“Who should live well in Russia”: a summary of the chapters, characteristics and analysis

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

One of the most famous works of the Russian poet Nikolai Nekrasov is the poem "Who should live well in Russia". The summary of this work will help you thoroughly study it, learn in detail the history of the journey of seven peasants across the country in search of a truly happy person. The events in the poem unfold shortly after the historic abolition of serfdom, which took place in 1861.

The plot of the story

The poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia", a summary of which is given in this article, begins with the fact that seven men meet on a high road. All of them were still serfs quite recently, and now they are temporarily liable, living in neighboring villages with speaking and frankly depressing names - Dyryavin, Zaplatova, Gorelova, Razutova,Neyolova, Znobishina and Crop failure.

A dispute arises between them, who is having fun and at ease today in Russia. Each of them has its own version. Someone thinks that the landowner lives well, also among the versions are an official, a priest, a sovereign minister, a boyar, a merchant and the tsar himself.

You will learn how this dispute will end from the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" by Nekrasov. You can get acquainted with it very briefly if you read this article. While talking, the men do not notice that they have made a detour of as much as 30 miles, realizing that it is too late to return home today, they make a fire, pour vodka and continue to argue. Gradually, the dispute turns into a fight, but even after it it is not possible to decide who is right.

The decision comes unexpectedly. One of the disputants named Pahom gets a warbler chick to free it, the bird tells the peasants where to find a self-assembled tablecloth. So all the participants in the dispute are provided with bread, vodka and all other food necessary for the journey. Then they decide for themselves to find out who in Russia has a good life. The summary of this work will help you quickly recall the main episodes if you read the work itself for a long time or decided to get acquainted with it in a truncated version.

Pop

The first person they meet is a pop. His men begin to wonder if he is doing well. He reasonably answers that happiness is in we alth, peace and honor. He himself does not have any of these benefits.

In the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia", shortthe content of which will help you prepare for an exam or test, the pop describes his unenviable fate. In any weather, he is forced to go where people get sick, are born or die. His soul is torn from the sadness of orphans, weeping over the coffin, so he does not always dare to take money for his work.

You can't count on more. The landlords, who used to live in family estates, lived in them all year round, got married and baptized children, are now scattered throughout the country, and someone moved abroad, so you can’t count on retribution from them.

Well, the fact that few people respect the priest, the men themselves know, he sums up. As a result, the heroes of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" (a summary of the chapters will help to better understand this work) even becomes uncomfortable when the clergyman begins to recall the insults and obscene songs that are regularly heard against him.

Country Fair

As a result, the heroes of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia", a summary of which is now before you, end up at a rural fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. There they begin to question the people about true happiness.

The village is rich, but dirty. It has a paramedic's hut, a rickety house that used to be a "school", an untidy hotel, and many drinking establishments.

They meet old man Vavila, who cannot buy shoes for his granddaughter, because he drank everything. Pavlusha Veretennikov saves him, whom everyone aroundfor some reason they call him "master", he buys a present for the old man.

Heroes are watching the farce Petrushka, trying to understand where it is good to live in Russia. A summary of the poem will help to better consider the author's intention. They see that every trading day ends with drinking and fighting. At the same time, they do not agree with Pavlusha, who proposes to measure the peasant by the masters. The peasants themselves are sure that it is impossible for a sober person to live in Russia. In this case, there is no way to endure either peasant misfortune or overwork.

Yakim Nagoi

Confirms these statements and Yakim Nagoi, who came from the village of Bosovo, who, as everyone around says, "works to death, drinks half to death." At the same time, during a fire, he himself saves not the accumulated money, but his favorite pictures, which are completely useless. He believes that when drunkenness ends in Russia, great sadness will come.

Wanderers are trying to continue to find where to live well in Russia. The summary details their attempts. They promise to give water to the lucky ones, but there are none. It turns out that both a paraplegic yard clerk and a ragged beggar are ready to declare themselves happy for a free drink.

Yermil Girin

Finally, the heroes learn the story of Yermila Girin. It tells about the steward, who is known in the district for his honesty and justice in the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" by Nekrasov. A summary of the chapters gives a complete picture of the work. For example, the men lent him money when he needed to buy a mill,without even asking for a receipt. But he is also unhappy now, as he ended up in prison after a peasant revolt.

The poem tells in detail about the nobles, many of whom were unhappy after the peasants received their freedom. A 60-year-old landowner named Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev says that before the master was happy with everything: fields, forests, serf actors, hunters, musicians, they all belonged to him, he himself was kind to them.

The peasants themselves understand that serfdom was far from the idyll drawn by Obolduev, but they understand that the abolition of serfdom hit both the master, who had lost his usual way of life, and the peasants.

Russian women

Disappointed to find happy men among men, the heroes begin to ask women who and why live well in Russia. This episode is also summarized. One of the wanderers recalls that Matryona Korchagina lives in the village of Klin. Everyone around her considers her lucky. But she herself does not think so, telling the story of her life.

She was born into a prosperous and non-drinking peasant family. Her husband was a stove-maker from the neighboring village Philip Korchagin. But only the night when her future husband persuaded her to marry him was happy for her. After that, the monotonous life of a Russian woman in the village began.

At the same time, she admits that her husband loved her, beat her only once, but soon left for St. Petersburg to work. Matryona had to get along in her father-in-law's family. She was only sorry for her grandfather Savely, who returned after hard labor, which he got into because ofthe murder of a manager from Germany, whom everyone hated.

The birth of the first child

Soon Matryona had her first child, who was named Demushka. But the mother-in-law did not allow to take the child with her into the field, and old Savely did not watch over him, and the pigs ate him. In front of the mother, the judges, who came from the city, performed an autopsy. After that, she had five sons, but she never forgot her first child.

A lot of suffering fell on her lot. One of her sons, Fedot, overlooked the sheep and one was dragged away by a she-wolf to protect him, Matryona took the punishment upon herself. Being pregnant with Liodor, she had to go to the city to seek justice when her husband was illegally taken into the soldiers. Then the governor's wife helped her, for whom everyone in the family is now praying.

Matryona can be considered happy only by unpretentious peasant standards. But there are many deadly insults in her soul, moreover, she is convinced that a peasant woman cannot live happily in Russia.

On the Volga

On the great Russian river, wanderers find themselves in the midst of haymaking. Here they become witnesses of another strange scene. A noble family is sailing to the shore in several boats. The mowers, who have just sat down to rest, jump up to demonstrate their diligence to the master.

These are peasants from the village of Vahlachin, who in every possible way help the heirs to hide the abolition of serfdom from the landowner Utyatin, who has completely lost his mind. In exchange for this service, his relatives promised the peasants floodplain meadows. But whenthe old landowner still dies, the heirs do not keep their word, it turns out that the whole performance that the peasants staged was in vain.

Peasant songs

The main characters of the poem "Who lives well in Russia" listen to various peasant songs near this village. A summary of the chapters will allow you to know what this work is about without even reading it. Among them are soldiers, corvee, s alty, hungry. All these are stories from the times of serfdom.

One of them is dedicated to an exemplary and honest serf named Yakov. His only joy in life was to please his master. It was a small landowner Polivanov. He was a petty tyrant, in gratitude for his devotion and faithful service, he knocked out Yakov's teeth with a heel, causing even greater love in the lackey's soul.

In old age, the landlord lost his legs, then Yakov began to follow him and take care of him like a child. But when the peasant's nephew decided to marry a local beauty named Arisha, Polivanov himself wants this girl and recruits the guy. At first Yakov took to drink, but soon returned to his master again. In the end, he got his revenge on Polivanov in the only way a lackey like him could get his hands on. Yakov brought the master into the forest and hanged himself on a pine tree right in front of his master. Polivanov had to spend the whole night over the corpse of his servant, driving away wolves, birds and other animals.

Great Sinners

Another story was about sinners. It is told by her divine wanderer named Iona Lyapushkin to the heroes of the poem"To whom in Russia it is good to live" Nekrasov. A summary of this story is also included in this article.

Once the Lord woke up the conscience of the leader of the robbers Kudeyar. He was forced to atone for his sins for a long time, but received absolution only when he killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky.

Another sinner - Gleb-headman. For a monetary reward, he hid the will of a widower admiral who, after his death, ordered the release of the peasants who belonged to him, but because of Gleb, no one knew about this for a long time.

Grisha Dobrosklonov

In addition to the men who want to find out who lives happily in Russia, Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of a local clerk, a seminarian, also thinks about people's happiness. He loves his dead mother, this love merges with love for the whole Vakhlachina.

At the age of 15, Grisha already knows for sure whom he is ready to die for, in whose hands he is ready to entrust his life. He reflects on the immense mysterious Russia, thinking of her as a mighty, powerless mother, expecting that the strength that he increasingly feels inside himself will still be felt in her.

Strong in spirit Grisha Dobrosklonov. Fate prepared for him the path of a people's protector, as well as Siberia and consumption.

Men do not know what is happening in the soul of this hero, otherwise they would surely understand that they can return home, they learned everything that was necessary.