Nekrasov’s poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia”, which is part of the compulsory school curriculum, is presented in our country summary, which you can find below.

Part 1

Prologue

There are seven peasants from neighboring villages on the main road. They are starting a debate about who has fun in Russia. Everyone has his own answer. In conversations, they do not notice that they have passed unknown thirty miles. It gets dark, they make a fire. The argument is gradually turning into a fight. But a definite answer still can not be found.

A man named Pakhom catches chicks chicks. In exchange, the bird promises the peasants to tell them where the self-collected tablecloth is located, which will give them food as much as they like, a bucket of vodka per day, will wash and darn their clothes. Heroes get a real treasure and decide to find the final answer to the question: who should live well in Russia?

Pop

On the way, peasants meet pop. They ask if he lives happily. According to the priest, happiness is wealth, honor and peace. But these benefits are not available to the priest: in cold and rain he is forced to get out for the funeral service, to look at the tears of his relatives, when it is awkward to take a fee for the service. Moreover, the pop does not see respect among the people, now and then it becomes the subject of ridicule of men.

Rural fair

Having found out that the priest does not have happiness, the peasants go to the fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. Maybe there they will find lucky. There are a lot of drunks at the fair. The old man Vavila is grieving that he skipped money on shoes for his granddaughter. Everyone wants to help, but they do not have the opportunity. Barin Pavel Veretennikov pities his grandfather and buys a gift for his granddaughter.

Closer to night, everyone around is drunk, the men go away.

Drunk night

Pavel Veretennikov, having talked with ordinary people, regrets that the Russian people drink too much. But the peasants are convinced that the peasants drink from hopelessness, that it is impossible to live sober in these conditions. If the Russian people stop drinking, great sorrow awaits him.

These thoughts are expressed by Yakim Nagoy - a resident of the village of Bosovo. He tells how, in a fire, the first thing he took out of the hut was the low-key pictures, which he appreciated most.

The men settled down for lunch. Then one of them remained on guard of a bucket of vodka, and the rest again went in search of happiness.

Happy

Wanderers offer those who are happy in Russia, drink a glass of vodka. There are many such lucky ones - and a torn man, and paralytic, and even the poor.

Someone points them to Yermila Girin, an honest and respected peasant. When he needed to redeem his mill at an auction, the people raised a ruble and a penny for the right amount. After a couple of weeks, Jirin was distributing debt in the square. And when the last ruble remained, he continued to search for its owner until sunset. But now, Ermila has little happiness - he was accused of a popular rebellion and thrown into prison.

Landowner

The ruddy landowner Gavril Obolt-Obolduyev is another candidate for the “lucky man”. But he complains to the peasants of a noble misfortune - the abolition of serfdom. He used to be fine. Everyone cared for him, tried to please. Yes, and he himself was kind to the yard. Reform destroyed his usual way of life. How can he live now, because he knows nothing, is not capable of anything. The landowner burst into tears, after him the men became sad. The abolition of serfdom and the peasants is not easy.

Part 2

The last

Guys find themselves on the banks of the Volga during haymaking. They are watching an amazing picture for themselves. Three lordly boats moor to the shore. Mowers, just sat down to rest, jump, wanting to curry favor with the master. It turned out that the heirs, having enlisted the support of the peasants, were trying to hide peasant reform from the distraught landowner Utyatin. The peasants are promised lands for this, but when the landowner dies, the heirs forget about the agreement.

Part 3

Peasant woman

Seekers of happiness thought about asking about the happiness of women. All the oncoming call the name of Matrena Korchagina, which people see as lucky.

Matrona claims that in her life there are many troubles, and devotes wanderers to her story.

Matrona had a good, non-drinking family as a girl. When the stove-maker Korchagin courted her, she was happy. But after marriage, an ordinary, painful village life began. She was beaten by her husband only once, because he loved her. When he left to work, the stove-maker's family continued to mock her. Only Grandfather Savely - the former convict who was sitting for the murder of the manager - felt sorry for her. Savely was like a hero, confident that it was impossible to defeat a Russian person.

Matrena was happy when her first son was born. But while she was at work in the field, Savely fell asleep, and the child was eaten by pigs. In front of a heartbroken mother, the county doctor performed an autopsy on her firstborn. A woman can’t forget a child until now, although she gave birth to five after him.

From the outside, everyone considers Matryna lucky, but no one understands what pain she carries inside, what mortal unrevenged insults gnaw on her, how she dies every time she remembers a dead child.

Matrena Timofeevna knows that a Russian woman simply cannot be happy, because she has no life, no will for her.

Part 4

A feast for the whole world

Wanderers near the village of Vakhlachin hear folk songs - hungry, salty, soldierly and corvée. Grisha Dobrosklonov sings - a simple Russian guy. Sounds of serfdom. One of them is the story of Yakima the faithful. He was devoted to the master to the extreme. Rejoiced in cuffs, fulfilled any whims. But when the landowner gave his nephew to the soldier's service, Yakim left, and soon returned. He figured out how to take revenge on the landowner. Having depleted, he brought him to the forest and hanged himself on a tree above the master.

The debate about the worst sin begins. Elder Jonah tells the parable "about two sinners." The sinner Kudeyar prayed to God for forgiveness, and he answered him. If Kudeyar dumps a huge tree with a knife alone, then his sins will be forgiven. The oak fell down only after the sinner washed him with the blood of the cruel gentleman Glukhovsky.

The son of clerk Grisha Dobrosklonov is thinking about the future of the Russian people. Russia for him is a wretched, abundant, powerful and powerless mother. In his soul, he feels immense power, ready to give his life for the benefit of the people. In the future, he will find the glory of the intercessor, hard labor, Siberia and consumption. But, if the wanderers knew what feelings filled Gregory’s soul, then they would realize that the goal of their search was achieved.

Retelling plan

1. The debate of men about "whoever has fun, freely in Russia."
2. Meeting with the priest.
3. Drunk night after the "Yarmonka".
4. The story of Yakim Nagoy.
5. The search for a happy man among men. The story of Yermil Girin.
6. Guys meet the landowner Obolt-Obolduev.
7. The search for a happy man among women. History Matrena Timofeevna.
8 Meeting with the eccentric landowner.
9. The parable about the approximate serf - Jacob the Faithful.
10. The story of two great sinners - Ataman Kudeyar and Pan Glukhovsky. The story of "peasant sin."
11. Thoughts of Grisha Dobrosklonov.
12. Grisha Dobrosklonov is a “national defender”.

Retelling

Part I

Prologue

The poem begins with the fact that seven men met on a pole track and argued about "whoever has fun, freely in Russia." “Roman said: to the landowner, Demian said: to the official, Luka said: to the priest. Merchants to the fat belly! - said the Gubin brothers, Ivan and Mitrodor. The old man Pakhom bothered and said, looking out into the land: to the noble nobleman, the minister of sovereign. And Prov said, To the king. ” They quarreled all day and did not even notice how night fell. The men looked around themselves, realized that they had gone far from home, and decided to rest before the return road. As soon as they managed to settle down under a tree and drink vodka, a dispute arose between them and new strength, it even came to a fight. But then the men saw that a small chick crawling out of the nest crawled to the fire. Groin caught him, but then a wand appeared and began to ask the men to let her chick go, and for this she told them where the self-collected tablecloth was hidden. The men found a tablecloth, dined, and decided that they would not return home until they found out "who lives happily, freely in Russia."

Chapter I. Pop

The next day, the men hit the road. At first they met only peasants, beggars and soldiers, but the peasants did not ask them, "how easy is it for them, is it difficult to live in Russia." Finally, in the evening they met pop. The peasants explained to him that they had a concern, which “brought us home from work, made us friends, repelled us from food”: “Is the life of a priest sweet? How are you - free, happy life, honest father? ” And the pop begins his story.

It turns out that in his life there is no peace, no wealth, no honor. There is no peace, because in a large county "a sick, dying, born in the world does not take time: in stubble and haymaking, in the dead of autumn, in winter, in severe frosts and in spring floods." And always the priest must go to fulfill his duty. But the most difficult thing, the pop admits, is to watch how a person dies and how his relatives cry over him. There is no priest and honor, because the people call him "the breed of foals"; to meet a priest on the road is considered a bad omen; about the priest compose "jokes, and obscene songs, and all blasphemy," and about the priest’s family they make a lot of jokes. Yes, and the wealth of the ass is hard to make. If in the old days, before the abolition of serfdom, there were many landowners' estates in the county, where weddings and christenings were constantly held, now only poor peasants are left who cannot generously pay the priest for his work. The priest himself says that he has a “coup” to take money from the poor, but then he will have nothing to feed his family with. With these words, the pop leaves the men.

Chapter 2. Village Fair

The men continued their journey and ended up in the Kuzminskoye village at the fair, and decided to look for a happy one here. “Wanderers went to the shops: they admire handkerchiefs, Ivanovo chintz, harnesses, new shoes, and Kimryak items.” At the shoe store, they meet an old man, Vavila, who admires the goat shoes, but does not buy them: he promised his little granddaughter to buy shoes, and other family members got different gifts, but he drank all the money. Now he is ashamed to show himself to his granddaughter. The assembled people listen to him, but cannot help, because no one has extra money. But there was one man, Pavel Veretennikov, who bought Vavil's boots. The old man was so sympathetic that he ran away, forgetting even to thank Veretennikov, “but the other peasants were so comforted, they were so happy, as if he had gifted everyone with a ruble.” Wanderers go to the booth, in which they watch a comedy with Petrushka.

Chapter 3. Drunken Night

Evening falls, and the travelers leave the "raging village." They walk along the road, and everywhere they meet drunk people who return home after the fair. From all sides, wanderers hear drunken conversations, songs, complaints about hard lives, screams of fighting people.

At the road post travelers meet Pavel Veretennikov, around whom the peasants gathered. Veretennikov writes in his little book the songs and proverbs that the peasants sing to him. “Russian peasants are smart,” says Veretennikov, “one thing is not good, that they drink before stupefaction, ditch in ditches, and fall into ditches - it's a pity to look!” After these words, a man comes up to him, who explains that the peasants drink because of a difficult life: “There is no measure of Russian hop. A measure of our grief? Do you have a measure? Does wine bring down a peasant, but sorrow does not bring down? Does work fail? ” And the peasants drink to forget, to drown their grief in a glass of vodka. But then the man adds: “we have a family who drinks a non-drinking family!” They don’t drink, and they also fumble, it would be better if they drank, stupid, but such a conscience. To a question from Veretennikov, what is his name, the man replies: “Yakim Nagoy lives in the village of Bosovo, he works to death, he drinks half to death! ..”, and the other men began to tell Veretennikov the story of Yakim Nagoy. He once lived in St. Petersburg, but he was sent to prison after he decided to compete with the merchant. He was stripped to the strings, and so he returned to his homeland, where he took up the plow. Since then, he has been "roasting in the strip under the sun" for thirty years. He bought his son pictures, which he hung on the hut, and he himself liked to look at them. But once there was a fire. Yakim, instead of saving the money he had saved for his whole life, saved the pictures, which he then hung in a new hut.

Chapter 4. Happy

Under the linden began to converge people who called themselves happy. A clerk came, whose happiness was "not in sables, not in gold", but "in complacency." A pockmarked old woman came. She was happy because her large turnip was ugly. Then came the soldier, happy because "because he was in twenty battles, and not killed." The mason began to tell that his happiness lies in the hammer, with the help of which he makes money. But then another mason came up. He advised not to brag about his strength, otherwise the grief that happened to him in his youth might come out of this: the contractor began to praise him for his strength, but once he put so many bricks on the stretcher that the man could not stand such a burden and after that he completely died. Came to the travelers and yard man, footman. He stated that his happiness lies in the fact that he has a disease that affects only the noble. Various other people came to boast of their happiness, and as a result, wanderers pronounced their verdict on peasant happiness: “Uh, peasant happiness! Leaky, patched, hunchbacked, with calluses, get home! ”

But then a man approached them, who advised them to ask Yermila Girin about happiness. To the question of travelers, who is this Yermila, a man told them. Yermila worked at the mill, which belonged to no one, but the court decided to sell it. Bids were arranged in which Yermila began to compete with the merchant Altynnikov. As a result, Yermila won, only they immediately demanded money for the mill, and Yermila did not have that kind of money with her. He asked for half an hour, ran to the square and turned to the people with a request to help him. Yermila was a respected people, so every peasant gave him as much money as he could. Yermila bought the mill, and a week later came back to the square and gave all the money he borrowed. And each one took as much money as he gave him a loan, nobody appropriated anything superfluous, even one more ruble remained. The participants began to ask why Yermila Girin was held in high esteem. The narrator said that in his youth, Yermila was a clerk in the gendarme corps and he helped every peasant who came to him with advice and deed and did not take a penny for it. Then, when a new prince arrived at the estate and dispersed the gendarmerie, the peasants asked him to elect Ermila as the bermister of the volost, since they trusted him in everything.

But then the priest interrupted the narrator and said that he did not tell the whole truth about Yermila, that he had a sin: instead of his younger brother Yermil, he recruited the only son of the old woman, who was her breadwinner and support. Since then, conscience did not give him rest, and once he nearly hanged himself, but instead demanded that he be tried as a criminal against the whole people. The peasants began to ask the prince to take the son of the old woman from the recruits, otherwise Ermila would hang herself from conscience. In the end, the son was returned to the old woman, and her brother Yermila was sent to recruits. But Yermilu’s conscience was still tormented, so he resigned and began to work at the mill. During the riot in the patrimony of Yermila, he went to prison ... Then there was the cry of a footman, who was whipped for theft, and the priest did not have time to tell the story to the end.

Chapter 5. Landowner

The next morning they met the landowner Obolt-Obolduev and decided to ask if he lives happily. The landowner began to tell that he was "an eminent family", his ancestors were known three hundred years ago. This landowner lived in the old days “like Christ’s bosom”, he had honor, respect, a lot of land, several times a month he arranged holidays that “any Frenchman” could envy, went hunting. The peasant landowner kept in severity: “Whom I want - I have mercy, whom I want - I will execute. The law is my desire! Fist is my police! ” But then he added that “punished - loving”, that the peasants loved him, they celebrated Easter together. But the travelers only laughed at his words: “If you knocked them down, do you pray in a manor house? ..” Then the landowner began to sigh that such a carefree life had passed after the abolition of serfdom. Now the peasants no longer work on the landlords' lands, and the fields fell into decay. Instead of a hunting horn, an ax is heard in the woods. Where formerly lordly houses stood, now drinking establishments are being built. After these words the landowner cried. And the travelers thought: “The great chain has broken, it has broken - it has spread itself: one end on the gentleman, the other on the peasant! ..”

Peasant woman
Prologue

The travelers decided to look for a happy man among women. In one village, they were advised to find Matrena Timofeevna and ask her questions. The men hit the road and soon reached the village of Klin, in which lived "Matrena Timofeevna, a cadaverous woman, wide and dense, about thirty eight years old. It is beautiful: hair with gray hair, large, stern eyes, richest eyelashes, severe and dark. She is wearing a white shirt and a short sundress, and a sickle over her shoulder. ” The peasants turned to her: “Tell me in a divine way: what is your happiness?” And Matrena Timofeevna began to tell.

Chapter 1. Before marriage

The girls Matrena Timofeevna lived happily in a large family, where everyone loved her. No one woke up early, they allowed her to sleep and to gain strength. From the age of five, they took him out to the field, she went for cows, carried her father’s breakfast, then she learned how to clean hay, and got used to work. After work, she, along with her friends, sat behind a spinner, sang songs, went to dance on holidays. Matrena was hiding from the guys, she didn’t want to fall into captivity from girl’s will. But all the same, her fiancé, Philip, was looking for herself from distant lands. He began to get married to her. Matrena at first did not agree, but the guy came to her heart. Matrena Timofeevna admitted: “While we were bargaining, it must be, as I think, then there was happiness. And hardly anymore! ” She married Philip.

Chapter 2. Songs

Matrena Timofeevna sings a song about how the bridegroom's relatives pounce on her daughter-in-law when she arrives in new house. Nobody loves her, everyone makes her work, and if they don’t like the work, they can beat her. Matrena Timofeevna came up with the new family the same way: “The family was huge, quarrelsome. I fell into hell with a girl’s will! ” Only in her husband could she find support, and it happened that he beat her. Matrena Timofeevna sang about the husband who beats his wife, and his relatives do not want to intercede for her, but only tell her to beat him even more.

Soon Matryona's son Demushka was born, and now it was easier for her to bear the reproaches of her mother-in-law and mother-in-law. But trouble again happened to her. The Lord's manager began to pester her, but she did not know where to escape from him. Only grandfather Savely helped Matryona cope with all the troubles, only he loved her in the new family.

Chapter 3. Savely, bogatyr svjetorsky

“With great gray mane, tea, twenty years unshorn, with a big beard, grandfather looked like a bear”, “grandfather’s back was an arch”, “he was struck, according to fairy tales, for a hundred years.” “Grandfather lived in a special room, did not like families, did not let him into his corner; and she was angry, barked, his "stigma, hard labor" honored his own son. " When the father-in-law began to get very angry with Matryona, she and her son went to Savely and worked there, and Demushka played with his grandfather.

Once Savely told her the story of his life. He lived with other peasants in impenetrable swamp forests, where neither the landowner nor the police could get. But once the landowner ordered them to come to him and sent the police for them. The peasants had to obey. The landowner demanded a rent from them, and when the men began to say that they had nothing, he ordered them to be carved. Again the peasants had to obey, and they gave the landowner their money. Now every year the landowner came to collect the rent from them. But the landowner died, and his heir sent a German steward to the estate. At first, the German lived quietly, became friends with the peasants. Then he began to order them to work. The men did not even have time to come to their senses, as they cut a road from their village to the city. Now they could safely ride. The German brought his wife and children to the village and began to rob the peasants even worse than the former landowner had robbed. The peasants suffered him for eighteen years. During this time, the German managed to build a factory. Then he ordered to dig a well. He did not like the work, and he began to scold the peasants. And Savely with his companions buried him in a pit dug for a well. For this he was sent to hard labor, where he spent twenty years. Then he returned to his homeland and built a house. The peasants asked Matrena Timofeevna to continue talking about their woman's life.

Chapter 4. Demushka

Matrena Timofeevna took her son to work. But the mother-in-law said that she should leave it to Grandfather Savely, since you won’t work much with the child. And then she gave Demushka to her grandfather, and she went to work. When she returned home in the evening, it turned out that Savely dozed off in the sun, did not notice the baby, and the pigs trampled him. Matrena "rolled up a ball", "curled up with a worm, called, woke Demushka - but it was too late to call." The gendarmes arrived and began to interrogate, "Did you kill the child by agreement with the peasant Savely?" Then the doctor came to open the body of the child. Matrena began to ask him not to do this, sent curses on everyone, and everyone decided that she had lost her mind.

At night, Matryona came to the tomb of her son and saw Savely there. At first she screamed at him, blamed the death of Dema, but then they both began to pray.

Chapter 5. The Wolf

After the death of Demushka Matrena Timofeevna did not talk to anyone, Savely could not see, did not work. And Savely went to repentance in the Sand Monastery. Then Matrena and her husband went to their parents and set to work. Soon she had more children. So four years passed. Matrena’s parents died, and she went to cry to her son’s grave. He sees that the grave has been tidied up, there is an icon on it, and Savely lies on the ground. They talked, Matrena forgave the old man, told him about her grief. Savely soon died, and he was buried next to Dema.

Four more years passed. Matrena resigned herself to her life, worked for the whole family, only she didn’t give her children an insult. I came to them in the village of a praying mantis and began to teach how to live properly, in a divine way. She forbade breastfeeding on fasting days. But Matrena did not obey her, she decided that God better punish her than she would leave her children hungry. That grief came to her. When her son Fedot was eight years old, the father-in-law gave him to the shepherdess. Once the boy did not look after the sheep, and one of them was stolen by a she-wolf. For this, the village headman wanted to flog him. But Matrena rushed to the feet of the landowner, and he decided instead of his son to punish his mother. Matrena was carved. In the evening, she came to see her son sleeping. And the next morning, she didn’t show her husband’s relatives, but went to the river, where she began to cry and call for the protection of her parents.

Chapter 6. The Difficult Year

Two new troubles came to the village: first a lean year came, then a recruiter. The mother-in-law began to scold Matryona for the fact that she had called out trouble, since she put on a clean shirt on Christmas. And then they wanted to give her husband recruits. She didn’t know where to go. She herself didn’t eat, she gave everything to her husband’s family, and they also scolded her, looked evilly at her children, since they were mouths extra. So Matrona had to “send the kids around the world” to ask for money from strangers. Finally, her husband was taken away, and the pregnant Matrena was left all alone.

Chapter 7. Governor

Her husband was taken to recruits at the wrong time, but no one wanted to help him return home. Matrena, who had been carrying her baby in recent days, went to seek help from the governor. She left home at night without telling anyone. I came to the city in the very morning. The doorman in the governor's palace told her to try to come in two hours, then the governor, perhaps, would accept her. In Matrena Square, she saw a monument to Susanin, and he reminded her of Savely. When the carriage pulled up to the palace and the governor came out of it, Matrena threw herself at her feet with entreaties for intercession. Then she felt bad. The long road and fatigue affected her health, and she gave birth to a son. The governor helped her, she baptized the baby and gave him a name. Then she helped save Matryna’s husband from recruitment. She brought Matron’s husband home, and his family bowed to her feet and obeyed her.

Chapter 8. The Baba Parable

Since then they have nicknamed Matrena Timofeevna the governor. She began to live as before, worked, raised children. One of her sons has already been recruited. Matrona Timofeevna told the travelers: “it’s not the business of the happy women to look for”: “The keys to women's happiness, to our free will, are abandoned, lost by God himself!”

The last

Travelers went to the banks of the Volga and saw how the peasants were working on haymaking. "For a long time we did not work, let's mow!" - Wanderers asked the local women. After work, they sat down on a stack to rest. Suddenly they see: three boats sailing along the river, in which music plays, beautiful ladies, two mustachioed gentlemen, children and an old man are sitting. As soon as the peasants saw them, they immediately began to work even harder.

The old landowner went ashore, walked around the entire hay field. "The peasants bowed low, the bermister in front of the landowner, like a demon before the matins, bargained. And the landowner scolded them for their work, ordered them to dry the already-prepared hay, which was already dry. Travelers were surprised why the old landowner behaved this way with the peasants, because they are now free people and are not under his authority. Old Vlas began to tell them.

"Our landlord is special, exorbitant wealth, an important rank, a noble family, he has been weird and fooled for a century." But canceled serfdom, but he did not believe it, decided that he was being deceived, even scolded with the governor about this, and by the evening his blow was enough. His sons were afraid that he might deprive them of their inheritance, and conspired with the peasants to live as before, as if the landowner was still their master. Some peasants gladly agreed to continue to serve the landowner, but many could not agree. For example, Vlas, who was then a burmist, did not know how he would have to fulfill the "stupid orders" of the old man. Then another peasant asked to be made a burmist, and "the old order went." And the peasants gathered together and laughed at the stupid orders of the master. For example, he ordered a seventy-year-old widow to marry a six-year-old boy, so that he would support her and build her a new house. He ordered the cows not to mumble when they pass the noble house, because they wake the landowner.

But there was a peasant Agap, who did not want to obey the master and even reproached the other peasants for obedience. Once he walked with a log, and a gentleman came towards him. The landowner realized that the log was from his forest, and began to scold Agap for theft. But the peasant could not bear it and began to laugh at the landowner. The old man again had a blow, they thought that now he would die, but instead he issued a decree to punish Agap for disobedience. All day the young landowners went to Agap, their wives, the new bermistra and Vlas, persuaded Agap to pretend, they watered him with wine all night. The next morning they locked him in the stable and ordered him to scream as if they were beating him, but in fact he was sitting and drinking vodka. The landowner believed, and he even felt sorry for the peasant. Only Agap after so much vodka died in the evening.

Wanderers went to look at the old landowner. And he sits surrounded by sons, daughter-in-law, domestic peasants and dines. I began to ask how soon the peasants would gather the lordly hay. The new burmister began to assure him that the hay would be removed in two days, then he declared that the men would not get away from the master, that he was their father and god. The landowner liked this speech, but he suddenly heard that some of the peasants laughed in the crowd, and ordered them to find and punish the guilty person. The burmister went, and he thinks how he should be. I began to ask the wanderers that one of them confessed: they are people from outside, the master cannot do anything for them. But the travelers did not agree. Then the kuma of the burmistra, a cunning woman, fell at the feet of the master, began to lament, say that this was her only silly son laughed, asked the master not to scold him. The master took pity. Then he fell asleep, and in a dream he died.

Feast - To The World

Introduction

The peasants staged a feast to which the whole patrimony came, they wanted to celebrate their freedom. The peasants sang songs.

I. Bitter Time - Bitter Songs

Funny. The song says that the master took the cow from the peasant, the zemstvo court took away the hens, the king took his sons to recruits, and the master took the daughters to himself. “Glorious people live in holy Russia!”

Corvée. The poor peasant Kalinushka has his entire back in wounds from beating, he has nothing to wear, nothing to eat. All that he earns, has to give the master. Only joys in life - come to the tavern and get drunk.

After this song, the peasants began to tell each other how hard it was with corvee. One recalled how their mistress Gertrude Alexandrovna ordered them to be mercilessly torn. And the peasant Vincent told the following parable.

About the approximate serf - Jacob the Faithful. There lived a landowner in the world, very stingy, even drove his daughter away when she got married. This gentleman had a faithful servant, Jacob, who loved him more than his life, did everything to deliver a pleasant gentleman. Jacob never asked his master for anything, but his nephew grew up and wanted to get married. Only the bride liked the master, too, so he did not allow Jacob's nephew to marry, but gave him to recruit. Jacob decided to take revenge on his master, only his revenge was as servile as his life. The master's legs hurt, and he could not walk. Jacob took him to a dense forest and hanged himself before his eyes. The master spent the whole night in the ravine, and in the morning the hunters found him. He did not recover from what he saw: “You, gentleman, will be an approximate serf, Yakov faithful, remember until the day of judgment!”

II. Wanderers and pilgrims

There are different pilgrims in the world. Some of them only hide behind the name of God in order to profit at the expense of others, since it is customary to take pilgrims in any house and feed them. Therefore, they most often choose rich houses in which you can eat well and steal something. But there are true pilgrims who carry the word of God to a peasant's house. Such people go to the poorest house so that God's mercy also descends upon it. Such pilgrims include Jonushka, who led the story "On the Two Great Sinners."

About two great sinners. Ataman Kudeyar was a robber and killed and robbed many people in his life. But his conscience tortured him, so much so that he could neither eat nor sleep, but only recalled his victims. He dismissed the whole gang and went to pray to the sepulcher of the Lord. He wanders, prays, repents, but it does not become easier for him. The sinner returned to his homeland and began to live under a centuries-old oak. Once he hears a voice that tells him to cut the oak tree with the knife with which he used to kill people, then all sins will be forgiven him. For several years the old man worked, but could not cut the oak. Once, Mr. Glukhovsky met him, who was told that he was a cruel and evil person. To the pan’s question, what does the old man do, the sinner said that he so wants to pray for his sins. Pan began to laugh and said that his conscience did not torment at all, although he had ruined many lives. “The miracle with the hermit became stale: he felt furious anger, rushed to Mr. Glukhovsky, a knife was thrust into his heart! "Just a bloodied pan fell head on the saddle, a huge tree collapsed, the echo shook the whole forest." So Kudeyar begged his sins.

III. Both old and new

"Great noble sin" - the peasants began to say after the story of Jonah. But the peasant Ignatius Prokhorov objected: "Great, and all he should not be against the sin of the peasant." And he told the following story.

Peasant sin. For courage and bravery, the admiral-widower received from the empress eight thousand souls. When the time came for the admiral to die, he summoned the headman and handed him a casket in which lay free for all the peasants. After his death, a distant relative came and, promising the headman the golden mountains and free, he begged the casket from him. So eight thousand peasants remained in the bondage, and the elder committed the most serious sin: betrayed his comrades. “So here he is, the sin of the peasant! Indeed, the worst sin! ” - decided the men. Then they sang the song "Hungry" and again spoke of landowner and peasant sin. And here Grisha Dobrosklonov, the son of a deacon, said: “The serpent will give birth to serpents, and strengthen - the sins of the landowner, the sin of Jacob the unfortunate, the sin of Gleb gave birth!” There is no support — there is no landowner who brings a zealous slave to the noose, no support — there is no courtyard who takes revenge on his villain by suicide, no support — Gleb will not be new in Russia! ” Everyone liked the boy’s speech, they began to wish him wealth and a smart wife, but Grisha replied that he didn’t need wealth, but that “every peasant would live freely, merrily in all of holy Russia.”

IV. Good time - good songs

In the morning, the travelers fell asleep. Grisha and his brother took his father home, along the way they sang songs. When the brothers put their father to bed, Grisha went for a walk in the village. Grisha studies at the seminary, where he is poorly fed, so he is thin. But he does not think about himself at all. All his thoughts are occupied only by his native village and peasant happiness. "To him, fate prepared the glorious path, the name of the loud protector of the people, consumption and Siberia." Grisha is happy because he can be an intercessor and take care of ordinary people, about his homeland. Seven men finally found happy, but they did not even guess about this happiness.

All works school curriculum on literature in summary. 5-11 class Panteleeva E.V.

“Who needs a good life in Russia” (Poem) Retelling

"Who needs to live well in Russia"

(Poem)

Retelling

In a fabulous form, the author depicts the dispute of seven peasants about "who lives happily, freely in Russia." The argument grows into a fight, then the peasants make peace and decide among themselves to ask the tsar, the merchant and the priest who is happier, having not received an answer, they are walking across Russian land in search of a lucky man.

The first peasants come across a pop who assures them that “priestly life” is not easy. He says that the peasants and landowners are equally in poverty and have stopped carrying money to church. Peasants sincerely sympathize with the ass.

Many interesting faces are outlined by the author in this chapter, where he depicts a fair, where seven peasants ended up looking for the happy ones. The peasants are attracted by the bidding of pictures: here the author expresses the hope that sooner or later there will come a time when the peasant “will not bear the stupid noord — Belinsky and Gogol from the bazaar”.

After the fair begins the festivities, "disaster night". Many peasants get drunk, except for the seven travelers and a certain gentleman who writes folk songs and his observations of peasant life in a booklet, the author himself probably embodied in this image in a poem. One of the men - Yakim Nagoy - blames the gentleman, does not order to portray Russian people without exception as drunkards. Yakim claims that in Russia one drinker is a non-drinker family, but it is easier for drinkers, since all workers suffer the same life. Both at work and in the gulba, a Russian peasant loves scope, cannot not without it. The seven travelers already wanted to go home, and they decided to look for the happy in the large crowd.

Travelers began to invite other men to a bucket of vodka, promising a treat to someone who proves that he is lucky. There are a lot of “lucky people”: the soldier is glad that he survived after foreign bullets and Russian sticks; the young mason boasts strength; the old mason is happy that the patient managed to get from St. Petersburg to his native village and did not die along the way; the bear hunter is glad to be alive. When the bucket was empty, "our wanderers realized that they were wasting vodka for nothing." Someone suggested that Yermil Girin should be recognized as happy. He is happy with his own truthfulness and popular love. He helped people more than once, and people repaid him kindly when they helped to buy a mill, which the dexterous merchant wanted to intercept. But, as it turned out, Yermil sits in prison: apparently, he suffered for his truth.

The next who met the seven peasants was the landowner Gavrilo Afanasevich. He assures them that his life is not easy. Under serfdom, he was the sovereign master of wealthy possessions, “loving” he brought judgment and reprisals against the peasants here. After the abolition of the "fortress", order disappeared and the manor houses came to desolation. The landlords lost their former income. “Idle writers” tell the landowners to study and work, and this is impossible, since the nobleman was created for another life - “to smoke the heavens of God” and “litter the treasury of the people”, as this allows him to be generous: among the ancestors of Gavrila Afanasevich there was also a leader with a bear Obolduyev, and Prince Shchepin, trying to set fire to Moscow for robbery. The landowner ends his speech with a sob, and the peasants were ready to cry with him, but then changed their minds.

The last

The wanderers find themselves in the village of Vakhlaki, where they see strange orders: the local peasants voluntarily became “not gods at God” - they retained serfdom depending on the wild landowner who had survived from the mind of Prince Utyatin. Travelers begin to pry out from one of the locals - Vlas, whence such orders in the village.

The extravagant Utyatin could not believe in the abolition of serfdom, so that "arrogance cut him off": the prince was struck by malice. The heirs of the prince, whom he blamed for the loss of men, were afraid that the old man would deprive them of their estate before the imminent death. Then they persuaded the peasants to play the role of serfs, promising to give away the meadows. The Wahlaks agreed, partly because they were used to the slave life and even found pleasure in it.

Wanderers are witnessing how the local bermistra glorifies the prince, how the villagers pray for Utyatin’s health and sincerely cry for joy that they have such a benefactor. Suddenly, the prince caught a second blow, and the old man died. Since then, indeed, peasants have lost their peace: between the wahlaks and the heirs, an endless debate has begun over the meadows.

Feast - To The World

Introduction

The author describes a feast, which was arranged by one of the Wahlaks - the restless Klim Yakovlevich on the occasion of the death of Prince Utyatin. Travelers along with Vlas joined the feasting party. Seven wanderers are interested in listening to Wahlack songs.

The author transfers many folk songs to the literary language. First, he cites the “bitter,” that is, sad, about peasant grief, about poor life. The lament opens with bitter songs with an ironic saying: “Glorious people live in holy Russia!” The song about the “serf of an exemplary Jacob the faithful”, who punished his master for bullying, concludes the chapter. The author concludes that the people are able to stand up for themselves and punish the landowners.

At the feast, travelers learn about the pilgrims who feed themselves on the fact that they hang on the people's neck. These loafers take advantage of the peasant's gullibility, over whom he would not mind to rise if possible. But there were among them those who faithfully served the people: healed the sick, helped bury the dead, fought for justice.

The peasants at the feast talk about whose sin is greater - the landowner or peasant. Ignatius Prokhorov claims that the peasant is more. As an example, he cites a song about the admiral widower. Before death, the admiral ordered the headman to free all the peasants, and the headman did not fulfill the last will of the dying. That is the great sin of a Russian peasant that he can sell his peasant brother for a pretty penny. Everyone agreed that this is a great sin, and for this sin all peasants in Russia forever in slavery.

By morning, the feast was over. One of the Wakhlaks composes a fun song in which he puts his hope for a brighter future. In this song, the author describes Russia “wretched and plentiful” as a country where a great people's power lives. The poet foresees that the time will come and the “hidden spark” will break out:

Rat rises Innumerable!

Strength in it will be indestructible!

These are the words of Grishka, the only lucky person in the poem.

Peasant woman

The wanderers thought that they should abandon the search for the happy among men, and it would be better to check the women. An abandoned estate is right in the path of the peasants. The author paints a depressing picture of the desolation of the once rich economy, which turned out to be unnecessary to the gentleman and which the peasants themselves cannot manage. Here they were advised to look for Matrena Timofeevna, "she is the governor," whom everyone considers happy. Travelers met her in a crowd of reapers and persuaded her to talk about her, Indian “happiness”.

The woman admits that the girls were happy, while her parents cherished. For parental caresses, all the chores of the household seemed easy fun: the girl sang for yarn until midnight, danced during work in the field. But here she found a narrowed one - a stove maker Philip Korchagin. Matrena got married, and her life changed dramatically.

The author pours his story with folk songs in his own literary processing. In these songs sung about difficult fate a married woman who has fallen into a foreign family about the bullying of her husband’s relatives. Matron’s support was found only by grandfather Savely.

The grandfather didn’t like grandfather in his own family, “stigmatized him as a hard labor”. At first, Matrena was afraid of him, afraid of his terrible, “bearish” appearance, but soon saw him as a kind, warm-hearted man and began to ask him for advice. Once Saveliy told Matrona his story. This Russian hero was sentenced to hard labor because he killed a German ruler who mocked the peasants.

A peasant woman talks about her great grief: how, through the fault of her mother-in-law, she lost her beloved son Demushka. The mother-in-law insisted that Matrena not take the child with her to the stubble. The daughter-in-law obeyed and with a heavy heart left the boy with Savely. The old man did not keep track of the baby, and the pigs ate it. The "boss" arrived and made an investigation. Having not received a bribe, he ordered the child to be opened with her mother, suspecting her of “conspiracy” with Savely.

The woman was ready to hate the old man, but then recovered. And my grandfather went out of remorse into the woods. Matrena met him four years later at the grave of Demushka, where she came to mourn a new grief - the death of her parents. The peasant woman again brought the old man into the house, but Savely died soon, continuing to joke and instruct people until his death. Years passed, at Matryona other children grew up. The peasant woman fought for them, wished them happiness, was ready to please the mother-in-law and mother-in-law, if only the children would live well. The father-in-law gave the son of Fedot eight years of age to podpaski, and trouble happened. Fedot chased the she-wolf who had abducted the sheep, and then felt sorry for her, because she fed the cubs. The elder decided to punish the boy, but the mother intervened and took the punishment for her son. She herself was like a wolf, ready to lay down her life for her children.

The "year of the comet" came, portending a crop failure. Bad forebodings came true: "the slabber came." Crazy from hunger peasants were ready to kill each other. The trouble does not come alone: \u200b\u200bthe husband-breadwinner was “tricked, not divine” into the soldiers. Husband's relatives more often than before began to scoff at Matrena, then pregnant with Liodorushka, and the peasant woman decided to go to the governor for help.

Secretly, a peasant woman left her husband’s house and went to the city. Here she managed to meet with the governor Elena Alexandrovna, to whom she turned with her request. In the governor's house, a peasant woman was allowed by Liodorushka, and Elena Alexandrovna baptized the baby and insisted that her husband rescue Philip from recruitment.

Since then, in the village, Matrena was glorified as lucky and was even called the "governor." The peasant woman ends the story with the reproach that the travelers didn’t start a business - “between the women you want to be happy.” God's companions are trying to find the keys to the happiness of women, but they are somewhere far lost, maybe swallowed by some fish: "In which seas that fish walks - God forgot! .."