Humility and rebellion in N. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”

It was created in the mid-19th century. We all know that this period in history Russian Empire marked the end of the era of serfdom. What was next for our country at this time? I tried to answer this question in my famous poem Nikolay Vasilievich.

The work can be perceived ambiguously: at first glance, Rus' appears before us in some caricature of the reality that was inherent in state life. But in fact, the author depicted the fullness of the poetic richness of life in Rus'.

Description of Living Rus' in the poem

Gogol describes Rus' as a long-suffering, poor state, which was exhausted by all the previously experienced obstacles and its own greedy people. However, Gogol's Rus' is full of strength and energy that still glimmers in its soul, it is immortal and full of power.
With big writing skills The poem depicts the Russian people.

We get acquainted with dispossessed peasants, people without rights, great workers who are forced to endure the oppression of such landowners as Manilov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin. While increasing the wealth of the landowners, they live in need and poverty. The peasants are illiterate and downtrodden, but they are by no means “dead.”

Circumstances forced them to bow their heads, but not completely submit. Gogol describes truly Russian people - hardworking, brave, resilient, who for many years, despite oppression, have preserved their personality and continue to cherish the thirst for freedom. The Russian people in the work are a reflection of their state. He does not put up with the slave situation: some peasants decide to run away from their landowners to the Siberian wilderness and the Volga region.

In the tenth and eleventh chapters, Gogol raises the theme of a peasant revolt - a group of conspirators killed the landowner Drobyazhkin. None of the men at the trial betrayed the killer - this indicated, first of all, that the people had a concept of honor and dignity.

The description of the life of the peasantry brings us an understanding that Rus' in Gogol’s poem is truly alive, full internal forces! The writer firmly believes that the moment will come when holy and righteous Rus' will throw off such greedy rotten personalities like Plyushkin, Sobakevich and others, and will shine with new lights of honor, justice and freedom.

Gogol's attitude towards Russia

During the period of the creation of the poem "Dead Souls", despite the abolition of serfdom, there was little hope that Rus' would still be resurrected to its former greatness. However, enormous patriotism, love for his people and unshakable faith in the power of Rus' allowed Gogol to realistically describe its great future. In the last lines, Gogol compares Rus' with a three-headed bird flying towards its happiness, to which all other peoples and states give way.

The image of Rus' and the peasants in the poem are the only “living” characters who, while in captivity, “ dead souls“Still managed to resist and continue their struggle for existence and freedom. The author planned to describe the triumph of free Rus' in more detail in the second volume of his work, which, unfortunately, was never destined to see the world.

The poet set himself the task of understanding and, within one work, capturing peasant Rus', Russian folk character in all its versatility, complexity and inconsistency. And the life of the people in “Who in Rus'...” appears in all the diversity of its manifestations. We see the Russian peasant at work (the speech of Yakim Nagogo, mowing in "The Last One", the story of Matryona) and struggle (the story of Yakim and Ermil, the lawsuit of the Vakhlaks, the reprisal against Vogel), in moments of rest ("Rural Fair", "Feast") and revelry (" drunken night"), in times of grief ("Pop", Matryona's story) and moments of joy ("Before Marriage", "Governor's Lady", "Feast"), in the family ("Peasant Woman") and peasant collective ("The Last One", "Feast" ), in relationships with landowners (“Landowner”, “Lastly”, “Savely, the hero of the Holy Russian”, tales in “Pir”), officials (“Demushka”, the story about Ermil) and merchants (the history of Yakim, the lawsuit between Ermil and Altynnikov, fight between Lavin and Eremin).

The poem gives a vivid picture of economic situation post-reform, “free” peasantry (names of villages and counties, stories of the priest and the “lucky ones”, the plot situation of the chapter “Last One”, songs “Merry”, “Salty”, “Hungry” and a number of details in the chapter “Feast”) and legal “ changes” in his life (“...instead of the master / The volost will tear up”).

Nekrasov depicts folk life in a strictly realistic manner. The author does not turn a blind eye to the negative phenomena of people's life. He boldly speaks about the darkness and underdevelopment generated by the “fortress” and the living conditions of the peasantry (illiteracy, belief in “poor” signs), rudeness (“As if he didn’t knock?”), swearing, drunkenness (“Drunk Night”), parasitism and servility servants (Peremetyev's footman, Ipat, servants in the "Prologue" of the chapter "Peasant Woman"), the sin of social betrayal (Gleb the headman, Yegorka Shutov). But the shadow sides of people's life and consciousness do not obscure the main thing in the poem, that which forms the basis of people's life and is decisive for the people's character. Labor is such a basis of people's life in Nekrasov's poem.

Reading “Who in Rus'...”, we feel the greatness labor feat the Russian peasantry, this “sower and guardian” of the Russian land. The man “works to death”, his “work has no measure”, the peasant navel is cracking from the strain of exorbitant labor, Matryona’s fellow villagers are making “horse strains”, peasant women appear as “eternal toilers”. Through the labor of a peasant, in the spring they are dressed with the greenery of cereals, and in the fall the fields are stripped, and although this labor does not save from poverty, the peasant loves to work (“The Last One”: mowing, the participation of wanderers in it; Matryona’s story). The Russian peasant, as depicted by Nekrasov, is smart, observant, inquisitive (“comedy with Petrushka”, “they care about everything”, “who has ever seen how he listens ...”, “he greedily catches news”), persistent in the pursuit of his goal goals (“man, what a bull...”), sharp-tongued (there are many examples!), kind and sympathetic (episodes with Vavilushka, with Brmil at the fair, the help of the Vakhlaks to Ovsyannikov, the family of the sexton Dobrosklonov), has a grateful heart (Matryona about governor), sensitive to beauty (Matryona; Yakim and pictures). Moral qualities Nekrasov characterizes the Russian peasantry with the formula: “gold, gold is the people’s heart.” The poem reveals the thirst for justice characteristic of the Russian peasantry, shows the awakening and growth of its social consciousness, manifested in a sense of collectivism and class solidarity (support for Yermil, hatred of the Last One, beating Shutov), ​​in contempt for lackeys and traitors (attitude towards the lackey of Prince Peremetyev and Ipat, to the story about Gleb the Headman), in rebellion (rebellion in Stolbnyaki). The popular environment as a whole is depicted in the poem as “good soil” for the perception of liberation ideas.

The masses, the people, are the main characters of the epic “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Nekrasov not only painted vivid portraits of individual representatives of the people's environment. The innovative nature of Nekrasov’s plan was manifested in the fact that the central place in the work is occupied by the collective image of the Russian peasantry.

Researchers have repeatedly noted the high “population density” of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” In addition to the seven wanderers and the main characters, dozens and hundreds of images of peasants are drawn in it. Some of them are briefly characterized, in the images of others only some characteristic touch is noticed, and others are only named. Some of them are present “on stage”, included in the action, while truth-seekers and the reader learn about others only from the stories of the “stage” characters. Along with individual ones, the author introduces numerous group images into the poem.

Gradually, from chapter to chapter, the poem introduces us to various options people's destinies, various types characters' characters, with the world of their feelings, their moods, concepts, judgments and ideals. A variety of portrait sketches, speech characteristics, the abundance of crowd scenes, their polyphony, the introduction of folk songs, sayings, proverbs and jokes into the text - everything is subordinated to the single goal of creating an image of the peasant masses, the constant presence of which is felt when reading every page of “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.

Against the background of this peasant mass close-up images drawn by the author of the epic best representatives Russian peasantry. Each of them artistically captures certain aspects, facets of the people’s character and worldview. Thus, the image of Yakim reveals the theme of heroic national labor and the awakening of the people's consciousness, Savely is the embodiment of the heroism and love of freedom of the peasantry, its rebellious impulses, the image of Yermil is evidence of the love of truth, moral beauty the people and the heights of their ideals, etc. But this commonality is revealed in the unique individuality of the fate and character of each. Any character in “To Whom in Rus'...”, be it Matryona, who “revealed” her whole soul to the wanderers, or the “yellow-haired, hunched” Belarusian peasant who flashed in the crowd, is realistically accurate, full-blooded, and at the same time, everyone is some micro part general concept"people".

All chapters of the epic are united by the end-to-end image of seven truth-seekers. The epic, generalized, conventional character of this image gives all the real-life events depicted in it special significance, and the work itself - the character of a “philosophy of people’s life.” Thus, the somewhat abstract concept of “people” in the “Prologue” gradually, as the reader gets acquainted with the wanderers, Yakim, Ermil, Matryona, Savely, the many-sided and motley mass of peasants, is filled for him with the brightness of life’s colors, concrete and figurative realistic content.

In “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov wanted to show the process of awakening self-awareness among the masses, their desire to comprehend their situation and find ways out. Therefore, the author constructed the work in such a way that it folk heroes wander, observe, listen and judge, moreover, as the circle of their observations expands, their judgments become more mature and deep. The pictures of life in the poem are refracted through the perception of them by truth-seekers, that is, the author chooses the epic path or way of depicting reality.

The epic breadth of the depiction of life in “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is also manifested in the fact that, along with the peasantry, all social groups and classes of Russia are represented here (priests, landowners, officials, merchants, bourgeois entrepreneurs, intelligentsia), moreover, in a wide variety of typical individuals , the intertwining of their destinies, the struggle of their interests.

Rus

" Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you; the daring divas of nature, crowned by the daring divas of art, cities with many-windowed high palaces grown into the cliffs, picture trees and ivy grown into houses, in the noise and eternal dust of waterfalls will not amuse or frighten the eyes; her head will not fall back to look at the boulders of stone endlessly piled up above her and in the heights; the dark arches thrown one upon the other, entangled with grape branches, ivy and countless millions of wild roses, will not flash through them; the eternal lines of shining mountains, rushing into the silver clear skies, will not flash through them in the distance. Everything about you is open, deserted and even; like dots, like icons, your low cities stick out inconspicuously among the plains; nothing will seduce or enchant the eye. But what incomprehensible, secret force attracts you? Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs your heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul and curl around my heart? ! what do you want from me? what incomprehensible connection lies between us? Why do you look like that, and why has everything that is in you turned towards me? full of anticipation eyes?.. And still, full of bewilderment, I stand motionless, and already a menacing cloud, heavy with the coming rains, has overshadowed my head, and my thoughts are numb in front of your space. What does this vast expanse prophesy? Isn’t it here, in you, that a boundless thought will be born, when you yourself are endless? Shouldn't a hero be here when there is room for him to turn around and walk? And a mighty space envelops me menacingly, reflecting with terrible force in my depths; My eyes lit up with unnatural power: oh! what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus'!..” (“Dead Souls”, chapter 11)

N.V. Gogol tried to reflect as accurately as possible all the processes and social foundations that prevailed in Rus' in the thirties of the 19th century. Officials, landowners, serfs - these are the main characters of the poem. It was to the common people, to his native Russia, that the writer treated so favorably: with tenderness, love and sympathy. He was fascinated by the forests and steppes, the prowess, intelligence and talent of the Russian people. Gogol's “laughter through tears” is the love and sadness of the great writer. And in this sadness all the sorrow was expressed when he carefully peered at Holy Rus', groaning under the yoke of serfdom.

It is no coincidence that the writer chose the genre of the poem for the work: it is very characterized by a powerful lyrical beginning. N.V. Gogol had plans to write more than one volume. So, like Dante's poem " The Divine Comedy“, the first volume of “Dead Souls” was conceived as “hell”, and then “purgatory” and “paradise”. Serfs were in a slave position, they were disposed of as a thing. Even a dead person became just a means of profit. And the landowners’ souls are dead, there is no God in them. Isn't this "hell"?

All of Rus' is revealed in the adventures of P.I. Chichikov. This man, with his mother’s milk, absorbed one immutable truth: the main thing in life is to save a penny, “to break through everything in the world with a penny.”

The road motif is very characteristic in the work. The roads in Russia are bad, on them you can meet barefoot, half-naked, ragged men. They often fled from their masters to try to find a better refuge somewhere.

In each individual landowner N.V. Gogol shows a “disgusting” trait. So, Nozdryov is a terrible bribe-taker, he has so much agility that he could be called a “broken fellow.”

Manilov's whole appearance caused mortal boredom. He is a typical ignorant, lazy person. But the most characteristic thing in his possession is the neglected and immovable pond, the huts of the serfs: “... Gray log huts darkened length and breadth, nowhere between them was a growing tree or any greenery; There was only one log visible everywhere. The view was enlivened by two women who, having picked up their dresses picturesquely and tucked themselves in from all sides, wandered knee-deep in the pond, dragging their tattered nonsense by two wooden nags... At some distance to the side, a pine forest darkened with some dull bluish color. Even the weather itself was very helpful: the day was either clear or gloomy.”

The image of Korobochka is a model of the emergence of feudalism. This zealous landowner knows all her serfs, and they live much better than Manilov’s serfs. But she doesn’t feel sorry for, for example, her burnt blacksmith. He only grieves about one thing: that now he cannot have fun in the carriage, since there is no one to shoe the horses.

But it was in Chichikov and Plyushkin that the author saw hope for revival, because only they have a past, they are trying to build inner speech throughout the entire poem, only they have “living eyes.”

In contrast to the masters, the crippled destinies of the common people are shown. Popov, a runaway serf, a very literate man, wanders without a passport and prefers prison to returning to the landowner Plyushkin. Shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, an excellent craftsman, is deceived by a leather supplier. Unable to bear the difficulties, he begins to drink. And Abakum Fyrov chose hard labor in barge haulage for himself, because there, at least occasionally, he manages to relax in pleasure.

The image of the people in the poem is the basis of the state. The people are dark, downtrodden, and ignorant only because of the dominance of serfdom. N.V. Gogol is trying to comprehend the present in order to see the future of Russia. He reflects on a new type of life within the old forms. He has firm confidence that the state, no matter how it deviates from its development, still evolves. But for this it is necessary, first of all, to transform the moral sphere of life. A person must see the light in himself and be reborn in soul.

1. The main meaning of the poem.
2. Peasantry in the poem.
3. The hard lot and simple happiness of the Russian people.
4. Matryona Timofeevna as a symbol of a Russian woman.
5. Grisha Good of the Clones - the ideal of the intelligentsia for Nekrasov.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” is a programmatic work for N. A. Nekrasov. Creating it for many years, the author invested personal ideas about morality, the fate of the people and the concept of national happiness. This work contains thoughts about the people, worries about them and aspirations for a better life.

The main storyline of the work is the motive of the journey of seven men in search of a person living happily. The main point of travel is to find such a person on native land. Nekrasov’s ideal of man is inextricably linked with the peasantry and lies in the wanderers themselves. Of course they are dark. Uneducated, naive people. They lack a clear concept of the upper and lower classes, and are sincerely convinced that the “fat-bellied merchant,” the landowner, the tsar, must be happy. But at the same time they do not cease to be kind, sensitive and compassionate people. Later Vlas will say about them: “We are weird enough, but you are weirder than us!”

The poem colorfully depicts the living, spontaneous folk life with the whole palette of emotions - joy, worries, grief, sarcasm and envy. The work is polyphonic, it contains a man with rims, a peasant who overturned a cart, a drunken woman, and a bear hunter. Here are Vavilushka, Olenushka, Parashenka, Trofim, Fedosei, Proshka, Vlas, Klim Lavin, Ipat, Terentyeva. Showing the severity of the peasant share, the lack of rights of the people and their exploitation, the poet nevertheless does not remain silent about the problems hidden within the people themselves, that is, the darkness of the mind and drunken revelry.

Nekrasov reports best qualities Russian peasantry - hard work, moral purity and spiritual nobility, the ability to compassion and feeling self-esteem, prowess and fun, despite the surrounding adversity and difficulties. The author asserts that “good soil is the soul of the Russian people.” Readers will probably remember the scenes where Euphrosyne cares for the sick during cholera, and the peasants help Vavila and the disabled soldier. Using various means and various methods The author proves the purity of the “golden heart of the people.”

An irresistible craving for beauty is also clearly demonstrated by the example of the incident with Yakim. Thus, a simple peasant Yakim saved from a fire not furniture or savings accumulated with great difficulty, but pictures he bought at a fair. I also remember the singer from the peasants with the marvelous in a clear voice, with which he “captivated the hearts of the people.” Often speaking about peasants, Nekrasov uses words with diminutive suffixes - old woman, soldiers, guys. Isn't this excellent proof of the warm, friendly attitude towards them on the part of the author? He is convinced that no matter the hard work,

Nor eternal care,
Not the yoke of slavery for a long time,
Not the pub itself
More to the Russian people
No limits are set
There is a wide path before him.

An important place in the poem is occupied by the image of Savely, endowed with heroic features. He despises submission and courageously stands up for the defense of the humiliated people. The protest, becoming more and more open, takes on terrible forms of rebellion. This is where the edifying, albeit cruel, story about the mocking German Vogel ends. The author's aesthetic ideals were embodied in the image of Matryona Timofeevna, the granddaughter of the great hero. It not only outer beauty, but also infinite spiritual wealth. It contains best features, inherent in a Russian woman, which she carries through difficult life circumstances and suffering. This image is so valuable and important that the author devotes an independent chapter to it. In Matryona - the totality of those already indicated in early works crap. You can see in her Daria, Orina, and the nameless girl from “Troika...”. Yes and appearance it's hard to forget her:

Matrena Timofeevna -
dignified woman,
Wide and dense
About thirty-eight years old.
Beautiful, gray hair,
The eyes are large, strict,
The richest eyelashes,
Severe and dark.

A different type of ideal person is represented by the image of Grisha Dobrosklonov. It is of great importance for understanding human and peasant happiness, but at the same time it does not belong to those described earlier. He is a commoner, the son of a “unrequited farm laborer,” who has gone through difficult times. Half-starved childhood. He is incredibly young, not so much in body as in powerful spirit.

The life of this hero is inextricably linked with the peasantry - he owes his life to them. He gives his debt to him - sincerely and selflessly - trying to help in everything. He sows, mows, reaps, goes to the forest to pick mushrooms, plays with peasant children and listens with great pleasure to simple peasant songs:

...about fifteen years old
Gregory already knew for sure
What will live for happiness
Wretched and dark
Native corner.

The image of Dobrosklonov inexorably leads the reader to his description. They will be united by many features: origin, roll call of surnames, seminary education, common illness (consumption), tendency to poetic creativity. This image, which appeared in the text of the poem not by chance, develops the ideal described by Nekrasov in the poem “In Memory of Dobrolyubov,” making it more down-to-earth and life-like. Like Dobrolyubov, Grisha was destined by fate

... The path is glorious, the name is loud
People's Defender,
Consumption and Siberia.

Gregory is not afraid of future difficulties and trials, since he believes with all his heart in the rightness of his cause. He believes in help and support native people, because he sees how the people themselves rise to the right fight:

The army is rising
Uncountable,
The strength in her will affect
Indestructible!

This thought can make the hero happy, fill his soul with joy. The finale of the poems also shows the effect of Gregory’s words on the entire people and on the seven wanderers seeking happiness. Dobrosklonov — future leader of his people, expressing their joy and pain:

If only our wanderers could be under their own roof,
If only they could know what was happening to Grisha.
He heard the immense strength in his chest,
The sounds of grace delighted his ears,
The radiant sounds of the noble hymn -
He sang the embodiment of people's happiness.

Thus, the work shows ideal type a person for Nekrasov, organically combining the positive features of the peasantry and the Russian intelligentsia. Only the joint efforts of the revolutionaries leading the people, and the people themselves, can lead the country to victory, lead the Russian people onto the true path of happiness. But so far the Russian people are only on the way to a “feast for the whole world.”