home Audience 2 To whom in Rus' is a brief chapter by chapter. Analysis of the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" by chapter, composition of the work

To whom in Rus' is a brief chapter by chapter. Analysis of the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" by chapter, composition of the work

One day, seven men - recent serfs, and now temporarily obliged "from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhaika, etc." meet on the main road. Instead of going their own way, the men start an argument about who lives happily and freely in Rus'. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky man in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of the sovereign, or a tsar. During the argument, they do not notice that they have taken a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, little by little develops into a fight. But a fight does not help resolve the issue that worries the men.

The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the men, Pakhom, catches a warbler chick, and in order to free the chick, the warbler tells the men where they can find a self-assembled tablecloth. Now the men are provided with bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass, tea - in a word, everything they need for a long journey. And besides, a self-assembled tablecloth will repair and wash their clothes! Having received all these benefits, the men make a vow to find out “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.”

The first possible “lucky person” they meet along the way turns out to be a priest. (It was not right for the soldiers and beggars they met to ask about happiness!) But the priest’s answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the men. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the priest does not possess any of these benefits. In the haymaking, in the harvest, in the dead of autumn night, in the bitter frost, he must go to where there are the sick, the dying and those being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of funeral sobs and orphan's sadness - so much so that his hand does not rise to take copper coins - a pitiful reward for the demand. The landowners, who previously lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only throughout Rus', but also in distant foreign lands; there is no hope for their retribution. Well, the men themselves know about the honor that the priest receives: they feel embarrassed when the priest blames obscene songs and insults to priests. Realizing that the Russian priest is not one of the lucky ones, the men go to a holiday fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye , to ask people about happiness there. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded up house with the sign “school”, a paramedic’s hut, a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village there are drinking establishments, in each of which they barely have time to cope with thirsty people. Old man Vavila cannot buy goatskin shoes for his granddaughter because he drank himself to a penny. It’s good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone calls “master” for some reason, buys him the treasured gift.

Male wanderers watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the ladies stock up on books - but not Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of unknown fat generals and works about “my lord stupid.” They also see how a busy trading day ends: widespread drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the men are indignant at Pavlusha Veretennikov’s attempt to measure the peasant against the master’s standard. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Rus': he will not withstand either backbreaking labor or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would pour out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo - one of those who “works until they die, drinks until they die.” Yakim believes that only pigs walk on the earth and never see the sky. During the fire, he himself did not save the money he had accumulated throughout his life, but the useless and beloved pictures hanging in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Rus'.

Male wanderers do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Rus'. But even for the promise of giving free water to the lucky ones, they fail to find them. For the sake of free booze, both the overworked worker, the paralyzed former servant who spent forty years licking the master’s plates with the best French truffle, and even ragged beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky.

Finally, someone tells them the story of Yermil Girin, the mayor in the estate of Prince Yurlov, who earned universal respect for his justice and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy the mill, the men lent it to him without even requiring a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in prison.

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” 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 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, therefore, in the image of the seven “temporarily obliged” ones, only general traits characteristic of the Russian peasant are given: 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.

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” are.

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 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.

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 the “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 feminine 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 from “girlhood to hell”; 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 morally cripples people. 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.

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.

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.

A brief retelling of Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'"

While arguing, they do not notice that they have taken a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, little by little develops into a fight. But a fight does not help resolve the issue that worries the men.

Realizing that the Russian priest is not one of the lucky ones, the men go to a holiday fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask people about happiness. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded up house with the sign “school”, a paramedic’s hut, a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village there are drinking establishments, in each of which they barely have time to cope with thirsty people. Old man Vavila cannot buy goatskin shoes for his granddaughter because he drank himself to a penny. It’s good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone calls “master” for some reason, buys him the treasured gift.

The ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the wandering peasants about the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform. He remembers how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who completely belonged to him. Obolt-Obolduev talks with emotion about how on the twelve holidays he invited his serfs to pray in the master's house - despite the fact that after this he had to drive the women away from the entire estate to wash the floors.

And although the peasants themselves know that life in serfdom was far from the idyll depicted by Obolduev, they still understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who was immediately deprived of his usual way of life, and the peasant.

Desperate to find someone happy among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. The surrounding peasants remember that Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klin, whom everyone considers lucky. But Matryona herself thinks differently. In confirmation, she tells the wanderers the story of her life.

Before her marriage, Matryona lived in a teetotal and wealthy peasant family. She married a stove-maker from a foreign village, Philip Korchagin. But the only happy night for her was that night when the groom persuaded Matryona to marry him; then the usual hopeless life of a village woman began. True, her husband loved her and beat her only once, but soon he went to work in St. Petersburg, and Matryona was forced to endure insults in her father-in-law’s family. The only one who felt sorry for Matryona was grandfather Savely, who was living out his life in the family after hard labor, where he ended up for the murder of the hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: it is impossible to defeat a peasant, because he “bends, but does not break.”

The birth of Demushka's first child brightened Matryona's life. But soon her mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and the old grandfather Savely did not keep an eye on the baby and fed him to pigs. In front of Matryona's eyes, judges who had arrived from the city performed an autopsy on her child. Matryona could not forget her firstborn, although after that she had five sons. One of them, the shepherd Fedot, once allowed a she-wolf to carry away a sheep. Matryona accepted the punishment assigned to her son. Then, being pregnant with her son Liodor, she was forced to go to the city to seek justice: her husband, bypassing the laws, was taken into the army. Matryona was then helped by the governor Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying.

By all peasant standards, Matryona Korchagina’s life can be considered happy. But it is impossible to tell about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unpaid mortal grievances, and about the blood of the firstborn. Matrena Timofeevna is convinced that a Russian peasant woman cannot be happy at all, because the keys to her happiness and free will are lost to God himself.

At the height of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims to the shore in three boats. The mowers, having just sat down to rest, immediately jump up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs hide the abolition of serfdom from the crazy landowner Utyatin. The relatives of the Last-Duckling promise the men floodplain meadows for this. But after the long-awaited death of the Last One, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.

Here, near the village of Vakhlachina, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvee songs, hunger songs, soldier songs, salt songs - and stories about serfdom. One of these stories is about the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful. Yakov's only joy was pleasing his master, the small landowner Polivanov. Tyrant Polivanov, in gratitude, hit Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey’s soul. As Polivanov grew older, his legs became weak, and Yakov began to follow him like a child. But when Yakov’s nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the beautiful serf Arisha, Polivanov, out of jealousy, gave the guy as a recruit. Yakov started drinking, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, the lackey. Having taken the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself right above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful servant, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror.

Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the men by God's wanderer Jonah Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the chieftain of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber atoned for his sins for a long time, but all of them were forgiven him only after he, in a surge of anger, killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky.

The wandering men also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the headman, who for money hid the last will of the late widower admiral, who decided to free his peasants.

But it is not only wandering men who think about the people’s happiness. The sexton’s son, seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives on Vakhlachin. In his heart, love for his late mother merged with love for all of Vakhlachina. For fifteen years now, Grisha knew for sure who he was ready to give his life to, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all the mysterious Rus' as a wretched, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible force that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in it. Such strong souls as Grisha Dobrosklonov’s are called by the angel of mercy to an honest path. Fate is preparing for Grisha “a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.”

If the wandering men knew what was happening in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would probably understand that they could already return to their native shelter, because the goal of their journey had been achieved.

The work of the great Russian poet tells us how seven peasants decided throughout Rus' during their journey to find a happy man. According to the author’s idea, the men were supposed to reach St. Petersburg, but due to Nikolai Alexandrovich’s serious illness and sudden death, the poem remained unfinished.

So, at a crossroads, seven men from the Terpigorevo district meet, but each of them is from a different poor and wretched village. They all argue with each other about who lives the best life. One claims that he is a landowner, the other that he is a priest.

Each left the house on important business, but when they met, they began to talk about this topic to such an extent that they not only forgot about everything in the world, but also began to fight during the argument.

Having reached the forest, they continued their conflict and alarmed all the animals and birds. Frightened by such noise, the chick falls out of the nest and the men pick it up, and think that it is easier for the bird to find out where it is good to live in Rus'. A frightened warbler and the chick's mother flies up to them and asks them to give her the chick. As a reward, she shows them where the treasure is buried, and there is a magic tablecloth that will always give them something to drink and feed, but you can’t ask for too much alcohol. She enchants their clothes so that they are safe and sound on the journey and fly away with her chick. Satisfied peasants, having eaten and drunk, decide not to return home until they find out who is living well.

Walking along the road, they meet different people. These are both soldiers and apprentices, but from their appearance it is immediately clear that life is not sweet for them. Late in the evening they come across a priest, whom they learn about his fate. As the priest himself thinks, his happiness should lie in peace, wealth and respect for him. But in reality this is not true. The groans of dying people and long service with crying do not bring him any peace. When the priest finished his sad story, he leaves and the men attack Luka, who proved that the priest had a rich life, but in fact, it turned out not to be so.

After the dispute, the peasants go to a fair in the village of Kuzminskoye, which is famous for its large number of taverns and drunken people. They also sell books here, but more and more with simple pictures. And no one knows when they will start buying and reading the literature of Russian classics. The men, being around the fair, continue on their way, but it was already night. And in the darkness they hear different people talking about their troubles and problems. One of the wanderers reproaches the peasants for this way of life. And Yakim Goly, who lives in this village, justifies his villagers. After all, they don’t drink because they have a good life.

The travelers, having filled a bucket of vodka, decide to find out who the inhabitants are in this life.

The bucket quickly emptied, but the happy man was never found.

Continuing on their way, the men come across the landowner Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolta-Obolduev, who told them his story. He was a kind master, his servants loved him, but they took away his land, squandered his farm, and ordered him to work, but he was not taught this.

Next they come across a peasant woman, Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, who tells about her difficult life as a woman. All her life she worked for her husband’s relatives, lost her eldest son Demushka, whom she still cannot forget. And as the woman says, a woman’s happiness is unknown where it is located.

The most glorious place for our heroes seems to be the village of Vakhlachina, where festivities take place. The men also feast, joined by two seminarians who sing joyful songs and tell interesting stories. One of them, Grisha, has been firmly convinced since the age of 15 that he wants to dedicate his destiny to the happiness of the people. In the future it will be the people's intercessor. But the peasants do not hear him, otherwise they would understand that there is a happy man standing in front.

After all, it is precisely through the appearance of people like Gregory that Rus' will rise from its slave knees and national happiness will come.

The main idea of the story Who Lives Well in Rus' by Nekrasova

The work teaches us to understand what the value of true happiness is. And for this you don’t need much - it’s a friendly and strong family, work that brings joy and profit for yourself, and to show yourself in this life as such a person so that others respect you.

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In front of you - summary Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'." The poem was conceived as a “people's book,” an epic depicting an entire era in the life of the people. The poet himself spoke about his work like this:

“I decided to present in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” This will be an epic of modern peasant life.”

As you know, the poet did not finish the poem. Only the first of 4 parts was completed.

We did not shorten the main points that you should pay attention to. The rest is given in a brief summary.

Summary of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by chapter

Click on the desired chapter or part of the work to go to its summary

PART ONE

PART TWO

PART THREE

Peasant woman

PART FOUR

Feast for the whole world

PART ONE

PROLOGUE - summary

In what year - calculate

In what land - guess

On the sidewalk

Seven men came together:

Seven temporarily obliged,

A tightened province,

Terpigoreva County,

Empty parish,

From adjacent villages:

Zaplatova, Dyryavina,

Razutova, Znobishina,

Gorelova, Neelova -

There is also a poor harvest,

They came together and argued:

Who has fun?

Free in Rus'?

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...

The guy's a bull: he'll get in trouble

What a whim in the head -

Stake her from there

You can’t knock them out: they resist,

Everyone stands on their own!

The men argue and do not notice how evening comes. They lit a fire, went for vodka, had a snack, and again began to argue about who was living “fun, freely in Rus'.” The argument escalated into a fight. At this time, a chick flew up to the fire. I caught him with my groin. A warbler bird appears and asks to let the chick go. In return, she tells you how to find a self-assembled tablecloth. Pakhom releases the chick, the men follow the indicated path and find a self-assembled tablecloth. The men decide not to return home until they find out “for certain,” “Who lives happily, // Freely in Rus'.”

Chapter 1. Pop - summary

The men hit the road. They meet peasants, artisans, coachmen, soldiers, and the travelers understand that the life of these people cannot be called happy. Finally they meet a priest. He proves to the peasants that the priest has no peace, no wealth, no happiness - a diploma is difficult for a priest's son to get, and the priesthood is even more expensive. The priest can be called at any time of the day or night, in any weather. The priest has to see the tears of orphans and the death rattle of a dying man. But there is no honor for the priest - they make up “jokey tales // And obscene songs, // And all sorts of blasphemy” about him. The priest has no wealth either - rich landowners almost no longer live in Rus'. The men agree with the priest. They move on.

Chapter 2. Rural fair - summary

The men see meager living everywhere. A man bathes his horse in the river. The wanderers learn from him that all the people have gone to the fair. The men go there. At the fair, people bargain, have fun, walk, and drink. One man is crying in front of the people - he drank all his money, and his granddaughter is waiting for a treat at home. Pavlusha Veretennikov, nicknamed “the gentleman,” bought boots for his granddaughter. The old man is very happy. Wanderers watch a performance in a booth.

Chapter 3. Drunken night - summary

People return drunk after the fair.

People walk and fall

As if because of the rollers

Enemies with buckshot

They're shooting at the men.

Some guy is burying a little girl, claiming at the same time that he is burying his mother. Women are quarreling in the ditch: who has a worse home? Yakim Nagoy says that “there is no measure for Russian drunkenness,” but it is also impossible to measure the people’s grief.

What follows is a story about Yakime Nagom who previously lived in St. Petersburg, then went to prison due to a lawsuit with a merchant. Then he came to live in his native village. He bought pictures with which he covered the hut and which he loved very much. There was a fire. Yakim rushed to save not the accumulated money, but pictures, which he later hung in the new hut. The people, returning, sing songs. Wanderers are sad about their own home, about their wives.

Chapter 4. Happy - summary

Wanderers walk among the festive crowd with a bucket of vodka. They promise it to someone who convinces him that he is truly happy. The first to arrive is the sexton, who says that he is happy because he believes in the kingdom of heaven. They don't give him vodka. An old woman comes up and says that she has a very large turnip in her garden. They laughed at her and didn’t give her anything either. A soldier comes with medals and says that he is happy that he is alive. They brought it to him.

A stonecutter approaches and talks about his happiness - about his enormous strength. His opponent is a thin man. He says that at one time God punished him for boasting in the same way. The contractor praised him at the construction site, and he was happy - he took the fourteen-pound burden and carried it to the second floor. Since then he has withered away. He goes home to die, an epidemic begins in the carriage, the dead are unloaded at the stations, but he still remains alive.

A servant comes, boasts that he was the prince’s favorite slave, that he licked plates with the remains of gourmet food, drank foreign drinks from glasses, and suffers from the noble disease of gout. He is driven away. A Belarusian comes up and says that his happiness lies in bread, which he just can’t get enough of. At home, in Belarus, he ate bread with chaff and bark. A man who had been killed by a bear came and said that his comrades died while hunting, but he remained alive. The man received vodka from the wanderers. Beggars boast that they are happy because they receive food often. The wanderers realize that they wasted vodka on “ peasant happiness" They are advised to ask Yermil Girin, who owned the mill, about happiness. By court decision, the mill is being sold at auction. Yermil won the bargain with the merchant Altynnikov; the clerks demanded a third of the price immediately, contrary to the rules. Yermil did not have money with him, which needed to be deposited within an hour, and it was a long way to go home.

He went out to the square and asked people to borrow as much as they could. They collected more money than was needed. Yermil gave the money, the mill became his, and the next Friday he paid off the debts. The wanderers wonder why the people believed Girin and gave him money. They answer him that he achieved this with the truth. Girin served as a clerk in the estate of Prince Yurlov. He served for five years and did not take anything from anyone, he was attentive to everyone. But he was kicked out, and a new clerk came in his place - a scoundrel and a grabber. After the death of the old prince, the new owner drove out all the old henchmen and ordered the peasants to elect a new mayor. Everyone unanimously elected Ermil. He served honestly, but one day he still committed a crime - his younger brother Mitri " fenced off“, and instead of him, Nenila Vlasyevna’s son became a soldier.

Since that time, Yermil has been sad - he doesn’t eat, doesn’t drink, he says he’s a criminal. He said that he should be judged according to his conscience. Nenila Vlasvna’s son was returned, but Mitri was taken away, and a fine was imposed on Ermila. For another year after that, he was not himself, then he resigned from his position, no matter how much they begged him to stay.

The narrator advises going to Girin, but another peasant says that Yermil is in prison. A riot broke out and government troops were needed. To avoid bloodshed, they asked Girin to address the people.

The story is interrupted by the screams of a drunken footman suffering from gout - now he is suffering from beatings for theft. The wanderers are leaving.

Chapter 5. Landowner - summary

The landowner Obolt-Obolduev was

... "ruddy,

Stately, planted,

Sixty years old;

The mustache is gray, long,

Well done touches.

He mistook the men for robbers and even pulled out a pistol. But they told him what was the matter. Obolt-Obolduev laughs, gets out of the stroller and talks about the life of the landowners.

First he talks about the antiquity of his family, then he recalls the old days when

Not only Russian people,

Nature itself is Russian

She submitted to us.

Then the landowners lived well - luxurious feasts, a whole regiment of servants, their own actors, etc. The landowner recalls the dog hunt, unlimited power, how he baptized with his entire estate “on Easter Sunday.”

Now there is decay everywhere - “ The noble class // It’s as if everything was hidden, // It died out!“The landowner cannot understand why the “idle scribblers” encourage him to study and work, after all, he is a nobleman. He says that he has lived in the village for forty years, but cannot distinguish a barley ear from a rye ear. The peasants think:

The great chain has broken,

It tore and splintered:

One way for the master,

Others don't care!..

PART TWO

The last one - summary

The wanderers walk and see hayfields. They take the women's braids and start mowing them. Music can be heard from the river - it’s a landowner riding in a boat. The gray-haired man Vlas urges the women on - they shouldn’t upset the landowner. Three boats moor to the shore, containing a landowner with his family and servants.

The old landowner walks around the hay, complains that the hay is damp, and demands that it be dried. He leaves with his retinue for breakfast. The wanderers ask Vlas (he turned out to be the burgomaster) why the landowner gives orders if serfdom is abolished. Vlas replies that they have a special landowner: when he learned about the abolition of serfdom, he had a stroke - the left half of his body was paralyzed, he lay motionless.

The heirs arrived, but the old man recovered. His sons told him about the abolition of serfdom, but he called them traitors, cowards, etc. Out of fear that they would be disinherited, his sons decide to indulge him in everything.

That’s why they persuade the peasants to make a joke, as if the peasants were returned to the landowners. But some peasants did not need to be persuaded. Ipat, for example, says: “ And I am the princes Utyatin’s slave - and that’s the whole story!“He remembers how the prince harnessed him to a cart, how he bathed him in an ice hole - he dipped him into one ice hole, pulled him out of another - and immediately gave him vodka.

The prince put Ipat on the box to play the violin. The horse stumbled, Ipat fell, and the sleigh ran over him, but the prince drove away. But after some time he returned. Ipat is grateful to the prince that he did not leave him to freeze. Everyone agrees to pretend that serfdom was not abolished.

Vlas does not agree to be burgomaster. Klim Lavin agrees to be it.

Klim has a conscience made of clay,

And Minin’s beard,

If you look, you'll think so

Why can't you find a peasant?

More mature and sober .

The old prince walks around and gives orders, the peasants laugh at him on the sly. The man Agap Petrov did not want to obey the orders of the old landowner, and when he caught him cutting down the forest, he told Utyatin directly about everything, calling him a fool. Ducky got the second blow. But contrary to the expectations of his heirs, the old prince recovered again and began to demand the public flogging of Agap.

The latter is being persuaded by the whole world. They took him to the stables, put a glass of wine in front of him and told him to shout louder. He shouted so loudly that even Utyatin took pity. The drunk Agap was carried home. Soon he died: " The unscrupulous Klim ruined him, anathema, blame!»

Utyatin is sitting at the table at this time. Peasants stand at the porch. Everyone is putting on a comedy, as usual, except for one guy - he laughs. The guy is a newcomer, local customs are funny to him. Utyatin again demands punishment for the rebel. But the wanderers do not want to blame. The burgher's godfather saves the situation - she says that it was her son who laughed - a foolish boy. Utyatin calms down, has fun and swaggers over dinner. After lunch he dies. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But the joy of the peasants was premature: “ With the death of the Last One, the lordly caress disappeared».

PEASANT WOMAN (FROM PART THIRD)

Prologue - summary

The wanderers decide to look for a happy man among women. They are advised to go to the village of Klin and ask Matryona Timofeevna, nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Arriving in the village, the men see “poor houses.” The lackey he met explains that “The landowner is abroad, //And the steward is dying.” The wanderers meet Matryona Timofeevna.

Matrena Timofeevna

dignified woman,

Wide and dense

About thirty-eight years old.

Beautiful; gray streaked hair,

The eyes are large, strict,

The richest eyelashes,

Severe and dark.

The wanderers talk about their goal. The peasant woman replies that she has no time to talk about life now - she has to go reap rye. The men offer help. Matryona Timofeevna talks about her life.

Chapter 1 – Before marriage. Summary

Matrena Timofeevna was born into a friendly, non-drinking family and lived “like in Christ’s bosom.” It was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Then Matryona Timofeevna met her betrothed;

There's a stranger on the mountain!

Philip Korchagin - St. Petersburg resident,

Stove maker by skill.

Chapter 2 – Songs. Summary

Matryona Timofeevna ends up in someone else's house.

The family was huge

Grumpy... I'm in trouble

Happy maiden holiday to hell!

My husband went to work

I advised to remain silent and be patient...

As ordered, so done:

I walked with anger in my heart.

And I didn’t say too much

A word to no one.

In winter Philippus came,

Brought a silk handkerchief

Yes, I went for a ride on a sled

On Catherine's day,

And it was as if there was no grief!..

She says that her husband beat her only once, when her husband’s sister arrived and he asked to give her shoes, but Matryona hesitated. Philip went back to work, and Matryona’s son Demushka was born on Kazanskaya. Life in her mother-in-law's house has become even more difficult, but she endures:

Whatever they tell me, I work,

No matter how much they scold me, I remain silent.

Of the entire family, only grandfather Savely felt sorry for Matryona Timofeevna’s husband.

Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero. Summary.

Matryona Timofeevna talks about Savelia.

With a huge gray mane,

Tea, twenty years uncut,

With a huge beard

Grandfather looked like a bear...<…>

... He's already hit the nail on the head,

According to fairy tales, a hundred years.

Grandfather lived in a special room,

Didn't like families

He didn’t let me into his corner;

And she was angry, barking,

His "branded, convict"

My own son was honoring.

Savely will not be angry,

He will go to his little room,

Reads the holy calendar, gets baptized

And suddenly he will say cheerfully;

“Branded, but not a slave!”...

Savely tells Matryona why he is called “branded.” During his youth, the serf peasants of his village did not pay rent, did not go to corvée, because they lived in remote places and it was difficult to get there. The landowner Shalashnikov tried to collect rent, but was not very successful in this.

Shalashnikov tore excellently,

And not so great

I received income.

Soon Shalashnikov (he was a military man) is killed near Varna. His heir sends a German governor.

He forces the peasants to work. They themselves do not notice how they are cutting a clearing, i.e. it has now become easy to get to them.

And then came hard labor

To the Korezh peasant -

Ruined to the bone!<…>

The German has a death grip:

Until he lets you go around the world,

Without moving away, he sucks!

This went on for eighteen years. The German built a factory and ordered the digging of a well. The German began to scold those who were digging the well for idleness (Savely was among them). The peasants pushed the German into a hole and buried the hole. Next - hard labor, Savelig! tried to escape from it, but was caught. He spent twenty years in hard labor, another twenty in a settlement.

Chapter 4. Demushka. Summary

Matryona Timofeevna gave birth to a son, but her mother-in-law does not allow her to be with the child, since her daughter-in-law has started working less.

The mother-in-law insists that Matryona Timofeevna leave her son with his grandfather. Savely neglected to look after the child: “The old man fell asleep in the sun, // Fed Demidushka to the pigs // Silly grandfather!..” Matryona accuses her grandfather and cries. But it didn't end there:

The Lord was angry

He sent uninvited guests,

Unrighteous judges!

A doctor, a police officer, and the police appear in the village and accuse Matryona of intentionally killing a child. The doctor performs an autopsy, despite Matryona's requests. without desecration // To an honest burial // To betray the baby". They call her crazy. Grandfather Savely says that her madness lies in the fact that she went to the authorities without taking with her “ not a ruble, not a new thing.” Demushka is buried in a closed coffin. Matryona Timofeevna cannot come to her senses, Savely, trying to console her, says that her son is now in heaven.

Chapter 5. She-Wolf - Summary

After Demushka died, Matryona “was not herself” and could not work. The father-in-law decided to teach her a lesson with the reins. The peasant woman bent down at his feet and asked: “Kill!” The father-in-law retreated. Day and night Matryona Timofeevna is at her son’s grave. Closer to winter, my husband arrived. Savely after the death of Demushka

For six days I lay hopelessly,

Then he went into the forests.

That's how grandpa sang, that's how he cried,

That the forest groaned! And in the fall

Went to repentance

To the Sand Monastery.

Every year Matryona gives birth to a child. Three years later, Matryona Timofeevna’s parents die. She goes to her son's grave to cry. Meets grandfather Savely there. He came from the monastery to pray for the “Deme of the Poor, for all the suffering Russian peasantry.” Saveliy did not live long - “in the fall, the old man got some kind of deep wound on his neck, he died with difficulty...”. Savely spoke about the share of the peasants:

There are three paths for men:

Tavern, prison and penal servitude,

And the women in Rus'

Three loops: white silk,

The second is red silk,

And the third - black silk,

Choose any one! .

Four years have passed. Matryona came to terms with everything. One day, a pilgrim pilgrim comes to the village, she talks about the salvation of the soul, and demands from mothers that they not feed their babies milk on fasting days. Matryona Timofeevna did not listen. “Yes, apparently God is angry,” says the peasant woman. When her son Fedot was eight years old, he was sent to herd sheep. One day they brought Fedot and said that he had fed a sheep to a she-wolf. Fedot says that a huge, emaciated she-wolf appeared, grabbed the sheep and started running. Fedot caught up with her and took away the sheep, which was already dead. The she-wolf looked into his eyes pitifully and howled. It was clear from the bleeding nipples that she had wolf cubs in her lair. Fedot took pity on the she-wolf and gave her the sheep. Matryona Timofeevna, trying to save her son from flogging, asks for mercy from the landowner, who orders not the assistant shepherd to be punished, but the “impudent woman.”

Chapter 6. Difficult year. Summary.

Matryona Timofeevna says that the she-wolf did not appear in vain - there was a shortage of bread. The mother-in-law told the neighbors that Matryona had caused the famine by wearing a clean shirt on Christmas Day.

For my husband, for my protector,

I got off cheap;

And one woman

Not for the same thing

Killed to death with stakes.

Don't joke with the hungry!..

After the lack of bread came the recruitment drive. My brother's eldest husband was drafted into the army, so the family did not expect trouble. But Matryona Timofeevna’s husband is taken as a soldier out of turn. Life gets even harder. The children had to be sent around the world. The mother-in-law became even more grumpy.

Okay, don't get dressed,

Don't wash yourself white

The neighbors have sharp eyes,

Tongues out!

Walk on the quieter streets

Carry your head lower

If you're having fun, don't laugh

Don't cry out of sadness!..

Chapter 7. Governor's wife. Summary

Matryona Timofeevna is going to the governor. She has difficulty getting to the city because she is pregnant. He gives a ruble to the doorman to let him in. He says to come in two hours. Matryona Timofeevna arrives, the doorman takes another ruble from her. The governor's wife arrives and Matryona Timofeevna rushes to her asking for intercession. The peasant woman becomes ill. When she comes to, she is told that she has given birth to a child. The governor's wife, Elena Aleksandrovna, was very fond of Matryona Timofeevna, and looked after her son as if she were her own (she herself had no children). A messenger is sent to the village to sort everything out. My husband was returned.

Chapter 8. The Woman's Parable. Summary

The men ask if Matryona Timofeevna told them everything. She says that everyone, except that they survived the fire twice, suffered from anthrax three times, that instead of a horse she had to walk “in the harrow.” Matryona Timofeevna recalls the words of the holy pilgrim who went to "the heights of Athens»:

The keys to women's happiness,

From our free will

Abandoned, lost to God himself!<…>

Yes, they are unlikely to be found...

What kind of fish swallowed

Those keys are reserved,

In what seas is that fish

Walking - God forgot!

PART FOUR.

Feast for the whole world

Introduction - summary

There is a feast in the village. The feast was organized by Klim. They sent for the parish sexton Tryphon. He came with his seminarian sons Savvushka and Grisha.

... It was the eldest

Already nineteen years old;

Now I'm an archdeacon

I looked, and Gregory

Face thin, pale

And the hair is thin, curly,

With a hint of red.

Simple guys, kind,

Mowed, reaped, sowed

And drank vodka on holidays

On a par with the peasantry.

The clerk and the seminarians began to sing.

I. Bitter times - bitter songs - summary

CHEERFUL

“Eat the prison, Yasha! There’s no milk!”

- “Where is our cow?”

Take away, my light!

Master for offspring

I took her home."

It's nice to live for the people

Saint in Rus'!

“Where are our chickens?” -

The girls are screaming.

“Don’t yell, you fools!

The zemstvo court ate them;

I took another cart

Yes, he promised to wait..."

It's nice to live for the people

Saint in Rus'!

Broke my back

But the sauerkraut doesn’t wait!

Baba Katerina

I remembered - roars:

In the yard for over a year

Daughter... no dear!

It's nice to live for the people

Saint in Rus'!

Some of the kids

Lo and behold, there are no children:

The king will take the boys,

Master - daughters!

To one freak

Live forever with your family.

It's nice to live for the people

Saint in Rus'!

Then the Vakhlaks sang:

Corvée

Kalinushka is poor and unkempt,

He has nothing to show off,

Only the back is painted,

You don't know behind your shirt.

From bast shoes to gate

The skin is all ripped open

The belly swells with chaff.

Twisted, twisted,

Flogged, tormented,

Kalina barely walks.

He'll knock on the innkeeper's feet,

Sorrow will drown in wine,

It will only come back to haunt you on Saturday

From the master's stable to his wife...

The men remember the old order. One of the men recalls how one day their lady decided to mercilessly beat the one “who would say a strong word.” The men stopped arguing, but as soon as the will was announced, they lost their souls so much that “Priest Ivan was offended.” Another man talks about the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful. The greedy landowner Polivanov had a faithful servant, Yakov. He was devoted to the master without limit.

Yakov appeared like this from his youth,

Yakov had only joy:

To groom, protect, please the master

Yes, rock my little nephew.

Jacob's nephew Grisha grew up and asked the master for permission to marry the girl Arina.

However, the master himself liked her. He gave Grisha as a soldier, despite Yakov's pleas. The slave started drinking and disappeared. Polivanov feels bad without Yakov. Two weeks later the slave returned. Polivanov is going to visit his sister, Yakov is taking him. They drive through the forest, Yakov turns into a remote place - Devil's Ravine. Polivanov is frightened and begs for mercy. But Yakov says that he is not going to get his hands dirty with murder, and hangs himself from a tree. Polivanov is left alone. He spends the whole night in the ravine, screaming, calling people, but no one responds. In the morning a hunter finds him. The landowner returns home, lamenting: “I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!

After the story, the men start an argument about who is more sinful - the innkeepers, the landowners, the peasants or the robbers. Klim Lavin fights with a merchant. Jonushka, the “humble mantis,” talks about the power of faith. His story is about the holy fool Fomushka, who called people to escape to the forests, but he was arrested and taken to prison. From the cart, Fomushka shouted: “They beat you with sticks, rods, whips, you will be beaten with iron rods!” In the morning, a military team arrived and the pacification and interrogations began, i.e. Fomushka’s prophecy “almost came true.” Jonah talks about Euphrosyne, the messenger of God, who during the cholera years “buries, heals, and tends to the sick.” Jonah Lyapushkin - praying mantis and wanderer. The peasants loved him and argued about who would be the first to shelter him. When he appeared, everyone brought out icons to meet him, and Jonah followed those whose icons he liked best. Jonah tells a parable about two great sinners.

ABOUT TWO GREAT SINNERS

The story was told to Jonah in Solovki by Father Pitirim. There were twelve robbers, whose chieftain was Kudeyar. They lived in a dense forest, plundered a lot of wealth, and killed a lot of innocent souls. From near Kyiv, Kudeyar took himself a beautiful girl. Unexpectedly, “the Lord awakened the conscience” of the robber. Kudeyar " He blew off his mistress's head // And spotted Esaul" Came home with a tartar in monastic clothes y,” day and night he prays to God for forgiveness. The saint of the Lord appeared in front of Kudeyar. He pointed to a huge oak tree and said: “ With the same knife that robbed him, // Cut him with the same hand!..<…>The tree will just fall, // The chains of sin will fall" Kudeyar begins to do what he was told. Time passes, and Pan Glukhovsky drives by. He asks what Kudeyar is doing.

A lot of cruel, scary

The old man heard about the master

And as a lesson to the sinner

He told his secret.

Pan grinned: “Salvation

I haven't had tea for a long time,

In the world I honor only a woman,

Gold, honor and wine.

You have to live, old man, in my opinion:

How many slaves do I destroy?

I torment, torture and hang,

I wish I could see how I’m sleeping!”

The hermit becomes furious, attacks the master and plunges a knife into his heart. At that very moment the tree collapsed, and the load of sins fell from the old man.

III. Both old and new - summary

PEASANT SIN

One admiral was granted eight thousand peasant souls by the Empress for his military service, for the battle with the Turks near Ochakov. Dying, he gives the casket to Gleb the elder. The casket is ordered to be taken care of, since it contains a will according to which all eight thousand souls will receive their freedom. After the death of the admiral, a distant relative appears on the estate, promises the headman a lot of money, and the will is burned. Everyone agrees with Ignat that this is a great sin. Grisha Dobrosklonov talks about the freedom of the peasants, that “there will be no new Gleb in Rus'.” Vlas wishes Grisha wealth and a smart and healthy wife. Grisha in response:

I don't need any silver

Not gold, but God willing,

So that my fellow countrymen

And every peasant

Life was free and fun

All over holy Rus'!

A cart with hay is approaching. The soldier Ovsyannikov is sitting on the cart with his niece Ustinyushka. The soldier made his living with the help of a raik - a portable panorama that showed objects through a magnifying glass. But the instrument broke. The soldier then came up with new songs and began to play the spoons. Sings a song.

Soldier's Toshen light,

There is no truth

Life is sickening

The pain is severe.

German bullets

Turkish bullets,

French bullets

Russian sticks!

Klim notices that in his yard there is a log on which he has been chopping wood since his youth. She is “not as wounded” as Ovsyannikov. However, the soldier did not receive full board, since the doctor’s assistant, when examining the wounds, said that they were second-rate. The soldier submits a petition again.

IV. Good time - good songs - summary.

Grisha and Savva take their father home and sing:

Share of the people

His happiness.

Light and freedom

First of all!

We're a little

We ask God:

Fair deal

Do it skillfully

Give us strength!

Working life -

Direct to friend

Road to the heart

Away from the threshold

Coward and lazy!

Isn't it heaven?

Share of the people

His happiness.

Light and freedom

First of all!

Father fell asleep, Savvushka took up his book, and Grisha went into the field. Grisha has a thin face - they were underfed by the housekeeper at the seminary. Grisha remembers his mother Domna, whose favorite son he was. Sings a song:

In the middle of the world below

For a free heart

There are two ways.

Weigh the proud strength,

Weigh your strong will, -

Which way to go?

One spacious

The road is rough,

The passions of a slave,

It's huge,

Greedy for temptation

There's a crowd coming.

About sincere life,

About the lofty goal

The idea there is funny.

Eternal boils there,

Inhuman

Enmity-war.

For mortal blessings...

There are souls captive there

Full of sin.<…>

The other one is tight

The road is honest

They walk along it

Only strong souls

Loving,

To fight, to work.

For the bypassed

For the oppressed -

In their footsteps

Go to the downtrodden

Go to the offended -

Be the first there.

No matter how dark the vahlachina is,

No matter how crammed with corvée

And slavery - and she,

Having been blessed, I placed

In Grigory Dobrosklonov

Such a messenger.

Fate had in store for him

The path is glorious, the name is loud

People's Defender,

Consumption and Siberia.

Grisha sings a song about the bright future of his Motherland: “ You are still destined to suffer a lot, //But you will not die, I know" Grisha sees a barge hauler who, having completed his work, with the coppers jingling in his pocket, goes to the tavern. Grisha sings another song.

RUS

You're miserable too

You are also abundant

You are mighty

You are also powerless

Mother Rus'!

Saved in slavery

Free heart -

Gold, gold

People's heart!

People's power

Mighty force -

Conscience is calm,

The truth is alive!

Strength with untruth

They don't get along

Sacrifice by untruth

Not called -

Rus' does not move,

Rus' is like dead!

And she caught fire

Hidden spark -

They stood up - unwounded,

They came out - uninvited,

Live by the grain

The mountains have been damaged!

The army rises -

Countless!

The strength in her will affect

Indestructible!

You're miserable too

You are also abundant

You're downtrodden

You are omnipotent

Mother Rus'!..

Grisha is pleased with his song:

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!..

I hope this summary of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” helped you prepare for your Russian literature lesson.

Retelling plan

1. A dispute between men about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.”
2. Meeting with the priest.
3. A drunken night after the fair.
4. History of Yakima Nagogo.
5. Searching for a happy person among men. A story about Ermil Girin.
6. The men meet the landowner Obolt-Obolduev.
7. Searching for a happy man among women. The story of Matryona Timofeevna.
8 Meeting with an eccentric landowner.
9. The parable about the exemplary slave - Jacob the faithful.
10. A story about two great sinners - Ataman Kudeyar and Pan Glukhovsky. The story of the "peasant sin".
11. Thoughts of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
12. Grisha Dobrosklonov - “people's defender.”

Retelling

Part I

Prologue

The poem begins with the fact that seven men met on a pillar path and argued about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.” “Roman said: to the landowner, Demyan said: to the official, Luka said: to the priest. To the fat-bellied merchant! - said the Gubin brothers, Ivan and Mitrodor. Old man Pakhom strained and said, looking at the ground: to the noble boyar, to the sovereign’s minister. And Prov said: to the king.” They argued all day and didn’t even notice how night had fallen. The men looked around, realized that they had gone far from home, and decided to rest before heading back. As soon as they had time to settle down under a tree and drink vodka, their argument began with renewed vigor, it even came to a fight. But then the men saw that a small chick had crawled up to the fire and had fallen out of the nest. Pakhom caught it, but then a warbler appeared and began to ask the men to let her chick go, and for this she told them where the self-assembled tablecloth was hidden. The men found a tablecloth, had dinner and decided that they would not return home until they found out “who lives happily and at ease in Rus'.”

Chapter I. Pop

The next day the men set off on their journey. At first they met only peasants, beggars and soldiers, but the men did not ask them “how is it for them - is it easy or difficult to live in Rus'.” Finally, in the evening, they met a priest. The men explained to him that they had a concern that “kept us out of our homes, made us estranged from work, kept us away from food”: “Is the priest’s life sweet? How are you living freely and happily, honest father?” And the priest begins his story.

It turns out that there is no peace, no wealth, no honor in his life. There is no peace, because in a large district “the sick, the dying, the one born into the world does not choose time: for harvesting and haymaking, in the dead of autumn night, in winter, in severe frosts and in spring floods.” And the priest must always go to fulfill his duty. But the most difficult thing, the priest admits, is to watch how a person dies and how his relatives cry over him. There is no priest and no honor, because the people call him “the foal breed”; meeting a priest on the road is considered a bad omen; they make up “jokey tales, obscene songs, and all sorts of blasphemy” about the priest, and they make a lot of jokes about the priest’s family. And it’s hard to get rich as a butt. If in former times, before the abolition of serfdom, there were many landowner estates in the district, in which weddings and christenings were constantly celebrated, now only poor peasants remain who cannot generously pay the priest for his work. The priest himself says that his “soul will turn over” to take money from the poor, but then he will have nothing to feed his family. With these words the priest leaves the men.

Chapter 2. Rural fair

The men continued their journey and ended up in the village of Kuzminskoye, at the fair, and decided to look for a happy one here. “Wanderers went to the shops: they admired the handkerchiefs, Ivanovo calicoes, harnesses, new shoes, and the products of the Kimryaks.” At the shoe shop they meet old man Vavila, who admires the goat shoes, but does not buy them: he promised his little granddaughter to buy shoes, and other family members - various gifts, but drank all the money. Now he is ashamed to appear in front of his granddaughter. The gathered people listen to him, but cannot help, because no one has extra money. But there was one person, Pavel Veretennikov, who bought boots for Vavila. The old man was so emotional that he ran away, forgetting to even thank Veretennikov, “but the other peasants were so comforted, so happy, as if he had given each one a ruble.” The wanderers go to a booth where they watch a comedy with Petrushka.

Chapter 3. Drunken night

Evening comes, and the travelers leave the “turbulent village”. They walk along the road, and everywhere they meet drunken people who are returning home after the fair. From all sides, the wanderers can hear drunken conversations, songs, complaints about a hard life, and the screams of those fighting.

At the road pillar, travelers meet Pavel Veretennikov, around whom peasants have gathered. Veretennikov writes down in his little book the songs and proverbs that the peasants sing to him. “Russian peasants are smart,” says Veretennikov, “the only thing that’s not good is that they drink until they become stupefied, they fall into ditches and ditches—it’s a shame to see!” After these words, a man approaches him, who explains that the peasants drink because of a hard life: “There is no measure for Russian hops. Have you measured our grief? Is there a limit to the work? Wine brings down the peasant, but grief does not bring down? Is work not going well? And the peasants drink to forget themselves, to drown their grief in a glass of vodka. But then the man adds: “For our family, we have a non-drinking family!” They don’t drink, and they also struggle, it would be better if they drank, they’re stupid, but that’s their conscience.” To Veretennikov’s question what his name is, the man replies: “Yakim Nagoy lives in the village of Bosovo, he works himself to death, drinks until he’s half to death!..”, and the rest of the men began to tell Veretennikov the story of Yakim Nagoy. He once lived in St. Petersburg, but he was sent to prison after he decided to compete with a merchant. He was stripped to the last thread, and so he returned to his homeland, where he took up the plow. Since then, he has been “roasting on the strip under the sun” for thirty years. He bought pictures for his son, which he hung around the hut, and he himself loved to look at them. But then one day there was a fire. Yakim, instead of saving the money he had accumulated throughout his life, saved the pictures, which he then hung in the new hut.

Chapter 4. Happy

People who called themselves happy began to gather under the linden tree. A sexton came, whose happiness consisted “not in sables, not in gold,” but “in complacency.” A pockmarked old woman came. She was happy that she had a large turnip. Then the soldier came, happy because “he was in twenty battles and not killed.” The mason began to say that his happiness lies in the hammer with which he earns money. But then another mason approached. He advised not to brag about his strength, otherwise grief might come out of it, as happened to him in his youth: the contractor began to praise him for his strength, but one day he put so many bricks on his stretcher that the man could not bear such a burden and after that he became completely ill. A servant, a servant, also came to the travelers. He stated that his happiness lies in the fact that he has a disease that only noble people suffer from. Various other people came to boast of their happiness, and in the end the wanderers pronounced their verdict on peasant happiness: “Eh, peasant happiness! Leaky, with patches, hunchbacked, with calluses, go home!”

But then a man approached them and advised them to ask Ermila Girin about happiness. When the travelers asked who this Ermila was, the man told them. Ermila worked at a mill that did not belong to anyone, but the court decided to sell it. An auction was held, in which Ermila began to compete with the merchant Altynnikov. In the end, Ermila won, only they immediately demanded money from him for the mill, and Ermila did not have that kind of money with her. He asked to give him half an hour, ran to the square and turned to the people with a request to help him. Ermila was a man respected by the people, so every peasant gave him as much money as he could. Yermila bought the mill, and a week later he came back to the square and gave back all the money he had lent. And everyone took as much money as they lent him, no one misappropriated anything extra, there was even one more ruble left. Those gathered began to ask why Ermila Girin was held in such esteem. The narrator said that in his youth Ermila was a clerk in the gendarmerie corps and helped every peasant who turned to him with advice and deeds and did not take a penny for it. Then, when a new prince arrived in the estate and dispersed the gendarme office, the peasants asked him to elect Yermila as mayor of the volost, since they trusted him in everything.

But then the priest interrupted the narrator and said that he was not telling the whole truth about Yermila, that he also had a sin: instead of his younger brother, Yermila, he recruited the only son of the old woman, who was her breadwinner and support. Since then, his conscience haunted him, and one day he almost hanged himself, but instead demanded to be tried as a criminal in front of all the people. The peasants began to ask the prince to take the old woman’s son from the recruits, otherwise Yermila would hang himself from conscience. In the end, their son was returned to the old woman, and Ermila’s brother was sent as a recruit. But Ermila’s conscience still tormented him, so he abandoned his position and began working at the mill. During a riot in the estate, Yermila ended up in prison... Then the cry of a footman, who was flogged for theft, was heard, and the priest did not have time to tell the story to the end.

Chapter 5. Landowner

The next morning we met the landowner Obolt-Obolduev and decided to ask if he lived happily. The landowner began to tell him that he was “of an eminent family”; his ancestors were known three hundred years ago. This landowner lived in the old days “like Christ in his bosom,” he had honor, respect, a lot of land, several times a month he organized holidays that “any Frenchman” could envy, and went hunting. The landowner kept the peasants strict: “Whoever I want, I will have mercy on, and whomever I want, I will execute. The law is my desire! The fist is my police! But then he added that “he punished with love,” that the peasants loved him, they celebrated Easter together. But the travelers only laughed at his words: “He knocked them down with a stake, or are you going to pray in the manor’s house?..” Then the landowner began to sigh that such a carefree life had passed after the abolition of serfdom. Now the peasants no longer work on the landowners' lands, and the fields have fallen into disrepair. Instead of a hunting horn, the sound of an ax is heard in the forests. Where previously there were manor houses, drinking establishments are now being built. After these words, the landowner began to cry. And the travelers thought: “The great chain has broken, it has broken and it has sprung: one end is hitting the master, the other is hitting the peasant!”

Peasant woman
Prologue

The travelers decided to look for a happy man among women. In one village they were advised to find Matryona Timofeevna and ask her around. The men set off and soon reached the village of Klin, in which lived “Matryona Timofeevna, a dignified woman, broad and dense, about thirty-eight years old. Beautiful: gray hair, large, stern eyes, rich eyelashes, stern and dark. She’s wearing a white shirt, a short sundress, and a sickle over her shoulder.” The men turned to her: “Tell me in divine terms: what is your happiness?” And Matryona Timofeevna began to tell.

Chapter 1. Before marriage

As a girl, Matryona Timofeevna lived happily in a large family where everyone loved her. No one woke her up early; they allowed her to sleep and gain strength. From the age of five she was taken out into the fields, she followed the cows, brought breakfast to her father, then she learned how to harvest hay, and so she got used to work. After work, she and her friends sat at the spinning wheel, sang songs, and went dancing on holidays. Matryona was hiding from the guys; she didn’t want to end up in captivity as a girl. But still she found a groom, Philip, from distant lands. He began to woo her. Matryona did not agree at first, but she liked the guy. Matryona Timofeevna admitted: “While we were bargaining, it must have been, so I think, then there was happiness. And it’s unlikely ever again!” She married Philip.

Chapter 2. Songs

Matryona Timofeevna sings a song about how the groom’s relatives attack his daughter-in-law when she arrives at a new house. Nobody likes her, everyone forces her to work, and if she doesn’t like the work, they can beat her. The same thing happened with Matryona Timofeevna’s new family: “The family was huge, grumpy. I ended up in hell from my maiden will!” Only in her husband could she find support, and it sometimes happened that he beat her. Matryona Timofeevna started singing about a husband who beats his wife, and his relatives do not want to stand up for her, but only order them to beat her even more.

Soon Matryona's son Demushka was born, and now it was easier for her to endure the reproaches of her father-in-law and mother-in-law. But trouble happened to her again. The master's manager began to pester her, and she did not know where to escape from him. Only grandfather Savely helped Matryona cope with all her troubles, only he loved her in her new family.

Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero

“With a huge gray mane, tea, twenty years uncut, with a huge beard, the grandfather looked like a bear,” “grandfather had an arched back,” “he was already a hundred years old, according to fairy tales.” “Grandfather lived in a special room, he didn’t like families, he didn’t let them into his corner; and she was angry, barking, his own son called him “branded, a convict.” When the father-in-law began to get very angry with Matryona, she and her son went to Savely and worked there, and Demushka played with his grandfather.

One day Savely told her the story of his life. He lived with other peasants in impenetrable swampy forests, where neither the landowner nor the police could reach. But one day the landowner ordered them to come to him and sent the police after them. The peasants had to obey. The landowner demanded quitrent from them, and when the men began to say that they had nothing, he ordered them to be flogged. Again the peasants had to obey, and they gave the landowner their money. Now every year the landowner came to collect rent from them. But the landowner died, and his heir sent a German manager to the estate. At first, the German lived calmly and became friends with the peasants. Then he began to order them to work. Before the men even had time to come to their senses, they had cut a road from their village to the city. Now you could easily visit them. The German brought his wife and children to the village and began to rob the peasants even more viciously than the previous landowner had robbed. The peasants tolerated him for eighteen years. During this time, the German managed to build a factory. Then he ordered to dig a well. He did not like the work and began to scold the peasants. And Savely and his comrades buried him in a hole dug for a well. For this he was sent to hard labor, where he spent twenty years. Then he returned to his homeland and built a house. The men asked Matryona Timofeevna to continue talking about her life as a woman.

Chapter 4. Demushka

Matryona Timofeevna took her son to work. But the mother-in-law told her to leave it to grandfather Savely, since you won’t earn much with a child. And so she gave Demushka to her grandfather, and she went to work. When I returned home in the evening, it turned out that Savely dozed off in the sun, did not look after the baby, and he was trampled by pigs. Matryona “rolled around like a ball”, “coiled like a worm, called, woke up Demushka - but it was too late to call.” The gendarmes arrived and began to interrogate, “Did you kill the child in agreement with the peasant Savely?” Then a doctor came to autopsy the child's corpse. Matryona began to ask him not to do this, sent curses on everyone, and everyone decided that she had lost her mind.

At night Matryona came to her son’s tomb and saw Savely there. At first she shouted at him, blaming him for Dema’s death, but then the two of them began to pray.

Chapter 5. She-Wolf

After Demushka’s death, Matryona Timofeevna did not talk to anyone, she could not see Savelia, she did not work. And Savely went to repentance at the Sand Monastery. Then Matryona and her husband went to her parents and got to work. Soon she had more children. So four years passed. Matryona’s parents died, and she went to cry at her son’s grave. He sees that the grave has been tidied up, there is an icon on it, and Savely is lying on the ground. They talked, Matryona forgave the old man and told him about her grief. Soon Savely died and was buried next to Dema.

Another four years passed. Matryona came to terms with her life, worked for the whole family, but did not harm her children. A praying mantis came to their village and began to teach them how to live correctly, in a divine way. She forbade breastfeeding on fasting days. But Matryona did not listen to her; she decided that it would be better for God to punish her than for her to leave her children hungry. So grief came to her. When her son Fedot was eight years old, his father-in-law gave him to be a shepherdess. One day the boy did not take care of the sheep, and one of them was stolen by a she-wolf. For this, the village elder wanted to flog him. But Matryona threw herself at the landowner’s feet, and he decided to punish his mother instead of his son. Matryona was flogged. In the evening she came to see how her son slept. And the next morning she did not show herself to her husband’s relatives, but went to the river, where she began to cry and call for protection from her parents.

Chapter 6. Difficult year

Two new troubles came to the village: first came a lean year, then a recruitment drive. The mother-in-law began to scold Matryona for causing trouble by wearing a clean shirt on Christmas. And then they wanted to send her husband as a recruit. Matryona didn’t know where to go. She herself did not eat, she gave everything to her husband’s family, and they also scolded her and looked angrily at her children, since they had extra mouths to feed. So Matryona had to “send the children around the world” so that they would ask strangers for money. Finally, her husband was taken away, and pregnant Matryona was left all alone.

Chapter 7. Governor's wife

Her husband was recruited at the wrong time, but no one wanted to help him return home. Matryona, who had been carrying her child to term for the last few days, went to seek help from the governor. She left home at night without telling anyone. I arrived in the city in the early morning. The doorman at the governor's palace told her to try to come in two hours, then maybe the governor would receive her. On the square, Matryona saw a monument to Susanin, and it reminded her of Savely. When the carriage drove up to the palace and the governor’s wife got out, Matryona threw herself at her feet with pleas for intercession. Then she felt bad. The long journey and fatigue affected her health, and she gave birth to a son. The governor's wife helped her, baptized the baby herself and gave him a name. Then she helped save Matryona’s husband from being recruited. Matryona brought her husband home, and his family bowed at her feet and apologized to her.

Chapter 8. The Woman's Parable

Since then they nicknamed Matryona Timofeevna the governor. She began to live as before, worked, raised children. One of her sons has already been recruited. Matryona Timofeevna said to the travelers: “It’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women”: “The keys to women’s happiness, to our free will, are abandoned, lost to God himself!”

Last One

The travelers went to the banks of the Volga and saw peasants working in haymaking. “We haven’t worked for a long time, let’s mow!” - the wanderers asked the local women. After work they sat down to a haystack to rest. Suddenly they see: three boats are floating along the river, in which music is playing, beautiful ladies, two mustachioed gentlemen, children and an old man are sitting. As soon as the peasants saw them, they immediately began to work even harder.

The old landowner went ashore and walked around the entire hay field. “The peasants bowed low, the mayor fussed before the landowner, like a demon before matins.” And the landowner scolded them for their work and ordered them to dry out the already harvested hay, which was already dry. The travelers were surprised why the old landowner behaved this way with the peasants, because they are now free people and are not under his authority. Old Vlas began to tell them.

“Our landowner is special, his wealth is exorbitant, his rank is important, his family is noble, he has been a weirdo and a fool all his life.” But then serfdom was abolished, but he didn’t believe it, decided that he was being deceived, even argued with the governor about this, and by the evening he had a stroke. His sons were afraid that he might disinherit them, and they agreed with the peasants to live as before, as if the landowner were still their master. Some peasants happily agreed to continue serving the landowner, but many could not agree. For example, Vlas, who was then the mayor, did not know how he would have to carry out the “stupid orders” of the old man. Then another peasant asked to be made mayor, and “the old order went.” And the peasants gathered together and laughed at the master’s stupid orders. For example, he ordered a seventy-year-old widow to be married to a six-year-old boy so that he would support her and build her a new house. He ordered the cows not to moo when they passed the manor's house, because they woke up the landowner.

But then there was a peasant Agap who did not want to obey the master and even reproached other peasants for obedience. One day he was walking with a log, and a gentleman met him. The landowner realized that the log was from his forest and began to scold Agap for theft. But the peasant could not stand it and began to laugh at the landowner. The old man was struck again, they thought that he would now die, but instead he issued a decree to punish Agap for disobedience. Young landowners, their wives, the new mayor and Vlas went to Agap all day, persuaded Agap to pretend, and gave him wine to drink all night. The next morning they locked him in the stable and told him to scream as if he was being beaten, but in fact he was sitting and drinking vodka. The landowner believed it, and he even felt sorry for the peasant. Only Agap, after so much vodka, died in the evening.

The wanderers went to look at the old landowner. And he sits surrounded by sons, daughters-in-law, peasants and has dinner. He began to ask whether the peasants would soon collect the master's hay. The new mayor began to assure him that the hay would be removed in two days, then he declared that the men would not escape from the master, that he was their father and god. The landowner liked this speech, but suddenly he heard that one of the peasants in the crowd laughed, and ordered to find and punish the culprit. The mayor went, and he himself thought about what to do. He began to ask the wanderers to have one of them confess: they are not from here, the master cannot do anything to them. But the travelers did not agree. Then the mayor's godfather, a cunning woman, fell at the master's feet, began to lament, saying that it was her only stupid son who laughed, and begged the master not to scold him. The master took pity. Then he fell asleep and died in his sleep.

Feast for the whole world

Introduction

The peasants organized a holiday, to which the entire estate came, they wanted to celebrate their newfound freedom. The peasants sang songs.

I. Bitter times - bitter songs

Cheerful. The song says that the master took the cow from the peasant, the zemstvo court took the chickens, the tsar took his sons as recruits, and the master took his daughters to himself. “It is glorious to live in holy Rus'!”

Corvee. The poor peasant of Kalinushka has wounds all over his back from beatings, he has nothing to wear, nothing to eat. Everything he earns has to be given to the master. The only joy in life is to go to a tavern and get drunk.

After this song, the peasants began to tell each other how hard it was under corvee. One recalled how their mistress Gertrude Alexandrovna ordered them to be beaten mercilessly. And the peasant Vikenty told the following parable.

About an exemplary slave - Yakov the faithful. Once upon a time there lived a landowner who was very stingy; he even drove away his daughter when she got married. This master had a faithful servant, Yakov, who loved him more than his own life, and did everything to please the master. Yakov never asked his master for anything, but his nephew grew up and wanted to get married. Only the master also liked the bride, so he did not allow Yakov’s nephew to marry, but gave him as a recruit. Yakov decided to take revenge on his master, only his revenge was as servile as his life. The master's legs hurt and he could not walk. Yakov took him into a dense forest and hanged himself in front of his eyes. The master spent the whole night in the ravine, and the next morning hunters found him. He did not recover from what he saw: “You, master, will be an exemplary slave, faithful Yakov, remembered until the day of judgment!”

II. Wanderers and pilgrims

There are different kinds of pilgrims in the world. Some of them only hide behind the name of God in order to profit at the expense of others, since it is customary to receive pilgrims in any home and feed them. Therefore, they most often choose rich houses where they can eat well and steal something. But there are also real pilgrims who bring the word of God to a peasant house. Such people go to the poorest house so that God’s mercy may fall on them too. Such pilgrims include Ionushka, who wrote the story “About Two Great Sinners.”

About two great sinners. Ataman Kudeyar was a robber and during his life he killed and robbed many people. But his conscience tormented him, so much so that he could neither eat nor sleep, but only remembered his victims. He disbanded the whole gang and went to pray at the Holy Sepulcher. He wanders, prays, repents, but it doesn’t get any easier for him. The sinner returned to his homeland and began to live under a century-old oak tree. One day he hears a voice that tells him to cut down an oak tree with the same knife with which he used to kill people, then all his sins will be forgiven. The elder worked for several years, but could not cut down the oak tree. Once he met Pan Glukhovskoy, about whom they said that he was a cruel and evil person. When the master asked what the elder was doing, the sinner said that he wanted to atone for his sins. Pan began to laugh and said that his conscience did not torment him at all, even though he had ruined many lives. “A miracle happened to the hermit: he felt furious anger, rushed to Pan Glukhovsky, and plunged a knife into his heart! The bloodied gentleman had just fallen with his head on the saddle, a huge tree collapsed, and the echo shook the whole forest.” So Kudeyar prayed for his sins.

III. Both old and new

“Great is the noble sin,” the peasants began to say after Jonah’s story. But the peasant Ignatius Prokhorov objected: “He is great, but he will not be against the sin of the peasant.” And he told the following story.

Peasant sin. For his courage and bravery, the widower admiral received eight thousand souls from the empress. When the time came for the admiral to die, he called the headman to him and handed him a casket containing free food for all the peasants. After his death, a distant relative came and, promising the elder mountains of gold and freedom, begged him for that casket. So eight thousand peasants remained in lordly bondage, and the headman committed the most serious sin: he betrayed his comrades. “So this is the peasant’s sin! Indeed, a terrible sin! - the men decided. Then they sang the song “Hungry” and again started talking about the sin of the landowners and peasants. And so Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of the sexton, said: “The snake will give birth to baby snakes, and the fortress will give birth to the sins of the landowner, the sin of the unfortunate Yakov, and the sin of Gleb! There is no support - there is no landowner who brings a zealous slave to a noose, there is no support - there is no yard servant taking revenge on his villain by suicide, there is no support - there will be no new Gleb in Rus'! Everyone liked the boy’s speech, they began to wish him wealth and an intelligent wife, but Grisha replied that he did not need wealth, but so that “every peasant could live freely, cheerfully throughout all holy Rus'.”

IV. Good times - good songs

In the morning the travelers fell asleep. Grisha and his brother took their father home, and they sang songs along the way. When the brothers put their father to bed, Grisha went for a walk around the village. Grisha studies at the seminary, where he is poorly fed, so he is thin. But he doesn't think about himself at all. All his thoughts are occupied only with his native village and peasant happiness. “Fate had prepared for him a glorious path, a great name as a people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.” Grisha is happy that he can be an intercessor and take care of ordinary people, about his homeland. Seven men finally found someone happy, but they didn’t even know about this happiness.