Works about peasants. The image of a peasant in Russian literature. The most striking character

Democratic writers have given enormous
material for knowledge of economics
everyday life... psychological characteristics
people... depicted their morals, customs,
his moods and desires.
M. Gorky

In the 60s years XIX century, the emergence of realism as a complex and diverse phenomenon is associated with the deepening of literature in the coverage of peasant life, during inner world personality, into the spiritual life of the people. The literary process of realism is an expression of various facets of life and at the same time the desire for a new harmonic synthesis, merging with the poetic element of folk art. The artistic world of Russia, with its original, highly spiritual, primordially national art of folk poetry, has constantly aroused the keen interest of literature. Writers turned to the artistic understanding of folk moral and poetic culture, the aesthetic essence and poetics of folk art, as well as folklore as an integral folk worldview.

It was the folk principles that were the exceptional factor that determined, to some extent, the path of development of Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century and especially Russian democratic prose. Folklore and ethnography in the literary process of time become the phenomenon that determines the aesthetic character of many works of the 1840-1860s.

The theme of the peasantry permeates all Russian literature of the 19th century. The literature delves into the coverage of peasant life, into the inner world and national character of the people. In the works of V.I. Dalia, D.V. Grigorovich, in “Notes of a Hunter” by I.S. Turgenev, in “Essays from Peasant Life” by A.F. Pisemsky, in the stories of P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, N.S. Leskov, early L.N. Tolstoy, P.I. Yakushkina, S.V. Maksimov, in Russian democratic prose of the 60s and in general in Russian realism of the second half of the 19th century, the desire to recreate pictures of people's life was imprinted.

Already in the 1830-1840s, the first works on the actual ethnographic study of the Russian people appeared: collections of songs, fairy tales, proverbs, legends, descriptions of the morals and customs of antiquity, folk art. A lot of song and other folklore and ethnographic material appears in magazines. At this time, ethnographic research, as noted famous literary critic And critic XIX century A.N. Pypin, proceed from the conscious intention to study the true character of the people in its true expressions in the content of folk life and ancient legends.

The collection of ethnographic materials in the subsequent 50s “took on truly grandiose proportions.” This was facilitated by the influence of the Russian Geographical Society, the Moscow Society of History and Antiquities, a number of scientific, including literary, expeditions of the 50s, as well as a new body of folk studies that arose in the 60s - the Moscow Society of Lovers of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography.

The great role of the outstanding folklorist-collector P.V. Kireevsky. Already in the 30s of the 19th century, he managed to create a kind of collecting center and involve his outstanding contemporaries in the study and collection of folklore - up to A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol inclusive. The songs, epics and spiritual poems published by Kireyevsky were the first monumental collection of Russian folklore.

In a collection of songs, Kireyevsky wrote: “Whoever has not heard a Russian song even above his cradle and who has not been accompanied by its sounds in all the transitions of life, of course, his heart will not flutter at its sounds: it is not like those sounds on which his soul has grown up, or she will be incomprehensible to him as an echo of the rude mob, with whom he feels nothing in common; or, if she has a special musical talent, he will be curious about her as something original and strange...” 1 . His attitude towards folk song, which embodied both personal inclinations and ideological convictions, led to his turning to practical work over collecting Russian songs.

The love for Russian song will subsequently unite the members of the “young editorial staff” of the Moskvityanin magazine, and S.V. will write about it. Maksimov, P.I. Yakushkin, F.D. Nefedov, song genre folk poetry will organically enter into their literary creativity.

“Moskvityanin” published songs, fairy tales, descriptions of individual rituals, correspondence, articles about folklore and folk life.

M.P. Pogodin, magazine editor, writer and prominent public figure, with exceptional persistence put forward the task of collecting monuments of folk art and folk life, intensively recruited collectors from different layers society, attracted them to participate in the magazine. He also contributed to the first steps in this field of P.I. Yakushkina.

A special role in the development of ethnographic interests of writers was played by the “young editorial staff” of the magazine “Moskvityanin”, headed by A.N. Ostrovsky. Member of the “young editorial staff” in different times included: A.A. Grigoriev, E. Endelson, B. Almazov, M. Stakhovich, T. Filippov, A.F. Pisemsky and P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky.

Already in the 40s and early 50s, Russian literature turned more deeply to the peasant theme. In the literary process it takes time leading place natural school 2.

NATURAL SCHOOL - designation of a species that existed in the 40-50s of the 19th century Russian realism(as defined by Yu.V. Mann), continuously associated with the work of N.V. Gogol and who developed his artistic principles. The natural school includes the early works of I.A. Goncharova, N.A. Nekrasova, I.S. Turgeneva, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.I. Herzen, D.V. Grigorovich, V.I. Dalia, A.N. Ostrovsky, I.I. Panaeva, Ya.P. Butkova and others. The main ideologist natural school was V.G. Belinsky, the development of its theoretical principles was also facilitated by V.N. Maikov, A.N. Pleshcheev and others. Representatives were grouped around the magazines “Otechestvennye zapiski” and later “Sovremennik”. The collections “Physiology of St. Petersburg” (parts 1-2, 1845) and “Petersburg Collection” (1846) became the program for the natural school. In connection with the latest edition, the name itself arose.

F.V. Bulgarin (“Northern Bee”, 1846, No. 22) used it to discredit writers of the new direction; Belinsky, Maikov and others took this definition, filling it with positive content. The novelty of the artistic principles of the natural school was most clearly expressed in “physiological essays” - works that aim to extremely accurately record certain social types (“physiology” of a landowner, peasant, official), their specific differences (“physiology” of a St. Petersburg official, Moscow official), social, professional and everyday characteristics, habits, attractions, etc. By striving for documentation, for precise detail, using statistical and ethnographic data, and sometimes introducing biological accents into the typology of characters, the “physiological sketch” expressed the tendency of a certain convergence of figurative and scientific consciousness at this time and... contributed to the expansion of the positions of realism. At the same time, it is unlawful to reduce the natural school to “physiologies”, because other genres rose above them - novel, story 3 .

Writers of the natural school - N.A. Nekrasov, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, A.I. Herzen, F.M. Dostoevsky - known to students. However, speaking about this literary phenomenon, we should also consider writers who remain outside the literary education of schoolchildren, such as V.I. Dahl, D.V. Grigorovich, A.F. Pisemsky, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, with whose work students are not familiar, and in their works the peasant theme is developed, being the beginning of literature from peasant life, continued and developed by the fiction writers of the sixties. Familiarity with the work of these writers seems necessary and deepens students’ knowledge of the literary process.

In the 1860s, the peasant element most widely penetrated into cultural process era. The literature states " folk direction"(term by A.N. Pypin). Peasant types and the folk way of life are fully included in Russian literature.

Russian democratic prose, represented in the literary process by the works of N.G., made its special contribution to the depiction of people’s life. Pomyalovsky 4, V.A. Sleptsova, N.V. Uspensky, A.I. Levitova, F.M. Reshetnikova, P.I. Yakushkina, S.V. Maksimova. Entering literary process during the revolutionary situation in Russia and in the post-reform era, it reflected new approach to the image of the people, highlighted the real pictures of their life, became "sign of the times", recreated the peasant world in Russian literature at a turning point in history, capturing various trends in the development of realism 5 .

The emergence of democratic prose was caused by changing historical and social circumstances, the socio-political conditions of life in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, and the arrival of writers in literature for whom “the study of people’s life became a necessity” (A.N. Pypin) 6 . Democratic writers uniquely reflected the spirit of the era, its aspirations and hopes. They, as A.M. wrote. Gorky, “gave enormous material for understanding the economic life, psychological characteristics of the people... depicted their morals, customs, their mood and desires” 7 .

The people of the sixties drew their impressions from the depths of people's life, from direct communication with Russian peasants. Peasantry as the main social force Russia, which at that time defined the concept of people, became the main theme of their work. Democratic writers created a generalized image in their essays and stories people's Russia. They created their own special social world, their own epic of folk life in Russian literature. “The whole of hungry and downtrodden Russia, settled and wandering, devastated by feudal predation and ruined by bourgeois, post-reform predation, was reflected, as in a mirror, in the democratic essay literature of the 60s...” 8 .

The works of the sixties are characterized by a range of related themes and problems, a commonality of genres and structural and compositional unity. At the same time, each of them is a creative individual, each of them has their own special style. Gorky called them “diversely and widely talented people.”

Democratic writers, in essays and stories, recreated the artistic epic of the life of peasant Rus', drawing closer and individually apart in their work in depicting the folk theme.

Their works reflected the very essence the most important processes, which formed the content of Russian life in the 60s. It is known that the measure of the historical progressiveness of each writer is measured by the degree of his conscious or spontaneous approach to democratic ideology, reflecting the interests of the Russian people. However, democratic fiction reflects not only the ideological and social phenomena of the era; it definitely and widely goes beyond ideological trends. The prose of the sixties is included in the literary process of the time, continuing the traditions of the natural school, correlating with the artistic experience of Turgenev and Grigorovich, which reflected the peculiar artistic coverage of the democratic writers of the people's world, including an ethnographically accurate description of life.

Democratic fiction with its ethnographic orientation, standing out from the general flow of development of Russian prose, took specific place in the process of formation of domestic realism. She enriched him with a number of artistic discoveries and confirmed the need for the writer to use new aesthetic principles in the selection and coverage of life phenomena in the conditions of the revolutionary situation of the 1860s, which posed the problem of the people in literature in a new way.

The description of people's life with reliable accuracy of an ethnographic nature was noticed by revolutionary-democratic criticism and was expressed in the requirements for literature to write about the people “the truth without any embellishment,” as well as “in the faithful transmission of actual facts,” “in paying attention to all aspects of the life of the lower classes " Realistic everyday life writing was closely connected with elements of ethnography. Literature took a new look at the life of peasants and their existing living conditions. According to N.A. Dobrolyubov, the explanation of this matter has become no longer a toy, not a literary whim, but an urgent need of the time. The writers of the sixties uniquely reflected the spirit of the era, its aspirations and hopes. Their work clearly documented changes in Russian prose, its democratic character, ethnographic orientation, ideological and artistic originality and genre expression.

In the works of the sixties, a common range of related themes and problems, a commonality of genres and structural and compositional unity are distinguished. At the same time, each of them is a creative individual, each of them has their own individual style. N.V. Uspensky, V.A. Sleptsov, A.I. Levitov, F.M. Reshetnikov, G.I. Uspensky brought their understanding of peasant life into literature, each capturing folk paintings in their own way.

The people of the sixties showed deep interest in folk studies. Democratic literature strived for ethnography and folklorism, for the development of folk life, merged with it, penetrated into popular consciousness. The works of the sixties were an expression of everyday personal experience of studying Russia and the life of the people. They created their own special social world, their own epic of folk life in Russian literature. The life of Russian society in the pre-reform and post-reform eras and, above all, peasant world- the main theme of their work.

In the 60s, the search for new principles continued artistic image people. Democratic prose provided examples of the ultimate truth in reflection of life for art, and confirmed the need for new aesthetic principles in the selection and illumination of life phenomena. The harsh, “idealless” depiction of everyday life entailed a change in the nature of prose, its ideological and artistic originality and genre expression 9 .

Democratic writers were artists-researchers, writers of everyday life, in their work fiction came into close contact with economics, ethnography, and folk studies in the 10th century in a broad sense words, operated with facts and figures, was strictly documentary, gravitated toward everyday life, while remaining at the same time an artistic study of Russia. The fiction writers of the sixties were not only observers and recorders of facts, they tried to understand and reflect the social reasons that gave rise to them. The writing of everyday life brought tangible concreteness, vitality, and authenticity to their works.

Naturally, democratic writers were guided by folk culture, on the traditions of folklore. In their work there was an enrichment and deepening of Russian realism. Democratic themes expanded, literature was enriched with new facts, new observations, features of everyday life and customs of people's life, mainly peasant life. Writers at their best creative individuals were close in expressing their ideological and artistic tendencies; they were united by ideological similarity, artistic principles, the search for new themes and heroes, the development of new genres, and common typological features.

The sixties created their own artistic forms - genres. Their prose was predominantly narrative and sketch. Essays and stories by writers appeared as a result of their observation and study of the life of the people, their social status, way of life and morals. Numerous meetings at inns, taverns, postal stations, in train cars, on the road, on the steppe road also determined the peculiar specificity of the style of their works: the predominance of dialogue over description, the abundance of skillfully conveyed folk speech, the narrator’s contact with the reader, concreteness and factuality, ethnographic accuracy, appeal to the aesthetics of oral folk art, the introduction of abundant folklore inclusions. IN artistic system The sixties showed a penchant for everyday life, concreteness of life, strict documentaryism, objective recording of sketches and observations, originality of composition (the breakdown of the plot into individual episodes, scenes, sketches), journalisticism, orientation towards folk culture and folklore traditions.

Narrative-essay democratic prose was a natural phenomenon in the literary process of the 60s. According to M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, the sixties did not pretend to create holistic, artistically complete paintings. They were limited to “excerpts, essays, sketches, sometimes remaining at the level of facts, but they prepared the way for new literary forms, more widely covering the diversity of surrounding life” 11. At the same time, democratic fiction itself already outlined holistic pictures of peasant life, achieved by the idea of ​​​​an artistic connection of essays, the desire for epic cycles (“Steppe essays” by A. Levitov, cycles by F. Reshetnikov “ Good people», « Forgotten people", "From Travel Memoirs" and others, the contours of a novel from folk life were revealed (F.M. Reshetnikov), and the ideological and artistic concept of the people was formed.

The narrative-essay democratic prose of the sixties organically merged into the literary process. The very trend of depicting folk life turned out to be very promising. The traditions of the sixties were developed domestic literature subsequent periods: populist fiction, essays and stories by D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak, V.G. Korolenko, A.M. Gorky.

I. Peasant children in Russian literature

What work about peasant children did we read in 5th grade?

Students will remember N. A. Nekrasov’s great poem “Peasant Children,” written later than Turgenev’s story.

Let us tell you that the story “Bezhin Meadow” is unique in many respects. The most important significance of this work in the history of Russian literature is that in it I. S. Turgenev, one of the first Russian writers, introduced the image of a peasant boy into literature. Before Turgenev, peasants were rarely written about at all. The book “Notes of a Hunter” drew the attention of the general public to the situation of the peasant in Russia, and “Bezhin Meadow,” in addition to poetic and heartfelt descriptions of Russian nature, showed readers living children, superstitious and inquisitive, brave and cowardly, forced from childhood to remain alone with world without the help of the knowledge accumulated by humanity.

Now we will try to take a closer look at the faces of these children...

II. Images of peasant boys, their portraits and stories, spiritual world. Inquisitiveness, curiosity, impressionability.

First stage: independent work in the group

We will divide the class into four groups (of course, if the number of students in the class allows this), give the task: discuss the completion of homework and prepare a story about the hero according to plan. 10-15 minutes are allotted for work.

Story plan

1. Portrait of a boy.

2. The boy’s stories, his speech.

3. The boy's actions.

The teacher will try to ensure that each group has a strong student who can take charge of organizing the work.

Students discuss the characteristics of the hero and prepare to talk about him.

Second stage: presentation by group representatives, discussion of presentations

If students find it difficult to draw conclusions, the teacher helps them with the help of leading questions, bringing the conversation to the necessary conclusions.

“You would give the first, eldest of all, Fedya, about fourteen years. He was a slender boy, with beautiful and delicate, slightly small features, curly blond hair, light eyes and a constant half-cheerful, half-absent-minded smile. He belonged, by all accounts, to a rich family and went out into the field not out of necessity, but just for fun. He was wearing a motley cotton shirt with a yellow border; a small new army jacket, worn saddle-back, barely rested on his narrow shoulders; A comb hung from a blue belt. His boots with low tops were just like his boots - not his father’s.”

The last detail that the author draws attention to was very important in peasant life: many peasants were so poor that they did not have the means to make boots even for the head of the family. And here the child has his own boots - this suggests that Fedya’s family was wealthy. Ilyusha, for example, had new bast shoes and onuchi, but Pavlusha had no shoes at all.

Fedya understands that he is the oldest; The family's wealth gives him additional respectability, and he behaves patronizingly towards the boys. In conversation, “as the son of a rich peasant, he had to be the lead singer (he himself spoke little, as if afraid of losing his dignity).”

He starts a conversation after a break, asks questions, interrupts, sometimes mockingly, Ilyusha, who turns his story to him: “Perhaps you don’t know, Fedya, but only there is a drowned man buried there...” But, listening to stories about mermaids and goblin, he falls under their charm and expresses his feelings with immediate exclamations: “Eka! - Fedya said after a short silence, “how can such forest evil spirits spoil a peasant’s soul, he didn’t listen to her?”; “Oh you! - Fedya exclaimed, shuddering slightly and shrugging his shoulders, - pfu!...”

Towards the end of the conversation, Fedya affectionately addresses Vanya, the youngest boy: apparently he likes it older sister Vanya, Anyutka. Fedya, according to village etiquette, first asks about his sister’s health, and then asks Vanya to tell her to come to Fedya, promising her and Vanya himself a gift. But Vanya simply refuses the gift: he sincerely loves his sister and wishes her well: “It’s better to give it to her: she’s so kind among us.”

Vanya

The least is said about Van in the story: he is the smallest boy of those who went to the night, he is only seven years old:

“The last one, Vanya, I didn’t even notice at first: he was lying on the ground, quietly huddled under the angular matting, and only occasionally stuck his light brown curly head out from under it.”

Vanya did not crawl out from under the mat even when Pavel called him to eat potatoes: apparently he was sleeping. He woke up when the boys fell silent and saw stars above him: “Look, look, guys,” Vanya’s childish voice suddenly rang out, “look at God’s stars, the bees are swarming!” This exclamation, as well as Vanya’s refusal of a gift for the sake of his sister Anyuta, paint us a picture of a kind, dreamy boy, apparently from poor family: After all, already at the age of seven he was familiar with peasant concerns.

Ilyusha

Ilyusha is a boy of about twelve.

His face “...was rather insignificant: hook-nosed, elongated, blind, it expressed some kind of dull, painful solicitude; his compressed lips did not move, his knitted eyebrows did not move apart - it was as if he was still squinting from the fire. His yellow, almost white hair stuck out in sharp braids from under a low felt cap, which he pulled down over his ears every now and then with both hands. He was wearing new bast shoes and onuchi, a thick rope, twisted three times around his waist, carefully tightened his neat black scroll.”

Ilyusha with early childhood forced to work in a factory. He says about himself: “My brother and Avdyushka are members of the fox workers.” Apparently, there are many children in the family, and the parents sent two brothers to the “factories” so that they would bring hard-earned pennies into the house. Maybe this is why there is a stamp of concern on his face.

Ilyusha's stories reveal to us the world of superstitions among which the Russian peasant lived, they show how people were afraid of incomprehensible natural phenomena and attributed unclean origins to them. Ilyusha narrates very convincingly, but mainly not about what he himself saw, but what different people told him.

Ilyusha believes in everything that peasants and servants tell: in goblins, water creatures, mermaids, he knows village signs and beliefs. His stories are filled with mystery and fear:

“Suddenly, lo and behold, the form of one vat began to move, rose, dipped, walked, walked through the air, as if someone was rinsing it, and then fell back into place. Then another vat's hook came off the nail and onto the nail again; then it was as if someone was going to the door, and suddenly he started coughing, choking, like some kind of sheep, and so loudly... We all fell in such a heap, crawling under each other... How scared we were about that time! »

Special topic Ilyushin's stories - drowned people and dead people. Death has always seemed to people to be a mysterious, incomprehensible phenomenon, and beliefs about the dead are timid attempts superstitious person understand and comprehend this phenomenon. Ilyusha tells how the huntsman Yermil saw a lamb at the grave of a drowned man:

“...he’s so white, curly, and walks around handsomely. So Yermil thinks: “I’ll take him, why should he disappear like this?”, and he got down and took him in his arms... But the lamb - nothing. Here Yermil goes to the horse, and the horse stares at him, snores, shakes its head; however, he scolded her, sat on her with the lamb and rode off again, holding the lamb in front of him. He looks at him, and the lamb looks him straight in the eyes. He felt terrible, Yermil the huntsman: that, they say, I don’t remember sheep looking into anyone’s eyes like that; however nothing; He began to stroke his fur like that, saying: “Byasha, byasha!” And the ram suddenly bared his teeth, and he too: “Byasha, byasha...”

The feeling that death is always near a person and can take away both old and young is manifested in the story about the vision of Baba Ulyana, in the warning to Pavlusha to be careful near the river. In the tone of an expert, he sums up the boys’ impressions after Pavel’s story about the voice from the water: “Oh, this is a bad omen,” Ilyusha said with emphasis.”

He, like a factory worker, like an expert in village customs, feels like an experienced person, capable of understanding the meaning of signs. We see that he sincerely believes in everything he tells, but at the same time he perceives everything somehow detached.

Kostya

“...Kostya, a boy of about ten, aroused my curiosity with his thoughtful and sad gaze. His whole face was small, thin, freckled, pointed downward, like a squirrel's; lips could barely be distinguished; but his large, black eyes, shining with a liquid brilliance, made a strange impression; they seemed to want to express something for which there were no words in the language - in his language, at least. He was short, frail in build, and dressed rather poorly.”

We see that Kostya is from a poor family, that he is thin and poorly dressed. Perhaps he is often malnourished and for him going out at night is a holiday where he can eat plenty of steaming potatoes.

“And even then, my brothers,” Kostya objected, widening his already huge eyes... “I didn’t even know that Akim was drowned in that booze: I wouldn’t have been so scared.”

Kostya himself talks about the meeting of the suburban carpenter Gavrila with a mermaid. The mermaid called the carpenter who was lost in the forest to her, but he laid a cross on himself:

“That’s how he laid down the cross, my brothers, the little mermaid stopped laughing, but suddenly she started crying... She cries, my brothers, she wipes her eyes with her hair, and her hair is as green as your hemp. So Gavrila looked, looked at her, and began to ask her: “Why are you, forest potion, crying?” And the mermaid said to him: “You shouldn’t be baptized,” he says, “man, you should live with me in joy until end of days; but I cry, I am killed because you were baptized; Yes, I won’t be the only one who will kill myself: you too will kill yourself until the end of your days.” Then she, my brothers, disappeared, and Gavrila immediately understood how he could get out of the forest, that is, get out... But since then he’s been walking around sadly.”

Kostya's story is very poetic, similar to folk tale. We see in the belief told by Kostya something in common with one of P. P. Bazhov’s tales - “ Copper Mountain Mistress." Like main character Bazhov's tale, carpenter Gavrila meets with evil spirits in female form, amazingly finds the way after the meeting and then cannot forget about it, “he walks around sadly.”

Kostya’s story about the voice from the bully is filled with fear of the incomprehensible: “I was so afraid, my brothers: it was late, and the voice was so painful. So, it seems, I would have cried myself...” Kostya sadly tells about the death of the boy Vasya and the grief of his mother Theoklista. His story is similar to folk song:

“It used to be that Vasya would go with us, with the kids, to swim in the river in the summer, and she would get all excited. Other women are fine, they walk past with troughs, waddle over, and Theoklista will put the trough on the ground and begin to call to him: “Come back, come back, my little light!” Oh, come back, falcon!’”

Repetitions and words give this story special expressiveness. will startle, click.

Kostya turns to Pavlusha with questions: he sees that Pavlusha is not afraid of the world around him and is trying to explain what he sees around him.

Pavlusha

Pavlusha, like Ilyusha, appears to be twelve years old.

He “... had tousled, black hair, gray eyes, wide cheekbones, a pale, pockmarked face, a large but regular mouth, a huge head, as they say, the size of a beer kettle, a squat, awkward body. The guy was unprepossessing - needless to say! - but still I liked him: he looked very smart and direct, and there was strength in his voice. He couldn’t flaunt his clothes: they all consisted of a simple, dirty shirt and patched ports.”

Pavlusha is a smart and brave boy. He actively participates in the conversation around the fire and tries to cheer up the boys when, under the influence of scary stories, they get scared and lose heart. After Kostya’s story about the mermaid, when everyone listens with fear to the sounds of the night and calls on the power of the cross for help, Pavel behaves differently:

“Oh, you crows! - Pavel shouted, - why are you alarmed? Look, the potatoes are cooked.”

When the dogs suddenly get up and rush away from the fire with convulsive barking, the boys get scared, and Pavlusha rushes after the dogs screaming:

“The restless running of an alarmed herd was heard. Pavlusha shouted loudly: “Gray!” Bug!..” After a few moments, the barking stopped; Pavel's voice came from afar... A little more time passed; the boys looked at each other in bewilderment, as if waiting for something to happen... Suddenly the tramp of a galloping horse was heard; She stopped abruptly right next to the fire, and, clutching the mane, Pavlusha quickly jumped off her. Both dogs also jumped into the circle of light and immediately sat down, sticking out their red tongues.

What's there? what's happened? - the boys asked.

“Nothing,” answered Pavel, waving his hand at the horse, “the dogs sensed something.” “I thought it was a wolf,” he added in an indifferent voice, breathing quickly through his entire chest.”

“I involuntarily admired Pavlusha. He was very good at that moment. His ugly face, animated by fast driving, glowed with bold prowess and firm determination. Without a twig in his hand, at night, he, without hesitation at all, galloped alone towards the wolf...”

Pavlusha is the only boy whom the author calls in the story by his full name - Pavel. He, in contrast to Ilyusha and Kostya, is trying to understand and explain the world, incomprehensible phenomena.

The boys appreciate their comrade's courage, turning their questions to him. Even the dog values ​​the boy's attention:

“Sitting down on the ground, he dropped his hand on the shaggy back of one of the dogs, and for a long time the delighted animal did not turn its head, looking sideways at Pavlusha with grateful pride.”

Pavlusha explains the incomprehensible sounds: he distinguishes the cry of a heron over the river, the voice in the boom explains the cry that “such tiny frogs” make; he distinguishes the sound of flying sandpipers and explains that they are flying to “where, they say, there is no winter,” and the land is “far, far away, beyond the warm seas.”

Pavlusha’s character is revealed very clearly in the story about solar eclipse. Ilyusha eagerly recounts village superstitions about Trishka’s arrival, and Pavlusha looks at what is happening with an intelligent, critical, mocking look:

“Our master, Khosha, explained to us in advance that, they say, you will have foresight, but when it got dark, he himself, they say, became so afraid that it’s like. And in the yard hut there was a woman cook, so as soon as it got dark, hear, she took and broke all the pots in the oven with a grabber: “Who can eat now, when, he says, the end of the world has come.” So the stuff started flowing.”

Pavlusha creates intrigue by not immediately revealing what kind of creature it was with a huge head, describing how the frightened residents behaved. The boy tells the story leisurely, laughing at the men and, probably, at his own fear, because he, too, was in the crowd of people pouring out into the street and waiting for what would happen:

“- They look - suddenly some man is coming from the settlement from the mountain, so sophisticated, his head is so amazing... Everyone shouts: “Oh, Trishka is coming!” oh, Trishka is coming!“ - who knows where! Our elder climbed into a ditch; the old woman is stuck in the gateway, screaming obscenities, and she has frightened her yard dog so much that she is off the chain, through the fence, and into the forest; and Kuzka’s father, Dorofeich, jumped into the oats, sat down, and started shouting like a quail: “Maybe, they say, at least the enemy, the murderer, will take pity on the bird.” That’s how everyone was alarmed!.. And this man was our cooper, Vavila: he bought himself a new jug and put an empty jug on his head and put it on.”

What fascinates us most is the climax of the story, when Pavlusha returns from the river “with a full pot in his hand” and tells how he heard Vasin’s voice:

“- By God. As soon as I began to bend down to the water, I heard suddenly they called me in Vasya’s voice and as if from under the water: “Pavlusha, oh Pavlusha!” I listened; and he again calls: “Pavlusha, come here.” I walked away. However, he scooped up some water.”

The last phrase emphasizes the firmness and strength of character of the boy: he heard the voice of the drowned man, but was not afraid and scooped up water. He walks straight and proud through life, responding to Ilyusha’s words:

“Well, it’s okay, let me go! - Pavel said decisively and sat down again, “you cannot escape your fate.”

Homework

You can invite children to make illustrations for the story at home, choose musical arrangement for any fragments, prepare expressive reading some belief of the students' choice.

Lesson 36

Images of peasant boys. The meaning of artistic detail. Pictures of nature in the story “Bezhin Meadow”

Speech development lesson

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is one of the few classical poets who created works about the existence ordinary people. One of these creations is the charming poem “Peasant Children,” which says that one day a hunter entered a village barn and fell asleep from fatigue. And the traveler is discovered by children living in a small village. They look at him in surprise and discuss him loudly. The poet immediately depicts his childhood spent with peasant children, and also imagines how they supported adults. And although they worked willingly, the work also brought them unbearable torment, starting from powerlessness in the face of heat and severe frosts.

The poem teaches us to understand that, despite the fact that poor people worked until exhaustion, this work brought them not only torment, but also joy. The main idea is to respect the work of ordinary people, because they also have the opportunity to enjoy life, only they need to work hard and for a long time.

Summary of Peasant Children of Nekrasov

Reading the initial lines of this amazing poetic work, we find ourselves in a small barn, where a tired hunter wandered in and lay down to rest. He fell fast asleep because he was hunting long time, and did not hear several pairs of inquisitive children’s eyes looking at him through the cracks, who could not understand whether the man was lying alive or lifeless. Finally he woke up, and immediately he heard the shimmering singing of birds. He managed to distinguish between a crow and a rook. And suddenly the stranger’s gaze came across tiny, nimble eyes. These were children who looked at the stranger with great interest. They quietly talked to each other, and cast their gazes first at the man’s equipment, then at his dog. When the children noticed that the stranger was watching them, some of them ran away. And late in the evening it was already known that a rich gentleman had arrived at their settlement.

Having settled in the village for the summer, the master enjoys the beautiful places and time spent together with the children. The author describes their life in a variety of ways, which is filled with various games. And, of course, it is amazing that all the activities of rural children are very different from the leisure time of city children.

We see how some boy bathes in the river with pleasure, another babysits his sister. A mischievous girl rides a horse. At the same time, the guys help the adults. So Vanya tries his hand at harvesting bread, and then takes it home with a majestic look. They have no time to be sick and think about empty things. Days fly by for them instantly and happily. And they learn all the most informative things from their elders. But Nekrasov also notes another side of their fate. These children have no future. They play and work with pleasure, but none of them receive an education, and accordingly they will not become worthy and respected people in society.

In the poem Nikolai Alekseevich inserted shining moment, where it is described labor activity children. Once upon a time cold winter, the poet, apparently hunting, meets a small child who is helping his father carry firewood. This happens on such frosty days! And he is forced to help, since there are only two men in their family. Then Nekrasov again returns us to the beginning of the poem. The rested hunter began to show the children how smart his dog was. But then a thunderstorm began, and the children ran home, and the narrator went on hunting.

Picture or drawing Peasant children

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There is not a single aspect of peasant life that Nekrasov would ignore. With all his heart and consciousness he experienced the peasant's grief, and his works are full of pictures of this grief. The poet was especially disturbed by the fate of the oppressed peasant woman. You are all fear embodied, You are all age-old languor! - Nekrasov said, addressing the peasant woman.

In the poem “In the Village” we see an old peasant woman who has lost her only son and breadwinner. She is forced to walk through the world in her old age, her life is hopelessly difficult, and “if only it were not a sin,” the old mother would commit suicide. The same theme - the grief of a peasant mother - is posed in the poem "Orina, Mother of a Soldier." The poem is based not on fiction, but on reality. “Orina, the soldier’s mother, told me her life herself,” Nekrasov recalled. “I made a detour several times to talk to her, otherwise I was afraid to fake it.” Orina talks about “her great sadness”: her only son, tortured by the soldiery, “sickly” returned home and died:

Ivanushka was ill for nine days, and died on the tenth day. Bogatyrsky build. He was a big kid!

But the cruel barracks drill ruined this hero and drove him to consumption. The tsarist soldiery was so terrible that even on the last night before his death, in his delirium, he imagined this service all before his death. The delirium of a dying man reveals the horror of the situation of a peasant who was handed over as a soldier, and the inhumane treatment he received:

Suddenly he rushed... looks pitifully... He fell down - crying, repenting, Shouting: “Your Honor! Yours!”

In Nekrasov’s works, the image of a peasant woman, pure in heart, bright in mind, warmed by the author’s love, appears. strong-willed. This is exactly what Daria is, the heroine of the poem “Frost - Red Nose”, in spirit - the sister of Nekrasov’s Decembrists. Once in her youth she “amazed with her beauty, she was both dexterous and strong,” but she, like every peasant woman, had to endure a life more difficult than which “it’s unlikely to be found.” One cannot indifferently see how a powerless Russian woman, crushed by slavery and overwork, suffers. And the poet says, addressing the peasant woman:

He did not carry a heart in his chest, Who did not shed tears over you!

Nekrasov dedicated many poems to the life of the post-reform village. Like Chernyshevsky, he understood the predatory nature of “liberation” and the fact that only the forms of oppression of the people had changed. Nekrasov noted with bitterness that the situation of the people after the “liberation” did not improve: In the life of a peasant, now free, there is Poverty, ignorance, darkness. In the poem “Grandfather,” written in 1870, he painted the following image of a “free” peasant:

Here he is, our gloomy plowman, With a dark, sad face; Bast shoes, rags, a cap... The eternal worker is hungry,

The life of the people is eloquently depicted in the songs “Hungry”, “Covee”, “Soldier’s”, “Veselaya”, “Salty” and others. Here, for example, is how a pre-reform corvee peasant is shown in one of these songs:

The skin is all ripped open, the belly is swollen with chaff, twisted, twisted, slashed, tormented. Kalina barely wanders... White, unkempt Kalinushka, He has nothing to flaunt, Only the back is painted, But he doesn’t know behind his shirt. From bast shoes to gate

The reform of 1861 did not improve the situation of the people, and it is not for nothing that the peasants say about it: You are kind, the Tsar’s letter, But you were not written about us. As before, the peasants are people who “didn’t eat enough and slurped without salt.” The only thing that has changed is that now “instead of the master, the volost will tear them down.” The people's suffering is immeasurable. Hard, exhausting work does not save you from eternal poverty or the threat of starvation. But "soil kind soul the Russian people,” and no matter how terrible peasant life was, it did not kill the best human traits among the people: hard work, responsiveness to the suffering of others, self-esteem, hatred of the oppressors and readiness to fight them.

Saved in slavery, the heart is free - Gold, gold, the heart of the people!

Only the peasants help the retired soldier, who is “sick of the light” because he has “no bread, no shelter.” They help out Yermil Girin, who was “fighting” with the merchant Altynnikov. Peasants are “people... great” at work; “the habit... of work” never leaves a man. The poet showed how the people's dissatisfaction with their situation begins to turn into open indignation:

...sometimes the Team will pass. You can guess: The village must have rebelled somewhere in an excess of gratitude!

Nekrasov treats with undisguised sympathy those peasants who do not put up with their powerless and hungry existence. First of all, we should note the seven truth-seekers, whose inquisitive thoughts made them think about the fundamental question of life: “Who lives cheerfully, freely in Rus'?” Among the peasants who have risen to the consciousness of their powerless situation is Yakim Nagoy, who realized who gets the fruits of peasant labor. The “disobedient” Agap also belongs to the same type of peasant, who responded to the abuse of Prince Utyatin, the “last child,” with angry words: Tsyts! Nishkni! Today you are in charge, and tomorrow we will follow Pink - and the ball is over.

The theme of peasant life in the works of Nekrasov

Other essays on the topic:

  1. In 1852, “Notes of a Hunter” by I. S. Turgenev was published as a separate publication and immediately attracted attention. How exactly...
  2. The fate of a Russian woman in the works of Nekrasov The image of a Russian woman occupies a significant place in the works of Nekrasov. The heroines of his poems and poems...
  3. Essays on literature: The poem Who Lives Well in Rus' is the pinnacle of N. A. Nekrasov’s creativity Many of Nekrasov’s predecessors and contemporaries...
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  8. The theme of the “Russian revolt” is reflected in several works of Russian literature, but, undoubtedly, its origins in the literature of the 19th century...
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  12. Nekrasov’s creativity coincided with the heyday of native folkloristics. It was at that time, under the influence of social changes that took place in the fifties -...
  13. In the poem “Bees” (1867), the poet told about bees saved by a savvy passer-by: the bees died in the flood, did not reach the hive -...
  14. Purpose of the lesson To make students aware of the role of the father in raising his sons. Reading material 1.V. K. Zheleznikov “Soldier on duty.” 2. N....
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IN literary works we find an image of people, their lifestyle, 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, and others about nobles. In Krylov, Pushkin, Gogol and others we will see the image of peasants. They all portrayed peasants differently, but they also had many similarities. Ivan Andreevich Krylov, for example, in his fable “The Dragonfly and the Ant” uses the example of an ant as a hard-working peasant whose life is hard, and the dragonfly means the opposite. And we see this in many of Krylov’s fables.

Another writer, one of the greatest representatives of 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 concerned about the problems of Russian society. In Pushkin, the image of the peasantry is primarily manifested in his two most important works " Captain's daughter" and "Dubrovsky". In these works, Pushkin describes the life and morals 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 acute disagreements 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 introduces us in his work to many people from different power structures and paints terrible pictures of serfdom. Gogol says that the peasants are presented as slaves of the landowners, 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, three! bird three, who invented you? to know, you could only have been born among a lively people, in that land that does not like to joke, but has spread out smoothly across half the world, and go ahead and count the miles until it hits your eyes. And not a cunning, it seems, road projectile, not grabbed by an iron screw, but hastily, alive, with one ax and a chisel, the efficient Yaroslavl man equipped and assembled you. The driver is not wearing German boots: he has a beard and mittens, and sits on God knows what; but he stood up, swung, and began to sing - the horses were like a whirlwind, the spokes in the wheels mixed into one smooth circle, only the road trembled and the stopped pedestrian screamed in fright! and there it rushed, rushed, rushed!.. And there you can already see in the distance, something dusting and boring into the air.
Aren't you, Rus, like a brisk, unstoppable troika, rushing along? The road beneath you is smoking, the bridges are rattling, everything falls behind and is left behind. The contemplator, amazed by God's miracle, stopped: was this lightning thrown from the sky? What does this terrifying movement mean? and what kind of unknown power is contained in these horses, unknown to the light? Oh, horses, horses, what kind of horses! Are there whirlwinds in your manes? Is there a sensitive ear burning in every vein of yours? They heard a familiar song from above, together and at once tensed their copper chests and, almost without touching the ground with their hooves, turned into just elongated lines flying through the air, and rushing, all inspired by God!.. Rus', where are you rushing, give me the answer? Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; The air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything that is on earth flies past, and other peoples and states sidestep and give way to it.”

Gogol in this passage emphasizes the strength of the people and the strength of Rus', 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 talks about the peasantry. Many believe that the author painted images of peasants, emphasizing the most typical features of 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 his work “Who Lives Well in Rus'?” Already in the title it is clear what the work is about. The main thing locally in the poem is the position of the peasants under serfdom and after its abolition. The author tells that several serfs set off on a journey to find out who would live well in Rus'. Peasants meet with different people, through meetings we see the attitude towards the peasant issue and towards 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 true meaning fairy tales In his fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin ridicules the inability to work of landowners, their carelessness and stupidity. About this we're talking about and in the fairy tale Wild landowner" In the fairy 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 completely impossible. The author sympathizes with the people.