"Railway" Nekrasov
« Railway» analysis of the work - theme, idea, genre, plot, composition, characters, problems and other issues are disclosed in this article.
History of creation
The poem "Railroad" was written by Nekrasov in 1864 and published in the journal Sovremennik. The Nikolaev railway was built from 1942 to 1952. and allowed to make the path, which previously took a whole week, in a day. Nicholas I issued a decree on the construction of the first Moscow-Petersburg railway in a peculiar way: he drew a road on the map under a ruler, through forests and swamps. The price of such a project is human sacrifice and work in impossible conditions.
The construction was supervised by Kleinmichel, who at the time of writing the poem was dismissed for cruelty. The topic of building a railway was also relevant in 1964, under Alexander II, who built railways by the forces of workers and peasants freed from serfdom in 1861.
Literary direction, genre
Nekrasov is considered a singer of civic lyrics, a poet of a realistic direction. In general, the poem is accusatory in nature and really is an example of civic lyrics. But its first part is a beautiful lyric poem.
Theme, main idea and composition
The poem consists of 4 parts. They are united by the plot, the image of the lyrical hero-narrator and his neighbors in the carriage: the general with his son Vanya, whose dialogue about the builder of the road is the epigraph.
The first part is a description of the autumn Russian nature, which the narrator sees from the train window. There is no disgrace in nature, it is perfect.
The second part contrasts with the first. This is the narrator's monologue, revealing the imperfection of society. Vanya draws a picture of the suffering of the builders of the railway - the Russian people. The narrator describes a host of poor people who died during the construction, so that the impressionable boy is even shy. The main idea is contained in the last three stanzas: you need to respect a hardworking people, because they have endured a lot and thanks to this endurance will come to a happy future. Nekrasov accurately notices the mentality of a people capable of enduring suffering for centuries. Today the phrase "It's a pity - to live in this beautiful time. I won't have to - neither me, nor you" acquired an ironic meaning "never", which Nekrasov did not put into his poems.
The third part is the objections of the father-general. In his opinion, a people prone to drunkenness is not capable of creating anything great, but can only destroy. Daddy offers to show Vanya the bright side.
In the fourth part, the narrator tells Vanya that after the construction of the road, the workers were rewarded with a barrel of wine and forgiveness for arrears, which were counted by cunning contractors for everyone.
Size and rhyme
The poem is written in tricycle dactyl in the first part, which in other parts alternates with tricycle with a shortened last foot. This rhythm is best conveyed by the sound of the train wheels. Alternating female and male rhyme in the first stanza describing nature, it is replaced by an alternation of dactylic and masculine in some stanzas and feminine and masculine in others. The rhyme in the poem is cross.
Trails and images
The first part is written in the best traditions of landscape lyrics. Nature is characterized by epithets glorious autumn, healthy, vigorous air, fragile ice, chilly river, clear, quiet days ... Nekrasov uses vivid comparisons: ice is like melting sugar, you can sleep in the leaves like in bed.
To describe hunger as the root cause of national misfortune, Nekrasov uses personification. Words with diminutive suffixes contrast with the terrible picture of death: path, columns, Vanechka - and Russian bones... Nekrasov showed true skill in describing the portraits of the unfortunate. It is impossible to forget the tall, sick Belarusian. Especially touching is this detail: even after death, the ghost of a Belarusian mechanically hammers the frozen ground with a shovel. The people's habit of work has been brought to automatism. The second part ends with a symbolic image of a wide clear road and a beautiful time.
In the third part, the general's monologue, there are almost no tropes. The general's speech is clear, unambiguous and devoid of images, logic prevails in it. Epithet only bright side vague what the narrator is in a hurry to use.
In the fourth part, keeping the general's concise and logical style, the lyrical hero describes the “bright future” of the workers.
Often in literature lessons the question is asked: "How relevant is this work today?" The genres and forms of literature change to varying degrees, but human nature remains unchanged. The laws of human society remain unshakable: the troubles and joys of peoples are the same at all times. N. Nekrasov's poem "Railroad" tells not only about a revolutionary breakthrough in the transport system of the state, but also about the other side - thousands of ruined lives, about the workers, on whose bones all world progress is.
There is a legend that when designing the St. Petersburg-Moscow railway, Nicholas I drew a straight line on the map, not bending around swamps, swamps, ravines. The construction was extremely difficult, and workers had to work in constant cold, hunger, suffering disease and poverty:
We struggled in the heat, in the cold,
With your back always bent
We lived in dugouts, fought hunger,
Frozen and wet, sick with scurvy.
The road was built by simple serfs, who not so long ago received their freedom after the abolition of serfdom, but did not know what to do with this will. Because the Russian Empire was still considered a backward agrarian country, the construction of the railway acquired a fundamental strategic importance... It was supposed to be a major leap forward in production and technical progress. Russia would become an even more serious player on the world stage. And so thousands of peasants, working tirelessly in the most difficult conditions, died there, on the construction of the railway, which was intended to become a symbol of the greatness and development of the state. Nekrasov's poem "Railroad" in 1864 is dedicated to this silent, forgotten feat of ordinary laborers.
Genre, direction and size
Many literary scholars are inclined to believe that "Railroad" is a poem that combines drama, satire and even a ballad. In its form, this is a conversation between fellow travelers (the general and his son Vanya) with the lyrical hero himself.
Nekrasov chose four-foot dactyl and cross rhyme as the size to create an atmosphere of narrative, gradual but saturated conversation. The sound can even be compared to the sound of wheels on a railway - a kind of sound writing creates this indescribable atmosphere of a ballad.
Composition
It is important to note that the poem is easily divided into 3 semantic parts.
- The first is Nekrasov's description of nature, the beauty of his native land. The poet confesses his sincere love for the Russian land, and this creates a strong and effective contrast for the following parts.
- The second part is the most epic, here Nekrasov writes how the dead peasants wake up to sing about their hard lot. The poet tells the real story of the construction of the road with all the troubles of slave labor.
- In the third part, Vanya's son tells his father about a strange dream in which he saw this story. The general laughs and replies that the people are a bunch of drunks, and truly beautiful and important things in the world are created by separate personalities - geniuses, not the people, and after that he encourages the lyric hero not to intimidate his son, but to tell the truth. The poet agrees and talks about the completion of construction, when a barrel of wine was rolled up for the peasants and the "debts" that had come from nowhere were forgiven. The people were deceived again, but the railway was built, and the chiefs will now celebrate.
- First, these are vivid epithets in the description of nature: glorious autumn, vigorous air, cold river;
- Secondly, metaphors and comparisons: "The ice is not strong on the river, cold, like melting sugar is lying", "I will poke my chest";
- Here is inversion (noble habit of work);
- Alliteration (leaves faded ... did not have time);
- Assonance (I recognize my native Russia everywhere).
Images and symbols
In "Railroad" Nekrasov creates several very bright and skillfully designed images. The first of them is Russia and the Russian people. The poet calls the peasants God's warriors, peaceful children of labor, brothers, admiring the simplicity and strength of their characters.
In a vivid way, the tortured Belarusian became a symbol of everyone who was tortured to death by slave labor:
Bloodless lips, drooping eyelids,
Ulcers on skinny arms
Forever knee-deep in water
The legs are swollen; tangled hair.
Another vivid image is the general with whom the lyrical hero is talking. Not much has been said about him, but a few bright details make it possible to recreate the portrait of the proud man with ease. For example, a coat with a red lining immediately betrays a general in him, and arrogant words about the worthlessness of the people (and of any country and nationality) also depict him as an arrogant, proud, pompous person. The general lists the world's architectural wonders, clearly knowing a lot about them, but at the same time does not understand to whom he owes both his position and a coat with a red lining. At the same time, he dressed his son Vanya in a coachman's army jacket to emphasize his closeness to the people. Thanks to these three details, the poet masterly painted his readers a portrait of a typical "boss" from any sphere.
The image of a lyrical hero is a collective image of a real citizen who is aware of his duty to the people. He, not afraid of the general's anger, speaks the truth, which hurts the eyes of the masters. This is a conscientious, conscientious and fair person who insists on fair criticism of every initiative. Yes, the road is certainly important, but not at such a price.
Topics and problems
Nekrasov achieves the reader's emotional empathy with the help of vivid contrasts and contrasts, on which the poem is built. Marvelous Russian landscapes are replaced by terrible pictures:
Straight path: narrow embankments,
Posts, rails, bridges.
And on the sides, all the bones are Russian ...
How many there are! Vanya, do you know?
Just as quickly, the poet leads the reader away from the hardships of construction to a lonely unfortunate Belarusian, from him to a pompous general, and again to the tired faces of the peasants. Constantly creating contrasting situations, Nekrasov creates a tense atmosphere that completely absorbs attention.
The role of the themes raised in the poem is also important here. In addition to the fate of the peasantry, first tortured by the yoke of serfdom and then left without help, Nekrasov draws attention to the fate of Russia. Here are two prominent representatives of the country: the general, who talks about aesthetics and feigns patriotism, and the people themselves, who will never see this imaginary concern and symbolism in Vanya's attire. How can you talk about progress and the entrance into the world of industrial powers, when those for whom, it would seem, the state machine should work, die unknown thousands from slave labor?
The author also raises the problem of gentlemen's indifference to fate ordinary people... The general considers the people to be a bunch of drunks, which is not worthy of his attention and regret. That is why the man was created, to work to death, he can do nothing else. But this hero does not even understand that he lives at the expense of all these people. If not for them, he would not have been able to support himself. The money that generously supported the military ranks was taken from the treasury, but who fills it? Not the king and not his retinue, but the working people who produce what is sold. Therefore, we can single out another problem - social injustice, due to which hundreds of people are forced to provide for one such general who does not strike a finger all his life, since he inherited the rank.
main idea
The entire tragedy of the era and the meaning of the poem Nekrasov compressed to 4 lines, which play the role of an epigraph:
Vanya (in a coachman's jacket):
“Daddy! who built this road? "
Daddy (in a coat with a red lining):
"Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmichel, darling!"
Count Kleinmichel and the entire bureaucratic world, which received laurels, recognition and considerable reward, did not build the road. These rails lie on the bones of peasants tortured by hunger, disease, injustice and poverty. The poet proves this idea, satirically outlined in the epigraph, in his poem, and the stronger and larger the universal problem appears: the common people, who at the cost of their lives build, fight, plow, will never receive the deserved gratitude. Never in any country in the world. The general impudently asks the lyric hero:
I was recently within the walls of the Vatican,
I wandered around the Colosseum for two nights,
I saw Saint Stephen in Vienna,
What ... did the people create all this?
Yes, people. But the descendants will only have the name of the architect and the tsar, and those who create beauty, who feed, are lucky, protect their countries, the descendants will not remember. This is a great human tragedy not only for Russia, but for the whole world. This is the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe work.
Means of artistic expression
Nekrasov manages to achieve such a large-scale and expressive picture of the life and work of the peasant people with the help of a system of artistic means.
Analysis of the poem
1. The history of the creation of the work.
2. Characteristics of the work of the lyric genre (type of lyrics, artistic method, genre).
3. Analysis of the content of the work (analysis of the plot, characteristics of the lyrical hero, motives and tonality).
4. Features of the composition of the work.
5. Analysis of means of artistic expression and versification (the presence of tropes and stylistic figures, rhythm, size, rhyme, stanza).
6. The meaning of the poem for the entire work of the poet.
The poem "Railroad" (sometimes researchers call the work a poem) was written by N.А. Nekrasov in 1864. The work is based on historical facts... It deals with the construction in 1846-1851. Nikolaevskaya railway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. This work was supervised by the manager of routes and public buildings, Count P.A. Kleinmichel. People worked in the most difficult conditions: thousands were dying of hunger and disease, they did not have the necessary clothing, for the slightest disobedience they were severely punished with whips. While working on the work, Nekrasov studied essay-journalistic materials: an article by N.A. Dobrolyubov's "Experience of weaning people off food" (1860) and an article by V.A. Sleptsov's "Vladimirka and Klyazma" (1861). The poem was first published in 1865 in the Sovremennik magazine. It had a subtitle: "Dedicated to Children." This publication caused discontent in official circles, followed by a second warning about the closure of Sovremennik magazine. The censor found in this poem "a terrible slander that cannot be read without a shudder." The direction of the journal was defined by censorship as follows: "Opposition to the government, extreme political and moral opinions, democratic aspirations, and finally, religious denial and materialism."
The poem can be attributed to civil lyrics. Its genre-compositional structure is complex. It was built in the form of a conversation between passengers, the author himself being a conventional companion. The main theme is reflections on the difficult, tragic fate of the Russian people. Some researchers call the "Railroad" a poem that synthesizes elements of various genre forms: drama, satire, songs and ballads.
The "Railway" opens with an epigraph - Vanya's conversation with his father about who built the railroad on which they travel. The general answers the boy's question: "Count Kleinmichel." Then the author comes into play, who initially acts as an observer passenger. And in the first part we see pictures of Russia, a beautiful autumn landscape:
Glorious autumn! Healthy, vigorous
Air tired strength invigorates;
Ice is not strong on the cold river
Like melting sugar lies;
Near the forest, as in a soft bed,
You can sleep - peace and space! -
The leaves have not yet had time to fade,
Are yellow and fresh like a carpet.
This landscape was created in the mainstream of the Pushkin tradition:
October has already come - the grove is shaking off
The last leaves from their naked branches;
The autumn cold has died - the road is freezing.
The stream is still running behind the mill,
But the pond was already frozen; my neighbor is in a hurry
To departing fields with their desire ...
These sketches serve as an exposition in the plot of the work. The lyrical hero Nekrasov admires the beauty of the modest Russian nature, where everything is so good: both "frosty nights" and "clear, quiet days", and "mossy swamps" and "stumps". And as if in passing he notes: "There is no disgrace in nature!" Thus, the antitheses are prepared, on the basis of which the entire poem is built. So, to the beautiful nature, where everything is reasonable and harmonious, the author opposes those outrages that are happening in human society.
And we have this opposition already in the second part, in the speech of the lyric hero, addressed to Vanya:
This work, Vanya, was terribly huge -
Not on the shoulder alone!
There is a king in the world: this king is merciless,
Hunger is his name.
Opposing the general, he reveals to the boy the truth about the construction of the railway. Here we see the plot and development of the action. The lyrical hero says that many workers were doomed to die on this construction. Next, we see a fantastic picture:
Chu! formidable exclamations were heard!
Stomp and gnashing of teeth;
A shadow ran over frosty glass ...
What is there? Dead crowd!
As noted by T.P. Buslakov, “the reminiscent source of this picture is the scene of the dance of“ quiet shadows ”in the ballad of V.A. Zhukovsky "Lyudmila" (1808):
“Chu! a leaf shook in the forest.
Chu! there was a whistle in the wilderness.
Hear the rustle of quiet shadows:
In the hour of midnight visions
There are clouds in the house, in a crowd,
Ashes leaving coffin
With a late month rise
Light, light round dance
Twisted into an air chain ...
Within the meaning of the two close ... episodes are polemical. For Nekrasov, the artistic goal is not only to present evidence, in contrast to Zhukovsky, the "horrifying" truth, but to awaken the conscience of the reader. " Further, the image of the people is concretized by Nekrasov. From the bitter song of the dead, we learn about their unfortunate fate:
We struggled in the heat, in the cold,
With your back always bent
We lived in dugouts, fought hunger,
Frozen and wet, sick with scurvy.
We were robbed by literate foremen,
The bosses whipped, the need pressed ...
We all have endured, God's warriors,
Peaceful children of labor!
…Russian hair,
See, he stands exhausted with fever,
Tall, sick Belarusian:
Bloodless lips, drooping eyelids,
Ulcers on skinny arms
Forever knee-deep in water
The legs are swollen; tangled hair;
I will wash my chest, which is diligently on the spade
I spent all day day in and day out ...
You take a closer look at him, Vanya, carefully:
It was difficult for man to get his bread!
Here, the lyrical hero indicates his position. In an appeal to Vanya, he reveals his attitude towards the people. Great respect for workers, "brothers", for their feat sounds in the following lines:
This noble work habit
It would not be bad for us to adopt ...
Bless the work of the people
And learn to respect the man.
And the second part ends on an optimistic note: the lyrical hero believes in the strength of the Russian people, in its special destiny, in a bright future:
Don't be shy about your dear homeland ...
Endured enough Russian people,
He took out this railroad too -
Will endure whatever the Lord sends!
Will endure everything - and wide, clear
He will make a way for himself with his chest.
These lines are culminating in the development of the lyrical plot. The image of the road here acquires a metaphorical meaning: it is a special path of the Russian people, a special path of Russia.
The third part of the poem is contrasted with the second. Here Vanya's father, a general, expresses his views. In his opinion, the Russian people are "barbarians", "a wild bunch of drunkards." Unlike the lyrical hero, he is skeptical. Antithesis is also present in the content of the third part itself. Here we meet a reminiscence from Pushkin: "Or is Apollo Belvedere for you Worse than a stove pot?" The general here paraphrases Pushkin's lines from the poem "The Poet and the Crowd":
You would benefit from everything - by weight
You appreciate the Belvedere idol.
You see no benefit, no benefit in it.
But this marble is a god! .. so what?
The stove pot is dearer to you:
You cook your food in it.
However, “the author himself enters into polemics with Pushkin. For him, poetry is unacceptable, the content of which is “sweet sounds and prayers” ... and the role of a poet-priest. He is ready to "give ... bold lessons", to rush into battle for the sake of the people's "good".
The fourth part is everyday sketch... This is a kind of denouement in the development of the topic. With bitter irony, the satirically lyrical hero paints here a picture of the end of the work. The workers get nothing, because everyone "owes the contractor." And when he forgives them the arrears, then this causes violent jubilation among the people:
Someone shouted "hurray". Picked up
Louder, friendlier, longer ... Look:
The foremen rolled the barrel with the song ...
Here even the lazy one could not resist!
The people unharnessed their horses - and the merchant
Shouting "Hurray!" rushed along the road ...
It seems difficult to see the picture
Draw, General?
There is also an antithesis in this part. The contractor, the “venerable meadowsweet”, the foremen are opposed here to the deceived, patient people.
Compositionally, the work is divided into four parts. It is written in four-foot dactyl, quatrains, the rhyme is cross. The poet uses various means of artistic expression: epithets ("vigorous air", "at a beautiful time"), a metaphor ("It will take everything - and make a wide, clear Breast path for itself ..."), comparison ("Ice is not strong on a chilly river Like melting sugar is lying "), anaphora (" The contractor goes along the line on a holiday, He goes to see his work "), the inversion" This habit of noble work "). Researchers have noted the diversity of lyric intonations (narrative, colloquial, declamatory) in the poem. However, they are all colored by song tonality. The scene depicting the dead brings Railroad closer to the ballad genre. The first part reminds us of a landscape miniature. The vocabulary and syntax of the work are neutral. Analyzing the phonetic structure of the work, we note the presence of alliteration (“The leaves have not yet faded”) and assonance (“I recognize my dear Rus everywhere ...”).
The poem "Railroad" was very popular among the poet's contemporaries. One of the reasons for this is the sincerity and fervor of the lyrical hero's feelings. As noted by K. Chukovsky, "Nekrasov ... in the" Railroad "and anger, and sarcasm, and tenderness, and longing, and hope, and every feeling is huge, each brought to the limit ..."
The picture of folk life is presented in the poem "Railroad". This poem is preceded by an unusual epigraph: not a literary quote, not folk proverb, but a question from some boy to his father and an answer from his father. It is designed like a miniature piece - the characters are indicated, there are author's remarks:
Vanya (in a coachman's jacket)
Daddy! who built this road?
Daddy (in psmto on a red lining)
Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmichel, darling!
Conversation in the carriage
This peculiar epigraph serves as an exposition, an introduction: the author will have a conversation with both Vanya and dad. It is not hard to guess what it will be about: who actually built the railway. It, which connected Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1852, was laid for 10 years under the leadership of the chief manager of communications, Count P.A. Kleinmichel. In the fall of 1864, Nekrasov on the train, having heard or allegedly heard the father-son conversation cited in the epigraph, considered or seemed to consider it necessary to intervene in this conversation. But first - in the first part of the poem - he told about how good the moonlit night, seen from the window of the carriage, is.
Glorious autumn! Healthy, vigorous
The air invigorates tired forces.
In these sonorous verses (yafenim, bofit) fatigue is overcome, strength is strengthened. Nature is incredibly beautiful. But what about swamps with bumps, stumps (stumps of former trees)? It is hardly customary to admire them. They say: “stupid as a tree stump,” but they call common life, stagnation, a swamp. But a true poet will find a place for all this in the world of beauty. Nekrasov is genuine.
There is no disgrace in nature! And kochi,
And moss swamps, and stumps -
All is well under the moonlight
I recognize my native Russia everywhere ...
Beauty is good not only in itself, but also because it is nationally native: Russia ... It is good to travel across Russia, enjoying the newfound comfort of a railway voyage, this feeling of pleasure was willingly expressed by various poets of the Nekrasov era, it is not alien to our author: “ I fly quickly on cast-iron rails, / I think my thoughts ... "
Good dad! Why in charm
Keep a smart Vanya?
Let me be with the moonlight
Show him the truth.
In our linguistic consciousness, the word "charm" is pleasant. No one will give up looking like a charming person. But in these verses of Nekrasov, this word has a slightly different connotation. Charm is something close to delusion, although, however, also pleasant. “He is in some kind of charm, does not see anything” (example from “ Explanatory dictionary”Dahl). It seemed that “everything is fine under the lunar glow”, but with the same “moonlight”, a very cruel “truth” is to be discerned, which will be shown to Vanya:
This work, Vanya, was terribly huge, -
Not on the shoulder alone!
There is a king in the world: this king is merciless,
Hunger is his name.
The line "Not on the shoulder for one" directly refers to the epigraph, rejecting the answer of the "dad", who said that the railway was built by Kleinmichel. In fact, it was built, as it turns out, by the “masses of the people”, and the tsar Hunger made them do it. An epic symbolic figure: Hunger rules the world. As in Schiller: “Love and Hunger rule the world” (according to Gorky, “this is the most truthful and appropriate epigraph to the endless history of human suffering”). Compelled by the Hunger, people were hired to build a railway in inhumanly difficult conditions, and many "got a fob here for themselves"; "The path" is now so beautiful ("narrow embankments, posts, rails, bridges"), built on Russian bones, they are beyond count.
Chu! Formidable exclamations were heard!
Stomp and gnashing of teeth;
A shadow ran across frosty glass ...
What is there? Dead crowd!
"Chu!" - an interjection that is close in meaning to the call “listen!”. Terrible begins. As in ballads (for example, Zhukovsky, Katenin, Lermontov) - the dead rise from their graves. A kind of balladiness has already been discussed in connection with the poem "Yesterday, at six o'clock ...". Grave-dwellers chase a speeding train; the dead do not just run, but sing a song, which again mentions a moonlit night - the time most suitable for contact of the living with ghosts, which, as usual, must disappear before dawn. They sing about how cold and hungry they were during their lifetime, how sick they were, how the foremen offended them, that is, the elders over a group of workers. One of this crowd of dead people - a “tall sick Belarusian”, fair-haired and emaciated with fever - is outlined in particular detail, even a mottle in his hair is mentioned (a disease in which the hair on his head sticks together and sticks together; occurs in unsanitary conditions, may be the result of an infection) ...
One significant oddity: it is written that the Belarusian stands. But the crowd of the dead, of which he is a representative, is running. As if this is a small contradiction (the Belarusian should have run with everyone), but it came in handy. A static figure, snatched from the general flow and frozen in one place, is easier to give in detailed description... Unlike the dead, singing their song on the run, the Belarusian is silent. This separates him even more from the rest. As a result, you somehow forget that he is dead, and you begin to treat him as if he were alive. Moreover, the details of his portrait (bloodless lips, drooping eyelids, swollen legs, etc.) can indicate not only death, but also the morbidity of a living person. And further: "This habit of noble work would not be bad for us to adopt with you." It would sound strange if one remembers that the Belarusian is dead: it is not a dead man to take labor lessons! In addition, the pathos of labor is interrupted by ominous motives of death: in the behavior of a Belarusian, the poet sees something stupid and mechanical, something like an inanimate, wound-up doll, monotonously repeating some given movement.
Bless the work of the people
And learn to respect the man.
The phrase “respect a man” has become commonplace. In the ballad of A.K. Tolstoy's "Stream-hero" the hero falls from Ancient Rus in Russia XIX V., and he is strictly asked: "Do you respect the peasant?" - "What?" - "A guy in general that is great in humility!" But Stream says: “There is a man and a man. / If he doesn’t drink the harvest / I respect the peasant ”.
Don't be shy for your dear homeland ...
The Russian people endured enough.
In the original version of the text, instead of the word “enough” was: “Tatar”, that is, the Mongol-Tatar yoke (1243-1480). The replaced word is surprisingly consonant with the replaced one. One can guess about the reasons for such a replacement: “Tatarism” is a matter of the distant historical past, while Tatars “from Mother Volga, from Oka”, who suffered along with the Russians, must have taken part in the construction of the railroad, so why bother them with this word, how thereby contributing to national strife?
At the beginning of the third part, the ballad dead disappear:
The whistle is deafening this minute
Screamed - the crowd of the dead disappeared.
Here the locomotive whistle played the traditional role of a rooster's cry, heralding the dawn of the morning and scattering the ghosts who are now in a hurry to escape from the world of the living. Such are the Slavic, and not only Slavic, views on this score. In Shakespeare, this is how the ghost of Hamlet's father disappears: “He suddenly disappeared at the crowing of a rooster” (quoted from the modern Nekrasov translation by A. Kroneberg). It seems to Vanya that he saw all this in a dream: thousands of men appeared (he tells “daddy”), and someone - he - said: “Here they are - builders of our road! ..” Maybe this one he was also in Vania's dream - and talked about the builders of the railway, and showed them? But no, the boy's father, who turned out to be a general, perceives the narrator as a real person and enters into an argument with him. He says that he recently visited Rome, Vienna, saw wonderful monuments of ancient architecture. Is it possible that “the people created all this” - such beauty? And does the general's interlocutor, who spoke so eloquently about the needs of low life, put them above the eternal ideals of the beautiful:
- Or for you Apollo Belvedere
Worse than a stove pot?
This refers to Pushkin's poem “The Poet and the Crowd”, which sharply condemns the selfish “rabble”: “... by weight / you value Belvedere's idol, / you do not see any benefit in it ... / The stove pot is dearer to you. .. "What is more important: beauty or benefit? Shakespeare or boots? Raphael or kerosene? Apollo Belvedere or stove pot? - this was argued in every way in the Nekrasov era, literature and journalism fought over these "damned" questions. On the one hand, aesthetes, priests of pure art, on the other, utilitarians, materialists. Nekrasov's general aesthetics, despises black and rude people:
Here are your people - these terms and baths,
A miracle of art - he pulled everything apart!
The exclamation "Here are your people!" entered into everyday life. In Korolenko's story “Prokhor and the Students” two students walk past a pitiful, degraded peasant, and, pointing at him, one says to the other: “Here are your people!”, And he wonders: where is the people, because I am alone here! Baths are ancient Roman public baths, once luxurious, now ruins, testifying to the lost greatness of ancient culture. It was destroyed by the barbarians, that is, the peoples not involved in the Roman civilization: the Slavs (apparently southern, non-Russian), the Germans ... destroyers, not creators:
Your Slav, Anglo-Saxon and Germanic
Do not create - destroy the master,
Barbarians! a wild bunch of drunks! ..
In the same way, in the general's opinion, the Russian barbarians-muzhiks cannot be considered the builders of the railway: the “wild crowd of drunks” is not capable of this. But there is also a “bright side” of people's life! So let the general's interlocutor show Vanya and her, instead of traumatizing the child with “the spectacle of death, sadness”! And in the fourth part of the poem this "bright side" is shown.
The construction of the railway is over, the dead in the ground, the sick in the dugouts, the workers are gathered at the office: what will be the earnings? But the rogue foremen (in the modern way, foremen) calculated them so dashingly that it turned out that the workers not only should not receive anything, but also had to pay arrears (the part of the tax that was not paid on time) to the contractor (here - a rich merchant responsible for this section of work). The situation is bad, but the contractor himself appears, “congratulates” (congratulates) the audience and is ready to treat them and generally make them happy: “I give arrears!”
The reaction of the people is universal jubilation. They shout "hurray!" Foremen with a song roll the promised barrel of wine. Apparently, in the words of the general - "a wild bunch of drunks! .." - there is a certain grain of truth. Here is the “bright side” of people's life - tortured people are sincerely happy:
The people unharnessed their horses - and the merchant
Scream "hurray!" rushed along the road ...
Seems hard to see the picture
Draw, General? ..
The life of the common people has always been hard. Especially in Russia with its unbearable climate. Especially before the abolition of serfdom. The country was ruled by ruthless, greedy landowners, tsars, who drove peasants into the coffin to achieve their goals. The fate of the serfs who built the first railway between Moscow and St. Petersburg is tragic. This path is strewn with the bones of thousands of men. Nekrasov ("Railroad") dedicated his work to tragedies. A summary and analysis of it will reveal to us what the poet with a heightened sense of civic duty wanted to convey to the readers.
The theme of the complex life of the Russian people in the work of Nekrasov
The great poet was a truly popular writer. He praised the beauty of Russia, wrote about the plight of peasants, people of the lower classes, women. It was he who introduced colloquial speech into literature, thereby reviving the images presented in the works.
Nekrasov showed the tragedy of the fate of serfs in his poetry. "Railway", summary which we will present - a small poem. In it, the author was able to convey the injustice, deprivation and monstrous exploitation to which the peasants were subjected.
N. A. Nekrasov, "Railway": a summary
The work begins with an epigraph. In it, the boy Vanya asks the general who built the railway. He answers: Count Kleinmichel. Thus, Nekrasov began his poem with sarcasm.
Further, readers are immersed in the description of the Russian autumn. It is glorious, with fresh air, beautiful scenery. The author flies along the rails, plunging into his thoughts.
When he heard that the road was built by Count Kleinmichel, he says that there is no need to hide the truth from the boy, and begins to talk about the construction of the railway.
The boy heard that a crowd of dead people had run up to the windows of the train. They tell him that people built this road in any weather, lived in dugouts, starved, were sick. They were robbed and flogged. Now others are reaping the fruits of their labor, and the builders are rotting in the ground. "Do they remember them kindly," the dead ask, "or have people forgotten about them?"
The author tells Vanya that there is no need to be afraid of the singing of these dead men. Indicates the one who is exhausted from hard work, stands bent over and plows the ground. It is so hard for people to get their bread. Their work should be respected, he says. The author is sure that the people will endure everything and in the end will pave their way.
Vanya fell asleep and woke up from the whistle. He told his father-general about his dream. In it they showed him 5 thousand men and said that they were the builders of the road. Hearing this, he burst out laughing. He said that peasants are drunkards, barbarians and destroyers, that they can only build their own mansions. The general asked not to tell the child about the terrible spectacles, but to show the bright sides.
This is how Nekrasov described the construction of the road in his poem "Railroad". A summary ("brief" - as it is called in English) cannot, of course, convey all the pain of the author for a simple deceived person. To feel all the sarcasm and bitterness of injustice, it is worth reading this poem in the original.
Analysis of the work
Poetry is a conversation between a traveling companion and a boy Vanya. The author wanted people to remember how we get the benefits, who is behind it. He also told the readers about the greed of their superiors, their inhumanity. About peasant peasants who do not receive anything for their labor.
Nekrasov showed all the injustice and tragedy of the life of serfs in his work. "Railroad", the summary of which we have considered, refers to the few works of the XIX century with a social orientation, telling about the life of the common people with sympathy.
Conclusion
In his poem, the poet notes that the creators of everything great in Russia are simple men. However, all the laurels go to landowners, counts, contractors who shamelessly exploit the workers and deceive them.
Nekrasov ends his work with a picture of slavish glee and obedience. The "railroad" (a summary tells about it) was built, the peasants were circled around the finger. But they are so timid and submissive that they rejoice at the crumbs that have fallen to them. In the concluding lines, Nekrasov makes it clear that he is not happy with this obedience and hopes that the time will come when the peasants will straighten their backs and throw off those who sit on it.