Who can live well in Rus' through the work of peasants? Images of peasants in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'. The image of the main wanderer characters

N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was created over more than ten years (1863-1876). The main problem that interested the poet was the situation of the Russian peasant under serfdom and after “liberation.” N. A. Nekrasov speaks about the essence of the tsar’s manifesto in the words of the people: “You are kind, tsar’s charter, but you were not written about us.” Paintings folk life written with epic breadth, and this gives the right to call it an encyclopedia of Russian life of that time.

Drawing numerous images of peasants and different characters, the author divides the heroes into two camps: slaves and fighters. Already in the prologue we meet the truth-seeking peasants. They live in villages with characteristic names: v Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaika. The purpose of their journey is to find happy person in Rus'. While traveling, the peasants meet different people. After listening to the priest’s story about his “happiness”, having received advice to find out about the landowner’s happiness, the peasants say:

You're past them, the landowners!

We know them!

Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the “noble” word, they need the “Christian word”:

Give me your Christian word!

Noblesse with abuse,

With a push and a punch,

That is of no use to us.

Truth-seekers are hardworking and always strive to help others. Having heard from a peasant woman that there are not enough workers to harvest the bread on time, the men suggest:

What are we doing, godfather?

Bring on the sickles! All seven

How will we be tomorrow - by evening

We will burn all your rye!

They also willingly help the peasants of the Illiterate Province mow the grass.

Nekrasov most fully reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before their masters and do not resign themselves to their slave position.

Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo lives in terrible poverty. He works himself to death, saving himself under the harrow from the heat and rain.

The chest is sunken; as if pressed in

Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth

Bends like cracks

On dry ground...

Reading the description of the peasant’s appearance, we understand that Yakim, having toiled all his life on a gray, barren piece of land, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by “shareholders” who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him:

You work alone

And the work is almost over,

Look, there are three shareholders standing:

God, king and lord!

All my long life Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, went hungry, went to prison, and, “like a piece of velvet, he returned to his homeland.” But still he finds the strength to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his hut with pictures, loves apt words, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the latrine industry. And his voice is the voice of the most advanced peasants: . Every peasant

Soul, like a black cloud -

Angry, menacing - and it should be

Thunder will roar from there,

It's raining bloody...

WITH The poet has great sympathy for his hero Ermil Girin, the village elder, fair, honest, smart, who, according to the peasants,

In seven years the world's penny

I didn’t squeeze it under my nail,

At the age of seven I didn’t touch the right one,

He did not allow the guilty

I didn’t bend my heart...

Only once did Yermil act dishonestly, giving the old woman Vlasyevna’s son to the army instead of his brother. Repenting, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor was special, not bought “neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness.”

The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil preserve the mill, showing exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Yermil, not afraid of the prison, took the side of the peasants when “the estate of the landowner Obrubkov was rebelling.” Ermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests.

The next and most striking image in this series is Savely, the Holy Russian hero, a fighter for the people's cause. In his youth, he, like all peasants, endured cruel bullying for a long time from the landowner Shalashnikov and his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the German Vogel in the ground alive. Saveliy received “twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of imprisonment” for this. Returning as an old man to his native village, he retained good spirits and hatred of his oppressors. “Branded, but not a slave!” - he says about himself. Until old age Savely retained a clear mind, warmth, and responsiveness. In the poem he is shown as the people's avenger:

...Our axes

They lay there for the time being!

He speaks contemptuously about passive peasants, calling them “perished... lost.”

Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely personifies the people's desire for freedom.

This image is given in the same chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters. Matryona Timofeevna goes through many trials. In her parents' house she lived freely and cheerfully, and after marriage she had to work like a slave, endure the reproaches of her husband's relatives, and her husband's beatings. She found joy only in work and children. She had a hard time with the death of her son Demushka, the year of hunger, and beggary. But in difficult moments, she showed firmness and persistence: she worked for the release of her husband, who was illegally taken as a soldier, and even went to the governor himself. She stood up for Fedotushka when they wanted to punish him with rods. Rebellious, determined, she is always ready to defend her rights, and this brings her closer to Savely. Having told the wanderers about her difficult life, she says that “it’s not a matter of looking for a happy one among women.” In the chapter entitled “The Woman’s Parable,” the Yankee peasant speaks about a woman’s lot:

The keys to female happiness,

From our free will

Abandonedlost

From God himself.

But Nekrasov is sure that the “keys” must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobroskponov’s songs:

You are still a slave in the family,

But the mother of a free son!

Nekrasov, with a special feeling, created images of truth-seekers, fighters, in which the strength of the people and the will to fight the oppressors were expressed. However, the poet could not help but turn to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who have become accustomed to their slave position. In the chapter “Happy,” the truth-seeking peasants meet a courtyard man who considers himself happy because he was the beloved slave of Prince Peremetyev. The courtyard is proud that his daughter, together with the young lady, “studied French and all sorts of languages; she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess.” And the servant himself stood behind the chair of His Serene Highness for thirty years, licking the plates after him and finishing off the remnants of overseas wines. He is proud of his “closeness” to the masters and his “honorable” disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at the slave who looks down on his fellow men, not understanding the baseness of his lackey position. Prince Utyatin’s servant Ipat did not even believe that “freedom” had been declared to the peasants:

And I am the Utyatin princes

Serf - and that's the whole story!

From childhood until old age, the master mocked his slave Ipat in every possible way. The footman took all this for granted: ...ransomed

Me, the latter's slave,

In winter in the ice hole!

How wonderful!

Two ice holes:

He will lower you into one in a net,

In another moment he will pull out -

And he’ll bring you some vodka.

Ipat could not forget the master’s “mercies”: the fact that after swimming in the ice hole the prince would “bring some vodka”, then he would seat him “next to, unworthy, his princely person.”

A submissive slave is also an “exemplary slave—Yakov the faithful.” He served under the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who “in the teeth of an exemplary slave... casually blew his heel.” Despite such treatment, the faithful slave took care of and pleased the master until his old age. The landowner cruelly offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Yakov “made a fool”: first he “drank the dead man”, and then he drove the master into a remote forest ravine and hanged himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest as well as servile submission.

Nekrasov speaks with indignation about such traitors to the people's cause as Elder Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the “freedom” given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, thereby “for tens of years, until recently, the villain secured eight thousand souls.”

To characterize the serf peasants, deprived of a sense of their own dignity, the poet finds contemptuous words: slave, serf, dog, Judas. Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization:

People of servile rank -

Real dogs sometimes:

The heavier the punishment,

That's why gentlemen are dearer to them.

Creating different types of peasants, Ne-krasov argues: there are no happy ones among them, the peasants, even after the abolition of serfdom, are still destitute and deprived of blood, only the forms of oppression have changed. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest. And therefore the poet believes that in the future Rus' will come good life:

More to the Russian people

No limits set:

There is a wide path before him.

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“Images of peasants in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

Poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who Lives Well in Rus'" was created in last period life of the poet (1863-1876). Ideological plan The poem is indicated already in its title, and then repeated in the text: who can live well in Rus'? In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N.A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their difficult situation. The main problem This work is a search for an answer to the question, “who lives cheerfully, at ease in Rus',” who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The poet speaks about the essence of the Tsar’s manifesto in the words of the people: “You are kind, Tsar’s letter, but you were not written about us.” The poet touched upon the pressing problems of his time, condemned slavery and oppression, sang the freedom-loving, talented, strong-willed Russian people. The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. They live in the villages: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaika. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, and the desire to find happiness in Rus'. While traveling, peasants meet different people, evaluate them, determine their attitude towards the priest, towards the landowner, towards the peasant reform, towards the peasants. Men do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the tsar. Peasant truth-seekers have a sense of self-esteem. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, taller, and smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the people’s love for work and their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matryona Timofeevna’s crop is dying, the men without hesitation offer her help. They also willingly help the peasants of the Illiterate Province mow the grass. “Like teeth from hunger,” everyone’s nimble hand works.

Traveling around Russia, the men meet different people. Revealing the images of the heroes encountered by truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the situation of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility.

Having listened to the priest’s story about his “happiness”, having received advice to find out about the landowner’s happiness, the peasants snapped: you are past them, the landowners! We know them! Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the noble word, they need the “Christian word.” “Give me your Christian word! The noble with a scolding, with a push and a punch, is unsuitable for us! They have self-esteem. In the chapter “Happy” they angrily see off the sexton, a servant who boasted of his servile position: “Get lost!” They sympathize with the soldier’s terrible story and tell him: “Here, have a drink, servant! There's no point in arguing with you. You are happy - there is no word."

The author pays main attention to the peasants. The images of Yakim Nagogo, Ermila Girin, Savely, Matryona Timofeevna combine both general, typical features of the peasantry, such as, for example, hatred of all “shareholders” who extract from them vitality, as well as individual traits.

Nekrasov more fully reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before their masters and do not resign themselves to their slave position. Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo lives in terrible poverty. He works himself to death, saving himself under the harrow from the heat and rain. His portrait shows constant hard work:

And to Mother Earth myself

He looks like: brown neck,

Like a layer cut off by a plow,

Brick face...

The chest is sunken, like a depressed belly. There are bends near the eyes, near the mouth, like cracks in dried earth... Reading the description of the peasant’s face, we understand that Yakim, having toiled all his life on a gray, barren piece, had himself become like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by “shareholders” who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him. “You work alone, and as soon as the work is finished, look, there are three shareholders: God, the Tsar and the Master!” All his long life, Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, went hungry, went to prison and, “like a piece of velcro, he returned to his homeland.” But still he finds the strength to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his hut with pictures, loves and uses apt words, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the latrine industry. And his voice is the voice of the most determined peasants. Yakim understands that the peasantry is a great force. He is proud to belong to it. He knows what the strength and weakness of the “peasant soul” is:

Soul, like a black cloud -

Angry, menacing - and it should be

Thunder will roar from there...

And it all ends with wine...

Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the real reason This situation means the need to work for “shareholders.” The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Rus': he “once lived in St. Petersburg,” but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “torn like a piece of Velcro” and “took up his plow.”

The writer treats with great sympathy his hero Yermil Girin, the village elder, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants: “At seven years old he did not squeeze a worldly penny under his fingernail, at seven years he did not touch the right, did not allow the guilty, did not with his soul screwed up...” Only once did Yermil act against his conscience, giving the old woman Vlasyevna’s son to the army instead of his brother. Repenting, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace, money, honor, but his honor was special, not bought “neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness.” The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult moment helps Yermil save the mill, shows exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Yermil, not afraid of prison, took the side of the peasants when: “the estate of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled...” Yermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests. If the protest of Yakim Nagogo is spontaneous, then Yermil Girin rises to a conscious protest.

Another hero of the work is Savely. Savely, the Holy Russian hero, is a fighter for the people's cause. Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He ponders whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights and oppressed state. Savely comes to the conclusion: it is better to “understand” than to “endure,” and he calls for protest. In his youth, like all peasants, he endured cruel bullying for a long time from the landowner Shalashnikov, his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants; he buried the living German Vogel in the ground. Saveliy received “twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of imprisonment” for this. Returning as an old man to his native village, Savely retained good spirits and hatred of the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" - he said about himself. Until old age Savely retained a clear mind, warmth, and responsiveness. In the poem he is shown as people's avenger: “our axes lay - for the time being!” He speaks contemptuously about passive peasants, calling them “dead... lost.” Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, raising him very high, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely personifies the people's desire for freedom. The image of Savely is given in the same chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters.

Nekrasov poem peasantry Rus'

IN last chapter, called “The Woman’s Parable,” the peasant woman speaks about the common female lot: “The keys to women’s happiness, to our free will, are abandoned, lost to God himself.” But Nekrasov is sure that the “keys” must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobrosklonov’s songs: “You are still a slave in the family, but the mother of a free son!”

WITH great love Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, in which the strength of the people and the will to fight the oppressors were expressed. However, the writer did not close his eyes to dark sides life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who are corrupted by their masters and have become accustomed to their slave position. In the chapter “Happy,” the truth-seeking peasants meet with a “broken yard man” who considers himself happy because he was the beloved slave of Prince Peremetyev. The courtyard is proud that his “daughter, together with the young lady, studied French and all sorts of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess.” And the servant himself stood behind the chair of His Serene Highness for thirty years, licking the plates after him and finishing off the remnants of overseas wines. He is proud of his “closeness” to the masters and his “honorable” disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at the slave looking down on his fellow men, not understanding the baseness of his lackey position. Prince Utyatin’s yard servant Ipat didn’t even believe that “freedom” had been declared to the peasants: “And I am the Prince Utyatin’s Serf - and that’s the whole story!”

From childhood until old age, the master mocked his slave Ipat as best he could. The footman took all this for granted: “he ransomed me, the last slave, in an ice hole in winter! How wonderful! Two holes: he’ll lower it into one in a net, and into the other he’ll instantly pull it out and bring him some vodka.” Ipat could not forget the master's "mercies" that after swimming in the ice hole the prince would "bring vodka" and then seat him "next to the unworthy one with his princely person."

The obedient slave is also shown in the image of an “exemplary slave - Jacob the faithful.” Yakov served under the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who “was blowing his heel into the teeth of an exemplary slave.” Despite such treatment, the faithful slave took care of and pleased the master until his old age. The landowner cruelly offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Yakov made a fool of himself. First, he “drank the dead woman,” and then he took the master into a deep forest ravine and hanged himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest as well as servile submission.

Nekrasov speaks with deep indignation about such traitors to the people's cause as Elder Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the “freedom” given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, thereby “for tens of years, until recently, the villain secured eight thousand souls.” For the images of courtyard peasants who became slaves of their masters and abandoned genuine peasant interests, the poet finds words of angry contempt: slave, serf, dog, Judas.

The poem also notes such a feature of the Russian peasantry as religiosity. It's a way to escape reality. God is the supreme judge from whom the peasants seek protection and justice. Faith in God is hope for a better life.

Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization: “people of the servile rank - real dogs sometimes: the heavier the punishment, the dearer the gentlemen are to them.” Creating different types of peasants, Nekrasov argues that there are no happy ones among them, that the peasants, even after the abolition of serfdom, are still destitute and bloodless. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest, and he believes that with the help of such people in the future, everyone will live well in Rus', and first of all, a good life will come for the Russian people. “Limits have not yet been set for the Russian people: there is a wide path before them” N.A. Nekrasov, in his poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” recreated the life of the peasantry in post-reform Russia, revealed the typical character traits of Russian peasants, showing that this is a force to be reckoned with, which is gradually beginning to realize its rights.

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Essays on literature: Images of peasants in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

In the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" N.A. shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their difficult situation. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question “who lives happily and freely in Rus'”, who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. This is a group portrait, so in the image of the seven “temporarily obliged” only common features, characteristic of the Russian peasant: poverty, curiosity, unpretentiousness. Men do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the tsar. Peasant truth-seekers have a sense of self-esteem. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, taller, and smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the people’s love for work and their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matryona Timofeevna’s crop is dying, the men without hesitation offer her help; they also help the peasants of the Illiterate province with mowing.

Traveling around Russia, men meet various people. Revealing the images of the heroes encountered by the truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the situation of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility... But the author still pays the main attention to the peasants.

The images of Yakim Nagogo, Ermila Girin, Saveliy, Matryona Timofeevna combine both general, typical features of the peasantry, such as hatred of all “shareholders” who drain their vitality, and individual traits.

Yakim Nagoy, personifying the mass of the poor peasantry, “works himself to death,” but lives as a poor man, like the majority of the peasants of the village of Bosovo. His portrait shows constant hard work:

And to Mother Earth myself

He looks like: brown neck,

Like a layer cut off by a plow,

Brick face...

Yakim understands that the peasantry is a great force; he is proud to belong to it. He knows what the strength and weakness of the “peasant soul” is:

Soul, like a black cloud -

Angry, menacing - and it should be

Thunder will roar from there...

And it all ends with wine...

Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the true reason for this situation - the need to work for the “interest holders”. The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Rus': he “once lived in St. Petersburg,” but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “torn like a sticker” and “took up his plow.”

Another image of the Russian peasant is Ermila Girin. The author endows him with incorruptible honesty and natural intelligence. The peasants respect him because he

In seven years the world's penny

I didn’t squeeze it under my nail,

At the age of seven I didn’t touch the right one,

Didn't let the culprit go

I didn’t bend my heart...

Having gone against the “peace”, sacrificing public interests for the sake of personal ones - having given up a neighbor’s guy as a soldier instead of her brother - Yermila is tormented by remorse and comes to the point of thinking about suicide. However, he does not hang himself, but goes to the people to repent.

The episode with the purchase of the mill is important. Nekrasov shows the solidarity of the peasantry. They trust Ermila, and he takes the side of the peasants during the riot.

The author’s idea that Russian peasants are heroes is also important. For this purpose, the image of Savely, the Holy Russian hero, is introduced. Despite the unbearably hard life, the hero has not lost his best qualities. He treats Matryona Timofeevna with sincere love and deeply worries about Demushka’s death. About himself he says: “Branded, but not a slave!” Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He ponders whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights and oppressed state. Savely comes to the conclusion: it is better to “understand” than to “endure,” and he calls for protest.

Savelia's combination of sincerity, kindness, simplicity, sympathy for the oppressed and hatred of the oppressors makes this image vital and typical.

A special place in the poem, as in all of Nekrasov’s work, is occupied by the display of " female share". In the poem, the author reveals it using the example of the image of Matryona Timofeevna. This is a strong and persistent woman fighting for her freedom and her women's happiness. But, despite all her efforts, the heroine says: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women.”

The fate of Matryona Timofeevna is typical for a Russian woman: after marriage she went to hell from a “maiden holiday”; Misfortunes fell upon her one after another... Finally, Matryona Timofeevna, just like the men, is forced to work hard at work in order to feed her family.

The image of Matryona Timofeevna also contains features of the heroic character of the Russian peasantry.

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the author showed how serfdom cripples people morally. He leads us through a procession of courtyard people, servants, serfs, who, over many years of groveling before the master, have completely lost their own “I” and human dignity. This is the faithful Yakov, who takes revenge on the master by killing himself in front of his eyes, and Ipat, the slave of the Utyatin princes, and Klim. Some peasants even become oppressors, receiving insignificant power from the landowner. The peasants hate these slave slaves even more than the landowners, they despise them.

Thus, Nekrasov showed the stratification among the peasantry associated with the reform of 1861.

So, N.A. Nekrasov, in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” recreated the life of the peasantry in post-reform Russia, revealed the typical character traits of Russian peasants, showing that this is a force to be reckoned with, which is gradually beginning to realize its rights.

Definitely negative heroes. Nekrasov describes various perverted relationships between landowners and serfs. The young lady who whipped men for swear words seems kind and affectionate in comparison with the landowner Polivanov. He bought a village with bribes, in it he “played freely, indulged in drinking, drank bitterly,” was greedy and stingy. The faithful servant Yakov took care of the master, even when his legs were paralyzed. But the master chose Yakov’s only nephew to become a soldier, flattered by his bride.

Separate chapters are devoted to two landowners.

Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev.

Portrait

To describe the landowner, Nekrasov uses diminutive suffixes and speaks of him with disdain: a round gentleman, mustachioed and pot-bellied, ruddy. He has a cigar in his mouth, and he’s carrying a C grade. In general, the image of the landowner is sweet and not at all menacing. He is not young (sixty years old), “portanous, stocky,” with a long gray mustache and dashing manners. The contrast between the tall men and the squat gentleman should make the reader smile.

Character

The landowner was frightened by the seven peasants and pulled out a pistol, as plump as himself. The fact that the landowner is afraid of the peasants is typical for the time this chapter of the poem was written (1865), because the liberated peasants gladly took revenge on the landowners whenever possible.

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

Lifestyle

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

The landowner remembers with nostalgia old times(before the abolition of serfdom), when all nature, peasants, fields and forests worshiped the master and belonged to him. Noble houses competed with churches in beauty. The life of a landowner was a continuous holiday. The landowner kept many servants. In the fall he was engaged in hound hunting - a traditional Russian pastime. During the hunt, the landowner’s chest breathed freely and easily, “the spirit was transferred to the ancient Russian customs.”

Obolt-Obolduev describes the order of landowner life as the absolute power of the landowner over the serfs: “There is no contradiction in anyone, I will have mercy on whomever I want, and I will execute whomever I want.” A landowner can beat serfs indiscriminately (word hit repeated three times, there are three metaphorical epithets for it: spark-sprinkling, tooth-breaking, zygomatic-rot). At the same time, the landowner claims that he punished lovingly, that he took care of the peasants, and set tables for them in the landowner’s house on holidays.

The landowner considers the abolition of serfdom to be similar to breaking the great chain connecting masters and peasants: “Now we don’t beat the peasant, but at the same time we don’t have mercy on him like a father.” The landowners' estates were dismantled brick by brick, the forests were cut down, the men were committing robbery. The economy also fell into disrepair: “The fields are unfinished, the crops are unsown, there is no trace of order!” The landowner does not want to work on the land, and what his purpose is, he no longer understands: “I smoked God’s heaven, wore the royal livery, littered the people’s treasury and thought of living like this forever...”

Last One

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

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

Portrait

The last one is an old man, thin as hares in winter, white, a beaked nose like a hawk, long gray mustache. He, seriously ill, combines the helplessness of a weak hare and the ambition of a hawk.

Character Traits

The last tyrant, “fools in the old way”, because of his whims, both his family and the peasants suffer. For example, I had to sweep away a ready-made stack of dry hay just because the old man thought it was wet.

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

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

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

Unlike Obolduev, Utyatin does not learn about his changed status and dies “as he lived, as a landowner.”

The image of Savely in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”
The image of Matryona in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

“Images of peasants in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

Poem by N.A. Nekrasov's "Who Lives Well in Rus'" was created in the last period of the poet's life (1863-1876). The ideological concept of the poem is already indicated in its title, and then repeated in the text: who can live well in Rus'? In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by N.A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their difficult situation. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question, “who lives happily and freely in Rus',” who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The poet speaks about the essence of the Tsar’s manifesto in the words of the people: “You are kind, Tsar’s letter, but you were not written about us.” The poet touched upon the pressing problems of his time, condemned slavery and oppression, and sang the praises of the freedom-loving, talented, strong-willed Russian people. The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. They live in the villages: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhaika. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, and the desire to find happiness in Rus'. While traveling, peasants meet different people, evaluate them, determine their attitude towards the priest, towards the landowner, towards the peasant reform, towards the peasants. Men do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the tsar. Peasant truth-seekers have a sense of self-esteem. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, taller, and smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the people’s love for work and their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matryona Timofeevna’s crop is dying, the men without hesitation offer her help. They also willingly help the peasants of the Illiterate Province mow the grass. “Like teeth from hunger,” everyone’s nimble hand works.

Traveling around Russia, men meet various people. Revealing the images of the heroes encountered by truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the situation of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility.

And to Mother Earth myself

He looks like: brown neck,

Like a layer cut off by a plow,

Brick face...

Soul, like a black cloud -

Angry, menacing - and it should be

Thunder will roar from there...

And it all ends with wine...

Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the true reason for this situation - the need to work for “interest holders”. The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Rus': he “once lived in St. Petersburg,” but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “torn like a piece of Velcro” and “took up his plow.”

The writer treats with great sympathy his hero Yermil Girin, the village elder, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants: “At seven years old he did not squeeze a worldly penny under his fingernail, at seven years he did not touch the right, did not allow the guilty, did not with his soul screwed up...” Only once did Yermil act against his conscience, giving the old woman Vlasyevna’s son to the army instead of his brother. Repenting, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace, money, honor, but his honor was special, not bought “neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness.” The people, defending the worldly cause, help Yermil save the mill in difficult times and show exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Yermil, not afraid of prison, took the side of the peasants when: “the estate of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled...” Yermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests. If the protest of Yakim Nagogo is spontaneous, then Yermil Girin rises to a conscious protest.

Another hero of the work is Savely. Savely, the Holy Russian hero, is a fighter for the people's cause. Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He ponders whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights and oppressed state. Savely comes to the conclusion: it is better to “understand” than to “endure,” and he calls for protest. In his youth, like all peasants, he endured cruel bullying for a long time from the landowner Shalashnikov, his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants; he buried the living German Vogel in the ground. Saveliy received “twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of imprisonment” for this. Returning as an old man to his native village, Savely retained good spirits and hatred of the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" - he said about himself. Until old age Savely retained a clear mind, warmth, and responsiveness. In the poem he is shown as the people's avenger: “our axes lay - for the time being!” He speaks contemptuously about passive peasants, calling them “dead... lost.” Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, raising him very high, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely personifies the people's desire for freedom. The image of Savely is given in the same chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters.

Nekrasov poem peasantry Rus'

In the last chapter, called “The Woman’s Parable,” the peasant woman speaks about the common female lot: “The keys to women’s happiness, to our free will, are abandoned, lost to God himself.” But Nekrasov is sure that the “keys” must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobrosklonov’s songs: “You are still a slave in the family, but the mother of a free son!”

With great love, Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, in which the strength of the people and the will to fight the oppressors were expressed. However, the writer did not close his eyes to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who are corrupted by their masters and have become accustomed to their slave position. In the chapter “Happy,” the truth-seeking peasants meet with a “broken yard man” who considers himself happy because he was the beloved slave of Prince Peremetyev. The courtyard is proud that his “daughter, together with the young lady, studied French and all sorts of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess.” And the servant himself stood behind the chair of His Serene Highness for thirty years, licking the plates after him and finishing off the remnants of overseas wines. He is proud of his “closeness” to the masters and his “honorable” disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at the slave looking down on his fellow men, not understanding the baseness of his lackey position. Prince Utyatin’s yard servant Ipat didn’t even believe that “freedom” had been declared to the peasants: “And I am the Prince Utyatin’s Serf - and that’s the whole story!”

Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization: “people of the servile rank are real dogs sometimes: the more severe the punishment, the dearer the Lord is to them.” Creating different types of peasants, Nekrasov argues that there are no happy ones among them, that the peasants, even after the abolition of serfdom, are still destitute and bloodless. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest, and he believes that with the help of such people in the future, everyone will live well in Rus', and first of all, a good life will come for the Russian people. “Limits have not yet been set for the Russian people: there is a wide path before them” N.A. Nekrasov, in his poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” recreated the life of the peasantry in post-reform Russia, revealed the typical character traits of Russian peasants, showing that this is a force to be reckoned with, which is gradually beginning to realize its rights.