Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Main dates of life and work of Nikolai Nekrasov full biography and work

1. First years in St. Petersburg
2. “Who Lives Well in Rus'”: Nekrasov’s last major work

Nikolai Nekrasov is known to modern readers as the “most peasant” poet of Russia: it was he who was one of the first to talk about the tragedy of serfdom and explore the spiritual world of the Russian peasantry. Nikolai Nekrasov was also a successful publicist and publisher: his Sovremennik became a legendary magazine of its time.

“Everything that has entangled my life since childhood has become an irresistible curse on me...”

Nikolai Nekrasov was born on December 10 (according to the old style - November 28), 1821 in the small town of Nemirov, Vinnitsa district, Podolsk province. His father Alexey Nekrasov came from a family of once wealthy Yaroslavl nobles, was an army officer, and his mother Elena Zakrevskaya was the daughter of a possessor from the Kherson province. The parents were against the marriage of a beautiful and educated girl to a military man who was not rich at that time, so the young couple got married in 1817 without their blessing.

However, the couple’s family life was not happy: the father of the future poet turned out to be a stern and despotic man, including in relation to his soft and shy wife, whom he called a “recluse.” The difficult atmosphere that reigned in the family influenced Nekrasov’s work: metaphorical images of parents often appeared in his works. Fyodor Dostoevsky said: “It was a wounded heart at the very beginning of life; and it was this wound that never healed that was the beginning and source of all his passionate, suffering poetry for the rest of his life.”.

Konstantin Makovsky. Portrait of Nikolai Nekrasov. 1856. State Tretyakov Gallery

Nikolay Ge. Portrait of Nikolai Nekrasov. 1872. State Russian Museum

Nikolai's early childhood was spent on his father's family estate - the village of Greshnevo, Yaroslavl province, where the family moved after Alexei Nekrasov retired from the army. The boy developed a particularly close relationship with his mother: she was his best friend and first teacher, and instilled in him a love of the Russian language and the literary word.

Things were seriously neglected on the family estate, it even came to the point of litigation, and Nekrasov’s father took on the duties of a police officer. When leaving on business, he often took his son with him, so from an early age the boy saw pictures that were not intended for children’s eyes: extorting debts and arrears from peasants, cruel reprisals, all kinds of manifestations of grief and poverty. In his own poems, Nekrasov recalled the early years of his life:

First years in St. Petersburg

In 1832, Nekrasov turned 11 years old and entered the gymnasium, where he studied until the fifth grade. Studying was difficult for him, relations with the gymnasium authorities did not go well - in particular, because of the caustic satirical poems that he began to compose at the age of 16. Therefore, in 1837 Nekrasov went to St. Petersburg, where, according to his father’s wishes, he was supposed to enroll in military service.

In St. Petersburg, young Nekrasov, through his friend at the gymnasium, met several students, after which he realized that education interested him more than military affairs. Contrary to his father’s demands and threats to leave him without material support, Nekrasov began to prepare for entrance exams to the university, but failed them, after which he became a volunteer student at the Faculty of Philology.

Nekrasov Sr. fulfilled his ultimatum and left his rebellious son without financial help. Nekrasov spent all his free time from studying looking for work and a roof over his head: it got to the point that he could not afford lunch. For some time he rented a room, but in the end he was unable to pay for it and ended up on the street, and then ended up in a shelter for beggars. It was there that Nekrasov discovered new opportunity earning money - writing petitions and complaints for a small fee.

Over time, Nekrasov’s affairs began to improve, and the stage of dire need was passed. By the early 1840s, he made a living by writing poems and fairy tales, which were later published in popular prints, published small articles in the Literary Gazette and the Literary Supplement to the Russian Invalid, gave private lessons and composed plays for Alexandrinsky Theater under the pseudonym Perepelsky.

In 1840, using his own savings, Nekrasov published his first poetry collection, “Dreams and Sounds,” which consisted of romantic ballads, which were influenced by the poetry of Vasily Zhukovsky and Vladimir Benediktov. Zhukovsky himself, having familiarized himself with the collection, called only two poems quite good, but recommended publishing the rest under a pseudonym and argued it this way: “Later you will write better, and you will be ashamed of these poems”. Nekrasov heeded the advice and published a collection under the initials N.N.

The book "Dreams and Sounds" did not have special success neither from readers nor from critics, although Nikolai Polevoy spoke very favorably of the aspiring poet, and Vissarion Belinsky called his poems “coming from the soul.” Nekrasov himself was upset by his first poetic experience and decided to try his hand at prose. He wrote his early stories and novellas in a realistic manner: the plots were based on events and phenomena in which the author himself was a participant or witness, and some characters had prototypes in reality. Later, Nekrasov turned to satirical genres: he created the vaudeville “This is what it means to fall in love with an actress” and “Feoktist Onufrievich Bob”, the story “Makar Osipovich Random” and other works.

Nekrasov’s publishing activities: “Sovremennik” and “Whistle”

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of Nikolai Nekrasov. 1877. State Tretyakov Gallery

Nikolai Nekrasov and Ivan Panaev. Caricature by Nikolai Stepanov, “Illustrated Almanac”. 1848. Photo: vm.ru

Alexey Naumov. Nikolai Nekrasov and Ivan Panaev visiting the sick Vissarion Belinsky. 1881

From the mid-1840s, Nekrasov began to actively engage in publishing activities. With his participation, the almanacs “Physiology of St. Petersburg”, “Articles in Poems without Pictures”, “April 1”, “Petersburg Collection” were published, and the latter was a particularly great success: Dostoevsky’s novel “Poor People” was published for the first time in it.

At the end of 1846, Nekrasov, together with his friend, journalist and writer Ivan Panaev, rented the Sovremennik magazine from the publisher Pyotr Pletnev.

Young authors, who had previously published mainly in Otechestvennye zapiski, willingly moved to Nekrasov’s publication. It was Sovremennik that made it possible to reveal the talent of such writers as Ivan Goncharov, Ivan Turgenev, Alexander Herzen, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. Nekrasov himself was not only the editor of the magazine, but also one of its regular authors. His poems, prose, literary criticism, and journalistic articles were published on the pages of Sovremennik.

The period from 1848 to 1855 became a difficult time for Russian journalism and literature due to the sharp tightening of censorship. To fill the gaps that arose in the content of the magazine due to censorship bans, Nekrasov began publishing in it chapters from the adventure novels “Dead Lake” and “Three Countries of the World,” which he co-wrote with his common-law wife Avdotya Panayeva (she was hiding under the pseudonym N N. Stanitsky).

In the mid-1850s, censorship requirements relaxed, but Sovremennik faced a new problem: class contradictions split the authors into two groups with opposing beliefs. Representatives of the liberal nobility advocated realism and aesthetic principles in literature, while supporters of democracy adhered to the satirical direction. The confrontation, of course, spilled onto the pages of the magazine, so Nekrasov, together with Nikolai Dobrolyubov, founded a supplement to Sovremennik - the satirical publication “Whistle”. It published humorous stories and short stories, satirical poems, pamphlets and caricatures.

IN different time Ivan Panaev, Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Nikolai Nekrasov published their works on the pages of “Whistle”. Photo: russkiymir.ru

After the closure of Sovremennik, Nekrasov began publishing the magazine Otechestvennye zapiski, which he rented from the publisher Andrei Kraevsky. At the same time, the poet was working on one of his most ambitious works - the peasant poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”

Nekrasov came up with the idea for the poem back in the late 1850s, but he wrote the first part after the abolition of serfdom - around 1863. The basis of the work was not only literary experiments the poet's predecessors, but also his own impressions and memories. According to the author's idea, the poem was supposed to become a kind of epic, demonstrating the life of the Russian people from different points of view. At the same time, Nekrasov purposefully used to write it not in “high style”, but in simple spoken language, close to folk songs and tales, replete with colloquial expressions and sayings.

Work on the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” took Nekrasov almost 14 years. But even during this period, he did not have time to fully realize his plan: a serious illness prevented him, which confined the writer to his bed. Originally the work was supposed to consist of seven or eight parts. The travel route of the heroes, looking for “who lives cheerfully and freely in Rus',” lay across the entire country, all the way to St. Petersburg, where they had a meeting with an official, a merchant, a minister and a tsar. However, Nekrasov understood that he would not have time to complete the work, so he reduced the fourth part of the story - “A Feast for the Whole World” - to an open ending.

During Nekrasov’s lifetime, only three fragments of the poem were published in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski - the first part with a prologue, which does not have its own title, “The Last One” and “The Peasant Woman”. “A Feast for the Whole World” was published only three years after the author’s death, and even then with significant censorship cuts.

Nekrasov died on January 8, 1878 (December 27, 1877, old style). Several thousand people came to say goodbye to him and escorted the writer’s coffin from his home to the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg. This was the first time that a Russian writer was given national honors.

Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov is a Russian writer and poet who made the whole world admire with his works.

Origin

Nikolay Nekrasov was born into a noble family, which at that time had quite a large fortune. The poet’s birthplace is considered to be the city of Nemirov, located in the Podolsk province.

The writer's father, Alexey Sergeevich Nekrasov, was a military officer and a wealthy landowner who was very fond of gambling and cards.

N. Nekrasov’s mother, Elena Zakrevskaya, came from a wealthy family, the head of which was a respected man. Elena was distinguished by her broad outlook and impressive beauty, so Zakrevskaya’s parents were against marriage with Alexei, but the wedding took place against the will of the parents.

Nikolay Nekrasov loved his mother very much as can be seen in the works “Last Songs”, “Mother” and in other poems and poems. It is the mother who is the main positive person in the writer’s world.

The poet's childhood and education

The writer spent his childhood with his brothers and sisters on the Greshnevo estate, which belonged to his family.

Young the poet saw how ordinary people suffered under the yoke of the landowners. This served as the idea for his future works.

When the boy turned 11 years old, he was sent to a gymnasium, where he studied until the 5th grade. Nekrasov was a weak student, but his first poems already filled the pages of notebooks.

A serious step. The beginning of creativity

N. Nekrasov's next step was to move to St. Petersburg, where he expressed a desire to attend lectures at the university.

The writer's father was a strict and principled man who wanted his son to become a military man. Son went against my father's wishes depriving yourself of financial support and respect from your family.

In a new city to survive I had to earn money by writing articles. This is how the aspiring poet met the famous critic Belinsky. A couple of years later, Nekrasov became the owner of a famous literary publication, which had big influence, Sovremennik, but soon censorship closed the magazine.

Active work of the writer. Contribution to literature

Having earned a significant amount of money, Nekrasov decides to publish his first collection of poems “Dreams and Sounds”. The people did not like the collection, so it was a complete failure, but the poet did not get upset and began writing prose works.

The Sovremennik magazine, in which Nikolai Nekrasov edited and wrote texts, greatly influenced the life of the writer. At the same time, the poet created several collections of personal poems. For the first time big Nekrasov’s works “Peasant Children” and “Peddlers” brought fame to Nekrasov.

The Sovremennik magazine showed the world such talented people as I. Goncharov and other writers and poets. Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky became known to the whole world thanks to Nikolai Nekrasov, who decided to publish them on the pages of the magazine.

In the 40s of the 19th century, another publication, “Notes of the Fatherland,” began to collaborate with Nikolai Nekrasov.

Young Nekrasov saw how difficult it was for a simple peasant, so this did not go unnoticed in the writer’s works. A striking feature of Nekrasov’s work is use of colloquial speech in works: poems and stories.

Nekrasov for ten recent years life releases a lot famous works about the Decembrists and the common people: “Who is happy in Rus'”, “Grandfather”, “Russian women” and others.

Death of a Writer

In 1875, N. Nekrasov was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. Mine latest collection“The Last Songs,” created in terrible agony, the poet dedicates to Zinaida Nikolaevna, his wife.

On December 27, 1877, Nikolai Nekrasov was overcome by illness. The grave of the writer, who made a huge contribution to literary life, is located in St. Petersburg.

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Born November 28 (December 10) 1821. in Ukraine in the town of Nemirov, Podolsk province, in the noble family of retired lieutenant Alexei Sergeevich and Elena Andreevna Nekrasov.

1824–1832– life in the village of Greshnevo, Yaroslavl province

1838- leaves his father's estate Greshnevo in order to, by his will, enter the St. Petersburg noble regiment, but, contrary to his wishes, decides to enter St. Petersburg University. His father deprives him of his livelihood.

1840- the first imitative collection of poems "Dreams and Sounds".

1843– acquaintance with V. G. Belinsky.

1868– publication of the first issue of N.A. Nekrasov’s new magazine “Notes of the Fatherland” with the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.”

1868 –1877– together with M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, edits the journal “Domestic Notes”.

1869 - appearance in No. 1 and No. 2 of "Notes of the Fatherland" of the "Prologue" and the first three chapters of "Who Lives Well in Rus'."
Second trip abroad. Involving V. A. Zaitsev in cooperation with Otechestvennye zapiski.

1870 - rapprochement with Fekla Anisimovna Viktorova, the future wife of the poet (Zina).
In No. 2 of "Notes of the Fatherland" chapters IV and V of the poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'" are published, and in No. 9 - the poem "Grandfather" with a dedication to Zinaida Nikolaevna.

1875 – election of Nekrasov as a fellow chairman of the Literary Fund. Work on the poem "Contemporaries", the appearance of the first part ("Anniversaries and Triumphants") in No. 8 of "Notes of the Fatherland". The beginning of the last illness.

1876 – work on the fourth part of the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”.
Poems “To the Sowers”, “Prayer”, “Soon I will become prey to decay”, “Zine”.

1877 – at the beginning of April – the book “Last Songs” will be published.
April 4 – wedding at home with Zinaida Nikolaevna.
April 12 – surgery.
Beginning of June - meeting with Turgenev.
In August - a farewell letter from Chernyshevsky.
December – last poems (“Oh, Muse! I’m at the door of the coffin”).
Died December 27, 1877 (January 8 1878- according to the new style) in St. Petersburg. He was buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.

Composition

The work of N.A. Nekrasov constitutes an entire era in the history of Russian literature. His poetry was an expression of the new time, when commoners came to replace the outgoing class of nobles in the public life of the country. For the poet, the concepts of the Motherland and the working people - the breadwinner and defender of the Russian land - merged together. That is why Nekrasov’s patriotism is so organically combined with a protest against the oppressors of the peasants.
In his work, N. Nekrasov continued the traditions of his great predecessors - M. V. Lomonosov, K. F. Ryleev, A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov - who considered the “civil rank” to be the highest.

Back in 1848, in one of his poems, the author compared his poetry with the image of a peasant woman. His muse is close to troubles and suffering ordinary people. She herself is one of many thousands of disadvantaged and oppressed:

Yesterday, at about six o'clock,
I went to Sennaya;
There they beat a woman with a whip,
A young peasant woman.
Not a sound from her chest
Only the whip whistled as it played,
And I said to the Muse: “Look!
Your dear sister."

With this poem, Nekrasov began his path in poetry, from which he never turned back. In 1856, the poet’s second collection was published, which opened with the poem “The Poet and the Citizen,” printed in a larger font. This seemed to emphasize the role of verse in the collection.

“A noble and strong thing. So the motive of his entire muse hums,” wrote one of the poet’s contemporaries A. Turgenev, having become acquainted with the works of this book.
“The Poet and the Citizen” is the most vivid, clear and definite expression of Nekrasov’s civic position, his understanding of the goals and objectives of poetry... The poem is a dialogue between the Poet and the Citizen, from which it becomes clear that the Citizen is sensitive to the changes taking place in society.

“What a time it is,” he says enthusiastically. The citizen believes that everyone has a duty to society not to be indifferent to the fate of their homeland. Moreover, this is the duty of a poet, whom nature and fate have awarded with talent and who must help discover the truth, ignite the hearts of people, and lead them along the path of truth.

“Boldly smash the vices,” the Citizen Poet calls.

He tries to awaken the indifferently sleeping soul of the Poet, who explains his social passivity by the desire to create “real,” “eternal” art, far from the burning issues of our time. Here Nekrasov touches on a very important problem generated by the new era. This is the problem of contrasting socially significant poetry " pure art" The dispute between the heroes of the poem is ideological, a dispute about the poet’s life position, but it is perceived more broadly: not only of the poet, but of any citizen, person in general. A true citizen “bears on his body all the ulcers of his homeland like his own.” The poet should be ashamed

In a time of grief
The beauty of the valleys, skies and sea
And sing of sweet affection.

Nekrasov’s lines became an aphorism:

You may not be a poet
But you have to be a citizen.

Since then, every true artist has used them to check the true value of his work. The role of the poet-citizen especially increases during periods of great social storms and social upheavals. Let's look to today. With what passion, despair and hope, with what fury our writers and poets, artists and performers rushed to fight against outdated dogmas for the creation of a renewed, humane society! And even though their views are sometimes diametrically opposed and not everyone can agree with them, the attempt itself is noble, albeit with difficulty, through mistakes and stumbles, to find the right path to move forward. For them, the “rank of citizen” is as high as in Lomonosov, Pushkin and Nekrasov times.

Nekrasov called “Elegy,” one of his last poems, “the most sincere and beloved.” In it, the poet reflects with deep bitterness on the causes of disharmony in society. Life has been lived, and Nekrasov has come to a wise, philosophical understanding of existence.
But the powerless situation of the people, their life, the relationship between the poet and the people still worries the author.

Let changing fashion tell us,
That the old theme is “the suffering of the people”
And that poetry should forget her,
Don't believe it, boys!
She doesn't age
he claims.

Responding to all those who hesitate and doubt that poetry can somehow seriously influence people’s lives, he wrote:

But everyone go into battle! And fate will decide the battle...

And Nekrasov, until the last moments of his difficult life, remained a warrior, striking blows at the tsarist autocracy with every line of his works.
Nekrasov’s muse, so sensitive to the pain and joy of others, has not laid down her poetic weapons even today; she is at the forefront of the struggle for a free, happy, spiritually rich person.

Most of Nekrasov's lyrics are devoted to the theme of the suffering of the people. This topic, as the author states in the poem “Elegy,” will always be relevant. He understands that many generations will continue to pose the question of restoring social justice, and that while the people “languish in poverty,” the only companion, support, and inspirer will be the Muse. Nekrasov dedicates his poetry to the people. He affirms the idea that victory goes to the people only if everyone goes into battle.

Let not every warrior harm the enemy,
But everyone go into battle! And fate will decide the battle...
I saw a red day: there is no slave in Russia!
And I shed sweet tears in tenderness...

With these lines, the author calls for the struggle for freedom and happiness. But by 1861 the issue of freedom for the peasants had already been resolved. After the reform of the abolition of serfdom, it was believed that the life of the peasants went along the path of prosperity and freedom. Nekrasov sees the other side of this aspect; he poses the question like this: “The people are liberated, but are the people happy?” This makes us wonder whether the people have gained real freedom?
In the poem “Elegy,” written at the end of his life, Nekrasov seems to sum up his thoughts on the topic of the purpose of a poet and poetry. Nekrasov devotes the main place in his poetry to the description of the life of the people, their difficult fate. He's writing:

I dedicated the lyre to my people.
Perhaps I will die unknown to him,
But I served him - and my heart is calm...
But still, the author is depressed by the thought that the people did not respond to his voice and remained deaf to his calls:
But the one about whom I sing in the evening silence,
To whom are the poet’s dreams dedicated?
Alas! He doesn’t heed and doesn’t give an answer...

This circumstance worries him, and therefore he sets himself the task of becoming “an exposer of the crowd,” “its passions and delusions.” He is ready to go through a difficult thorny path, but to fulfill his mission as a poet. Nekrasov writes about this in his poem “Blessed is the gentle poet...”. In it, he shames the lyricists who remain aloof from the most “sick”, most pressing and controversial problems of the peasantry. He ridicules their detachment from the real world, their head in the clouds, when such troubles are happening on earth: children are forced to beg, women take on the unbearable burden of being the breadwinner of the family and work from dawn to dusk.
The author argues that in any, even the most difficult times, the poet is not free to ignore what worries the Russian people most. A real poet, according to Nekrasov:

Armed with satire, he walks a thorny path
With your punishing lyre.

It is precisely such a poet who will always be remembered, although they will understand late how much he did...
Poems on the topic of the purpose of a poet and poetry occupy an important place in Nekrasov’s lyrics. They once again confirm his boundless devotion to the Russian people, his love for them, his admiration for his patience and hard work, and at the same time the pain that the author experiences, seeing his inaction and resignation to his cruel fate. All his work is an attempt to “awaken” the spirit of the people, to make them understand how important and good freedom is, and that only with it the life of the peasants can become truly happy.

At the turn of the 1830s-1840s, a change took place in Russian literature literary eras: after the death of Pushkin and Lermontov, Russian poetry enters a new era of development, and the poetry of Tyutchev, Nekrasov, Fet and a large group of new poets comes to the fore. Of course, these changes do not occur because new poets simply took the place of their great predecessors - a different socio-historical time has come, which needed its own poetry. The need for artistic comprehension of the new position of man in the world and society was manifested in Tyutchev’s philosophical poetry; personal life, experiences of nature and love became the content of Fet’s lyrics. From the very beginning of his work, Nekrasov in his lyrics focused on social issues, and civic pathos became the ideological dominant of his poetry.

The social orientation of Nekrasov’s lyrics, the severity of its social themes, and sympathy for the Russian disadvantaged people were predetermined by the poet’s very life. Nekrasov spent his childhood in the village of Greshnevo, Yaroslavl province, on the estate of his father, a poor nobleman, retired lieutenant Alexei Sergeevich Nekrasov. The love and bright memories of his mother, Elena Andreevna, which the poet carried throughout his life, were reflected in his work with soulful attention to women’s plight. Even from childhood, Nekrasov recognized the need, and since his father, who served as a police officer, often took the boy with him when traveling on business, he more than once witnessed human misfortunes.

At the age of seventeen, Nekrasov, following the will of his father, went to St. Petersburg to take up military service, but soon disobeyed and, despite the threat of losing material support, preferred literary activity. Nekrasov became a volunteer student at the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg University and at the same time looked for ways to earn a living. Nekrasov recalled that time of his life as the most difficult - it was a time of malnutrition, constant need and concern for the future. Nekrasov was greatly helped by his rapprochement with V.G. Belinsky. He became a permanent member of Belinsky’s literary circle and began collaborating in the journal Otechestvennye zapiski. In the 1840s, Nekrasov, being an energetic, enterprising and talented person, was already familiar with the entire literary society of St. Petersburg. Among his friends and good acquaintances were I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, D.V. Grigorovich, V.I. Dahl, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I.I. Panaev and many other writers. The rapidity of Nekrasov’s success is evidenced by the fact that already in 1846, together with I.I. Panaev, he bought the famous, organized by A.S. Pushkin magazine "Contemporary". Under the new leadership, the magazine became the center of literary life in St. Petersburg. Belinsky, and later N.G. also played a significant role in the development of Sovremennik. Chernyshevsky and N.A. Dobrolyubov.

Creative and social activity Nekrasov was embodied in his literary works, journalism and publishing work. Great public importance magazines “Sovremennik” and “Otechestvennye zapiski”, published by Nekrasov for thirty years, since thanks to them Russian society became acquainted with the best modern works, learned about new writers and critics.

However, Nekrasov's true calling was poetry. At the age of twenty, he wrote his first collection of poems, “Dreams and Sounds.” The poems in this collection are still immature, imitative, they lack independence, their own poetic voice. Nekrasov was so dissatisfied with his collection that he later even destroyed the published copies. IN early years Nekrasov had a period of creativity when he tried to write prose, but these attempts were unsuccessful. Nekrasov had to find his theme in poetry so that his poetic talent could fully manifest itself.

The themes of Nekrasov's poetry turned out to be very broad and versatile. At first, images of human suffering in a big city predominated, love lyrics, elegies. Later, the poet's civil lyrics cover deeper themes; they address the life of the people, especially the peasantry, and current social issues. These are the poems “The Uncompressed Strip” (1854), “Schoolboy” (1856), “Reflections at the Front Entrance” (1858), “ Railway"(1864). Public position The poet was clearly manifested in poems written on the death of his colleagues in activity: “In Memory of Belinsky” (1853), “On the Death of Shevchenko” (1861), “In Memory of Dobrolyubov” (1864). The theme of the poet and poetry occupied a special place in Nekrasov’s work, and it was most clearly manifested in the poem “Elegy” (“Let changeable fashion speak to us...”, 1874). Deep tenderness is heard in Nekrasov’s poems about children and women, such as “Song to Eremushka” (1859), “Peasant Children” (1861), “Mother” (1868). In the poems “Sasha” (1855), “Frost, Red Nose” (1862-1864), “Russian Women” (1871 - 1872), the life of Russia is shown from different sides, but the image of a Russian woman is invariably in the center: be it a woman with high aspirations, or a peasant woman with tragic fate, or devoted wives of the Decembrists. In the last period of his creativity, Nekrasov worked on the epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (1863-1876), in which the poet created a grandiose picture of post-reform Russia, capturing all the great diversity of its life in a rich gallery of images of peasants, soldiers, artisans, common people, landowners, clergy. The poem absorbed Russian folk art: songs, legends, proverbs, fairy tale elements. The work is dominated by the tale form of narration and Russian colloquial speech. In terms of artistic power and ideological significance, the images of Savely - the Holy Russian hero, the peasant woman Matryona and the people's intercessor Grisha Dobrosklonov are important. They embody the main idea of ​​Nekrasov’s work, expressed in the song that concludes the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”:

You're miserable too

You are also abundant

You're downtrodden

You are omnipotent

Mother Rus'!..