The great Russian poet N. A. Nekrasov was born and raised in the countryside, among endless meadows and fields. As a boy, he liked to run away from home to his village friends. Here he met with ordinary working people. Later, becoming a poet, he created a number of truthful works about ordinary poor people, their way of life, speech, and Russian nature.

Even the names of the villages speak of their social status: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayko and others. The priest who met him also spoke about their plight: “The peasant himself needs, and he would be glad to give, but there is nothing ...”.

On the one hand, the weather fails: either it rains constantly, or the sun scorches mercilessly, burning the crop. On the other hand, most of the harvest has to be paid in the form of taxes:

Look, there are three equity holders:

God, king and lord

The peasants at Nekrasov are great workers:

Not white women are tender,

And we are great people

At work and in the party!

One of these representatives is Yakim Nagoi:

He works to death

Drink half to death!

Another representative of the "great people" - Ermila Girin is shown as an honest, fair, conscientious man. He is respected among the peasants. The fact that when Yermila turned to the people for help, everyone chipped in and rescued Girin speaks of the great confidence in him of his compatriots. He, in turn, returned everything to the penny. And he gave the remaining unclaimed ruble to the blind man.

While in the service, he tried to help everyone and did not take a penny for it: "You need a bad conscience - soak a penny from a peasant."

Once having stumbled and sent another recruit instead of his brother, Jirin suffers mentally to the point that he is ready to take his own life.

In general, the image of Girin is tragic. Wanderers learn that he is in prison for helping a rebellious village.

Equally bleak is the fate of the peasant woman. In the image of Matrena Timofeevna, the author shows the stamina and endurance of a Russian woman.

The fate of Matrena includes hard work, on a par with men, and family relationships, and the death of her first child. But she bears all the blows of fate without a murmur. And when it comes to her loved ones, she stands up for them. It turns out that among women there are no happy ones:

Keys to female happiness

From our free will

Abandoned, lost, with God himself!

Supports Matryona Timofeevna only Savely. This is an old man who was once a holy Russian hero, but who spent his strength on hard work and hard labor:

Where are you, power, gone?

What were you good for?

Under rods, under sticks

Gone little by little!

Savely has weakened physically, but his faith in a better future is alive. He constantly repeats: “Branded, but not a slave!”

It turns out that Savely was sent to hard labor for burying the German Vogel alive, who was disgusted with the peasants by mercilessly mocking them and oppressing them.

Nekrasov calls Savely "a hero of the Holy Russian":

And it bends, but does not break,

Doesn't break, doesn't fall...

At Prince Peremetyev's

I was a favorite slave.

Prince Utyatin's footman Ipat admires his master.

About these peasant slaves, Nekrasov says this:

People of the servile rank

Real dogs sometimes.

The more severe the punishment

So dear to them, gentlemen.

In fact, the psychology of slavery has so ingrained itself into their souls that it has completely killed their human dignity.

Thus, the peasants of Nekrasov are heterogeneous, like any society of people. But for the most part they are honest, hardworking, striving for freedom, and therefore, fortunately, representatives of the peasantry.

It is no coincidence that the poem ends with a song about Russia, in which one can hear the hope for the enlightenment of the Russian people:

The army rises innumerable,

The strength in it will be invincible!

Updated: 2017-12-28

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In the poem by N.A. Nekrasov, unlike the peasants, the landowners do not cause sympathy. They are negative and unpleasant. The image of the landlords in the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" is collective. The poet's talent was clearly manifested in his ability to see in individual terms the general characters of the entire social stratum of Russia.

Landlords of the Nekrasov poem

The author introduces readers to the images of landlord Russia, serf and free. Their attitude towards the common people is indignant. The lady loves to flog men who inadvertently utter words familiar to them - swear words for literate gentlemen. The landowner seems to be a little kinder than Polivanov, who, having bought the village, "freezes" and barges in it "in a terrible way."

Fate laughed at the cruel landowner. The master pays his faithful servant with ingratitude. Jacob says goodbye to life before his eyes. Polivanov drives away wolves and birds all night, trying to save his life and not go crazy with fear. Why did faithful Yakov punish Polivanov so? The master sends the servant's nephew to serve, not wanting to marry him to a girl who himself liked. Sick, practically motionless (legs failed), he still hopes to take away what he liked from the peasants. There is no feeling of gratitude in the master's soul. A servant taught him and revealed the sinfulness of his actions, but only at the cost of his life.

Obolt-Obolduev

Barin Gavrila Afanasyevich already outwardly resembles the images of the landowners of all Russia: round, mustachioed, pot-bellied, ruddy. The author uses in the description diminutive suffixes with a dismissive caressing pronunciation - -enk and others. But the description does not change. Cigar, C grade, sweetness does not cause tenderness. There is a sharply opposite attitude towards the character. I want to turn around and walk past. The landowner does not evoke pity. The master tries to behave valiantly, but he fails. Seeing wanderers on the road, Gavrila Afanasyevich was frightened. The peasants, who received liberty, did not deny themselves the desire to avenge many years of humiliation. He pulls out a pistol. The weapon in the hands of the landowner becomes a toy, not real.

Obolt-Obolduev is proud of his origin, but the author also doubts it. For which he received the title and power: the ancestor amused the queen by playing with a bear. Another progenitor was executed for trying to burn the capital and rob the treasury. The landowner is accustomed to comfort. He is not yet accustomed to the fact that he is not served. Talking about his happiness, he asks the peasants for a pillow for comfort, a carpet for comfort, a glass of sherry for mood. The continuous holiday of the landowner with many servants is a thing of the past. Dog hunting, Russian fun pleased the lordly spirit. Obolduev was pleased with the power he possessed. I liked hitting men. Vivid epithets are selected by Nekrasov to the “blows” of Gavrila Afanasyevich:

• Sparkling;
• Furious;
• Cheekbones.

Such metaphors do not agree with the stories of the landowner. He claimed that he took care of the peasants, loved them, treated them on holidays. It’s a pity for Obolduev of the past: who will pardon a peasant if you can’t beat him. The connection between the lordly stratum and the peasant was broken. The landowner believes that both sides suffered, but it is felt that neither the wanderers nor the author support his words. The landowner's economy is in decline. He has no idea how to restore his former state, because he cannot work. Obolt's words sound bitter:

“I smoked the sky of God, wore the royal livery, littered the people’s treasury and thought to live like this for a century ...”

The landowner, nicknamed the Last

A prince with a telling surname, which the poet loves, Utyatin, who became the Last among the people, is the last landowner of the described system. During his "reign" beloved serfdom was abolished. The prince did not believe in this, he was struck with anger. The cruel and stingy old man kept his relatives in fear. The heirs of the peasants were persuaded to pretend and lead their former way of life when the landowner was nearby. They promised the peasants land. The peasants fell for false promises. The peasants played their part, but they were deceived, which surprised no one: neither the author nor the wanderers.

The appearance of the landowner is the second type of gentleman in Russia. A frail old man, as thin as a hare in winter. There are signs of predators in appearance: a hawkish sharp nose, long mustaches, a sharp look. The appearance of such a dangerous master of life hidden under a soft mask, cruel and stingy. The petty tyrant, having learned that the peasants were "returned to the landowners," is fooling more than ever. The whims of the master are surprising: playing the violin on horseback, bathing in an ice hole, marrying a 70-year-old widow to a 6-year-old boy, forcing the cows to be silent and not lowing, instead of a dog, he puts a wretched deaf-mute as a watchman.

The prince dies happy, he never found out about the abolition of the right.

One can recognize the author's irony in the image of each landowner. But this is laughter through tears. The grief that the rich fools and the ignorant peasantry have poured into them will last more than one century. Not everyone will be able to rise from their knees and use their will. Not everyone will understand what to do with it. Many men will regret the nobility, the philosophy of serfdom has entered their brains so firmly. The author believes: Russia will rise from sleep, rise, and happy people will fill Russia.

Introduction

Starting work on the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", Nekrasov dreamed of creating a large-scale work that would reflect all the knowledge about the peasants he had accumulated over his life. From early childhood, before the eyes of the poet, there was a "spectacle of the disasters of the people", and the first childhood impressions prompted him to further study the way of peasant life. Hard work, human grief, and at the same time - the enormous spiritual strength of the people - all this was noticed by Nekrasov's attentive gaze. And it is precisely because of this that in the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia”, the images of the peasants look so reliable, as if the poet personally knew his heroes. It is logical that the poem, in which the people are the main character, has a large number of peasant images, but it is worth looking at them more closely - and we will be struck by the diversity and liveliness of these characters.

The image of the main characters-wanderers

The first peasants the reader meets are the truth-seekers who argued about who lives well in Russia. For the poem, it is not so much their individual images that are important, but the whole idea that they express - without them, the plot of the work would simply fall apart. And, nevertheless, Nekrasov endows each of them with a name, a native village (the names of the villages are already eloquent in themselves: Gorelovo, Zaplatovo ...) and certain traits of character and appearance: Luka is an inveterate debater, Pahom is an old man. And the views of the peasants, despite the integrity of their image, are different, each does not deviate from his views until the fight. On the whole, the image of these peasants is a group image, and therefore the most basic features, characteristic of almost any peasant, stand out in it. This is extreme poverty, stubbornness and curiosity, the desire to find the truth. Note that describing the peasants dear to his heart, Nekrasov still does not embellish their images. He also shows vices, mainly general drunkenness.

The peasant theme in the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” is not the only one - during their journey, the peasants will meet both the landowner and the priest, they will hear about the life of different classes - merchants, nobles, clergy. But all other images in one way or another serve to more fully reveal the main theme of the poem: the life of peasants in Russia immediately after the reform.

Several mass scenes are introduced into the poem - a fair, a feast, a road along which many people are walking. Here Nekrasov portrays the peasantry as a single entity that thinks the same way, speaks unanimously and even sighs at the same time. But at the same time, the images of the peasants depicted in the work can be divided into two large groups: honest working people who value their freedom and peasant slaves. In the first group, Yakim Nagoi, Ermil Girin, Trofim and Agap are especially distinguished.

Positive images of peasants

Yakim Nagoi is a typical representative of the poorest peasantry, and he himself looks like “mother earth”, like “a layer cut off by a plow”. All his life he works "to death", but at the same time remains a beggar. His sad story: he once lived in St. Petersburg, but started a lawsuit with a merchant, ended up in prison because of her and returned from there "like a peeled velvet" - nothing surprises listeners. There were many such destinies in Russia at that time ... Despite hard work, Yakim has the strength to stand up for his compatriots: yes, there are many drunken men, but there are more sober ones, they are all great people "in work and in revelry." Love for the truth, for honest work, the dream of transforming life (“there should be thunder”) - these are the main components of the image of Yakim.

Trofim and Agap complement Yakim in some way, each of them has one main character trait. In the image of Trofim, Nekrasov shows the infinite strength and patience of the Russian people - Trofim once demolished fourteen pounds, and then returned home barely alive. Agap is a lover of truth. He is the only one who refuses to participate in the performance for Prince Utyatin: “The possession of peasant souls is over!”. When they force him, he dies in the morning: it is easier for a peasant to die than to bend back under the yoke of serfdom.

Ermil Girin is endowed by the author with intelligence and incorruptible honesty, for which he is chosen as burgomaster. He “didn’t twist his soul”, and once having strayed from the right path, he could not live not by the truth, he brought repentance before the whole world. But honesty and love for their compatriots do not bring happiness to the peasants: the image of Yermila is tragic. At the time of the story, he is sitting in prison: this is how his help to the rebellious village turned out.

Images of Matryona and Savely

The life of the peasants in Nekrasov's poem would not have been fully depicted without the image of a Russian woman. To reveal the "women's share", which "woe is not life!" the author chose the image of Matrena Timofeevna. “Beautiful, strict and swarthy,” she tells in detail the story of her life, in which she was happy only then, how she lived with her parents in the “girls hall”. After that, hard work began, along with men, work, nit-picking relatives, and the death of the firstborn mangled the fate. Under this story, Nekrasov singled out a whole part in the poem, nine chapters - much more than the stories of the rest of the peasants occupy. This well conveys his special attitude, love for a Russian woman. Matryona impresses with her strength and stamina. She bears all the blows of fate without a murmur, but at the same time she knows how to stand up for her loved ones: she lies down under the rod instead of her son and saves her husband from the soldiers. The image of Matryona in the poem merges with the image of the people's soul - long-suffering and long-suffering, which is why the woman's speech is so rich in songs. These songs are often the only way to pour out your longing...

Another curious image adjoins the image of Matrena Timofeevna - the image of the Russian hero, Savely. Living out his life in the family of Matrona (“he lived a hundred and seven years”), Savely thinks more than once: “Where are you, strength, gone? What were you good for?" The strength was all gone under rods and sticks, wasted during overwork on the German and wasted away in hard labor. In the image of Saveliy is shown tragic fate Russian peasantry, heroes by nature, leading a life completely unsuitable for them. Despite all the hardships of life, Savely did not become embittered, he is wise and affectionate with the disenfranchised (the only one in the family protects Matryona). Shown in his image is the deep religiosity of the Russian people, who were looking for help in faith.

The image of the peasant-serfs

Another type of peasants depicted in the poem are serfs. The years of serfdom have crippled the souls of some people who are accustomed to crawling and can no longer imagine their lives without the power of the landowner over themselves. Nekrasov shows this on the examples of the images of the serfs Ipat and Yakov, as well as the headman Klim. Jacob is the image of a faithful serf. He spent his whole life on fulfilling the whims of his master: “Jakov had only joy: / To groom, protect, appease the master.” However, one cannot live with the master “ladok” - as a reward for the exemplary service of Yakov, the master gives his nephew as a recruit. It was then that Jacob's eyes were opened, and he decided to take revenge on his offender. Klim becomes the boss thanks to the grace of Prince Utyatin. A bad owner and a lazy worker, he, singled out by a master, flourishes from a sense of self-importance: "A proud pig: it itched / O master's porch!" Using the example of the headman, Klima Nekrasov shows how terrible yesterday's serf who got into the bosses is one of the most disgusting human types. But it is difficult to lead an honest peasant heart - and in the village Klim is sincerely despised, not afraid.

So, from the various images of the peasants “Who should live well in Russia”, a whole picture of the people is formed as a huge force, already gradually beginning to rise up and realize its power.

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“Images of peasants in the poem by N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Russia"

Poem N.A. Nekrasov "Who should live well in Russia" was created in the last period of the poet's life (1863-1876). The ideological idea of ​​the poem is indicated already in its title, and then it is repeated in the text: who in Russia has a good life? In the poem “To whom it is good to live in Russia” N.A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their plight. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question, “who lives happily, freely in Russia”, who is worthy and not worthy of happiness? The poet speaks about the essence of the royal manifesto in the words of the people: "You are good, royal letter, but you are not written about us." The poet touched upon the topical problems of his time, condemned slavery and oppression, glorified the freedom-loving, talented, strong-willed Russian people. The author introduces into the poem the image of seven wandering peasants traveling around the country in search of the lucky ones. They live in the villages: Zaplatovo, Dyryavino, Razutovo, Znobishino, Gorelovo, Neelovo, Neurozhayka. They are united by poverty, unpretentiousness, the desire to find a happy person in Russia. Traveling, peasants meet with different people, give them an assessment, determine their attitude to the priest, to the landowner, to the peasant reform, to the peasants. The peasants do not seek happiness among the working people: peasants, soldiers. Their idea of ​​happiness is associated with the images of the clergy, merchants, nobility, and the king. Peasants-truth-seekers have a sense of their own dignity. They are deeply convinced that the working people are better, higher, smarter than the landowner. The author shows the hatred of the peasants for those who live at their expense. Nekrasov also emphasizes the love of the people for work, their desire to help other people. Having learned that Matrena Timofeevna's crop is dying, the men offer her help without hesitation. The peasants of the Illiterate province are just as willing to help mow the grass. “Like teeth from hunger” everyone has a nimble hand.

Traveling in Russia, men meet various people. The disclosure of the images of the heroes met by the truth-seekers allows the author to characterize not only the position of the peasantry, but also the life of the merchants, clergy, and nobility.

After listening to the story of the priest about his "happiness", having received advice to find out about the happiness of the landowner, the peasants cut him off: you are past them, the landowners! We know them! Truth-seekers are not satisfied with the word of the nobility, they need a "Christian word." “Give me a Christian word! Nobility with a scolding, With a push and with a denture, That is unsuitable for us! They have self-respect. In the chapter "Happy" they angrily see off a sexton, a yard clerk, who boasted of his servile position: "Get out!" They sympathize with the terrible story of the soldier and say to him: “Here, drink, servant! There is nothing to argue with you. You are happy - there is no word.

The author pays the main attention to the peasants. The images of Yakim Nagogoy, Yermila Girin, Saveliy, Matrena Timofeevna combine both common, typical features of the peasantry, such as hatred for all “shareholders” who drain their vitality, and individual features.

More fully, Nekrasov reveals the images of peasant fighters who do not grovel before the masters, do not reconcile themselves to their slavish position. Yakim Nagoi from the village of Bosovo lives in dire poverty. He works to death, escaping under a harrow from heat and rain. His portrait testifies to constant hard work:

And myself to mother earth

He looks like: a brown neck,

Like a layer cut off with a plow,

brick face...

The chest is sunken, like a depressed belly. Bends near the eyes, near the mouth, like cracks in the dry earth ... Reading the description of the peasant's face, we understand that Yakim, all his life toiling on a gray, barren piece, himself became like the earth. Yakim admits that most of his labor is appropriated by "shareholders" who do not work, but live on the labors of peasants like him. “You work alone, and as soon as the work is over, look, there are three equity holders: God, the king and the master!” Throughout his long life, Yakim worked, experienced many hardships, starved, went to prison, and, "like a peeled velvet, he returned to his homeland." But still he finds in himself the strength to create at least some kind of life, some kind of beauty. Yakim decorates his hut with pictures, loves and uses a well-aimed word, his speech is full of proverbs and sayings. Yakim is the image of a new type of peasant, a rural proletarian who has been in the seasonal industry. And his voice is the voice of the most resolute peasants. Yakim understands that the peasantry is a great force. He is proud to belong to him. He knows the strength and weakness of the "peasant soul":

Soul that black cloud -

Angry, formidable - and it would be necessary

Thunders rumble from there ...

And everything ends with wine ...

Yakim refutes the opinion that the peasant is poor because he drinks. He reveals the true reason for this situation - the need to work for "shareholders". The fate of Yakim is typical for the peasants of post-reform Russia: he “once lived in St. Petersburg”, but, having lost a lawsuit with a merchant, he ended up in prison, from where he returned, “stripped like a velcro” and “took a plow”.

The writer treats his hero Yermil Girin with great sympathy, a village headman, fair, honest, intelligent, who, according to the peasants: twisted ... ”Yermil acted not in good conscience only once, giving the son of the old woman Vlasyevna instead of his brother to the army. Repentant, he tried to hang himself. According to the peasants, Yermil had everything for happiness: peace of mind, money, honor, but his honor is special, not bought "neither money nor fear: strict truth, intelligence and kindness." The people, defending the worldly cause, in difficult times help Yermil to save the mill, showing exceptional trust in him. This act confirms the ability of the people to act together, in peace. And Ermil, not afraid of the jail, took the side of the peasants when: “the patrimony of the landowner Obrubkov rebelled ...” Ermil Girin is the defender of peasant interests. If the protest of Yakim Nagogoi is spontaneous, then Yermil Girin rises to a conscious protest.

Another hero of the work is Savely. Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero - a fighter for the cause of the people. Savely acts as a folk philosopher. He reflects on whether the people should continue to endure their lack of rights, their oppressed state. Saveliy comes to the conclusion: it is better to “not tolerate” than to “endure”, and he calls for a protest. In his youth, he, like all peasants, for a long time endured cruel abuse from the landowner Shalashnikov, his manager. But Savely cannot accept such an order, and he rebels along with other peasants, he buried the living German Vogel in the ground. "Twenty years of strict penal servitude, twenty years of settlement" Savely received for this. Returning to his native village as an old man, Savely retained good spirits and hatred for the oppressors. "Branded, but not a slave!" he said about himself. Savely to old age retained a clear mind, cordiality, responsiveness. In the poem, he is shown as a people's avenger: "our axes lay - for the time being!" He speaks contemptuously of the passive peasants, calling them "the dead ... the lost." Nekrasov calls Saveliy a Holy Russian hero, raising him very high, emphasizing his heroic character, and also compares him with the folk hero Ivan Susanin. The image of Savely embodies the desire of the people for freedom. The image of Savely is given in one chapter with the image of Matryona Timofeevna not by chance. The poet shows together two heroic Russian characters.

nekrasov poem peasantry rus

In the last chapter, entitled "A Woman's Parable", a peasant woman speaks of the common female share: "The keys to women's happiness, to our free will are abandoned, lost from God himself." But Nekrasov is sure that the "keys" must be found. The peasant woman will wait and achieve happiness. The poet speaks about this in one of Grisha Dobrosklonov's songs: “You are still a slave in the family, but the mother is already a free son!”

With great love, Nekrasov painted images of truth-seekers, fighters, who expressed the strength of the people, the will to fight against the oppressors. However, the writer did not close his eyes to the dark sides of the life of the peasantry. The poem depicts peasants who are corrupted by the masters and have become accustomed to their slavish position. In the chapter "Happy" the truth-seeking peasants meet with a "broken-down courtyard man" who considers himself lucky because he was Prince Peremetyev's favorite slave. The courtyard is proud that his "daughter - together with the young lady studied both French and all kinds of languages, she was allowed to sit down in the presence of the princess." And the courtyard himself stood for thirty years at the chair of the Most Serene Prince, licked the plates after him and drank the rest of the overseas wines. He is proud of his "closeness" to the masters and his "honorable" disease - gout. Simple freedom-loving peasants laugh at a slave who looks down on his fellow peasants, not understanding all the meanness of his lackey position. The court yard of Prince Utyatin Ipat did not even believe that the "freedom" was announced to the peasants: "And I am the princes Utyatin Kholop - and that's the whole story!"

From childhood to old age, the master, as best he could, mocked his slave Ipat. All this the footman took for granted: “He ransomed me, the last slave, in the winter in the hole! Yes, how wonderful! Two ice-holes: he will lower it in a seine into one, he will instantly pull it out into the other and bring vodka. ” Ipat could not forget the master's "favors" that, after swimming in the hole, the prince would "bring vodka", then he would plant "nearby, unworthy, with his princely person."

The obedient slave is also shown in the image of "an exemplary serf - Jacob the faithful." Yakov served with the cruel Mr. Polivanov, who "in the teeth of an exemplary serf ... casually blew with his heel." Despite such treatment, the faithful slave protected and gratified the master until his old age. The landowner severely offended his faithful servant by recruiting his beloved nephew Grisha. Jacob "stupid". First, he "drank it dead", and then he brought the master into a deaf forest ravine and hung himself on a pine tree above his head. The poet condemns such manifestations of protest in the same way as servile obedience.

With deep indignation, Nekrasov speaks of such traitors to the people's cause as the headman Gleb. He, bribed by the heir, destroyed the "free" given to the peasants before his death by the old master-admiral, than "for decades, until recently, eight thousand souls were secured by the villain." For images of courtyard peasants who became slaves of their masters and abandoned true peasant interests, the poet finds words of angry contempt: a slave, a serf, a dog, Judas.

The poem also notes such a feature of the Russian peasantry as religiosity. It's a way to get away from reality. God is the supreme judge, from whom the peasants seek protection and justice. Faith in God is the hope for a better life.

Nekrasov concludes the characteristics with a typical generalization: “people of the servile rank - real dogs sometimes: the harder the punishment, the dearer they are to the Lord. By creating different types peasants, Nekrasov claims, there are no happy ones among them, that even after the abolition of serfdom, the peasants are still destitute and bled dry. But among the peasants there are people capable of conscious, active protest, and he believes that with the help of such people in the future in Russia everyone will live well, and in the first place good life for the Russian people. “The limits of the Russian people have not yet been set: there is a wide path ahead of them” N.A. Nekrasov in the poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” recreated the life of the peasantry in post-reform Russia, revealed the typical character traits of Russian peasants, showing that this is a force to be reckoned with, which is gradually beginning to realize its rights.

AT literary works we find an image of people, their way of life, feelings. In the 19th century, there were 2 classes in Russian society: peasants and nobles - with a dissimilar culture and language, so some writers wrote about peasants, while others wrote about nobles. In Krylov, Pushkin, Gogol and others, we will see the image of the peasants. They all portrayed the peasants as different, but they also had a lot in common. Krylov Ivan Andreevich, for example, in his fable "Dragonfly and Ant" shows the example of an ant - a hard worker peasant whose life is hard, and a dragonfly means the opposite. And we see this in many of Krylov's fables.

Another writer, one of the greatest representatives of the culture of the 19th century, Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. We know that Pushkin loved his Motherland and his people very much, so the writer was very worried about the problems of the Russian society. In Pushkin, the image of the peasantry, first of all, is manifested in his two most important works " Captain's daughter"and" Dubrovsky. In these works, Pushkin describes the life and customs of the peasants of that time, in his works he speaks of the simple Russian people not as a crowd, but as a close-knit team that understands that anti-serfdom sentiments are quite real. In the first work, we see how the author describes the peasant uprising of Pugachev, in the second we see the confrontation between the peasantry and the nobility. In each of the works, the writer emphasizes the difficult condition of the peasants, as well as the sharp disagreement between the two classes, arising from the oppression of one class by the other.

In addition to Pushkin, Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol raises this topic. The image of the peasantry that Gogol paints is presented, of course, in his work Dead Souls. Gogol in his poem presented Russian society not only in greatness, but also with all its vices. The author presents us in his work with many faces of different power structures and depicts terrible pictures of serfdom. Gogol says that the peasants are presented as slaves of the landlords, as things that can be given away or sold. But despite the fact that Gogol shows such an unflattering picture of the life of the peasantry and sympathizes with them, nevertheless, he does not idealize them, but only shows the strength of the Russian people. It is this idea that the author reflects in chapter 11:

"Oh, trio! bird troika, who invented you? to know that you could only be born among a lively people, in that land that does not like to joke, but spread out like a smooth smooth halfway across the world, and go and count miles until it fills your eyes. And not a cunning, it seems, road projectile, not captured by an iron screw, but hastily alive, with one ax and a chisel, a smart Yaroslavl peasant equipped and assembled you. The coachman is not in German boots: a beard and mittens, and the devil knows what he sits on; but he got up, but swung, and dragged on a song - the horses whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels mixed up in one smooth circle, only the road trembled and the stopped pedestrian screamed in fright! and there she rushed, rushed, rushed! .. And there you could already see in the distance, how something was dusting and boring the air.
Isn't that how you, Russia, that brisk, unbeatable troika, are rushing about? The road smokes under you, the bridges rumble, everything lags behind and is left behind. The contemplator, struck by God's miracle, stopped: is it not lightning thrown from the sky? What does this terrifying movement mean? and what kind of unknown power lies in these horses unknown to the light? Oh, horses, horses, what horses! Are whirlwinds sitting in your manes? Does a sensitive ear burn in every vein of yours? They heard a familiar song from above, together and at once strained their copper breasts and, almost without touching the ground with their hooves, turned into only elongated lines flying through the air, and rushes, all inspired by God! .. Russia, where are you rushing, give me an answer? Doesn't give an answer. A bell is filled with a wonderful ringing; the air torn to pieces rumbles and becomes the wind; everything that is on the earth flies past, and other peoples and states squinting aside and give it the way.

Gogol in this passage emphasizes the strength of the people and the strength of Russia, and also reflects his attitude towards the Russian simple working people.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, like previous authors, became interested in the topic of enslavement. The image of the peasantry is presented by Turgenev in his collection Notes of a Hunter. This collection consists of a number of stories not interconnected, but united by one theme. The author speaks about the peasantry. Many believe that the author painted images of peasants, emphasizing the most typical features of the Russian national character. Turgenev in his stories describes the life of the peasantry and the life of the peasants.

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov expressed his views on serfdom in the work “Who is living well in Russia?”. Already in the title it is clear what the story is about. The main place in the poem is the position of peasants under serfdom and after its abolition. The author tells that several serfs set off on a journey to find out who in Russia should live well. The peasants meet with different people, through the meetings we see the attitude towards the peasant question and towards the peasants in general.

The theme of the peasantry played an important role in the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. He expresses his criticism in satirical tales. The author truthfully reflected Russia, in which the landowners are omnipotent and oppress the peasants. But not everyone understands the true meaning of the tale. In his fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin ridicules the landowners' inability to work, their negligence and stupidity. This is also discussed in the fairy tale "The Wild Landowner". In the tale, the author reflects on the unlimited power of the landowners, who oppress the peasants in every possible way. The author makes fun of the ruling class. The life of a landowner without peasants is absolutely impossible. The author sympathizes with the people.