Description of Rus' in the poem Dead Souls. “Living Rus'” in the poem by N.V.

“Dead Souls” is the pinnacle in the work of N.V. Gogol. In the poem, the author made deep artistic discoveries and generalizations. The basis ideological plan The works contain the writer’s thoughts about the people and the future of Russia. For Gogol, as for many other writers, the theme of Rus' is connected with the theme of the people. The work creates a collective collective image people. By visiting the landowners' estates with Chichikov, the reader can draw certain conclusions about the situation of the peasants. Manilov’s vision of the hero flashed “gray log huts” and the enlivening figures of two women dragging “tattered nonsense.” Plyushkin’s peasants live in even more terrible poverty: “... the logs on the huts were dark and old; many of the roofs were leaking like a sieve... The windows in the huts were without glass, others were covered with a rag or a zipun...” For someone who “feeds people poorly,” they “die like flies,” many become drunkards or are on the run. The peasants also have a hard time living with the fist of Sobakevich and the tight-fisted Korobochka. The landowner's village is a source of honey, lard, and hemp, which Korobochka sells. She also bargains with the peasants themselves - she “gave in” to the archpriest of the third year “two girls for a hundred rubles each.” One more detail: the girl Pelageya from the lord’s servants, about eleven years old, sent by Korobochka to show Selifan the way, does not know where the right is and where the left is. This child is growing like a weed. Korobochka shows concern about the girl, but nothing more than about the thing: “... just be careful: don’t bring her, the merchants have already brought one from me.” The landowners depicted in the poem are not villains, but ordinary people typical of their environment, but they own souls. For them, a serf is not a person, but a slave. Gogol shows the peasant's defenselessness before the landowner's tyranny. The serf owner controls the fate of a person and can sell or buy him: alive or even dead. Thus, Gogol creates a generalized image of the Russian people, showing how many troubles beset them: crop failures, illnesses, fires, the power of landowners, economic and economical, stingy and zealous. Serfdom has a destructive effect on the working people. The peasants develop dull humility and indifference to their own fate. The poem shows downtrodden men Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, driven by Plyushkin Proshka in huge boots, stupid girl Pelageya, drunkards and lazy people Petrushka and Selifan. The author sympathizes with the plight of the peasants. He did not remain silent about the popular riots. The officials and Plyushkin recalled how recently, because of assessor Dobryazhkin’s predilection for village women and girls, the state-owned peasants of the villages Vshivaya arrogance and Zadirailovo wiped out the zemstvo police from the face of the earth. Provincial society is very worried at the thought of the possibility of a rebellion among the restless peasants of Chichikov when they are resettled in the Kherson region. In the generalized image of the people, the author highlights colorful figures and bright or tragic destinies. The author’s thoughts about the peasants no longer living on the land are put into Chichikov’s mouth. For the first time in the poem, truly living people are shown, but the cruel irony of fate is that they are already buried in the ground. The dead exchanged places with the living. In Sobakevich’s list, merits are noted in detail, professions are listed; Each peasant has his own character, his own destiny. Cork Stepan, a carpenter, “ran throughout the province with a stopper in his belt and boots on his shoulders.” Maxim Telyatnikov, a shoemaker, “studied with a German... it would have been a miracle, not a shoemaker,” and he sewed boots from rotten leather - and the shop was deserted, and he went “to drink and wallow in the streets.” Carriage maker Mikheev is a folk craftsman. He made durable carriages that were famous throughout the area. In Chichikov’s imagination, young, healthy, hard-working, gifted people who passed away in the prime of life are resurrected. The author’s generalization sounds with bitter regret: “Eh, Russian people! He doesn’t like to die his own death!” The broken fates of Plyushkin's runaway peasants cannot but evoke sympathy. Some of them are toiling around prisons, some have gone to barge haulers and are dragging their feet “to one endless song, like Rus'.” Thus, Gogol, among the living and the dead, finds the embodiment of various qualities of the Russian character. His homeland is people's Rus', not local bureaucratic Russia. In the lyrical part of “Dead Souls,” the author creates abstract symbolic images and motifs that reflect his thoughts about the present and future of Rus', “apt Russian word", "miracle road", "My Rus'", "three bird". The author admires the accuracy of the Russian word: “It is expressed strongly Russian people! and if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity...” The accuracy of expressions reflects the lively, lively mind of the Russian peasant, who is able to describe a phenomenon or a person with one line. This amazing gift of the people is reflected in the proverbs and sayings they created. In his lyrical digression, Gogol paraphrases one of these proverbs: “What is pronounced accurately is the same as what is written, cannot be cut down with an ax.” The author is convinced that the Russian people have no equal in terms of creative power. His folklore reflects one of the main qualities of a Russian person - sincerity. A well-aimed, lively word escapes from the man “from under his very heart.” The image of Rus' in the author's digressions is permeated with lyrical pathos. The author creates an ideal, sublime image that attracts with “secret power.” It’s not for nothing that he talks about “wonderful, beautiful far away", from which he looks at Russia. This is an epic distance, the distance of “mighty space”: “ooh!” what a sparkling, wonderful, unknown distance to the earth! Rus'!..” Vivid epithets convey the idea of ​​amazing, unique beauty Russia. The author is also amazed by the distance of historical time. Rhetorical questions contain statements about the uniqueness of the Russian world: “What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there is a place where he can turn around and walk?” The heroes depicted in the story of Chichikov’s adventures are devoid of epic qualities; these are not heroes, but ordinary people with their weaknesses and vices. In the epic image of Russia created by the author, there is no place for them: they disappear, just as “like dots, icons, low cities stick out inconspicuously among the plains.” At the end of the poem, Gogol creates a hymn to the road, a hymn to movement - the source of “wonderful ideas, poetic dreams,” “wonderful impressions.” “Rus-troika” is a capacious symbolic image. The author is convinced that Russia has a great future. The rhetorical question addressed to Rus' is permeated with the belief that the country’s road is the road to light, miracle, rebirth: “Rus, where are you rushing?” Rus'-troika ascends into another dimension: “the horses are a whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels are mixed into one smooth circle” “and all inspired by God rushes.” The author believes that the Rus' Troika is flying along the path of spiritual transformation, that in the future there will appear real, “virtuous” people, living souls capable of saving the country.

The time of writing the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" - mid-19th century. This is the time when serfdom became obsolete. What is replacing them? This is the question that worried the author of the poem. Work by N.V. Gogol is a meditation on the fate of Russia.

The work was perceived ambiguously: some of Gogol’s contemporaries saw in the poem a caricature of modern reality, others also noticed a poetic picture of Russian life.

In the poem, the world of oppressors - “dead souls” - is contrasted with the long-suffering Russian people, poor, but full of hidden life and internal forces Rus.

N.V. Gogol depicted ordinary Russian people with great skill in the poem. Reading the poem, we get acquainted with the serfs of the landowners Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. These are powerless people, but all of them, living and dead, appear before us as great workers. These serfs with their labor created wealth for the landowners, only they themselves live in need and die like flies. They are illiterate and downtrodden. Such are Chichikov’s servant Petrushka, the coachman Selifan, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Proshka, the girl Pelageya, who “does not know where the right is and where the left is.”

Gogol depicted reality “through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to him tears.” But through these “tears”, in this social depression, Gogol saw the living soul of the “lively people” and the quickness of the Yaroslavl peasant. He spoke with admiration and love about the abilities of the people, their courage, prowess, hard work, endurance, and thirst for freedom. “Russian people are capable of anything and will get used to any climate. Send him to live in Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.”

The serf hero, carpenter Probka, “would be fit for the guard.” He set out with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders throughout the province. Carriage maker Mikheev created carriages of extraordinary strength and beauty. Stove maker Milushkin could install a stove in any house. Talented shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov - “whatever pricks with an awl, then the boots, then thank you.” Eremey Sorokoplekhin brought five hundred rubles per quitrent! However, “...there is no life for the Russian people, all the Germans are in the way, and the Russian landowners are tearing their skin off.”

Gogol values ​​the people’s natural talent, lively mind, and keen observation: “How apt is everything that has come out of the depths of Russia... the lively Russian mind, which does not reach into its pocket for a word, does not sit on it like a hen, but slams it right in like a passport, for eternal wear." Gogol saw in the Russian word, in Russian speech, a reflection of the character of his people.

The poem shows peasants who do not put up with their slave status and flee from the landowners to the outskirts of Russia. Abakum Fyrov, unable to withstand the oppression of captivity from the landowner Plyushkin, flees to the wide Volga expanse. He “walks noisily and cheerfully on the grain pier, having made contracts with the merchants.” But it’s not easy for him to walk with the barge haulers, “dragging the strap to one endless song, like Rus'.” In the songs of barge haulers, Gogol heard an expression of the people’s longing and desire for a different life, for a wonderful future: “It is still a mystery,” Gogol wrote, “this immense revelry that is heard in our songs rushes somewhere past life and the song itself, as if burning with the desire for a better homeland, for which man has been yearning since the day of his creation.”

The theme of peasant revolt appears in chapters nine and ten. The peasants of the village Vshivaya Spes, Borovki and Zadiraylovo killed the assessor Drobyazhkin. The trial chamber hushed up the case, since Drobyazhkin is dead, let it be in favor of the living. But the murderer was not found among the men, and the men did not hand over anyone.

Captain Kopeikin was crippled in the war. He could not work and went to St. Petersburg to seek help for himself, but the nobleman told him to wait, and when Kopeikin tired of him, he rudely replied: “Look for a means of living,” and even threatened to call the police chief. And the captain went to look for funds in the dense forests, among a gang of robbers.

Rus' is full of hidden life and inner strength. Gogol sincerely believes in the strength of the Russian people and the great future of Russia: “Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you, open, deserted and even everything in you; ...but what incomprehensible... force attracts you? Why is your sad... song heard and heard? What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there are places where he can turn around and walk?”

Ardent faith in the hidden but immense strength of his people, love for his homeland allowed Gogol to imagine its great and wonderful future. In lyrical digressions, he paints Rus' in symbolic image“three birds”, embodying the power of the inexhaustible forces of the Motherland. The poem ends with a thought about Russia: “Rus, where are you rushing, give me the answer? Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; the air thunders and becomes torn by the wind; “everything that is on earth flies past, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.”

1. Ambiguous assessment poems by critics.
2. " Alive soul“Russia and its components are the essence of the concept of the poem “Dead Souls.”
3. The image of the bird-troika as a symbol of the amazing vitality of Rus'.

A purely Russian, national creation, snatched from hiding places folk life...
V. G. Belinsky

These words of the democratic critic V. G. Belinsky about N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” are the result of a deep insight into the essence of the creator of “Dead Souls”. Gogol himself admitted in a letter to A.S. Pushkin that in this work he wanted to show “all of Rus'” as it really is.

There were many unflattering words addressed to the writer from critics of the Slavophile persuasion, that the poem contained only one negative. At first glance, this is indeed the case. Featured characters: landowners, residents provincial town, central character Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, even the people, are far from perfect. What we see through the eyes of Chichikov - rickety huts, mismanaged dreamers, windbags and brawlers, emptiness and corruption of officials, senseless hoarding and loss human dignity. The common people appear illiterate and downtrodden, living as they please and doing nothing to improve their situation. Chichikov's servant Petrushka, the coachman Selifan, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Plyushkin's Proshka and Mavra, the girl Pelageya, who does not distinguish between "right and left", two drunken men at a tavern, from whose dispute whether the carriage will or will not reach Moscow, the poem begins - exist in their own narrow, narrow-minded world. Even when doing something, they either do not achieve results or simply do not understand the purpose of this activity. For example, Petrushka seems to be reading, but he is not following the content and the meaning inherent in it, but how the letters form words. Like him, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai cannot separate horses that are entangled in the lines.

At the same time, this picture is an important, but not the main element of the poem. Its essence is different. N. G. Chernyshevsky very accurately said about Gogol: “None of our great writers expressed their consciousness so vividly and clearly. patriotic significance, as in Gogol. He directly considered himself a man called to serve not art, but the fatherland; he thought to himself: “I am not a poet, I am a citizen.” One can argue with a democratic writer in assessing the artistic gift of Gogol, who, in my opinion, was and remains one of the unsurpassed masters of words in Russian literature. But Chernyshevsky is right in another way - this poem was a civil feat of Gogol the writer.

N.V. Gogol said that in his comedy “The Inspector General” there is one positive hero - laughter. In the first volume of "Dead Souls" positive hero is the “living soul” of Russia. Only here the writer’s laughter is joined by pain, bitterness and hope. The “living soul” of Russia, according to Gogol, is contained in its great history, its boundless expanse, its majesty, the talent and wisdom of its people.

“Dead Souls” is a poem about Russia and for Russia. The author showed the ugliness of modern existence in order to awaken in readers a feeling of rejection of this “dead” reality, in order to make them think about the meaning of their existence, about the future of the country. The concept " dead Souls“- is multifaceted, it constantly changes the plane of perception and interpretation: these are dead serfs, and spiritually dead landowners and officials. Moreover, the first are not in the world, but the memory of them, their deeds, their work is alive, the second, it would seem, live, but their interests and way of life are dead. They will not exist, and no one will remember them, not even their descendants. So who does modern Rus' rely on, who is the source of its present and future aspirations?

The concept of “Dead Souls” is structured in such a way that the description of people’s Russia, living Russia, is given in much smaller volumes than the description of landowner Russia. But in terms of its poetic tension and emotional intensity, the place that living Russia occupies in the poem far surpasses everything else. In the lyrical digressions and thoughts about the fate of the people, one can hear the writer’s greatest humanism. As the researchers figuratively noted, his song is sad, sweeping “across the entire face of the Russian land.” With particular warmth and cordiality, the author describes the images of dead and fugitive peasants, lost in the vast expanses of Rus'.

Gogol admires their hard work, endurance, physical strength, inner beauty. The carriages of the carriage maker Mikheev were famous throughout the area for their extraordinary strength and beauty. The carpenter-hero Stepan Probka “proceeded throughout the province with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders.” Stove maker Milushkin could install a stove in any house. Talented shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov - “whatever pricks with an awl, so will the boots.” Even in his early works, N.V. Gogol spoke with admiration and love about the abilities of the people, their courage, beauty, prowess, and hard work: “Russian people are capable of everything and will get used to any climate. Send him to live in Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut.”

At the same time, Gogol also has the following phrase: “... there is no life for the Russian man, all the Germans are in the way, and the Russian landowners are tearing their skin off.” The thirst for freedom and oppression push the peasants to flee, now into bandits, now into rebels, now into barge haulers, “dragging along to one endless song, like Rus'.” Songs of the people are a special theme for Gogol: “It is still a mystery - this immense revelry, which, heard in our songs, rushes somewhere past life and the song itself, as if burning with desire for a better fatherland, for which man has been yearning since the day of creation.”

The theme of peasant revolts is also presented in the poem. Unspent energy and inner strength that cannot find an outlet can lead to “the revelry of a broad life.” This is the writer's warning and concern. But this is also the salvation of Russia, the path to revival: “Rus! Rus! I see you, from my wonderful, beautiful distance I see you: poor, scattered and uncomfortable in you, open, deserted and even everything in you;... but what incomprehensible... force attracts you to you? Why is your sad... song heard and heard? What does this vast expanse prophesy? Is it here, in you, that a boundless thought will not be born, when you yourself are without end? Shouldn’t a hero be here when there are places where he can turn around and walk?”

In lyrical digressions, Rus' appears in the symbolic image of a three-bird, personifying the power and inexhaustibility of internal forces. This symbol of Russia turned out to be an accurate expression of its path, its amazing vitality and aspiration for the future.

Image of Russia

The great classic who received the idea wanted to show the ideal Russian life in the outback. But the idea expanded. Gogol was unable to color the everyday life of landowners and officials. Ideal colors faded into the background, and gray realities floated out. This is precisely what can explain Pushkin’s mood while the author was reading the poem. Sadness and heaviness filled the poet’s soul. Russia appeared before readers as a gallery of vices: stinginess, laziness, gluttony. Each image was complemented by the following character and became collective:

• Dreamy Manilov;
• Stingy Box;
• Razgulny Nozdryov;
• Gloomy Sobakevich;
• Greedy Plyushkin.

Manilov's good-natured romanticism becomes the emptiness of a lazy dreamer, careless and stupid. Building unrealistic projects while sitting in a gazebo falling into disrepair is all he can do.

Korobochka's thriftiness and practicality reduced her mind to a dull search for profit. She turned into a stupid old woman who did not think about the subject of trade. The main thing is to sell.

Nozdryov's courage is replaced by ignorance, drunkenness and squandering. He boldly lies, is rude and fights, but cowardly runs away from solving real problems.

Sobakevich's heroic attitude became rudeness, strength of character was transformed into callousness of soul, and straightforwardness became suspiciousness.
Plyushkin's frugality grew into immorality. He does not notice the people close to him, abandons his children and does not enjoy his grandchildren.
These images form the basis of a satire on serf Rus'. Lifeless Russia is waiting for changes, hoping for new social classes, interesting ideas.

Love for Russia

“Rus, Rus'! I see you from my wonderful, beautiful distance, I see you.”

The words of the great classic shine through with love for the country. The writer seems to deliberately interrupt stories about landowners lyrical digressions. Discussions about the fate of Russia are permeated with faith in its happy future. The image of a bird - a troika flying into the distance - is a symbol real Russia. She rushes ahead of everyone, people give way to her and avoid her, fearing to become an obstacle.

The author hones in on every word that characterizes Rus': sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar. The beauty of nature, the rapid riot of colors is contrasted with the stagnation of life on the estates of soulless nobles. The hard work of the peasants, their talent and love of freedom are described with delight. Gogol believes that the Russian peasant is capable of inventing something that will lead the country to new way.

Rus', where are you going?”

But he cannot answer the questions that he himself poses. The contradictions of life lead the writer to a dead end. He does not see a solution in revolution, does not hope for enlightenment. There are thoughts about a valiant husband and a selfless girl, but the author cannot say exactly who Russia needs. Perhaps the answers were in the continuation of the poem, then why burn it? Gogol left the right for the reader to choose the path of development of his homeland. Let everyone reason for themselves and build the lives of the main characters in the poem. Some will allow them to be reborn, while others will deny them even the continuation of their chosen way of existence.

In the image of Russia, two souls are united: dead and living. The lively and lively mind of the Russian worker, warrior and hero prevails. Lazy people, rude people and spendthrifts “die” and become weak and weak-willed. Even if today they still enslave and rule, a bright future is near, it is already in the air. Gogol believes that the fog will soon clear, and a wide road to happiness will open. Rus' will rise again and force all its inhabitants to change.

We hope you remember the summary of the work. We offer you an analysis of this image, which provides the key to understanding the entire poem.

The work is artistic research public life, contemporary writer, its root problems. The main place in compositional terms is occupied by the image of two worlds - the landowner and the bureaucrat. However, it is tragic fate people is the ideological core of the work.

The writer, mercilessly castigating the existing social order in the country, was firmly convinced that the Russian land was destined for a glorious future. He believed in its future blossoming. For Nikolai Vasilyevich, this conviction arose from a living feeling of the enormous creative potential, which lurks in the depths of the Russian people.

The image of Rus' in the poem “Dead Souls” is presented as the personification of the great things that the people are capable of, that important historical deed that the author believed his compatriots could accomplish. The image of Russia rises above all the images and pictures drawn in the work. It is covered with the love of the author, who dedicated his life and his work to serving home country.

Briefly characterizing the image of Rus' in the poem “Dead Souls,” it is necessary to say a few words about the “masters of life.” After all, it was not by chance that Gogol introduced them into his work.

Denouncing the "masters of life"

Gogol passionately believed that Russia had a better future. Therefore, in his work he denounces those people who have shackled with rusty chains the development of the creative potential of the people, the nation. Nikolai Vasilyevich mercilessly debunks the nobles, the “masters of life.” The images he created indicate that people like Chichikov, Plyushkin, Sobakevich, Manilov are not capable of creating spiritual values. They are consumers deprived creative energy. Landowners, excluded from the sphere of living life and useful activity, are the bearers of inertia and stagnation. Chichikov, who has launched his adventure, does not suffer from inertia. Nevertheless, the activity of this hero is not aimed at a good cause, but at achieving selfish goals. He is alienated from the interests of the state. All these heroes are contrasted with the image of Rus' in the work “Dead Souls”.

Validation of progress

The forms of life that all of the above characters claim sharply contradict the needs and demands of historical development countries. To illustrate this idea, the author draws a majestic image of Rus' in the poem “Dead Souls.” This country, according to Gogol, has enormous power. The image of Rus' in the novel “Dead Souls” is the personification of the main idea of ​​the poem, which is the denial of social stagnation, social enslavement, and the affirmation of progress.

Opinion about the poem by V. G. Belinsky

The well-known critic V. G. Belinsky emphasized that the contradiction between the deep substantial beginning of Russian life and its social forms is the main idea of ​​Dead Souls. The critic understood by the phrase “substantial beginning” the rich talent of the people, their eternal desire for freedom. Nikolai Vasilyevich firmly believed that great historical achievements were ahead of his native country. Focus on the future, take off vital energy- all this embodies the image of Rus' in the poem “Dead Souls”. The country is rushing into the vast distance, like a bird-three. Other states and peoples shun her, looking askance, and give her way.

Pictures of native nature

The lyrical statements of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol are filled with high pathos. He speaks about Rus' with admiration. Gogol paints pictures one after another native nature, which rush in front of the traveler, racing on fast horses along the autumn road.

It is no coincidence that the author contrasts the image of Rus' in the poem “Dead Souls” with the stagnation of the landowners. Chapter 11 is very important for understanding this image. It depicts Rus', which is rapidly moving forward. This expresses the author’s faith in the future of his country, his people.

Reflections on the Russian people

Among the most heartfelt pages are Gogol's lyrical reflections on the energetic, lively character of a hardworking nation. They are warmed by the flame of patriotism. Nikolai Vasilyevich was well aware that the creative talents and inventive mind of the Russian people would become a powerful force only when his compatriots were free.

Gogol, depicting revelry on the pier, rises to the glorification of folk life. The living strength of the Russian people is also emphasized in the desire of the peasants to get rid of oppression. Flight from the landowners, the murder of assessor Drobyakin, the people’s ironic mockery of the “orders” are manifestations of protest that are mentioned in the poem, albeit briefly, but persistently. Chanting national character and the Russian people, Nikolai Vasilyevich, never stoop to vanity.

The characters representing Rus' are quite diverse. This includes Pelageya, a young girl, and the nameless, runaway or deceased workers of Plyushkin and Sobakevich, who do not act in the poem, but are only mentioned in passing. A whole gallery of characters passes before the reader. All of them represent a multi-colored image of Russia.

Mastery, natural ingenuity, wide scope of soul, sensitivity to a well-aimed, striking word, heroic prowess - in all this, as well as in many other things, Nikolai Vasilyevich reveals the true soul of the Russian people. The sharpness and strength of his mind were reflected, according to Gogol, in the accuracy and vivacity of the Russian word. Nikolai Vasilyevich writes about this in the fifth chapter. The integrity and depth of folk feeling resulted in the sincerity of the Russian song, which the author mentions in the eleventh chapter. In chapter seven, Gogol says that generosity and breadth of soul were reflected in the unbridled joy with which folk holidays are held.

Herzen's assessment of the poem

The patriotic pathos of Dead Souls was highly appreciated by Herzen. He is with with good reason noted that this work - amazing book. Herzen wrote that this is a “bitter reproach modern Rus'", but not hopeless.

Contradictions reflected in the poem

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol fervently believed that a great future awaited Russia. Nevertheless, the writer clearly imagined the path along which the country was moving towards prosperity, glory and power. He asks: “Rus, where are you going?” However, there is no answer. Nikolai Vasilyevich did not see any way to overcome the contradiction that had arisen between the flourishing of Russia, the rise of its national genius and the state of oppression of the state. Gogol cannot find someone who could guide Russia forward, direct it into high life. And this reveals the contradictions inherent in the writer.

What was V.G. concerned about? Belinsky

Gogol, in his denunciation, reflected the protest of the people against the serfdom that existed at that time. His flagellating satire grew precisely from this soil. It was directed against bureaucratic rulers, owners of serf souls, and “knights” of profit. Nevertheless, the writer, who had high hopes for enlightenment, did not come to the conclusion about the advisability of the revolutionary struggle. In addition, the work contains statements about a husband who is gifted with divine virtues, as well as about a selfless and generous Russian maiden. In other words, a religious motive arises in it. who was very interested in the image of Rus' in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”, was seriously concerned about these parts of the work.

"Dead Souls" - a revolutionary work

Nikolai Vasilyevich wrote the second volume of his novel while experiencing a deep spiritual crisis. In the life of Russia during this period, tendencies characteristic of bourgeois development began to appear. The writer hated with all his soul the so-called kingdom of dead souls. However, Gogol also peered with horror at the appearance of the bourgeois West. Capitalism scared the writer. He was unable to accept the idea of ​​socialism and opposed the revolutionary struggle. However, possessing a powerful gift, Nikolai Vasilyevich created, in fact, a revolutionary work.

Gogol is a patriot

The lyrical pages dedicated to Russia, the Russian people are, perhaps, the best in " Dead souls". Chernyshevsky, speaking about the high patriotism of Nikolai Vasilyevich, wrote that Gogol considered himself a man who should serve the fatherland, and not art. The image of Rus' in the poem “Dead Souls” indicates that the future of the country really worried the writer. Of course , Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a true patriot.