There are many heroes in the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia". Some of them pass by. About them it is said in passing. For others, the author spared no time and space. They are presented in detail and comprehensively.

The image and characteristics of Matryona Korchagina in the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" is one of such characters. Women's happiness - that's what the pilgrims wanted to find in Matryona.

Biography of the main female character

Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina grew up in a family of ordinary peasants... When she meets wanderers, she is only 38 years old, but for some reason she calls herself an "old woman." So quickly the life of a peasant flies by. God gave the woman children - she has 5 sons. One (firstborn) died. Why are only sons born? Probably, this is the belief in the appearance in Russia of a new generation of heroes, honest and strong as a mother.

According to Matryona, she was happy only in her father's family... They took care of her, guarded her sleep, did not force her to work. The girl appreciated the care of her relatives, answered them with affection and work. Songs at the wedding, lamentations over the bride and the crying of the girl herself are folklore that conveys the reality of life.

Everything has changed in the husband's family... There was so much suffering that not every woman could bear it. At night Matryona shed tears, in the daytime she spread like grass, her head dropped, anger hid in her heart, but accumulated. The woman understands that everyone lives like that. Philip treats Matryona well. But it is difficult to distinguish a good life from cruelty: he whips his wife with a whip to the blood, goes to work, leaves one with the children in a hated family. The girl does not require much attention to herself: the silk scarf and sledding return her to cheerful singing.

The vocation of a Russian peasant woman is to raise children... She becomes a real heroine, courageous and strong. Grief is on the heels. The first son, Demushka, dies. Grandfather Savely could not save him. The authorities scoff at the mother. They torment the child's body in front of her eyes, pictures of horror remain in her memory for life. Another son gave the sheep to a hungry she-wolf. Matryona protected the boy by standing in his place for punishment. Mother's love is strong:

"Who can endure, so mother!"

Korchagina defended her husband. The pregnant woman went to the governor with a request not to take him into the army.

Woman's appearance

Nekrasov describes Matryona with love. He recognizes her beauty and amazing attractiveness. Some features for the modern reader are not characteristic of beauty, but this only confirms how the attitude towards appearance has changed over the centuries:

• "Handsome" figure;
• "Wide" back;
• "Dense" in body;
• kholmogory cow.

Most of the characteristics are a manifestation of the author's tenderness. Beautiful dark hair with gray hair, large expressive eyes with "richest" lush eyelashes, dark skin. Ruddy cheeks and clear eyes. What vivid epithets are selected by those around for Matryona:

• "Written kralechka";
• "Bulk berry";
• "Good ... good-looking";
• "White face".
• The woman is neat in her clothes: a white print shirt, a short embroidered sundress.

Matryona's character

The main character trait is hard work. Since childhood, Matryona loves work and does not hide from it. She knows how to put haystacks, ruffle flax, thresh on a barn. The woman's household is large, but she does not complain. All the strength that she received from God she gives to work.

Other features of the Russian beauty:

Frankness: telling the wanderers her fate, she does not embellish or hide anything.

Sincerity: a woman does not cheat, she reveals her whole destiny from her youth, shares her experiences and "sinful" deeds.

Love of freedom: the desire to be free and free remains in the soul, but the rules of life change their character, force them to be secretive.

Courage: often a woman has to become a “daring woman”. She is punished, but "arrogance and intransigence" remain.

Fidelity: the wife is devoted to her husband, strives to be honest and faithful in all situations.

Honesty: Matryona herself leads an honest life and teaches her sons to be like that. She asks them to neither steal nor deceive.

Female sincerely believes in god... She prays and consoles herself. It becomes easier for her in conversations with the Mother of God.

Matryona's happiness

Wanderers are sent to Korchagina because of the nickname - the governor's wife. Rarely could anyone from a simple peasant woman become famous in the district with such a title. But did the nickname bring true happiness? No. The people denounced her as a lucky woman, but this is only one case from Matryona's life. Courage and perseverance returned her husband to the family, life became easier. The children no longer had to go and beg in the villages, but to say that Korchagina is not happy. Matryona understands this and tries to explain to the peasants: among ordinary Russian women there are no happy ones, and there cannot be. God Himself denied them this - he lost the keys to joy and will. Her wealth is a lake of tears. The tests were supposed to crush the peasant woman, the soul was to become callous. Everything is different in the poem. Matryona does not die, either spiritually or physically. She continues to believe that the keys to female happiness will be found. She enjoys every day and delights men. She cannot be considered happy, but no one dares to call her unhappy. She is a real Russian peasant woman, independent, beautiful and strong.

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Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", its key moment contains the search by seven male peasants for people whose life would be happy. One day they meet a certain peasant woman - Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina, who tells them her sad life story.

Age and appearance

At the time of the story, Matryona is 38 years old, but the woman herself considers herself an old woman. Matryona is a rather beautiful woman: she is dignified and stout, her face has already noticeably faded, but still retained traces of attractiveness and beauty. She had large, clear and stern eyes. They were framed by beautiful thick eyelashes.

Her hair was already visibly touched by gray, but it was still possible to recognize her hair color. Her skin was dark and rough. Matryona's clothes are like the clothes of all peasants - they are simple and neat. Traditionally, her wardrobe consists of a white shirt and a short sundress.

Personality characteristic

Matryona possesses considerable power, “the Khokhloma cow” - this is the characterization given by the author. She is a hardworking woman. Their family has a large household, which is mainly taken care of by Matryona. She is not deprived of intelligence and ingenuity. A woman can clearly and clearly express her opinion on a particular issue, assess the situation sensibly and make the right decision. She is an honest woman - and she teaches her children the same.

All her life after marriage, Matryona was forced to endure humiliation and various difficulties in work, but she did not lose the basic qualities of her character, retaining her desire for freedom, but at the same time brought up audacity and harshness.
The woman's life was very difficult. Matryona spent a lot of energy and health working for her husband's family. She steadfastly endured all the sorrows and unfair treatment of herself and her children and did not grumble, over time her situation improved, but it was no longer possible to regain her lost health.

Not only physical health suffered from life's litigation - during this time Korchagina wept many tears, as she herself says, “you can take three lakes”. Ironically, she calls them the unthinkable wealth of a lifetime.

On our site you can find in the poem by Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov "Who lives well in Russia"

Religion and true faith in God allowed Matryona not to go crazy - according to the woman herself, she finds comfort in prayer, the more she devotes herself to this occupation, the easier it becomes for her.

Once the governor helped Matryona to solve her difficulties in life, so people, remembering this case, among the common people began to call Matryona the “governor's wife”.

Matryona's life before marriage

Matryona was lucky with her parents - they were good and decent people. Her father did not drink and was an exemplary family man, her mother always cared about the home comfort and well-being of all family members. Parents protected her from the hardships of fate and tried to make her daughter's life as simple and better as possible. Matryona herself says that she "lived like Christ's in the bosom."

Marriage and first sorrows

However, the time came and, like all adult girls, she had to leave her father's house. Once a visiting man, a stove-maker by profession, wooed her. He seemed to the matryona a sweet and good person and she agreed to become his wife. According to tradition, after marriage, the girl moved to live in the house of her husband's parents. This happened in Matryona's situation, but here the first disappointments and sorrows awaited the young girl - her relatives very negatively and hostilely accepted her. Matryona was very homesick for her parents and her former life, but she had no way back.

The husband's family turned out to be large, but not friendly - since they did not know how to treat each other kindly, Matryona was no exception for them: she was never praised for a job well done, but was always nagged and scolded. The girl had no choice but to endure humiliation and rude attitude towards herself.

Matryona was the first worker in the family - she had to get up before everyone else and go to bed later than everyone else. However, no one felt gratitude towards her or appreciated her work.

Relationship with husband

It is not known how Matrenin's husband Philip perceived the current unfavorable situation within the framework of his new family - it is likely that due to the fact that he grew up in such conditions, this state of affairs was normal for him.

Dear Readers! We suggest that you familiarize yourself with which came from the pen of the talented classic poet Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov.

In general, Matryona considers him a good husband, but at the same time she conceals a grudge against him - once he hit her. It is likely that such a description of their relationship on the part of Matryona was very subjective and she considers the significance of her husband from the position - there are even worse, so my husband is very good against the background of such absolutely bad husbands.

Matryona's children

The appearance of children with a new family was not long in coming - at Kazanskaya Matryona gives birth to her first child - her son Demushka. One day, the boy remains under the supervision of his grandfather, who dishonestly reacted to the task entrusted to him - as a result, the boy was bitten by pigs. This brought a lot of grief to Matryona's life, because for her the boy became a ray of light in her unsightly life. However, the woman did not remain childless - she still had 5 sons. The names of the elders are mentioned in the poem - Fedot and Liodor. The husband's family was also not happy and not friendly to Matryona's children - they often beat the kids and scolded them.

New changes

The hardships of Matryona's life did not end there - three years after marriage, her parents died - the woman was very painfully worried about this loss. Soon her life began to improve. The mother-in-law died and she became a full-fledged mistress of the house. Unfortunately, Matryona did not succeed in finding happiness - by that time her children had become old enough to be taken into the army, so new griefs appeared in her life.

Thus, Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina in Nekrasov's poem became the combined symbol of a typical peasant woman who will endure everything and endure everything on her hump. Despite such hard work and frenzy at work, Matryona did not become happy - those around her, in particular her closest relatives, treat her meticulously and unfairly - they do not appreciate her work and do not realize her feat in relation to them. This state of affairs does not escape the woman, but her patience and optimism knows no bounds.

He did not carry a heart in his chest,
Who did not shed tears over you!
ON. Nekrasov
In the works of N.A. Nekrasov, many works are devoted to a simple Russian woman. The fate of a Russian woman has always worried Nekrasov. In many of his poems and poems, he speaks of her hard part. Starting with the early poem "On the Road" and ending with the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", Nekrasov talked about "a woman's share", about the selflessness of a Russian peasant woman, about her spiritual beauty. The poem "Village Suffering is in Full swing", written shortly after the reform, gives a true reflection of the inhuman hard work of a young peasant mother:
Share you! - female Russian share!
It's hardly harder to find ...
Talking about the hard lot of the Russian peasant woman, Nekrasov often embodied in her image high ideas about the spiritual power of the Russian people, about its physical beauty:
There are women in Russian villages
With the calm importance of faces,
With beautiful strength in movement,
With gait, with the gaze of queens.
In the works of Nekrasov, the image of a "stately Slavic woman" appears, with a pure heart, a bright mind, a strong spirit. This is Daria from the poem "Frost, Red Nose", and a simple girl from "Troika". This is Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina from the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia".
The image of Matryona Timofeevna, as it were, completes and unites in the work of Nekrasov the group of images of women peasants. The poem recreates the type of the ". Great Slav," a peasant woman of the Central Russian strip, endowed with restrained and austere beauty:
A dignified woman
Wide and dense.
About thirty years old.
Beautiful; hair with gray,
The eyes are large, stern,
The richest eyelashes
Severe and dark.
She, smart and strong, the poet entrusted to tell about his fate. "The Peasant Woman" is the only part of the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", all written in the first person. Trying to answer the question of the truth-seekers, whether she can call herself happy, Matryona Timofeevna tells the story of her life. The voice of Matryona Timofeevna is the voice of the people themselves. That is why she sings more often than tells, sings folk songs. “The Peasant Woman” is the most folklore part of the poem, it is almost entirely built on folk-poetic images and motives. The whole story of Matryona Timofeevna's life is a chain of continuous misfortunes and suffering. It is not for nothing that she says about herself: "I have a downcast head, I wear an angry heart!" She is convinced: "It's not the business of looking for a happy woman among women." Why? After all, there was love in the life of this woman, the joy of motherhood, the respect of others. But with her story, the heroine makes the peasants ponder over the question of whether this is enough for happiness and whether all the hardships and adversities of life that fall to the lot of the Russian peasant woman will not outweigh this cup:
It's quiet for me, invisible
The mental storm has passed,
Will you show her? ..
For me mortal grievances
Gone unpaid
And the whip went through me!
Slowly and unhurriedly, Matryona Timofeevna leads her story. She lived well and at ease in her parents' house. But, having married Philip Korchagin, she ended up with “girl's will to hell”: a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunken father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom her daughter-in-law had to work like a slave. With her husband, however, she was lucky. But Philip only returned from work in winter, and the rest of the time there was no one to intercede for her, except for grandfather Savely. The consolation for the peasant woman is her firstborn Demushka. But through an oversight of Savely, the child dies. Matryona Timofeevna becomes a witness to the abuse of the body of her child (to find out the cause of death, the authorities perform an autopsy on the child's corpse). For a long time she cannot forgive the “sin” of Savely, that he overlooked her Demushka. But Matryona Timofeevna's tests did not end there. Her second son Fedot is growing up, but misfortune happens to him. Her eight-year-old son faces punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a hungry she-wolf as shepherds. Fedot took pity on her, saw how hungry and unhappy she was, and the wolf cubs were not fed in her den:
He looks with his head up,
In my eyes ... and suddenly howled!
To save the little son from the punishment that threatened him, Matryona herself lies down under the rod instead of him.
But the hardest trials fall on her lot in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is likened to a hungry she-wolf. Recruiting deprives her of her last patron, her husband (he is taken out of turn):
... Hungry
Orphans are standing
In front of me ...
The family is looking at them,
They are noisy in the house,
Fugitive on the street
Gluttons at the table ...
And they began to pinch them,
Beat the head ...
Shut up, mother soldier!
Matryona Timofeevna decides to ask the governor for intercession. She runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the doorman lets her into the house for a bribe, she throws herself at the feet of the governor Elena Alexandrovna:
How will I throw myself
At her feet: “Step on!
By deception, not in a divine way
Breadwinner and parent
They take from the kids! "
The governor's wife took pity on Matryona Timofeevna. The heroine returns home with her husband and newborn Liodorushka. This incident cemented her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname "governor's wife".
The further fate of Matryona Timofeevna is also abundant in troubles: one of the sons has already been taken into the army, "twice burned ... God has anthrax ... three times visited." The "Woman's Parable" summarizes her tragic story:
Keys to women's happiness,
From our free will
Abandoned, lost
God himself!
The life story of Matryona Timofeevna showed that the most difficult, unbearable living conditions could not break the peasant woman. The harsh living conditions honed a special female character, proud and independent, accustomed to relying on their own strengths everywhere and in everything. Nekrasov endows his heroine not only with beauty, but with great spiritual strength. Not obedience to fate, not dull patience, but pain and anger are expressed in the words with which she ends the story of her life:
For me mortal grievances
Gone unpaid ...
Anger accumulates in the soul of the peasant, but faith in the intercession of the Mother of God, in the power of prayer, remains. After praying, she goes to the city to seek the truth. She is saved by her own spiritual strength and will to live. Nekrasov showed in the image of Matryona Timofeevna both readiness for self-sacrifice, when she stood up to protect her son, and strength of character when she does not bow before formidable bosses. The image of Matryona Timofeevna is as if woven from folk poetry. Lyrical and wedding folk songs, lamentations have long told about the life of a peasant woman, and Nekrasov drew from this source, creating the image of his beloved heroine.
Written about the people and for the people, the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" is close to the works of oral folk art. The verse of the poem - the artistic discovery of Nekrasov - perfectly conveyed the living speech of the people, their songs, sayings, sayings, which have absorbed centuries of wisdom, crafty humor, sadness and joy. The entire poem is a truly folk work, and this is its great significance.

In many of his works, Nekrasov reflects on the fate of the Russian peasant woman: in the poem "Frost, Red Nose", poems "Troika", "Countryside suffering is in full swing ...", "Orina, soldier's mother" and many others. In the gallery of wonderful female images, a special place is occupied by the image of Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina - the heroine of the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia".

Popular rumor brings peasant-seekers to the village of Klin, where they hope to meet with a happy peasant woman. How much severe suffering fell to the lot of this "happy" woman! But from all of her appearance comes such beauty and strength that one cannot help but admire her. As she recalls the type of "stately Slavic woman" about which Nekrasov wrote with delight in the poem "Frost, Red Nose".

In trouble - it will not shine, - it will save:
He will stop a galloping horse,
It will enter the burning hut!

Matryona begins her leisurely story about her own destiny, this is a story about what the people consider her to be happy for. Matryona Timofeevna, according to her, was lucky as a girl:

Happiness fell to me in girls:
We had a good one
Non-drinking family.

The family surrounded their beloved daughter with care and affection. In the seventh year, they began to teach the peasant daughter to work: “I fetch the burushka myself ... I ran into the herd, brought my father to breakfast, grazed the ducklings.” And this work was a joy to her. Matryona Timofeevna, having worked in the field, will wash in the bathhouse and is ready to sing, dance:

And a kind worker
And the huntress sing-dance
I was young.

But how few bright moments in her life! One of them is an engagement with his beloved Filippushka. Matryona did not sleep all night thinking about the upcoming marriage: she was frightened by "bondage." And yet love turned out to be stronger than fears of falling into slavery.

Then it was happiness
And more unlikely when!

And then, after marriage, she went to hell from a girl's Holi. Exhausting work, "mortal grievances", misfortunes with children, separation from her husband, who was illegally recruited, and many other adversities - such is the bitter life path of Matryona Timofeevna. With pain she says that in her:

No broken bone
There is no loose vein.

I am amazed at the steadfastness, the courage with which this wonderful woman endured suffering without bowing her proud head. My heart bleeds when you read the lines of the poem about the inconsolable grief of the mother who lost her first-born son Demushka:

I rolled in a ball
I curled up like a worm
Called, woke up Demushka
Yes, it was too late to call! ..

The mind is ready to be clouded by terrible misfortune. But great spiritual strength helps Matryona Timofeevna to withstand. She sends angry curses to her enemies, the warden and the healer, tormenting the "white body" of her son: "Villains! Executioners! " Matryona Timofeevna wants to find them for "their council, but Savely dissuades her:" High God, far away the king ... We cannot find the truth. " "But why, grandfather?" - asks the unfortunate. "You are a serf woman!" - and this sounds like the final verdict.

And yet, when misfortune happens to her second son, she becomes “insolent”: she decisively knocks down the head of Silantiya, saving Fedotushka from punishment, taking his rod on herself. Matryona Timofeevna is ready to endure any trials, inhuman torments in order to defend her children, her husband from everyday troubles. What tremendous willpower a woman must have to go alone

One of the main characters of Nekrasov's poem "Who lives well in Russia" - Savely - the reader will recognize when he is already an old man who has lived a long and difficult life. The poet paints a colorful portrait of this amazing old man: With a tremendous gray ...

In the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" N. A. Nekrasov shows the life of the Russian peasantry in post-reform Russia, their difficult situation. The main problem of this work is the search for an answer to the question "who lives happily, freely in Russia" ...

“The burning uneasiness that Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov felt when thinking about the fate of a peasant woman was also reflected in the poem“ Who Lives Well in Russia ”. Everyone knows that the image of a Russian woman is glorified by the poet in many works. On the fate of Matryona ...

The poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" is the result of the author's thoughts about the fate of the country and the people. Who lives well in Russia? - the poem begins with this question. Its plot, like the plot of folk tales, is built as a journey of old peasants in search of ...

1. New!

In the works of N.A. Nekrasov, many works are devoted to a simple Russian woman. The fate of a Russian woman has always worried Nekrasov. In many of his poems and poems, he speaks of her hard part. Starting with the early poem "On the Road" and ending with the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", Nekrasov talked about the "female share", about the selflessness of a Russian peasant woman, about her spiritual beauty. The poem "Village Suffering is in Full swing", written soon after the reform, gives a true reflection of the inhuman hard work of a young peasant mother:

Share you! - female Russian share!

It is hardly more difficult to find ...

Talking about the hard lot of the Russian peasant woman, Nekrasov often embodied in her image high ideas about the spiritual power of the Russian people, about its physical beauty:

There are women in Russian villages

With the calm importance of faces,

With beautiful strength in movement,

With gait, with the gaze of queens.

In the works of Nekrasov, the image of a "stately Slavic woman" appears, with a pure heart, bright mind, strong spirit. This is Daria from the poem "Frost, Red Nose", and a simple girl from "Troika". This is Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina from the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia".

The image of Matryona Timofeevna, as it were, completes and unites in the work of Nekrasov a group of images of women peasants. The poem recreates the type of a "stately Slavic woman", a peasant woman of the Central Russian strip, endowed with restrained and austere beauty:

A dignified woman

Wide and dense

About thirty years old.

Beautiful; gray hair

The eyes are large, stern,

The richest eyelashes

Severe and dark.

She, smart and strong, the poet entrusted to tell about his fate. "Peasant Woman" is the only part of the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia", all written in the first person. Trying to answer the question of truth-seekers, whether she can call herself happy, Matryona Timofeevna tells the story of her life. The voice of Matryona Timofeevna is the voice of the people themselves. That is why she sings more often than tells, sings folk songs. "The Peasant Woman" is the most folklore part of the poem, it is almost entirely built on folk-poetic images and motives. The whole story of Matryona Timofeevna's life is a chain of continuous misfortunes and suffering. It is not for nothing that she says about herself: "I am downcast head, I wear an angry heart!" She is convinced: "It is not a matter of looking for a happy woman among women." Why? After all, there was love in the life of this woman, the joy of motherhood, the respect of others. But with her story, the heroine makes the peasants ponder over the question of whether this is enough for happiness and whether all the hardships and hardships of life that fall to the lot of the Russian peasant woman will not outweigh this cup:

It's quiet for me, invisible

The mental storm has passed,

Will you show her? ..

For me mortal grievances

Gone unpaid

And the whip went through me!

Slowly and unhurriedly, Matryona Timofeevna leads her story. She lived well and at ease in her parents' house. But, having married Philip Korchagin, she ended up with “girl's will to hell”: a superstitious mother-in-law, a drunken father-in-law, an older sister-in-law, for whom her daughter-in-law had to work like a slave. With her husband, however, she was lucky. But Philip only returned from work in winter, and the rest of the time there was no one to intercede for her, except for grandfather Savely. The consolation for the peasant woman is her firstborn Demushka. But through an oversight of Savely, the child dies. Matryona Timofeevna witnesses the abuse of the body of her child (to find out the cause of death, the authorities perform an autopsy of the child's corpse). For a long time she cannot forgive the "sin" of Savely, that he overlooked her Demushka. But Matryona Timofeevna's trials did not end there. Her second son Fedot is growing up, then misfortune happens to him. Her eight-year-old son faces punishment for feeding someone else's sheep to a hungry she-wolf as shepherds. Fedot took pity on her, saw how hungry and unhappy she was, and the cubs in her den were not fed:

He looks with his head up,

In my eyes ... and suddenly howled!

To save the little son from the punishment that threatened him, Matryona herself lies down under the rod instead of him.

But the hardest trials fall on her lot in a lean year. Pregnant, with children, she herself is likened to a hungry she-wolf. Recruiting deprives her of her last patron, her husband (he is taken out of turn):

... Hungry

Orphans are standing

In front of me ...

The family is looking at them,

They are noisy in the house,

Fugitive on the street

Gluttons at the table ...

And they began to pinch them,

Beat the head ...

Shut up, mother soldier!

Matryona Timofeevna decides to ask the governor for intercession. She runs to the city, where she tries to get to the governor, and when the doorman lets her into the house for a bribe, throws herself at the feet of the governor, Elena Alexandrovna:

How will I throw myself

At her feet: “Step on!

By deception, not in a divine way

Breadwinner and parent

They take from the kids! "

The governor's wife took pity on Matryona Timofeevna. The heroine returns home with her husband and newborn Liodorushka. This incident cemented her reputation as a lucky woman and the nickname "governor's wife".

The further fate of Matryona Timofeevna is also abundant in troubles: one of the sons has already been taken into the army, "twice burned ... God has anthrax ... three times visited." The "Woman's Parable" summarizes her tragic story:

Keys to women's happiness

From our free will

Abandoned, lost

God himself!

The life story of Matryona Timofeevna showed that the most difficult, unbearable living conditions could not break the peasant woman. The harsh living conditions honed a special female character, proud and independent, accustomed to relying on her own strength everywhere and in everything. Nekrasov endows his heroine not only with beauty, but with great spiritual strength. Not obedience to fate, not dull patience, but pain and anger are expressed in the words with which she ends the story about her life:

For me mortal grievances

Gone unpaid ...

Anger is accumulating in the soul of the peasant, but faith in the intercession of the Mother of God, in the power of prayer, remains. After praying, she goes to the city to seek the truth. She is saved by her own spiritual strength and will to live. Nekrasov showed in the image of Matryona Timofeevna both readiness for self-sacrifice, when she stood up to protect her son, and strength of character when she does not bow before formidable bosses. The image of Matryona Timofeevna is as if woven from folk poetry. Lyrical and wedding folk songs, lamentations have long told about the life of a peasant woman, and Nekrasov drew from this source, creating the image of his beloved heroine.

Written about the people and for the people, the poem "Who Lives Well in Russia" is close to the works of oral folk art. The verse of the poem - the artistic discovery of Nekrasov - conveyed the living speech of the people, their songs, sayings, sayings, which absorbed centuries-old wisdom, crafty humor, sadness and joy. The entire poem is a truly folk work, and this is its great significance.