Railway (poem)

The poem is based on the real history of the construction of Nikolayevskaya (now St. Petersburg - Moscow Railway ^{[ what? ]} ) between 1843 and 1851 ^[3] . The builders, most of whom were peasants , were paid an average of 3 rubles a month, moreover, they were often deceived by the authorities, and punished with fines for all kinds of misdeeds. There was a high mortality rate among workers; the exact number of victims remained unknown, although Nekrasov in his poem mentions five thousand.

Responsible for the project was Count Peter Kleinmichel , the then Minister of Transport of Russia and ruthless administrator. Hence a brief introduction in the form of an epigraph: “Vanya (in the driver’s armatyhka):“ Dad! Who built this road? "Father (in a coat with a red lining):" Count Petr Andreevich Kleinmichel, darling! "" ^[4]

Nekrasov wrote a poem in early 1864. In May of the same year, he tried to pass censorship, but to no avail. Inspired by the new law, which abolished the preliminary censorship procedures, but tightened the penalty for actual publications, he published the poem “ Railway ” in issue No. 10 of Sovremennik for 1865. On the same day, November 24, the censor Yelenev sent a circular to the heads of the journal condemning the "reprehensible nature" of the poem. After a special meeting of the Press and Publishing Council in late November, Interior Minister Petr Valuyev on December 4 sent Sovremennik a second notice, with the result that the magazine was on the verge of closure. In May 1866, the magazine was eventually closed; the Railway was named one of the most politically dangerous publications ^{[2] [5]} .

Part I

The narrator views the beautiful moonlit autumn landscapes from his car window. A boy traveling in the same compartment with his father-general ( “the coat on the red lining” was worn by the generals), asked his father who built this railway - and he received the answer that it was Count Kleinmichel.

Part II

The narrator tells how he tells the boy about the real people who built this railway. Suddenly, the boy is shocked by a terrible vision: thousands of ghosts of haggard, mutilated people climb the sides of the rails, each trying to tell his story, asking the people of the future whether they even remember those whose bones they are traveling now.

Part III

The boy tells his father about the vision and how their counterpart told about them - about those who were the real builders of the railway. The general, outraged, offers his own argument: he was in Rome, Vienna and Athens and saw beautiful human creations there. But were these masterpieces created by a "simple man"? No, ordinary people are just vandals who can only destroy beauty. He demands that their neighbor give his son an image of the lighter side of the story (and if he doesn’t cope, then he will be convicted of bias and inability to see at least something good - thus he will be exposed to an evil critic.)

Part IV

The narrator represents the happy ending of the story: the work is finished, the dead are buried, and the workers who are waiting for payment are gathered near the office. Here they find out that they actually owed their owners:

The contractor arrives and, with a gesture of generosity, forgives the workers the debts and rolls out a barrel of wine for everyone: to drink and celebrate ^[6] .

• "Maintenance work on the railway" - a picture of the Russian artist Konstantin Savitsky (1844-1905), the work on which was completed in 1874.

• The Railway by Nikolai Nekrasov. The Russian Poetry Reader. Audio version (rus.)
• Analysis of the poem "Railway" Nekrasov
• “Railway” (N. Nekrasov) // History of creation
• Analysis of the poem "Railway" Nekrasov