Who Lives Well in Russia?

by Nikolay A. Nekrasov

imja nikolaja alekseevicha nekrasova v istorii russkoj literatury izdavna svjazyvaetsja s imenami pushkina i lermontova vsego cherez god posle gibeli pushkina kogda rossija uzhe uznala stihi na smert pojeta v peterburg priehal junyj nekrasov chej samobytnyj golos byl uslyshan i zapechatlen v pamjati chitatelej svoej nepohozhestju na predshestvennikov sozdatel neprevzojdennoj grazhdanskoj liriki nekrasov proslavilsja esche i kak avtor tragicheskih i strastnyh ljubovnyh stihotvorenij tonkij stilist pevec russkoj zhenschiny imenno ego peru prinadlezhit odno iz samyh ostryh i problemnyh proizvedenij XIX veka pojema komu na rusi zhit horosho napisannaja uzhe posle otmeny krepostnogo prava pojema tait zagadki i voprosy kotorye aktualny i segodnja ibo razgovor o tom komu na rusi zhit horosho vnov obraschaet nas k ponjatijam o svobode o prave o boge o neobhodimosti moralnogo vybora i osmyslenija proshlogo i nastojaschego

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Russia, Russian Literature, Fiction, School, 19th Century

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1874

About the author

Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov (Николай Алексеевич Некрасов) was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publisher, whose deeply compassionate poems about peasant Russia won him Dostoevsky's admiration and made him the hero of liberal and radical circles of Russian intelligentsia, as represented by Vissarion Belinsky and Nikolai Chernyshevsky. He is credited with introducing into Russian poetry ternary meters and the technique of dramatic monologue (V doroge, 1845).As the editor of several literary journals, including Sovremennik, Nekrasov was also singularly successful.

Reviews

[Anna Petruk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler alert: no one.

This novel in verse was written in the XIX century and made the author famous. I can see why. The style evoked Russian fairy tales and novels in verse which were quite a popular format once.

It paints a portrait of common folk, peasants, provincial landowners after slavery was canceled. The author looked at them with love and sympathy, with the kind of paternal indulgence the educated and well-off have towards 'the little people'.

It was interesting to me from a historical perspective, as I'm not super knowledgeable about that time and the realities of life of those people. Somehow it felt timeless and dated at the same time.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seven peasants argue over who is most happy and free in Russia. Each has a different idea, and when a little bird gives them a magic tablecloth that serves them a feast each day including a bucket of vodka, they travel about Russia to find out which of the seven is right. The little bird warns them not to use use the tablecloth to order more than one bucket of vodka per day. I looked it up and found that a bucket was a standard measure for vodka in tsarist times consisting of approximately three gallons, so as long as they each only drank approximately a fifth of vodka a day they would be fine! As they travel through Russia, they unsurprisingly encounter one horrible tale after another of cruelty, beatings, starvation, imprisonment, and all other manner of endless suffering of the hard working and hard drinking Russian people. It's a classic story of Russia told in verse. So the upshot of it is that no one appears to live happy and free, but on another level of course they all do, because the ones who live at all are happy to be alive and the freedom is in their souls, even if not in their outward condition. I'm sure that the life of the peasantry in tsarist times was generally beyond awful, far worse in some ways that what is depicted in this book, but the picture drawn by Nekrasov is clearly romanticized and is meant to celebrate the Russian volk, purified and redeemed through their suffering. Unfortunately, there was really only one character who engaged me -- the woman, Matrona; she managed to maintain strength, beauty and nobility in the face of her suffering that I did not feel in the other characters. This book sat on my shelf for more than forty years before I got around to reading it. I'm glad I finally did, but I also didn't have a lot of regret for failing to read it early. It was good, but not great.

[Metin Yılmaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uzun zaman önce Dosteyevski’nin Yeraltında Notları eserinin başında yer verilmiş bir şiirini okumuştum. O günden beri şairin kitabını bekledim diyebilirim. Görünce hemen alıp hemen okumaya başladığım şiirler oldu.

[alisavl · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️

"Недотерпеть - пропасть, перетерпеть- пропасть!.."

This was a book I read for school. I HATE reading for school with everything in me, and tbh this made it even worse. Not saying that the book is not a good book, it's very well written and very intelligent, but if I'm being honest I think I got like 30% of it. I did not even understand half of it. So yeah now it's time to read a hundred summaries and reviews on internet, so that I at least have a slightly bigger idea of what happened.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Folksy sentimental poem on the peasantry’s sorrows. Unsurprisingly, nobody can be happy.

[Lena_makridina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might be biased. Keep in mind, it's not finished.

It reminds me a bit of The Canterbury Tales and The Decameron.

Seven guys travel on foot all over Russia, trying to find a single blissfully happy person, instead they gather stories of hardships and misfortunes from male and female pesants.

It's not finished because Nekrasov had problems enough publishing it in a magazine the way it was. These seven guys they planned to ask the Tzar as well.

I laughed I cried.

I think it will affect you anyway but I'd like you to enjoy it so if you can find it in your library try to sample a couple of pages.

I've nearly forgot to mention that it's a poem.

[1st Arrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous classic!

[anya♡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

никому

[Maxim Dobryi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Настоящая энциклопедия русской жизни, ее уклада после отмены крепостного права в Российской Империи. В ней Некрасов доподлинно описывает трудную и даже мучительную жизнь русского крепостного крестьянства, на защиту которого он встал на своем жизненном пути, описывает те тяготы и страдания, которые приходилось переживать простому трудящемуся русскому народу, на котором держалось все государство с его прогнившей самодержавно-полицеско-помещичьей системой. Это исторический, политический и настоящий литературный труд, возвеличивающий доброту, широту, чистоту и глубину русской души!

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to Russian serfdom, and even more so how the abolishment of it effected the Russian peasantry in ways no one could have anticipated.

This was my first time reading an epic, and although I was worried when I first started it, I realized quickly that it was easily followed as a story (due largely in part to the gorgeous iambic trimeter!). I also found that the censored parts, which I feared would become aggravating, actually just lead for closer reading on my part!

So glad to have read this, a pity the story was never finished!

[Sasha Partina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the book, which contains quite thorough description of Russian peasants and Imperialism and its repercussions. Although, I was quite sad about the fact that the author had to rush finishing this romance, as he was heavily sick, and the book was never truly finished due to his death. That fact left me with a feeling that there's so much more that needs to be told, but he hadn't chance to tell you.

[Alex Klenin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Антология русской бесхитростной убогости. Однако, сразу же хочется и оговориться — когда дело касается увиваниями страданиями, автор весьма изобретателен. Всё, что описывается в этой поэме не есть явления уникальные, однако, в приступе самобичевания русского народа Некрасов собрал все самые чёрные краски, и принялся ими писать портрет, как ему казалось, действительности. Пишу именно о русском народе, а не о крестьянстве, потому как автор выводит убогими не только одно сословие, но все из тех, которые ему хватило духу и таланта описать. Вероятно, вещица эта и самому Некрасову показалась не слишком удачной, поскольку дописать, вымучить и выстрадать её у автора никак не выходило. То ли страдания приходилось собирать с мира по нитке, то ли бесконечно он был далёк от народа, то ли фольклора хватило лишь на часть с крестьянством — это уж сегодня неизвестно, но только поэма так и осталась неоконченной. Последняя часть всего лишь является не самой удачной попыткой уже умирающего Некрасова завершить свой литературный долгострой. И это очень жаль, ведь я бы с удовольствием почитал о том, как царь угнетает сам себя, терпя тяжесть шапки Мономаха, как весь исстрадался в борьбе с врагами народа православного, и так далее.
Своей популярностью в нынешние дни это произведение, как мне видится, обязано далеко не в последнюю очередь своим кажущимся антимонархическим посылом, который активно выпячивался во времена советской власти, искавшей себе пропагандистскую основу, в том числе и в корнях классической русской литературы.

Нет, поэма неплоха, но слишком уж однобока. Кому же на Руси жить хорошо? Михаил Веллер в одном из своих выступлений сказал — вору. Но Некрасов, со всей очевидностью, утерев пьяную слезу заключает — да никому же! Если рассматривать её идеологически, то мерещится мне в ней что-то даже и русофобское — ну действительно, как можно построить общество, желая наилучшего, таким способом, что там не будет хорошо никому? Ни-ко-му! Не бывает в жизни так, чтобы было одно лишь плохое, без малейшего проблеска хорошего. Не бывает так, чтобы весь народ впал в жалостливую, щемящую тоскливость. Но, без всякого сомнения, любители почитать о "немытой России, стране рабов", прочитают поэму Некрасова с чувством огромного морального удовлетворения.

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Красноречивое сравнение жизни разных представителей русского народа.
Интересный слог, к нему легко привыкаешь, и подпеваешь разным песенкам.
Читали в классе в школе, но только перечитав сейчас уже будучи взрослой смогла оценить всю красоту и всю горечь этого маленького большого произведения.

«Жалеть - жа��ей умеючи,
На мерочку господскую
Крестьянина не мерь!
Не белоручки нежные,
А люди мы великие
В работе и в гульбе!
У каждого крестьянина
Душа что туча черная -
Гневна, грозна, - и надо бы
Громам греметь оттудова,
Кровавым лить дождям,
А все вином кончается.
Пошла по жилам чарочка -
И рассмеялась добрая
Крестьянская душа!
Не горевать тут надобно,
Гляди кругом - возрадуйся!»

«Давно ли народ твой игрушкой служил
Позорным страстям господина?
Потомок татар, как коня, выводил
На рынок раба-славянина»

[Banbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

This long poem provides what appears an accurate description of aspects of peasant lives during the 19th Century. It indicts the system of serfdom for many of the problems, but does not flinch in showing that many of the masters, priests, bureaucrats, and the peasants themselves are sources of evil in society.
Now we know how heartbreakingly over-optimistic is the poem's exclamation near its end:

"Enough! It is finished,
This tale of the past;
'Tis ended, the masters' long sway;
The strength of the people
Is stirring at last,
To freedom 'twill point them the way.

"Your burden grows lighter,
O Motherland dear,
Your wounds less appalling to see.
Your fathers were slaves,
Smitten helpless by fear,
But, Mother, your children are free!"

[Una · Rating 3 out of 5]

Proof that true literature stands the test of time. Over 150 years have passed since this narrative poem's publication; neither feudalism nor communism nor capitalism have brought humanity any closer to true happiness/freedom/equality. Poor people remain enslaved to the rich (whose wealth corrupts them spiritually). No one is happy in Nekrasov's Russia, but is anyone any happier today?!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 stars

[Bülent Bilgili · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½/5

[corpys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Впринципе неплохо, красиво, только под конец совсем непонятно стало о ком речь и в чем дело

[Ivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Грише бурлаку

[Hashir Banday · Rating 1 out of 5]

WORST BOOK EVER

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

All these negative review from people who read it in English. I myself have never seen the point in reading translated verse, unless the translator tried to keep the meter. The whole joy of this book is the iambs and alternating three and four foot lines, the latter functioning like a kind of thought break. Plus all the fairy tale themes and cultural sign posts. Just seems like it would all be lost in translation. I can imagine reading this in English would give the feeling I get when I go to museums...I'm utterly lost and pretending to feign interest 😁.

[Hibiscus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have this feeling that the original intent and scope of the book were much more pretentious. Yet implementation may have failed to live up to the title thus my confusion and disappointment. Essentially, it describes the state of the post-emancipation peasantry in Russia. Rather illustrative and at times interesting reading.

[Chaim Nissim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book ever written.

[Natalia Kudriavtceva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very goo observation fo russian life and mentality :) worth reading

[Paweł Duda]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtA6k...

[serapha · Rating 1 out of 5]

мне не понра

[Nickolay Moshkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Предсказуемо, но интересно. Жаль что неоконченое произведение.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

прочитал. Начало очень понравилось. Книга написана в хорошем литературном стиле, но потом как-то надоело. Вё одно да по тому же.