"My Universities" by Maxim Gorky, summary

This autobiographical novella was written in 1923. The author describes in detail his youth, the difficult clash of romantic illusions with the harsh reality of society’s underbelly. Completely devoid of descriptions of classical academic education, the protagonist’s harsh school of life is found in the Kazan slums, damp bakeries, and impoverished villages of the Volga region. This text is the third and final book in the writer’s well-known autobiographical series. The previous novellas in the series are titled "Childhood" and "Among the People." Director Mark Donskoy adapted this book into a feature film of the same name in 1939, which received widespread acclaim and critical acclaim.

Dreams of studying and the harsh reality of Kazan

Young Alexei Peshkov arrives in Kazan. A high school student, Nikolai Evreinov, persuaded the young man to enroll at Kazan University. He promised Alexei a state scholarship and the resounding fame of the new Mikhail Lomonosov. Peshkov settles in with the impoverished Evreinov family. He quickly notices the desperate daily poverty of the mother. The widow’s gray eyes are filled with the gentle stubbornness of a worn-out horse. The young man decides to immediately seek his own means of subsistence, so as not to rob the poor. He goes to work at the Volga docks.

The hero moves to a slum called "Marusovka." There, he shares a narrow bunk with a cheerful student, Gury Pletnev. Gury works as a night proofreader for a local newspaper for a pittance. His neighbors are hungry students, noisy prostitutes, and insane people. Alexey watches in horror as the daily tragedy of a consumptive mathematician. The skinny scientist attempts to mathematically prove the existence of God using geometric methods and screams terribly at night.

Longshoremen and the Secret Library

Peshkov begins loading heavy barges on the riverbank. He meets professional thieves, aggressive tramps, and clever con artists. The thief Bashkin and the educated fence Trusov share their cynical philosophy of life with the young man. Trusov sees in Alexei a spiritual man without envy. Alexei is genuinely impressed by the coordinated, furious work of the stevedores during a night storm. The workers work together to salvage a sunken barge carrying Persian goods. This difficult physical labor is experienced by the hero as true heroic poetry.

He makes an important acquaintance with the quiet grocer Andrei Derenkov. The grocer secretly possesses an excellent library of strictly forbidden books. Students from the Theological Academy, populists, and young revolutionaries regularly gather in the Derenkovs’ apartment. They debate heatedly about the fate of the Russian people. Alexei listens attentively and tries to grasp complex economic theories. He meets Andrei’s sister, Maria. Maria suffers from a strange nervous disorder affecting her legs and is learning to walk again.

Working in bakeries and searching for meaning

Peshkov gets a job at Vasily Semyonov’s cramped pretzel bakery. The grueling fourteen-hour-a-day physical labor leaves the young man severely exhausted. The bakery workers live a miserable life in a filthy, stuffy basement. They drown their dull despair monthly in alcohol and cheap brothels. Alexei tries to enlighten his unfortunate comrades, telling them interesting stories from books. The workers often mock him cruelly, though sometimes they listen with great, sad attention.

On a winter stormy night, the hero accidentally saves a freezing man. He turns out to be a fallen intellectual named Georges, a former history teacher. The man he rescued preaches to Alexei the absolute meaninglessness of human life and vehemently rejects social progress. Georges asserts the primacy of hunger and love over reason. These naked, destructive ideas deeply wound the inquisitive young man. Soon, Derenkov opens a new, spacious bakery to covertly finance student clubs. Peshkov transfers there to work as a senior baker.

The new bakery immediately becomes a secret meeting place for radical youth. Alexey delivers hot, sweet buns to private homes and student dormitories. The senior policeman, Nikiforich, persistently tries to turn Alexey into a useful police informer. The cunning old policeman explains to the young man in detail the great "invisible thread" and declares, "The Tsar is the people’s god!" This strong web of power supposedly inextricably links the autocrat and the entire administrative apparatus of the empire. This original concept of power captivates the young baker for a long time.

Despair and suicide attempt

Careful observations of the harsh life around him provoke a deep, painful inner conflict in the hero. The everyday rudeness of the common people stands in stark contrast to the bright, humanistic ideals of good books. Peshkov is deeply affected by the sudden arrest of his close friend, Gury Pletnev. He attends secret nighttime meetings of Fedoseyev’s circle. The young man meets the intelligent old weaver Nikita Rubtsov. The consumptive mechanic Yakov Shaposhnikov genuinely astonishes Alexei with his fierce, desperate struggle against God.

In a cold December, Alexey decides to end his troubled life forever. He deliberately buys an old drummer’s revolver at the market. The fatal shot lands directly in his chest, the copper bullet piercing his left lung. The strong young man miraculously survives his serious wound. After lengthy hospital treatment, he returns to work at Andrey Derenkov’s bakery. A sharp, painful feeling of burning shame for his senseless act haunts the distraught Alexey for a long time.

Moving to the village of Krasnovidovo

Experienced political exile Mikhail Antonovich Romas invites Peshkov to work in the Volga village of Krasnovidovo. Romas has only recently returned from a long exile in Yakutia. In the village, he has boldly opened a grocery store and is persistently trying to organize a local peasant cooperative. He desperately wants to protect poor small gardeners from greedy urban speculators. Alexei sails to the village in early spring on a plank boat. The awakening, powerful nature of the Volga quietly delights and deeply soothes the hero’s wounded soul.

Peshkov runs an honest shop in the village and actively helps Romas around the house. He begins patiently teaching a local young fisherman, Izot, to read and write. Izot is a strikingly handsome, physically strong, and very poetic man. He has a genuine passion for the written word and enlightened knowledge. In the evenings, the intelligent Romas conducts leisurely, serious, and educational conversations with the peasants. The most progressive peasants come to listen attentively: the wealthy Pankov, the skilled farmhand Kukushkin, and the cheerful, imaginative Barinov.

The greedy village rich hate the newcomer Romas with a passion for founding a trading cooperative. They constantly try to intimidate the staunch public educator. The perpetrators secretly place a log laced with gunpowder among the birch firewood. A loud, unexpected explosion completely destroys the kitchen’s Russian stove. Miraculously, everyone in the household escapes unharmed. Romas reacts to the cowardly assassination attempt with utter calm, saying, "There’s not enough time to be angry at every stupidity." The exiled Ukrainian’s absolute, Olympian calm greatly impresses the impressionable young Alexei.

The death of Izot and the fire

In the middle of a sweltering July, the fisherman Izot disappears without a trace. A few days later, his dead body is found under a wrecked old barge. The quiet, good-natured fisherman’s skull has been horribly fractured by a heavy carpenter’s axe. This brutal, senseless murder of a bright village dreamer deeply shakes Peshkov. The men on the sandy shore behave extremely cowardly and vilely. The desperate farmhand Kukushkin, in a blind rage, punches the influential local shopkeeper Kuzmin in the face.

During the bountiful autumn apple harvest, hidden enemies set fire to Romas’s wooden barn. A roaring, high-rise flame instantly spreads to the walls of the newly inhabited izba. Peshkov barely escapes the blazing, smoke-filled attic. A powerful explosion of a kerosene barrel painfully dislocates his left leg. Romas and the lame Alexei vigorously attempt to organize a massive firefighting operation on the village street. The village’s wealthy residents stand to the side, openly gleefully watching the raging fire.

A crowd of hostile, aggressive peasants openly accuse Romas himself of deliberately setting the fire to collect insurance money. The frightened, loud-mouthed village elder and his thugs demand the immediate arrest of the people’s defender. Alexei, holding a heavy wooden stake, is ready to defend his senior comrade to the death. After a police search, the village bathhouse turns out to be completely empty, and the false accusations quickly crumble. The devastated farmstead is completely destroyed, and his beloved, valuable scholarly books are burned to the ground.

Departure to the Caspian Sea

Romas wisely decides to finally liquidate the pitiful remnants of his trading business and leave for Vyatka. He kindly advises Alexei to temporarily stay with Pankov. The stubborn Peshkov flatly refuses the offer. He is completely disillusioned with the patriarchal Russian village. The young man physically cannot tolerate the cruelty, envy, and blind, primitive stupidity of the peasants any longer. The hero parts from the wise, calm Romas with a very heavy heart.

On a dark, rainy autumn night, Alexey and the vagabond Barinov secretly board a passing barge. They set off far down the wide Volga River. A tugboat slowly pulls the heavy barge toward Simbirsk. The helmsman is a huge Vologda man named Petrukha. He frankly reveals to Alexey his terrible secret: he’s going to the city specifically to brutally murder his rich uncle.

At dim gray dawn, the hesitant Petrukha suddenly plunges into the cold river water. He swims safely to shore and then swims away. The man wisely decided to forever escape the terrible, irreparable sin of murdering a relative. In Simbirsk, evil sailors mercilessly drive Alexei and Barinov ashore. The impoverished young travelers somehow make it to Samara. Then they descend to the shores of the Caspian Sea and join a Kalmyk fishing crew at the sordid Kabankul-bai fishery.