One,” wanderers come to the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, whose inhabitants, after the abolition of serfdom, in order not to upset the old count, continue to pose as serfs. Nekrasov shows readers how they were then cruelly deceived and robbed by the count's sons.

The third chapter, entitled “Peasant Woman,” describes the search for happiness among the women of that time, the wanderers meet with Matryona Korchagina in the village of Klin, she tells them about her long-suffering fate and advises them not to look for happy people among Russian women.

In the fourth chapter, entitled “A Feast for the Whole World,” wandering seekers of truth find themselves at a feast in the village of Valakhchin, where they understand that the questions they ask people about happiness concern all Russian people, without exception. The ideological finale of the work is the song “Rus”, which originated in the head of a participant in the feast, the son of the parish sexton Grigory Dobrosklonov:

« You're miserable too

you are abundant

you and the omnipotent

Mother Rus'!»

Main characters

The question of who is the main character of the poem remains open, formally these are the men who argued about happiness and decided to go on a trip to Russia to decide who is right, however, the poem clearly states that the main character of the poem is the entire Russian people , perceived as a single whole. The images of the wandering men (Roman, Demyan, Luka, the brothers Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin, the old man Pakhom and Prov) are practically not revealed, their characters are not drawn, they act and express themselves as a single organism, while the images of the people they meet, on the contrary, are painted very carefully, with a lot of details and nuances.

One of the brightest representatives of a man from the people can be called the son of the parish clerk Grigory Dobrosklonov, who was presented by Nekrasov as a people's intercessor, educator and savior. He is one of the key characters and the entire final chapter is devoted to the description of his image. Grisha, like no one else, is close to the people, understands their dreams and aspirations, wants to help them and composes wonderful “good songs” for people that bring joy and hope to those around them. Through his lips, the author proclaims his views and beliefs, gives answers to the pressing social and moral questions raised in the poem. Characters such as seminarian Grisha and honest mayor Yermil Girin do not seek happiness for themselves, they dream of making all people happy at once and devote their entire lives to this. The main idea of ​​the poem follows from Dobrosklonov’s understanding of the very concept of happiness; this feeling can be fully felt only by those who, without reasoning, give their lives for a just cause in the fight for people’s happiness.

The main female character of the poem is Matryona Korchagina; the entire third chapter is devoted to a description of her tragic fate, typical of all Russian women. Drawing her portrait, Nekrasov admires her straight, proud posture, simple attire and the amazing beauty of a simple Russian woman (large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark). Her whole life is spent in hard peasant work, she has to endure beatings from her husband and brazen attacks from the manager, she was destined to survive the tragic death of her first-born, hunger and deprivation. She lives only for the sake of her children, and without hesitation accepts punishment with rods for her guilty son. The author admires the strength of her maternal love, endurance and strong character, sincerely pities her and sympathizes with all Russian women, for the fate of Matryona is the fate of all peasant women of that time, suffering from lawlessness, poverty, religious fanaticism and superstition, and lack of qualified medical care.

The poem also describes the images of landowners, their wives and sons (princes, nobles), depicts the landowners' servants (lackeys, servants, courtyard servants), priests and other clergy, kind governors and cruel German managers, artists, soldiers, wanderers, a huge number secondary characters who give the folk lyric-epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” that unique polyphony and epic breadth that make this work a real masterpiece and the pinnacle of Nekrasov’s entire literary work.

Analysis of the poem

The problems raised in the work are diverse and complex, they affect the lives of various strata of society, including a difficult transition to a new way of life, problems of drunkenness, poverty, obscurantism, greed, cruelty, oppression, the desire to change something, etc.

However, the key problem of this work is the search for simple human happiness, which each of the characters understands in their own way. For example, rich people, such as priests or landowners, think only about their own well-being, this is happiness for them, poorer people, such as ordinary peasants, are happy with the simplest things: staying alive after a bear attack, surviving a beating at work, etc. .

The main idea of ​​the poem is that the Russian people deserve to be happy, they deserve it with their suffering, blood and sweat. Nekrasov was convinced that one must fight for one’s happiness and it is not enough to make one person happy, because this will not solve the entire global problem as a whole; the poem calls for thinking and striving for happiness for everyone without exception.

Structural and compositional features

The compositional form of the work is distinctive; it is built in accordance with the laws of classical epic, i.e. each chapter can exist independently, and all together they represent a single whole work with a large number of characters and storylines.

The poem, according to the author himself, belongs to the genre of folk epic, it is written in unrhymed iambic trimeter, at the end of each line after stressed syllables there are two unstressed syllables (the use of dactylic casula), in some places there is iambic tetrameter to emphasize the folklore style of the work.

In order for the poem to be understandable to the common man, many common words and expressions are used in it: village, breveshko, fair, empty popple, etc. The poem contains a large number of different examples of folk poetry, these are fairy tales, epics, various proverbs and sayings, folk songs of various genres. The language of the work is stylized by the author in the form of a folk song to improve ease of perception; at that time, the use of folklore was considered the best way of communication between the intelligentsia and the common people.

In the poem, the author used such means of artistic expression as epithets (“the sun is red”, “black shadows”, a free heart”, “poor people”), comparisons (“jumped out as if disheveled”, “the men fell asleep like the dead”), metaphors ( “the earth lies”, “the warbler is crying”, “the village is seething”). There is also a place for irony and sarcasm, various stylistic figures are used, such as addresses: “Hey, uncle!”, “Oh people, Russian people!”, various exclamations “Chu!”, “Eh, Eh!” etc.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the highest example of a work executed in the folk style of Nekrasov’s entire literary heritage. The elements and images of Russian folklore used by the poet give the work a bright originality, colorfulness and rich national flavor. The fact that Nekrasov made the search for happiness the main theme of the poem is not at all accidental, because the entire Russian people have been searching for it for many thousands of years, this is reflected in his fairy tales, epics, legends, songs and in other various folklore sources as the search for treasure, a happy land, priceless treasure. The theme of this work expressed the most cherished desire of the Russian people throughout its existence - to live happily in a society where justice and equality rule.

Description of the presentation by individual slides:

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Essay topics based on the poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'” For a literature lesson in 10th grade

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Purpose of the lesson: Educational: check the degree of understanding of the poem. Developmental: continue learning the skills of writing a class essay. Educational: to cultivate a love of classical literature and patriotic feelings.

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Topics of the essays Genre and composition of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” The meaning of the title of the poem Irony and satire in the poem Motives of time and space in the poem

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Essay topics 1. How do the characters and the author of the poem understand happiness? 2. Russian national character as depicted by Nekrasov. 3. How do priests, landowners and tsars live? 4. Images of fighters for the people’s cause 5. Image of the people in the poem 6. Image of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina in the poem

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Detailed plan for an essay on the topic “The problem of national happiness in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”: N.A. Nekrasov is a singer of the people. 1 “The people are liberated, but are the people happy?” 2. a) Poor, dark, downtrodden Russia (description of the life of the people in songs, names of villages, provinces, in the landscape). b) The popular concept of happiness: - happiness in the understanding of Matryona Timofeevna and the peasants; - Yakim Nagoy. Spontaneity in understanding the causes of evil and the guilt of “shareholders of the people's property”; - Ermil Girin’s conscious service to the interests of the peasants; - Saveliy is the Svyatorussky hero, as a new stage of awakening consciousness, as a reflection of the power of the peasant army rising to fight. c) Two possible roads to happiness: - the road along which “a huge, greedy crowd goes to temptation”; Nekrasov’s satirical attitude towards such people; - the other is narrow, the “honest” road is the path of a glorious intercessor, a fighter for the people’s happiness. 3. “The army is rising - innumerable, the strength in it will be indestructible” or “Whoever gives his life entirely to fight for his brother - a man, only he will outlive himself.”

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The female share (according to Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”) The keys to female happiness... are abandoned, lost from God himself. N. A. Nekrasov Plan I. Gallery of female images in domestic and foreign literature. II. The happiness of a simple peasant woman in Nekrasov’s understanding. 1. Trying to find someone happy among the common people. 2. The happiness of young Matryona Korchagina. 3. Hell among my husband's relatives. 4. The tragic death of Demushka. 5. "Governor's wife." III. Nekrasov's admiration for a Russian woman.

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3. Who can live well in Rus'? This is the question asked by seven wandering men. This question also interested the author of the work “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. The answer is his long-term, but unfinished work - an epic poem about the life of the people in the post-reform period of the abolition of serfdom.

“Who can live well in Rus'?” - the poem begins with this question. The heroes who go looking for “who lives happily and freely in Rus'” ask questions to representatives of different classes and receive different answers. Sometimes we are presented with opposing ideals of happiness. However, the main goal of the heroes is to find “peasant happiness.” Who are they, happy ones? How to combine personal happiness with public happiness? The author poses these questions to himself and his characters.

For the landowner Obolt-Obolduev and Prince Utyatin, happiness is a thing of the past. These heroes regret the times of serfdom: “fortification” allowed them to be self-willed, to spend time in idleness and gluttony, the fun of hound hunting... “Peace, wealth, honor” - this is the formula for happiness that the priest deduces, but in reality it turns out that there is no peace, no wealth, no honor in the life of a clergyman.

The peasant world appears before us in the chapter “Happy”. It would seem that now, judging by the title of the chapter, we will receive an answer to the main question of the poem. Is it so? The soldier’s happiness lies in the fact that the poor fellow was not killed in battle, nor beaten with sticks, punished for “great and small” offenses. The stonemason is happy that, by working, he drives need away from his family. The Belarusian peasant, having suffered from hunger in the past, rejoices in being full in the present... Thus, happiness for these people consists in the absence of misfortune.

Further in the poem, images of people's intercessors appear. A clear conscience, the trust of people - this is the happiness of Ermila Girin. For Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, endowed with fortitude and self-esteem, the idea of ​​happiness is associated with family and children. For Savely, happiness is freedom. But do they also have what they say?..

Nobody has a good life in Rus'. Why are there no happy people in Rus'? Is serfdom and the habit of slavery alone to blame? Will the country move towards happiness if memories of serfdom disappear? Grisha Dobrosklonov is inclined to think so. But for Nekrasov this is only part of the truth. Let us remember “Elegy” (“Let changing fashion tell us...”): “The people are liberated, but are the people happy?..”.

The author translates the problem of happiness into a moral plane. The key theme of the poem is the theme of sin. Numerous peasant sins, combined with the master’s sins, fall heavily on Rus'. Everyone is sinful, even the best: Ermila Girin shielded his brother from recruiting at the cost of a widow’s tears; Savely responded to oppression with murder... Is happiness possible at the expense of another? And what are they anyway - the paths leading to people's happiness? True happiness is the struggle for the people's good. Living for others is the ideal of Grisha Dobrosklonov. From the author’s point of view, the only possible path to happiness is the path of redemption, sacrifice, and asceticism. Matryona Korchagina falls under the lashes, Savely exhausts himself with a vow, Ermila Girin goes to prison, Grisha chooses “the glorious path, the great name of the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.”

Despite everything, the ending of the poem is optimistic. The author leads us to the conclusion that, firstly, the happiness of the people will be possible only when they become the rightful owner of their land. Secondly, only those who fulfill their duty to the people can be happy, who sees the purpose of life in their liberation from the sins of slavery, servility, poverty, drunkenness, savagery, and therefore in universal happiness. Only in the struggle “for the embodiment of the people’s happiness” can a person “live freely and cheerfully in Rus'.”