Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Tapio Riikonen and PG Distributed Proofreaders WHO CAN BE HAPPY AND FREE IN RUSSIA? BY NICHOLAS NEKRASSOV Translated by Juliet M. Soskice With an Introduction by Dr. David Soskice 1917 [Illustration: Nicholas Nekrassov] NICHOLAS ALEXEIEVITCH NEKRASSOV Born, near the town Vinitza, province of Podolia, November 22, 1821 Died, St. Petersburg, December 27, 1877. _'Who can be Happy and Free in Russia?' was first published in Russia in 1879. In 'The World's Classics' this translation was first published in 1917._ CONTENTS: NICHOLAS NEKRASSOV: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE PROLOGUE PART I. CHAP. I. THE POPE II. THE VILLAGE FAIR III. THE DRUNKEN NIGHT IV. THE HAPPY ONES V. THE POMYESHCHICK PART II.--THE LAST POMYESHCHICK PROLOGUE I. THE DIE-HARD II. KLIM, THE ELDER PART III.--THE PEASANT WOMAN PROLOGUE I. THE WEDDING II. A SONG III. SAVYELI IV. DJOMUSHKA V. THE SHE-WOLF VI. AN UNLUCKY YEAR VII. THE GOVERNOR'S LADY VIII. THE WOMAN'S LEGEND PART IV.--A FEAST FOR THE WHOLE VILLAGE PROLOGUE I. BITTER TIMES--BITTER SONGS II. PILGRIMS AND WANDERERS III. OLD AND NEW EPILOGUE NICHOLAS NEKRASSOV: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE Western Europe has only lately begun to explore the rich domain of Russian literature, and is not yet acquainted with all even of its greatest figures. Treasures of untold beauty and priceless value, which for many decades have been enlarging and elevating the Russian mind, still await discovery here. Who in England, for instance, has heard the names of Saltykov, Uspensky, or Nekrassov? Yet Saltykov is the greatest of Russian satirists; Uspensky the greatest story-writer of the lives of the Russian toiling masses; while Nekrassov, "the poet of the people's sorrow," whose muse "of grief and vengeance" has supremely dominated the minds of the Russian educated classes for the last half century, is the sole and rightful heir of his two great predecessors, Pushkin and Lermontov. Russia is a country still largely mysterious to the denizen of Western Europe, and the Russian peasant, the _moujik_, an impenetrable riddle to him. Of all the great Russian writers not one has contributed more to the interpretation of the enigmatical soul of the _moujik_ than Russia's great poet, Nekrassov, in his life-work the national epic, _Who can be Happy in Russia?_ There are few literate persons in Russia who do not know whole pages of this poem by heart. It will live as long as Russian literature exists; and its artistic value as an instrument for the depiction of Russian nature and the soul of the Russian people can be compared only with that of the great epics of Homer with regard to the legendary life of ancient Greece. Nekrassov seemed destined to dwell from his birth amid such surroundings as are necessary for the creation of a great national poet.