One of the most famous works of the Russian poet Nikolai Nekrasov is the poem "Who Should Live Well in Russia". The summary of this work will help you to study it thoroughly, to learn in all details the history of the journey of seven peasants across the country in search of a truly happy person. Events in the poem unfold shortly after the historical abolition of serfdom, which took place in 1861.
The plot of the story
The poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia," a brief summary of which is given in this article, begins with the fact that there are seven peasants on the main road. All of them were recently serfs, and now temporarily liable, living in neighboring villages with speaking and frankly depressing names - Dyryavin, Zaplatov, Gorelov, Razutov, Neyolov, Znobishin and Neurozhayka.
A dispute arises between them who live in Russia in a fun and free way today. Each of them has its own version. Someone believes that the landowner is living well, also among the versions are an official, a priest, a sovereign minister, a boyar, a merchant and the tsar himself.
You will learn how this debate will end, from the poem "To whom to live well in Russia" by Nekrasov. You can read it very briefly if you read this article. While talking, the men do not notice that they gave a hook in as many as 30 miles, realizing that it’s too late to return home today, they make a fire, pour vodka and continue to argue. Gradually, the argument grows into a fight, but even after it it is not possible to decide who is right.
The decision comes unexpectedly. One of the disputants, named Pakhom, picks up chicks to free him, the bird tells peasants where to find a self-made tablecloth. So all parties to the dispute become provided with bread, vodka and all other food necessary for the trip. Then they decide to find out for themselves who lives well in Russia. A brief summary of this work will help you quickly recall the main episodes if you read the work itself long ago or decided to get to know it in a truncated version.
Pop
The first person they meet is pop. His men are beginning to wonder whether he is living well. He reasonably replies that happiness is in wealth, peace and honor. He himself does not possess any of these benefits.
In the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia", a brief summary of which will help you prepare for the exam or standings, the pop describes his unenviable fate. In any weather, he is forced to go where people are sick, born or die. His soul is torn from the sadness of orphans, sobbing over the coffin, so he does not always decide to take money for his work.
You can’t count on more. The landowners, who used to live in family estates, lived in them all year round, married and baptized children, are now scattered throughout the country, and someone has gone abroad, so you can’t count on retribution from them.
Well, the fact that few people revere the priest, men themselves know, he sums up. As a result, the heroes of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" (a brief summary of the chapters will help to better understand this work) becomes even uncomfortable when the clergyman begins to recall insults and obscene songs that are regularly heard in his address.
Rural fair
As a result, the heroes of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia," a brief summary of which is now in front of you, get to the village fair in the village of Kuzminskoye. There they begin to ask people about true happiness.
The village is rich but dirty. It has a paramedic hut, a rickety house in which there was once a "school", an untidy hotel, and many drinking establishments.
He meets an old man, Vavil, who cannot buy shoes for his granddaughter, because he drank everything. Pavlush Veretennikov rescues him, whom everyone around for some reason calls "master"; he buys a present for the old man.
Heroes are watching the booth Petrushka, trying to understand where to live well in Russia. The summary of the poem will help to better consider the author’s intention. They see that every trading day ends with booze and brawl. However, they do not agree with Pavlush, who offers to measure the peasant according to the masters. The peasants themselves are sure that it is impossible for a sober person to live in Russia. In this case, there is no way to endure either peasant misfortune or overwork.
Yakim Nagoy
This statement is also confirmed by Yakim Nagoy, who came from the village of Bosovo, who, as everyone around them says, "works to death, drinks to death." At the same time, during the fire, he himself does not save the accumulated money, but his favorite pictures, which are completely useless. He believes that when drunkenness ends in Russia, great sorrow will come.
The wanderers try to find further where to live well in Russia. The summary describes in detail their attempts. They promise to give the gift of the lucky, but there are none. It turns out that for a free drink, both the yard, paralyzed, and the tattered beggar are ready to declare themselves happy.
Yermil Girin
Finally, the characters learn the story of Yermil Girin. It tells about the bermistra, who is known in the district for his honesty and justice in the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" by Nekrasov. A summary of the chapters gives a complete picture of the work. For example, men lent him money when he needed to buy a mill without even requiring a receipt. But even now he is unhappy, as he was in prison after a peasant riot.
The poem tells in detail about the nobles, many of whom were unhappy after the peasants gained freedom. A 60-year-old landowner named Gavrila Obolt-Obolduyev says that before the master, everything was fun: cornfields, forests, serf actors, hunters, musicians, they all belonged to him, he himself was kind to them.
The peasants themselves understand that serfdom was far from the idyll painted by Obolduev, but they understand that the abolition of serfdom hit both the gentleman, who had lost his usual way of life, and the peasants.
Russian women
Disappointed to find happy among men, the heroes begin to be interested in women, who and why live well in Russia. This episode is also summarized. One of the wanderers recalls that Matrena Korchagin lives in the village of Klin. Everyone around her is considered lucky. But she herself does not think so, telling the story of her life.
She was born into a wealthy and non-drinking peasant family. Her husband was a stove-maker from the neighboring village, Philip Korchagin. But only the night was happy for her, when the future husband persuaded her to marry him. Then began the monotonous life of a Russian woman in the village.
At the same time, she admits that her husband loved her, beat her only once, but soon left for St. Petersburg to earn money. Matrena had to get along in her father-in-law's family. Only Grandpa Savely felt sorry for her, who returned after hard labor, in which he fell due to the murder of a manager from Germany, whom everyone hated.
Firstborn
Soon Matrena was born the first-born, who was named Demushka. But the mother-in-law did not allow taking the child with him to the field, and old Savely did not watch him, and the pigs ate him. In front of mother’s eyes, the judges who arrived from the city performed an autopsy. After her, five sons were born, but she did not forget the first-born.
A lot of suffering fell to her. One of her sons, Fedot, overlooked the sheep and one was taken away by a she-wolf to protect him, Matryona took the punishment upon herself. Being pregnant with Liodor, she had to go to the city to seek justice when her husband was illegally taken into the soldiers. Then the governor helped her, for which now everyone is praying in the family.
Matrena can be considered happy only by unpretentious peasant standards. But in her soul there are many deadly insults, moreover, she is convinced that in Russia a peasant woman cannot live happily.
On the Volga
On the great Russian river, wanderers find themselves in the midst of haymaking. Then they become witnesses of another strange scene. A family of boats floats to the shore in several boats. The pigs, who had just sat down to rest, jump to show their master zeal.
These are peasants from the village of Vakhlachina, who in every possible way help the heirs to hide the abolition of serfdom from the landowner Utyatin, who has completely lost his mind. In exchange for this service, his relatives promised the peasants floodplain meadows. But when the old landowner still dies, the heirs do not keep their word, it turns out that the whole performance that the peasants staged was in vain.
Peasant songs
Listening to a variety of peasant songs in this village, the main characters of the poem "Who should live well in Russia." A summary of the chapters will let you know what this work is about without even reading it. Among them are soldier, corvee, salty, hungry. All these are stories from the time of serfdom.
One of them is devoted to an approximate and honest serf named Jacob. His only joy in life was to please his master. It was a small landowner Polivanov. He was a tyrant, in gratitude for his dedication and faithful service, he knocked out his teeth with Jacob's heel, causing even greater love in the lackey's soul.
In old age, the landowner lost his legs, then Jacob began to walk after him and take care, like a child. But when the nephew of the peasant decided to marry a local beauty named Arisha, Polivanov himself wants this girl and gives the guy to recruit. Yakov first washed down, but soon returned to his master again. In the end, he took revenge on Polivanov in the only way that was accessible to such a footman like him. Jacob brought the master to the forest and hung himself on a pine tree right in front of his master. Polivanov had to spend the whole night over the corpse of his servant, driving away wolves, birds and other animals.
Great sinners
Another story told about sinners. Her god-wanderer by the name of Jonah Lyapushkin tells the heroes of the poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" by Nekrasov. A summary of this story is also given in this article.
Once the Lord awakened the conscience of the leader of the robbers Kudeyar. He was forced to atone for his sins for a long time, but received absolution only when he killed the cruel gentleman Glukhovsky.
Another sinner is Gleb the Warden. He hid the testament of a widower, who, after his death, ordered the release of the peasants belonging to him, but because of Gleb for a long time no one knew about it.
Grisha Dobrosklonov
In addition to men who want to find out who lives happily in Russia, the son of a local clerk, Grisha Dobrosklonov, a seminarist, is also thinking about national happiness. He loves his deceased mother, this love merges with love for the whole Vakhlachina.
At the age of 15, Grisha already knows for sure who he is ready to die for, in whose hands he is ready to entrust his life. He reflects on the immense mysterious Russia, thinking of her as a mighty, powerless mother, expecting that the force that he increasingly feels within himself will still be reflected in her.
Strong in the spirit of Grisha Dobrosklonov. Fate prepared for him the path of the intercessor, as well as Siberia and consumption.
Guys do not know what is happening in the soul of this hero, otherwise they would have probably understood that they could return home, they learned everything that was necessary.