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Nekrasov lives well in Rus' summary. Who can live well in Rus'?

Prologue

In a fairy-tale form, the author depicts a dispute between seven peasants about “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.” The dispute escalates into a fight, then the peasants make up and decide among themselves to ask the tsar, the merchant and the priest who is happier, and having not received an answer, they walk across Russian soil in search of the lucky one.

Chapter I

The first peasants meet a priest who assures them that the “priest’s life” is very difficult. He says that peasants and landowners are equally poor and have stopped bringing money to church. The peasants sincerely sympathize with the priest.

Chapter II

The author depicts many interesting faces in this chapter, where he depicts a fair where seven men ended up in search of their lucky ones. The attention of the peasants is attracted by the trading of pictures: here the author expresses the hope that sooner or later the time will come when a man “not my stupid lord, but Belinsky and Gogol from the market.”

Chapter III

After the fair, the folk festivities, “bad night,” begin. Many peasants get drunk, except for seven travelers and a certain gentleman who writes down folk songs and his observations of peasant life in a book; the author himself is probably embodied in this image in the poem. One of the men - Yakim Nagoy - blames the master and does not order to portray all Russian people as drunkards. Yakim claims that in Rus' there is a family that doesn’t drink for every one drinker, but it’s easier for those who drink, since all workers suffer from life equally. Both in work and in revelry, the Russian man loves scope, he cannot live without it. The seven travelers already wanted to go home, and they decided to look for someone happy in the large crowd.

Chapter VI

The travelers began to invite other men to a bucket of vodka, promising a treat to the one who proved that he was a lucky man. There are a lot of “lucky ones”: the soldier is glad that he survived both foreign bullets and Russian attacks; the young stonecutter boasts of his strength; the old stone cutter is happy that he managed to get sick from St. Petersburg to his native village and did not die on the way; The bear hunter is glad to be alive. When the bucket was empty, “did our wanderers realize that they were wasting vodka for nothing?” Someone suggested that Ermil Girin should be considered happy. He is happy with his own truthfulness and people's love. He helped people more than once, and people repaid him kindly when they helped him buy a mill that a clever merchant wanted to take over. But, as it turned out, Yermil is sitting in prison: apparently, he suffered for his truth.

Chapter V

The next person the seven peasants met was the landowner Gavrilo Afanasyevich. He assures them that his life is not easy either. Under serfdom, he was the sovereign owner of rich estates, “lovingly” he carried out trials and reprisals against the peasants. After the abolition of the “fortress,” order disappeared and the manorial estates fell into disrepair. The landowners lost their former income. “Idle scribblers” tell the landowners to study and work, but this is impossible, since the nobleman was created for another life - “to smoke God’s heaven” and “to litter the people’s treasury,” since this allows him to be born: among the ancestors of Gavrila Afanasyevich there was a leader with a bear Obolduev, and Prince Shchepin, who tried to set fire to Moscow for the sake of robbery. The landowner ends his speech with a sob, and the peasants were ready to cry with him, but then changed their minds.

Last One

The wanderers find themselves in the village of Vakhlaki, where they see strange orders: the local peasants, of their own free will, have become “inhumans of God” - they have retained their serfdom depending on the wild landowner, the out-of-mind Prince Utyatin. The travelers begin to ask one of the locals, Vlas, where such order comes from in the village.

The extravagant Utyatin could not believe in the abolition of serfdom, so “arrogance cut him off”: the prince suffered a blow from anger. The prince's heirs, whom he blamed for the loss of the men, were afraid that the old man would deprive them of their estate before his imminent death. Then they persuaded the men to play the role of serfs, promising to give up the flood meadows. The Vahlaks agreed, partly because they were accustomed to slave life and even found pleasure in it.

The wanderers witness how the local mayor praises the prince, how the villagers pray for Utyatin’s health and sincerely cry with joy that they have such a benefactor. Suddenly the prince suffered a second blow, and the old man died. Since then, the peasants have truly lost peace: an endless dispute over the flooded meadows began between the Vakhlaks and their heirs.

Feast for the whole world

Introduction

The author describes a feast given by one of the Vakhlaks, the restless Klim Yakovlevich, on the occasion of the death of Prince Utyatin. The travelers, together with Vlas, joined the feasting. Seven wanderers are interested in listening to Vakhlat songs.

The author translates many folk songs into literary language. First, he cites “bitter” ones, that is, sad ones, about peasant grief, about poor life. The bitter songs open with a lamentation with an ironic saying, “It is glorious to live for the people in holy Rus'!” The sub-chapter concludes with a song about “the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful,” who punished his master for bullying. The author summarizes that the people are able to stand up for themselves and incite the landowners.

At the feast, travelers learn about the pilgrims who feed on what they hang on the people’s neck. These slackers take advantage of the gullibility of the peasant, whom they are not averse to rising above if possible. But among them there were also those who faithfully served the people: they treated the sick, helped bury the dead, and fought for justice.

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

By morning the feast was over. One of the Vakhlaks composes a cheerful song in which he puts his hope for a bright future. In this song, the author describes Russia as “poor and abundant” as a country where a great people’s power lives. The poet foresees that the time will come and the “hidden spark” will flare up:

An innumerable host is rising! The strength in her will be indestructible!

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

Peasant woman

Prologue

The wanderers began to think that they should give up searching for the happy ones among the men, and would rather check the women. There is an abandoned estate right on the way of the peasants. The author paints a depressing picture of the desolation of a once rich economy, which turned out to be unnecessary for the master and which the peasants themselves cannot manage. Here they were advised to look for Matryona Timofeevna, “she’s the governor’s wife,” whom everyone considers happy. The travelers met her in a crowd of reapers and persuaded her to tell about their woman’s “happiness.”

Chapter I

The woman admits that she was happy as a girl while her parents cherished her. With parental affection, all the chores around the house seemed like easy fun: while yarning, the girl sang until midnight, and danced while working in the fields. But then she found a betrothed - stove maker Philip Korchagin. Matryona got married, and her life changed dramatically.

Chapter II

The author sprinkles his story folk songs in its own literary treatment. These songs sing about the difficult fate of a married woman who finds herself in someone else’s family, and about the bullying of her husband’s relatives. Matryona found support only from grandfather Savely.

Chapter III

Grandfather was not liked in his own family and was “branded a convict.” Matryona was afraid of him at first, frightened by his terrible, “bearish” appearance, but soon she saw in him a kind, warm-hearted person and began to ask for advice in everything. One day Savely told Matryona his story. This Russian hero ended up in hard labor for killing a German manager who mocked the peasants.

Chapter IV

The peasant woman talks about her great grief: how, through the fault of her mother-in-law, she lost her beloved son Dyomushka. The mother-in-law insisted that Matryona not take the child with her to the harvest. The daughter-in-law obeyed and with a heavy heart left the boy with Savely. The old man did not keep an eye on the baby, and he was eaten by pigs. The “boss” arrived and started an investigation. Having not received a bribe, he ordered an autopsy of the child to be performed in front of the mother, suspecting her of “conspiracy” with Savely.

Chapter VMaterial from the site

The woman was ready to hate the old man, but then she recovered. And the grandfather, out of remorse, went into the forests. Ma-trena met him four years later at the grave of Dyomushke, where she came to mourn a new grief - the death of her parents. The peasant woman again brought the old man into the house, but Savely soon died, continuing to joke and instruct people until his death. Years passed, Matryona's other children grew up. The peasant woman fought for them, wished them happiness, was ready to please her father-in-law and mother-in-law, if only the children had a good life. His father-in-law gave his eight-year-old son Fedot as a shepherd, and disaster struck. Fedot chased the she-wolf who had kidnapped the sheep, and then took pity on her, since she was feeding the cubs. The headman decided to punish the boy, but the mother stood up and accepted the punishment for her son. She herself was like a she-wolf, ready to lay down her life for her children.

Chapter VI

The “year of the comet” has arrived, foreshadowing a crop failure. The bad premonitions came true: “the lack of bread has arrived.” The peasants, maddened by hunger, were ready to kill each other. Trouble does not come alone: the husband-breadwinner was “deceived, not in God’s way” into becoming a soldier. The husband's relatives began to mock Matryona, who was pregnant with Liodorushka, more than ever, and the peasant woman decided to go to the governor for help.

Chapter VII

Secretly, the peasant woman left her husband's house and went to the city. Here she managed to meet with the governor Elena Alexandrovna, to whom she addressed her request. In the governor's house, the peasant woman gave birth to Lio-dorushka, and Elena Alexandrovna baptized the baby and insisted that her husband rescue Philip from the conscription.

Chapter VIII

Since then, in the village, Matryona has been hailed as lucky and even nicknamed “the governor.” The peasant woman ends the story with a reproach that it was not the travelers’ business to “look for a happy woman among the women.” God's companions are trying to find the keys to female happiness, but they are lost somewhere far away, maybe swallowed by some fish: “In what seas does that fish walk - God has forgotten!..”

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The work of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is dedicated to the deep problems of the Russian people. The heroes of his story, ordinary peasants, go on a journey in search of a person to whom life does not bring happiness. So who can live well in Rus'? A summary of the chapters and an annotation to the poem will help you understand the main idea of the work.

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The idea and history of the creation of the poem

Nekrasov’s main idea was to create a poem for the people, in which they could recognize themselves not only in the general idea, but also in the little things, everyday life, behavior, see their strengths and weaknesses, and find their place in life.

The author succeeded in his idea. Nekrasov spent years collecting the necessary material, planning his work entitled “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” much more voluminous than the one that came out at the end. As many as eight full-fledged chapters were planned, each of which was supposed to be a separate work with a complete structure and idea. The only thing unifying link- seven ordinary Russian peasants, men who travel around the country in search of the truth.

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” four parts, the order and completeness of which is a source of controversy for many scholars. Nevertheless, the work looks holistic and leads to a logical end - one of the characters finds the very recipe for Russian happiness. It is believed that Nekrasov completed the ending of the poem, already knowing about his imminent death. Wanting to bring the poem to completion, he moved the end of the second part to the end of the work.

It is believed that the author began to write “Who can live well in Rus'?” around 1863 - shortly after. Two years later, Nekrasov completed the first part and marked the manuscript with this date. The subsequent ones were ready by 72, 73, 76 years of the 19th century, respectively.

Important! The work began to be published in 1866. This process turned out to be long and lasted four years. The poem was difficult to accept by critics, the highest authorities of that time brought down a lot of criticism on it, the author, along with his work, was persecuted. Despite this, “Who can live well in Rus'?” was published and well received by ordinary people.

Annotation to the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”: it consists of the first part, which contains a prologue introducing the reader to the main characters, five chapters and excerpts from the second (“The Last One” of 3 chapters) and the third part (“Peasant Woman”) "of 7 chapters). The poem ends with the chapter “A Feast for the Whole World” and an epilogue.

Prologue

“Who can live well in Rus'?” begins with a prologue, the summary of which is as follows: meet seven main characters- ordinary Russian men from the people who came from the Terpigorev district.

Each one comes from their own village, the name of which, for example, was Dyryaevo or Neelovo. Having met, the men begin to actively argue with each other about who will truly live well in Rus'. This phrase will be the leitmotif of the work, its main plot.

Each offers a variant of the class that is now thriving. These were:

butts;
landowners;
officials;
merchants;
boyars and ministers;
tsar.

Guys argue so much it's getting out of control a fight starts- the peasants forget what they were going to do and go in a direction unknown to anyone. In the end, they wander into the wilderness, decide not to go anywhere else until the morning and wait out the night in a clearing.

Because of the noise, the chick falls out of the nest, one of the wanderers catches it and dreams that if it had wings, it would fly around all of Rus'. Others add that you can do without wings, if only you had something to drink and a good snack, then you can travel until you are old.

Attention! The bird - the mother of the chick, in exchange for her child, tells the men where it is possible find the treasure- a self-assembled tablecloth, but warns that you cannot ask for more than a bucket of alcohol per day - otherwise there will be trouble. The men actually find the treasure, after which they promise each other not to leave each other until they find the answer to the question of who should live well in this state.

First part. Chapter 1

The first chapter tells about the meeting of the men with the priest. They walked for a long time, and they met ordinary people - beggars, peasants, soldiers. The disputants did not even try to talk to those, because they knew from themselves that the common people had no happiness. Having met the priest's cart, the wanderers block the path and talk about the dispute, asking the main question, who lives well in Rus', asking, Are the priests happy?.

Pop responds as follows:

A person has happiness only if his life combines three features - peace, honor and wealth.
He explains that priests have no peace, starting from how troublesome it is for them to get the rank and ending with the fact that every day they listen to the cries of dozens of people, which does not add peace to life.
Lots of money now It's hard for priests to make money, since the nobles, who previously performed rituals in their native villages, now do it in the capital, and the clergy have to live off the peasants alone, from whom there is a meager income.
The people of the priests also do not indulge them with respect, they make fun of them, avoid them, there is no way to hear a good word from anyone.

After the priest’s speech, the men shyly hide their eyes and understand that the life of priests in the world is not at all sweet. When the clergyman leaves, the debaters attack the one who suggested that the priests have a good life. Things would have come to a fight, but the priest appeared on the road again.

Chapter 2

The men walk along the roads for a long time, meeting almost no one they can ask who can live well in Rus'. In the end they find out that in the village of Kuzminskoye rich fair, since the village is not poor. There are two churches, a closed school and even a not very clean hotel where you can stay. It's no joke, there is a paramedic in the village.

The most important thing is that there are as many as 11 taverns here who do not have time to pour drinks for the merry people. All peasants drink a lot. There is an upset grandfather standing at the shoe shop, who promised to bring boots to his granddaughter, but drank the money away. The master Pavlusha Veretennikov appears and pays for the purchase.

Books are also sold at the fair, but people are interested in the most mediocre books; neither Gogol nor Belinsky are in demand or interesting to the common people, despite the fact that these writers defend interests of ordinary people. At the end, the heroes get so drunk that they fall to the ground, watching as the church “shakes.”

Chapter 3

In this chapter, the debaters again find Pavel Veretennikov, who actually collects folklore, stories and expressions of the Russian people. Pavel tells the peasants around him that they drink too much alcohol, and for them a drunken night is happiness.

Yakim Golyy objects to this, arguing that a simple the peasant drinks a lot not from his own desire, but because he works hard, he is constantly haunted by grief. Yakim tells his story to those around him - having bought his son pictures, Yakim loved them no less, so when the fire happened, he was the first to take these pictures out of the hut. In the end, the money he had saved throughout his life was gone.

After listening to this, the men sit down to eat. Afterwards, one of them remains to watch the bucket of vodka, and the rest again head into the crowd to find a person who considers himself happy in this world.

Chapter 4

Men walk the streets and promise to treat the happiest person among the people with vodka in order to find out who lives well in Rus', but only deeply unhappy people who want to drink to console themselves. Those who want to brag about something good find that their petty happiness does not answer the main question. For example, a Belarusian is happy about what they are doing here Rye bread, from which he does not have pain in his stomach, so he is happy.

As a result, the bucket of vodka runs out, and the debaters understand that they will not find the truth this way, but one of those who came says to look for Ermila Girin. We respect Ermil very much in the village, the peasants say that it is very good man. They even tell the story that when Girin wanted to buy a mill, but there was no money for a deposit, he raised a whole thousand in loans from the common people and managed to deposit the money.

A week later, Yermil gave away everything he had borrowed, and until the evening he asked those around him who else to approach and give the last remaining ruble.

Girin earned such trust by the fact that, while serving as a clerk for the prince, he did not take money from anyone, but on the contrary, he helped ordinary people, therefore, when they were going to elect a burgomaster, they chose him, Yermil justified the appointment. At the same time, the priest says that he is unhappy, since he is already in prison, and he does not have time to tell why, since a thief is discovered in the company.

Chapter 5

Next, the travelers meet a landowner, who, in response to the question of who can live well in Rus', tells them about his noble roots - the founder of his family, the Tatar Oboldui, was skinned by a bear for the laughter of the empress, who in return presented many expensive gifts.

The landowner complains, that the peasants were taken away, so there is no more law on their lands, forests are cut down, drinking establishments are multiplying - the people do what they want, and this makes them poor. He goes on to say that he was not used to working since childhood, but here he has to do it because the serfs were taken away.

Contritely, the landowner leaves, and the men feel sorry for him, thinking that on the one hand, after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants suffered, and on the other, the landowners, that this whip lashed all classes.

Part 2. The last one - summary

This part of the poem talks about the extravagant Prince Utyatin, who, upon learning that serfdom had been abolished, fell ill with a heart attack and promised to disinherit his sons. Those, frightened by such a fate, persuaded the men to play along with the old father, bribing them with a promise to donate the meadows to the village.

Important! Characteristics of Prince Utyatin: a selfish person who loves to feel power, therefore he is ready to force others to do completely meaningless things. He feels complete impunity and thinks that this is where the future of Russia lies.

Some peasants willingly played along with the lord’s request, while others, for example Agap Petrov, could not come to terms with the fact that they had to bow before someone in the wild. Finding yourself in a situation in which it is impossible to achieve the truth, Agap Petrov dies from pangs of conscience and mental anguish.

At the end of the chapter, Prince Utyatin rejoices at the return of serfdom, speaks of its correctness at his own feast, which is attended by seven travelers, and at the end calmly dies in the boat. At the same time, no one is giving the meadows to the peasants, and the trial on this issue is not over to this day, as the men found out.

Part 3. Peasant woman

This part of the poem is dedicated to the search for female happiness, but ends with the fact that there is no happiness and such happiness will never be found. The wanderers meet the peasant woman Matryona - a beautiful, stately woman of 38 years old. Wherein Matryona is deeply unhappy, considers himself an old woman. She has a difficult fate; she had joy only in childhood. After the girl got married, her husband left to work, leaving his pregnant wife in her husband’s large family.

The peasant woman had to feed her husband's parents, who only mocked her and did not help her. Even after giving birth, they were not allowed to take the child with them, since the woman did not work enough with him. The baby was looked after by an elderly grandfather, the only one who treated Matryona normally, but due to his age, he did not take care of the baby; he was eaten by pigs.

Matryona also gave birth to children afterwards, but she could not forget her first son. The peasant woman forgave the old man who had gone to the monastery out of grief and took him home, where he soon died. She herself, pregnant, came to the governor’s wife, asked to return my husband due to the difficult situation. Since Matryona gave birth right in the waiting room, the governor’s wife helped the woman, which is why people began to call her happy, which in fact was far from the case.

In the end, the wanderers, having not found female happiness and having not received an answer to their question - who can live well in Rus', moved on.

Part 4. A feast for the whole world - the conclusion of the poem

It happens in the same village. The main characters have gathered at a feast and are having fun, telling different stories to find out which of the people in Rus' will live well. The conversation turned to Yakov, a peasant who revered the master very much, but did not forgive him when he gave his nephew as a soldier. As a result, Yakov took his owner into the forest and hanged himself, but he could not get out because his legs did not work. What follows is a long debate about who is more sinful in this situation.

Men share different stories about the sins of peasants and landowners, deciding who is more honest and righteous. The crowd as a whole is quite unhappy, including the men - the main characters, only the young seminarian Grisha wants to devote himself to serving the people and their well-being. He loves his mother very much and is ready to pour it out on the village.

Grisha walks and sings about what lies ahead glorious journey, a resounding name in history, he is inspired by this, and is not even afraid of the expected outcome - Siberia and death from consumption. The debaters do not notice Grisha, but in vain, because this the only happy person in the poem, having understood this, they could find the answer to their question - who can live well in Russia.

When finishing the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'?”, the author wanted to finish his work differently, but approaching death forced add optimism and hope at the end of the poem, to give “light at the end of the road” to the Russian people.

N.A. Nekrasov, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - summary

One day, seven men—recent serfs, but now temporarily bound “from adjacent villages—Zaplatova, Dyryavina, Razutova, Znobishina, Gorelova, Neyolova, Neurozhaika, etc.—come together on a highway.” Instead of going their own way, the men start an argument about who lives happily and freely in Rus'. Each of them judges in his own way who is the main lucky person in Rus': a landowner, an official, a priest, a merchant, a noble boyar, a minister of sovereigns or a tsar.

While arguing, they do not notice that they have taken a detour of thirty miles. Seeing that it is too late to return home, the men make a fire and continue the argument over vodka - which, of course, little by little develops into a fight. But a fight does not help resolve the issue that worries the men.

The solution is found unexpectedly: one of the men, Pakhom, catches a warbler chick, and in order to free the chick, the warbler tells the men where they can find a self-assembled tablecloth. Now the men are provided with bread, vodka, cucumbers, kvass, tea - in a word, everything they need for a long journey. And besides, a self-assembled tablecloth will repair and wash their clothes! Having received all these benefits, the men make a vow to find out “who lives happily and freely in Rus'.”

The first possible “lucky person” they meet along the way turns out to be a priest. (It was not right for the soldiers and beggars they met to ask about happiness!) But the priest’s answer to the question of whether his life is sweet disappoints the men. They agree with the priest that happiness lies in peace, wealth and honor. But the priest does not possess any of these benefits. In the haymaking, in the harvest, in the dead of autumn night, in the bitter frost, he must go to where there are the sick, the dying and those being born. And every time his soul hurts at the sight of funeral sobs and orphan sadness - so much so that his hand does not rise to take copper coins - a pitiful reward for the demand. The landowners, who previously lived in family estates and got married here, baptized children, buried the dead, are now scattered not only throughout Rus', but also in distant foreign lands; there is no hope for their retribution. Well, the men themselves know how much respect the priest is given: they feel embarrassed when the priest reproaches him for obscene songs and insults towards priests.

Realizing that the Russian priest is not one of the lucky ones, the men go to a holiday fair in the trading village of Kuzminskoye to ask people about happiness. In a rich and dirty village there are two churches, a tightly boarded up house with the sign “school”, a paramedic’s hut, a dirty hotel. But most of all in the village there are drinking establishments, in each of which they barely have time to cope with thirsty people. Old man Vavila cannot buy goatskin shoes for his granddaughter because he drank himself to a penny. It’s good that Pavlusha Veretennikov, a lover of Russian songs, whom everyone calls “master” for some reason, buys him the treasured gift.

The wandering men watch the farcical Petrushka, watch how the ladies stock up on books - but not Belinsky and Gogol, but portraits of unknown fat generals and works about “my lord stupid.” They also see how a busy trading day ends: widespread drunkenness, fights on the way home. However, the men are indignant at Pavlusha Veretennikov’s attempt to measure the peasant against the master’s standard. In their opinion, it is impossible for a sober person to live in Rus': he will not withstand either backbreaking labor or peasant misfortune; without drinking, bloody rain would pour out of the angry peasant soul. These words are confirmed by Yakim Nagoy from the village of Bosovo, one of those who “work until they die and drink half to death.” Yakim believes that only pigs walk on the earth and never see the sky. During the fire, he himself did not save the money he had accumulated throughout his life, but the useless and beloved pictures hanging in the hut; he is sure that with the cessation of drunkenness, great sadness will come to Rus'.

Male wanderers do not lose hope of finding people who live well in Rus'. But even for the promise of giving free water to the lucky ones, they fail to find them. For the sake of free booze, both the overworked worker, the paralyzed former servant who spent forty years licking the master’s plates with the best French truffle, and even ragged beggars are ready to declare themselves lucky.

Finally, someone tells them the story of Yermil Girin, the mayor in the estate of Prince Yurlov, who earned universal respect for his justice and honesty. When Girin needed money to buy the mill, the men lent it to him without even requiring a receipt. But Yermil is now unhappy: after the peasant revolt, he is in prison.

The ruddy sixty-year-old landowner Gavrila Obolt-Obolduev tells the wandering peasants about the misfortune that befell the nobles after the peasant reform. He remembers how in the old days everything amused the master: villages, forests, fields, serf actors, musicians, hunters, who completely belonged to him. Obolt-Obolduev talks with emotion about how on the twelve holidays he invited his serfs to pray in the manor’s house - despite the fact that after this he had to drive the women away from the entire estate to wash the floors.

And although the peasants themselves know that life in serfdom was far from the idyll depicted by Obolduev, they still understand: the great chain of serfdom, having broken, hit both the master, who was immediately deprived of his usual way of life, and the peasant.

Desperate to find someone happy among the men, the wanderers decide to ask the women. The surrounding peasants remember that Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina lives in the village of Klin, whom everyone considers lucky. But Matryona herself thinks differently. In confirmation, she tells the wanderers the story of her life.

Before her marriage, Matryona lived in a teetotal and wealthy peasant family. She married a stove-maker from a foreign village, Philip Korchagin. But the only happy night for her was that night when the groom persuaded Matryona to marry him; then the usual hopeless life of a village woman began. True, her husband loved her and beat her only once, but soon he went to work in St. Petersburg, and Matryona was forced to endure insults in her father-in-law’s family. The only one who felt sorry for Matryona was grandfather Savely, who was living out his life in the family after hard labor, where he ended up for the murder of the hated German manager. Savely told Matryona what Russian heroism is: it is impossible to defeat a peasant, because he “bends, but does not break.”

The birth of Demushka's first child brightened Matryona's life. But soon her mother-in-law forbade her to take the child into the field, and the old grandfather Savely did not keep an eye on the baby and fed him to pigs. In front of Matryona's eyes, judges who had arrived from the city performed an autopsy on her child. Matryona could not forget her firstborn, although after that she had five sons. One of them, the shepherd Fedot, once allowed a she-wolf to carry away a sheep. Matryona accepted the punishment assigned to her son. Then, being pregnant with her son Liodor, she was forced to go to the city to seek justice: her husband, bypassing the laws, was taken into the army. Matryona was then helped by the governor Elena Alexandrovna, for whom the whole family is now praying.

By all peasant standards, Matryona Korchagina’s life can be considered happy. But it is impossible to tell about the invisible spiritual storm that passed through this woman - just like about unpaid mortal grievances, and about the blood of the firstborn. Matrena Timofeevna is convinced that a Russian peasant woman cannot be happy at all, because the keys to her happiness and free will are lost to God himself.

At the height of haymaking, wanderers come to the Volga. Here they witness a strange scene. A noble family swims to the shore in three boats. The mowers, having just sat down to rest, immediately jump up to show the old master their zeal. It turns out that the peasants of the village of Vakhlachina help the heirs hide the abolition of serfdom from the crazy landowner Utyatin. The relatives of the Last-Duckling promise the men floodplain meadows for this. But after the long-awaited death of the Last One, the heirs forget their promises, and the whole peasant performance turns out to be in vain.

Here, near the village of Vakhlachina, wanderers listen to peasant songs - corvee songs, hunger songs, soldier songs, salt songs - and stories about serfdom. One of these stories is about the exemplary slave Yakov the Faithful. Yakov's only joy was pleasing his master, the small landowner Polivanov. Tyrant Polivanov, in gratitude, hit Yakov in the teeth with his heel, which aroused even greater love in the lackey’s soul. As Polivanov grew older, his legs became weak, and Yakov began to follow him like a child. But when Yakov’s nephew, Grisha, decided to marry the beautiful serf Arisha, Polivanov, out of jealousy, gave the guy as a recruit. Yakov started drinking, but soon returned to the master. And yet he managed to take revenge on Polivanov - the only way available to him, the lackey. Having taken the master into the forest, Yakov hanged himself right above him on a pine tree. Polivanov spent the night under the corpse of his faithful servant, driving away birds and wolves with groans of horror.

Another story - about two great sinners - is told to the men by God's wanderer Jonah Lyapushkin. The Lord awakened the conscience of the chieftain of the robbers Kudeyar. The robber atoned for his sins for a long time, but all of them were forgiven him only after he, in a surge of anger, killed the cruel Pan Glukhovsky.

The wandering men also listen to the story of another sinner - Gleb the elder, who for money hid the last will of the late widower admiral, who decided to free his peasants.

But it is not only wandering men who think about the people’s happiness. The sexton’s son, seminarian Grisha Dobrosklonov, lives on Vakhlachin. In his heart, love for his late mother merged with love for all of Vakhlachina. For fifteen years now, Grisha knew for sure who he was ready to give his life to, for whom he was ready to die. He thinks of all the mysterious Rus' as a wretched, abundant, powerful and powerless mother, and expects that the indestructible force that he feels in his own soul will still be reflected in it. Such strong souls as Grisha Dobrosklonov’s are called by the angel of mercy to an honest path. Fate is preparing for Grisha “a glorious path, a great name for the people’s intercessor, consumption and Siberia.”

If the wandering men knew what was going on in the soul of Grisha Dobrosklonov, they would probably understand that they could already return to their native shelter, because the goal of their journey had been achieved.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov summary

Who lives well in Rus' summary by chapters

So, in the first part of Nekrasov’s work Who Lives Well in Rus', we get acquainted with the prologue. In the prologue we meet the men. These are seven people who met on the road, and they came from different villages. Each of them has a name and has his own opinion about who lives well in Rus', and then the peasants argue. It seems to Roman that landowners have a good life; Demyan sees happiness in being an official. It seems to Luka that priests have the best life. Pakhom says that it is better for ministers to live in Rus', and the Gubin Brothers claim that merchants have a wonderful life, but Prov says that kings feel the best.

And while arguing, they did not notice how night had fallen. We decided to spend the night in the forest, continuing our argument. All the animals run away from their screams; the chick, which was caught by one of the men, also flew out of the nest. The mother bird asks to give up the chick, fulfilling everyone’s wishes in return. Next, the bird tells where to find a tablecloth - a self-assembled tablecloth. Having sat down to feast, they decide not to go home until they answer the question of who exactly is living well.

Chapter 1

The men meet a priest, who is asked how his life is and whether he is happy with life. The priest replied that if happiness for them is wealth and honor, then this is not about priests. The priest today is not respected, his income is scanty, because the nobles and landowners have left for the capital, and ordinary mortals cannot take much from them. At the same time, the priest is called to his place at any time of the year and in any weather.