Nekrasov "Railway": a summary of the poem

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

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov had already gained fame by the time this poem was written. His poems "To whom it is good to live in Russia" and "Frost, Red Nose" were loved by the people. The magazine Sovremennik published by the poet was the mouthpiece of democracy. L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, I. S. Turgenev, M. E. S altkov-Shchedrin, I. A. Goncharov, A. I. Ostrovsky.

In 1864 he created the poem by Nekrasov "Railway". A summary of the work will be discussed in this article.

Historical setting at the time of writing the poem

The triumph of the victory over the revolutionary democrats was felt not only by Nekrasov. “Railway” is a short story about the narrow framework between hunger and overwork that the whole people was placed in. The defenders of the people, the critics of the sixties, who were called "the conscience of the people" have passed away: Dobrolyubov and Pisarev. Chernyshevsky went into exile.

Power in 1861 unprepared, landslide abolished serfdom. As you know, 75% of the estates in serf Russia were not mechanized. The patriarchal village was opened to capitalist relations. Beganlandslide ruin of inefficient farms. A huge mass of practically gratuitous labor force has entered the labor market. Former peasants went to any work, practically for food. Social catastrophes were brewing. As a reflection on the fate of Russia in his journal Sovremennik, Nekrasov publishes his own poem "Railway". Its summary immediately became the subject of discussion of the entire Russian society.

The plot of the poem

Nekrasov's most dramatic work starts off casually. It is as if her first lines of poetry were written in watercolor. Late autumn, “the ice is not strong”, “the river is icy”, but there are leaves on the trees that have not yet had time to “fade”. Nekrasov begins his story lyrically. "Railway" reveals its content to the reader deliberately gradually.

A young son in a coachman's coat and his father, a general, set off on a journey by rail. The son, who asked about who built it, the father gave the name of the "builder": "Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmikhel …" But the child who dozed off on the road dreamed of the truth about this construction, similar to a thriller. Only under the fear of starvation could one decide on such work. To live in a dugout, to eat somehow, to have practically no rest, to suffer from cold and dampness, and at the same time toil exhaustingly for 12-14 hours. The work was controversial. The Judas tenants wrote down the miscalculations of each. When the time came for the calculation, the foremen promulgated the fines assigned to each. Very little was received for payment, and often the builders even owed. Then the workers"gifted" a barrel of wine, and the question of payment, thus, was filmed in principle. The disobedient were flogged to death. Those who died from disease and exhaustion were buried there. The road was practically built on bones.

Sneaky system, isn't it, Nekrasov exposes to the judgment of the Russian public? "Railway" directly opposes its brief content to the officially accepted point of view. Her idea is faith in the people, who, nevertheless, will find a worthy fate for themselves (will pave a “wide, clear … road”). By the way, the censors reminded him of this work with “gnashing of teeth” when two years later they closed the Sovremennik magazine, where it was published.

But the memory of the people remained in the people's memory, when Nekrasov's work "Railway" proudly and loudly sounded in the society crushed by repressions. Its summary should be taken as an attempt by the author to "see the light", overcoming the "midnight darkness" of the terry reaction.

Conclusion

The story presented by this poem is true and testifies to the true picture of the construction of the Nikolaev railway. The Minister of Railways, Adjutant General Kleinmikhel Petr Andreevich, unquestioningly loyal to Nicholas I, supervised its construction. The emperor was proud of his subordinate. Honoring his merits, they even minted a personalized gold medal, on which the slogan "Diligence overcomes everything" was emblazoned. His style of organizing the construction was fast, but always accompanied by many human deaths. The people fiercely hated Kleinmichel. Therefore newEmperor Alexander II, having ascended the throne, hastened to replace this odious figure in office.