The story of childhood is bitter, full content in chapters. Maxim Gorky - (Autobiographical trilogy)

"Childhood"

(Tale)

Retelling

In a dimly lit room, on the floor, under the window, lies the boy's father. He is dressed in white, unusually long, his cheerful eyes are covered with black circles of copper coins, his kind face frightens with bared teeth. Mother, Half Naked, is on her knees, combing her hair onto the back of her head with a comb. She continuously says something in a thick, hoarse voice and cries.

The boy is held by the hand by the grandmother. Large, soft, she also cries, pushing the boy towards his father. He resists, does not go, he is afraid and awkward. He did not understand the words of his grandmother, who advised him to say goodbye to his father before it was too late. The boy was seriously ill, he remembered that his father had fun with him during his illness, and then suddenly disappeared. He was replaced by his grandmother, who came from Nizhny. She spoke to the boy cheerfully, interestingly, affectionately, and he very quickly became friends with her. He wanted to quickly leave this room, where his mother was suppressing him. She had always been strict, clean, smooth, but now she was disheveled, growling, and did not pay attention to her son.

Black men looked in the door. The sentry soldier shouted to clear it out quickly. Suddenly the mother threw herself up heavily from the floor and immediately sat down again. She went into labor. The boy hid behind the chest and from there watched his mother squirm on the floor and his grandmother crawl around her. Suddenly a child screamed in the darkness. The grandmother thanked God for the boy who was born.

The second imprint in the boy’s memory is the cemetery and his father’s coffin in the grave. The men began to bury the grave, but the boy did not leave it. When he and his grandmother finally went to the church, she asked him why he didn’t cry? The boy replied that he didn’t want to. His father always laughed at his tears, and his mother shouted that he should not dare cry. Grandmother and grandson rode off in a droshky. The boy had never heard the name of God so often.

A few days later, Maxim’s newborn brother died on the ship. The boy looks out the window - foam is pouring behind him, muddy water. The mother stands against the wall, unfamiliar, different. Grandmother more than once offered her food, but she was silent and motionless. In general, the grandmother spoke to the boy in a whisper, and to the mother louder, but carefully, timidly. This brought her grandson even closer to her. The mother said strange, alien words - “Saratov”, “sailor”. A man in blue appeared and brought a box. The grandmother put the body of her little brother there, but could not leave the cabin with him because she was full. Her mother took the coffin from her and they both left. The blue man asked the boy about his brother's death. To which he bombarded him with questions: who is he? Who is Saratov? where did grandma go? He told the sailor about how they buried live frogs when they buried their father. The sailor said that one should feel sorry not for the frogs, but for the mother. The ship's whistle sounded. The sailor said that he had to run, and the boy also wanted to run away. He went out to the side of the ship, where people were crowding with knapsacks and bundles. There they just pushed him and asked, whose is he? A gray-haired sailor appeared, carried him back to the cabin, and threatened him. Alone, the boy was scared, stuffy, dark. He tried to get out, but the brass handle could not be turned. He hit her with a bottle of milk, the bottle broke, and milk flowed into his boots. Distressed, the boy fell asleep, and when he woke up, the ship was already shaking and his grandmother was sitting next to him. She was combing her thick, black, very long hair. Today she seemed angry to the boy, but she answered him in a gentle and kind voice. My mother was lying on the next bed. The grandmother asked the boy why he cracked the milk bottle? She spoke, singing the words. When she smiled, her face seemed young and bright, but it was spoiled by her loose nose. She sniffed tobacco. Everything was somehow dark, but it shone through the eyes. She was stooped, almost hunchbacked, very plump, but her movements were light and deft. Before her, the boy seemed to be sleeping. And she brought him into the light, immediately becoming the most understandable and dear person.

The steamer slowly sailed towards Nizhny, the grandson and grandmother spend their days on the deck. Sometimes grandma thinks about something and gets sad. Sometimes she tells fairy tales, quietly and mysteriously, listening to her is inexpressibly pleasant. Even the sailors ask her to tell more. And they call for dinner. At dinner they treat their grandmother to vodka and their grandson to melons and watermelons. All this is hidden, because there is a man on the ship who forbids eating fruit.

The mother rarely goes on deck and stays away from the grandmother and son. The child remembered his grandmother’s joy at the sight of Nizhny. She was almost crying. When the ship stopped, she swam up to him big boat. Relatives came on deck. The grandmother introduced her grandson to his grandfather, uncles and aunts. Grandfather asked whose it is? The boy replied that he was from Astrakhan. “The cheekbones are like father’s,” the grandfather remarked and ordered them to get into the boat. After we got to the shore, everyone went up the hill in a crowd. Grandfather and mother walked ahead of everyone. Behind them were uncles, fat women in bright dresses and children older than a boy. He walked with his grandmother and aunt Natalya. She had a big belly and found it difficult to walk. Grandmother grumbled why Natalya was disturbed. The boy really didn’t like everyone, he felt like a stranger, even his grandmother moved away. He especially didn't like his grandfather. He seemed hostile but curious.

Having reached the end of the ramp, they came to a squat one-story house, dirty pink, with bulging windows. Although it seemed large, it was cramped and dark inside. Angry people were bustling about everywhere, and there was a pungent smell everywhere.

The boy found himself in the yard, which was also unpleasant. It was hung with wet rags and filled with vats of colorful water. In the corner, in the outbuilding, something was boiling, and an invisible person was saying strange words - “sandalwood”, “magenta”, “vitriol”.

A strange and colorful life began and flowed quickly. Now, reviving the past, the hero can say that everything was as it was, although there is a lot he wants to dispute and reject. Life in this tribe was too abundant in cruelty. But truth is higher than pity, and we need to talk about the narrow and stuffy range of impressions of an ordinary Russian person.

A few days after his arrival, he forced his grandson to learn prayers. Other children studied with the clerk. Aunt Natalya taught him. She asked to simply repeat the words of the prayer after her, without asking the meaning. Grandfather asked if he taught prayers? The aunt said that he had bad memory. Then the grandfather said that he should be whipped, and asked if his father had whipped him? The boy did not understand what they were asking him, but his mother said that his father himself did not beat him and forbade her. He said that you can’t learn by beating. Grandfather said that he would flog Sasha for the thimble. The boy did not understand what it was like to be spanked. He sometimes saw uncles give their children a slap on the head, but they said it didn’t hurt. The boy knew the story with the thimble: Uncle Mikhail decided to play a joke on the half-blind Gregory. Sasha heated the thimble and placed it under Grigory’s hand. At this time the grandfather came and put on the thimble himself. Grandfather began to look for those to blame, and Uncle Mikhail blamed everything on Sasha. Grandfather left silently. The uncles began to swear, everyone said that Uncle Mikhail was to blame. The boy asked if he would be spanked? Then Mikhail shouted to his mother to calm down her puppy, otherwise he would punish him. The mother told him to try, and everyone fell silent. She could talk short words somehow, as if she was throwing people away from herself. It was clear to the boy that everyone was afraid of his mother, even his grandfather spoke to her more quietly. That's why he boasted that she was the strongest. But what happened on Saturday changed his attitude. Before Saturday, he also managed to do something wrong; he was very interested in how things were dyed, and he wanted to dye something himself. He shared his dream with Sasha, whom the adults praised for his obedience, and his grandfather called him a sycophant. Sasha Yakovov was unpleasant to Alyosha, he liked Sasha Mikhailov more. He lived alone, loved to sit in corners and near windows, and be silent. And Sasha Yakovov could talk a lot and respectably. He advised taking a white tablecloth from the closet and dyeing it Blue colour. The boy pulled out the tablecloth and lowered its edge into the vat, but Gypsy ran up and tore it out and shouted to his brother to call his grandmother. Grandmother groaned, began to cry, then began to persuade Gypsy not to say anything to grandfather, and to Sashka not to tell lies, she would give the seventh student. On Saturday, before the all-night vigil, the boy was brought into the kitchen. Grandfather was preparing the rods. Sasha Yakovov did not ask for forgiveness in his own voice, but his grandfather said that he would forgive him when he flogged him. Sasha obediently went to the bench and lay down. Vanka tied his neck with a towel to the bench and began to hold his ankles. Grandfather called Alyosha to watch the flogging. Sasha screamed at every blow, and his grandfather said that he was beating him for the thimble and for the denunciation about the tablecloth. The grandmother screamed that she wouldn’t let Alexei be beaten and began calling her daughter. The grandfather rushed to her, grabbed the boy, and ordered him to tie him up. His grandfather caught him until he lost consciousness, and the boy was ill for several days. These days he has grown a lot, and his heart has become sensitive to resentment and pain, his own and that of others. He was also struck by the quarrel between his grandmother and mother. The grandmother reprimanded that she did not take her son away. The mother replied that she wanted to leave, she was sick. Soon she actually left to stay somewhere.

The grandfather came to the sick man. He brought gifts and said that he had overdone it. Just got excited. He remembers that he was also beaten, says that one must endure and learn from one’s own people, and not give in to strangers, that he was also offended, but he became one of the people. He began to talk about his barge hauling. Sometimes he jumped out of bed and waved his arms, showing the movements of barge haulers and water handlers. They called grandfather, but Alyosha asked not to leave. And he stayed with the boy until the evening, who realized that he was not evil and not scary. Although it was also impossible to forget the beatings. After the grandfather, everyone decided to visit the patient. Most often it was the grandmother. Gypsy also came and showed his hand. There were red welts on it. It turned out that he put his hand up so that Alyosha would get hurt less. “I took it for love,” said Tsyganok. He teaches Alyosha to let go of his body so that it won’t hurt more when they flog him again. He knows well how his grandfather hits, and wants to help the boy learn to be cunning.

The gypsy occupied a special place in the house, the grandfather scolded him less, and praised him behind his back. The uncles also treated Gypsy kindly, not like Grigory, who would either heat up the scissors, or put a nail, or paint his face with magenta. The master endured everything in silence, but he developed a habit - before taking something, he generously moistened his fingers with saliva. Grandmother scolded the jokers. The uncles said bad things about Gypsy behind her back. The grandmother explained that they both wanted to take him to their workshops later. They were cunning, and the grandfather teased them, saying that he wanted to keep Ivan the Gypsy for himself.

Now the boy lived with his grandmother, and she, as on a ship, told fairy tales, or her life. From her he learned that Gypsy was a foundling. She answers Alyosha’s questions that children are abandoned due to lack of milk and poverty. The grandfather wanted to take the child to the police, but she dissuaded him. After all, many of her children died, and she took him in their place. She was very happy with Ivanka, called him a beetle, loved him.

On Sunday, when the grandfather went to the all-night vigil, Gypsy took out cockroaches, made a harness out of threads, cut out a sleigh and four blacks rode around the table, sending a cockroach “monk” after the sleigh. He also showed trained little mice, whom he treated with care, fed and kissed. He knew tricks with cards and money, he was like a child. But it was especially memorable on holidays, when everyone gathered around the festive table. We ate and drank a lot, then Uncle Yakov played the guitar. Listening to his music, I felt sorry for myself and others; everyone sat motionless and listened. Sasha Mikhailov listened especially intently, and everyone froze as if enchanted. Uncle Yakov became numb, only his fingers lived a separate life. He always sang the same song. Alyosha couldn’t stand her and cried in anguish.

Gypsy also listened to the song, sometimes regretting out loud that he did not have a voice. Grandmother invited him to dance. Yakov shouted in a swaggering manner, throwing away his melancholy, and Tsyganok went out to dance. He danced tirelessly, selflessly, and people were infected by his joy. They also screamed and squealed. The bearded master told Alyosha that his father was missing. And he called my grandmother to walk, as she sometimes walked with Maxim Savvateev. Grandmother, laughing, refused. But everyone began to ask her, and she began to dance. Alyosha thought she was funny, he snorted, but all the adults looked at him disapprovingly. The master asked Ivan not to knock his heels, and the nanny Evgenya began to sing. Grandmother did not dance, but told something. Now stopping, now giving way to someone, she danced her dance and became taller, slimmer, more beautiful and sweeter. Having finished dancing, she accepted praise from those sitting, and she herself talked about a real dancer, whose dance made her want to cry in joy. Grandmother was jealous of her.

Everyone drank vodka, Grigory most of all. He became talkative and talked more and more often about Alyosha’s father. Grandmother agreed that he was the Lord's child. The boy was uninterested and sad. One day Uncle Yakov began to tear his shirt, pull his mustache, and hit himself on the cheeks. Grandmother caught his hands and persuaded him to stop.

After drinking, my grandmother became even better, as if her heart was screaming that everything was fine. Alyosha was struck by Uncle Yakov’s words about his wife; he asked his grandmother, but, contrary to usual, she did not answer him. So the boy went to the workshop and asked Ivan. He didn’t say anything either, but the master told the boy the story that his uncle beat his wife to death, and now his conscience is tugging at him. He said that the Kashirins do not like good things, they envy, they destroy. Only the grandmother among them is completely different,

Alyosha left the workshop frightened. Everything was strange and exciting. The boy remembered that his mother and father often laughed, but in this house they laughed little, shouted, and whispered secretly. The children were nailed to the ground, and Alyosha felt like a stranger. His friendship with Ivan grew. He still exposed his hands to the lashes. In addition, Alyosha learned something else about him. It turned out that every Friday he was sent to the market for provisions. Sometimes he did not return for a long time, and everyone was worried. Grandma was most worried that they would destroy the man and the horse. When Gypsy did arrive, everyone began to unanimously carry the food he had brought. There were always much more of them than could be bought with the money my grandfather gave. It turned out that Gypsy was stealing, and everyone at home, except for his grandmother, praised him for it. The grandmother was afraid that if Ivan was caught, he would be beaten to death. Alyosha began to ask Gypsy not to steal anymore. He himself understood that this was bad, but he does it out of boredom. The gypsy asked Alyosha to learn to play the guitar, and admitted that he did not love the Kashirins, except for the woman. And he loves Alyosha because he is Peshkov.

Soon he died. He and his uncles carried heavy cross, which Yakov wanted to put on his wife’s grave. Grandfather and grandmother were not at home; they had gone to a funeral service. Grigory advised Ivan not to keep everything to himself. Grigory took the boy to the workshop and told him about his acquaintance with his grandfather. It turned out that they started this business together, and then he became the owner. Alyosha felt pleasant and warm next to Grigory, and he taught - look everyone in the eyes. But then something terrible happened. They brought Gypsy, who was now dying in the middle of the kitchen. Blood flowed from him, he melted before our eyes. Uncle Yakov said that he tripped, his uncles threw the cross, and he was crushed. Gregory blamed them for Ivan's death. They took off Ivan’s hat and surrounded him with candles. Grandfather and grandmother and many others piled heavily into the kitchen. Alyosha crawled out from under the table where he was hiding, but his grandfather threw him away. He threatened his uncles, and his grandmother, a black woman, ordered everyone to get out. The gypsy was buried unmemorably.

Alyosha often listened to his grandmother pray. She told God what had happened, asked for everyone, so that God would give His mercy to everyone. Talking about God, she unfolded fabulous stories in front of the boy. beautiful pictures, where God became someone kind, just. She said that everything was fine in the house, but Alyosha saw the opposite. He often heard that everyone wanted to leave home: both Natalya and Grigory. Natalia was beaten by her husband, quietly from others. The grandmother said that the grandfather also beat her, and she obeyed - her husband was older than her. Sometimes it seemed to Alyosha that she was playing with icons, like dolls. She often saw devils on the roofs of neighbors, in bathhouses, and in ravines. She also told the boy fairy tales. She was not afraid of anything or anyone except cockroaches.

One day the workshop caught fire. Grandfather howled, and grandmother strictly and impressively commanded. She rushed into the fire to remove the bottle of vitriol, otherwise it might explode. She bowed to the neighbors who came running and asked for help to protect their buildings. She rushed around the yard, seeing everything, noticing everything.

After the fire, the grandfather was proud of his wife. Natalya died that night.

By spring, the uncles had left, and the house was filled with tenants. The grandmother served as a midwife, treated children, and gave economic advice. Sometimes the mother appeared in the house and quickly disappeared. Alyosha asked if his grandmother was a witch, and in response she began to talk about her youth. It turns out that she was from a poor family, her mother was disabled - her hand withered away. My grandmother learned how to weave lace from her and began to provide her own dowry. Then she married my grandfather.

One day, when grandfather was unwell, he began to teach Alyosha to read. The diploma came easily to him. Soon I was reading the psalter syllable by syllable. But he also really loved his grandfather’s tales, which he, after much persuasion, began to tell. He talked about his childhood, about the captured French, about the officer who lived next to them, about the Russian people. Grandfather said that we need to teach the Russians, to sharpen them - but there is no real sharpening machine. Sometimes my grandmother came, then she and her grandfather remembered how they went on pilgrimages, how well they lived. Then they discussed their children and admitted that they were failures. The grandfather accused the grandmother of indulging them, the grandmother reassured them that everyone had such quarrels and strife. Sometimes the grandfather calmed down from these words, and once he hit her in the face in front of Alyosha. She endured it and left.

The nightmare began again. The uncles began to argue among themselves again, Mikhail broke all of Yakov’s dishes, became violent, and then went to his father. The grandfather began to scold Yakov, reproaching him for the fact that he and his brother wanted to take Varvara’s dowry. Grandmother sent Alyosha to look out the window in order to see Mikhail approaching in time. The boy saw Mikhail enter the tavern. He told this news to his grandfather, who again sent him upstairs. The boy thought more and more often about his mother. Where does she live, what does she do? Through his thoughts, the boy notices that Uncle Mikhail is being pushed out of the gate. The grandmother sits on the chest and prays to God for reason for her children.

During the time my grandfather lived on Polevaya Street, the Kashirins’ house became famous because of fights. Uncle Mikhailo with his drunken assistants, burghers, kept the house under siege at night. The grandmother was running in the yard, persuading her son, and in response, swearing was heard. Once, on one of these evenings, the grandfather was unwell, he stood with a candle at the window, and bricks flew at him. He either laughed or cried, saying that they should kill him. Another time, Mikhailo was banging on the door, and four people - the grandfather, two guests, the innkeeper's wife - stood and waited. The door was almost knocked down, the grandmother rushed to the small window to persuade her son, but he hit her on the hand with a stake. The door swung open, my uncle jumped into the opening and was immediately swept off the porch. It turned out that my grandmother’s arm was broken, so they called in a chiropractor. Alyosha thought it was his grandmother’s death and yelled at her: “Get out!” His grandfather took him to the attic.

The boy realized early on that his grandparents had different gods. Every morning the grandmother innocently and sincerely praised God, the Mother of God, finding various new words, and this forced her grandson to listen attentively to the prayer. Morning prayer was short; she had to do some housework. Grandfather was very angry if she was late with tea.

Sometimes the grandfather woke up very early, went into the attic and, listening to her prayer, curled his lips contemptuously. He believed that you need to pray correctly, according to the canons, but she does everything wrong. Her grandfather called her a heretic, he was surprised how the Lord tolerated her, but she was sure that God understood everything, “Don’t tell Him, He will figure it out.” The boy understood that his grandmother’s God was always with her, she even spoke about Him to the animals. Her God “was equally kind, equally close” to everyone. One day, the spoiled favorite of the whole yard, the smoky cat, brought in a starling. The grandmother took the exhausted bird away and reproached the cat: “You are not afraid of God, you vile villain.” The innkeeper and the janitor began to laugh at these words, but the grandmother angrily shouted to them that cattle also understand God no worse than people.

She also talked, regretfully, with a sad horse Shara-pom, calling him an old God's worker.

Despite this, my grandmother did not pronounce the name of God as often as my grandfather.

One day he saw that the tavern owner was quarreling with her grandmother and throwing carrots at her, Alyosha decided to take revenge on her and locked her in the cellar. But her grandmother forced her to let her out, saying that she shouldn’t interfere in adult affairs.

The grandfather, wanting to teach his grandson, always told him about God, who is omnipresent and all-seeing. But his prayer was completely different from his grandmother’s. Before morning prayer he carefully washed, dressed, and combed his hair. Then he stood in the same place near the images and impressively, firmly, clearly and demandingly began to read the prayer “I Believe.” He tensed all over, as if he was growing toward the images, becoming taller, thinner, drier.

Alyosha listened carefully to see if his grandfather would miss a word.

And if this happened, I gladly informed him about it.

One day his grandmother jokingly told him that such monotonous prayer was boring to God. The grandfather shook, threw a saucer at her head and screamed for her to get out.

When telling his grandson about the power of God, the grandfather always emphasized his cruelty. People sinned and their cities were drowned and destroyed. He said that anyone who breaks God's law will be punished with death and destruction. It was difficult for the boy to believe in a cruel God, and he thought that they were deliberately frightening him in order to make him fear not God, but his grandfather. The grandfather took his grandson to church. And even in the temple he shared which God they prayed to there. Everything that the priests read was for grandfather’s God, and everything that the singers sang in the choir was for grandmother’s. His grandfather’s God aroused hostility and fear in the boy. He seemed strict and didn't like anyone. He first of all looked for the bad, the sinful in a person, always expected repentance and loved to punish.

In those days, thoughts of God were the main food of the boy’s soul. All other sensations and impressions aroused disgust and anger in him. God was the best and brightest for him - the God of his grandmother, who loved all living things. The boy was worried about the question: how can his grandfather not see the good God?

Alyosha had no comrades. The kids didn’t like him, they called him Kashirin, which he didn’t like at all. Fights often broke out, and Alyosha came home with bruises and abrasions. But he could not calmly look at the cruelty of children when they hurt animals, beggars and Igosha Death in the Pocket. Local boys mocked him, threw stones, joked, but he could not answer them with anything except two or three curses. Another creepy impression of the street was former master Gregory, who was completely blind and begged for alms. Alyosha was afraid to approach him and hid. Alyosha, like his grandmother, was ashamed in front of him.

There was one more person whom Alyosha was afraid of. It was a woman, Voronikha. Always drunk, blue, huge, she seemed to be sweeping the street, because everyone was running away from her. The grandmother told Alyosha that her husband sold her to her boss, and when she returned two years later, her children had died and her husband was in prison. Since then she began to drink and go out.

The grandmother cured the starling that had been taken from the cat, made a stump for it, trimmed its broken wing, and taught it to talk. Despite the fun, the boy felt very sad, dark, and ill.

Grandfather sold the house to the innkeeper, buying another, more comfortable one. Colonel Ovsyannikov, Betleng, and milkmaid Petrovna became neighbors. There was a lot in the house strangers, military man from the Tatars. In the annex there are dray drivers. Alyosha took a liking to the parasite Good Deed. They didn’t like him for his hobby - he was doing something strange. Alyosha watched him, and one day Good Deed invited him into the room. The boy asked him what he was doing? He promised to make him a cue ball so that he would not come to him anymore. Alyosha was offended and left.

Sometimes, on rainy evenings, if grandfather left home, grandmother invited all the guests to drink tea. On one of these evenings, she told a story about Ivan the warrior and Myron the hermit.

Once upon a time there lived an evil commander Gordion, he did not like the truth and most of all he did not like the elder Myron. He sends his faithful servant, Ivan the Warrior, to kill the old man and bring him his head for the dogs to eat. Ivan obeyed and went, thinking about his bitter lot. He came to the hermit, and he knew that he had come to kill. Ivan felt ashamed in front of the hermit, but he was also afraid to disobey the governor. He took out his sword and invited the hermit to pray in last time for the entire human race. The old man says that it would be better to kill him right away, because it’s a long prayer for the human race. Myron began to pray year after year, the oak tree grew into an oak tree, from his acorn whole forest I went, but there was no end to prayer. That's how they continue to this day. The elder asks God for joy and help to people, but Ivan’s clothes have decayed and his sword has crumbled. He cannot move from his place, apparently as a punishment, so that he does not obey an evil order, and does not hide behind someone else’s conscience. The elder’s prayer still flows to the Lord.

Good Deed listened attentively to my grandmother and tried to write it down. His grandmother's story brought tears to his eyes. The next day he came to apologize for his behavior. Grandmother forbade Alyosha to go to him, you never know what he was like. Alyosha, on the contrary, was interested in what Good Deed would do. He found him in the hole and sat down next to him. They became friends. Now Alyosha often watched what Good Deed was doing, how he melted metals. The guest spoke little, but always accurately and on time. He always knew when Alyosha was making things up and when he was telling the truth. For example, when the boy told about the fight when he and his grandmother were taking a twisted, bloody man from the townspeople, Good Deed immediately realized that it was true. He also gave advice to the boy, helping him understand that strength lies in the speed of movement. The parasite was no longer liked, the grandmother forbade him to go there, and the grandfather flogged him for every visit. The guest left, realizing that he was a stranger to people, and that’s why they didn’t like him.

After the departure of Good Deed, Alyosha became friends with Pyotr, a dray driver. He always argued with his grandfather about which of the saints was holier.

A gentleman settled in one of the neighboring houses. He had a strange habit of shooting shotgun pellets at anyone he didn't like. Peter deliberately walked past the shooter so that he would shoot at him. And after that he told stories about his lady. Sometimes on holidays Sasha, Mikhailov and Yakovov came to visit. The boys decided to steal a puppy from a neighbor's gentleman, and for this they made a plan. Alyosha had to distract the master by spitting on his head, which he did. They caught Alyosha and flogged him alone, and Uncle Peter whispered that he needed a stone. Alyosha was ashamed, offended, and when she looked at Peter’s face, she felt disgusted.

Another neighbor was Colonel Ovsyannikov. Through the fence, Alyosha watched the old men and three boys, good-natured and dexterous. One day Alyosha drew their attention to himself, but still they did not invite him to play. He witnessed one of the brothers fall into a well while playing hide and seek. Alyosha helped pull him out. A week later, the brothers appeared in the yard again and called Alyosha to their place. He learned that they did not have a mother, they were raised by their father and stepmother. In the evening, an old man appeared and took Alyosha out of the gate, ordering him not to come again. Alyosha called him an old devil, and the old man went to argue with Alyosha’s grandfather. Grandfather spanked Alyosha again. After the spanking, Alyosha got into a conversation with Peter, and he began to talk bad words about the barchuks. Alyosha had a fight with him, he drove him off the cart and in front of Alyosha he lied to his grandmother, who came out to hear the noise, that he was suffering humiliation and curses from the boy, but the grandmother did not believe it. Since then, a war broke out between Alyosha and Peter. Peter tried in every possible way to annoy the boy, he did not remain in debt. The acquaintance with the barchuks continued.

Peter's behavior changed for the worse. The police came and talked to the grandfather about Peter. Then Petrovna saw him in the garden, he had a deep crack behind his ear, there was blood everywhere, about right hand saddlery knife It turned out that he, the mute and another man were robbing churches.

One day the boy went to catch bullfinches. Returning home, I saw three horses. Mother arrived. She decided to take Alyosha with her, her grandfather did not allow it. Having escorted the child out of the room, the adults argued for a long time about some mother’s child. Later, mother and son were talking, she asked to tell him something. Soon his mother began teaching Alyosha to read and write. She forced me to learn poetry. It was difficult for Alyosha to remember them; his own poems were superimposed on the lines he read. Alyosha understood that his mother was ill with them. The grandfather was preparing something unpleasant, and after one conversation the mother went to the guests. The grandfather beat the grandmother for a long time, Alyosha later helped her clean up and pulled out the hairpins that were deeply embedded in her head. To spite his grandfather, Alyosha cut his holy calendar. The grandfather, in a rage, wanted to beat him, but his mother stood up and promised to fix everything.

The grandfather drove away the guests, the Betlings, and decided to receive the guests himself. Matryona, the grandmother’s sister, the draftsman Vasily, and Uncle Yakov began to come. In the evenings the boy watched the adults, the watchmaker, and Jacob’s songs. There were two or three such evenings, and then the master appeared on Sunday. The grandfather solemnly told his mother to go with God, that the master good man. Varvara tore off her clothes, remaining in only a shirt. Grandmother did not let her into the hallway, and her mother said that she would leave tomorrow. Later, during lunch, the boy realized that Russian people love to amuse themselves with grief.

After what happened, the grandfather became quieter, began to be alone more often, and read some book. The Maksimov brothers, Pyotr and Evgeniy, officers, began visiting their mother, who now lived in two rooms in the front room. After a fun Christmastide, Alyosha and Sasha Mikhailov went to school. Alyosha didn’t like school right away, but his brother, on the contrary, quickly found friends. But when he fell asleep in class one day and was ridiculed by his comrades, he stopped going to school. On the third day the boys were flogged. They hired a guide, but Sasha still managed to escape. Only in the evening they found Sasha near the monastery. They brought him home without even beating him. And he shared his escape plans with Alyosha. Alyosha could not run away with him, he decided to become an officer, and for this he needed to study. In the evening, the grandmother told the story of the court of the hermit Jonah with his stepmother. His father was given a potion by his young wife, taken out sleepily on a boat and drowned. Then she began to falsely show her grief. People believed her, but stepson Ionushko did not. He asked God and people to judge them. Let someone throw a damask knife, and whoever it hits is to blame. The stepmother began to swear at him, and people became thoughtful. An old fisherman came out and said to give him this knife. He threw it high into the sky, the knife flew into the sky like a bird, and at dawn it fell straight into the stepmother’s heart.

The next day Alyosha woke up covered in pockmarks. He was moved to the back attic and bandaged. Only his grandmother followed him. The boy had nightmares; one in which his grandmother died caused him to throw himself out of a window. The boy spent another three months in bed, his legs did not obey him. Spring came, and with it, more and more often, grandmother came with the strong smell of vodka. She told the boy the story of his father; his father’s mother died early. His godfather took him in and began to teach him carpentry, but Maxim ran away and began working for a contractor on the Kolchin steamships. There he met Varya and came to the garden to make a match. Grandmother was scared; she knew that grandfather would not give Varya to a tramp. Maxim said that he needed to run and asked Akulina Ivanovna for help. Varya admitted to her mother that they had been living as husband and wife for a long time, only now they needed to get married. Here the grandmother advised Alyosha not to persuade women to do illegal things as he grew up. The story continued: the grandmother was about to rush to fight them, but stopped; fighting couldn’t fix the matter. We agreed that grandma would arrange everything with the priest and the wedding.

My father had an enemy, and he guessed everything. When the young couple left, the scoundrel demanded fifty fifty from his grandmother. She didn’t give it, and then he told everything to his grandfather. A riot arose, sons and assistants gathered, they armed themselves with whatever they could, and gathered in pursuit. After all, grandfather wanted Varvara to marry some gentleman, not a poor one. The grandmother cut the tug at the shaft, the droshky overturned on the way, and the grandfather was late - Alyosha’s parents had already gotten married. Maxim scattered his wife's brothers, and the grandfather abandoned his daughter, and at home he beat his grandmother and ordered her not to think about her anymore. Alyosha could not understand who was telling the truth, because his grandfather told the story differently - he was in church, and the wedding was not secret.

The grandmother began to visit the newlyweds, bringing food, secretly taken from the house, and money. Varya and Maxim were happy. The child, Alyosha, was soon to appear, but the grandfather was still silent. Although he knew that grandmother goes there. His father’s heart could not stand it, he told his grandmother that the young people should come. The grandfather invited them to live with him. Maxim carried his mother-in-law in his arms, loved her like mats. They danced together, sang, and everyone had a good time. When Alyosha appeared, Maxim was so happy that even his grandfather was touched. However, his uncles did not like him for his jokes - then Lent He pointed the bottles out the window, and an eerie rumble was heard throughout the house, then he would make stuffed animals out of the killed wolves and place them in the entryway. Yakov adopted Maxim’s jokes, and together they began to make scary faces, walk the streets, and scare people. Mikhailo harbored a grudge against Maxim. Together with Yakov and another sexton, they lured him to the pond and pushed him into the hole. Maxim escaped the reprisal by cunning and stretched out under the ice so that they would no longer hit him on the hands with heels. And when they left, he got out and went to the police. He didn’t say that his uncle almost drowned him, he said that he fell himself. Together with the policeman, Maxim returned home, with gray temples, all purple, his hands covered in blood. He persuaded the grandmother to warn her sons. Then the grandfather said thanks to Maxim for not betraying his uncles. After that, Maxim lay in bed for seven weeks, and then they left for Astrakhan to build a triumphal arch.

The grandfather went bankrupt, gave one master money in interest, and he went bankrupt. Grandma told Alyosha another story about clerk Evstigney. He considered himself the smartest, taught everyone to be smart. And the demons took him to hell. They put him in the flames of hell, and he again arrogantly says that they are intoxicated.

Mother rarely went up to the attic. She changed every day, became more beautiful, something new appeared in her.

Alyosha’s legs woke up, he felt that they were alive and whole. He crawled to the door to show and please his family. In his mother’s room he met an old woman, dry and green. This was the mother of Evgeniy Maksimov. And the mother said that he would be his stepfather, the grandmother took Alyosha to the attic. Alyosha felt resentment towards the adult deceivers. As soon as he was allowed to go outside, he began to arrange a home in the pit. He pulled away the weeds and removed the bricks. During his active independent work, he gradually lost interest in household chores. Everything in the house became alien, and the old woman in green frightened him and disgusted him. She constantly made comments to Alyosha. In retaliation, he smeared cherry glue on the chairs. His grandfather spanked him, his mother spent a long time trying to persuade him not to get angry, talked about the future, and planned a lot of “later.”

Alyosha made a shelter with seats in the pit. His grandfather helped him, dug up roots from the weeds, but then gave up this activity. After all, he was going to sell the house to give his mother a dowry. The boy injured his leg with a spade and was unable to accompany his mother to the crown. Then the mother packed her things and left with Maximov for Moscow. Alyosha stayed with his grandfather to help him in the garden. The child had a quiet and contemplative time, he stopped noticing his grandfather’s conversations. The grandfather now kicked the grandmother out of the house, she lived with one son, then with another. He sold the house and rented two rooms in the basement. He also told his grandmother that now she will feed herself.

Two years passed in shaking, until the death of the mother. She arrived immediately after my grandfather moved into the basement. My stepfather and mother said that everything burned down, but my grandfather said that Evgeniy lost everything at cards. Then Alyosha ended up in a house in Sormovo, living with his grandmother, stepfather and mother. The boy constantly fought with the boys, his mother scolded him, his grandmother was for the cook and cleaner. Before the mother gave birth, the boy was again sent to his grandfather. The mother and child and grandmother arrived; it turned out that the stepfather had been kicked out of work. At the insistence of his mother, Alyosha began to go to school. There the teacher and the priest immediately disliked him. The teacher - for pranks, and the priest - because Alyosha imitated his manner of speaking. The confrontation continued until Bishop Chrysanthos arrived, who discerned in the boy knowledge of the Psalter and prayers. He talked with the students for a long time, and then took Alyosha out and advised him to restrain himself, and said that he knew the reason for his mischief.

Things got better at school, but disaster struck at home. Alyosha found money in his stepfather's book and took the ruble. He bought a book of Andersen's fairy tales, bread and sausage. At home, his mother asked him in a dying voice if he had taken the money? Alyosha confessed and showed the books, which were immediately taken away and hidden forever.

When the boy returned to school, everyone there knew about his crime and began to call him a thief. Alyosha was offended by his mother and stepfather; he did not want to go to school anymore. The mother asked which of the students spoke first? When the mother found out, she burst into tears. Alyosha started going to school again.

One day he witnessed a terrible scene. The mother tried to restrain her stepfather, and he began to kick her in the chest. Alyosha grabbed a knife and hit his stepfather in the chest with all his might. Fortunately, the mother pushed her husband away and the knife only scratched

skin. The stepfather nevertheless left home. And Alyosha fully understood that he could have stabbed him.

Remembering the leaden abominations of life, Alyosha understood that he needed to talk about this tenacious vile truth. Our life is amazing because, through the layer of this truth, Russian people overcome it, create, love, believe, hope.

Alyosha is with his grandfather again. Grandmother and grandfather divided the household, all expenses equally. Grandfather began to go asking for money to live, and they gave it to him. After fifty years of living together, he insisted on dividing everything in half. Alyosha helped his grandmother, handed over rags, and brought her the proceeds. Then he got involved with a group of teenagers, they stole planks and poles, but they liked collecting rags more. The teenagers were all from dysfunctional families, each had their own difficult story behind them. But the boys lived together, they had difficulty getting money, but they divided it equally.

Alyosha passed the third grade exams. Grandfather took all the gifts - Krylov’s book, the Gospel, a letter of commendation. Alyosha began to spend more time outside again, but this did not last long. My stepfather lost his job again and left somewhere; my mother and scrofulous Nikolai came to see my grandfather. The mother was slowly dying, the grandfather spoke more and more often about death. She died in August, and at that time my grandmother and Kolya moved into her stepfather’s apartment. Before her death, her mother stabbed Alyosha several times with the flat of a knife.

A few days after the funeral, my grandfather said: “Get out of the way, Alexey.” And so he did.

Brief retelling chapter by chapter “Childhood” Gorky

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Chapter I. Description of an elderly teacher, German Karl Ivanovich Mauer, living in the Irteniev family of nobles. Nikolenka Irtenyev (the boy on whose behalf the narrative of “Childhood” is told) feels a feeling of compassion and pity for this lonely, eccentric man.

Chapter II. A literary portrait of the quiet and kind mother Nikolenka.

Chapter III. Nikolenka hears her father’s conversation with the estate clerk, Yakov Mikhailov. The father informs Nikolenka and his brother Volodya that he is going to go to Moscow, to his grandmother, and take them with him, while his mother will remain on the estate. From her father’s words, Nikolenka understands that Karl Ivanovich is going to be fired in connection with this move.

Chapter IV. During Karl Ivanovich's lesson, Nikolenka cannot help but cry at the thought of the upcoming separation from her mother. Karl Ivanovich already knows about his dismissal. He complains bitterly to the children's teacher, Nikolai, that the gentlemen do not appreciate his merits. The old teacher orders the boys to write the last phrase in their notebooks: “Of all vices, the most terrible is ingratitude.”

Chapter V The holy fool Grisha appears on the estate, who walks barefoot winter and summer, visits monasteries and speaks mysterious words that some take for predictions. This time, Grisha seems to have a presentiment that trouble will soon visit the Irtenyevs’ house.

Nikolenka's father is skeptical of Grisha, considering him a charlatan. The mother respects the beggar wanderer very much.

Chapter VI. By order of the father, the yard hounds are preparing for the Irtenev family to go hunting.

Chapter VII. A family goes hunting along an autumn field. The father tells Nikolenka to stand with the dog Zhiran in an ambush for the hare, which the other dogs will drive out to them. Nikolenka is so worried that, when she sees the hare, she unleashes Zhiran on him ahead of time - and misses the prey.

Chapter VIII. After the hunt, the Irteniev family has lunch in the shade of the birches. Nikolenka’s sister, Lyubochka, and the governess’s daughter, Katenka, invite the boys to play Robinson, but Volodya, who has grown up, no longer wants to engage in “childish nonsense.”

Lev Tolstoy. Childhood. Audiobook

Chapter IX. Having bent down with the other children to look at the worm, Nikolenka suddenly notices how good Katenka’s neck is. Captivated by something like first love, he kisses her, and on the way back to the house he tries to rush in front of Katya on horseback.

Chapter X Description of the character of Nikolenka’s father. A self-confident and stately man, he is most devoted to two passions in life: card game and women. Having never been human very big light, he, nevertheless, with his pride knew how to inspire respect for himself there. A practical man, he did not follow strict moral rules and could describe the same act as the cutest prank or as base meanness.

Chapter XI. Nikolenka sees teacher Karl Ivanovich enter her father’s office in great excitement and with a gloomy face. After a while he comes out, wiping away his tears. Then Nikolenka’s father tells his mother that after a conversation with Karl Ivanovich, he decided not to fire this old man, to whom the children are strongly attached, and to take him with them to Moscow.

Chapter XII. Hidden in a closet, the Irteniev children watch the fervent prayer that the holy fool Grisha, who is staying with them for the night, reads before going to bed. The wanderer’s heartfelt religiosity makes an unforgettable impression on Nikolenka.

Chapter XIII. The story of the Irtenievs’ old nanny, peasant woman Natalya Savishna. A touching description of her caring, kindness, efficiency and devotion to the masters, from whom she does not want to leave, even after receiving her freedom and ceasing to be a serf.

Chapter XIV. After a touching farewell to their mother and servants, Nikolenka, Volodya and their father leave the estate for Moscow.

Chapter XV. Tolstoy's reflections on childhood in his destiny: this is the time “when the two best virtues - innocent gaiety and the boundless need for love - were the only motivations in life.”

Chapter XVI. In Moscow, Nikolenka, Volodya and father stay at the house of their maternal grandmother. In a month she celebrates her birthday. Teacher Karl Ivanovich gives her a skillfully made box, covered with gold borders, Volodya - a picture he drew with the head of a Turk, and Nikolenka (terribly worried) - poems of her own composition.

Chapter XVII. The unpleasant, gaunt princess Kornakova comes to grandma’s birthday and says that she flogs her children for educational purposes.

Chapter XVIII. Prince Ivan Ivanovich, a very noble man, but simple and generous, also comes to the birthday party. Accidentally left alone with Ivan and Ivanovich and his grandmother, Nikolenka hears his grandmother’s story that his father deliberately left his mother on the estate in order to more conveniently have fun in Moscow.

Chapter XIX. Three boys, the Ivin brothers, who are related to her, also come to congratulate the grandmother. One of them, the handsome and self-confident Seryozha, really likes Nikolenka, who strives to become close friends with him. But this sympathy weakens when Seryozha and his other brothers mercilessly mock Ilenka Grapp, the quiet and timid son of a poor foreigner.

Chapter XX. In the evening there is a dance at grandma's house. Mrs. Valakhina comes to them, bringing her very beautiful 12-year-old daughter, Sonechka. Nikolenka is fascinated by her and is secretly jealous of Seryozha Ivin just because he will see her. Princess Kornakova also appears again with several unpleasant daughters and an arrogant, empty son, Etienne. He has exactly the appearance that a boy who is being whipped with rods should have.

Chapter XXI. In her thirst to please Sonechka, Nikolenka looks for dancing gloves, but finds only Karl Ivanovich’s old glove with one cut off finger. Seeing it on his hand, the guests laugh. Sonechka also laughs, but this good-natured fun only encourages Nikolenka: he is convinced that everyone treats him well. The dancing begins. Nikolenka invites Sonechka to a square dance. She smiles at him. After the dance, he sits next to her and tries to start a conversation in French.

Chapter XXII. Nikolenka wants to invite Sonechka to the mazurka, but this time he has to dance with one of the ugly Kornakov princesses. Out of frustration, he confuses the dance figures and almost becomes the laughing stock of the ball.

Chapter XXIII. After the dance, Nikolenka accompanies Sonechka to the carriage. She invites him to make friends, go to You and invites him to walk on Tverskoy Boulevard, where her parents often take her.

Chapter XXIV. Nikolenka goes to bed, all in thoughts about Sonechka. His brother Volodya, also fascinated by the girl, does not sleep in the room with him.

Chapter XXV. Six months later, in the spring, a letter from his mother arrives to the Irtenyevs in Moscow. She reports that she is ill, having caught a cold during a walk, and lies with a high fever. The mother expresses hope for her speedy recovery, but in the French postscript to the letter, intended for one father, she convinces: she cannot avoid imminent death, so let him hurry back to the estate.

Chapter XXVI. Nikolenka returns to the estate with her father and brother. Mama is already so bad that she doesn’t even recognize the children. A relative, “The Beautiful Fleming,” who came to stay, helps to look after her. The next day, Mama dies in terrible suffering.

Chapter XXVII. Nikolenka's terrible grief. A sad funeral for which all the village peasants gather. When one of the peasant women approaches the coffin to say goodbye to the deceased, her five-year-old daughter in her arms screams piercingly in fear at the sight of the pale face of the deceased. Nikolenka runs out of the room in terrible confusion. “The thought that that face, which in a few days was filled with beauty and tenderness, the face of the one I loved more than anything in the world, could excite horror, as if for the first time it revealed to me a bitter truth and filled my soul with despair.”

A collision with death destroys the bright serenity of childhood in Nikolenka, revealing new period his life.

Maksim Gorky

I dedicate it to my son

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, 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 have 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 ride down the stairs on the railing or, when you fall, you can roll head over heels, 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 hard body and is scary 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 the sleeping father's 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:

Don't be afraid of anything, 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, have mercy, fathers!

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

“What are you, my God,” 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 drove 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 come out,” she answered. - God be with them!

Neither father nor mother spoke 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 grandma, and, easily lifting me up soft hands, puts it on the knots again.

Above the water there is a gray, wet fog; somewhere far away a dark land appears and disappears again into the 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.

The story “Childhood” was written by M. Gorky in 1913 and was included in the collection “Across Rus'”. The work is written from the perspective of the main character - the boy Alexei Kashirin, who had to face the cruelty of life early on. The author, on behalf of the hero, rethinks his own childhood, seeing in it not only evil and suffering, but also the bright sides that were revealed when his grandmother told him stories and fairy tales.

The story consists of 13 chapters. In addition to the image of a fat but very clever grandmother, the author also shows other characters: a dry and cruel grandfather, a weak-willed mother, her pugnacious brothers Mikhail and Yakov, a simple-minded guy Gypsy, a kind guest Good Delo, a wasteful stepfather Evgeniy. Also, other people come into the hero’s field of view; the author gives each a capacious figurative description.

The story begins with a tragic event - Alexei’s father dies of cholera, and his mother experiences premature birth from grief. After the funeral, grandmother Akulina Ivanovna takes her daughter and two grandchildren to Nizhny Novgorod from Astrakhan, where the family lived. They sail for a long time on the ship, the little one dies on the way, he is buried during a stop in Saratov. To distract Alexei, his grandmother tells him fairy tales. Arriving, the boy meets his relatives.

It’s difficult for Alexey to get used to the new house, he’s used to friendliness, but here everyone was at enmity, mainly because of the inheritance. On Saturdays, those who were guilty were flogged with rods, and Alexei also got it for ruining the tablecloth. Out of pain, he bit his grandfather, which made him furious and beat his grandson almost to death.

Alexei was treated for a long time, and soon his grandfather himself came to make peace and talked about his difficult childhood. At the same time, the boy became friends with Gypsy, a foundling raised in the family, who stood up for him. But soon the guy dies absurdly, he was crushed under a wooden cross.

The atmosphere in the house was heating up; the only joy for Alexei was talking with his grandmother. He liked to watch her pray and then she would tell stories about devils and angels and God. One day, the workshop on the ground floor caught fire, which the hero’s uncles could not share, but the grandmother saved the house from an explosion by pulling a bottle of vitriol from the fire.

Grandfather bought new house and began to rent out rooms, and the grandmother and grandson settled in the attic. Akulina Ivanovna worked part-time by weaving lace and collecting medicinal herbs, her mother taught her all this. Grandfather began to teach Alexei to read and write.

Mikhail continued to brawl, even tried to kill his grandfather and once broke his grandmother’s hand with a stake as she tried to drive him away. A chiropractor was called to the grandmother, a skinny woman came with a stick, which Alyosha, in fear, mistook for death. Soon he begins to understand that his grandfather and grandmother pray differently and their gods are different.

Grandfather again changed the house and took in new tenants, among whom was Good Deed, thin, stooped, always inventing something. They called him that because of a saying that he often repeated. Alexey liked the new tenant, but his grandfather disliked the “alchemist” and soon survived him.

Alexey tried to be friends with the neighborhood kids, but his grandfather didn’t like anyone. A cab driver once reported on Alyosha, after which they became enemies. But soon he is killed; it turns out that he was robbing churches.

One winter, Varvara, Alexei’s mother, returned. He had almost forgotten her. The grandfather begins to gather guests with the goal of marrying her off again, but she resists. After one of the unsuccessful engagements, the mother seemed to get stronger and gradually became the mistress of the house.

Soon she finds herself a husband and leaves with him. But not for long. The grandfather sold the house, which was bringing in little profit, and told the grandmother to feed herself. At this time, pregnant Varvara and her husband arrive again, explaining that their house supposedly burned down, in fact, their stepfather lost it. The little brother dies shortly after the birth of his second son. Alexey himself, meanwhile, goes to school, where he is teased for his poor clothes.

In his old age, my grandfather became quite stingy. To help his grandmother, Alexey collected all sorts of old things from around the yards, and sometimes he and other guys stole firewood. But things improved at school, Alyosha moved to third grade and even received a certificate for academic success. Things got really bad at home, younger brother suffers from scrofula, the mother also falls ill and soon dies. After the funeral, the grandfather points his grandson to the door: “Come join the people.”

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The story of childhood begins with a tragic event in the life of the main character (his name is Alexei) - his father died. Coincidentally, on the day of his father’s death, the hero-narrator had a brother, who soon died.

The boy is held by the hand by his grandmother, “round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny doughy nose; she is all black, soft and surprisingly interesting... She spoke affectionately, cheerfully, smoothly.”

For the boy, her words were like “flowers, just as tender, bright, and juicy.”

“Before her, it was as if I was sleeping, hidden in the dark, 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 a dear person - it was her selfless love for the world that enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life.”

After the death of his father, the mother and son move on a ship along the Volga to live with their father. This is “a small, dry old man, in a long black robe, with a beard as red as gold, with a bird’s nose and green eyes.” The boy immediately “sensed an enemy in him.”

The child did not like his uncles (mother's brothers) or his grandfather's house - small, dimly lit rooms.

My grandfather was a dyer—in the yard and in the house, some rags were soaking in vats of multi-colored water, and the smell was sharp and unpleasant.

But the main thing: “Grandfather’s house was filled with the hot fog of mutual enmity of everyone with everyone.”

The brothers demanded a division of property from their father; they were afraid that the sister who had returned with the child would demand her share.

There are disgusting fights between the grandfather and brothers, and the grandmother tries to reconcile everyone.

The boy feels that his grandfather is angry and offended by everyone.

A real shock for little Alexei, who has never been physically punished, is the cruel Saturday spanking of children.

Leshkin was guilty cousin Sashka - at the instigation of the adults, he slipped a red-hot thimble to his grandfather.

Leshka was also guilty - out of boyish curiosity, he put a ceremonial white silk tablecloth into a vat of blue paint. The grandmother tried to hide this offense from the cruel grandfather. However, Sashka betrays Alexey, hoping that he himself will be able to avoid being denounced. cruel punishment. The grandfather whips his grandson Sashka with rods with cruel pleasure. Red stripes swell on the naked body.

Then the turn of punishment comes to Leshka. The boy had never encountered anything like this.

Grandmother and mother are trying to take him away from his grandfather. And he himself did not give up so easily: “I fought in his hands, tugging at his red beard, and bit his finger.”

The grandfather caught the obstinate man until he lost consciousness, and for several days the boy was very ill.

Alexei realized that his mother was not as strong as he had expected - she, like everyone else, was afraid of her grandfather.

The grandfather unexpectedly comes to his grandson to make peace, even asks for forgiveness. He brings gifts and kisses his forehead.

- Do you think they didn’t beat me? Alyosha, they beat me so much that you nightmare will not see. I was so offended that, go figure, the Lord God himself looked and cried!

The grandfather tells his grandson how he was a barge hauler on the Volga, together with his comrades he dragged heavy barges along the Volga.

The boy did not forget the spanking, but managed to understand and forgive his grandfather in some ways.

Alexey also developed a strong friendship with Tsyganok, his grandfather’s employee. This handsome, good-natured guy put his hand under his grandfather’s rod so that the boy would get less. And terrible bloody scars swelled up on my hand.

The gypsy is both a kind person and an excellent master.

It turns out that Gypsy is a foundling; his grandmother picked up the orphan and raised him.

The master was only nineteen years old. An extraordinary entertainer, Gypsy performed magic tricks, trained mice and danced. Sometimes an overweight, bear-like grandmother comes out to dance - and her dance is like a poetic story about something sincere.

However, Gypsy is guilty of a dangerous trade: his grandfather sends him with a cart to the market - and the guy brings a lot of food. If he spends a ruble, he will steal five rubles. He does this not out of self-interest, but out of mischief. But if they catch you, they will beat you to death!

Gypsy's death is absurd and unexpected: he was crushed under a heavy wooden cross, which Alexei's greedy uncles (Mikhail and Yakov) placed on him.

Yakov promised to bring this cross to the grave of his wife, whom he himself brought to death with cruel treatment a year ago. However, out of habit, he put the burden on the reliable worker - and Tsyganok died.

The boy's pain is acute, but time heals wounds.

Alexey even gets used to the fact that he is whipped in the same way as the other boys in the house, and there is no one to lend a hand to take on some of the pain.

The boy's consolation is daily communication with his grandmother, her conversations with God - confidential requests that all her loved ones become kinder and more joyful.

The fire was a terrible experience for Alexey - the grandmother in this event appeared to be a real heroine, saving property from the fire, leading out and calming the gelding (horse) Sharap.

The old woman burned her hands, the grandfather felt sorry for her - he was not always angry and strict, a human feeling lived in him.

Time passed - the grandfather, grandmother and grandson moved to a new house, dividing the property with Mikhail and Yakov.

Alexey hardly sees his mother; she lives separately.

It seems that life has become calmer in the new place, and the grandfather and grandmother are peacefully recalling their past life - and suddenly rage flares up in the old man again, and he hits his wife in the face with his fist in front of the boy. Scary, disgusting...

The house gained great fame; Almost every Sunday boys ran to the gate, joyfully announcing to the street:

— The Kashirins (grandfather’s last name) are fighting again!

Uncle Mikhail came with a drunken scandal, broke windows, destroyed the garden. Uncle Yakov also added his share to the discord. It was bitter for the grandmother that she had such children. She gave birth to eighteen children - the Lord took away the best, but these were the ones left.

In prayer, my grandmother found enlightenment and rest for the soul.

“Her God was with her all day, she even talked about him to the animals. It was clear to me that everything easily and obediently obeys this God: people, dogs, birds, bees and herbs; he was equally kind to everything on earth, equally close.”

The grandfather, telling his grandson “about the irresistible power of God, always and first of all emphasized its cruelty: behold, people sinned and were drowned, they sinned again and were burned, their cities were destroyed; God punished people with famine and pestilence, and he is always a sword over the earth, a scourge to sinners.”

It was as if the God of our grandfathers was looking from heaven at the sinful earth and saying the same thing as old man Kashirin himself:

- Oh, you...

Hard life did not make grandmother cruel, did not take away her ability to enjoy little things.

“She cut off the broken wing of the starling she had taken from the cat, and cleverly placed a piece of wood in the place of the bitten off leg and, having cured the bird, taught it to speak. It used to stand for a whole hour in front of the cage on the window frame - such a big, kind animal - and in a thick voice repeats to the overbearing, coal-black bird:

- Well, ask: porridge for the skvorushka!

And she taught the starling: after a while he quite clearly asked for porridge, and when he saw his grandmother, he said something similar to “Dra-as-tui” ... "

“As a child, I imagine myself as a hive, where there are different simple, gray people Like bees, they bore the honey of their knowledge and thoughts about life, generously enriching my soul with whatever they could. Often this honey was dirty and bitter, but all knowledge is still honey,” Gorky writes about the accumulation of experience.

The boy gained a lot from communicating with his tenant, nicknamed Good Deed. However, this strange man with glasses was a stranger to everyone - even to the grandmother. This stranger's I. eventually survived.

Of course, Alexey also communicated with his peers. With a crowd of warlike boys, there was no friendship - only fights.

But the three neighboring brothers attracted Alexei’s attention because they did not quarrel, but were very protective of each other.

One day, the smallest of the brothers fell into a well while playing hide and seek - and Lesha helped save him. Thus began a friendship.

It was a sad, secret friendship. Three brothers lived with a father, a colonel, who was very stern, and with a stepmother who did not love them.

Alyosha caught birds for them to keep in cages, and told them tales that he had heard from his grandmother.

Alyosha's mother unexpectedly returns. She lived her own kind of life, which caused the indignation of her old parents, but somehow everyone reconciled.

The mother begins to teach the boy “civil” (and not church, like his grandfather) literacy. As luck would have it, something strange begins to happen to Alyosha’s memory - he twists and alters the words of the poems that his mother teaches him. Maybe this is how creativity awakens?

The mother is angry, it seems to her that her son is rejecting her, and it’s hard for her to live in his grandfather’s house.

She goes to gatherings with cheerful neighbors, but there is no fun, as the boy sees it.

Grandfather and grandmother are trying to marry her to some serious person, but Varvara (Alexei’s mother) gives them a decisive rebuff.

After this story, the mother became the mistress of the house, and the grandfather became invisible.

Alexey's mother sends him to study, but his studies do not last long. The boy fell ill with smallpox.

During his illness, the grandmother tells the boy about his father - a cheerful, handsome and brave man, and about how his mother married him against the will of his grandfather.

For a long time the grandfather did not want to hear about his renegade daughter, but in the end he came to terms with her decision.

The Varvara brothers disliked their sister's husband. One day something terrible happened: they threw him into an ice hole in winter and wanted to drown him, but it didn’t work out. Maxim did not complain to the police, but at the first opportunity he moved with his wife and son to another city - to Astrakhan.

The grandmother often comes to the boy’s attic, sometimes telling him fairy tales, sometimes telling him stories from family life. She is still affectionate and attentive, but the only bad thing is that she drinks vodka to calm her aching heart.

The mother, beautifully dressed and increasingly alien, rarely comes to her son. Alexei feels anxious: he is waiting for a new betrayal from his mother, who has not spoiled him too much with her attention anyway.

So it is: the mother is going to marry a nobleman named Eugene. She's busy with her new life, but promises his son: “You will go with me, you will study at the gymnasium, then you will become a student...”

The mother and her new husband leave, leaving Alyosha to live with his grandparents. The grandfather is busy with his grandson in the garden, helps the boy arrange a hut for himself, consoles him and warns:

- Now you are cut off from your mother, she will have other children, they will be closer to her than you. Grandma started drinking. Learn to be your own worker, and don’t give in to others! Live quietly, calmly, and stubbornly!

A garden, a hut - this joy did not last long in the boy’s life. Grandfather sold the house and moved into the basement rooms.

The “stepfather” lost the money he received for his grandfather’s house at cards.

“Then... I found myself in Sormovo, in a house where everything was new, the walls without wallpaper, with hemp in the grooves between the logs and with many cockroaches in the hemp. My mother and stepfather lived in two rooms with windows facing the street, and my grandmother and I lived in the kitchen, with one window facing the roof. From behind the roofs, the chimneys of the plant stuck out into the sky like black figs and smoked thickly and curlily; the winter wind blew the smoke throughout the entire village; There was always a greasy burning smell in our cold rooms...

Grandmother worked as a cook - she cooked, washed floors, chopped wood, carried water, she was at work from morning to evening, and went to bed tired, groaning and groaning. Sometimes, after brushing herself off, she would put on a short cotton jacket and, with her skirt tucked high, go to town.

“To see how the old man lives there...”

The mother spoke little to her son, she just ordered:

- Go, give it, bring it...

She punished the boy, and for his lively display of feelings called him “little beast.”

And again little Alyosha ended up with his grandfather.

“What-oh? - he said, meeting me, and laughed, squealing. “It was said: there is no sweeter friend than your dear mother, but now, apparently, let’s say: not your dear mother, but an old devil’s grandfather!” Oh you-and...”

Alexei's mother sent him to school, where he played a lot of mischief, for which he was often punished.

But then a good teacher of the law, a bishop, arrived and praised Alyosha, and again a sharp thirst for good appeared in the boy’s soul.

But there is no place for Alexei in the family of his mother and stepfather. A brother was born.

“He was a strange boy: clumsy, big-headed, he looked at everything around him with beautiful blue eyes, with a quiet smile and as if expecting something. He began to speak unusually early, never cried, living in a continuous state of quiet joy. He was weak, could barely crawl and was very happy when he saw me, asked to be held in my arms, loved to knead my ears with small soft fingers, from which for some reason they smelled of violets. He died unexpectedly, without being sick; in the morning he was quietly cheerful, as always, and in the evening, during the bell ringing for the all-night vigil, he was already lying on the table. This happened shortly after the birth of our second child, Nikolai.”

One day, in front of Alexei's eyes, his stepfather kicks his mother in the chest - and the boy rushes at the scoundrel with a knife. Fighters are separated...

“Remembering these leaden abominations of wild Russian life, I ask myself for minutes: is it worth talking about this? And, with renewed confidence, I answer myself - it’s worth it; for this is a tenacious, vile truth, it has not died out to this day... But through this layer, the bright, healthy and creative still victoriously grows, the good—human—grows, arousing an indestructible hope for our rebirth to a bright, human life.” .

Alexey returned to his grandparents again. He began to try to earn money: he collected rags and bones - it could be sold.

I made friends with the boys who were also trying to somehow get at least some penny. Among the unspoiled and cruel children, there were individuals of extraordinary kindness. Here, for example, is a boy nicknamed Wood Pigeon (Dove).

“He made us all laugh and surprised us all with his love for trees and herbs. The settlement, scattered across the sand, was sparse in vegetation; only here and there, in the courtyards, poor willows and crooked elderberry bushes stuck out alone, and gray dry blades of grass timidly hid under the fence; if any of us sat on them, Wood Pigeon would grumble angrily:

- Well, what are you using to crush the grass? If you sat by, on the sand, would it matter to you?

In his presence it was awkward to break a willow branch, to pick flowering branch elderberry or cutting a willow twig on the banks of the Oka - he was always surprised, raising his shoulders and spreading his arms:

- Why are you breaking everything? Damn it!

And everyone was ashamed of his surprise.”

Alexei’s mother returned to her parents to die, sick, with a small child, Nikolai. Alexey had to be Nikolai’s nanny - and although the eldest son wanted to run away to his friends, he still tried to warm his sick little brother on the sand and entertain him.

The mother faded away every day - and died in front of Alyosha.

“A few days after my mother’s funeral, my grandfather told me:

- Well, Lexey, you are not a medal, there is no place for you on my neck, but go join the people...

And I went among the people.”

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