Who in Rus' live well images. Images of peasants in a poem to whom in Rus' to live well composition

“Images of peasants in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Rus'"

Poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Rus'" was created in last period the life of the poet (1863-1876). ideological concept The poem is already indicated in its title, and then it is repeated in the text: who is living well in Rus'? In the poem “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” N.A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their plight. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question, “who lives happily, freely in Rus'”, who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The poet speaks about the essence of the royal manifesto in the words of the people: "You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us." The poet touched upon the topical problems of his time, condemned slavery and oppression, sang freedom-loving, talented, strong-willed Russian people. The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. They live in the villages: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, the desire to find a happy person in Rus'. Traveling, peasants meet with different people, give them an assessment, determine their attitude to the priest, to the landowner, to the peasant reform, to the peasants. The peasants do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of ​​happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the king. Peasants-truth-seekers have a sense of their own dignity. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, higher, smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the love of the people for work, their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matrena Timofeevna's crop is dying, the men offer her help without hesitation. The peasants of the Illiterate province are just as willing to help mow the grass. “Like teeth from hunger” everyone has a nimble hand.

Traveling in Russia, men meet various people. The disclosure of the images of the heroes met by the truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the position of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility.

After listening to the story of the priest about his "happiness", having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants cut him off: you are past them, the landowners! We know them! Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the word of the nobility, they need a "Christian word." “Give me a Christian word! Nobility with a scolding, With a push and with a denture, That is unsuitable for us! They have self-respect. In the chapter "Happy" they angrily see off a sexton, a yard clerk, who boasted of his servile position: "Get out!" They sympathize with the terrible story of the soldier and say to him: “Here, drink, servant! There is nothing to argue with you. You are happy - there is no word.

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

More fully, Nekrasov reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before the masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position. Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under the harrow from the heat and rain. His portrait testifies to constant hard work:

And myself to mother earth

He looks like: a brown neck,

Like a layer cut off with a plow,

brick face...

The chest is sunken, like a depressed belly. Bends near the eyes, near the mouth, like cracks in the dry earth ... Reading the description of the peasant's face, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him. “You work alone, and as soon as the work is over, look, there are three equity holders: God, the king and the master!” All my long life Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, went hungry, went to prison, and, "like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland." But still he finds in himself the strength to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his hut with pictures, loves and uses apt word His speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the seasonal industry. And his voice is the voice of the most resolute peasants. Yakim understands that the peasantry - great power. He is proud to belong to him. He knows the strength and weakness of the "peasant soul":

Soul that black cloud -

Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary

Thunders rumble from there ...

And everything ends with wine ...

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

The writer treats his hero Yermil Girin with great sympathy, a village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants: twisted ... ”Yermil acted not in good conscience only once, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness." The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, showing exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not afraid of the jail, took the side of the peasants when: “the patrimony of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled ...” Ermil Girin is the defender of peasant interests. If the protest of Yakim Nagogoi is spontaneous, then Yermil Girin rises to a conscious protest.

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

nekrasov poem peasantry rus

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

WITH big love Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, which expressed the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors. However, the writer did not turn a blind eye to dark sides the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who are corrupted by the masters and have become accustomed to their slavish position. In the chapter "Happy" the truth-seeking peasants meet with a "broken-down courtyard man" who considers himself lucky because he was Prince Peremetiev's favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his "daughter - together with the young lady studied both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess." And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the rest of the overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the meanness of his lackey position. The court yard of Prince Utyatin Ipat did not even believe that the "freedom" was announced to the peasants: "And I am the princes Utyatin Kholop - and that's the whole story!"

From childhood to old age, the master, as best he could, mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted: “He ransomed me, the last slave, in the winter in the hole! Yes, how wonderful! Two ice-holes: he will lower it in a seine into one, he will instantly pull it out into the other and bring vodka. ” Ipat could not forget the master's "favors" that, after swimming in the hole, the prince "will bring vodka", then he will plant "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person."

The obedient slave is also shown in the image of "an exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful." Yakov served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... casually blew with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and gratified the master until his old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Jacob "stupid". First, he "drank it dead", and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.

With deep indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain." For images of courtyard peasants who became slaves of their masters and abandoned true peasant interests, the poet finds words of angry contempt: a slave, a serf, a dog, Judas.

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

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

Important historical period found its reflection in the work of N.A. Nekrasov. The peasants in the poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" are typical and very real. Their images help to understand what happened in the country after the abolition of serfdom, what the reforms led to.

Strangers from the people

Seven men - all of peasant origin. How are they different from other characters? Why does the author not choose representatives of different classes as walkers? Nekrasov is a genius. The author suggests that a movement begins among the peasants. Russia "woke up from a dream." But the movement is slow, not everyone has realized that they have received freedom and can live in a new way. Nekrasov makes heroes of ordinary men. Previously, only beggars, pilgrims and buffoons roamed the country. Now the peasants from different provinces, volosts went to look for answers to questions. The poet does not idealize literary characters does not try to separate them from the people. He understands that all peasants are different. Centuries-old oppression has become a habit for the majority, the peasants do not know what to do with the rights they have received, how to continue to live.

Yakim Nagoi

"Works to death, drinks half to death."

A man does not get joy from hard work. Most of it goes to the landowner, while he himself is in poverty and starving. Yakim is sure that no hops will overcome the Russian peasant, so you should not accuse the peasants of drunkenness. The versatility of the soul manifests itself during a fire. Yakim and his wife save paintings, icons, not money. The spirituality of the peoples is higher than material wealth.

Kholop Yakov

Favorite slave

Headman Gleb

Peasant happiness

Which peasants approached the walkers:

• The peasant is Belarusian. His happiness is in bread. Previously, it was barley, it hurt the stomach so much that it can only be compared with contractions during childbirth. Now they give rye bread, you can eat it without fear of consequences.
• A man with a twisted cheekbone. The peasant went to the bear. His three friends were broken by forest owners. The man remained alive. The happy hunter cannot look to the left: the cheekbone is folded like a bear's paw. The walkers laughed, offered to go to the bear again and turn the other cheek to equalize the cheekbones, but they gave vodka.
• Stonemason. A young Olon resident rejoices in life, because he is strong. He has a job, if you get up early, you can earn 5 silver.
• Tryphon. Possessing huge force, the guy succumbed to the ridicule of the contractor. I tried to lift as much as they put. I brought in the burden of 14 pounds. He did not allow himself to be laughed at, but tore his heart and fell ill. The happiness of a man - he got to his homeland to die on his own land.

Definitely bad guys. Nekrasov describes various perverted relations between landowners and serfs. The young lady, who whipped the peasants for swearing, seems kind and affectionate compared to the landowner Polivanov. He bought a village for bribes, in it he “freed himself, drank, drank bitter”, was greedy and stingy. The faithful serf Yakov took care of the master, even when his legs were taken away. But the master shaved his only nephew Yakov into a soldier, seduced by his bride.

Separate chapters are devoted to two landowners.

Gavrila Afanasyevich Obolt-Obolduev.

Portrait

To describe the landowner, Nekrasov uses diminutive suffixes and speaks of him with disdain: a round gentleman, mustachioed and pot-bellied, ruddy. He has a cigar in his mouth, and he carries a C grade. In general, the image of the landowner is sugary and not formidable at all. He is middle-aged (sixty years old), "dignified, stocky", with a long gray mustache and valiant gimmicks. The contrast of tall men and a squat gentleman should make the reader smile.

Character

The landowner was frightened by the seven peasants and drew a pistol as plump as himself. The fact that the landowner is afraid of the peasants is typical of the time of writing this chapter of the poem (1865), because the peasants who received the release were happy to take revenge on the landowners if possible.

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

Lifestyle

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

The landowner recalls with nostalgia the old days (before the abolition of serfdom), when all nature, peasants, fields and forests worshiped the master and belonged to him. Noble houses argued in beauty with churches. The life of the landowner was a continuous holiday. The landowner kept many servants. In the autumn he was engaged in dog hunting - primordially Russian fun. During the hunt, the landowner's chest breathed freely and easily, "the spirit was transferred to the old Russian orders."

Obolt-Obolduev describes the order of the landowner's life as the absolute power of the landowner over the serfs: "There is no contradiction in anyone, whom I want - I will have mercy, whom I want - I will execute." The landowner can indiscriminately beat the serfs (the word hit repeats three times, there are three metaphorical epithets to it: sparkling, furious, cheekbones). At the same time, the landowner claims that he punished lovingly, that he took care of the peasants, set tables for them in the landowner's house on a holiday.

The landowner considers the abolition of serfdom to be similar to breaking the great chain that binds the lords and the peasants: “Now we don’t beat the peasant, but we don’t have paternal mercy on him either.” The estates of the landowners have been dismantled brick by brick, the forests have been cut down, the peasants are robbing. The economy also fell into decay: "The fields are unfinished, the crops are not sown, there is no trace of order!" The landowner does not want to work on the land, and what his purpose is, he no longer understands: “I smoked the sky of God, wore the royal livery, littered the treasury of the people and thought to live like this for a century ...”

Last

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

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

Portrait

The latter is an old old man, thin as hares in winter, white, with a beak like a hawk's nose, long gray mustaches. Seriously ill, he combines the helplessness of a weak hare and the ambition of a hawk.

Character traits

The last petty tyrant, "fools in the old way", because of his whims, both his family and the peasants suffer. For example, I had to spread a ready stack of dry hay just because the old man thought it was wet.

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

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

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

Unlike Obolduev, Utyatin does not find out about his changed status and dies, "as he lived, as a landowner."

• The image of Saveliy in Nekrasov's poem "Who should live well in Rus'"
• The image of Grisha Dobrosklonov in Nekrasov's poem "Who should live well in Rus'"

TYPES OF PEASANTS IN POEM. The poem by N. A. Nekrasov “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” was created in the last period of the poet’s life (1863-1876). The ideological idea of ​​the poem is indicated already in its title, and then it is repeated in the text: who in Rus' has a good life?

The main place in the poem is occupied by the position of the Russian peasant under serfdom and after the "liberation". The poet speaks about the essence of the royal manifesto in the words of the people: “You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us.” The poet touched upon the topical problems of his time, condemned slavery and oppression, glorified the freedom-loving, talented, strong-willed Russian people. Paintings folk life written with epic breadth, and this gives the right to call the poem an encyclopedia of Russian life of that time. Drawing numerous images of peasants, various characters, he divides the heroes, as it were, into two camps: slaves and fighters. Already in the prologue we get acquainted with the peasants-truth-seekers. They live in the villages: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, the desire to find a happy person in Rus'.

Traveling, the peasants meet different people, give them an assessment, determine their attitude to the priest, to the landowner, to the peasant reform, to the peasants. After listening to the story of the priest about his "happiness", having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants cut off:

You are past them, the landowners!

We know them!

Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the word of the nobility, they need a "Christian word."

Give me a Christian word!

Noble with a scolding,

With a push and with a poke,

That is unsuitable for us!

They have self-respect. In the chapter "Happy" they angrily see off a deacon, a courtyard, who boasted of his servile position: "Get out!" They sympathize with the terrible story of the soldier and say to him:

Here, drink, servant!

There is nothing to argue with you:

You are happy - no words.

Truth seekers are hardworking, always striving to help others. Hearing from a peasant woman that there are not enough working hands to remove the bread on time, the peasants offer:

And what are we, godfather?

Come on sickles! All seven

How will we become tomorrow - by evening

We will harvest all your rye!

They also willingly help the peasants of the Illiterate province to mow the grass:

Like teeth from hunger

Works for everyone

Agile hand.

However, Nekrasov more fully reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before the masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position. Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under the harrow from the heat and rain.

The chest is sunken; like a depressed

Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth

Bends like cracks

On dry ground...

Reading the description of the peasant's face, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him.

You work alone

And a little work is over,

Look, there are three equity holders:

God, king and lord!

Throughout his long life, Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, starved, went to prison and, “like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland.” But still he finds in himself the strength to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his hut with pictures, loves and uses a well-aimed word, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the seasonal industry. And his voice is the voice of the most resolute peasants.

Every peasant has

The soul is a black cloud -

Angry, thunderstorm - and it would be necessary

Thunders rumble from there,

To pour bloody rains...

The writer treats his hero Yermil Girin with great sympathy, the village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants,

At seven years of a worldly penny

Didn't squeeze under the nail

At the age of seven, he did not touch the right one,

Didn't let the guilty

I didn’t bend my heart…

Only once did Yermil act out of conscience, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness."

The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, showing exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not afraid of the prison, took the side of the peasants, when

... The patrimony rebelled

Landowner Obrubkov ...

Ermil Girin is a defender of peasant interests.

If the protest of Yakim Nagogoi is spontaneous, then Yermil Girin rises to a conscious protest.

Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero - a fighter for the cause of the people. Savely's life was hard. In his youth, like all peasants, he endured cruel abuse for a long time from the landowner Shalashnikov, his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the living German Vogel in the ground. "Twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of settlement" Savely received for this. Returning to his native village as an old man, Savely retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" he said about himself. Saveliy retained a clear mind, cordiality, and responsiveness until old age. In the poem, he is shown as a people's avenger:

…Our axes

They lay - for the time being!

He speaks contemptuously of passive peasants, calling them "lost ... lost."

Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, raising him very high, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom. The image of Saveliy is given in one chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters.

Most of the poem is dedicated to the Russian woman. Matryona Timofeevna goes through all the trials that a Russian woman could go through. IN parental home she lived freely and cheerfully, and after marriage she had to work like a slave, endure the reproaches of her husband's relatives, the beatings of her husband. She found joy only in work and in children. She experienced hard the death of her son Demushka, the persecution of the master's steward, the year of hunger, and begging. But in difficult moments she showed firmness and perseverance: she fussed about the release of her husband, who was illegally taken as a soldier, she even went to the governor himself. She pulled out Fedotushka when they decided to punish him with rods. Recalcitrant, resolute, she is always ready to defend her rights, and this brings her closer to Savely. About herself Matrena Timofeevna says:

I bow my head

I carry an angry heart!

For me insults are mortal

Gone unpaid...

Having told about her difficult life to wanderers, she says that “it’s not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women!”

In the last chapter, entitled "The Woman's Parable", a peasant woman speaks of the total female share:

Keys to female happiness

From our free will

Abandoned, lost In God himself.

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

You are still in the family as long as a slave,

But the mother is already a free son!

With great love, Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, who expressed the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors. However, the writer did not close his eyes to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who are corrupted by the masters and have become accustomed to their slavish position. In the chapter “Happy”, the truth-seekers meet with a “broken-down courtyard man”, who considers himself happy because he was Prince Peremetyev’s favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his “daughter, together with the young lady, studied both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess.” And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the rest of the overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the meanness of his lackey position. The courtyard of Prince Utyatin Ipat did not even believe that the peasants had been declared "freedom":

And I am the Utyatin princes

Serf - and the whole story here!

From childhood to old age, the master, as best he could, mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted.

… redeemed

Me, the last slave,

In the winter in the hole!

Yes, how wonderful! Two holes:

In one he will lower in the net,

It will instantly pull out into another -

And bring vodka.

Ipat could not forget the master's "favors": the fact that after swimming in the hole the prince "brings vodka", he will plant "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person." The obedient slave is also shown in the image of "an exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful." Yakov served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... seemed to blow with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and gratified the master until his old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Yakov “fooled”: first he “drank the dead”, and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience. With deep indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain." For images of courtyard peasants who became slaves of their masters and abandoned true peasant interests, the poet finds words of angry contempt: a slave, a serf, a dog, Judas. Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization:

People of the servile rank -

Real dogs sometimes:

The more severe the punishment

So dear to them, gentlemen.

Creating various types of peasants, Nekrasov argues that there are no happy ones among them, that even after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants are still destitute and bloodless, only the forms of oppression of the peasants have changed. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest, and the poet believes that with the help of such people in the future in Rus' everyone will live well, and first of all, a good life will come for the Russian people.

More Russian people

No limits set:

Before him is a wide path.

Drawing numerous images of peasants, Nekrasov divides the heroes, as it were, into two camps: slaves and fighters. Already in the prologue we get acquainted with the peasants-truth-seekers. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, the desire to find a happy person in Rus'. Traveling, they meet with different people, give them an assessment, determine their attitude to the priest, to the landowner, to the peasant reform, to the peasants. Truth seekers are hardworking, always striving to help others.
However, Nekrasov more fully reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before the masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position. Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under the harrow from the heat and rain. He admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who live off peasants like him. But still, Yakim finds the strength in himself to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. He decorates his hut with pictures, loves and always uses a well-aimed word to the point, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the seasonal industry. And his voice is the voice of the most resolute peasants.
With great sympathy, the writer treats his hero Yermil Girin, the village headman, fair, honest, intelligent. Only once did Yermil act out of conscience, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. In a difficult moment, the people help Yermil to save the mill, showing exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the peasants to act together, with the whole world.
Another hero is Saveliy, a Holy Russian hero, a fighter for the cause of the people. Savely's life was hard. In his youth, he, like all peasants, for a long time endured cruel abuse from the landowner Shalashnikov, his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants who have buried the German Vogel alive in the ground. “Twenty years of strict hard labor, twenty years of settlement” Savely received for this. Returning to his native village as an old man, Savely retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors: “Branded, but not a slave!”
The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom. The image of Savely is given in one chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna. And this is no coincidence. The poet shows together two strong Russian characters. Most of the poem is dedicated to the Russian woman. Matrena Timofeevna goes through all the trials that a Russian woman could ever go through. After marriage, I had to work like a slave, endure the reproaches of the new relatives, the beatings of my husband. Only in work and in children did she find joy, and in difficult times she always showed firmness and perseverance: she fussed about the release of her husband, who was illegally taken as a soldier, she even went to the governor himself. Recalcitrant, resolute, she was always ready to defend her rights, and this brings her closer to Savely.
With great love, Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, but he did not close his eyes to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants corrupted by their masters and accustomed to their slavish position. In the chapter "Happy" the truth-seeking peasants meet with a "broken-down courtyard man" who considers himself lucky because he was his master's favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his daughter, along with the young lady, studied French, and for thirty years he himself stood at the chair of the most illustrious prince, licked the plates after him and drank the remnants of overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, who does not understand all the baseness of his lackey position.
To match this courtyard - the courtyard of Prince Utyatin Ipat, as well as "an exemplary lackey - Jacob is faithful." Yakov served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... seemed to blow with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave pleased the master until his old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Yakov “fooled”: first he “drank the dead”, and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.
With deep indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain." For images of courtyard peasants who became slaves of their masters and abandoned true peasant interests, the poet finds words of angry contempt: a slave, a serf, a dog, Judas. Nekrasov concludes their characteristics with a typical generalization: “People of the servile rank - / Real dogs sometimes: / The harder the punishment, / The dearer the Lord is to them.”
Creating various types of peasants, Nekrasov argues that there are no happy ones among them, that even after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants still remained destitute, only the forms of their oppression changed. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest, and the author believes that with the help of such people in the future in Rus' everyone will live well and, first of all, a bright life will come for the simple Russian people: :/ There is a wide path before him.”