Who in Rus' is the best to live. Nikolai Nekrasov - who lives well in Rus'. The history of the creation of the poem

Illustration by Sergei Gerasimov "Dispute"

One day, seven men converge on the high road - recent serfs, and now temporarily liable "from adjacent villages - Zaplatova, Dyryavin, Razutov, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhayka, too." Instead of going their own way, the peasants start a dispute about who in Rus' lives happily and freely. 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 sovereigns or a tsar.

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

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

The first possible "lucky man" they met along the way is a priest. (It was not for the oncoming soldiers and beggars to ask about happiness!) But the priest's answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the peasants. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the pop does not possess any of these benefits. In haymaking, in stubble, in a dead autumn night, in severe frost, he must go where there are sick, dying and being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of grave sobs and orphan sorrow - so that his hand does not rise to take copper nickels - a miserable reward for the demand. The landlords, who formerly lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only in Rus', but also in distant foreign land; there is no hope for their reward. Well, the peasants themselves know what honor the priest is: they feel embarrassed when the priest blames obscene songs and insults against priests.

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

Wandering peasants watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the women are picking up book goods - but by no means Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of fat generals unknown to anyone and works about "my lord stupid." They also see how a busy trading day ends: rampant drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the peasants are indignant at Pavlusha Veretennikov's attempt to measure the peasant by the master's measure. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Rus': he will not endure either overwork or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would have poured out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo - one of those who "work to death, drink half to death." Yakim believes that only pigs walk the earth and do not see the sky for a century. During a fire, he himself did not save money accumulated over a lifetime, but useless and beloved pictures that hung in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Rus'.

Wandering men do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Rus'. But even for the promise to give water to the lucky ones for free, they fail to find those. For the sake of gratuitous booze, both an overworked worker, and a paralyzed former courtyard, who for forty years licked the master's plates with the best French truffle, and even ragged beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky.

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

About the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform, the ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the peasant wanderers. He recalls how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who belonged undividedly to him. Obolt-Obolduev tells with emotion how on the twelfth holidays he invited his serfs to pray in the manor's house - despite the fact that after that they had to drive women from all over the estate to wash the floors.

And although the peasants themselves know that life in serf times was far from the idyll drawn by Obolduev, they nevertheless understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who at once lost his usual way of life, and the peasant.

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

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

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

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

In the midst of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims up to the shore in three boats. The mowers, who have just sat down to rest, immediately jump up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help their heirs to hide the abolition of serfdom from the landowner Utyatin, who has lost his mind. For this, the relatives of the Last Duck-Duck promise the peasants floodplain meadows. But after the long-awaited death of the Afterlife, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.

Here, near the village of Vakhlachin, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvée, hungry, soldier's, salty - and stories about serf times. One of these stories is about the serf of the exemplary Jacob the faithful. Yakov's only joy was to please his master, the petty landowner Polivanov. Samodur Polivanov, in gratitude, beat Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey's soul. By old age, Polivanov lost his legs, and Yakov began to follow him as if he were a child. But when Yakov's nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the serf beauty Arisha, out of jealousy, Polivanov sent the guy to the recruits. Yakov began to drink, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, in a lackey way. Having brought the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself right above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful servant, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror.

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

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

But not only wandering peasants think about the happiness of the people. The son of a sacristan, seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives in Vakhlachin. In his heart, love for the deceased mother merged with love for the whole of Vahlachina. For fifteen years, Grisha knew for sure whom he was ready to give his life, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all mysterious Rus' as a miserable, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible strength that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in her. Such strong souls, like those of Grisha Dobrosklonov, the angel of mercy himself calls for an honest path. Fate prepares Grisha "a glorious path, a loud name of the people's intercessor, consumption and Siberia."

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

retold

History of creation

Nekrasov gave many years of his life to work on a poem, which he called his "favorite brainchild." “I decided,” said Nekrasov, “to state in a coherent story everything that I know about the people, everything that I happened to hear from their lips, and I started “Who should live well in Rus'.” It will be the epic of modern peasant life.” The writer accumulated material for the poem, according to his confession, "word by word for twenty years." Death interrupted this gigantic work. The poem remained unfinished. Shortly before his death, the poet said: “One thing that I deeply regret is that I did not finish my poem “Who should live well in Rus'.” N. A. Nekrasov began work on the poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” in the first half of the 60s of the XIX century. The mention of the exiled Poles in the first part, in the chapter "The Landowner", suggests that work on the poem was started no earlier than 1863. But the sketches of the work could have appeared earlier, since Nekrasov had been collecting material for a long time. The manuscript of the first part of the poem is marked 1865, however, it is possible that this is the date when work on this part was completed.

Shortly after finishing work on the first part, the prologue of the poem was published in the January issue of the Sovremennik magazine for 1866. Printing stretched for four years and was accompanied, like all of Nekrasov's publishing activities, by censorship persecution.

The writer began to continue working on the poem only in the 1870s, writing three more parts of the work: “The Last Child” (1872), “Peasant Woman” (1873), “Feast - for the whole world” (1876). The poet was not going to limit himself to the written chapters, three or four more parts were conceived. However, the developing disease interfered with the ideas of the author. Nekrasov, feeling the approach of death, tried to give some "completion" to the last part, "Feast - for the whole world."

In the last lifetime edition of "Poems" (-) the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" was printed in the following sequence: "Prologue. Part One”, “Last Child”, “Peasant Woman”.

The plot and structure of the poem

Nekrasov assumed that the poem would have seven or eight parts, but managed to write only four, which, perhaps, did not follow one after another.

Part one

The only one has no name. It was written shortly after the abolition of serfdom ().

Prologue

"In what year - count,
In what land - guess
On the pillar path
Seven men came together ... "

They got into an argument:

Who has fun
Feel free in Rus'?

They offered six answers to this question:

• Roman: landowner
• Demyan: to an official
• Gubin brothers - Ivan and Mitrodor: merchant;
• Pahom (old man): to the minister

The peasants decide not to return home until they find the right answer. They find a self-assembled tablecloth that will feed them and set off on their journey.

Peasant woman (from the third part)

Last (from the second part)

Feast - for the whole world (from the second part)

The chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” is a continuation of “Last Child”. It depicts a fundamentally different state of the world. This is people's Rus', already awakened and at once speaking. New heroes are being drawn into the festive feast of spiritual awakening. All the people sing songs of liberation, judge the past, evaluate the present, begin to think about the future. Sometimes these songs contrast with each other. For example, the story “About an exemplary servant - Jacob the faithful” and the legend “About two great sinners”. Yakov takes revenge on the master for all the bullying in a servile way, committing suicide in front of him. The robber Kudeyar atones for his sins, murders and violence not with humility, but with the murder of the villain - Pan Glukhovsky. This is how popular morality justifies righteous anger against oppressors and even violence against them.

List of heroes

Temporarily obligated peasants who went to look for someone who lives happily at ease in Rus'(Main characters)

• Novel
• Demyan
• Ivan and Mitrodor Gubin
• Pahom old man

Peasants and serfs

• Ermil Girin
• Yakim Nagoi
• Sidor
• Egorka Shutov
• Klim Lavin
• Agap Petrov
• Ipat - sensitive slave
• Jacob is a faithful servant
• Proshka
• Matryona
• Savely

landowners

• Utyatin
• Obolt-Obolduev
• Prince Peremetyev
• Glukhovskaya

Other heroes

• Altynnikov
• Vogel
• Shalashnikov

see also

Links

• Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov: textbook. allowance / Yaroslavl. state un-t im. P. G. Demidova and others; [ed. Art.] N. N. Paikov. - Yaroslavl: [b. and.], 2004. - 1 el. opt. disk (CD-ROM)

Veretennikov Pavlush - a collector of folklore, who met peasants - seekers of happiness - at a rural fair in the village of Kuzminsky. This character is given a very meager external characteristic(“He was a lot of balustering, / He wore a red shirt, / A woolen undershirt, / Lubricated boots ...”), little is known about his origin (“What kind of title, / The men didn’t know, / However, they called him “master”) . Due to such uncertainty, the image of V. acquires a generalizing character. A lively interest in the fate of the peasants distinguishes V. from the environment of indifferent observers of the life of the people (leaders of various statistical committees), eloquently exposed in the monologue of Yakim Nagogo. The very first appearance of V. in the text is accompanied by a disinterested act: he helps out the peasant Vavila by buying shoes for his granddaughter. In addition, he is ready to listen to someone else's opinion. So, although he reproaches the Russian people for drunkenness, he is convinced of the inevitability of this evil: after listening to Yakim, he himself offers him a drink (“Yakim Veretennikov / He brought two scales”). Seeing genuine attention from a reasonable master, and "peasants open up / Milyaga likes it." Folklorists and ethnographers Pavel Yakushkin and Pavel Rybnikov, leaders of the democratic movement of the 1860s, are among the supposed prototypes of V. The character owes his last name, perhaps, to the journalist P.F. Veretennikov, who visited the Nizhny Novgorod Fair for several years in a row and published reports about it in Moskovskie Vedomosti.

Vlas- headman of the village of Big Vakhlaki. “Serving under a strict master, / Carried a burden on his conscience / An involuntary participant / His cruelties.” After the abolition of serfdom, V. refuses the post of pseudo-burmister, but assumes actual responsibility for the fate of the community: “Vlas was a kind soul, / He was sick for the whole vakhlachin” - / Not for one family. free life "without corvee ... without tax ... Without a stick ..." is replaced by a new concern for the peasants (litigation with heirs for rented meadows), V. becomes an intercessor for the peasants, "lives in Moscow ... was in St. Petersburg ... / And there’s no sense in it! ”Together with his youth, V. parted with optimism, is afraid of the new, is always gloomy. But everyday life he is rich in inconspicuous good deeds, for example, in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”, at his initiative, the peasants collect money for the soldier Ovsyanikov. The image of V. is devoid of external concreteness: for Nekrasov, he is primarily a representative of the peasantry. His difficult fate (“Not so much in Belokamennaya / Passed along the pavement, / As a peasant’s soul / Grievances passed ...”) is the fate of the entire Russian people.

Girin Ermil Ilyich (Yermila) - one of the most likely contenders for the title of lucky man. The real prototype of this character is the peasant A. D. Potanin (1797-1853), who managed by proxy the estate of Countess Orlova, which was called Odoevshchina (after the name of the former owners, the princes Odoevsky), and the peasants were baptized into Adovshchina. Potanin became famous for his extraordinary justice. Nekrasovsky G. became known for his honesty to his fellow villagers back in the five years that he served as a clerk in the office (“You need a bad conscience - / A peasant from a peasant / Extort a penny”). Under the old prince Yurlov, he was dismissed, but then, under the young prince, he was unanimously elected mayor of Hell. During the seven years of his "reign" G. only once grimaced: "... from the recruitment / Little brother Mitrius / He outshone it." But remorse for this offense almost led him to commit suicide. Only thanks to the intervention of a strong master, it was possible to restore justice, and instead of the son of Nenila Vlasyevna, Mitriy went to serve, and "the prince himself takes care of him." G. resigned, rented a mill "and he became more than ever / Loved by all the people." When they decided to sell the mill, G. won the auction, but he did not have money with him to make a deposit. And then “a miracle happened”: G. was rescued by the peasants, to whom he turned for help, in half an hour he managed to collect a thousand rubles on the market square.

G. is driven not by mercenary interest, but by a rebellious spirit: "The mill is not dear to me, / The resentment is great." And although “he had everything that is needed / For happiness: and peace, / And money, and honor”, ​​at the moment when the peasants start talking about him (chapter “Happy”), G., in connection with peasant uprising, is located in the prison. The speech of the narrator, a gray-haired priest, from whom it becomes known about the arrest of the hero, is suddenly interrupted by outside interference, and later he himself refuses to continue the story. But behind this omission, one can easily guess both the cause of the rebellion and G.'s refusal to help in pacifying him.

Gleb- peasant, "great sinner". According to the legend told in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”, the “ammiral-widower”, a participant in the battle “near Achakov” (possibly, Count A.V. Orlov-Chesmensky), granted by the Empress eight thousand souls, dying, entrusted the elder G. his will (free for these peasants). The hero was tempted by the money promised to him and burned the will. The peasants tend to regard this "Judas" sin as the worst ever committed, because of it they will have to "forever toil". Only Grisha Dobrosklonov manages to convince the peasants, "that they are not the defendants / For the accursed Gleb, / To all the fault: grow strong!"

Dobrosklonov Grisha - a character that appears in the chapter "A Feast for the Whole World", the epilogue of the poem is entirely dedicated to him. "Grigory / His face is thin, pale / And his hair is thin, curly / With a hint of red." He is a seminarian, the son of the parish deacon Tryphon from the village of Bolshie Vahlaki. Their family lives in extreme poverty, only the generosity of Vlas the godfather and other men helped put Grisha and his brother Savva on their feet. Their mother Domna, “an unrequited laborer / For everyone who did something / Helped her on a rainy day”, died early, leaving a terrible “Salty” song as a memory of herself. In D.'s mind, her image is inseparable from the image of her homeland: "In the heart of a boy / With love for a poor mother / Love for all Vakhlachin / Merged." Already at the age of fifteen, he was determined to devote his life to the people. “I don’t need any silver, / No gold, but God forbid, / So that my fellow countrymen / And every peasant / Live freely and cheerfully / In all holy Rus'!” He is going to Moscow to study, but in the meantime, together with his brother, they help the peasants to the best of their ability: they write letters for them, explain the "Regulations on peasants emerging from serfdom", work and rest "on a par with the peasantry." Observations on the life of the surrounding poor, reflections on the fate of Russia and its people are clothed in poetic form, the songs of D. are known and loved by the peasants. With his appearance in the poem, the lyrical beginning intensifies, the direct author's assessment intrudes into the narrative. D. is marked with the "seal of the gift of God"; a revolutionary propagandist from among the people, he should, according to Nekrasov, serve as an example for the progressive intelligentsia. In his mouth, the author puts his convictions, his own version of the answer to the social and moral questions posed in the poem. The image of the hero gives the poem compositional completeness. The real prototype could be N. A. Dobrolyubov.

Elena Alexandrovna - governor, merciful lady, savior of Matryona. “She was kind, she was smart, / Beautiful, healthy, / But God did not give children.” She sheltered a peasant woman after a premature birth, became the godmother of the child, "all the time with Liodorushka / Worn like with her own." Thanks to her intercession, Philip was rescued from recruitment. Matryona exalts her benefactor to the skies, and criticism (O.F. Miller) rightly notes in the image of the governor's echoes of the sentimentalism of the Karamzin period.

Ipat- a grotesque image of a faithful serf, a lord's lackey, who remained faithful to his master even after the abolition of serfdom. I. boasts that the landowner “harnessed him with his own hand / To the cart,” bathed him in an ice hole, saved him from a cold death, to which he himself had doomed him before. All this he perceives as great blessings. I. evokes healthy laughter among wanderers.

Korchagina Matrena Timofeevna - a peasant woman, the third part of the poem is entirely devoted to her biography. “Matryona Timofeevna / A portly woman, / Broad and thick, / Thirty-eight years old. / Beautiful; gray hair, / Large, stern eyes, / The richest eyelashes, / Harsh and swarthy. / She has a white shirt on, / Yes, a short sundress, / Yes, a sickle over her shoulder. The glory of a lucky woman leads wanderers to her. M. agrees to "lay out her soul" when the peasants promise to help her in the harvest: the suffering is in full swing. The fate of M. was largely prompted by Nekrasov, published in the 1st volume of "Lamentations of the Northern Territory", collected by E. V. Barsov (1872), the autobiography of the Olonets wailer I. A. Fedoseeva. The narrative is based on her laments, as well as other folklore materials, including "Songs collected by P. N. Rybnikov" (1861). The abundance of folklore sources, often with little or no change included in the text of the "Peasant Woman", and the very title of this part of the poem emphasize the typical fate of M.: this is the usual fate of a Russian woman, convincingly indicating that the wanderers "started / Not a deal - between women / / Look for a happy one. In the parental home, in a good, non-drinking family, M. lived happily. But, having married Philip Korchagin, a stove-maker, she ended up “from a girl’s will to hell”: a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunkard father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom the daughter-in-law must work like a slave. True, she was lucky with her husband: only once it came to beatings. But Philip only returns home from work in winter, and in the rest of the time there is no one to intercede for M., except for grandfather Savely, father-in-law. She has to endure the harassment of Sitnikov, the master's manager, which ceased only with his death. Her first-born Demushka becomes a consolation in all troubles for a peasant woman, but due to Savely's oversight, the child dies: he is eaten by pigs. An unrighteous judgment is being carried out over a heartbroken mother. Not guessing in time to give a bribe to the boss, she becomes a witness to the abuse of the body of her child.

For a long time, K. cannot forgive Savely for his irreparable oversight. Over time, the peasant woman has new children, "there is no time / Neither to think nor be sad." The heroine's parents, Savely, are dying. Her eight-year-old son Fedot is threatened with punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a she-wolf, and his mother lies under the rod instead of him. But the most difficult trials fall on her lot in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is likened to a hungry she-wolf. Recruitment deprives her of her last intercessor, her husband (he is taken out of turn). In delirium, she draws terrible pictures of the life of a soldier, soldier's children. She leaves the house and runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the porter lets her into the house for a bribe, she throws herself at the feet of the governor Elena Alexandrovna. With her husband and newborn Liodorushka, the heroine returns home, this incident cemented her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname "governor". Her further fate is also full of troubles: one of her sons has already been taken to the soldiers, "We burned twice ... God anthrax ... visited three times." In the "Woman's Parable" her tragic story is summed up: "The keys to a woman's happiness, / From our free will / Abandoned, lost / God Himself!" Part of the criticism (V. G. Avseenko, V. P. Burenin, N. F. Pavlov) met the "Peasant Woman" with hostility, Nekrasov was accused of implausible exaggerations, false, fake common people. However, even ill-wishers noted some successful episodes. There were also reviews about this chapter as the best part of the poem.

Kudeyar-ataman - "the great sinner", the hero of the legend told by God's wanderer Ionushka in the chapter "A feast for the whole world." The fierce robber unexpectedly repented of his crimes. Neither pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher, nor hermitage bring peace to his soul. The saint, who appeared to K., promises him that he will earn forgiveness when he cuts off the age-old oak with “the same knife that robbed”. Years of futile efforts cast doubt in the heart of the old man about the possibility of completing the task. However, “the tree collapsed, the burden of sins rolled down from the monk,” when the hermit, in a fit of furious anger, killed Pan Glukhovsky, who was passing by, boasting of his calm conscience: “Salvation / I don’t have tea for a long time, / In the world I honor only a woman, / Gold, honor and wine... How many serfs I destroy, / I torture, torture and hang, / And I would look at how I sleep! The legend about K. was borrowed by Nekrasov from the folklore tradition, but the image of Pan Glukhovsky is quite realistic. Among the possible prototypes is the landowner Glukhovsky from the Smolensk province, who spotted his serf, according to a note in Herzen's Bell dated October 1, 1859.

Naked Yakim- “In the village of Bosov / Yakim Nagoi lives, / He works to death, / Drinks half to death!” This is how the character defines himself. In the poem, he is entrusted to speak in defense of the people on behalf of the people. The image has deep folklore roots: the hero’s speech is replete with paraphrased proverbs, riddles, in addition, formulas similar to those that characterize his appearance (“Hand is tree bark, / And hair is sand”) are repeatedly found, for example, in folk spiritual verse "About Egor Khorobrom". The folk idea of ​​the inseparability of man and nature is rethought by Nekrasov, emphasizing the unity of the worker with the earth: “He lives - he is busy with the plow, / And death will come to Yakimushka" - / As a clod of earth falls off, / What has dried up on the plow ... at the eyes, at the mouth / Bends like cracks / On dry ground<...>the neck is brown, / Like a layer cut off by a plow, / A brick face.

The biography of the character is not quite typical for a peasant, rich in events: “Yakim, a miserable old man, / Once upon a time he lived in St. Petersburg, / Yes, he ended up in prison: / I thought of competing with a merchant! / Like a peeled velvet, / He returned to his homeland / And took up the plow. During the fire, he lost most of his belongings, because the first thing he rushed to save the pictures he bought for his son (“I myself was no less than a boy / Loved to look at them”). However, even in the new house, the hero takes up the old, buys new pictures. Countless hardships only strengthen his firm life position. In chapter III of the first part (“Drunken Night”), N. utters a monologue, where his convictions are formulated very clearly: hard labor, the results of which go to three equity holders (God, the king and the lord), and sometimes they are completely destroyed by fire; disasters, poverty - all this justifies the peasant drunkenness, and it is not worth measuring the peasant "by the master's measure." Such a point of view on the problem of popular drunkenness, widely discussed in the journalism of the 1860s, is close to the revolutionary democratic one (according to N. G. Chernyshevsky and N. A. Dobrolyubov, drunkenness is a consequence of poverty). It is no coincidence that later this monologue was used by the populists in their propaganda activities, repeatedly copied and reprinted separately from the rest of the text of the poem.

Obolt-Obolduev Gavrila Afanasyevich - “The gentleman is round, / Mustachioed, pot-bellied, / With a cigar in his mouth ... ruddy, / Possessed, stocky, / Sixty years old ... Valiant gimmicks, / Hungarian with brandenburgers, / Wide trousers.” Among the eminent ancestors of O. is a Tatar, who entertained the empress with wild animals, and an embezzler who plotted to set fire to Moscow. The hero is proud of his family tree. Previously, the master "smoked ... the sky of God, / He wore the royal livery, / Littered the people's treasury / And thought to live like this for a century," but with the abolition of serfdom, "the great chain broke, / It broke - jumped: / At one end along the master, / Others - like a man! With nostalgia, the landowner recalls the lost benefits, explaining along the way that he is sad not about himself, but about his motherland.

A hypocritical, idle, ignorant despot, who sees the purpose of his class in "an ancient name, / Dignity of the nobility / Support by hunting, / Feasts, all luxury / And live by someone else's labor." In addition to everything, O. is also cowardly: he takes unarmed men for robbers, and they do not soon manage to persuade him to hide the gun. The comic effect is enhanced by the fact that the accusations against oneself come from the lips of the landowner himself.

Ovsyanikov- soldier. “... He was fragile on his feet, / Tall and thin to the extreme; / He is wearing a frock coat with medals / Hanging like on a pole. / It is impossible to say that he has a kind / Face, especially / When he drove the old one - / Damn it! The mouth will snarl, / The eyes are like coals! With his orphan niece Ustinyushka, O. traveled around the villages, earning a living by the district committee, but when the instrument deteriorated, he composed new proverbs and performed them, playing along with himself on spoons. O.'s songs are based on folklore sentences and rural rhymes recorded by Nekrasov in 1843-1848. while working on The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikova. The text of these songs sketches life path soldier: the war near Sevastopol, where he was crippled, a negligent medical examination, where the old man’s wounds were rejected: “Second-rate! / According to them and pension”, subsequent poverty (“Well, with George - around the world, around the world”). In connection with the image of O., the theme of the railway, which is relevant both for Nekrasov and for later Russian literature, arises. Cast iron in the perception of a soldier is an animated monster: “It snorts in the face of a peasant, / Presses, maims, somersaults, / Soon the whole Russian people / Will sweep a cleaner broom!” Klim Lavin explains that the soldier cannot get to the St. Petersburg "Committee for the Wounded" for justice: the tariff on the Moscow-Petersburg road has increased and made it inaccessible to the people. The peasants, the heroes of the chapter "A Feast for the Whole World", are trying to help the soldier and collect only "rubles" together.

Petrov Agap- "rude, intractable", according to Vlas, a man. P. did not want to put up with voluntary slavery, they calmed him down only with the help of wine. Caught by the Last at the scene of the crime (carrying a log from the master's forest), he broke loose and explained to the master his real situation in terms of the most impartial. Klim Lavin staged a cruel reprisal against P., getting him drunk instead of a spanking. But from the endured humiliation and excessive intoxication by the morning of the next day, the hero dies. Such a terrible price is paid by the peasants for their voluntary, albeit temporary, renunciation of freedom.

Polivanov- "... a gentleman of a low family", however, small funds did not in the least interfere with the manifestation of his despotic nature. The whole spectrum of vices of a typical serf-owner is inherent in him: greed, stinginess, cruelty (“with relatives, not only with peasants”), voluptuousness. By old age, the master’s legs were taken away: “The eyes are clear, / The cheeks are red, / Plump hands are white as sugar, / Yes, there are shackles on the legs!” In this trouble, Yakov became his only support, "friend and brother", but for his faithful service, the master repaid him with black ingratitude. The terrible revenge of the serf, the night that P. had to spend in the ravine, “chasing away the birds and wolves with moans,” makes the master repent (“I am a sinner, a sinner! Execute me!”), But the narrator believes that he will not be forgiven: “You will you, sir, are an exemplary serf, / Jacob the faithful, / Remember until the day of judgment!

Pop- according to Luke's assumption, the priest "lives cheerfully, / At ease in Rus'." The village priest, who was the very first to meet the wanderers on the way, refutes this assumption: he has neither peace, nor wealth, nor happiness. With what difficulty "gets a letter / Popov's son", Nekrasov himself wrote in the poetic play "Rejected" (1859). In the poem, this theme will appear again in connection with the image of the seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov. The career of a priest is restless: “He who is ill, dying, / Born into the world / They do not choose time,” no habit will protect the dying and orphans from compassion, “every time he gets wet, / The soul will hurt.” The priest enjoys dubious honor in the peasant environment: folk superstitions, he and his family are constant characters in obscene jokes and songs. Priestly wealth was previously due to the generosity of parishioners-landlords, who, with the abolition of serfdom, left their estates and dispersed, “like a Jewish tribe ... Through distant foreign land / And through native Rus'.” With the transition of the schismatics under the supervision of the civil authorities in 1864, the local clergy lost another serious source of income, and from peasant labor "it's hard to live on a penny."

Savely- Holy Russian hero, "with a huge gray mane, / Tea, not cut for twenty years, / With a huge beard, / Grandfather looked like a bear." Once, in a fight with a bear, he injured his back, and in old age she bent. The native village of S, Korezhina, is located in the wilderness, and therefore the peasants live relatively freely ("Zemstvo police / Did not get to us for a year"), although they endure the atrocities of the landowner. Patience is the heroism of the Russian peasant, but there is a limit to any patience. S. ends up in Siberia for burying the hated German manager alive in the ground. Twenty years of hard labor, an unsuccessful attempt to escape, twenty years of settlement did not shake the rebellious spirit in the hero. Returning home after the amnesty, he lives in the family of his son, father-in-law Matryona. Despite his venerable age (according to the revision tales, his grandfather is a hundred years old), he leads an independent life: “He didn’t like families, / He didn’t let him into his corner.” When they reproach him for his hard labor past, he cheerfully answers: “Branded, but not a slave!” Hardened by harsh crafts and human cruelty, only the great-grandson of Dema could melt the petrified heart of S.. The accident makes the grandfather responsible for Demushkin's death. His grief is inconsolable, he goes to repentance in the Sand Monastery, trying to beg forgiveness of the "angry mother". Having lived for one hundred and seven years, before his death, he pronounces a terrible verdict on the Russian peasantry: “There are three paths for men: / A tavern, prison and hard labor, / And for women in Rus' / Three loops ... Get into any one.” Image C, in addition to folklore, has social and polemical roots. O. I. Komissarov, who saved Alexander II from an assassination attempt on April 4, 1866, was a Kostroma dweller, fellow countryman of I. Susanin. Monarchists saw this parallel as proof of the thesis about the regality of the Russian people. To refute this point of view, Nekrasov settled in the Kostroma province, the original patrimony of the Romanovs, rebel S, and Matryona catches the similarity between him and the monument to Susanin.

Trofim (Tryphon) - "a man with shortness of breath, / Relaxed, thin / (Easy nose, like a dead one, / Skinny arms like a rake, / Long knitting needles, / Not a man - a mosquito)". Former bricklayer, born strongman. Yielding to the contractor's provocation, he "carried one at least / Fourteen pounds" to the second floor and overstrained himself. One of the brightest and most terrible images in the poem. In the chapter “Happy”, T. boasts of the happiness that allowed him to get from St. Petersburg alive to his homeland, unlike many other “feverish, feverish workers” who were thrown out of the car when they began to rave.

Utyatin (Last child) - "thin! / Like winter hares, / All white ... Nose with a beak, like a hawk, / Whiskers gray, long / And - different eyes: / One healthy one glows, / And the left one is cloudy, cloudy, / Like a tin penny! Having “exorbitant wealth, / an important rank, a noble family,” U. does not believe in the abolition of serfdom. As a result of a dispute with the governor, he is paralyzed. “Not self-interest, / But arrogance cut him off.” The sons of the prince are afraid that he will deprive them of their inheritance in favor of side daughters, and persuade the peasants to pretend to be serfs again. The peasant world allowed "to show off / To the dismissed master / In the remaining hours." On the day of the arrival of wanderers - seekers of happiness - in the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, the Last One finally dies, then the peasants arrange a "feast for the whole world." The image of U. has a grotesque character. The absurd orders of the tyrant master will make the peasants laugh.

Shalashnikov- landowner, former owner of Korezhina, military man. Taking advantage of the remoteness from the provincial town, where the landowner stood with his regiment, the Korezha peasants did not pay dues. Sh. decided to beat the quitrent by force, tore the peasants so that "the brains were already shaking / In the little heads." Savely recalls the landowner as an unsurpassed master: “He knew how to flog! / He dressed my skin so that it has been worn for a hundred years. He died near Varna, his death put an end to the relative prosperity of the peasants.

Jacob- “about the exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful” tells the former courtyard in the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World”. "People of the servile rank - / Real dogs sometimes: / The heavier the punishment, / The dearer the Lord is to them." So was Y. until Mr. Polivanov, having coveted the bride of his nephew, sold him into recruits. An exemplary serf took to drink, but returned two weeks later, taking pity on the helpless master. However, the enemy was already "mutilating him." Ya. takes Polivanov to visit his sister, turns halfway into the Devil's ravine, unharnesses the horses and, contrary to the fears of the master, does not kill him, but hangs himself, leaving the owner alone with his conscience for the whole night. Such a way of revenge (“drag a dry misfortune” - to hang yourself in the possessions of the offender in order to make him suffer all his life) was really known, especially among the eastern peoples. Nekrasov, creating the image of Ya., refers to the story that A.F. Koni told him (who, in turn, heard it from the watchman of the volost government), and only slightly modifies it. This tragedy is another illustration of the perniciousness of serfdom. Through the mouth of Grisha Dobrosklonov, Nekrasov summarizes: “There is no support - there is no landowner, / Bringing up to the noose / An assiduous slave, / No support - there is no courtyard, / Revenging suicide / His villain.”

N. A. Nekrasov worked on his poem for a long time - from the 1860s until the end of his life. During his lifetime, individual chapters of the work were published, but it was fully published only in 1920, when K. I. Chukovsky decided to release the complete works of the poet. In many ways, the work “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” is built on the elements of Russian folk art, the language of the poem is close to that which was understandable to the peasants of that time.

Main characters

Despite the fact that Nekrasov planned to cover the life of all classes in his poem, the main characters of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” are still peasants. The poet paints their life in gloomy colors, especially sympathizing with women. The most striking images of the work are Ermila Girin, Yakim Nagoi, Savely, Matrena Timofeevna, Klim Lavin. At the same time, not only the world of the peasantry appears before the eyes of the reader, although the main emphasis is placed on it.

Quite often schoolchildren receive as homework describe briefly the heroes of "Who lives well in Rus'" and their characteristics. To get a good assessment, it is necessary to mention not only the peasants, but also the landowners. This is Prince Utyatin with his family, Obolt-Obolduev, a generous governor, a German manager. The work as a whole is characterized by the epic unity of all acting characters. However, along with this, the poet also presented many personalities, individualized images.

Ermila Girin

This hero "To whom it is good to live in Rus'", according to those who know him, is a happy person. The people around him appreciate him, and the landowner shows respect. Ermila is engaged in socially useful work - she runs a mill. He works on it without deceiving ordinary peasants. Kirin is trusted by everyone. This is manifested, for example, in the situation of collecting money for an orphan's mill. Ermila finds herself in the city without money, and the mill is put up for sale. If he does not have time to return for the money, then Altynnikov will get it - this will not be good for anyone. Then Jirin decides to appeal to the people. And people unite in order to do a good deed. They believe that their money will go to good causes.

This hero of “Who should live well in Rus'” was a clerk and helped those who do not know it to learn to read and write. However, the wanderers did not consider Yermila happy, because he could not stand the most difficult test - power. Instead of his own brother, Jirin gets into the soldiers. Ermila repents of her deed. He can no longer be considered happy.

Yakim Nagoi

One of the main characters of "Who Lives Well in Rus'" is Yakim Nagoi. He defines himself as follows - "works to death, drinks half to death." Nagogo's story is simple and at the same time very tragic. Once he lived in St. Petersburg, but ended up in prison, lost his estate. After that, he had to settle in the countryside and take on exhausting work. In the work, he is entrusted with protecting the people themselves.

The spiritual needs of man are indestructible

During the fire, Yakim loses most of what he has acquired, as he begins to save the pictures that he has acquired for his son. However, even in his new dwelling, Nagoi takes over the old one, buys other pictures. Why does he decide to save these things, at first glance, which are simple knick-knacks? A person tries to preserve what is dearest to him. And these pictures turn out to be more expensive for Yakim than money earned by hellish labor.

The life of the heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is an ongoing work, the results of which fall into the wrong hands. But the human soul cannot be content with an existence in which there is only room for endless hard labor. The Spirit of the Naked requires something high, and these pictures, oddly enough, are a symbol of spirituality.

Endless adversity only strengthens his position in life. In Chapter III, he delivers a monologue in which he describes in detail his life - this is hard labor, the results of which are in the hands of three equity holders, disasters and hopeless poverty. And by these disasters he justifies his drunkenness. It was the only joy for the peasants, whose only occupation was hard work.

The place of a woman in the poet's work

Women also occupy a significant place in Nekrasov's work. The poet considered their share the most difficult - after all, it was on the shoulders of Russian peasant women that the duty of raising children, preserving hearth and love in harsh Russian conditions. In the work “To whom it is good to live in Rus'”, the heroes (more precisely, the heroines) carry the most heavy cross. Their images are described in most detail in the chapter entitled "Drunken Night". Here you can face the difficult fate of women working as servants in cities. The reader meets Daryushka, who has grown thin from overwork, women whose situation in the house is worse than in hell - where the son-in-law constantly takes up the knife, "look, he will kill him."

Matryona Korchagin

The culmination of the female theme in the poem is the part called "Peasant Woman". Her main character is Matryona Timofeevna by the name of Korchagina, whose life is a generalization of the life of a Russian peasant woman. On the one hand, the poet demonstrates the gravity of her fate, but on the other, the unbending will of Matryona Korchagina. The people consider her "happy", and wanderers set off on a journey to see this "miracle" with their own eyes.

Matryona succumbs to their persuasion and talks about her life. She considers her childhood the happiest time. After all, her family was caring, no one drank. But soon the moment came when it was necessary to get married. Here she seemed to be lucky - her husband loved Matryona. However, she becomes the younger daughter-in-law, and she has to please everyone and everyone. Count on good word she couldn't even.

Only with grandfather Savely Matryona could open her soul, cry. But even the grandfather, although not of his own free will, caused her terrible pain - he did not see after the child. After that, the judges accused Matryona herself of killing the baby.

Is the heroine happy?

The poet emphasizes the helplessness of the heroine and, with the words of Savely, tells her to endure, because "we cannot find the truth." And these words become a description of the whole life of Matryona, who had to endure losses, grief, and resentment from the landowners. Only once does she manage to “find the truth” - to “beg” her husband from the unfair soldiery from the landowner Elena Alexandrovna. Perhaps that is why Matryona began to be called "happy." And perhaps because, unlike some other heroes of “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, she did not break down, despite all the hardships. According to the poet, the fate of a woman is the most difficult. After all, she has to suffer from lawlessness in the family, and worry about the lives of loved ones, and perform back-breaking work.

Grisha Dobrosklonov

This is one of the main characters of "Who lives well in Rus'." He was born in the family of a poor clerk, who was also lazy. His mother was the image of a woman, which was described in detail in the chapter entitled "Peasant Woman". Grisha managed to understand his place in life already at a young age. This was facilitated by labor hardening, a hungry childhood, a generous character, vitality and perseverance. Grisha became a fighter for the rights of all the downtrodden, he stood for the interests of the peasants. In the first place he had not personal needs, but social values. The main features of the hero are unpretentiousness, high efficiency, the ability to sympathize, education and a sharp mind.

Who can find happiness in Rus'

Throughout the work, the poet tries to answer the question about the happiness of the heroes "Who in Rus' should live well." Perhaps it is Grisha Dobrosklonov who is the happiest character. After all, when a person does a good deed, he gets a pleasant feeling of his own worth. Here the hero saves the whole people. From childhood, Grisha sees unfortunate and oppressed people. Nekrasov considered the ability to compassion a source of patriotism. The poet has a person who sympathizes with the people, raises a revolution - this is Grisha Dobrosklonov. His words reflect the hope that Rus' will not perish.

landowners

Among the heroes of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'", as it was indicated, there are also quite a few landowners. One of them is Obolt-Obolduev. When the peasants ask him if he is happy, he only laughs in response. Then, with some regret, he recalls the past years, which were full of prosperity. However, the reform of 1861 abolished serfdom, although it was not carried through to the end. But even the changes that have taken place in public life, cannot force the landowner to work and honor the results of the labor of other people.

To match him, another hero of Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is Utyatin. All his life he was "freaking and fooling", and when the social reform came, he had a stroke. His children, in order to receive an inheritance, together with the peasants, play a real performance. They inspire him that he will not be left with anything, and serfdom still dominates in Rus'.

Grandfather Savely

The characterization of the heroes of "Who Lives Well in Rus'" would be incomplete without a description of the image of grandfather Savely. The reader gets to know him already when he lived a long and hard life. In his old age, Savely lives with his son's family, he is Matryona's father-in-law. It is worth noting that the old man does not like his family. After all, households do not have the best characteristics.

Even in his native circle, Savely is called "branded, convict." But he is not offended by this and gives a worthy answer: "Branded, but not a slave." Such is the nature of this hero "Who in Rus' live well." Short description Savely's character can be supplemented by the fact that he is not averse to sometimes playing a trick on members of his family. The main thing that is noted when meeting this character is his difference from the rest, both from his son and from other inhabitants of the house.

N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who should live well in Rus'” from the perspective of Christian issues

Melnik V.I.

In literary criticism, several attempts have been made to comprehend the work of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov in the context of Christian ideas. Now, of course, it is obvious that D. S. Merezhkovsky was clearly mistaken when he assumed that Nekrasov’s religious level, “at least conscious, is the same as that of all Russian people of average intellectual consciousness. If someone from literary like-minded people - Belinsky, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky - asked him if he believed in God, then there is no doubt that Nekrasov would be surprised and even offended: for whom is he considered?

There is no doubt that Nekrasov experienced a complex religious complex in his life, based, on the one hand, on love for the people and excellent knowledge folk life, reflected in oral folk art, folk ideals, including religious ones, and on the other hand, on a personal (heretical from the point of view of the church) idea of ​​the righteousness of a revolutionary revolt and the need for moral asceticism and repentance. However, this question requires a comprehensive study and is now only beginning to be investigated in relation to individual texts of the poet.

From this point of view, the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" is of great interest - a kind of encyclopedia of Nekrasov's moral views. It gives a fairly complete picture of his religious views and knowledge.

It must be said that this knowledge is far from the “average intellectual consciousness”, as D.S. Merezhkovsky.

Nekrasov, with his heightened repentant feeling, undoubtedly, should always have been struck by the images of people who have changed dramatically and come from great sin to great repentance.

With some inevitability, Nekrasov constantly returns to the images of such ascetics in his poetry. So, back in 1855, in the poem "In the hospital", it would seem, unexpectedly, but also characteristically, with emphasized drama, there is an image of an "old thief" who experienced a strong repentant feeling:

In his prison

A violent comrade hurt.

He didn't want to do anything

He just threatened and yelled.

Our nurse approached him,

She suddenly shuddered - and not a word ...

A minute passed in a strange silence:

Are they looking at each other?

It ended with the gloomy villain,

Drunk, splattered with blood

Suddenly he sobbed - in front of his first,

Light and honest love.

(They knew each other from a young age...)

Cool old man has changed:

Crying and praying all day long

He humbled himself before the doctors.

In a later period, this image acquired an autobiographical character:

Move pen, paper, books!

Dear friend! I heard the legend

Fell from the shoulders of the ascetic chains,

And the ascetic fell dead!

Sympathy for people of a repentant psychological type is quite in the spirit of the Russian people. The author of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” and “Princess Volkonskaya” should have been almost fascinated by the story of people who make a voluntary sacrifice to God, such as the Monk Galaktion of Vologda, who, being the son of Prince I.F. Belsky, the most noble of the Russian boyars, voluntarily left high society, "settled near the Vologda Posad, shut himself up in a cramped cell, put himself on bread and water, chained himself in chains."

Nekrasov was obviously struck by the religious heroes and ascetics whom he met in his life or heard about from the people. There are few such ascetics in the poem. We are not talking about heroes taken close-up yet, such as the folkloric ataman Kudeyar or Saveliy. Interesting in terms of "documentary" episodic characters: this is the "wretched old woman", who "at the tomb of Jesus // Prayed, on Athos // Ascented the heights // Bathed in the Jordan River ..." These are the repeatedly mentioned "passing wanderers", this and Fomushka, who has "two-pood chains // Girded over the body. // Barefoot in winter and summer." This is the "Old Believer Kropilnikov", who "reproaches the laity with godlessness, // Calls to the dense forests // To be saved ..." This is the townsman's widow Efrosinyushka:

As God's messenger

The old lady appears

In cholera years;

Bury, heal. fiddling

With the sick...

Other "God's people" are also mentioned in the poem.

Nekrasov not only knows this side of the life of the people well, but it is precisely with his love for "hospitalism", attention to the word of God transmitted through "passing pilgrims", that he connects the potential spiritual power of the people, its mighty growth in the future. Let us recall that the famous words of the poet "No limits have yet been set for the Russian people" are given in the poem in a Christian context:

Who has seen how he listens

Of their passing wanderers

peasant family,

Understand that no work

Not eternal care

Nor the yoke of long slavery,

No taverns themselves

More Russian people

No limits set:

Before him is a wide path!

In the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'," the overwhelming majority of folk heroes are distinguished by true religiosity. Including seven wandering peasants who turn to a nobleman: "No, you are not noble to us, // Give me a Christian word ..."

In this sense, one can speak of obvious authorial "pressures": we will not find such a degree of religiosity of the people, for example, either in Pushkin, or in Gogol, or in Tolstoy. There are reasons for this, which we will discuss below. In the early work of Nekrasov, we note, this is not.

Nekrasov knows very well folk religious legends, parables, signs, i.e. that sphere, which is called popular Orthodoxy and which one way or another manifested itself in the sphere of oral folk art. Here one can also name the folk superstitions mentioned by him, such as: "Don't put on a clean shirt at Christmas: otherwise, wait for a crop failure" (chapter "Hard Year"), and folk ideas about a comet ("The Lord roams the sky // And His angels // They sweep with a fiery broom // Before the feet of God // There is a path in the heavenly field ..."), about the afterlife of the boyars and peasants ("And what will be appointed: // They boil in the cauldron, // And we lay firewood).

However, Nekrasov's personal religious experience also came to light in the poem. This experience is somewhat unexpected and very interesting in content. So, in the chapter "Demushka" he mentions the Jesus Prayer, although, perhaps, not in its canonical meaning. In any case, he knows the prayer, the meaning of which was not revealed to every "average intellectual." Of course, the poet knew about the Jesus Prayer not from experience, but only by hearsay, but he knew. Nekrasov is aware (obviously from book sources, although this is attributed to a simple peasant woman in the poem) about the power of prayer in solitude in the open. In the chapter "Governor" Matrena Timofeevna admits:

Pray on a frosty night

Under the starry sky of God

I have loved since then.

And advise the wives:

Don't pray harder

Nowhere and never.

Under the open sky, praying at Nekrasov's and Ipat, "the servant of the Utyatins".

The question of the very nature of Nekrasov's religious consciousness cannot be avoided. In our opinion, M.M. is right. Dunaev, when he claims: “This is how Nekrasov is knocked out of the life cohort of like-minded people, that he did not have indifference to God, to faith, could not be: after all, he was rooted in people's life, he never remained, like Chernyshevsky, an armchair idlethinker who inscribed the people with all the complexity of its existence in their far-fetched schemes.

However, F.M. Dostoevsky noted that Nekrasov's Vlas (1855), a true ascetic of Christian humility, is some exception in Nekrasov's "rebellious" work: "... It's so good that it wasn't you who wrote it; it's as if it wasn't you, but someone else who was grimacing instead of you then "on the Volga" in splendid verses, too, about burlak songs. Indeed, in Nekrasov's poetry, spontaneous poetry, there is a certain duality. Nekrasov, a poet of suffering, a poet who has a complex of guilt before the people, a poet of personal repentance and admiration for a feat, self-sacrifice, did not always distinguish, so to speak, the moral content of a feat. He seems to be fascinated by the very idea of ​​\u200b\u200bgiving up his soul "for his friends." In the act itself, regardless of its political and other orientation, Nekrasov sees an unconditional halo of holiness. He is equally admired by Vlas, who distributed his ill-gotten wealth and walks around Rus' with an "iron chain", and Grisha Dobrosklonov, who, on his rebellious revolutionary path, "consumption and Siberia" awaits. And there is a tight victim that Nekrasov admires and which he poetizes without any reservations.

This sincerity of Nekrasov, as it were, reconciles him, albeit with some reservations, both with Dostoevsky, the singer of Christian humility, and with representatives of the revolutionary-democratic camp.

This is the sincerity of Nekrasov the poet, Nekrasov the artist - the central, pivotal point in trying to comprehend the dual nature of his work. Nekrasov was honest with himself, he also wanted repentance in his fate ("Silence"), self-sacrifice and feat ("Take me to the camp of the perishing"). The ideal of holiness was dominant for him.

This artistic sincerity inspired Nekrasov to sing of every sacrifice of a person, every feat, if only it was done in the name of other people. Such self-sacrifice became, as it were, Nekrasov's religion. Correctly noticed M.M. Dunaev, that the poet "constantly matched the cause ... of a sacrificial struggle with spiritual, undoubtedly religious concepts."

Yes, Nekrasov in "Who Lives Well in Rus'" (and not only in this work) constantly and organically uses religious concepts and symbols that are grouped around the idea of ​​sacrifice, self-sacrifice. A consistently realized system of religious ideas can be traced in the poet's work.