The work "Matrenin yard" - a problem and arguments

In December 1961 AI Solzhenitsyn presented the main story of the magazine "New World" to Tvardovsky the second story (for reference). It was called "No village without a righteous man", but almost immediately was renamed "Matrenin yard." The problem was not only in the content of the work, but also in the title containing the "religious term". The story was published only a year later - in the January issue of 1963, the most literary magazine in the USSR.

Staging the plot

That time is usually called a thaw. For this purpose, certain grounds were: many millions of recent prisoners of Stalin's camps and exiles left places with a heavy frosty or desert climate and recovered to the European part of the Union-not to large cities (they were not allowed there), but to villages and townships in the middle zone. Here, among the softly rustling foliage of the woods, near the flowing quiet rivers, long-suffering people all seemed nice and cozy. Nevertheless, life was not easy even in these parts. Get a job was not easy, although it is easier than recently, when even a wheelbarrow former prisoner would not be trusted. These circumstances did not confuse the narrator, in whose name the narrative is conducted. He felt an urgent need for fairly simple things, namely: get a job in a rural school as a math teacher, find a place to live. This was his "primary tasks and problems raised." In Matrenin his yard was brought by a casual acquaintance who was selling milk at the railway station. There were no other options, only an elderly woman possessed a free place. Her name was Matryona. So they met.

Pension

So, there was a 1956 year, in the country many things changed, but the collective-farm life remained miserable. Many aspects of the peasant life of the post-Stalin era, as it were, were glimpsed by Alexander Isaevich in the story "Matrenin Yard". The problem of his landlady to the modern reader may seem trivial, but in the first Khrushchev years it faced many villagers of an immense country. The collective farm pension is a beggarly, eighty-ruble (8 rubles new, post-reform) - and she did not rely on a woman who honestly worked all her life. She went to the authorities, collected some information about the deceased husband's income, faced with constant stupid callousness and hostile bureaucratic indifference, and, in the end, achieved her. She was given a pension, and taking into account the additional payment for the teacher's apartment (Ignatyitch, on behalf of whom the story is being written), her income was purchased, according to rural standards, enormous amounts - as much as one hundred and eighty rubles (after 1961, 18 rubles) - " ".

And a peat machine ...

Peat

Yes, this type of fuel is often used for heating in places with marsh climate. It seems to be enough for everyone, but in the tough Soviet reality of the fifties there was a shortage of everything that people needed. This situation was largely preserved throughout the Soviet era. In the High Field of bread they did not bake, they did not sell products, all this had to be carried in sacks from the regional center. But, in addition to supplying the population with food, AI Solzhenitsyn talks about another important aspect of peasant life in the story "Matrenin Yard". The problem of heating the kolkhoz management was completely transferred to the villagers, and they solved it independently and how they could: stole peat. Ignatich naively believed that the fuel truck - this is a lot that it will last for the whole winter, but in reality it was required three times as much. They carried peat on themselves all the women of the village-with the risk of being caught, hiding the stolen from the chairman who, of course, took care of the warmth in his house.

Personal life

Matrena's house owned a spacious, once good-quality, but from time and lack of male hands come to the dilapidated. The history of this real estate goes back to the pre-revolutionary era. The hostess was married, lived here for a long time, gave birth to six children, none of whom survived. Matrena raised her niece as her own daughter, taking her from the family of her husband's large family. There was a prehistory: being a bride, she was going to marry Thaddeus, her current "divider", but it did not work out. He disappeared into German without information, but she did not wait, she married his brother. Thaddeus later turned up, was very angry, but so Matrena and Efim stayed.

Rights to real estate caused a conflict that arose between relatives who had already decided how they would share the Matrenin yard. The problems and arguments brought by future heirs caused many contradictions and mystically led to the death of a woman.

Life and loneliness

The village is a special world in which its unwritten laws rule. Matryona is considered by many to be stupid. It does not lead the household as it is accepted by practically everyone. Mistress's material problems in the work "Matrenin yard" are illustrated by the absence of a cow and a pig, without which villagers usually can not do. It is criticized for this, although it would seem, what matters to anyone before a single elderly woman lives? She herself quite clearly explains the reason for such negligence. Milk is given to her by a goat, with which the hassle of feeding is much less (she does not smile at the prospect of feeding the shepherd, and health leaves much to be desired). From living creatures she has mice, limping a cat and cockroaches, of which there are many, that's the whole Matrenin yard. The problem of senile loneliness was, is and will be.

Righteousness

Now we should remember the original version of the title of the story. What does the righteous have to do with it, and why does this Orthodox concept apply to the most ordinary peasant woman living in poverty, loneliness and little different from many millions of similar women of the whole Soviet Union? How is it different from others? It's not for nothing that Alexander Isaevich wanted to call his work so? What problems does he raise in the story "Matrenin Dvor"?

The fact is that Matryona has an important human quality. She never refuses others to help, without making a distinction between "good" and "bad." The chairman's wife came, the lady is important, and with aplomb demands (does not ask) to go to work, "to help the collective farm." She does not even say hello , only notifies that the trench instrument should be taken with her. A sick elderly woman wants to refuse, but immediately wonders what time to come. As for the neighbors, Matryona does not need to ask - she is always ready to hide herself, not even considering it a service on her part and refusing any material rewards, although she would not have harmed her in any way. Ignatich never heard from her the words of condemnation of anyone's actions, his mistress never gossips.

The death of Matryona

The notorious "housing issue" really spoils our, in general, good people. And the characters of the work also suffer from this problem. In the story of Solzhenitsyn "Matryon's Court" old Thaddeus became the spokesman of fussy greed and excessive economy. He is impatient to receive part of the bequeathed inheritance, and right now. With the construction forest of the problem: an extension of the old woman is not needed, he wants to disassemble it and transfer it to himself. In itself, this desire does not express anything bad, but it is important to note here that Thaddeus knows that Matryona will not be able to refuse. The problems raised in the story "Matrenin Dvor" exist in society regardless of the level of prosperity. Miserliness and haste, in the end, lead to a tragic accident. Overloaded hitching sled with building materials breaks off at the crossing, the drivers do not notice it and encounter a tractor. People are dying, including Matryona, as always undertaking to help.

Funeral and funeral commemoration

Subtle psychologism, irony and even gloomy humor are present in the farewell scene with the main character of the story "Matrenin Dvor". Problems and arguments, encrypted in funeral lamentations and lamentations of different characters, are deciphered by clarifying their true underlying motives. The reader involuntarily becomes offended that over such a coarse-grained coffin Matryona, women in the life of a kind and simple, sweep so sophisticated and intriguing flows of information. There are, however, people who loved the deceased, they cry sincerely. In the meantime, Thaddeus bothers: he urgently needs to withdraw the property until it is gone, and he "solves this issue", keeping up with the funeral feast, which, as is often the case, ends with a jolly banquet. All this primarily reveals moral problems.

In the story "Matrenin Yard", as in other works of AI Solzhenitsyn, the writer's annoyance merges into a vain-selfish attitude to life and faith in a good righteous beginning.