On the Place of ‘‘Prologue’’ on the Text of the Poem “Who Lives Well in Russia”

Abstract

The article proposes a clarification to the interpretation of the composition of the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Happily in Russia.” In post-war Soviet editions, “Prologue” (“In what year — guess...”) was constantly published as part of the first part of the poem. The article argues for the need to print it before the whole poem, since in the last lifetime editions of the poet’s poems “Prologue” was “out of place” as a result of external circumstances. The fact is that the very division into parts in the poem appeared when the 5th part of the edition of 1869–1873. (containing the prologue and the first five chapters) was already typed and the changes had to be made to the finished layout.