In the mid-1930s (1934-1936) A. Twardowski wrote the poem Country of Ants, the theme of which was the changes taking place in the village at that time. Evaluation of the book was mixed. The authorities saw in it, first of all, the glorification of collectivization, which is in full swing in the country. But such writers as, for example, B. Pasternak or N. Aseev, noted that the simplicity of the poem is apparent, but in fact it is a rather complicated work. Let's try to understand the reasons for such interpretations.
"The Country of Ants": a summary of Chapter 1. Tie
The poem begins with a description of a difficult ferry crossing, which creaks and swirls with speed. You hear the crack of a rope, the hubbub and the noise of a people heading off somewhere, among which an authorized person stands out. This picture evokes associations with the changes that have occurred in the village, bringing a new, and therefore unknown and frightening life. There are thousands of roads in the world, and one of them, in its own way, is driven by the main character, Nikita Morgunok. Smart, as if sent to a feast, he leads a friend, a horse harnessed to a wagon train. "Goodbye ... fatherly places!" - with these words Nikita ends the first part of the poem "Country of Ants", a brief summary of which you read.
Chapters 2-5. On my way
The wandering Morgunok was in the village where the fun was going on. Nikita was stopped and taken to the table: "Take a walk at the wedding ... - the last one. " At the table, where there was no free space, a generous owner greeted everyone, but the hero did not see the groom or the bride. In response to a question about what they celebrate, they answered him: here is the wedding and a mention of those who were sent to Solovki. So in the poem "Country of Ants" there are images of dispossessed, who were sent to unknown lands by carts along with children and meager belongings. This story is interrupted by a symbolic song about a bird locked in a cage and dreaming of freedom.
Leaving the village, Nikita rode for a long time with his faithful horse, whose shore is more than the eye. The author tells how on the eve of departure he came to Seryom, who was not a horse for him - a man, to consult.
At the end of the day, the hero decided to visit his brother-in-law, whom he had been friends with for twenty years. Their conversation and songs were sad this evening: how will their future be? Each thought of his own.
Nikita married at seventeen, settled in his farm and did not want to go to the collective farm. Grandfather told him that everything had its own term: health, and luck, and wealth. And if you don’t reach the last one by the age of forty (the Morgunk is already thirty-eight), then "look no further." So he went to look for where the mysterious country of Muravius is located, about which the grandfather spoke. According to him, it turned out that there was their own land around. And everything you sow is also yours.
In the morning, the Morgunok sets off again. The farther he travels, the more joyful and beautiful the earth becomes. Now the horse is tired, and Nikita himself does not know either the villages or the villages encountered along the way.
Chapter 5. Meeting with the priest
Suddenly a strange pedestrian saw a hero ahead of him. This was a man, belted with twine with shovels sticking out from under the cassock (clergyman) and a casket behind his back. “Looks like they dispossessed you to the handle?” - with such a question Nikita addresses the priest. He told about his bitter life. All the parishes were closed, and their ministers are doing something. He walks around the villages: where to baptize, where to marry ... But it’s difficult without a horse. And he invited the pop Morgunk to go on together. But the hero refused, saying that he had his own way, and certainly not such that he asked for alms. With that and parted.
Chapter 6. The Tale of Grandfather and Grandmother
Twardowski’s poem, “The Country of Ants,” continues with a story that a dormant Morgunok heard one night from random people he met — there were a lot of them on his long journey.
Century lived in his rickety hut grandfather and woman. Everything went on as usual, and they did not want to change anything. It was only that the water approached their shack every year, and once, when “the waters of all the seas and rivers spilled all over Russia,” they picked up their hut and carried it. Until she pestered one of the estates. Grandfather looked "at the door to the sun" and decided that, to know, he would now live in a new way. So the old people became collective farmers.
Chapter 7. Thoughts on Stalin
Nikita goes on. And suddenly rumor spread among the people: Stalin himself was riding a black horse. With a pipe, in his overcoat, he examines everything, questions and writes himself in a little book. And it seems to Morgunk that the leader is moving towards him. He begins to think about what to ask Comrade Stalin? And the main question comes to his mind: when will “this futility” end, in which everything is scrapped? The hero recalls his former life, and his desires are quite simple: they would allow the authorities to continue to remain at their farm. And the place where he stands, so that was the very country of Muravia, a summary of the grandfather's story about which did not go out of his head.
Chapters 8-10. Stealing a horse
Once the Morgunks called out, and he saw a beggar, whom he led by the hand, like a blind boy. It turned out that it was a former neighbor, Ilya Kuzmich. As a close friend, the hero accepted him: he treated him and began to question him. The interlocutor spoke about life in the region, where he had only a hut in the snow. Of the former good, only the son remained. Now they are walking on the ground, begging. Nikita fell asleep calmly that night, because he was not a stranger next door - a neighbor. Just heard at night through a dream neighing. And in the morning I saw that there was no Gray: Ilya Kuzmich replaced the boy with a horse. Nothing to do - we went further together to look for where the country of Muravia is located. Morgun harnessed to the convoy and pulled it forward heavily, causing curiosity to meet.
In one of the villages they were stopped: they asked, they looked at the documents, but nevertheless they released them. The cart rumbled again. Now the hero was still worried about the fate of Sery, about whom he asked everyone he met.
Once the hero came across a camp, he began to ask to return the horse. They showed him horses - one another is better, but there was no Gray among them. At night, Nikita was tormented by the thought: after all, the gypsies are stealing, why not take his horse away from them. He even went to the barn, but the guard was ashamed and went on with nothing.
Chapters 11-12. Meeting with the priest and Bugrov
For three days Morgunok dragged the cart, and even got used to the horse’s “position” - A. Tvardovsky continues the story. The country of Ants - a brief summary of Nikita's journey is very similar to the adventures of the heroes of Nekrasov - everything did not come across, although the hero turned out to be very far from home. Tractors met him, planes flew over him in the sky, and he still pulled the train, and the boy followed. Once again he met him on the way to pop, and he was on the horse of Morgunk. The hero tried to catch up with him, but while he got out of the clamps, the trace caught a cold.
In one of the towns Nikita got to the bazaar. He began to look for horses of gray color, but even here he did not find his horse. Then Morgunok saw a beggar standing by the fence: he brought out a song and held a hat with alms. Having recognized Ivan Kuzmich in it, Nikita crushed the former neighbor under him, and then led forward. At some point, Bugrov managed to deceive the hero - and again, neither a thief, nor a horse.
Chapters 13-14. Life in the Islands
Drags further his convoy Morgunok. Suddenly a tractor stops nearby, and the young driver offers to drag the cart to the collective farm. After listening to Nikita's story, the guy advised me to go to the Islands, where you could get a horse. Having handed over the cart for a receipt, the hero headed to a neighboring village, barely visible in a sea of wheat.
The collective farm was not here, everyone lived for himself. The first thing our traveler saw was complete devastation. Miserable huts, fallen wattle fences, people sitting idle - this is how Twardowski Islands is described.
The “Country of Ants” (a summary of the poem you are reading) continues with a conversation with the grandfather who made the pipes. He led the guest into his thin courtyard and pointed to a horse, gray-haired and blind from old age. “Yes, that's how people live here,” says Morgunok, and then draws a gloomy conclusion: it’s impossible. With bitterness, he told new acquaintances about a faithful friend - a stolen horse. Listeners choked, about then they started a song that the hero had heard from his grandfather about twenty-five years ago.
Chapters 15-17. On the collective farm
Having gone for a cart, Nikita got on a current. With pleasure he took up the work: both grain and straw were a shaft. A man came up to help him, who turned out to be the chairman. The head of the collective farm decided to show the guest the estate. Morgunka was surprised by the quality factor and seriousness in everything. Made seriously, more precisely, forever - said Andrei Ilyich.
And then the chairman told the story of his life, which is given in the poem "Country of Ants". An analysis of it shows the typicality of people who represented Soviet power. He was born in a poor large family, in which all men were strong as a match. In Civilian got six wounds, but survived. Then he participated in the division of land, for which he repeatedly received threats. One night, the local rich Grachev kept him away from the village and brutally beat him. Andrei Ilyich barely managed to crawl home, but he did not lose faith in his work. He bequeathed the same to his own son - to faithfully serve the Soviet country.
And at night, the local watchman started a conversation with Morgunk about the difficult fate of the wanderer. An old man from their collective farm is wandering somewhere, going on a pilgrimage, or an ordinary peasant goes in search of work, or the famous Stepka Grachev returns home from the canal with a thought of revenge ... So A. Tvardovsky expands the narrative. The “Country of Ants” (analysis of the poem leads to this idea) turns into a narrative about the fate of a Russian peasant in the difficult post-revolutionary years.
Chapters 18-19. Horse return and denouement
And in the morning on the collective farm a wedding was celebrated: in a folk style, on a grand scale. Here Morgunok heard eulogies about a new life. And suddenly, amidst the fun, a horse appeared at the palisade, and the mistress secretly informed her husband about the arrival of the priest, ready to marry the young. Hearing the conversation, Nikita immediately understood everything, fell off his feet, and a minute later he was already hanging on the neck of his Gray.
And now they are on their way again. Nikita thought: a lot has been seen during this time, but where is the country that his grandfather described? With this question, he turned to an old man sitting on a stump. He thought, and then replied that there was no longer the Murava country. It was and disappeared, overgrown with grass. One way, the other: no matter where you look, the only way is left. To the collective farm. So ends the poem "Country of Ants".
Analysis and idea of the work
Morgunok and the very construction of the poem are largely reminiscent of "To whom to live well in Russia" by Nekrasov. This is another attempt to answer the question that has always worried the peasants about where the best share lies.
The main character is a collective image of a man who always lived on the earth and was engaged in his own household. And suddenly he found himself in a world where traditions that had existed for centuries were destroyed. His admiration for nature and the eared fields, the joy of working on a collective farm current (yearned) testify to the immense love for his native land-nurse.
The horse’s image is symbolic in the poem “The Country of Ants”, the content of which is directly related to his theft and tireless searches. He was always the support of the peasant, his main wealth. That is why it was difficult under the new orders to take cattle to the collective farm, where there was no proper care for it. And although in the last chapters Morgunok admires what he saw on the collective farm and even thinks about joining it, it is obvious that collectivization caused great damage to the village, since the peasants ceased to be masters of the land. And not every “fist” has gained its “wealth” using other people's labor.
Such not very funny thoughts are caused by the poem “The Country of Ants” by A. Twardowski.