The image of Savely in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'. Characteristics of Savely (the Holy Russian hero) Where did grandfather Savely spend the last years of his life?

(372 words) The heroes of N. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” met on their way the “hero of the Holy Russian” Savely, whose image is of great importance in the work. He embodies the basic qualities of the Russian people, which distinguish them from all others. On the one hand, these properties are the key to happiness, and on the other hand, they are the curse of the common man.

At the time of the poem, Savely is already a hundred-year-old man. He lived a stormy life, which led him, proud and courageous, to humility and repentance. Being an ordinary peasant, he was completely subservient to the German clerk. The master sent him to manage his lands. Over the course of 17 years of activity, Vogel completely ruined his charges. The exhausting work and black ingratitude of the boss prompted Savely and other men to deal with the oppressor. In this situation, the phenomenal patience of the Russian people is demonstrated - they have endured terrible treatment for almost two decades! But here another, dark side of the soul of the Russian person appears - the meaninglessness and mercilessness of rebellion, which A. Pushkin spoke about. They buried the living clerk in a hole that he ordered to be dug. Then the hero and his friends were sent to hard labor, which, despite all its torment, did not break the spirit of these people. Savely doesn’t give a damn corporal punishment: “The fighting there is bad,” he complains. It is also known that he escaped several times, and the punishment did not bother him either. This speaks of the courage, endurance and fortitude of a simple Russian peasant. His craving for freedom and inner independence amaze and make us admire him as folk hero. But after hard labor, life in the settlement and all the dramatic events, he comes to the most difficult test - pangs of conscience. They were awakened by the death of his great-grandson. Saveliy did not finish watching, and Dema was eaten by pigs. Then the strongman and the threat of the settlement begins to melt before our eyes and constantly disappears at the boy’s grave. He realizes his guilt not only before Matryona, but also before the entire Christian world for the blood that stained his strong hands. The unshakable moral foundation of his character makes itself felt when we see the scale of his repentance: he leaves the world for a monastery in order to completely surrender to grief and regret.

Saveliy's potential is enormous: he learned to read and write in prison, and had remarkable strength. But such heroes need to be given the right direction, because they themselves cannot complete their rebellion to the end, they cannot carry it out honestly and without unnecessary cruelty. Because people's defender is Grisha Dobrosklonov, who must persuade the people to do good, as follows from his last name.

The next chapter written by Nekrasov is "Peasant Woman"- also seems to be a clear deviation from the scheme outlined in the “Prologue”: the wanderers are again trying to find a happy one among the peasants. As in other chapters, the beginning plays an important role. It, as in “The Last One,” becomes the antithesis of the subsequent narrative and allows one to discover new contradictions in “mysterious Rus'.” The chapter begins with a description of the landowner's estate being ruined: after the reform, the owners abandoned the estate and the courtyards to the mercy of fate, and the courtyards are ruining and destroying a beautiful house, a once well-groomed garden and park. The funny and tragic aspects of the life of an abandoned servant are closely intertwined in the description. Household servants are a special peasant type. Torn out of their usual environment, they lose the skills of peasant life and the main one among them - the “noble habit of work.” Forgotten by the landowner and unable to feed themselves by labor, they live by stealing and selling the owner’s things, heating the house by breaking gazebos and turned balcony posts. But there are also truly dramatic moments in this description: for example, the story of a singer with a rare beautiful voice. The landowners took him out of Little Russia, were going to send him to Italy, but forgot, busy with their troubles.

Against the background of the tragicomic crowd of ragged and hungry courtyard servants, “whining servants,” the “healthy, singing crowd of reapers and reapers” returning from the field seems even more “beautiful.” But even among these stately and beautiful people, he stands out Matrena Timofeevna, “glorified” by the “governor” and the “lucky one”. The story of her life, as told by herself, occupies a central place in the narrative. Dedicating this chapter to a peasant woman, Nekrasov, it seems, not only wanted to open the soul and heart of a Russian woman to the reader. A woman’s world is a family, and when talking about herself, Matryona Timofeevna talks about those sides folk life, which have so far only been indirectly touched upon in the poem. But they are the ones who determine a woman’s happiness and unhappiness: love, family, everyday life.

Matryona Timofeevna does not recognize herself as happy, just as she does not recognize any of the women as happy. But she knew short-lived happiness in her life. Matryona Timofeevna's happiness is a girl's will, parental love and care. Her girlhood life was not carefree and easy: from childhood, from the age of seven, she performed peasant work:

I was lucky in the girls:
We had a good
Non-drinking family.
For father, for mother,
Like Christ in his bosom,
I lived, well done.<...>
And on the seventh for the beetroot
I myself ran into the herd,
I took my father to breakfast,
She was feeding the ducklings.
Then mushrooms and berries,
Then: “Get a rake
Yes, turn up the hay!”
So I got used to it...
And a good worker
And the sing-dance huntress
I was young.

She also calls the last days of her girl’s life “happiness,” when her fate was decided, when she “bargained” with her future husband - she argued with him, “bargained” for her freedom in her married life:

- Just stand there, good fellow,
Directly against me<...>
Think, dare:
To live with me - not to repent,
And I don’t have to cry with you...<...>
While we were bargaining,
It must be so I think
Then there was happiness.
And hardly ever again!

Her married life is indeed full of tragic events: the death of a child, a severe flogging, a punishment she voluntarily accepted to save her son, the threat of remaining a soldier. At the same time, Nekrasov shows that the source of Matryona Timofeevna’s misfortunes is not only the “fortress”, the powerless position of a serf woman, but also the powerless position of the youngest daughter-in-law in a large peasant family. The injustice that triumphs in large peasant families, the perception of a person primarily as a worker, the non-recognition of his desires, his “will” - all these problems are revealed by the confessional story of Matryona Timofeevna. A loving wife and mother, she is doomed to an unhappy and powerless life: to please her husband's family and unfair reproaches from the elders in the family. That is why, even having freed herself from serfdom, having become free, she will grieve about the lack of a “will,” and therefore happiness: “The keys to women’s happiness, / From our free will, / Abandoned, lost / From God himself.” And she speaks not only about herself, but about all women.

This disbelief in the possibility of a woman’s happiness is shared by the author. It is no coincidence that Nekrasov excludes from the final text of the chapter the lines about how Matryona Timofeevna’s difficult position in her husband’s family happily changed after returning from the governor’s wife: in the text there is no story either that she became the “big lady” in the house, or that she “conquered” her husband’s “grumpy, abusive” family. All that remains are the lines that the husband’s family, having recognized her participation in saving Philip from the soldiery, “bowed” to her and “apologized” to her. But the chapter ends with a “Woman’s Parable”, asserting the inevitability of bondage-misfortune for a woman even after the abolition of serfdom: “And to our women’s will / There are still no keys!<...>/Yes, they are unlikely to be found...”

Researchers noted Nekrasov’s plan: creating image of Matryona Timofeevna y, he aimed for the widest generalization: her fate becomes a symbol of the fate of every Russian woman. The author carefully and thoughtfully selects episodes of her life, “leading” his heroine along the path that any Russian woman follows: a short, carefree childhood, work skills instilled in childhood, a girl’s will and a long disenfranchised position. married woman, women workers in the field and in the house. Matryona Timofeevna experiences all possible dramatic and tragic situations, befalling the lot of a peasant woman: humiliation in her husband’s family, beatings of her husband, the death of a child, the harassment of a manager, flogging, and even - albeit for a short time - the share of a soldier. “The image of Matryona Timofeevna was created like this,” writes N.N. Skatov, “that she seemed to have experienced everything and been in all the states that a Russian woman could have been in.” Folk songs and laments included in Matryona Timofeevna’s story, most often “replacing” her own words, her own story, further expand the narrative, allowing us to comprehend both the happiness and misfortune of one peasant woman as a story about the fate of a serf woman.

In general, the story of this woman depicts life according to God’s laws, “in a divine way,” as Nekrasov’s heroes say:

<...>I endure and do not complain!
All the power given by God,
I put it to work
All the love for the kids!

And the more terrible and unfair are the misfortunes and humiliations that befell her. "<...>In me / There is no unbroken bone, / There is no unstretched vein, / There is no unspoiled blood<...>“This is not a complaint, but a true result of Matryona Timofeevna’s experience. The deep meaning of this life - love for children - is also affirmed by the Nekrasovs with the help of parallels from the natural world: the story of Dyomushka's death is preceded by a cry about a nightingale, whose chicks burned on a tree lit by a thunderstorm. The chapter telling about the punishment taken to save another son, Philip, from whipping, is called “The She-Wolf.” And here the hungry wolf, ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of the wolf cubs, appears as a parallel to the fate of the peasant woman who lay down under the rod to free her son from punishment.

The central place in the chapter “Peasant Woman” is occupied by the story of Saveliya, the Holy Russian hero. Why is Matryona Timofeevna entrusted with the story about the fate of the Russian peasant, the “hero of Holy Russia,” his life and death? It seems that this is largely because it is important for Nekrasov to show the “hero” Saveliy Korchagin not only in his confrontation with Shalashnikov and the manager Vogel, but also in the family, in everyday life. His large family needed “grandfather” Savely, a pure and holy man, while he had money: “As long as there was money, / They loved my grandfather, they cared for him, / Now they spit in his eyes!” Savely's inner loneliness in the family enhances the drama of his fate and at the same time, like the fate of Matryona Timofeevna, gives the reader the opportunity to learn about the everyday life of the people.

But it is no less important that the “story within a story,” connecting two destinies, shows the relationship between two extraordinary people, who for the author himself were the embodiment of the ideal folk type. It is Matryona Timofeevna’s story about Savelia that allows us to emphasize what brought together, in general, different people: not only the powerless position in the Korchagin family, but also the commonality of characters. Matryona Timofeevna, whose whole life is filled only with love, and Savely Korchagin, whom hard life has made “stone”, “fierce than a beast”, are similar in the main thing: their “angry heart”, their understanding of happiness as a “will”, as spiritual independence.

It is no coincidence that Matryona Timofeevna considers Savely lucky. Her words about “grandfather”: “He was also lucky...” are not bitter irony, for in Savely’s life, full of suffering and trials, there was something that Matryona Timofeevna herself values ​​above all else - moral dignity, spiritual freedom. Being a “slave” of the landowner by law, Savely did not know spiritual slavery.

Savely, according to Matryona Timofeevna, called his youth “prosperity,” although he experienced many insults, humiliations, and punishments. Why does he consider the past to be “blessed times”? Yes, because, fenced off by “marsh swamps” and “dense forests” from their landowner Shalashnikov, the residents of Korezhina felt free:

We were only worried
Bears...yes with bears
We managed it easily.
With a knife and a spear
I myself am scarier than the elk,
Along protected paths
I go: “My forest!” - I scream.

“Prosperity” was not overshadowed by the annual flogging that Shalashnikov inflicted on his peasants, beating out rent with rods. But the peasants are “proud people,” having endured a flogging and pretending to be beggars, they knew how to keep their money and, in turn, “amused” the master who was unable to take the money:

Weak people gave up
And the strong for the patrimony
They stood well.
I also endured
He remained silent and thought:
“No matter how you take it, son of a dog,
But you can’t knock out your whole soul,
Leave something behind"<...>
But we lived as merchants...

The “happiness” that Savely speaks of, which is, of course, illusory, is a year of free life without a landowner and the ability to “endure”, withstand the flogging and save the money earned. But the peasant could not be given any other “happiness”. And yet, Koryozhina soon lost even such “happiness”: “hard labor” began for the men when Vogel was appointed manager: “He ruined him to the bone!” / And he tore... like Shalashnikov himself!/<...>/ The German has a death grip: / Until he lets him go around the world, / Without leaving, he sucks!”

Savely does not glorify patience as such. Not everything a peasant can and should endure. Savely clearly distinguishes between the ability to “understand” and “tolerate.” To not endure means to succumb to pain, not to bear the pain and to morally submit to the landowner. To endure means to lose dignity and agree to humiliation and injustice. Both of these make a person a “slave”.

But Saveliy Korchagin, like no one else, understands the whole tragedy of eternal patience. With him, an extremely important thought enters the narrative: about the wasted strength of the peasant hero. Savely not only glorifies Russian heroism, but also mourns this hero, humiliated and mutilated:

That's why we endured
That we are heroes.
This is Russian heroism.
Do you think, Matryonushka,
The man is not a hero?
And his life is not a military one,
And death is not written for him
In battle - what a hero!

The peasantry in his thoughts appears as a fabulous hero, chained and humiliated. This hero is bigger than heaven and earth. A truly cosmic image appears in his words:

Hands are twisted with chains,
Feet forged with iron,
Back...dense forests
We walked along it - we broke down.
What about the breasts? Elijah the prophet
It rattles and rolls around
On a chariot of fire...
The hero endures everything!

The hero holds up the sky, but this work costs him great torment: “While there was a terrible craving / He lifted it up, / Yes, he went into the ground up to his chest / With effort! There are no tears running down his face - blood is flowing!” However, is there any point in this great patience? It is no coincidence that Savely is disturbed by the thought of a life gone in vain, strength wasted in vain: “I was lying on the stove; / I lay there, thinking: / Where have you gone, strength? / What were you useful for? / - Under rods, under sticks / She left for little things!” And these bitter words are not only the result own life: this is grief for the ruined people's strength.

But the author’s task is not only to show the tragedy of the Russian hero, whose strength and pride “gone away in small ways.” It is no coincidence that at the end of the story about Savelia the name of Susanin, the peasant hero, appears: the monument to Susanin in the center of Kostroma reminded Matryona Timofeevna of “grandfather”. Saveliy’s ability to preserve freedom of spirit, spiritual independence, even in slavery, and not submit to his soul, is also heroism. It is important to emphasize this feature of the comparison. As noted by N.N. Skatov, the monument to Susanin in Matryona Timofeevna’s story does not look like the real one. “A real monument created by sculptor V.M. Demut-Malinovsky, writes the researcher, turned out to be more of a monument to the Tsar than to Ivan Susanin, who was depicted kneeling near the column with the bust of the Tsar. Nekrasov not only kept silent about the fact that the man was on his knees. In comparison with the rebel Savely, the image of the Kostroma peasant Susanin received, for the first time in Russian art, a unique, essentially anti-monarchist interpretation. At the same time, comparison with the hero of Russian history Ivan Susanin put the finishing touch on the monumental figure of the Korezhsky hero, the Holy Russian peasant Savely.”

N. Nekrasov created many wonderful peasant images in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Among them stands out a hundred-year-old man, who has endured many hardships in his lifetime. But, despite his age, he still retained strength and fortitude. “The hero of the Holy Russian” - this is the definition given to grandfather Savely in the work.

“Who lives well in Rus'”: a summary of chapters 3,4 of part 3

The wandering men, who decided to definitely find the answer to the question posed in the title of the poem, learned about this hero from a young woman, Matryona Timofeevna. “He was also a lucky man,” she notes while talking about her life.

Matryona met grandfather Savely when he was about a hundred years old. He lived separately from his son’s family, in his own room, and was the only one who treated his grandson’s young wife kindly and caringly. The hero always loved the forest, where even in his old age he loved to pick mushrooms and berries, and set snares for birds. This is the first characteristic of Savely.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a poem about the life of peasants before and after the milestone year of 1861. The old man’s life story, which he told his daughter-in-law, introduces us to the times when men were considered more resilient and decisive, and bondage was not felt so strongly: “Once every three years we give something to the landowner and that’s enough,” said the hero. And although many difficulties befell him: serf life, long hard labor, and settlement - however, the main test lay ahead of Savely. In his old age, he neglected to look after his great-grandson, who was killed by pigs. After this he left home, and soon settled in a monastery, where he last days in this world I prayed for sins: my own and others.

What is so attractive about the image of Savely in the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'”?

Hero's appearance

According to Matryona, the old man looked tall and strong even at a hundred years old, so that he looked more like a huge bear. With a large gray mane that had not been cut for a long time. Bent over, but still striking with his greatness - in his youth, according to his stories, he single-handedly opposed a bear and raised her on a spear. Now, of course, the power was not the same: the hero often asked the question: “Where did the former strength go?” Nevertheless, it seemed to Matryona that if grandfather straightened up to his full height, he would certainly punch a hole in the light with his head. This description complements Savely’s characterization.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” tells the story of the hero’s early years, including the story of how he ended up in hard labor.

Free life

During his grandfather’s youth, his native Korezh places were remote and impassable. The forests and swamps that spread around were well known to the local peasants, but they struck fear into strangers, including the master. Nekrasov introduces the combination “Korezhsky” region into the poem for a reason - this is essentially where Savely’s characterization begins - “Who lives well in Rus'.” It in itself already symbolizes incredible physical strength and endurance.

So, the landowner Shalashnikov did not visit the peasants at all, and the police came once a year to collect tribute. The serfs equated themselves with the free: they paid little and lived in abundance, like merchants. At first they also gave rent in honey, fish, and animal skins. Over time, as the hour for payment approached, they dressed up as beggars. And although Shalashnikov flogged them so much that the “skin” was hardened for a century, the peasants who stood for the estate turned out to be adamant. “No matter how you try, you can’t shake out your whole soul,” Savely thought so too. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” shows that the character of the hero was tempered and strengthened in conditions when he and his comrades felt their freedom. And therefore, until the end of his life, it was impossible to change either this conviction or his proud disposition. At the age of one hundred, Savely also advocated the right to be independent, including from relatives.

In his story, the grandfather drew attention to one more point - the Russian man did not always tolerate bullying. He remembered the time when the people wanted and could stand up for themselves.

Protest against arbitrariness

After the death of Shalashnikov, the peasants hoped that freedom would now come. But the heirs sent a German manager. At first he pretended to be quiet and calm, and did not demand quitrent. And he himself, by cunning, forced the peasants to dry up the swamp and cut a clearing. When they came to their senses, it was too late: out of stupidity they paved the way to themselves. This is where their life as a merchant ended, Savely notes in his story.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a work in which the best are presented. In the case of the German, the author shows the unity of the people that he has always dreamed of. It turned out that it was not easy to break the men who were accustomed to a free life. For eighteen years they somehow endured the authority of the manager, but their patience had reached its limit. One day Christian Khristyanich forced them to dig a hole, and by the end of the day he was indignant that nothing had been done. In tired people - they worked tirelessly - the anger that had accumulated over the years boiled up, and suddenly a decision came. Savely lightly pushed the German towards the pit with his shoulder. Nine of his comrades standing nearby immediately understood everything - and a few minutes later the hated Vogel was buried alive in that very pit. Of course, such an act was punished, but in everyone’s soul there remained satisfaction from the fact that they did not submit. It is no coincidence that the old man, to the word “convict” addressed to him by his son, answered every time: “Marked, but not a slave.” And this is one of the main qualities of the hero, which he was always proud of.

Hard labor

Twenty years of hard labor and the same number of settlements - such was the sentence for the rebels. But he could not change the people to whom Savely belonged. The image of the hero from the work “Who Lives Well in Rus'” was tempered even more in new trials. Flogging in prison, and then in Siberia after unsuccessful escapes, in comparison with Shalashnikov’s punishments, seemed to him just a worthless daub. Hard work was also nothing new. Savely even managed to save money, with which, upon returning to his native place, he built a house. The desire for independence and freedom remained the same. This is probably why the old man singled out only his grandson’s wife, Matryona, from the entire family. She was just like him: rebellious, purposeful, ready to fight for her own happiness.

Relationships with household members

This is another important component of the story about the hero - in the end, it is from small details that Savely’s characterization is formed in a short chapter.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” is a poem about the “lucky ones.” But can we include a person who felt lonely in his family among them? Matryona noted that grandfather did not like to communicate with his relatives and therefore settled in the upper room. The reasons were simple: Savely, pure in soul and kind by nature, could not accept the anger and envy that reigned in the family. The old man's son did not possess any of the qualities characteristic of his father. There was no kindness, no sincerity, no desire for work in him. But there was indifference to everything, a tendency towards idleness and drinking. His wife and daughter, who remained an old wench, differed little from him. In order to somehow teach his relatives a lesson, Savely sometimes began to joke. For example, he tossed a tin “coin” made from a button to his son. As a result, the latter returned from the tavern beaten. And the hero just chuckled.

Later, Savely’s loneliness will be brightened up by Matryona and Demushka. After the death of the child, the old man admits that next to his grandson his hardened heart and soul thawed, and he again felt full of strength and hope.

The story with Demushka

The death of the boy became a real tragedy for the old man, although the origins of what happened must be sought in the very way of Russian life of that time. The mother-in-law forbade Matryona to take her son with her into the field, who allegedly interfered with her work, and hundred-year-old Savely began to look after the child.

“Who Lives Well in Rus'” - the characterization of its heroes does not always turn out to be cheerful - this is a poem about difficult trials that not everyone can cope with. So in this case, the hero, who has seen a lot in his life, suddenly truly felt like a criminal. He was never able to forgive himself for falling asleep and not looking after the children. Savely did not leave his closet for a week, and then went into the forest, where he always felt freer and more confident. In the fall, he settled in a monastery to repent and pray. He asked God that the heart of the suffering mother would take pity and that she would forgive him, the foolish one. And the old man’s soul also ached for the entire Russian peasantry, suffering, with a difficult fate - he will tell about this at a meeting that happened several years after the tragedy, Matryona.

Thoughts about the people

The characterization of Savely from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” will be incomplete without mentioning the hero’s attitude towards the Russian peasantry. He calls the people suffering and at the same time courageous, capable of enduring any trial in this life. The arms and legs are forever shackled, as if they have passed down the back, and in the chest - “Elijah the prophet... thunders... in a chariot of fire.” This is how the hero describes the man. Then he adds: a true hero. And he concludes his speech with the words that even after death human suffering does not end - in this, unfortunately, one can hear the motives of the humility of the elder novice. For in the next world the same “hellish torment” awaits the unfortunate, says Saveliy.

“Who lives well in Rus'”: characteristics of the “hero of Svyatogorsk” (conclusions)

To summarize, it can be noted that the appearance of the hero embodies best qualities Russian person. The story itself reminds of him folk tale or an epic. Strong, proud, independent, he rises above the other heroes of the poem and, in fact, becomes the first rebel to defend the interests of the people. However, the comparison of the hero with Svyatogor is not accidental. It was this hero who was considered in Rus' to be both the strongest and the most inactive. In my thoughts about future fate Saveliy comes to a less than satisfying conclusion: “God knows.” Consequently, this image from the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is very contradictory and does not answer the question of the wanderers. And therefore the story about the search for happiness does not end until the men meet the young and active Grisha.

The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the result of N.A.’s entire work. Nekrasova. It was conceived “about the people and for the people” and was written from 1863 to 1876. The author considered his work “an epic of modern peasant life.” In it, Nekrasov asked the question: did the abolition of serfdom bring happiness to the peasantry? To find the answer, the poet sends seven men on a long journey across Russia in search of at least one happy person.
On their way, wanderers meet many faces, heroes, destinies. Savely becomes one of the people they meet. Nekrasov calls him “the hero of Holy Russia.” The travelers see in front of them an old man, “with a huge gray mane, ... with a huge beard,” “he is already a hundred years old, according to fairy tales.” But, despite his age, this man felt enormous strength and power: “...will he straighten up? The bear will punch a hole in the light with his head!”
This strength and power, as the wanderers later learned, was manifested not only in Savely’s appearance. They are, first of all, in his character, inner core, moral qualities.
The son often called Savely a convict and “branded.” To which this hero always answered: “Branded, but not a slave!” Love of freedom, the desire for internal independence - this is what made Savely a real “Holy Russian” hero.
Why did this hero end up in hard labor? In his youth, he rebelled against the German manager sent by the landowner to their village. Vogel made sure that “hard labor came to the Korezh peasant - he ruined him to the bone!” At first the whole village endured it. In this Savely sees the heroism of the Russian peasant in general. But what is his heroism? In patience and endurance, the peasants endured Vogel’s yoke for seventeen years:
And it bends, but does not break,
Doesn't break, doesn't fall...
Isn't he a hero?
But soon the peasant’s patience came to an end:
Happened, I'm lightly
Pushed him with his shoulder
Then another pushed him,
And the third...
The people's anger, having received an impetus, fell like an avalanche on the monster manager. The men buried him alive in the ground, in the very hole that he ordered the peasants to dig. Nekrasov, thus, shows here that the people’s patience is coming to an end. Moreover, despite the fact that patience is a national character trait, it must have its limits. The poet calls on you to start fighting for the improvement of your life, for your destiny.
For the crime committed, Savely and other peasants were sent to hard labor. But before that they kept him in prison, where the hero learned to read and write, and was flogged. But Savely doesn’t even consider this a punishment: “If they didn’t tear it out, they anointed it, it’s a bad fight!”
The hero escaped from hard labor several times, but was returned and punished. Saveliy spent twenty years in strict penal servitude, twenty years in settlements. Returning home, he built his own house. It would seem that now you can live and work in peace. But is this possible for Russian peasants? Nekrasov shows that no.
Already at home, probably the most terrible event happened to Savely, worse than twenty years of hard labor. Old hero did not look after his great-grandson Demushka, and the boy was eaten by pigs. Saveliy could not forgive himself for this sin until the end of his life. He felt guilty before Demushka’s mother, and before all people, and before God.
After the boy’s death, the hero almost settled at his grave, and then completely went to the monastery to atone for his sins. It is precisely the last part of Saveliy’s life that explains the definition that Nekrasov gives him - “Holy Russian”. The poet sees the great strength and invincibility of the Russian man precisely in morality, the inner core of a simple peasant, largely based on faith in God.
But probably no one can speak better about his fate and destiny better than Savely himself. This is how the old man himself evaluates his life:
Eh, the share of Holy Russian
Homemade hero!
He's been bullied all his life.
Time will change its mind
About death - hellish torment
In the other world they are waiting.
The image of Saveliy, the Holy Russian hero, embodies the enormous strength of the Russian people, their powerful potential. This is expressed both in the hero’s physical appearance and in his inner purity, love of freedom, and pride. However, it is worth noting that Savely has not yet decided on a complete rebellion, a revolution. In anger, he buries Vogel, but his words, especially at the end of his life, sound humility. Moreover, Savely believes that torment and suffering will await him not only in this life, but also in the next world.
That is why Nekrasov places his revolutionary hopes on Grisha Dobroskonov, who must understand the potential of such Savelievs and raise them to revolution, to lead them to a better life.

“He was also lucky”... With such ironic words the image of grandfather Savely is introduced into Nekrasov’s poem. He lived a long, difficult life and is now living out his life in the family of Matryona Timofeevna. The image of Savely, the Holy Russian hero in the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov is very important, because he embodies the idea of ​​Russian heroism. The theme of strength, endurance and long-suffering of the people in the poem grows from chapter to chapter (remember the story of the strongman at the fair, which serves as a prerequisite for the story of Savely) and is ultimately resolved in the image of the hero Savely.

Savely comes from remote forest regions, where even “the devil looked for a way for three years.” The very name of this region breathes power: Korega, from “to distort”, i.e. bend, break. A bear can damage something, and Savely himself “looked like a bear.” He is also compared with other animals, for example, with the elk, and it is emphasized that he is much more dangerous than a predator when he walks through the forest “with a knife and a spear.” This strength stems from a deep knowledge of one’s land, complete unity with nature. Savely’s love for his land is visible, his words “My forest!

“sound much more convincing than the same statement from the landowner Obolt-Obolduev.

But the master’s hand will reach into any, even the most impassable region. Savely's free life ends with the arrival of a German manager in Korega. At first, he seemed harmless and did not even demand the due tribute, but set a condition: to work off the money by chopping wood. Simple-minded men built a road out of the forest and then they realized how much they had been deceived: gentlemen came to Korezhina along this road, the German brought his wife and children, and began to suck all the juice out of the village.

“And then came hard labor
To the Korezh peasant -
Ruined me to the bone!”

For a long time, the peasants endured the bullying of the German - he beats them and forces them to work beyond measure. A Russian peasant can endure a lot, that’s why he is a hero, says Savely.
This is what he says to Matryona, to which the woman answers ironically: even a mouse can eat such a hero. In this episode, Nekrasov outlines an important problem of the Russian people: their irresponsibility, unpreparedness for decisive action. It is not for nothing that Saveliy’s characterization coincides with the image of the most motionless of the epic heroes - Svyatogor, who at the end of his life was rooted into the ground.

“To not endure is an abyss, to endure is an abyss.” This is how the hero Savely thinks, and this simple but wise folk philosophy leads him to rebellion. Under the word he invented, “Pump it up!” the hated German manager is buried in the ground. And although Savely ends up in hard labor for this act, the beginning of liberation has already been made. For the rest of his life, the grandfather will be proud of the fact that, although he is “branded,” he is not a slave!

But how does his life develop next? He spent more than twenty years in hard labor, and his settlements were taken away for another twenty. But even there Savely did not give up, he worked, was able to raise money, and, returning to his homeland, built a hut for himself and his family. And yet his life was not allowed to end peacefully: while his grandfather had money, he enjoyed the love of his family, and when they ran out, he was met with dislike and ridicule. The only joy for him, as well as for Matryona, is Demushka. He sits on the old man’s shoulder “like an apple in the top of an old apple tree.” But something terrible happens: through his, Savely’s, fault, the grandson dies. And it was this event that broke the man who had gone through whips and hard labor. The grandfather will spend the rest of his life in a monastery and wandering, praying for remission of sins. That is why Nekrasov calls it Holy Russian, showing another feature inherent in all people: deep, sincere religiosity. Grandfather Savely lived for “one hundred and seven years,” but his longevity did not bring him happiness, and his strength, as he himself recalls bitterly, “was gone in small ways.”

In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” Savely embodies precisely this deeply hidden strength of the Russian peasant and his enormous, although so far unrealized, potential. It is worth waking up the people, convincing them to abandon humility for a while, and then they will win happiness for themselves, this is what Nekrasov is talking about with the help of the image of the hero Savely.

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