Gorky story childhood full content. “Childhood” by Maxim Gorky as an autobiographical story

The work of M. Gorky is connected with his personal life experience. The eventful life of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, the future writer Maxim Gorky, was reflected in autobiographical trilogy“Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.

Tremendous learning value life path The future writer needs the story “Childhood” to understand the process of his spiritual formation. The liveliness and authenticity of what is depicted is achieved by the fact that the pictures, characters, and events bear the stamp of a child’s perception.

History of formation and growth human personality shown in it against the backdrop of Russian reality of the 70s and 80s of the 19th century. The author wrote: “...and I’m not talking about myself, but about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which... a simple Russian man lived.” At the same time, the story is imbued with the idea of ​​the spiritual strength of the people, of the “good human” that is inherent in it. Therefore, the characteristics of those characters the stories that Alyosha encounters, as well as the analysis of pictures of the life of the bourgeoisie, should become an important link in the lesson. At each lesson, students should also draw attention to Alyosha’s psychology, show how his strength matures in constant communication with real people from the people and in the fight against the inertia and cruelty of people disfigured by the desire for property.

The autobiographical nature of “Childhood” enhances its educational significance, and the skillful use of its emotional impact on children depends on the teacher.

In the first lesson, you need to read the first chapter of the work with the students, then move on to a conversation about the main issues of the story - the struggle of the “good human” with the world of inertia and acquisitiveness. The feeling of the beauty of the world, which opens up while sailing on a steamboat along the Volga, is combined with acute sensation there are hostile forces in it. Already here the beginning of Alyosha’s conflict with the old world is given.

We offer the main range of questions and tasks that should be covered in the lesson: what pictures open before us in the first chapter? What characters are they associated with? Through whose eyes do we look at everything that happens in the story? What and how did Gorky tell about the Volga, its banks and cities? Who opens up a wonderful world to the boy?

What place did grandmother occupy in Alyosha’s life? Answer with the words of the story.

Describe Alyosha’s first impression of meeting his grandfather. How does grandfather talk to people? How did he feel in Alyosha? How is this stated in the text? Read the description of the Kashirins' house. Find epithets and comparisons in this description and determine their role.

In conclusion, the teacher says that in this house, among people Alyosha did not like, the boy’s difficult childhood will pass.

At home, students read chapter two and answer the questions in the textbook.

The second lesson is devoted to revealing the “lead abominations” of Russian life in the story and clarifying the character of grandfather Kashirin.

Almost exhaustive material for covering these issues is provided by the second chapter, which paints terrifying pictures of drunken cruelty, mischief, mockery of the weak, family fights over property that pervert human souls.

We begin work on the topic by discussing the question: what struck Alyosha in the Kashirins’ house? It is necessary to dwell in more detail on the author’s description of the situation in the grandfather’s house (the first three paragraphs of the second chapter), to find words and expressions that most accurately characterize it. Then, using specific examples, show the “mutual enmity of everyone with everyone,” which poisoned both adults and children. The students will focus on the following episodes: a quarrel between uncles, a scene with a thimble, spanking children, Sasha’s denunciation of Alyosha.

The morals in the grandfather's house are most fully conveyed in the quarrel scene (it can be read). We draw the attention of schoolchildren to how the author conveys the bestial appearance of fighting brothers, how grandmother and grandfather behave during a quarrel, and how this characterizes each of them. Although the grandfather is also possessed by the spirit of acquisitiveness, he is at the same time pitiful, since he is unable to stop his sons. The grandmother stands out as a bright spot against the gloomy background of cruel life, who tries to bring peace to this house.

Conversations between grandparents about the need to divide property will show students that main reason Enmity in the Kashirin family was a craving for property, giving rise to merciless cruelty. The teacher should explain to schoolchildren that the brothers' enmity was aggravated by the precarious position of small enterprises in the era of capitalist development.

What especially struck Alyosha about the Kashirin family? Attention is drawn to the attitude towards women and children in this house. The punishment scene is analyzed, which is important not only for the depiction of cruelty, on the one hand, and submission, on the other. It is also interesting because it shows how cruelty, in turn, gives rise to such equally terrible and base qualities as hypocrisy and betrayal. Having adapted to the world of violence and lies, Sasha became an informer and sycophant of Uncle Yakov, slavishly obedient and weak-willed - the son of Uncle Mikhail. Let's find out: what did Gorky say about the children of Yakov and Mikhail? What epithets and comparisons most clearly convey their character? What feeling does Sasha Yakov make in students? In which episodes does he show himself most fully?

Which of the characters especially evokes a feeling of compassion and why? An analysis of the episode with the thimble will show what place Grigory occupies in the Kashirins’ house, that his fate is a typical fate of a worker in Tsarist Russia. A former companion of his grandfather, who devoted his entire life to the Kashirins, he is now, half-blind and sick, enduring the bullying of even children.

A natural continuation of the conversation on this topic will be a discussion of the question: who was the main culprit of that “abundant cruelty” of life in the Kashirins’ house? So students move on to analyzing the image of Kashirin. It is necessary to bring them to an understanding of the complexity and inconsistency of the image of the grandfather, the keeper of proprietary principles, the victim of his own greed and self-interest, to show why cruelty and greed became the predominant traits of his character.

After listening to the students’ opinions about how their first acquaintance with their grandfather made them feel, we move on to analyzing the episodes in which his character is especially clearly manifested. We find out his manner of talking to people, look for imperative intonations characteristic of his grandfather’s speech in the first and second chapters.

Students think through answers to the questions: how is Kashirin’s appearance depicted? How is the grandfather different from his sons, Yakov and Mikhail? How portrait characteristic grandfather is confirmed by his actions and judgments about people? Why did Alyosha have “special attention, cautious curiosity” towards his grandfather?

Having comprehended the characteristics of the grandfather’s character, we read and further analyze his story about his past; We pay attention to what and how the grandfather talks. To perceive the content of his story, the following questions can be asked:

What were your grandfather’s childhood and youth like? What pictures are drawn to Alyosha in his grandfather’s story about his youth? Compare these pictures with the description of the Volga in the works of N.A. Nekrasov. and in Repin’s painting I.E. "Barge Haulers on the Volga". The richness of intonation, melodiousness and imagery of speech, its closeness to folklore give a complete idea of ​​the folk basis of the grandfather’s character, the richness of his imagination, and craving for beauty.

How did Alyosha see his grandfather in this conversation? It turns out that the grandfather can be both affectionate and warm-hearted, and knows how to tell interesting stories. Alyosha also thinks his appearance is different (compare with the original portrait). The boy realized that his grandfather stood out thanks to his intelligence.

What made my grandfather bitter? The analysis of the reasons should be discussed in a little more detail. Having drank the bitter cup of the barge hauler to the bottom, having experienced humiliation and beatings, the grandfather finally made his way into the people and became the owner. But the cruel morality of capitalism, the pursuit of a penny, the constant fear of losing the dye shop gave rise to the spirit of the owner, embitterment, and distrust of people in him. Kashirin gradually lost all the best that was in him from the people, pitting himself against working people. It is advisable to read individual lines from the thirteenth chapter, telling about future fate grandfather when, having gone bankrupt, he loses the remnants of his human appearance.

At home, students prepare an expressive reading of their grandfather's story about their past, read the third and fourth chapters and answer the questions in the textbook.

In the third lesson, the teacher will begin to work on the second theme of the story - “bright, healthy and creative” in Russian life. The focus is on the history of the formation of Alyosha’s character and the image of the Gypsy.

At the beginning of the lesson, we find out what the third chapter says about cruel morals in the Kashirins’ house (the uncles’ evil “jokes” with the grandfather’s former companion, their attitude towards the Gypsy). It is advisable for students to express their attitude towards their uncles and evaluate Gregory’s behavior: is he right to endure all insults so patiently? Summarizing the conversation on the first topic, you can ask the students: what is the author’s feeling that permeates the pages of the story telling about the life and morals in the Kashirins’ house?

Working on the main theme of the story - the formation of the character of Alyosha Peshkov, it is necessary to help students understand why Alyosha felt like a “stranger” among the “stupid tribe”. Alyosha came to the Kashirins' house when he was four years old, but the impressions of another life were already living in him. He remembered a friendly family, his father Maxim Savvateevich, an intelligent, cheerful and talented person, and at first he was proud of his mother, who was not like the people around her. For the rest of his life, Alyosha also remembered “the first days of being saturated with beauty” while sailing on the ship.

How did the first impression of the Kashirin family reflect on the boy’s sensitive soul and big heart? We highlight those lines that say that Alyosha didn’t like everything: both adults and children, and even “grandmother somehow faded,” the words of his mother, whom he “prevents from leaving home,” also evoked painful thoughts in him , where she cannot live.” The “dense, motley, inexpressibly strange life” in the Kashirin family is perceived by Alyosha as “a harsh fairy tale, well told by a kind, painfully truthful genius.” Behind the epithets and comparisons with which the author conveys the boy’s state of mind, one can discern a subtle, poetic nature, a man of good feelings who does not put up with evil.

How has Alyosha changed during the days of “ill health”? - The teacher will help the children better understand the changes that have occurred in Alyosha with the help of narrower questions: how does Gorky convey Alyosha’s state? What's new in the boy's attitude towards people?

We reveal the changes that have occurred in Alyosha based on the material of the seventh chapter. Students will tell how Alyosha is driven to madness by the cruelty of street entertainment, how he feels shame before the blind master Grigory because his grandfather does not feed him.

Another source that strengthened Alyosha on his path was communication with real people from the people. A significant role in Alyosha’s moral maturity belongs to the Gypsy, with whose image the second theme of the story is connected - the image of how “through... a layer... of bestial rubbish the bright, healthy and creative grows.” Gypsy embodies wonderful human qualities: extraordinary kindness and humanity, hard work, deep inner decency, talent, desire for the best.

The image of the Gypsy does not cause any particular difficulties for students.

The teacher will guide the work with the following questions:

What did Alyosha learn about Gypsy’s past from his grandmother’s stories? Describe his portrait. What place did Gypsy occupy in his grandfather’s house? How did others treat him? What characteristics did his grandfather and grandmother give him? How do you understand the expression “golden hands”? Which episodes show Gypsy’s giftedness and talent? Tell us about his fun and expressively read the dance scene (analysis of this episode can be carried out while simultaneously watching a film fragment). How does Alyosha see the dancing Gypsy? Find comparisons in the description and determine their role. Did the artist B. A. Dekhterev manage to convey the character of the Gypsy in his drawing? Why did Alyosha fall in love with the Gypsy “and was amazed at him until he was speechless”? What influence did Gypsy have on Alyosha?

In conclusion, we find out (or report) how Gypsy died and whether his death was accidental.

You can invite students at the end of the lesson to independently create a plan for the image of the Gypsy.

At home, students read chapter four and receive individual assignments to collect material for the image of the grandmother.

The fourth lesson is entirely devoted to analyzing the image of the grandmother. A person of great natural intelligence, bright artistic talent and sensitive heartfelt responsiveness, Akulina Ivanovna instilled in her grandson a love for the world and people, opened his eyes to the beauty of nature, and brought him closer to folk art. Due to the high structure of her soul, she remained for Gorky all her life, in his words, “a friend, the closest to the heart... the most understandable and dear person"; her selfless love for the world enriched Alyosha, “saturating her with strong strength for a difficult life.” Initially, Gorky even intended to call the story “Grandmother.”

Students will find material for observing the image in chapters one, four and seven. The forms of work can be different: a conversation on questions or a teacher’s story.

Direct independent work students over the indicated chapters, when the student himself understands the meaning of the text and its artistic side, and then reports his observations to the class. In the latter case, specific tasks are needed that can be individualized: the first row prepares observations on the first chapter, the second on the second, third and seventh chapters, the focus of the third row is on the fourth chapter.

Questions and assignments for the first chapter may be as follows:

Describe the portrait of your grandmother. What means of figurative language did Gorky use when creating this portrait? What epithets predominate? Name them. How does grandma's talent manifest itself? How does the grandmother’s conversation with Alyosha and an excerpt from her fairy tale confirm Gorky’s words about the peculiarities of her speech? What words did the writer express his feelings of gratitude to his grandmother? For expressive reading, we can recommend a portrait of a grandmother and her conversation with her grandson.

The grandmother’s sense of beauty makes her irreconcilable with everything ugly. The writer revealed this side of her character in the second, third and seventh chapters. Akulina Ivanovna is shown in them against the background of the gloomy life of the Kashirin family. Let's ask students the following questions:

What role did the grandmother play in the house? Which episodes convey her kindness and desire to bring a spirit of peace into relationships between people? (Pay attention to the form of the grandmother’s address to different people). How does her conversation with Alyosha about Master Gregory characterize her (chapter seven)? What is grandma's prayer? How is Akulina Ivanovna shown on holiday evenings? How does she appear to Alyosha during the dance and how does the artist capture her in the drawing? (Read this episode expressively, name words that convey the beauty of the grandmother’s movements and the richness of her creative powers).

In the fourth chapter, the grandmother is shown in a moment of danger (it is advisable to read the entire chapter in class). We recommend the following questions to prepare for your message:

Why was Alyosha so struck by his grandmother during the fire? What verbs convey the speed of her movements? How does she organize firefighting? Why is the episode with the horse Sharap interesting? What lines from the story can be signed under the drawing by B. A. Dekhterev? How did grandfather assess the strength of the grandmother? What lines from N. A. Nekrasov’s poem “Frost, Red Nose” come to mind when reading these pages?

To summarize, let’s talk about the grandmother’s extraordinary humanity, her love for people, her ability to do good to people in an environment of evil, and her faith in the victory of justice. In the image of his grandmother, Gorky embodied all the best that was characteristic of ordinary Russian people. At the same time, the wisdom of the grandmother is the wisdom of the patriarchal people; it expresses their humility and forgiveness. The grandmother even comes to terms with the cruelty that she herself had to experience more than once from her grandfather, finding justification for his outbursts of anger.

The work on the image will be completed by drawing up a plan.

At home, students read the story to the end and prepare answers to the questions in the textbook.

The last lesson reveals the role of the lodger Good Deed in Alyosha’s life and talks about the writer’s faith in the creative powers of the people and their future (chapters five, eight, twelve, thirteen).

The lesson begins with a conversation about what people and events influenced Alyosha’s character. It is worth briefly repeating what impressions Peshkov took from life in the Kashirins’ house, what his grandfather taught him ( additional material gives the fifth chapter), what influence Gypsy and grandmother had on the boy. It is important that students understand how Alyosha’s unconscious protest against violence develops into conscious resistance to the injustice and cruelty that he observed around him, and what role in the growth of this feeling belongs to those wonderful people with whom his fate collided.

Alyosha also owes his inner growth and spiritual enrichment to a guest nicknamed Good Deed, who captivated the boy with his directness and truthfulness.

We listen to students’ answers to the textbook questions and deepen them using the following questions:

Who do you think is Good Deed? (An excerpt is read that talks about his mysterious and incomprehensible activities.) Why did Alyosha become friends with Good job and what did you value in this friendship? Students are asked to give examples of friendly conversations between the tenant and Alyosha and read out the most striking dialogues. What does Alyosha have in common with Good Deed? What about the attitude of adults towards him caused Alyosha to be especially indignant? How does Alyosha express his protest against injustice? Is it random? Explain how you understand the words: “So ended my friendship with the first person from an endless series of strangers in my native country - the best people her".

These were the first lessons of harsh life that Alyosha received in the Kashirins’ house. The question of undoubted interest will be: are there any traits in Alyosha that allow us to believe that this boy can grow into a man with a big heart?

Simple Russian people, smart, kind, interesting, talented, strengthened in Alyosha the noble and bright traits of his personality: truthfulness and courage, kindness and sensitivity, the desire for knowledge, will and hard work (the thirteenth chapter), which were further developed during his wanderings “ in people" (we look at the final drawing for the story).

It should be said about the educational significance of Alyosha’s life path. The teacher can give examples of the difficult childhood of many people in pre-revolutionary Russia, when only thanks to enormous will and energy they were able to defeat the surrounding evil and enter the broad road of life.

In conclusion, we read the twelfth chapter, which expresses the main idea of ​​the story, and discuss the question: what does the story teach us?

At home, students select material for the topic “Alyosha in the Kashirin family.”

The task of the next lesson, speech development lesson , - bring students’ knowledge on this topic into a strict system, that is, draw up a plan, highlight the most important thing in each point, practice transitions from one point of the plan to another, repeat citing techniques (one of the forms is points of the plan), think through a short introduction and conclusion to the topic .

Rough plan

I. Alyosha Peshkov is the central character of A. M. Gorky’s story “Childhood”.

II. Alyosha's harsh school of life.

1. The house of “mutual enmity of all with all.”
2. A stranger among the “stupid tribe.”
3. Alyosha's protest against the “leaden abominations of Russian life.”
4. What did friendship with Gypsy give to Alyosha?
5. A friend for life is a grandmother.
6. The role of the lodger is a good thing in the spiritual maturation of Alyosha.
7. "Strong strength for a difficult life."

III. What I like about Alyosha.

One or two student stories should be heard in class.

At home, students write an essay.

Literature

1. Gorky M. “Childhood.” Moscow, Enlightenment 1982
2. Weinberg I. Pages great life. Moscow, 1980
3. Gorky at school. Collection of articles edited by Golubkov V.V. Moscow, 1960
4. Dubinskaya M.S., Novoselskaya L.S. Russian literature in grades 6–7. Kyiv, 1977
5. Korovina V.Ya. Literature in 7th grade: Methodological advice. Book for teachers. Moscow, Education, 1995
6. Snezhevskaya M.A., Shevchenko P.A., Kurdyumova T.F. and others. Methodological guide to the textbook - anthology “Native Literature”. 6th grade. Moscow, Education, 1986

I dedicate it to my son

I

In the dark cramped room, on the floor, under the window, lies my father, dressed in white and unusually long; the toes of his bare feet are strangely spread out, the fingers of his gentle hands, quietly placed on his chest, are also crooked; his cheerful eyes are tightly covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face is dark and scares me with his badly bared teeth.

Mother, half naked, in a red skirt, is on her knees, combing her father’s long soft hair from his forehead to the back of his head with a black comb, which I used to saw through the rinds of watermelons; the mother continuously says something in a thick, hoarse voice, her grey eyes swollen and seem to melt, flowing down in large drops of tears.

My grandmother is holding my hand - round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, doughy nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting; she also cries, somehow singing along with her mother especially and well, she trembles all over and tugs at me, pushing me towards my father; I resist, hide behind her; I'm scared and embarrassed.

I had never seen big people cry before, and I did not understand the words repeatedly spoken by my grandmother:

Say goodbye to your uncle, you will never see him again, he died, my dear, at the wrong time, at the wrong time...

I was seriously ill - I had just gotten back to my feet; During my illness - I remember this well - my father merrily fussed with me, then he suddenly disappeared and was replaced by my grandmother, a strange person.

Where did you come from? - I asked her.

She answered:

From above, from Nizhny, but she didn’t come, but she arrived! They don’t walk on water, shush!

It was funny and incomprehensible: upstairs in the house lived bearded, painted Persians, and in the basement an old yellow Kalmyk was selling sheepskins. You can slide down the stairs astride the railing, or when you fall, you can roll somersault - I knew that well. And what does water have to do with it? Everything is wrong and funny confused.

Why am I freaking out?

Because you make noise,” she said, also laughing.

She spoke kindly, cheerfully, smoothly. From the very first day I became friends with her, and now I want her to quickly leave this room with me.

My mother suppresses me; her tears and howls sparked a new, anxious feeling in me. This is the first time I see her like this - she was always strict, spoke little; she is clean, smooth and big, like a horse; she has a tough body and terribly strong arms. And now she is all somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything on her is torn; the hair, lying neatly on the head, in a large light cap, scattered over the bare shoulder, fell on the face, and half of it, braided in a braid, dangled, touching his father’s sleeping face. I have been standing in the room for a long time, but she has never looked at me - she combs her father’s hair and keeps growling, choking on tears.

Black men and a sentry soldier look in the door. He shouts angrily:

Clean it up quickly!

The window is curtained with a dark shawl; it swells like a sail. One day my father took me on a boat with a sail. Suddenly thunder struck. My father laughed, squeezed me tightly with his knees and shouted:

It's okay, don't be afraid, Luk!

Suddenly the mother threw herself up heavily from the floor, immediately sank down again, toppled over onto her back, scattering her hair across the floor; her blind, white face turned blue, and baring her teeth like her father, she said in a terrible voice:

Shut the door... Alexei - out!

Pushing me away, my grandmother rushed to the door and shouted:

Dear ones, don’t be afraid, don’t touch, leave for Christ’s sake! This is not cholera, the birth has come, for mercy, priests!

I hid in a dark corner behind a chest and from there I watched my mother squirm across the floor, groaning and gritting her teeth, and my grandmother, crawling around, said affectionately and joyfully:

In the name of father and son! Be patient, Varyusha! Most Holy Mother of God, Intercessor...

I'm scared; They are fidgeting on the floor near their father, touching him, moaning and screaming, but he is motionless and seems to be laughing.

Current page: 1 (book has 13 pages in total)

Maksim Gorky
(Peshkov Alexey Maksimovich)
Childhood

© Children's Literature Publishing House. Series design, 2002

© V. Karpov. Introductory article, dictionary, 2002

© B. Dekhterev. Drawings, heirs

1868–1936

A book about the poverty and wealth of the human soul

This book is hard to read. Although, it would seem, none of us today would be surprised by the description of the most sophisticated cruelties in books and on the screen. But all these cruelties are comfortable: they are make-believe. And in M. Gorky’s story everything is true.

What is this book about? About how the “humiliated and insulted” lived in the era of the birth of capitalism in Russia? No, this is about people who humiliated and insulted themselves, regardless of the system - capitalism or another “ism”. This book is about family, about the Russian soul, about God. That is, about you and me.

The writer Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, who called himself Maxim Gorky (1868–1936), truly acquired bitter life experience. And for him, a man who had an artistic gift, a difficult question arose: what should he, a popular writer and already accomplished person, do - try to forget about his difficult childhood and youth, like a terrible dream, or, once again stirring up his own soul, tell the reader an unpleasant the truth about the "dark kingdom". Maybe it will be possible to warn someone about how you cannot live if you are a human being. And what should a person who often lives dark and dirty do? Take your mind off real life beautiful fairy tales or realize the whole unpleasant truth about your life? And Gorky gives the answer to this question already in 1902 in his famous play “At the Lower Depths”: “Lies are the religion of slaves and masters, truth is the God of a free man!” Here, a little further, there is an equally interesting phrase: “We must respect a person!.. do not humiliate him with pity... we must respect him!”

It is unlikely that it was easy and pleasant for the writer to remember his own childhood: “Now, reviving the past, I myself sometimes find it hard to believe that everything was exactly as it was, and I want to dispute and reject a lot - the dark life of the “stupid tribe” is too rich in cruelty “. But truth is higher than pity, and I’m not talking about myself, but about that close, stuffy circle of terrible impressions in which I lived, and still live, a simple Russian man.”

For a long time now fiction There is a genre of autobiographical prose. This is the author's story about his own destiny. A writer can present facts from his biography with to varying degrees accuracy. “Childhood” by M. Gorky – real picture the beginning of a writer’s life, a very difficult beginning. Remembering his childhood, Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov tries to understand how his character was formed, who and what influence had on him in those distant years: “As a child, I imagine myself as a hive, where various simple gray people, like bees, carried the honey of their knowledge and thinking about life, generously enriching my soul in whatever way he could. Often this honey was dirty and bitter, but all knowledge is still honey.”

What kind of person main character stories - Alyosha Peshkov? He was lucky to be born into a family where his father and mother lived in true love. That’s why they didn’t raise their son, they loved him. This charge of love, received in childhood, allowed Alyosha not to disappear, not to become bitter among the “stupid tribe.” It was very difficult for him, since his soul could not stand human savagery: “... other impressions only offended me with their cruelty and dirt, arousing disgust and sadness.” And all because his relatives and acquaintances are most often senselessly cruel and unbearably boring people. Alyosha often experiences a feeling of acute melancholy; He is even visited by the desire to leave home with the blind master Gregory and wander around begging, just to avoid seeing his drunken uncles, tyrant grandfather and downtrodden cousins. It was hard for the boy also because he had a developed sense of self-esteem: he did not tolerate any violence either towards himself or towards others. So, Alyosha says that he could not stand it when street boys tortured animals and mocked beggars; he was always ready to stand up for the offended. It turns out that this life is not easy for an honest person. And his parents and grandmother raised in Alyosha a hatred of all lies. Alyosha's soul suffers from the cunning of his brothers, the lies of his friend Uncle Peter, from the fact that Vanya Tsyganok steals.

So, maybe try to forget about the sense of dignity and honesty, and become like everyone else? After all, life will become easier! But this is not the hero of the story. There lives in him a keen sense of protest against untruth. In defense, Alyosha may even commit a rude act, as happened when, in revenge for his beaten grandmother, the boy spoiled his grandfather’s favorite Saints. Having matured a little, Alyosha enthusiastically takes part in street fights. This is no ordinary hooliganism. This is a way to relieve mental stress - after all, injustice reigns around. On the street, a guy in a fair fight can defeat his opponent, but in ordinary life, injustice most often avoids a fair fight.

People like Alyosha Peshkov are now called difficult teenagers. But if you look closely at the hero of the story, you will notice that this person is drawn to goodness and beauty. With what love he talks about mentally talented people: about his grandmother, Gypsy, about a company of faithful street friends. He even tries to find the best in his cruel grandfather! And he asks people for one thing - a kind human relationship (remember how this hunted guy changes after a heart-to-heart conversation with him kind person– Bishop Chrysanthos)…

In the story, people often insult and beat each other. It’s bad when a person’s conscious life begins with the death of his beloved father. But it’s even worse when a child lives in an atmosphere of hatred: “Grandfather’s house was filled with the hot fog of mutual enmity of everyone with everyone; it poisoned adults, and even children took an active part in it.” Soon after arriving at the house of his mother’s parents, Alyosha received the first truly memorable impression of his childhood: his own grandfather beat him, a small child, half to death. “From those days, I developed a restless attention to people, and, as if the skin had been torn from my heart, it became unbearably sensitive to any insult and pain, my own and someone else’s,” the man no longer recalls one of the most memorable events in his life. first youth.

This family did not know any other way of education. The elders humiliated and beat the younger ones in every possible way, thinking that in this way they were gaining respect. But the mistake of these people is that they confuse respect with fear. Was Vasily Kashirin a natural monster? I think not. He, in his own wretched way, lived by the principle “it wasn’t started by us, it won’t end by us” (by which many still live today). Some kind of pride even sounds in his teaching to his grandson: “When a relative beats one of your own, it’s not an insult, but a science! Don’t give in to someone else’s, but don’t give in to yours! Do you think they didn't beat me? Olesha, they beat me so much that you wouldn’t even see it in your worst nightmare. I was so offended that, go figure, the Lord God himself looked and cried! What happened? An orphan, the son of a beggar mother, but he reached his place - he was made a shop foreman, a boss of people.”

Is it any wonder that in such a family “the children were quiet and unnoticeable; they are beaten to the ground like dust by rain.” There is nothing strange in the fact that the bestial Yakov and Mikhail grew up in such a family. A comparison of them with animals arises at the very first acquaintance: “.. the uncles suddenly jumped to their feet and, leaning over the table, began to howl and growl at grandfather, baring their teeth pitifully and shaking themselves like dogs...” And the fact that Yakov plays the guitar, doesn't make him human yet. After all, his soul yearns for this: “If Yakov were a dog, Yakov would howl from morning to night: Oh, I’m bored! Oh, I'm sad." These people do not know why they live, and therefore suffer from mortal boredom. And when one’s life is a heavy burden, a desire for destruction appears. So, Yakov beat his own wife to death (and not immediately, but through sophisticated torture for years); Another monster, Mikhail, is really tormenting his wife Natalya. Why are they doing that? Master Gregory answers this question to Alyosha: “Why? And he probably doesn’t even know... Maybe he beat her because she was better than him, and he was envious. The Kashirins, brother, don’t like good things, they envy him, but they can’t accept him, they destroy him!” In addition, since childhood, before my eyes is the example of my own father brutally beating his mother. And this is the norm! This is the most disgusting form of self-affirmation - at the expense of the weak. People like Mikhail and Yakov really want to look strong and courageous, but deep down they feel flawed. Such people, in order to feel self-confidence at least for a short time, swagger over their loved ones. But at their core, they are real losers, cowards. Their hearts, turned away from love, are fed not only by causeless rage, but also by envy. A cruel war begins between brothers for their father's property. (An interesting thing, after all, is the Russian language! In its first meaning, the word “good” means everything positive, good; in the second, it means junk that you can touch with your hands.) And in this war, all means will do, including arson and murder. But even after receiving an inheritance, the brothers do not find peace: you cannot build happiness on lies and blood. Mikhail, he generally loses all human appearance and comes to his father and mother with one goal - to kill. After all, in his opinion, it is not he himself who is to blame for living his life like a pig, but someone else!

Gorky in his book thinks a lot about why Russian people are often cruel, why they make their life “gray, lifeless nonsense.” And here is another one of his answers to himself: “Russian people, due to their poverty and poverty of life, generally love to amuse themselves with grief, play with it like children, and are rarely ashamed of being unhappy. In endless everyday life and grief there is a holiday, and fire is fun; in an empty place, a scratch is a decoration...” However, the reader is not always obliged to trust the author’s direct assessments.

The story is not about poor people (at least they don’t immediately become poor); their wealth will allow them to live humanly in every sense. But for real good people in “Childhood” you will find, rather, among the poor: Grigory, Tsyganok, Good Deed, grandmother Akulina Ivanovna, who came from a poor family. This means that it is not a matter of poverty or wealth. The point is mental and spiritual poverty. After all, Maxim Savvateevich Peshkov did not have any wealth. But this did not stop him from being an amazingly beautiful person. Honest, open, reliable, hard-working, with self-esteem, he knew how to love beautifully and recklessly. I didn’t drink wine, which is rare in Russia. And Maxim became destiny for Varvara Peshkova. Not only did he not beat his wife and son, he had no thoughts of insulting them. And he remained the brightest memory and example for his son for the rest of his life. People were jealous of the happy and friendly Peshkov family. And this muddy envy pushes the degenerates Mikhail and Yakov to kill their son-in-law. But by a miracle, Maxim, who survived, shows mercy, saving his wife’s brothers from certain hard labor.

Poor, unfortunate Varvara! It’s true, God was pleased to give her such a man - the dream of every woman. She managed to escape from that suffocating swamp where she was born and raised, and to know true happiness. It didn't last long! Maxim passed away offensively early. And since then, Varvara’s life has gone awry. It happens that a woman’s lot develops in such a way that there is no replacement for the one and only one. It seemed that she could find, if not happiness, then peace with Evgeny Maximov, an educated man, a nobleman. But underneath his outer gloss hid, as it turned out, a nonentity, no better than the same Yakov and Mikhail.

The surprising thing about this story is that the author-narrator does not hate those who crippled his childhood. Little Alyosha learned well the lesson of his grandmother, who said about Yakov and Mikhail: “They are not evil. They are just stupid! This must be understood in the sense that they are, of course, evil, but also unhappy in their misery. Repentance sometimes softens these withered souls. Yakov suddenly begins to sob, hitting himself in the face: “What is this, what?...Why is this? Scoundrel and scoundrel, broken soul! Vasily Kashirin, a much smarter and stronger man, suffers more and more often. The old man understands that his cruelty was also inherited by his unsuccessful children, and in shock he complains to God: “In grief-stricken excitement, reaching the point of a tearful howl, he poked his head into the corner, towards the images, and hit the dry, echoing chest with all his might: “Lord, am I more sinful than others?” For what?’” However, this tough tyrant is worthy not only of pity, but also of respect. For he never put a stone instead of bread into the outstretched hand of an unlucky son or daughter. In many ways, he himself crippled his sons. But he also supported! Saved me from military service (which I bitterly regretted later), from prison; Having divided the property, he spent whole days in his sons’ workshops, helping to set up the business. And what about the episode when the brutal Mikhail and his friends, armed with stakes, break into the Kashirins’ house. The father in these terrible moments is mainly concerned with ensuring that his son is not hit on the head in the fight. He is also concerned about the fate of Varvara. Vasily Kashirin understands that his daughter’s life is not going well, and gives, in fact, his last, only to provide for Varvara.

As already mentioned, this book is not only about family life, about everyday life, but also about God. More precisely, about how an ordinary Russian person believes in God. But it turns out that you can believe in God in different ways. After all, not only did God create man in his own image and likeness, but man also constantly creates God according to his own standards. So, for grandfather Vasily Kashirin, a businesslike, dry and tough man, God is a strict overseer and judge. His God is precisely and first of all punishing and taking revenge. It is not for nothing that, remembering the Sacred History, the grandfather always tells episodes of the torment of sinners. Vasily Vasilyevich understands religious institutions as a soldier understands military regulations: memorize, do not reason and do not contradict. Little Alyosha's acquaintance with Christianity begins in his grandfather's family with cramming prayer formulas. And when the child begins to ask innocent questions about the text, Aunt Natalya interrupts him in fright: “Don’t ask, it’s worse! Just say after me: “Our Father...” For the grandfather, turning to God is a strict, but also a joyful ritual. He knows a huge number of prayers and psalms by heart and repeats the words with rapture Holy Scripture, often without even thinking about what they mean. He, an uneducated person, is filled with joy by the fact that he speaks not in the crude language of everyday life, but in the sublime structure of “divine” speech.

Grandmother Akulina Ivanovna has a different God. She is not an expert on sacred texts, but this does not in the least prevent her from believing fervently, sincerely and childishly naively. For this is the only way true faith can be. It is said: “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:1). Grandmother's God is a merciful intercessor who loves everyone equally. And not at all omniscient and omnipotent, but often crying over the imperfections of the world, and himself worthy of pity and compassion. God for grandmother is akin to a bright and fair hero folk tale. You can turn to him, as to the closest one, with your innermost thoughts: “Varvara would smile with such joy! How did she anger you, why did she sin more than others? What is it: a woman is young, healthy, but lives in sadness. And remember, Lord, Grigory - his eyes are getting worse...” It is precisely this kind of prayer, albeit devoid of an established order, but sincere, that will reach God faster. And for all her hard life in a cruel and sinful world, the grandmother thanks the Lord, who helps people far and close, loves and forgives them.

M. Gorky’s story “Childhood” shows us, the readers, that it is possible and necessary in the most difficult life conditions not to become bitter, not to become a slave, but to remain Human.

V. A. Karpov

Childhood

I dedicate it to my son

I

In a dim, cramped room, on the floor, under the window, lies my father, dressed in white and unusually long; the toes of his bare feet are strangely spread out, the fingers of his gentle hands, quietly placed on his chest, are also crooked; his cheerful eyes are tightly covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face is dark and scares me with his badly bared teeth.

Mother, half naked, in a red skirt, is on her knees, combing her father’s long soft hair from his forehead to the back of his head with a black comb, which I used to saw through the rinds of watermelons; the mother continuously says something in a thick, hoarse voice, her gray eyes are swollen and seem to melt, flowing down with large drops of tears.

My grandmother is holding my hand - round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, doughy nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting; she also cries, singing along with her mother in a special and good way, she trembles all over and tugs at me, pushing me towards my father; I resist, hide behind her; I'm scared and embarrassed.

I had never seen big people cry before, and I did not understand the words repeatedly spoken by my grandmother:

- Say goodbye to your aunt, you will never see him again, he died, my dear, at the wrong time, at the wrong time...

I was seriously ill - I had just gotten back to my feet; During my illness - I remember this well - my father merrily fussed with me, then he suddenly disappeared and was replaced by my grandmother, a strange person.

-Where did you come from? – I asked her. She answered:

- From above, from Nizhny, but she didn’t come, but she arrived! They don't walk on water, shush!

It was funny and incomprehensible: upstairs in the house lived bearded, painted Persians, and in the basement an old yellow Kalmyk was selling sheepskins. You can slide down the stairs astride the railing or, when you fall, roll somersault - I knew that well. And what does water have to do with it? Everything is wrong and funny confused.

- Why am I pissed?

“Because you make noise,” she said, also laughing. She spoke kindly, cheerfully, smoothly. From the very first day I became friends with her, and now I want her to quickly leave this room with me.

My mother suppresses me; her tears and howls sparked a new, anxious feeling in me. This is the first time I see her like this - she was always strict, spoke little; she is clean, smooth and big, like a horse; she has a tough body and terribly strong arms. And now she is all somehow unpleasantly swollen and disheveled, everything on her is torn; the hair, lying neatly on the head, in a large light cap, scattered over the bare shoulder, fell on the face, and half of it, braided in a braid, dangled, touching his father’s sleeping face. I’ve been standing in the room for a long time, but she’s never looked at me, she combs her father’s hair and keeps growling, choking on tears.

Black men and a sentry soldier look in the door. He shouts angrily:

- Clean it up quickly!

The window is curtained with a dark shawl; it swells like a sail. One day my father took me on a boat with a sail. Suddenly thunder struck. My father laughed, squeezed me tightly with his knees and shouted:

- It’s okay, don’t be afraid, Luk!

Suddenly the mother threw herself up heavily from the floor, immediately sank down again, toppled over onto her back, scattering her hair across the floor; her blind, white face turned blue, and, baring her teeth like her father, she said in a terrible voice:

- Shut the door... Alexei - get out! Pushing me away, my grandmother rushed to the door and shouted:

- Dear ones, don’t be afraid, don’t touch me, leave for Christ’s sake! This is not cholera, the birth has come, for mercy, priests!

I hid in a dark corner behind a chest and from there I watched my mother squirm across the floor, groaning and gritting her teeth, and my grandmother, crawling around, said affectionately and joyfully:

– In the name of the Father and the Son! Be patient, Varyusha! Most Holy Mother of God, Intercessor...

I'm scared; They are fidgeting on the floor near their father, touching him, moaning and screaming, but he is motionless and seems to be laughing. This lasted a long time - fussing on the floor; More than once the mother rose to her feet and fell again; grandmother rolled out of the room like a big black soft ball; then suddenly a child screamed in the darkness.

– Glory to You, Lord! - said the grandmother. - Boy!

And lit a candle.

I must have fallen asleep in the corner - I don’t remember anything else.

The second imprint in my memory is a rainy day, a deserted corner of the cemetery; I stand on a slippery mound of sticky earth and look into the hole where my father’s coffin was lowered; at the bottom of the pit there is a lot of water and there are frogs - two have already climbed onto the yellow lid of the coffin.

At the grave - me, my grandmother, a wet guard and two angry men with shovels. Warm rain, fine as beads, showers everyone.

“Bury,” said the watchman, walking away.

Grandmother began to cry, hiding her face in the end of her headscarf. The men, bent over, hastily began to throw earth into the grave, water began to gush; Jumping from the coffin, the frogs began to rush onto the walls of the pit, clods of earth knocking them to the bottom.

“Move away, Lenya,” my grandmother said, taking me by the shoulder; I slipped out from under her hand; I didn’t want to leave.

“What are you, Lord,” the grandmother complained, either to me or to God, and stood silently for a long time, with her head down; The grave has already been leveled to the ground, but it still stands.

The men loudly splashed their shovels on the ground; the wind came and drove away, carried away the rain. Grandmother took me by the hand and led me to a distant church, among many dark crosses.

-Aren't you going to cry? – she asked when she went outside the fence. - I would cry!

“I don’t want to,” I said.

“Well, I don’t want to, so I don’t have to,” she said quietly.

All this was surprising: I cried rarely and only from resentment, not from pain; my father always laughed at my tears, and my mother shouted:

- Don't you dare cry!

Then we rode along a wide, very dirty street in a droshky, among dark red houses; I asked my grandmother:

- Won’t the frogs come out?

“No, they won’t get out,” she answered. - God be with them!

Neither father nor mother pronounced the name of God so often and so closely.

A few days later, I, my grandmother and my mother were traveling on a ship, in a small cabin; my newborn brother Maxim died and lay on the table in the corner, wrapped in white, swaddled with red braid.

Perched on bundles and chests, I look out the window, convex and round, like the eye of a horse; Behind the wet glass, muddy, foamy water flows endlessly. Sometimes she jumps up and licks the glass. I involuntarily jump to the floor.

“Don’t be afraid,” says the grandmother and, easily lifting me up soft hands, puts it on the knots again.

There is a gray, wet fog over the water; Far away somewhere a dark land appears and disappears again into fog and water. Everything around is shaking. Only the mother, with her hands behind her head, stands leaning against the wall, firmly and motionless. Her face is dark, iron and blind, her eyes are tightly closed, she is silent all the time, and everything is somehow different, new, even the dress she is wearing is unfamiliar to me.

Grandmother more than once told her quietly:

- Varya, would you like to eat something, a little, eh? She is silent and motionless.

Grandma speaks to me in a whisper, and to my mother - louder, but somehow carefully, timidly and very little. It seems to me that she is afraid of her mother. This is clear to me and brings me very close to my grandmother.

“Saratov,” the mother said unexpectedly loudly and angrily. -Where is the sailor?

So her words are strange, alien: Saratov, sailor. A wide, gray-haired man dressed in blue came in and brought a small box. The grandmother took him and began to lay out his brother’s body, laid him down and carried him to the door on outstretched arms, but, being fat, she could only walk through the narrow door of the cabin sideways and hesitated funny in front of it.

- Eh, mother! - my mother shouted, took the coffin from her, and both of them disappeared, and I remained in the cabin, looking at the blue man.

- What, little brother left? - he said, leaning towards me.

- Who are you?

- Sailor.

– Who is Saratov?

- City. Look out the window, there he is!

Outside the window the ground was moving; dark, steep, it smoked with fog, resembling a large piece of bread that had just been cut from a loaf.

-Where did grandma go?

- To bury my grandson.

- Will they bury him in the ground?

- What about it? They will bury it.

I told the sailor how they buried live frogs when burying my father. He picked me up, hugged me tightly and kissed me.

- Eh, brother, you still don’t understand anything! - he said. – There is no need to feel sorry for the frogs, the Lord is with them! Have pity on the mother - look how her grief hurt her!

There was a hum and a howl above us. I already knew that it was a steamer and was not afraid, but the sailor hastily lowered me to the floor and rushed out, saying:

- We must run!

And I also wanted to run away. I walked out the door. The dark, narrow crevice was empty. Not far from the door, copper glittered on the steps of the stairs. Looking up, I saw people with knapsacks and bundles in their hands. It was clear that everyone was leaving the ship, which meant I had to leave too.

But when, together with a crowd of men, I found myself at the side of the ship, in front of the bridge to the shore, everyone began to shout at me:

- Whose is this? Whose are you?

- Don't know.

They pushed me, shook me, groped me for a long time. Finally a gray-haired sailor appeared and grabbed me, explaining:

- This is from Astrakhan, from the cabin...

He carried me into the cabin at a run, put me in some bundles and left, wagging his finger:

- I'll ask you!

The noise overhead became quieter, the steamer no longer trembled or thumped through the water. The cabin window was blocked by some wet wall; it became dark, stuffy, the knots seemed to be swollen, oppressing me, and everything was not good. Maybe they will leave me alone forever on an empty ship?

I went to the door. It does not open, its copper handle cannot be turned. Taking the milk bottle, I hit the handle with all my might. The bottle broke, the milk poured over my feet and flowed into my boots.

Distressed by the failure, I lay down on the bundles, cried quietly and, in tears, fell asleep.

And when I woke up, the ship was thumping and shaking again, the cabin window was burning like the sun. Grandmother, sitting next to me, scratched her hair and winced, whispering something. She had a strange amount of hair, it thickly covered her shoulders, chest, knees and lay on the floor, black, tinged with blue. Lifting them from the floor with one hand and holding them in the air, she hardly inserted a rare-toothed wooden comb into the thick strands; her lips curled, dark eyes they sparkled angrily, and the face in this mass of hair became small and funny.

Today she seemed angry, but when I asked why she was so long hair, she said in yesterday's warm and soft voice:

- Apparently, the Lord gave it as punishment - comb them, you damned ones! When I was young I boasted about this mane, I swear in my old age! And you sleep! It’s still early, the sun has just risen from the night...

- I don’t want to sleep!

“Well, don’t sleep otherwise,” she immediately agreed, braiding her hair and looking at the sofa, where her mother lay face up, stretched out like a string. - How did you crack the bottle yesterday? Speak quietly!

She spoke, singing the words in a special way, and they easily became stronger in my memory, like flowers, just as affectionate, bright, juicy. When she smiled, her pupils, dark as cherries, dilated, flashing with an inexpressibly pleasant light, her smile cheerfully revealed her strong white teeth, and, despite the many wrinkles in the dark skin of her cheeks, her whole face seemed young and bright. This loose nose with swollen nostrils and red at the end spoiled him very much. She sniffed tobacco from a black snuff box decorated with silver. She was all dark, but she shone from within - through her eyes - with an unquenchable, cheerful and warm light. She was stooped, almost hunchbacked, very plump, and she moved easily and deftly, like a big cat - she was as soft as this affectionate animal.

It was as if I was sleeping before her, hidden in the darkness, but she appeared, woke me up, brought me into the light, tied everything around me into a continuous thread, wove everything into multi-colored lace and immediately became a friend for life, the closest to my heart, the most understandable and dear person - it was her selfless love for the world that enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life.

Forty years ago steamships moved slowly; We drove to Nizhny for a very long time, and I remember well those first days of being saturated with beauty.

The weather was fine; from morning to evening I am with my grandmother on the deck, under a clear sky, between the autumn-gilded, silk-embroidered banks of the Volga. Slowly, lazily and loudly thumping across the greyish-blue water, a light-red steamship with a barge in a long tow is stretching upstream. The barge is gray and looks like a woodlice. The sun floats unnoticed over the Volga; Every hour everything around is new, everything changes; green mountains are like lush folds on the rich clothing of the earth; along the banks there are cities and villages, like gingerbread ones from afar; golden autumn leaf floats on the water.

- Look how good it is! - Grandma says every minute, moving from side to side, and she’s all beaming, and her eyes are joyfully widened.

Often, looking at the shore, she forgot about me: she stood at the side, folded her arms on her chest, smiled and was silent, and there were tears in her eyes. I tug at her dark skirt, printed with flowers.

- Ass? - she perks up. “It’s like I dozed off and was dreaming.”

-What are you crying about?

“This, dear, is from joy and from old age,” she says, smiling. “I’m already old, in my sixth decade of summer and spring my life has spread and gone.”

And, after sniffing tobacco, he begins to tell me some outlandish stories about good robbers, about holy people, about all kinds of animals and evil spirits.

She tells stories quietly, mysteriously, leaning towards my face, looking into my eyes with dilated pupils, as if pouring strength into my heart, lifting me up. He speaks as if he were singing, and the further he goes, the more complex the words sound. It is indescribably pleasant to listen to her. I listen and ask:

- And here’s how it happened: an old brownie is sitting in the shelter, he’s stabbed his paw with a noodle, he’s rocking, whining: “Oh, little mice, it hurts, oh, little mice, I can’t stand it!”

Raising her leg, she grabs it with her hands, swings it in the air and wrinkles her face funny, as if she herself is in pain.

There are sailors standing around - bearded gentle men - listening, laughing, praising her and also asking:

- Come on, grandma, tell me something else! Then they say:

- Come have dinner with us!

At dinner they treat her with vodka, me with watermelons and melon; this is done secretly: a man travels on the ship who forbids eating fruit, takes it away and throws it into the river. He is dressed like a guard - with brass buttons - and is always drunk; people are hiding from him.

Mother rarely comes on deck and stays away from us. She is still silent, mother. Her large slender body, dark, iron face, heavy crown of braided hair blonde hair, - all of it is powerful and solid, - I remember as if through fog or a transparent cloud; Straight gray eyes, as large as grandma’s, look out of it distantly and unfriendly.

One day she said sternly:

– People are laughing at you, mother!

- And the Lord is with them! - Grandma answered carefree. - Let them laugh, for good health!

I remember my grandmother’s childhood joy at the sight of Nizhny. Pulling my hand, she pushed me towards the board and shouted:

- Look, look how good it is! Here it is, father, Nizhny! That's what he is, Gods! Those churches, look, they seem to be flying!

And the mother asked, almost crying:

- Varyusha, look, tea, huh? Look, I forgot! Rejoice!

The mother smiled gloomily.

When the ship stopped against beautiful city, in the middle of a river closely cluttered with ships, bristling with hundreds of sharp masts, a large boat with many people floated up to its side, hooked itself with a hook to the lowered ladder, and one after another the people from the boat began to climb onto the deck. A small, dry old man, in a long black robe, with a red beard like gold, a bird's nose and green eyes, walked quickly ahead of everyone.

Russian writer, prose writer, playwright Maksim Gorky(Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) was born in 1868. Despite the fame of the writer, Gorky’s biography, especially in childhood, is full of uncertainties. His father, Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov (1840-1871), came from the bourgeoisie of the Perm province. Gorky’s grandfather, Savvaty Peshkov, was a man of tough character: he rose to the rank of officer, but for cruel treatment of his subordinates he was demoted and exiled to Siberia. His attitude towards his son Maxim was no better, which is why he ran away from home several times. At the age of 17, he left home forever - after that, the son and father did not see each other again. Maxim Peshkov was a talented, creative person. He learned the craft of cabinet-making, settled in Nizhny Novgorod and began working as a carpenter at the shipping company of I. S. Kolchin. Here he married Varvara Vasilyevna Kashirina (1842-1879), who came from a family of Nizhny Novgorod merchants. Only the mother of the bride, Akulina Ivanovna, gave consent to the marriage, but the father, Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, did not give consent, but then reconciled. In the spring of 1871, Maxim Peshkov left with his family for Astrakhan, where he began working as manager of the Astrakhan office of the Kolchin Shipping Company. In the summer of 1871, Maxim Savvatievich, while nursing Alyosha, who was sick with cholera, became infected himself and died. Varvara Vasilievna with her son and mother returned to Nizhny Novgorod to her father’s house.

Gorky's grandfather, Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, was a barge hauler in his youth, then became rich and became the owner of a dyeing workshop. At one time, he was the foreman of the dyeing shop, and was elected as a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma. In addition to Gorky’s grandfather, his two sons lived in the house with their families. Better times passed for the Kashirin family - due to factory production, the business was in decline. In addition, the Kashirin family was not friendly. They lived as if in war, and Alyosha Peshkov was only a burden there. Gorky believed that his mother did not love him, considering him the culprit of misfortunes, and therefore moved away from him. She began to arrange her personal life and remarried. Only the grandmother, Akulina Ivanovna, treated Alyosha with kindness. She replaced his mother and supported her grandson as best she could. It was his grandmother who gave him a love for folk songs and fairy tales. The grandfather, despite his complex character, taught the boy to read and write at the age of six using church books. In 1877-1879, Alyosha Peshkov successfully studied at the Nizhny Novgorod Slobodsk Kanavinsky Primary School. In August 1879, his mother died of consumption. By that time, the grandfather was completely broke and sent his 11-year-old grandson “to the people.”

“In People” Alexey Peshkov changed many occupations: he worked as a “boy” in shoe store, a boatman on a steamship, was in service, caught birds, was a salesman in an icon shop, a student in an icon-painting workshop, an extra in the theater at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, a foreman repairing fair buildings, etc. While working on the steamship “Dobry”, Alexey Peshkov’s boss was the cook is retired guards non-commissioned officer Mikhail Smury, who noticed the boy’s curiosity and awakened in him a love of reading. Books in many ways saved Alexei Peshkov from an evil, unjust world and helped him understand a lot. Despite early hardships and suffering, he managed to maintain his love of life. Subsequently, M. Gorky wrote: “I did not expect outside help and did not hope for Lucky case... I realized very early that what makes a person is his resistance to the environment.”

In 1884, Alexey Peshkov went to enter Kazan University. He returned to Nizhny Novgorod in 1889 and lived here intermittently until 1904. In 1913-1914, M. Gorky wrote the autobiographical story “Childhood.”

In Nizhny Novgorod there is A. M. Gorky’s Museum of Childhood “Kashirin’s House”. Alyosha Peshkov began living in this house at the end of August 1871, after arriving with his mother from Astrakhan. In the spring of 1872, Gorky's grandfather divided the property between his sons, and the house remained with his son Yakov. Vasily Vasilyevich himself, with his wife Akulina Ivanovna and grandson Alyosha, moved to live in another house. The Museum of Childhood of A. M. Gorky reproduces the original furnishings of the Kashirin family home.

Works. The story is told in the first person, which enabled the writer to depict events more accurately and accurately convey the thoughts and feelings of the main character. In addition, this work helps to understand who M. Gorky really was. "Childhood", summary which will be given below, is a unique opportunity to get to know one of the geniuses of Russian literature better.

Maxim Gorky “Childhood”: summary

Despite the fact that the work “Childhood” is autobiographical, Gorky narrates the story on behalf of the boy Alyosha. Already on the first pages of the story we learn about the difficult circumstances in the boy’s family: the funeral of his father, the grief of his mother, the death of his newborn brother. Alyosha has a hard time experiencing all of the above events. His grandmother is always next to him.

After the tragic events described, Alyosha, together with his grandmother and mother, goes to his relatives. True, the boy did not like anyone, as Gorky writes. “Childhood,” the summary of which does not convey many details, pays a lot of attention to the internal experiences of the hero. So, Alyosha often calls his life a harsh fairy tale. For example, he was very afraid of his grandfather. One day the latter, despite the protests of his grandmother and mother, whipped his grandson so that he fell ill. When Alyosha was still sick, grandfather often came to him and talked about himself. Therefore, soon the main character stopped being afraid of him. In addition, the boy was visited by Gypsy - Foster-son Ivan, who received the mentioned nickname due to his appearance. It was with him that Alexey became friends most of all. More than once Tsyganok put his hand under the rods with which the grandfather flogged Alexei. True, the named hero often stole. Soon Gypsy dies.

Mother rarely appeared in the house. Very quickly their house became notorious because fights often took place here. The grandfather was attacked by his own son Mikhail, as the story goes. Alexei's childhood was full of terrible events. Thus, the boy was rarely allowed to walk alone, because he constantly “became the culprit of riots.” Besides this, he had no comrades, as Gorky writes. “Childhood,” the summary of which omits much, tells the story of Alexei’s move with his grandparents to new house. There he met a man nicknamed “Good Deed” (he often used this phrase) and Uncle Peter, who was a robber.

One day my mother came again. She began to teach Alexey to read and write. Then his mother took him to school. At the same time, the boy noted that only his grandmother pitied him; others were either indifferent or harsh. Only his grandmother looked after Alyosha when he fell ill.

Soon the main character’s mother remarried, and he and his family ended up in Sormovo. The stepfather was very strict with Alexei. The boy's schooling is also described. It is emphasized that the teacher and priest immediately disliked the boy, constantly threatening to kick him out of school. Then he moves back in with his grandfather, starts earning money and makes friends. At the end of the story, Alexei’s mother dies, and his grandfather invites him to go public and earn his own living. This is how Gorky himself ends the story.

“Childhood”, a brief summary of which was described above, is one of best examples realism in Russian literature.