Year: 1877 Genre: poem
Rus' is a country in which even poverty has its charms. After all, the poor, who are slaves to the power of the landowners of that time, have time to reflect and see what the overweight landowner will never see.
Once upon a time, on the most ordinary road, where there was an intersection, men, of whom there were seven, accidentally met. These men are the most ordinary poor men whom fate itself brought together. The men just recently left serfdom, and are now temporarily in bondage. They, as it turned out, lived very close to each other. Their villages were adjacent - the villages of Zaplatova, Razutova, Dyryavina, Znobishina, as well as Gorelova, Neelova and Neurozhaika. The names of the villages are very peculiar, but to some extent, they reflect their owners.
Men are simple people and willing to talk. That is why, instead of just continuing their long journey, they decide to talk. They argue about which of the rich and noble people lives better. A landowner, an official, a boyar or a merchant, or maybe even a sovereign father? Each of them has their own opinion, which they cherish, and do not want to agree with each other. The argument flares up more and more, but nevertheless, I want to eat. You cannot live without food, even if you feel bad and sad. When they argued, without noticing it, they walked, but in the wrong direction. Suddenly they noticed it, but it was too late. The men gave a distance of as much as thirty miles.
It was too late to return home, and therefore they decided to continue the argument right there on the road, surrounded by wild nature. They quickly light a fire to keep warm, since it’s already evening. Vodka will help them. The argument, as always happens with ordinary men, develops into a brawl. The fight ends, but it doesn't give anyone any results. As always happens, the decision to be there is unexpected. One of the company of men sees a bird and catches it; the mother of the bird, in order to free her chick, tells them about the self-assembled tablecloth. After all, men on their road meet many people who, alas, do not have the happiness that men are looking for. But they do not despair of finding a happy person.
Read the summary of Who Lives Well in Rus' by Nekrasov chapter by chapter
Part 1. Prologue
Seven temporary men met on the road. They began to argue about who lives funny, very freely in Rus'. While they were arguing, evening came, they went for vodka, lit a fire and began to argue again. The argument turned into a fight, while Pakhom caught a small chick. A mother bird flies in and asks to let her child go in exchange for a story about where to get a self-assembled tablecloth. The comrades decide to go wherever they look until they find out who lives well in Rus'.
Chapter 1. Pop
Men go on a hike. They pass through steppes, fields, abandoned houses, meeting both rich and poor. They asked the soldier they met about whether he was living a happy life, and the soldier responded by saying that he shaved with an awl and warmed himself with smoke. We passed by the priest. We decided to ask him how life was in Rus'. Pop claims that happiness does not lie in prosperity, luxury and tranquility. And he proves that he has no peace of mind, night and day they can call him to the dying man, that his son cannot learn to read and write, that he often sees sobs and tears at the coffins.
The priest claims that the landowners have scattered throughout their native land and because of this, now the priest has no wealth, as before. In the old days, he attended weddings of rich people and made money from it, but now everyone has left. He told me that he used to come to a peasant family to bury the breadwinner, but there was nothing to take from them. The priest went on his way.
Chapter 2. Country Fair
Wherever men go, they see stingy housing. A pilgrim washes his horse in the river, and the men ask him where the people from the village have gone. He replies that the fair is today in the village of Kuzminskaya. The men, coming to the fair, watch how honest people dance, walk, and drink. And they look at how one old man asks people for help. He promised to bring a gift to his granddaughter, but he doesn’t have two hryvnia.
Then a gentleman appears, as the young man in a red shirt is called, and buys shoes for the old man’s granddaughter. At the fair you can find everything your heart desires: books by Gogol, Belinsky, portraits, and so on. Travelers watch a performance with Petrushka, people give the actors drinks and a lot of money.
Chapter 3. Drunken night
Returning home after the holiday, people fell into ditches from drunkenness, women fought, complaining about life. Veretennikov, the one who bought the shoes for his granddaughter, walked along arguing that Russians are good and smart people, but drunkenness spoils everything, being a big disadvantage for people. The men told Veretennikov about Nagy Yakima. This guy lived in St. Petersburg and after a quarrel with a merchant he went to prison. One day he gave his son various pictures that hung on the walls, and he admired them more than his son. One day there was a fire, so instead of saving money, he started collecting pictures.
His money melted and then merchants gave only eleven rubles for it, and now the pictures hang on the walls in the new house. Yakim said that men don’t lie and said that sadness will come and people will be sad if they stop drinking. Then the young people began to hum the song, and they sang so well that one girl passing by couldn’t even hold back her tears. She complained that her husband was very jealous and she sat at home as if on a leash. After the story, the men began to remember their wives, realized that they missed them, and decided to quickly find out who was living well in Rus'.
Chapter 4. Happy
Travelers, passing by an idle crowd, look for happy people in it, promising to pour them a drink. The clerk came to them first, knowing that happiness does not lie in luxury and wealth, but in faith in God. He talked about what he believes and that makes him happy. Next, the old woman talks about her happiness; the turnip in her garden has grown huge and appetizing. In response, she hears ridicule and advice to go home. Afterwards the soldier tells the story that after twenty battles he remained alive, that he survived hunger and did not die, that this made him happy. He gets a glass of vodka and leaves. The stonecutter wields a large hammer and has immense strength.
In response, the thin man ridicules him, advising him not to boast about his strength, otherwise God will take away his strength. The contractor boasts that he carried objects weighing fourteen pounds with ease to the second floor, but lately he had lost his strength and was about to die in his hometown. A nobleman came to them and told them that he lived with his mistress, ate very well with them, drank drinks from other people's glasses and developed a strange illness. He was wrong in his diagnosis several times, but in the end it turned out that it was gout. The wanderers kick him out so that he does not drink wine with them. Then the Belarusian said that happiness is in bread. Beggars see happiness in giving a lot. The vodka is running out, but they haven’t found a truly happy person, they are advised to look for happiness from Ermila Girin, who runs the mill. Yermil is awarded to sell it, wins the auction, but has no money.
He went to ask the people in the square for a loan, collected money, and the mill became his property. The next day, he returned their money to all the good people who helped him in difficult times. The travelers were amazed that the people believed Ermila’s words and helped. Good people said that Ermila was the colonel’s clerk. He worked honestly, but he was driven away. When the colonel died and the time came to choose a mayor, everyone unanimously chose Yermil. Someone said that Ermila did not correctly judge the son of the peasant woman Nenila Vlasyevna.
Ermila was very sad that he could let the peasant woman down. He ordered the people to judge him, and the young man was fined. He quit his job and rented a mill and established his own order on it. They advised travelers to go to Girin, but the people said that he was in prison. And then everything is interrupted because a lackey is whipped on the side of the road for theft. The wanderers asked for the continuation of the story, and in response they heard a promise to continue at the next meeting.
Chapter 5. Landowner
The wanderers meet a landowner who mistakes them for thieves and even threatens them with a pistol. Obolt Obolduev, having understood the people, started a story about the antiquity of his family, that while serving the sovereign he had a salary of two rubles. He remembers feasts rich in various foods, servants, of whom he had a whole regiment. Regrets the lost unlimited power. The landowner told how kind he was, how people prayed in his house, how spiritual purity was created in his house. And now their gardens have been cut down, their houses have been dismantled brick by brick, the forest has been plundered, not a trace remains of their former life. The landowner complains that he is not created for such a life; after living in the village for forty years, he will not be able to distinguish barley from rye, but they demand that he work. The landowner is crying, the people sympathize with him.
Part 2. The Last One
The wanderers, walking past the hayfield, decide to mow a little, they are bored with their work. The gray-haired man Vlas drives the women out of the fields and asks them not to disturb the landowner. Landowners catch fish in boats in the river. We moored and went around the hayfield. The wanderers began to ask the man about the landowner. It turned out that the sons, in collusion with the people, were deliberately indulging the master so that he would not deprive them of their inheritance. The sons beg everyone to play along with them. One man, Ipat, serves without playing along, for the salvation that the master gave him. Over time, everyone gets used to deception and lives like that. Only the man Agap Petrov did not want to play these games. Utyatina grabbed the second blow, but again he woke up and ordered Agap to be publicly flogged. The sons put the wine in the stable and asked them to shout loudly so that the prince could hear them up to the porch. But soon Agap died, they say from the prince’s wine. People stand in front of the porch and play a comedy; one rich man can’t stand it and laughs loudly. A peasant woman saves the situation and falls at the prince’s feet, claiming that it was her stupid little son who laughed. As soon as Utyatin died, all the people breathed freely.
Part 3. Peasant woman
They send to the neighboring village to Matryona Timofeevna to ask about happiness. There is hunger and poverty in the village. Someone caught a small fish in the river and talks about how once upon a time a larger fish was caught.
Theft is rampant, people are trying to steal something. Travelers find Matryona Timofeevna. She insists that she doesn’t have time to rant, she needs to remove the rye. The wanderers help her; while working, Timofeevna begins to willingly talk about her life.
Chapter 1. Before marriage
In her youth, the girl had a strong family. She lived in her parents' house without knowing any troubles; she had enough time to have fun and work. One day Philip Korchagin appeared, and the father promised to give his daughter as a wife. Matryona resisted for a long time, but eventually agreed.
Chapter 2. Songs
Next, the story is about life in the house of the father-in-law and mother-in-law, which is interrupted by sad songs. They beat her once for being slow. Her husband leaves for work, and she gives birth to a child. She calls him Demushka. Her husband's parents began to scold her often, but she endured everything. Only the father-in-law, old man Savely, felt sorry for his daughter-in-law.
Chapter 3. Savely, the Holy Russian hero
He lived in an upper room, did not like his family and did not allow them into his house. He told Matryona about his life. In his youth he was a Jew in a serf family. The village was remote, you had to get there through thickets and swamps. The landowner in the village was Shalashnikov, but he could not get to the village, and the peasants did not even go to him when called. The rent was not paid; the police were given fish and honey as tribute. They went to the master and complained that there was no rent. Having threatened with flogging, the landowner still received his tribute. After some time, a notification comes that Shalashnikov has been killed.
The rogue came instead of the landowner. He ordered trees to be cut down if there was no money. When the workers came to their senses, they realized that they had cut a road to the village. The German robbed them to the last penny. Vogel built a factory and ordered a ditch to be dug. The peasants sat down to rest at lunch, the German went to scold them for idleness. They pushed him into a ditch and buried him alive. He ended up in hard labor and escaped from there twenty years later. During hard labor he saved up money, built a hut and now lives there.
Chapter 4. Demushka
The daughter-in-law scolded the girl for not working enough. She began to leave her son to his grandfather. Grandfather ran to the field and told him that he had overlooked and fed Demushka to the pigs. The mother’s grief was not enough, but the police began to come often; they suspected that she had killed the child on purpose. They buried the baby in a closed coffin, and she mourned him for a long time. And Savely kept reassuring her.
Chapter 5. Patrimony
As soon as you die, the work stops. The father-in-law decided to teach a lesson and beat the bride. She began to beg to kill her, and her father took pity. The mother mourned at her son’s grave all day and night. In winter, my husband returned. Grandfather left from grief, first into the forest, then into the monastery. After that, Matryona gave birth every year. And again a series of troubles began. Timofeevna's parents died. Grandfather returned from the monastery, asked his mother for forgiveness, and said that he had prayed for Demushka. But he never lived long; he died very hard. Before his death, he spoke about three paths of life for women and two paths for men. Four years later, a praying mantis comes to the village.
She kept talking about some beliefs and advised against feeding babies with breast milk on fasting days. Timofeevna did not listen, then she regretted it, she says God punished her. When her child, Fedot, was eight years old, he began to herd sheep. And somehow they came to complain about him. They say that he fed the sheep to the she-wolf. Fedot’s mother began to question him. The child said that before he could blink an eye, a she-wolf appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the sheep. He ran after him and caught up, but the sheep was dead. The she-wolf howled, it was clear that she had cubs somewhere in the hole. He took pity on her and gave her the dead sheep. They tried to flog Fetod, but his mother took all the punishment upon herself.
Chapter 6. Difficult year
Matryona Timofeevna said that it was not easy for the she-wolf to see her son like that. He believes that this was a harbinger of famine. My mother-in-law spread all the gossip around the village about Matryona. She said that her daughter-in-law cawed out hunger because she knew how to do such things. She said that her husband was protecting her. And if it weren’t for her son, she would have been beaten to death with stakes long ago as before for such a thing.
After the hunger strike, they began to take children from villages to serve. They took her husband's brother first, she was calm that her husband would be with her in difficult times. But my husband was also taken away from the queue. Life becomes unbearable, her mother-in-law and father-in-law begin to mock her even more.
Picture or drawing Who lives well in Rus'
Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary
- Summary of Odoevsky Igosha
The main character is a little boy, the story is told from his point of view. A child plays in a nursery, the door of which opens as if by itself. The nanny says he opened the door
In what year - calculate
Guess what land?
On the sidewalk
Seven men came together:
Seven temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
From adjacent villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
There is also a poor harvest,
They came together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
Roman said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official,
Luke said: ass.
To the fat-bellied merchant! -
The Gubin brothers said,
Ivan and Metrodor.
Old man Pakhom pushed
And he said, looking at the ground:
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister.
And Prov said: to the king...
The guy's a bull: he'll get in trouble
What a whim in the head -
Stake her from there
You can’t knock them out: they resist,
Everyone stands on their own!
Is this the kind of argument they started?
What do passers-by think?
You know, the kids found the treasure
And they share among themselves...
Each one in his own way
Left the house before noon:
That path led to the forge,
He went to the village of Ivankovo
Call Father Prokofy
Baptize the child.
Groin honeycomb
Carried to the market in Velikoye,
And the two Gubina brothers
So easy with a halter
Catch a stubborn horse
They went to their own herd.
It's high time for everyone
Return on your own way -
They are walking side by side!
They walk as if they are being chased
Behind them are gray wolves,
What's further is quick.
They go - they reproach!
They scream - they won’t come to their senses!
But time doesn’t wait.
They didn’t notice the dispute
As the red sun set,
How evening came.
I'd probably kiss you all night
So they went - where, not knowing,
If only they met a woman,
Gnarled Durandiha,
She didn’t shout: “Reverends!
Where are you looking at night?
Have you decided to go?..”
She asked, she laughed,
Whipped, witch, gelding
And she rode off at a gallop...
“Where?..” - they looked at each other
Our men are here
They stand, silent, looking down...
The night has long since passed,
The stars lit up frequently
In the high skies
The moon has surfaced, the shadows are black
The road was cut
Zealous walkers.
Oh shadows! black shadows!
Who won't you catch up with?
Who won't you overtake?
Only you, black shadows,
You can't catch it - you can't hug it!
To the forest, to the path-path
Pakhom looked, remained silent,
I looked - my mind scattered
And finally he said:
"Well! goblin nice joke
He played a joke on us!
No way, after all, we are almost
We've gone thirty versts!
Now tossing and turning home -
We're tired - we won't get there,
Let's sit down - there's nothing to do.
Let's rest until the sun!..”
Blaming the trouble on the devil,
Under the forest along the path
The men sat down.
They lit a fire, formed a formation,
Two people ran for vodka,
And the others as long as
The glass was made
The birch bark has been touched.
The vodka arrived soon.
The snack has arrived -
The men are feasting!
Braids Kosushka is an ancient measure of liquid, approximately 0.31 liters. drank three
We ate and argued
Again: who has fun living?
Free in Rus'?
Roman shouts: to the landowner,
Demyan shouts: to the official,
Luka shouts: ass;
Kupchina fat-bellied, -
The Gubin brothers are shouting,
Ivan and Mitrodor;
Pakhom shouts: to the brightest
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister,
And Prov shouts: to the king!
It took more than before
Perky men,
They swear obscenely,
No wonder they grab it
In each other's hair...
Look - they've already grabbed it!
Roman is pushing Pakhomushka,
Demyan pushes Luka.
And the two Gubina brothers
They iron the hefty Provo, -
And everyone shouts his own!
A booming echo woke up,
Let's go for a walk,
Let's go scream and shout
As if to tease
Stubborn men.
To the Tsar! - can be heard to the right,
To the left responds:
Ass! ass! ass!
The whole forest was in commotion
With flying birds
Swift-footed beasts
And creeping reptiles, -
And a groan, and a roar, and a roar!
First of all, little gray bunny
From a nearby bush
Suddenly he jumped out, as if disheveled,
And he ran away!
Small jackdaws follow him
Birch trees were raised at the top
A nasty, sharp squeak.
And then there’s the warbler
Tiny chick with fright
Fell from the nest;
The warbler chirps and cries,
Where is the chick? – he won’t find it!
Then the old cuckoo
I woke up and thought
Someone to cuckoo;
Accepted ten times
Yes, I got lost every time
And started again...
Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo!
The bread will begin to spike,
You'll choke on an ear of corn -
You won't cuckoo! The cuckoo stops cuckooing when the bread begins to spike (“choking on the ear,” people say).
Seven eagle owls flew together,
Admiring the carnage
From seven big trees,
They're laughing, night owls!
And their eyes are yellow
They burn like burning wax
Fourteen candles!
And the raven, a smart bird,
Arrived, sitting on a tree
Right by the fire.
Sits and prays to the devil,
To be slapped to death
Which one!
Cow with a bell
That I've been off since the evening
From the herd, I heard a little
She came to the fire and stared
Eyes on the men
I listened to crazy speeches
And began, my heart,
Moo, moo, moo!
The stupid cow moos
Small jackdaws squeak.
The boys are screaming,
And the echo echoes everyone.
He has only one concern -
Teasing honest people
Scare the boys and women!
Nobody saw him
And everyone has heard,
Without a body - but it lives,
Without a tongue - screaming!
Owl - Zamoskvoretskaya
The princess immediately mooed,
Flies over the peasants
Crashing on the ground,
It’s about the bushes with the wing...
The fox herself is cunning,
Out of womanish curiosity,
Snuck up on the men
I listened, I listened
And she walked away, thinking:
“And the devil won’t understand them!”
Indeed: the debaters themselves
They hardly knew, they remembered -
What are they making noise about...
Having bruised my sides quite a bit
To each other, we came to our senses
Finally, the peasants
They drank from a puddle,
Washed, freshened up,
Sleep began to tilt them...
Meanwhile, the tiny chick,
Little by little, half a seedling,
Flying low,
I got close to the fire.
Pakhomushka caught him,
He brought it to the fire and looked at it
And he said: “Little bird,
And the marigold is awesome!
I breathe and you'll roll off your palm,
If I sneeze, you'll roll into the fire,
If I click, you'll roll around dead
But you, little bird,
Stronger than a man!
The wings will soon get stronger,
Bye bye! wherever you want
That's where you'll fly!
Oh, you little birdie!
Give us your wings
We'll fly around the whole kingdom,
Let's see, let's explore,
Let's ask around and find out:
Who lives happily?
Is it at ease in Rus'?
“You wouldn’t even need wings,
If only we had some bread
Half a pound a day, -
And so we would Mother Rus'
They tried it on with their feet!” -
Said the gloomy Prov.
“Yes, a bucket of vodka,” -
They added eagerly
Before vodka, the Gubin brothers,
Ivan and Metrodor.
“Yes, in the morning there would be cucumbers
Ten of salty ones,” -
The men were joking.
“And at noon it would be a jug
Cold kvass."
“And in the evening, have a cup of tea
Have some hot tea..."
While they were talking,
The warbler whirled and whirled
Above them: listened to everything
And she sat down by the fire.
Chiviknula, jumped up
Pahomu says:
“Let the chick go free!
For a chick for a small one
I will give a large ransom."
- What will you give? -
“I’ll give you some bread
Half a pound a day
I'll give you a bucket of vodka,
I'll give you some cucumbers in the morning,
And at noon, sour kvass,
And in the evening, tea!”
- And where, little birdie, -
The Gubin brothers asked,
You will find wine and bread
Are you like seven men? -
“If you find it, you will find it yourself.
And I, little birdie,
I'll tell you how to find it."
- Tell! -
"Walk through the forest,
Against pillar thirty
Just a mile away:
Come to the clearing,
They are standing in that clearing
Two old pine trees
Under these pine trees
The box is buried.
Get her, -
That magic box:
It contains a self-assembled tablecloth,
Whenever you wish,
He will feed you and give you something to drink!
Just say quietly:
"Hey! self-assembled tablecloth!
Treat the men!”
According to your wishes,
At my command,
Everything will appear immediately.
Now let the chick go!”
- Wait! we are poor people
We are going on a long journey, -
Pakhom answered her. -
I see you are a wise bird,
Respect old clothes
Bewitch us!
- So that the peasant Armenians
Worn, not torn down! -
Roman demanded.
- So that fake bast shoes
They served, they didn’t crash, -
Demyan demanded.
- Damn the louse, the vile flea!
She didn’t breed in shirts, -
Luka demanded.
- If only he could spoil... -
The Gubins demanded...
And the bird answered them:
“The tablecloth is all self-assembled
Repair, wash, dry
You will... Well, let me go!..”
Opening your palm wide,
He released the chick with his groin.
He let it in - and the tiny chick,
Little by little, half a seedling,
Flying low,
Headed towards the hollow.
A warbler flew behind him
And on the fly she added:
“Look, mind you, one thing!
How much food can he bear?
Womb - then ask,
And you can ask for vodka
Exactly a bucket a day.
If you ask more,
And once and twice - it will be fulfilled
At your request,
And the third time there will be trouble!
And the warbler flew away
With your birth chick,
And the men in single file
We reached for the road
Look for pillar thirty.
Found! - They walk silently
Straightforward, straight forward
Through the dense forest,
Every step counts.
And how they measured the mile,
We saw a clearing -
They are standing in that clearing
Two old pine trees...
The peasants dug around
Got that box
Opened and found
That tablecloth is self-assembled!
They found it and cried out at once:
“Hey, self-assembled tablecloth!
Treat the men!”
Lo and behold, the tablecloth unfolded,
Where did they come from?
Two hefty arms
They put a bucket of wine,
They piled up a mountain of bread
And they hid again.
“Why are there no cucumbers?”
“Why is there no hot tea?”
“Why is there no cold kvass?”
Everything appeared suddenly...
The peasants got loose
They sat down by the tablecloth.
There's a feast here!
Kissing for joy
They promise each other
Don't fight in vain,
But the matter is really controversial
According to reason, according to God,
On the honor of the story -
Don't toss and turn in the houses,
Don't see any of your wives
Not with the little guys
Not with old people,
As long as the matter is moot
No solution will be found
Until they find out
No matter what for certain:
Who lives happily?
Free in Rus'?
Having made such a vow,
In the morning like dead
The men fell asleep...
Chapter I. POP
Wide path
Furnished with birch trees,
Stretches far
Sandy and deaf.
On the sides of the path
There are gentle hills
With fields, with hayfields,
And more often with an uncomfortable
Abandoned land;
There are old villages,
There are new villages,
By the rivers, by the ponds...
Forests, floodplain meadows Floodplain meadows are located in the floodplain of a river. When the river that flooded them during the flood subsided, a layer of natural fertilizer remained on the soil, which is why tall grasses grew here. Such meadows were especially valued.,
Russian streams and rivers
Good in spring.
But you, spring fields!
On your shoots the poor
Not fun to watch!
“It’s not for nothing that in the long winter
(Our wanderers interpret)
It snowed every day.
Spring has come - the snow has had its effect!
He is humble for the time being:
It flies - is silent, lies - is silent,
When he dies, then he roars.
Water – everywhere you look!
The fields are completely flooded
Carrying manure - there is no road,
And the time is not too early -
The month of May is coming!”
I don’t like the old ones either,
It’s even more painful for new ones
They should look at the villages.
Oh huts, new huts!
You are smart, let him build you up
Not an extra penny,
And blood trouble!..
In the morning we met wanderers
More and more small people:
His brother, a peasant-bast-worker,
Craftsmen, beggars,
Soldiers, coachmen.
From the beggars, from the soldiers
The strangers did not ask
How is it for them - is it easy or difficult?
Lives in Rus'?
Soldiers shave with an awl,
Soldiers warm themselves with smoke -
What happiness is there?..
The day was already approaching evening,
They go along the road,
A priest is coming towards me.
The peasants took off their caps.
bowed low,
Lined up
And to the gelding Savras
They blocked the way.
The priest raised his head
He looked and asked with his eyes:
What do they want?
“I suppose! We are not robbers! -
Luke said to the priest.
(Luka is a squat guy,
With a wide beard.
Stubborn, vocal and stupid.
Luke looks like a mill:
One is not a bird mill,
That, no matter how it flaps its wings,
Probably won't fly.)
“We are sedate men,
Of those temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
Nearby villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
Bad harvest too.
Let's go on something important:
We have concerns
Is it such a concern?
Which of the houses did she survive?
She made us friends with work,
I stopped eating.
Give us the right word
To our peasant speech
Without laughter and without cunning,
According to conscience, according to reason,
To answer truthfully
Not so with your care
We'll go to someone else..."
– I give you my true word:
If you ask the matter,
Without laughter and without cunning,
In truth and in reason,
How should one answer?
"Thank you. Listen!
Walking the path,
We came together by chance
They came together and argued:
Who has fun?
Free in Rus'?
Roman said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official,
And I said: ass.
Kupchina fat-bellied, -
The Gubin brothers said,
Ivan and Metrodor.
Pakhom said: to the brightest
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister.
And Prov said: to the king...
The guy's a bull: he'll get in trouble
What a whim in the head -
Stake her from there
You can’t knock it out: no matter how much they argue,
We did not agree!
Having argued, we quarreled,
Having quarreled, they fought,
Having caught up, they changed their minds:
Don't go apart
Don't toss and turn in the houses,
Don't see any of your wives
Not with the little guys
Not with old people,
As long as our dispute
We won't find a solution
Until we find out
Whatever it is - for certain:
Who likes to live happily?
Free in Rus'?
Tell us in a divine way:
Is the priest's life sweet?
How are you - at ease, happily
Are you living, honest father?..”
I looked down and thought,
Sitting in a cart, pop
And he said: “Orthodox!”
It is a sin to murmur against God,
I bear my cross with patience,
I’m living... but how? Listen!
I'll tell you the truth, the truth,
And you have a peasant mind
Be smart! -
“Begin!”
-What do you think is happiness?
Peace, wealth, honor -
Isn't that right, dear friends?
They said: “Yes”...
- Now let's see, brothers,
What is butt peace like?
I have to admit, I should start
Almost from birth itself,
How to get a diploma
the priest's son,
At what cost to Popovich
Priesthood This refers to the fact that until 1869, a seminary graduate could receive a parish only if he married the daughter of a priest who left his parish. It was believed that in this way the “purity of the class” was maintained. bought,
Let's better keep quiet!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Our roads are difficult.
Coming A parish is an association of believers. We have a big one.
Sick, dying,
Born into the world
They don’t choose time:
In reaping and haymaking,
In the dead of autumn night,
In winter, in severe frosts,
And in the spring flood -
Go wherever you are called!
You go unconditionally.
And even if only the bones
Alone broke, -
No! gets wet every time,
The soul will hurt.
Don't believe it, Orthodox Christians,
There is a limit to habit:
No heart can bear
Without any trepidation
Death rattle
Funeral lament
Orphan's sadness!
Amen!.. Now think.
What's the peace like?..
The peasants thought little
Letting the priest rest,
They said with a bow:
“What else can you tell us?”
- Now let's see, brothers,
What is the honor of a priest?
The task is delicate
I wouldn't anger you...
Tell me, Orthodox,
Who do you call
Foal breed?
Chur! respond to demand!
The peasants hesitated.
They are silent - and the priest is silent...
-Who are you afraid of meeting?
Walking the path?
Chur! respond to demand!
They groan, shift,
- Who are you writing about?
You are joker fairy tales,
And the songs are obscene
And all sorts of blasphemy?..
Mother-priest, sedate,
Popov's innocent daughter,
Every seminarian -
How do you honor?
To catch whom, like a gelding,
Shout: ho-ho-ho?..
The boys looked down
They are silent - and the priest is silent...
The peasants thought
And pop with a wide hat
I waved it in my face
Yes, I looked at the sky.
In the spring, when the grandchildren are small,
With the ruddy sun-grandfather
The clouds are playing:
Here's the right side
One continuous cloud
Covered - clouded,
It got dark and cried:
Rows of gray threads
They hung to the ground.
And closer, above the peasants,
From small, torn,
Happy clouds
The red sun laughs
Like a girl from the sheaves.
But the cloud has moved,
Pop covers himself with a hat -
Be in heavy rain.
And the right side
Already bright and joyful,
There the rain stops.
It's not rain, it's a miracle of God:
There with golden threads
Hanging skeins...
“Not ourselves... by parents
That’s how we…” – Gubin brothers
They finally said.
And others echoed:
“Not by ourselves, by our parents!”
And the priest said: “Amen!”
Sorry, Orthodox!
Not in judging your neighbor,
And at your request
I told you the truth.
Such is the honor of a priest
In the peasantry. And the landowners...
“You’re passing them, the landowners!
We know them!
- Now let's see, brothers,
Where does the wealth come from?
Is Popovskoye coming?..
At a time not far away
Russian Empire
Noble estates
It was full.
And the landowners lived there,
Famous owners
There are none now!
Been fruitful and multiply
And they let us live.
What weddings were played there,
That children were born
On free bread!
Although often tough,
However, willing
Those were the gentlemen
They did not shy away from the arrival:
They got married here
Our children were baptized
They came to us to repent,
We sang their funeral service
And if it did happen,
That a landowner lived in the city,
That's probably how I'll die
Came to the village.
If he dies accidentally,
And then he will punish you firmly
Bury him in the parish.
Look, to the village temple
On a mourning chariot
Six horse heirs
The dead man is being transported -
Good correction for the butt,
For the laity, a holiday is a holiday...
But now it’s not the same!
Like the tribe of Judah,
The landowners dispersed
Across distant foreign lands
And native to Rus'.
Now there's no time for pride
Lie in native possession
Next to fathers, grandfathers,
And there are many properties
Let's go to the profiteers.
Oh sleek bones
Russian, noble!
Where are you not buried?
In what land are you not?
Then, the article... schismatics Raskolniks are opponents of the reforms of Patriarch Nikon (XVII century).…
I'm not a sinner, I haven't lived
Nothing from the schismatics.
Fortunately, there was no need:
In my parish there are
Living in Orthodoxy
Two thirds of parishioners Parishioners are regular visitors to the church parish..
And there are such volosts,
Where there are almost all schismatics,
So what about the butt?
Everything in the world is changeable,
The world itself will pass away...
Laws formerly strict
To the schismatics, they softened,
And with them the priest
Checkmate income Mat - building: end. Checkmate is the end of the game in chess. came.
The landowners moved away
They don't live in estates
And die in old age
They don't come to us anymore.
Rich landowners
Pious old ladies,
Which died out
Who have settled down
Near monasteries,
Nobody wears a cassock now
He won’t give you your butt!
No one will embroider the air Airs are embroidered bedspreads made of velvet, brocade or silk, used during church ceremonies.…
Live with only peasants,
Collect worldly hryvnias,
Yes, pies on holidays,
Yes, holy eggs.
The peasant himself needs
And I would be glad to give, but there’s nothing...
And then not everyone
And the peasant's penny is sweet.
Our benefits are meager,
Sands, swamps, mosses,
The little beast goes from hand to mouth,
Bread will be born on its own Sam is the first part of unchangeable compound adjectives with ordinal or cardinal numerals, with the meaning “so many times more.” Bread itself is a harvest that is twice as large as the amount of grain sown.,
And if it gets better
The damp earth is the nurse,
So a new problem:
There is nowhere to go with the bread!
There's a need, you'll sell it
For sheer trifle,
And then there’s a crop failure!
Then pay through the nose,
Sell the cattle.
Pray, Orthodox Christians!
Great trouble threatens
And this year:
The winter was fierce
Spring is rainy
It should have been sowing long ago,
And there is water in the fields!
Have mercy, Lord!
Send a cool rainbow
To our skies Cool rainbow - to the bucket; flat - for rain.!
(Taking off his hat, the shepherd crosses himself,
And the listeners too.)
Our villages are poor,
And the peasants in them are sick
Yes, women are sad,
Nurses, drinkers,
Slaves, pilgrims
And eternal workers,
Lord give them strength!
With so much work for pennies
Life is hard!
It happens to the sick
You will come: not dying,
The peasant family is scary
At that hour when she has to
Lose your breadwinner!
Give a farewell message to the deceased
And support in the remaining
You try your best
The spirit is cheerful! And here to you
The old woman, the mother of the dead man,
Look, he's reaching out with the bony one,
Calloused hand.
The soul will turn over,
How they jingle in this little hand
Two copper nickels Pyatak is a copper coin of 5 kopecks.!
Of course, it's a clean thing -
For the demand Treba - “the performance of a sacrament or sacred rite” (V.I. Dal). retribution,
If you don’t take it, you have nothing to live with.
Yes a word of comfort
Freezes on the tongue
And as if offended
You will go home... Amen...
Finished the speech - and the gelding
Pop lightly whipped.
The peasants parted
They bowed low.
The horse trudged slowly.
And six comrades,
It's like we agreed
They attacked with reproaches,
With selected large swearing
To poor Luka:
- What, did you take it? stubborn head!
Country club!
That's where the argument gets into! -
"Nobles of the bell -
The priests live like princes.
They're going under the sky
Popov's tower,
The priest's fiefdom is buzzing -
Loud bells -
For the whole God's world.
For three years I, little ones,
He lived with the priest as a worker,
Raspberries are not life!
Popova porridge - with butter.
Popov pie - with filling,
Popovy cabbage soup - with smelt Smelt is a cheap small fish, lake smelt.!
Popov's wife is fat,
The priest's daughter is white,
Popov's horse is fat,
The priest's bee is well-fed,
How the bell rings!”
- Well, here's what you've praised
A priest's life!
Why were you yelling and showing off?
Get into a fight, anathema Anathema is a church curse.?
Wasn't that what I was thinking of taking?
What's a beard like a shovel?
Like a goat with a beard
I walked around the world before,
Than the forefather Adam,
And he is considered a fool
And now he’s a goat!..
Luke stood, kept silent,
I was afraid they wouldn't hit me
Comrades, stand by.
It came to be so,
Yes, to the happiness of the peasant
The road is bent -
The face is priestly stern
Appeared on the hill...
CHAPTER II. RURAL FAIR Yarmonka – i.e. fair.
No wonder our wanderers
They scolded the wet one,
Cold spring.
The peasant needs spring
And early and friendly,
And here - even a wolf howl!
The sun does not warm the earth,
And the rainy clouds
Like milk cows
They're walking across the sky.
The snow has gone and the greenery
Not a grass, not a leaf!
The water is not removed
The earth doesn't dress
Green bright velvet
And like a dead man without a shroud,
Lies under a cloudy sky
Sad and naked.
I feel sorry for the poor peasant
And I’m even more sorry for the cattle;
Having fed meager supplies,
The owner of the twig
He drove her into the meadows,
What should I take there? Chernekhonko!
Only on Nikola Veshny St. Nicholas of the Spring is a religious holiday celebrated on May 9 according to the old style (May 22 according to the new style).
The weather has cleared up
Green fresh grass
The cattle feasted.
It's a hot day. Under the birch trees
The peasants are making their way
They chatter among themselves:
“We’re going through one village,
Let's go another - empty!
And today is a holiday,
Where have the people gone?..”
Walking through the village - on the street
Some guys are small
There are old women in the houses,
Or even completely locked
Lockable gates.
Castle - a faithful dog:
Doesn't bark, doesn't bite,
But he doesn’t let me into the house!
We passed the village and saw
Mirror in green frame:
The edges are full of ponds.
Swallows are flying over the pond;
Some mosquitoes
Agile and skinny
Leaping, as if on dry land,
They walk on the water.
Along the banks, in the broom,
The corncrakes are creaking.
On a long, shaky raft
Thick blanket with roller
Stands like a plucked haystack,
Tucking the hem.
On the same raft
A duck sleeps with her ducklings...
Chu! horse snoring!
The peasants looked at once
And we saw over the water
Two heads: a man's.
Curly and dark,
With an earring (the sun was blinking
On that white earring),
The other is horse
With a rope, five fathoms.
The man takes the rope in his mouth,
The man swims and the horse swims,
The man neighed - and the horse neighed.
They're swimming and screaming! Under the woman
Under the small ducklings
The raft moves freely.
I caught up with the horse - grab it by the withers!
He jumped up and rode out into the meadow
Child: white body,
And the neck is like tar;
Water flows in streams
From the horse and from the rider.
“What do you have in your village?
Neither old nor small,
How did all the people die out?”
- We went to the village of Kuzminskoye,
Today there is a fair
And the temple holiday. -
“How far is Kuzminskoye?”
- Yes, it will be about three miles.
“Let's go to the village of Kuzminskoye,
Let's watch the fair!" -
The men decided
And you thought to yourself:
"Isn't that where he's hiding?
Who lives happily?..”
Kuzminskoe rich,
And what’s more, it’s dirty
Trading village.
It stretches along the slope,
Then it descends into the ravine.
And there again on the hill -
How can there not be dirt here?
There are two ancient churches in it,
One Old Believer,
Another Orthodox
House with the inscription: school,
Empty, packed tightly,
A hut with one window,
With the image of a paramedic,
Drawing blood.
There is a dirty hotel
Decorated with a sign
(With a big nosed teapot
Tray in the hands of the bearer,
And small cups
Like a goose with goslings,
That kettle is surrounded)
There are permanent shops
Like a district
Gostiny Dvor…
Strangers came to the square:
There are a lot of different goods
And apparently-invisibly
To the people! Isn't it fun?
It seems there is no godfather's move A religious procession is a solemn procession of believers with crosses, icons, and banners.,
And, as if in front of icons,
Men without hats.
Such a side thing!
Look where they go
Peasant shlyks Shlyk - “hat, cap, cap, cap” (V.I. Dal).:
In addition to the wine warehouse,
Taverns, restaurants,
A dozen damask shops,
Three inns,
Yes, “Rensky cellar”,
Yes, a couple of taverns Kabak is “a drinking house, a place for selling vodka, sometimes also beer and honey” (V.I. Dal)..
Eleven zucchinis
Set for the holiday
Tents A tent is a temporary space for trade, usually a light frame covered with canvas, and later with tarpaulin. in the village.
Each has five carriers;
The carriers are good guys
Trained, mature,
And they can’t keep up with everything,
Can't cope with change!
Look what's stretched out
Peasant hands with hats,
With scarves, with mittens.
Oh Orthodox thirst,
How great are you!
Just to shower my darling,
And there they will get the hats,
When the market leaves.
Over the drunken heads
The spring sun is shining...
Intoxicatingly, vociferously, festively,
Colorful, red all around!
The guys' pants are corduroy,
Striped vests,
Shirts of all colors;
The women are wearing red dresses,
The girls have braids with ribbons,
The winches are floating!
And there are still some tricks,
Dressed like a metropolitan -
And it expands and sulks
Hoop hem!
If you step in, they will dress up!
At ease, newfangled women,
Fishing gear for you
Wear under skirts!
Looking at the smart women,
The Old Believers are furious
Tovarke says:
“Be hungry! be hungry!
Marvel at how the seedlings are soaked,
That the spring flood is worse
It's worth up to Petrov!
Since women began
Dress up in red calico, -
The forests don't rise
At least not this bread!”
- Why are the calicoes red?
Have you done something wrong here, mother?
I can't imagine! -
“And those calicoes are French French chintz is a crimson-colored chintz usually dyed using madder, a dye made from the roots of a herbaceous perennial plant. -
Painted with dog blood!
Well... do you understand now?..”
By horse Equestrian – part of the fair where horses were traded. were jostling,
Along the hill where they are piled up
Roe deer Roe deer is a type of heavy plow or light plow with one ploughshare, which rolled the earth only in one direction. In Russia, roe deer was usually used in the northeastern regions., rakes, harrows,
Hooks, trolley machines A cart machine is the main part of a four-wheeled cart or cart. It holds the body, wheels and axles.,
Rims, axes.
Trade was brisk there,
With God, with jokes,
With a healthy, loud laugh.
And how can you not laugh?
The guy is kind of tiny
I went and tried the rims:
I bent one - I don’t like it,
He bent the other one and pushed.
How will the rim straighten out?
Click on the guy's forehead!
A man roars over the rim,
"Elm club"
Scolds the fighter.
Another came with different
Wooden crafts -
And he dumped the whole cart!
Drunk! The axle broke
And he began to do it -
The ax broke! Changed my mind
A man with an ax
Scolds him, reproaches him,
As if it does the job:
“You scoundrel, not an axe!
Empty service, nothing
And he didn’t serve that one.
All your life you bowed,
But I was never affectionate!”
The wanderers went to the shops:
They admire handkerchiefs,
Ivanovo chintz,
Harnesses A harness is a part of the harness that fits the sides and croup of a horse, usually made of leather., new shoes,
Product of the Kimryaks Kimryaks are residents of the city of Kimry. At the time of Nekrasov, it was a large village, 55% of whose residents were shoemakers..
At that shoe shop
The strangers laugh again:
There are goat shoes here
Grandfather traded with granddaughter
I asked about the price five times,
He turned it over in his hands and looked around:
The product is first class!
“Well, uncle! two two hryvnia
Pay up or get lost!” -
The merchant told him.
- Wait a minute! - Admires
An old man with a tiny shoe,
This is what he says:
- I don’t care about my son-in-law, and my daughter will remain silent,
I feel sorry for my granddaughter! Hanged herself
On the neck, fidget:
“Buy a hotel, grandpa.
Buy it!” – Silk head
The face is tickled, caressed,
Kisses the old man.
Wait, barefoot crawler!
Wait, spinning top! Goats
I'll buy some boots...
Vavilushka boasted,
Both old and young
He promised me gifts,
And he drank himself to a penny!
How my eyes are shameless
Will I show it to my family?..
I don’t care about my son-in-law, and my daughter will remain silent,
The wife doesn’t care, let her grumble!
And I feel sorry for my granddaughter!.. - I went again
About my granddaughter! Killing himself!..
The people have gathered, listening,
Don't laugh, feel sorry;
Happen, work, bread
They would help him
And take out two two-kopeck pieces -
So you will be left with nothing.
Yes, there was a man here
Pavlusha Veretennikov
(What kind, rank,
The men didn't know
However, they called him “master”.
He was very good at making jokes,
He wore a red shirt,
Cloth girl,
Grease Boots;
Sang Russian songs smoothly
And he loved listening to them.
Many have seen him
In the inn courtyards,
In taverns, in taverns.)
So he helped Vavila -
I bought him boots.
Vavilo grabbed them
And so he was! - For joy
Thanks even to the master
Old man forgot to say
But other peasants
So they were consoled
So happy, as if everyone
He gave it in rubles!
There was also a bench here
With paintings and books,
Ofeni Ofenya is a peddler, “a petty trader peddling and delivering to small towns, villages, villages, with books, paper, silk, needles, with cheese and sausage, with earrings and rings” (V.I. Dal). stocked up
Your goods in it.
“Do you need generals?” -
The burning merchant asked them.
“And give me generals!
Yes, only you, according to your conscience,
To be real -
Thicker, more menacing."
- What is it? You're kidding, friend!
Rubbish, perhaps, is it desirable to sell?
Where are we going to go with her?
You're naughty! Before the peasant
All generals are equal
Like cones on a spruce tree:
To sell the ugly one,
Get to the dock Doka is a “master of his craft” (V.I. Dal). necessary
And fat and menacing
I'll give it to everyone...
Come on big, dignified ones,
Chest as high as a mountain, eyes bulging,
Yes, for more stars! Those. more orders.
"And the civilians Those. not military, but civilians (then civilians). Wouldn’t you like it?”
- Well, here we go again with the civilians! -
(However, they took it - cheaply! -
Some dignitary A dignitary is a high-level official.
For a belly the size of a wine barrel
And for seventeen stars.)
Merchant - with all respect,
Whatever he likes, he treats him to it
(From Lubyanka Lubyanka - street and square in Moscow, in the 19th century. center for the wholesale trade of popular prints and books.– the first thief!) -
Dropped a hundred Bluchers Blucher Gebhard Leberecht - Prussian general, commander-in-chief of the Prussian-Saxon army, which decided the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo and defeated Napoleon. Military successes made the name of Blucher very popular in Russia.,
Archimandrite Photius Archimandrite Photius - in the world Peter Nikitich Spassky, a leader of the Russian church in the 20s. XIX century, was repeatedly joked about in the epigrams of A.S. Pushkin, for example, “Conversation between Photius and gr. Orlova", "On Photius".,
Robber Sipko Robber Sipko is an adventurer who pretended to be different people, incl. for retired captain I.A. Sipko. In 1860, his trial attracted frenzied public attention.,
Sold the book: “The Jester Balakirev” “Balakirev the Jester” is a popular collection of jokes: “Balakirev’s complete collection of jokes from the jester who was at the court of Peter the Great.”
And "English my lord" “The English My Lord” is the most popular work of the 18th century writer Matvey Komarov at that time, “The Tale of the Adventures of the English My Lord George and his Brandenburg Countess Friederike Louise.”…
The books went into the box,
Let's go for a walk portraits
According to the All-Russian kingdom,
Until they settle down
In a peasant's summer cottage,
On a low wall...
God knows why!
Eh! eh! will the time come,
When (come, desired one!..)
They will let the peasant understand
What a rose is a portrait of a portrait,
What is the book of the book of roses?
When a man is not Blucher
And not my foolish lord -
Belinsky and Gogol
Will it come from the market?
Oh people, Russian people!
Orthodox peasants!
Have you ever heard
Are you these names?
Those are great names
Wore them, glorified them
People's intercessors!
Here's some portraits of them for you
Hang in your gorenki,
“And I would be glad to go to heaven, but the door
This kind of speech breaks in
To the shop unexpectedly.
- Which door do you want? -
“Yes, to the booth. Chu! music!.."
- Let's go, I'll show you! -
Having heard about the farce,
Our wanderers have also gone
Listen, look.
Comedy with Petrushka,
With a goat “Goat” is the name given to an actor in the folk theater-booth, on whose head a goat’s head made of burlap was mounted. with a drummer Drummer - drumming attracted the audience to performances.
And not with a simple barrel organ,
And with real music
They looked here.
Comedy is not wise
However, not stupid either
Resident, quarterly
Not in the eyebrow, but straight in the eye!
The hut is completely empty.
People are cracking nuts
Or two or three peasants
Let's exchange a word -
Look, vodka has appeared:
They'll watch and drink!
They laugh, they are consoled
And often in Petrushkin’s speech
Insert an apt word,
Which one you can't think of
At least swallow a feather!
There are such lovers -
How will the comedy end?
They'll go behind the screens,
Kissing, fraternizing,
Chatting with musicians:
“Where from, good fellows?”
- And we were masters,
They played for the landowner.
Now we are free people,
Who will bring it, treat it,
He is our master!
“And that’s it, dear friends,
Quite a bar you entertained,
Amuse the men!
Hey! small! sweet vodka!
Liqueurs! some tea! half a beer!
Tsimlyansky - come alive!..”
And the flooded sea
It will do, more generous than the lord's
The kids will be treated to a treat.
It is not the winds that blow violently,
It is not mother earth that sways -
He makes noise, sings, swears,
Swaying, lying around,
Fights and kisses
People are celebrating!
It seemed to the peasants
How we reached the hillock,
That the whole village is shaking,
That even the church is old
With a high bell tower
It shook once or twice! -
Here, sober and naked,
Awkward... Our wanderers
We walked around the square again
And by evening they left
Stormy village...
CHAPTER III. DRUNKEN NIGHT
Not Riga Riga - a barn for drying sheaves and threshing (with a roof, but almost without walls)., not barns,
Not a tavern, not a mill,
How often in Rus',
The village ended low
Log building
With iron bars
In small windows.
Behind that landmark building
Wide path
Furnished with birch trees,
It opened right there.
Not crowded on weekdays,
Sad and quiet
She's not the same now!
All along that path
And along the roundabout paths,
As far as the eye could see,
They crawled, they lay, they drove.
Drunk people were floundering
And there was a groan!
Heavy carts hide,
And like calfs' heads,
Swinging, dangling
Victory heads
Asleep men!
People walk and fall,
As if because of the rollers
Enemies with grapeshot
They're shooting at the men!
Silent night is falling
Already out into the dark sky
Luna is already writing a letter
Lord is red gold
On blue on velvet,
That tricky letter,
Which neither wise men,
Neither fools can read it.
It's buzzing! That the sea is blue
Silences, rises
Popular rumor.
“And we are fifty dollars Fifty kopecks is a coin worth 50 kopecks. to the clerk:
The request has been made
To the head of the province..."
"Hey! The sack fell from the cart!”
“Where are you going, Olenushka?
Wait! I'll also give you some gingerbread,
You are as agile as a flea,
She ate her fill and jumped away.
I couldn’t stroke it!”
“You are good, royal letter The Tsar's Charter is the Tsar's letter.,
Yes, you’re not writing about us...”
“Move aside, people!”
(Excise Excise tax is a type of tax on consumer goods. officials
With bells, with plaques
They rushed from the market.)
“And I mean this now:
And the broom is rubbish, Ivan Ilyich,
And he will walk on the floor,
It will spray wherever!
“God forbid, Parashenka,
Don't go to St. Petersburg!
There are such officials
You are their cook for a day,
And their night is crazy Sudarka is a lover. -
So I don’t care!”
“Where are you going, Savvushka?”
(The priest shouts to the sotsky Sotsky was elected from the peasants, who performed police functions.
On horseback, with a government badge.)
- I’m galloping to Kuzminskoye
Behind the stanov. Occasion:
There's a peasant ahead
Killed... - “Eh!.. sins!..”
“You’ve become thinner, Daryushka!”
- Not a spindle A spindle is a hand-held tool for spinning yarn., Friend!
That's what the more it spins,
It's getting potbellied
And I’m like every day...
"Hey guy, stupid guy,
Ragged, lousy,
Hey love me!
Me, bareheaded,
Drunk old woman,
Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally!
Our peasants are sober,
Looking, listening,
They go their own way.
In the middle of the road
Some guy is quiet
I dug a big hole.
“What are you doing here?”
- And I’m burying my mother! -
"Fool! what a mother!
Look: a new undershirt
You buried it in the ground!
Go quickly and grunt
Lie down in the ditch and drink some water!
Maybe the crap will come off!”
“Come on, let’s stretch!”
Two peasants sit down
They rest their feet,
And they live, and they push,
They groan and stretch on a rolling pin,
Joints are cracking!
Didn't like it on the rolling pin:
"Let's try now
Stretch your beard!”
When the beard is in order
They reduced each other,
Grabbing your cheekbones!
They puff, blush, writhe,
They moo, squeal, and stretch!
“Let it be to you, damned ones!
You won’t spill water!”
Women are quarreling in the ditch,
One shouts: “Go home
More sick than hard labor!”
Another: - You're lying, in my house
Worse than yours!
My eldest son-in-law broke my rib,
The middle son-in-law stole the ball,
A ball of spit, but the thing is -
Fifty dollars was wrapped in it,
And the younger son-in-law keeps taking the knife,
He's about to kill him, he's going to kill him!..
“Well, that’s enough, that’s enough, dear!
Well, don't be angry! - behind the roller
It can be heard nearby. -
I’m okay... let’s go!”
Such a bad night!
Is it to the right, is it to the left?
From the road you can see:
Couples are walking together
Isn't it the right grove that they're heading towards?
That grove attracts everyone,
The nightingales are singing...
The road is crowded
What later is uglier:
More and more often they come across
Beaten, crawling,
Lying in a layer.
Without swearing, as usual,
Not a word will be uttered,
Crazy, obscene,
She is the loudest!
The taverns are in turmoil,
The leads are mixed up
Scared horses
They run without riders;
Little children are crying here.
Wives and mothers grieve:
Is it easy from drinking
Should I call the men?..
Our wanderers are approaching
And they see: Veretennikov
(What goatskin shoes
Gave it to Vavila)
Talks with peasants.
The peasants are opening up
The gentleman likes:
Pavel will praise the song -
They will sing it five times, write it down!
Like the proverb -
Write a proverb!
Having written down enough,
Veretennikov told them:
“Russian peasants are smart,
One thing is bad
That they drink until they are stupefied,
They fall into ditches, into ditches -
It’s a shame to see!”
The peasants listened to that speech,
They agreed with the master.
Pavlusha has something in a book
I wanted to write already.
Yes, he turned up drunk
Man, he is against the master
Lying on his stomach
I looked into his eyes,
I kept silent - but suddenly
How he will jump up! Straight to the master -
Grab the pencil from your hands!
- Wait, empty head!
Crazy news, shameless
Don't talk about us!
What were you jealous of!
Why is the poor thing having fun?
Peasant soul?
We drink a lot from time to time,
And we work more.
You see a lot of us drunk,
And there are more of us sober.
Have you walked around the villages?
Let's take a bucket of vodka,
Let's go through the huts:
In one, in the other they will pile up,
And in the third they won’t touch -
We have a drinking family
Non-drinking family!
They don’t drink, and they also toil,
It would be better if they drank, stupid ones,
Yes, conscience is like that...
It’s wonderful to watch how he bursts in
In such a sober hut
A man's trouble -
And I wouldn’t even look!.. I saw it
Are Russian villages in the midst of suffering?
In a drinking establishment, what, people?
We have vast fields,
And not much generous,
Tell me, by whose hand
In the spring they will dress,
Will they undress in the fall?
Have you met a guy
After work in the evening?
To reap a good mountain
I set it down and ate a pea-sized piece:
"Hey! hero! straw
I’ll knock you over, move aside!”
Peasant food is sweet,
The whole century saw an iron saw
He chews but doesn't eat!
Yes, the belly is not a mirror,
We don’t cry for food...
You work alone
And the work is almost over,
Look, there are three shareholders standing:
God, king and lord!
And there is also a destroyer Tat - “thief, predator, kidnapper” (V.I. Dal).
Fourth, be meaner than the Tatar,
So he won’t share
He'll gobble it all up alone!
The third year is upon us
The same inferior gentleman,
Like you, from near Moscow.
Records songs
Tell him the proverb
Leave the riddle behind.
And there was another one - he was interrogating,
How many hours will you work per day?
Little by little, by a lot
Do you shove pieces into your mouth?
Another one measures the land,
Another in the village of inhabitants
He can count it on his fingers,
But they didn’t count it,
How much each summer
The fire is blowing into the wind
Peasant labor?..
There is no measure for Russian hops.
Have they measured our grief?
Is there a limit to the work?
Wine brings down the peasant,
Doesn't grief overwhelm him?
Work isn't going well?
A man does not measure troubles
Copes with everything
No matter what, come.
A man, working, does not think,
Which will strain your strength.
So really over a glass
Think about what's too much
Will you end up in a ditch?
Why is it shameful for you to look,
Like drunk people lying around
So look,
Like being dragged out of a swamp
Peasants have wet hay,
Having mowed down, they drag:
Where horses can't get through
Where and without a burden on foot
It's dangerous to cross
There's a peasant horde there
By Kocham Kocha is a form of the word “humock” in the Yaroslavl-Kostroma dialect., by zazhorin Zazhorina - snow water in a hole along the road.
Crawling with whips Pletyukha - in northern dialects - a large, tall basket. -
The peasant's navel is cracking!
Under the sun without hats,
In sweat, in mud up to the top of my head,
Cut up by sedge,
Swamp reptile-midge
Eaten into blood, -
Are we prettier here?
To regret - to regret skillfully,
To the master's measure
Don't kill the peasant!
Not gentle white-handed ones,
And we are great people
At work and at play!..
Every peasant
The soul is like a black cloud -
Angry, menacing - and it would be necessary
Thunder will roar from there,
Bloody rains,
And it all ends with wine.
A little charm went through my veins -
And the kind one laughed
Peasant soul!
There is no need to grieve here,
Look around - rejoice!
Hey guys, hey young ladies,
They know how to take a walk!
The bones waved
They reeled my darling out,
And the bravery is brave
Saved for the occasion!..
The man stood on the bolster
He stamped his little shoes
And, after being silent for a moment,
Admiring the cheerful
Roaring crowd:
- Hey! you are a peasant kingdom,
Hatless, drunk,
Make noise – make more noise!.. -
“What’s your name, old lady?”
- And what? will you write it down in a book?
Perhaps there is no need!
Write: "In the village of Basovo
Yakim Nagoy lives,
He works himself to death
He drinks until he’s half dead!..”
The peasants laughed
And they told the master,
What a man Yakim is.
Yakim, wretched old man,
Once lived in St. Petersburg,
Yes, he ended up in jail:
I decided to compete with the merchant!
Like a strip of velcro,
He returned to his homeland
And he took up the plow.
It's been roasting for thirty years since then
On the strip under the sun,
He escapes under the harrow
From frequent rain,
He lives and tinkers with the plow,
And death will come to Yakimushka -
As the lump of earth falls off,
What's stuck on the plow...
There was an incident with him: pictures
He bought it for his son
Hung them on the walls
And he himself is no less than a boy
I loved looking at them.
God's disfavor has come
The village caught fire -
And it was at Yakimushka’s
accumulated over a century
Thirty-five rubles.
I’d rather take the rubles,
And first he showed pictures
He began to tear it off the wall;
Meanwhile his wife
I was fiddling with icons,
And then the hut collapsed -
Yakim made such a mistake!
The virgins merged into a lump,
For that lump they give him
Eleven rubles...
“Oh brother Yakim! not cheap
The pictures worked!
But to a new hut
I suppose you hung them?”
- I hung it up - there are new ones, -
Yakim said and fell silent.
The master looked at the plowman:
The chest is sunken; as if pressed in
Stomach; at the eyes, at the mouth
Bends like cracks
On dry ground;
And to Mother Earth myself
He looks like: brown neck,
Like a layer cut off by a plow,
Brick face
Hand - tree bark,
And the hair is sand.
The peasants, as they noted,
Why are you not offended by the master?
Yakimov's words,
And they themselves agreed
With Yakim: – The word is true:
We should drink!
If we drink, it means we feel strong!
Great sadness will come,
How can we stop drinking!..
Work wouldn't stop me
Trouble would not prevail
Hops will not overcome us!
Is not it?
“Yes, God is merciful!”
- Well, have a glass with us!
We got some vodka and drank it.
Yakim Veretennikov
He brought two scales.
- Hey master! didn't get angry
Smart little head!
(Yakim told him.)
Smart little head
How can one not understand a peasant?
And pigs walk on the ground -
They can't see the sky for ages!..
Suddenly the song rang out in chorus
Daring, consonant:
Ten three young men,
They're tipsy and don't lie down,
They walk side by side, sing,
They sing about Mother Volga,
About valiant prowess,
About girlish beauty.
The whole road became silent,
That one song is funny
Rolls wide and freely
Like rye spreading in the wind,
According to the peasant's heart
It goes with fire and melancholy!..
I'll go away to that song
I lost my mind and cried
Young girl alone:
“My age is like a day without the sun,
My age is like a night without a month,
And I, young and young,
Like a greyhound horse on a leash,
What is a swallow without wings!
My old husband, jealous husband,
He's drunk and drunk, he's snoring,
Me, when I was very young,
And the sleepy one is on guard!”
That's how the young girl cried
Yes, she suddenly jumped off the cart!
"Where?" - the jealous husband shouts,
He stood up and grabbed the woman by the braid,
Like a radish for a cowlick!
Oh! drunken night!
Not light, but starry,
Not hot, but with affectionate
Spring breeze!
And to our good fellows
You weren't in vain!
They felt sad for their wives,
It's true: with my wife
Now it would be more fun!
Ivan shouts: “I want to sleep,”
And Maryushka: “And I’m with you!” -
Ivan shouts: “The bed is narrow,”
And Maryushka: “Let’s settle down!” -
Ivan shouts: “Oh, it’s cold,”
And Maryushka: - Let's get warm! -
How do you remember that song?
Without a word - we agreed
Try your casket.
One, why God knows,
Between the field and the road
A thick linden tree has grown.
Strangers crouched under it
And they said carefully:
"Hey! self-assembled tablecloth,
Treat the men!”
And the tablecloth unrolled,
Where did they come from?
Two hefty arms:
They put a bucket of wine,
They piled up a mountain of bread
And they hid again.
The peasants refreshed themselves.
Roman for the guard
Stayed by the bucket
And others intervened
In the crowd - look for the happy one:
They really wanted
Get home soon...
CHAPTER IV. HAPPY
In a loud, festive crowd
The wanderers walked
They shouted the cry:
"Hey! Is there a happy one somewhere?
Show up! If it turns out
That you live happily
We have a ready-made bucket:
Drink for free as much as you like -
We'll give you a great treat!..”
Such unheard of speeches
Sober people laughed
And drunk people are smart
Almost spat in my beard
Zealous screamers.
However, hunters
Take a sip of free wine
Enough was found.
When the wanderers returned
Under the linden tree, calling out a cry,
People surrounded them.
The dismissed sexton came,
Skinny as a sulfur match,
And he let go of his laces,
That happiness is not in pastures Pastures - in Tambov-Ryazan dialects - meadows, pastures; in Arkhangelsk - belongings, property.,
Not in sables, not in gold,
Not in expensive stones.
“And what?”
- In good humor Compassion is a state of mind that is conducive to mercy, goodness, goodness.!
There are limits to possessions
Lords, nobles, kings of the earth,
And the wise's possession -
The entire city of Christ Vertograd of Christ is synonymous with paradise.!
If the sun warms you up
Yes, I’ll miss the braid,
So I'm happy! -
“Where will you get the braid?”
- Yes, you promised to give...
“Get lost!” You’re being naughty!..”
An old woman came
Pockmarked, one-eyed,
And she announced, bowing,
How happy she is:
What's in store for her in the fall?
Rap was born to a thousand
On a small ridge.
- Such a large turnip,
These turnips are delicious
And the whole ridge is three fathoms,
And across - arshin Arshin is an ancient Russian measure of length equal to 0.71 m.! -
They laughed at the woman
But they didn’t give me a drop of vodka:
“Drink at home, old man,
Eat that turnip!”
A soldier came with medals,
I'm barely alive, but I want a drink:
- I'm happy! - speaks.
“Well, open up, old lady,
What is a soldier's happiness?
Don’t hide, look!”
- And that, firstly, is happiness,
What's in twenty battles
I was, not killed!
And secondly, more importantly,
Me even in times of peace
I walked neither full nor hungry,
But he didn’t give in to death!
And thirdly - for offenses,
Great and small
I was beaten mercilessly with sticks,
Just feel it and it’s alive!
"On the! drink, servant!
There's no point in arguing with you:
You are happy - there is no word!
Came with a heavy hammer
Olonchan stonemason Olonchanin is a resident of Olonets province.,
Broad-shouldered, young:
- And I live - I don’t complain, -
He said, “with his wife, with his mother.”
We don't know the needs!
“What is your happiness?”
- But look (and with a hammer,
He waved it like a feather):
When I wake up before the sun
Let me wake up at midnight,
So I will crush the mountain!
It happened, I can’t boast
Chopping crushed stones
Five silver a day!
Groin raised "happiness"
And, having grunted quite a bit,
Presented to the employee:
“Well, that’s important! won't it be
Running around with this happiness
Is it hard in old age?..”
- Look, don’t boast about your strength, -
The man said with shortness of breath,
Relaxed, thin
(The nose is sharp, like a dead one,
Skinny hands like a rake,
The legs are long like knitting needles,
Not a person - a mosquito). -
I was no worse than a mason
Yes, he also boasted of his strength,
So God punished!
The contractor realized, the beast,
What a simple child,
Taught me to praise
And I’m stupidly happy,
I work for four!
One day I wear a good one
I laid bricks.
And here he is, damned,
And apply it hard:
"What is this? - speaks. -
I don’t recognize Tryphon!
Walk with such a burden
Aren’t you ashamed of the fellow?”
- And if it seems a little,
Add with your master's hand! -
I said, getting angry.
Well, about half an hour, I think
I waited, and he planted,
And he planted it, you scoundrel!
I hear it myself - the craving is terrible,
I didn’t want to back away.
And I brought that damn burden
I'm on the second floor!
The contractor looks and wonders
Shouts, scoundrel, from there:
“Oh well done, Trofim!
You don't know what you did:
You took one down at the very least
Fourteen pounds!
Oh, I know! heart with a hammer
Beating in the chest, bloody
There are circles in the eyes,
My back feels like it's cracked...
They are trembling, their legs are weak.
I've been wasting away since then!..
Pour, brother, half a glass!
“Pour? Where is the happiness here?
We treat the happy
What did you say!”
- Listen to the end! there will be happiness!
“Why, speak up!”
- Here's what. In my homeland
Like every peasant,
I wanted to die.
From St. Petersburg, relaxed,
Crazy, almost without memory,
I got into the car.
Well, here we go.
In the carriage - feverish,
Hot workers
There are a lot of us
Everyone wanted the same thing
How do I get to my homeland?
To die at home.
However, you need happiness
And here: we were traveling in the summer,
In the heat, in the stuffiness
Many people are confused
Completely sick heads,
Hell broke out in the carriage:
He moans, he rolls,
Like a catechumen, across the floor,
He raves about his wife, mother.
Well, at the nearest station
Down with this!
I looked at my comrades
I was burning all over, thinking -
Bad luck for me too.
There are purple circles in the eyes,
And everything seems to me, brother,
Why am I cutting peuns? Peun is a rooster.!
(We are also bastards A cockerel is a person who fattens roosters for sale.,
It happened to fatten up a year
Up to a thousand goiters.)
Where did you remember, damned ones!
I already tried to pray,
No! everyone is going crazy!
Will you believe it? the whole party
He's in awe of me!
The larynxes are cut,
Blood is gushing, but they are singing!
And I with a knife: “Fuck you!”
How the Lord has had mercy,
Why didn't I scream?
I’m sitting, strengthening myself... fortunately,
The day is over, and by evening
It got cold - he took pity
God is above the orphans!
Well, that's how we got there,
And I made my way home,
And here, by God's grace,
And it became easier for me...
-What are you bragging about here?
With your peasant happiness? -
Screams broken to his feet
Yard man. -
And you treat me:
I'm happy, God knows!
From the first boyar,
At Prince Peremetyev's,
I was a beloved slave.
The wife is a beloved slave,
And the daughter is with the young lady
I also studied French
And to all kinds of languages,
She was allowed to sit down
In the presence of the princess...
Oh! how it stung!.. fathers!.. -
(And started the right leg
Rub with your palms.)
The peasants laughed.
“Why are you laughing, you fools?”
Suddenly angry,
The yard man screamed. -
I'm sick, should I tell you?
What do I pray to the Lord for?
Getting up and going to bed?
I pray: “Leave me, Lord,
My illness is honorable,
According to her, I am a nobleman!
Not your vile sickness,
Not hoarse, not hernia -
A noble disease
What kind of thing is there?
Among the top officials in the empire,
I'm sick, man!
It's called a game!
To get it -
Champagne, Bourgogne,
Tokaji, Hungarian
You need to drink for thirty years...
Behind the chair of His Serene Highness
At Prince Peremetyev's
I stood for forty years
With the best French truffle Truffle is a round-shaped mushroom growing underground. The French black truffle was especially highly prized.
I licked the plates
Foreign drinks
I drank from the glasses...
Well, pour it! -
“Get lost!”
We have peasant wine,
Simple, not overseas -
Not on your lips!
Yellow-haired, hunched over,
He crept timidly up to the wanderers
Belarusian peasant
This is where he reaches for vodka:
- Pour me some manenichko too,
I'm happy! - speaks.
“Don’t bother with your hands!
Report, prove
First, what makes you happy?”
– And our happiness is in the bread:
I'm at home in Belarus
With chaff, with bonfire Bonfire - woody parts of flax, hemp, etc. stems.
He chewed barley bread;
You writhe like a woman in labor,
How it grabs your stomach.
And now, the mercy of God! -
Gubonin has his fill
They give you rye bread,
I chew - I won’t get chewed! -
It's kind of cloudy
A man with a curled cheekbone,
Everything looks to the right:
- I go after the bears.
And I feel great happiness:
Three of my comrades
The teddy bears were broken,
And I live, God is merciful!
“Well, look to the left?”
I didn’t look, no matter how hard I tried,
What scary faces
Neither did the man make a face:
- The bear turned me over
Manenichko cheekbone! -
“And you compare yourself with the other one,
Give her your right cheek -
He’ll fix it...” – They laughed,
However, they brought it up.
Ragged beggars
Hearing the smell of foam,
And they came to prove
How happy they are:
– There’s a shopkeeper at our doorstep
Greeted with alms
And we’ll enter the house, just like that from the house
They escort you to the gate...
Let's sing a little song,
The hostess runs to the window
With an edge, with a knife,
And we are filled with:
“Come on, come on - the whole loaf,
Doesn't wrinkle or crumble,
Hurry up for you, and hurry up for us...”
Our wanderers realized
Why was vodka wasted for nothing?
By the way, and a bucket
End. “Well, that will be yours!
Hey, man's happiness!
Leaky with patches,
Humpbacked with calluses,
Go home!”
- And you, dear friends,
Ask Ermila Girin, -
He said, sitting down with the wanderers,
Villages of Dymoglotov
Peasant Fedosey. -
If Yermil doesn’t help,
Will not be declared lucky
So there’s no point in wandering around...
“Who is Yermil?
Is it the prince, the illustrious count?”
- Not a prince, not an illustrious count,
But he’s just a man!
“You speak more intelligently,
Sit down and we'll listen,
What kind of person is Yermil?”
- And here’s what: an orphan’s
Yermilo kept the mill
On Unzha. By court
Decided to sell the mill:
Yermilo came with the others
To the auction room.
Empty buyers
They quickly fell off.
One merchant Altynnikov
He entered into battle with Yermil,
Keeps up, bargains,
It costs a pretty penny.
How angry Yermilo will be -
Grab five rubles at once!
The merchant again a pretty penny,
They started a battle;
The merchant gives him a penny,
And he gave him a ruble!
Altynnikov could not resist!
Yes, there was an opportunity here:
They immediately began to demand
Deposits third part,
And the third part is up to a thousand.
There was no money with Yermil,
Did he really mess up?
Did the clerks cheat?
But it turned out to be rubbish!
Altynnikov cheered up:
“It turns out it’s my mill!”
"No! - says Ermil,
Approaches the chairman. -
Is it possible for your honor
Wait for half an hour?
- What will you do in half an hour?
“I’ll bring the money!”
-Where can you find it? Are you sane?
Thirty-five versts to the mill,
And an hour later I'm present
The end, my dear!
“So, will you allow me half an hour?”
- We’ll probably wait an hour! -
Yermil went; clerks
The merchant and I exchanged glances,
Laugh, scoundrels!
To the square to the shopping area
Yermilo came (in the city
It was a market day)
He stood on the cart and saw: he was baptized,
On all four sides
Shouts: “Hey, good people!
Shut up, listen,
I’ll tell you my word!”
The crowded square became silent,
And then Yermil talks about the mill
He told the people:
“Long ago the merchant Altynnikov
Went to the mill,
Yes, I didn’t make a mistake either,
I checked in the city five times,
They said: with rebidding
Bidding has been scheduled.
Idle, you know
Transport the treasury to the peasant
A side road is not a hand:
I arrived penniless
Lo and behold, they got it wrong
No rebidding!
Vile souls have cheated,
And the infidels laugh:
“What in the world are you going to do?
Where will you find money?
Maybe I’ll find it, God is merciful!
Cunning, strong clerks,
And their world is stronger,
The merchant Altynnikov is rich,
And everything cannot resist him
Against the worldly treasury -
She's like a fish from the sea
For centuries to catch - not to catch.
Well, brothers! God sees
I'll get rid of it that Friday!
The mill is not dear to me,
The offense is great!
If you know Ermila,
If you believe Yermil,
So help me out, or something!..”
And a miracle happened:
Throughout the market square
Every peasant has
Like the wind, half left
Suddenly it turned upside down!
The peasantry forked out
They bring money to Yermil,
They give to those who are rich in what.
Yermilo is a literate guy,
There's no time to write it down
Put your hat full
Tselkovikov, foreheads,
Burnt, beaten, tattered
Peasant bank notes.
Yermilo took it - he didn’t disdain
And a copper penny.
Still he would become disdainful,
When did I come across here
Another copper hryvnia
More than a hundred rubles!
The entire amount has already been fulfilled,
And people's generosity
Grew: - Take it, Ermil Ilyich,
If you give it away, it won’t go to waste! -
Yermil bowed to the people
On all four sides
He walked into the ward with a hat,
Clutching the treasury in it.
The clerks were surprised
Altynnikov turned green,
How he completely the whole thousand
He put it on the table for them!..
Not a wolf's tooth, but a fox's tail, -
Let's go play around with the clerks,
Congratulations on your purchase!
Yes, Yermil Ilyich is not like that,
Didn't say too much.
I didn’t give them a penny!
The whole city came to watch,
Like on market day, Friday,
In a week's time
Ermil on the same square
The people were counting.
Remember where everyone is?
At that time things were done
In a fever, in a hurry!
However, there were no disputes
And give out a penny too much
Yermil didn’t have to.
Also - he himself said -
An extra ruble, God knows whose!
Stayed with him.
All day with my money open
Yermil walked around and asked:
Whose ruble? I didn’t find it.
The sun has already set,
When from the market square
Yermil was the last to move,
Having given that ruble to the blind...
So this is what Ermil Ilyich is like. -
“Wonderful! - said the wanderers. -
However, it is advisable to know -
What kind of witchcraft
A man above the whole neighborhood
Did you take that kind of power?”
- Not by witchcraft, but by truth.
Have you heard about Hellishness?
Yurlov's prince's patrimony?
“You heard, so what?”
- It is the chief manager
There was a gendarmerie corps
Colonel with a star
He has five or six assistants with him,
And our Yermilo is a clerk
Was in the office.
The little one was twenty years old,
What will the clerk do?
However, for the peasant
And the clerk is a man.
You approach him first,
And he will advise
And he will make inquiries;
Where there is enough strength, it will help out,
Doesn't ask for gratitude
And if you give it, he won’t take it!
You need a bad conscience -
To the peasant from the peasant
Extort a penny.
In this way the whole estate
At the age of five Yermil Girina
I found out well
And then he was kicked out...
They deeply pitied Girin,
It was hard to get used to something new,
Grabber, get used to it,
However, there is nothing to do
We got along in time
And to the new scribe.
He doesn't say a word without a thrasher,
Not a word without the seventh student,
Burnt, from the funhouses -
God told him to!
However, by the will of God,
He did not reign for long, -
The old prince died
The prince arrived when he was young,
I drove that colonel away.
I sent his assistant away
I drove the whole office away,
And he told us from the estate
Elect a mayor.
Well, we didn't think long
Six thousand souls, the whole estate
We shout: “Ermila Girina!” -
How one man is!
They call Ermila to the master.
After talking with the peasant,
From the balcony the prince shouts:
“Well, brothers! have it your way.
With my princely seal
Your choice is confirmed:
The guy is agile, competent,
I’ll say one thing: isn’t he young?..”
And we: - There is no need, father,
And young, and smart! -
Yermilo went to reign
Over the entire princely estate,
And he reigned!
In seven years the world's penny
I didn’t squeeze it under my nail,
At the age of seven I didn’t touch the right one,
He did not allow the culprit to do so.
I didn’t bend my heart...
“Stop! - shouted reproachfully
Some gray-haired priest
To the storyteller. - You're sinning!
The harrow walked straight ahead,
Yes, suddenly she waved to the side -
The tooth hit the stone!
When I started to tell,
So don't throw out words
From the song: or to wanderers
Are you telling a fairy tale?..
I knew Ermila Girin..."
- I suppose I didn’t know?
We were one fiefdom,
The same parish
Yes, we were transferred...
“And if you knew Girin,
So I knew my brother Mitri,
Think about it, my friend."
The narrator became thoughtful
And, after a pause, he said:
– I lied: the word is superfluous
It went wrong!
There was a case, and Yermil the man
Going crazy: from recruiting
Little brother Mitri
He defended it.
We remain silent: there is nothing to argue here,
The master of the headman's brother himself
I wouldn't tell you to shave
One Nenila Vlaseva
I cry bitterly for my son,
Shouts: not our turn!
It is known that I would shout
Yes, I would have left with that.
So what? Ermil himself,
Having finished recruiting,
I began to feel sad, sad,
Doesn’t drink, doesn’t eat: that’s the end of it,
What's in the stall with the rope
His father found him.
Here the son repented to his father:
“Ever since Vlasyevna’s son
I didn't put it in the queue
I hate the white light!
And he himself reaches for the rope.
They tried to persuade
His father and brother
He’s all the same: “I’m a criminal!
The villain! tie my hands
Take me to court!”
So that worse doesn't happen,
The father tied the hearty one,
He posted a guard.
The world has come together, it is noisy, noisy,
Such a wonderful thing
Never had to
Neither see nor decide.
Ermilov family
That's not what we tried,
So that we can make peace for them,
And judge more strictly -
Return the boy to Vlasyevna,
Otherwise Yermil will hang himself,
You won't be able to spot him!
Yermil Ilyich himself came,
Barefoot, thin, with pads,
With a rope in my hands,
He came and said: “It was time,
I judged you according to my conscience,
Now I myself am more sinful than you:
Judge me!
And he bowed to our feet.
Neither give nor take the holy fool,
Stands, sighs, crosses himself,
It was a pity for us to see
Like him in front of the old woman,
In front of Nenila Vlaseva,
Suddenly he fell to his knees!
Well, everything worked out fine
Mister strong
There is a hand everywhere; Vlasyevna's son
He returned, they handed over Mitri,
Yes, they say, and Mitriya
It's not hard to serve
The prince himself takes care of him.
And for the offense with Girin
We put a fine:
Fine money for a recruit,
A small part to Vlasyevna,
Part of the world for wine...
However, after this
Yermil did not cope soon,
I walked around like crazy for about a year.
No matter how the patrimony asked,
Resigned from his position
I rented that mill
And he became thicker than before
Love to all the people:
He took it for the grind according to his conscience.
Didn't stop people
Clerk, manager,
Rich landowners
And the poorest men -
All lines were obeyed,
The order was strict!
I myself am already in that province
Haven't been in a while
And I heard about Ermila,
People don't brag about them,
You go to him.
“You’re passing through in vain,”
The one who argued has already said it
Gray-haired pop. -
I knew Ermila, Girin,
I ended up in that province
Five years ago
(I've traveled a lot in my life,
Our Eminence
Translate priests
Loved)… With Ermila Girin
We were neighbors.
Yes! there was only one man!
He had everything he needed
For happiness: and peace of mind,
And money and honor,
An enviable, true honor,
Not bought with money,
Not with fear: with strict truth,
With intelligence and kindness!
Yes, just, I repeat to you,
You are passing in vain
He sits in prison...
“How so?”
- And the will of God!
Have any of you heard,
How the estate rebelled
Landowner Obrubkov,
Frightened province,
Nedykhanev County,
Village Tetanus?..
How to write about fires
In the newspapers (I read them):
"Remained unknown
Reason” – so here:
Until now it is unknown
Not to the zemstvo police officer,
Not to the highest government
Neither the tetanus themselves,
Why did the opportunity arise?
But it turned out to be rubbish.
It took an army.
The Sovereign himself sent
He spoke to the people
Then he’ll try to curse
And shoulders with epaulets
Will lift you high
Then he will try with affection
And chests with royal crosses
In all four directions
It will start turning.
Yes, the abuse was unnecessary here,
And the caress is incomprehensible:
“Orthodox peasantry!
Mother Rus'! Father Tsar!
And nothing more!
Having been beaten enough
They wanted it for the soldiers
Command: fall!
Yes to the volost clerk
A happy thought came here,
It's about Ermila Girin
He said to the boss:
- The people will believe Girin,
The people will listen to him... -
“Call him quickly!”
…………………………….
Suddenly a cry: “Ay, ah! have mercy!"
Suddenly sounding out,
Disturbed the priest's speech,
Everyone rushed to look:
At the road roller
Flog a drunken footman -
Caught stealing!
Where he is caught, here is his judgment:
About three dozen judges came together,
We decided to give a spoonful,
And everyone gave a vine!
The footman jumped up and, spanking
Skinny shoemakers
Without a word, he gave me the traction.
“Look, he ran like he was disheveled! -
Our wanderers joked
Recognizing him as a baluster,
That he was bragging about something
Special illness
From foreign wines. -
Where did the agility come from!
That noble disease
Suddenly it was gone as if by hand!”
"Hey Hey! where are you going, father?
You tell the story
How the estate rebelled
Landowner Obrubkov,
Village Tetanus?
- It's time to go home, my dears.
God willing, we will meet again,
Then I’ll tell you!
In the morning I parted ways,
The crowd dispersed.
The peasants decided to sleep,
Suddenly a threesome with a bell
Where did it come from?
It's flying! and it swings in it
Some round gentleman,
Mustachioed, pot-bellied,
With a cigar in his mouth.
The peasants rushed at once
To the road, they took off their hats,
bowed low,
Lined up
And a troika with a bell
They blocked the way...
CHAPTER V. LANDLORD
The neighboring landowner
Gavrilo Afanasich
Obolta-Oboldueva
That C grade was lucky.
The landowner was rosy-cheeked,
Stately, planted,
Sixty years old;
The mustache is gray, long,
Well done touches,
Hungarian with Brandenburs Hungarian with Brandenburs - a short men's jacket, reminiscent of the Hungarian national costume, decorated with a thick shiny cord.,
Wide pants.
Gavrilo Afanasyevich,
He must have gotten scared
Seeing in front of the troika
Seven tall men.
He pulled out a pistol
Just like myself, just as plump,
And the six-barreled barrel
He brought it to the wanderers:
"Don `t move! If you move,
Robbers! robbers!
I’ll put you down on the spot!..”
The peasants laughed:
- What kind of robbers we are,
Look - we don't have a knife,
No axes, no pitchforks! -
“Who are you? what do you want?
- We have concerns.
Is it such a concern?
Which of the houses did she survive?
She made us friends with work,
I stopped eating.
Give us a strong word
To our peasant speech
Without laughter and without cunning,
In truth and in reason,
How should one answer?
Then your care
Let's tell you...
“If you please: my word of honor,
I give you the nobility!
- No, you are not noble to us,
Give me your Christian word!
Noblesse with abuse,
With a push and a punch,
This is of no use to us! -
“Hey! what news!
However, have it your way!
Well, what is your speech?..”
- Hide the pistol! listen!
Like this! we are not robbers
We are humble men
Of those temporarily obliged,
A tightened province,
Terpigoreva County,
Empty parish,
From different villages:
Zaplatova, Dyryavina,
Razutova, Znobishina,
Gorelova, Neelova -
Bad harvest too.
Walking the path,
We came together by chance
We got together and argued:
Who lives happily?
Free in Rus'?
Roman said: to the landowner,
Demyan said: to the official.
Luke said: ass,
Kupchina fat-bellied, -
The Gubin brothers said,
Ivan and Metrodor.
Pakhom said: to the brightest,
To the noble boyar,
To the sovereign minister,
And Prov said: to the king...
The guy's a bull: he'll get in trouble
What a whim in the head -
Stake her from there
You won't knock it out! No matter how much they argued,
We did not agree!
We argued, we quarreled,
They quarreled and fought,
Having caught up, we thought
Don't go apart
Don't toss and turn in the houses,
Don't see any of your wives
Not with the little guys
Not with old people,
As long as our dispute
We won't find a solution
Until we find out
Whatever it is - for certain,
Who likes to live happily?
Free in Rus'?
Tell us in a divine way,
Is the life of a landowner sweet?
How are you - at ease, happily,
Landowner, are you living?
Gavrilo Afanasyevich
Jumped out of the tarantass
He approached the peasants:
Like a doctor, a hand to everyone
I felt it, looked into their faces,
Grabbed my sides
And he burst out laughing...
“Ha ha! haha! haha! haha!"
Healthy laughter of the landowner
Through the morning air
It began to roll out...
Having laughed to my heart's content,
The landowner is not without bitterness
Said: “Put on your hats,
Sit down, gentlemen! »
- We are not important gentlemen,
Before Your Grace
And let's stand...
"No! No!
Please sit down, citizens! »
The peasants became stubborn
However, there is nothing to do
We sat down on the shaft.
“And will you allow me to sit down?
Hey Troshka! a glass of sherry,
Pillow and carpet!
Sitting on the mat
And after drinking a glass of sherry,
The landowner began like this:
"I gave you my word of honor
Keep your answer according to your conscience.
But it’s not easy!
Although you are respectable people,
However, not scientists
How to talk to you?
First you need to understand
What does the word most mean:
Landowner, nobleman.
Tell me, dear ones,
About the family tree
Have you heard anything?
– Forests were not ordered for us -
We saw all sorts of trees! -
The men said.
“You hit the sky with your finger!..
I'll tell you more clearly:
I come from a distinguished family.
My ancestor Oboldui
Commemorated for the first time
In ancient Russian letters
Two centuries and a half
Back to that. It says
That letter: “To the Tatar
Talk to Obolduev
Good cloth was given,
Priced at two rubles:
Wolves and foxes
He amused the empress
On the royal name day
Released a wild bear
With his own, and Oboldueva
The bear tore it off...”
Well, do you understand, dears?”
- How can you not understand! With bears
Quite a few of them are staggering,
Scoundrels, and now. -
“You are all yours, my dears!
Be silent! better listen
What am I talking about:
That Fool who amused
Beasts, Empress,
There was the root of our family,
And it was as it was said,
More than two hundred years.
My great-great-grandfather on my mother's side
Was even that ancient:
“Prince Shchepin with Vaska Gusev
(Another letter reads)
Tried to set fire to Moscow,
They thought about plundering the treasury
Yes, they were executed by death,”
And it was, my dears,
Almost three hundred years.
So this is where it comes from
That tree is noble
It’s coming, my friends!”
- And you’re like an apple
Are you coming out of that tree? -
The men said.
“Well, an apple is an apple!
Agree! Thankfully, we understand
You're done at last.
Now - you yourself know -
Than a noble tree
Ancient, all the more eminent,
More honorable nobleman.
Isn’t that right, benefactors?”
- So! - answered the wanderers. -
Bone white, bone black,
And look, they’re so different, -
They are treated differently and honored!
“Well, I see, I see: we understand!
So, friends, that’s how we lived,
Like Christ in his bosom,
And we knew honor.
Not only Russian people,
Nature itself is Russian
She submitted to us.
It used to be that you were surrounded
Alone, like the sun in the sky,
Your villages are modest,
Your forests are dense,
Your fields are all around!
Will you go to the village -
The peasants fall at their feet,
You'll go through the forest dachas -
Centenary trees
The forests will bow down!
Will you go by arable land, by fields -
The whole field is ripe
Creeps at the feet of the masters,
Caresses the ears and eyes!
There is a fish splashing in the river:
“Fat, fat before the time!”
There a hare sneaks through the meadow:
“Walk and walk until autumn!”
Everything amused the master,
Lovingly every weed
She whispered: “I’m yours!”
Russian beauty and pride,
White churches of God
Over the hills, over the hills,
And they argued with them in glory
Noble houses.
Houses with greenhouses
With Chinese gazebos
And with English parks;
On each flag played,
He played and beckoned affably,
Russian hospitality
And he promised affection.
The Frenchman won't dream
In a dream, what holidays,
Not a day, not two - a month
We asked here.
Their turkeys are fat,
Your liqueurs are juicy,
Its own actors, music,
Servants - a whole regiment!
Five cooks and a baker,
Two blacksmiths, an upholsterer,
Seventeen musicians
And twenty-two hunters
I held it... My God!..”
The landowner began to spin,
Fell face first into a pillow,
Then he stood up and corrected himself:
“Hey, Proshka!” - he shouted.
Lackey, according to the master's word,
He brought a jug of vodka.
Gavrila Afanasyevich,
After taking a bite, he continued:
“It used to be in late autumn
Your forests, Mother Rus',
Enthused by loud
Hunting horns.
Dull, faded
Lesa half naked
Started to live again
We stood along the edges of the forest
Greyhound robbers,
The landowner himself stood
And there, in the forest, the vyzhlyatniks Vizhlyatnik - manages a pack of hounds on a crowded canine hunt: vizhlyatnik - a male hound.
Roared, daredevils,
The hounds cooked the brew.
Chu! the horn calls!..
Chu! the flock howls! huddled together!
No way, according to the red beast
Let's go?.. hoo-hoo!
Black-brown fox,
Fluffy, maturing
It flies, its tail sweeps!
Crouched down, hid,
Trembling all over, zealous,
Clever dogs:
Perhaps the long-awaited guest!
It's time! Oh well! don't give it away, horse!
Don't give it away, little dogs!
Hey! hoo-hoo! darlings!
Hey! hoo-hoo!.. atu!..”
Gavrilo Afanasyevich,
Jumping up from the Persian carpet,
He waved his hand, jumped up and down,
Screamed! He imagined
Why is he poisoning the fox...
The peasants listened silently,
We looked, admired,
We laughed out loud...
“Oh, you hunting hounds!
All the landowners will forget,
But you, originally Russian
Fun! you won't forget
Not forever and ever!
We're not sad about ourselves,
We are sorry that you, Mother Rus',
Lost with pleasure
Your knightly, warlike,
Majestic view!
It happened that we were in the fall
Up to fifty will come
To the departing fields Departure fields are places where hunters gather and spend the night.;
Every landowner
A hundred hounds on the loose Letting go is a pack of hounds.,
Each one has a dozen
Borzovshchikov Greyhound handler – controls a pack of greyhounds on a crowded hound hunt. on horseback,
With each cook,
With provisions the convoy.
Like with songs and music
We'll move forward
What is cavalry for?
The division is yours!
Time flew by like a falcon,
The landowner's chest was breathing
Free and easy.
During the time of the boyars,
In ancient Russian order
The spirit was transferred!
There is no contradiction in anyone,
I will have mercy on whomever I want,
I'll execute whoever I want.
The law is my desire!
The fist is my police!
The blow is sparkling,
The blow is tooth-breaking,
Hit the cheekbone!..”
Suddenly, like a string, it broke,
The landowner's speech stopped.
He looked down, frowned,
“Hey, Proshka! - shouted
He said: “You yourself know
Isn’t it possible without strictness?
But I punished - lovingly.
The great chain broke -
Now let's not beat the peasant,
But it’s also fatherly
We don't have mercy on him.
Yes, I was strict on time,
However, more with affection
I attracted hearts.
I'm on Sunday Bright
With all my patrimony
I Christed myself!
Sometimes it gets covered
There is a huge table in the living room,
There are red eggs on it too,
And Easter and Easter cake!
My wife, grandmother,
Sons, even young ladies
They don’t hesitate, they kiss
With the last guy.
"Christ is risen!" - Truly! -
The peasants are breaking their fast.
They drink mash and wine...
Before every revered
Twelfth holiday
In my front rooms
The priest served the all-night vigil.
And to that home all-night vigil
Peasants were allowed
Pray - even break your forehead!
The sense of smell suffered
Knocked down from the estate
Baba clean the floors!
Yes, spiritual purity
Thus, it was saved
Spiritual kinship!
Isn’t that right, benefactors?”
- So! - the wanderers answered,
And you thought to yourself:
“You knocked them down with a stake, or what?”
Pray in the manor’s house?..”
“But I will say without bragging,
The man loved me!
In my Surma patrimony
The peasants are all contractors,
Sometimes they were bored at home,
Everything is on the wrong side
They will ask for time off in the spring...
You can't wait for autumn,
Wife, small children,
And they wonder and quarrel:
What kind of hotel should they like?
The peasants will bring it!
And exactly: on top of the corvée,
Canvas, eggs and livestock,
Everything for the landowner
It was collected from time immemorial -
Voluntary gifts
The peasants brought it to us!
From Kyiv - with jams,
From Astrakhan - with fish,
And the one who is more sufficient
And with silk fabric:
Lo and behold, he kissed the lady's hand
And he delivers the package!
Children's toys, treats,
And to me, the gray-haired hawk moth,
Wine from St. Petersburg!
The robbers have found out,
Probably not to Krivonogov,
He will run to the Frenchman.
Here you can walk with them,
Let's talk brotherly
Wife with her own hand
He'll pour them a glass.
And the kids are small right there
Sucking gingerbread cookies
Let the idle listen
men's stories -
About their difficult trades,
About alien sides
About St. Petersburg, about Astrakhan,
About Kyiv, about Kazan...
So this is how, benefactors,
I lived with my patrimony,
Isn’t it good?..”
- Yes, it was for you, landowners,
Life is so enviable
Do not die!
“And everything passed! everything is over!..
Chu! death knell!..”
The wanderers listened
And exactly: from Kuzminsky
Through the morning air
Those sounds that ache your chest,
They rushed. - Rest in peace for the peasant
And the kingdom of heaven! -
The wanderers spoke
And everyone was baptized...
Gavrilo Afanasyevich
He took off his cap - and piously
He also crossed himself:
“They are not calling for the peasant!
Through life according to the landowners
They're calling!.. Oh, life is wide!
Sorry, goodbye forever!
Farewell to landowner Rus'!
Now Rus' is not the same!
Hey, Proshka! (drank vodka
And he whistled)…
"It's not fun
Look how it has changed
Your face, unfortunate one
Native side!
Noble class
It's as if everything was hidden
Extinct! Where
You don't go, you get caught
Some peasants are drunk,
Excise officials
Poles in transit Transit Poles – i.e. expelled from Poland for participating in the uprising.
Yes, stupid intermediaries Peace mediator - in the period 1861-1874, a mediator was chosen from local nobles to resolve disagreements between freed peasants and landowners..
Yes sometimes it will pass
Team. You'll guess:
Must have rebelled
In abundance of gratitude
Village somewhere!
And before that, what was rushing here?
Wheelchairs, three-piece chaises.
Dormezov gears!
The landowner's family rolls along -
The mothers here are respectable,
The daughters here are pretty
And frisky sons!
Singing bells
Of cooing bells
You'll listen to your heart's content.
What are you going to do to distract yourself today?
An outrageous picture
What a step - you are amazed:
Suddenly there was a whiff of a cemetery,
Well, that means we're getting closer
To the estate... My God!
Disassembled brick by brick
A beautiful manor house,
And neatly folded
Bricks in the columns!
The extensive garden of the landowner,
Cherished for centuries,
Under the peasant's ax
All laid down, the man admires,
How much firewood came out!
The soul of a peasant is callous,
Will he think
Like the oak tree he has just felled,
My grandfather with his own hand
Did you ever plant it?
What's under that rowan tree?
Our kids frolicked
And Ganichka and Verochka,
Did you talk to me?
What's here, under this linden tree,
My wife confessed to me,
How heavy is she?
Gavryusha, our firstborn,
And hid it on my chest
Like a cherry reddened
A pretty face?..
It would be beneficial for him -
Radehonek landowners
Harass the estates!
It’s a shame to go through the village:
The man sits and doesn’t move,
Not noble pride -
You feel the bile in your chest.
There is no hunting horn in the forest
It sounds like a robber's axe,
They're being naughty! ..what can you do?
Who will save the forest?..
Fields are unfinished,
Crops are not sown,
There is no trace of order!
Oh mother! oh homeland!
We're not sad about ourselves,
I feel sorry for you, dear.
You are like a sad widow,
You stand with your braid loose,
With an uncleaned face!..
Estates are being transferred
In return they are dispersed
Drinking houses!..
They give water to the dissolute people,
They call me to the zemstvo services,
They imprison you, teach you to read and write, -
He needs her!
All over you, Mother Rus',
Like the marks on a criminal,
Like a brand on a horse,
Two words are scrawled:
Tricky Russian literacy
No need to teach!..
And we have the land left...
Oh, landowner's land!
You are not our mother, but our stepmother
Now... “Who ordered it? -
Idle scribblers shout, -
So extort, rape
Your nurse!
And I’ll say: “Who was waiting?” -
Oh! these preachers!
They shout: “Enough of the lordship!
Wake up, sleepy landowner!
Get up! - study! work hard!.."
I'm not a peasant lapotnik -
I am by God's grace
Russian nobleman!
Russia is not foreign
Our feelings are delicate,
We are proud!
Noble classes
We don't learn how to work.
We have a bad official
And he won’t sweep the floors,
The stove will not light...
I'll tell you without bragging,
I live almost forever
In the village for forty years,
And from the rye ear
I can't tell the difference between barley.
And they sing to me: “Work!”
And if indeed
We misunderstood our duty
And our purpose
It’s not that the name is ancient,
Noble dignity
Willingly to support
Feasts, all kinds of luxury
And live by someone else's labor,
It should have been like this before
Say... What did I study?
What did I see around?..
I smoked God's sky,
He wore royal livery.
Wasted the people's treasury
And I thought about living like this forever...
And suddenly... Righteous Lord!..”
The landowner began to cry...
The peasants are good-natured
Almost started crying too
Thinking to myself:
“The great chain has broken,
Torn - splintered
One end for the master,
Others don't care!.."
ON THE. Nekrasov was always not just a poet - he was a citizen who was deeply concerned about social injustice, and especially about the problems of the Russian peasantry. The cruel treatment of landowners, the exploitation of female and child labor, a joyless life - all this was reflected in his work. And in 18621, the seemingly long-awaited liberation came - the abolition of serfdom. But was this actually liberation? It is to this topic that Nekrasov devotes “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - his most poignant, most famous - and his last work. The poet wrote it from 1863 until his death, but the poem still came out unfinished, so it was prepared for printing from fragments of the poet’s manuscripts. However, this incompleteness turned out to be significant in its own way - after all, for the Russian peasantry, the abolition of serfdom did not become the end of the old life and the beginning of a new one.
“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is worth reading in its entirety, because at first glance it may seem that the plot is too simple for such a complex topic. A dispute between seven men about who should live well in Rus' cannot be the basis for revealing the depth and complexity of the social conflict. But thanks to Nekrasov’s talent in revealing characters, the work gradually reveals itself. The poem is quite difficult to understand, so it is best to download its entire text and read it several times. It is important to pay attention to how different the peasant’s and the master’s understanding of happiness is: the first believes that this is his material well-being, and the second believes that this is the least possible number of troubles in his life. At the same time, in order to emphasize the idea of the spirituality of the people, Nekrasov introduces two more characters who come from his midst - these are Ermil Girin and Grisha Dobrosklonov, who sincerely want happiness for the entire peasant class, and so that no one is offended.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is not idealistic, because the poet sees problems not only in the noble class, which is mired in greed, arrogance and cruelty, but also among the peasants. This is primarily drunkenness and obscurantism, as well as degradation, illiteracy and poverty. The problem of finding happiness for yourself personally and for the entire people as a whole, the fight against vices and the desire to make the world a better place are still relevant today. So even in its unfinished form, Nekrasov’s poem is not only a literary, but also a moral and ethical example.
Nekrasov Nikolay
Who can live well in Rus'?
Nikolay Nekrasov
Who can live well in Rus'?
In what year - calculate, In what land - guess, Seven men came together on a pillared path: Seven temporarily obliged, Tightened province, Terpigoreva County, Empty volost, From adjacent villages: Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina. Gorelova, Neyolova, and also the Bad Harvest, They came together and argued: Who lives happily, at ease in Rus'? Roman said: to the landowner, Demyan said: to the official, Luka said: to the priest. To the fat-bellied merchant! Said the Gubin brothers, Ivan and Mitrodor. Old man Pakhom strained and said, looking at the ground: To the noble boyar, to the sovereign's minister. And Prov said: to the king... The guy is like a bull: some kind of whim will get into your head. You can’t knock it out with a stake from there: they resist, Everyone stands on their own! Is this the kind of dispute they started, What do passers-by think? To know, the kids found the treasure And they are dividing it among themselves... On business, everyone in their own way Before noon, he left the house: That one went to the forge, That one went to the village of Ivankovo To call Father Prokofy To baptize the child. With his groin he carried honeycombs to the market in Velikoye, And the two Gubin brothers were so easy with a halter to catch a stubborn horse They went into their own herd. It’s high time for everyone to go back their own way. They walk side by side! They walk as if gray wolves are chasing them, Whatever is further is quicker. They go - they reproach! They scream and they won’t come to their senses! But time doesn’t wait. They didn't notice the argument. As the red sun set, as evening came. They probably would have kissed the night So they went - where they didn’t know, If only the woman they met, the Gnarled Durandiha, had not shouted: “Reverends! Where are you thinking of going for the night?..” She asked, laughed, The witch whipped the gelding And rode off at a gallop. .. “Where?..” - Here our men looked at each other, Standing, silent, looking down... The night has long since passed, Frequent stars have lit up in the high skies, The moon has surfaced, black shadows have cut the road to Zealous walkers. Oh shadows! black shadows! Who won't you catch up with? Who won't you overtake? Only you, black shadows, You cannot catch - hug! He looked at the forest, at the path-path, was silent with his groin, he looked - he scattered with his mind And finally said: “Well! the goblin played a nice joke on us! After all, we went almost thirty miles! There’s nothing to do. Let’s rest until the sun!..” Having blamed the trouble on the devil, the men sat down under the forest along the path. They lit a fire, formed a group, two ran for vodka, and while the others made a glass, picked birch bark. The vodka arrived soon. The appetizer has arrived. The men are feasting! They drank three kosushki, ate - and argued Again: who can live happily, at ease in Rus'? Roman shouts: to the landowner, Demyan shouts: to the official, Luka shouts: to the priest; To the fat-bellied merchant, the Gubin brothers are shouting. Ivan and Mitrodor; Pakhom shouts: to the Most Serene Noble Boyar, the Sovereign Minister. And Prov shouts: to the king! It's taken over more than ever. The perky men are swearing profanely, It's no wonder that they're grabbing each other's hair... Look, they're already clinging to each other! Roman pushes Pakhomushka, Demyan pushes Luka. And the two brothers Gubin Iron the hefty Provo, And everyone shouts their own! A booming echo woke up, Went for a walk, went for a walk, Went to shout and shout, As if to egg on Stubborn men. To the Tsar! - heard to the right, to the left responds: Pop! ass! ass! The whole forest was in commotion, With flying birds, Swift-footed animals, And crawling reptiles, And groaning, and roaring, and roaring! First of all, a little gray bunny suddenly jumped out from a neighboring bush, as if disheveled, and ran away! Behind him, small jackdaws at the top of the birch trees raised a nasty, sharp squeak. And here is the little warbler. Out of fright, a tiny chick fell from its nest; The warbler is chirping and crying, Where is the chick? - he won’t find it! Then the old cuckoo woke up and decided to cuckoo for someone; She tried it ten times, but every time she got lost and started again... Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo! The bread will begin to spike, you will choke on the ear, and you will not crow! 1 Seven eagle owls flocked, Admiring the carnage From seven large trees, Laughing, night owls! And their yellow eyes Burn like ardent wax Fourteen candles! And the raven, a smart bird. Arrived in time, sitting on a tree near the fire. He sits and prays to the devil, So that someone will be whipped to death! A cow with a bell, who strayed from the herd in the evening, barely heard human voices, came to the fire, fixed her eyes on the men. She listened to crazy speeches and began, my dear, to moo, moo, moo! The stupid cow moos, the little jackdaws squeak. The rowdy guys are screaming, And the echo is echoed by everyone. His only concern is to tease honest people, to scare boys and women! No one has seen it, But everyone has heard it, Without a body - but it lives, Without a tongue - it screams! The owl - the Zamoskvoretsky Princess - immediately mooed, flies over the peasants, scurrying now against the ground, now against the bushes with its wing... The cunning fox herself, Out of womanish curiosity, crept up to the men, listened, listened, and walked away, thinking: “And the devil with them.” will not understand!" And indeed: the disputants themselves hardly knew, remembered what they were making noise about... Having rubbed each other's sides quite a bit, the peasants finally came to their senses, drank from a puddle, washed, refreshed themselves, sleep began to roll over them... Meanwhile, the tiny chick, Little by little, by half a seedling, flying low, got close to the fire. Pakhomushka caught it, brought it to the fire, looked at it and said: “It’s a small bird, And the nail is in the air! If I breathe, you’ll roll off your palm, If you sneeze, you’ll roll into the fire, If you click, you’ll roll around dead, But you, little bird, are stronger than a man! The wings will soon get stronger, bye bye! Wherever you want, That’s where you’ll fly! Oh, you little birdie! Give us your wings, We’ll fly around the whole kingdom, We’ll look, we’ll explore, We’ll ask and we’ll find out: Who lives happily, at ease in Rus'?” “We wouldn’t even need wings. If only we had some bread, half a pound a day. And so we would measure Mother Rus' with our feet!”
Said the gloomy Prov. “Yes, a bucket of vodka,” added the Gubin brothers, Ivan and Mitrodor, eager for vodka. “Yes, in the morning there would be ten pickled cucumbers,” the men joked. “And at noon we’d like a jar of Cold Kvass.” “And in the evening, a pot of hot tea...” While they were chatting, the warbler hovered and circled above them: she listened to everything and sat down by the fire. She chirped, jumped, and in a human voice Pakhomu said: “Let the chick go free! For the small chick, I will give a large ransom.” - What will you give?
“I’ll give you half a pound of bread a day, I’ll give you a bucket of vodka, I’ll give you cucumbers in the morning, and sour kvass at noon, and tea in the evening!” - And where, little birdie, asked the Gubin brothers, Will you find wine and bread for seven men?
“If you find it, you will find it yourself, and I, little birdie, will tell you how to find it.”
“Walk through the forest, opposite the thirtieth pillar, straight ahead: You will come to a clearing. There are two old pine trees standing in that clearing, Under these pines there is a box buried. Get it, that magical box: In it there is a self-assembled tablecloth, Whenever you wish, it will feed you and give you something to drink! Just say quietly: “Hey! self-assembled tablecloth! Serve the men!" At your request, at my command, everything will appear immediately. Now - let the chick go!"
Centuries change, but the name of the poet N. Nekrasov - this knight of the spirit - remains unforgettable. In his work, Nekrasov revealed many aspects of Russian life, spoke about the grief of the peasants, and made one feel that under the yoke of need and darkness, heroic forces that had not yet developed were hidden.
The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the core work of N.A. Nekrasov. It is about peasant truth, about “old” and “new”, about “slaves” and “free”, about “rebellion” and “patience”.
What is the history of the creation of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”? The 60s of the 19th century are characterized by increased political reaction. Nekrasov had to defend the Sovremennik magazine and the course that the publication followed. The struggle for the purity of the chosen direction required the activation of Nekrasov’s muse. One of the main lines that Nekrasov adhered to, and which met the tasks of that time, was popular, peasant. The work on the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the main tribute to the peasant theme.
The creative tasks that Nekrasov faced when creating the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” should be considered in the focus of literary and social life of the 60-70s. XIX century. After all, the poem was created not in one year, but more than ten years, and the moods that possessed Nekrasov in the early 60s changed, just as life itself changed. The writing of the poem began in 1863. By that time, Emperor Alexander II had already signed a manifesto on the abolition of serfdom.
Work on the poem was preceded by years of collecting creative material bit by bit. The author decided not just to write a work of art, but a work accessible and understandable to ordinary people, a kind of “people's book”, which shows with utmost completeness an entire era in the life of the people.
What is the genre uniqueness of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”? Literary experts identify this work by Nekrasov as an “epic poem.” This definition goes back to the opinion of Nekrasov’s contemporaries. An epic is a major work of fiction of an epic nature. The genre of “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a lyric-epic work. It combines epic principles with lyrical and dramatic ones. The dramatic element generally permeates many of Nekrasov’s works; the poet’s passion for drama is reflected in his poetic work.
The compositional form of the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is quite unique. Composition is the construction, arrangement of all elements of a work of art. Compositionally, the poem is structured according to the laws of classical epic: it is a collection of relatively autonomous parts and chapters. The unifying motif is the road motif: seven men (seven is the most mysterious and magical number) trying to find an answer to a question that is essentially philosophical: who can live well in Rus'? Nekrasov does not lead us to a certain climax in the poem, does not push us towards the final event and does not intensify the action. His task, as a major epic artist, is to reflect aspects of Russian life, to paint the image of the people, to show the diversity of people's roads, directions, paths. This creative work of Nekrasov is a large lyric-epic form. There are many characters involved and many storylines unfold.
The main idea of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is that the people deserve happiness and it makes sense to fight for happiness. The poet was sure of this, and with his entire work he presented evidence of this. The happiness of one individual is not enough, this is not a solution to the problem. The poem calls for thoughts about the embodiment of happiness for the whole people, about a “Feast for the whole world.”
The poem begins with a “Prologue”, in which the author tells how seven men from different villages met on a highway. A dispute arose between them about who would live better in Rus'. Each of those arguing expressed his opinion, and no one wanted to give in. As a result, the debaters decided to go on a journey to find out first-hand who lives in Rus' and how they live and to find out which of them was right in this dispute. From the warbler bird, the wanderers learned where the magic self-assembled tablecloth was located, which would feed and water them on a long journey. Having found a self-assembled tablecloth and convinced of its magical abilities, seven men set off on a long journey.
In the chapters of the first part of the poem, seven wanderers met people from different classes on their way: a priest, peasants at a rural fair, a landowner, and asked them the question - how happy are they? Neither the priest nor the landowner thought that their life was full of happiness. They complained that after the abolition of serfdom, their life worsened. Fun reigned at the rural fair, but when the wanderers began to find out from the people leaving after the fair how happy each of them was, it turned out that only a few of them could be called truly happy.
In the chapters of the second part, united by the title “The Last One,” the wanderers meet the peasants of the village of Bolshie Vakhlaki, living in a rather strange situation. Despite the abolition of serfdom, they portrayed serfs in the presence of the landowner, as in the old days. The old landowner was sensitive to the reform of 1861 and his sons, fearing to be left without an inheritance, persuaded the peasants to play serfs until the old man died. At the end of this part of the poem it is said that after the death of the old prince, his heirs deceived the peasants and started a lawsuit with them, not wanting to give up valuable meadows.
After communicating with the Vakhlak men, the travelers decided to look for happy people among the women. In the chapters from the third part of the poem, under the general title “Peasant Woman,” they met with a resident of the village of Klin, Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, who was popularly nicknamed “the governor’s wife.” Matryona Timofeevna told them without concealment her entire long-suffering life. At the end of her story, Matryona advised wanderers not to look for happy people among Russian women, telling them a parable that the keys to women's happiness are lost, and no one is able to find them.
The wandering of seven men, seeking happiness throughout Rus', continues, and they end up at a feast thrown by the residents of the village of Valakhchina. This part of the poem was called “A Feast for the Whole World.” At this feast, seven wanderers come to the realization that the question for which they went on a campaign across Rus' occupies not only them, but the entire Russian people.
In the last chapter of the poem, the author gives the floor to the younger generation. One of the participants in the folk feast, the son of the parish sexton, Grigory Dobrosklonov, unable to sleep after heated arguments, goes to wander around his native expanses and the song “Rus” is born in his head, which became the ideological finale of the poem:
"You and the wretched one,
You are also abundant
You're downtrodden
You are omnipotent
Mother Rus'!
Returning home and telling his brother this song, Grigory tries to fall asleep, but his imagination continues to work and a new song is born. If the seven wanderers had been able to find out what this new song was about, they could have returned home with a light heart, for the goal of the journey would have been achieved, since Grisha’s new song was about the embodiment of people’s happiness.
Regarding the issues of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” we can say the following: two levels of issues (conflict) emerge in the poem – socio-historical (the results of the peasant reform) – the conflict grows in the first part and persists in the second, and deep, philosophical (salt national character), which appears in the second and dominates in the third part. Problems raised by Nekrasov in the poem
(the chains of slavery have been removed, but whether the peasant’s lot has been eased, whether the oppression of the peasants has stopped, whether the contradictions in society have been eliminated, whether the people are happy) - will not be resolved for a long period.
When analyzing N.A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” it is important to say that the main poetic meter of this work is unrhymed iambic trimeter. Moreover, at the end of the line after the stressed syllable there are two unstressed syllables (dactylic clause). In some places in the work, Nekrasov also uses iambic tetrameter. This choice of poetic size was determined by the need to present the text in a folklore style, but while preserving the classical literary canons of that time. The folk songs included in the poem, as well as the songs of Grigory Dobrosklonov, are written using three-syllable meters.
Nekrasov strove to ensure that the language of the poem was understandable to ordinary Russian people. Therefore, he refused to use the vocabulary of classical poetry of that time, saturating the work with words of common speech: “village”, “breveshko”, “idle dance”, “fairground” and many others. This made it possible to make the poem understandable to any peasant.
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Nekrasov uses numerous means of artistic expression. These include such epithets as “red sun”, “black shadows”, “poor people”, “free heart”, “calm conscience”, “indestructible force”. There are also comparisons in the poem: “jumped out as if disheveled”, “yellow eyes burn like... fourteen candles!”, “like the men fell asleep like those killed,” “rainy clouds like milk cows.”
Metaphors found in the poem: “the earth lies”, “spring... friendly”, “the warbler is crying”, “a stormy village”, “the boyars are cypress-bearing”.
Metonymy - “the whole road became silent”, “the crowded square became silent”, “When a man... Belinsky and Gogol are carried away from the market.”
In the poem there was a place for such means of artistic expression as irony: “... a tale about a holy fool: he hiccups, I think!” and sarcasm: “The proud pig: itched about the master’s porch!”
There are also stylistic figures in the poem. These include appeals: “Well, uncle!”, “Wait!”, “Come, what you desire!..”, “Oh people, Russian people!” and exclamations: “Choo! horse snoring!”, “At least not this bread!”, “Eh! Eh!”, “At least swallow a feather!”
Folklore expressions - at the fair, apparently and invisibly.
The language of the poem is peculiar, decorated with sayings, sayings, dialects, “common” words: “mlada-mladashenka”, “tselkovenky”, “honk”.
I remember the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” because, despite the difficult times in which it was created and which it describes, a positive, life-affirming beginning is visible in it. The people deserve happiness - this is the main theorem proven by Nekrasov. The poem helps people understand, become better, fight for their happiness. Nekrasov is a thinker, a person with a unique social instinct. He touched the depths of people's life, pulled out from its depths a scattering of original Russian characters. Nekrasov was able to show the fullness of human experiences. He sought to comprehend the full depth of human existence.
Nekrasov solved his creative problems in an unconventional way. His work is imbued with the ideas of humanism.
