"Vassa Zheleznova (Collection)" by Maxim Gorky, summary Automatic translate

This book is a collection of landmark texts written in 1899, 1923, 1932, and 1935. It describes the changing eras and the disintegration of old family structures. The writer explores the fates of strong individuals suffocated in a merchant environment. The works in this collection have been successfully adapted for the screen. The films "Foma Gordeyev" and "My Universities" directed by Mark Donskoy have received international acclaim. Gleb Panfilov’s "Vassa" received high awards at international film festivals.

The story "My Universities" is part of the writer’s famous autobiographical trilogy. It continues the plot of "Childhood" and "Among the People," the third installment in the series.

Foma Gordeev

Ignat Gordeyev is a wealthy Volga merchant. A man of powerful energy, he has amassed a vast fortune. He has a son, Foma. Ignat’s wife dies in childbirth. The boy is given to the family of his godfather, the shrewd merchant Yakov Mayakin, to be raised. In the Mayakin household, Foma lives in an atmosphere of strict religiosity and hidden greed. A girl named Lyuba becomes his first playmate. Soon, Ignat takes his son home. The child is raised by his kindly aunt, Anfisa. She tells the boy fairy tales and instills in him a belief in miracles.

Foma’s adolescence was spent with his father. During his school years, he met the nimble, poor Kolya Yezhov and the sensible Afrikan Smolin. The boys chase pigeons together and climb into other people’s orchards to pick apples. Gordeyev Sr. takes the teenager on river trips. He tries to impart his business acumen to his heir, teaching him the strict laws of commerce. Foma grows up, observing the turbulent life of the Volga. He sees the beauty of nature and encounters human greed and deception. Ignat dies suddenly. The young man becomes the owner of steamships and barges.

The young man finds no peace of mind. The reality around him seems false. He searches for the truth. The plot of the story revolves around the hero’s conflict with the merchant elite. His godfather, Mayakin, imposes his philosophy of self-interest on him. The old man is convinced that people are merely bricks for building someone else’s happiness. Foma rejects these cynical thoughts. Mayakin wants his godson to marry his daughter, Lyubov. The girl is fascinated by books and dreams of independence, but she also seems deeply unhappy to the young man. Foma rejects the marriage.

Young Gordeyev meets the elegant Sofia Medynskaya. The socialite is merely toying with the inexperienced youth. Because of an insult directed at her, Foma beats up an official at a club. He begins a brief affair with a promiscuous woman, Pelageya, and then with Sasha. A series of wild debaucheries ensues. The young man challenges society. At the consecration of Kononov’s new steamship, he delivers a diatribe. Foma publicly accuses eminent merchants of theft, baseness, and cruelty, reminding everyone of their secret crimes. With his demarche, he antagonizes the entire local elite. The merchants tie up the rebel.

Mayakin sends his godson to a psychiatric hospital. Three years later, Foma appears on the city streets. He looks broken, half-mad, and poor. The townspeople mock him. The former heir to millions wanders like a beggar, muttering incoherently.

Egor Bulychov and others

The events take place during the First World War. Factory owner Yegor Bulychov is terminally ill with liver cancer. He senses his impending death. His relatives fuss around him. His wife Ksenia, daughter Varvara, and son-in-law Zvontsov await their master’s death. Zvontsov makes political plans and communicates with the Cadets. His family is eager to lay their hands on the inheritance. Bulychov sees their self-interest and is disgusted by their greed and deceit.

Yegor experiences a painful spiritual breakdown. He realizes he’s spent his entire life in a foreign field. The accumulation of capital has deprived him of true joy. The manufacturer engages in cynical conversations with Father Pavlin, denouncing the priest’s hypocrisy and accusing the church of indifference to the people’s suffering. Bulychov quarrels with Abbess Melania, his wife’s sister. He mocks her feigned piety and mercantilism. The abbess threatens him with the Last Judgment, but the sick man doesn’t believe her words.

His only close friend is his illegitimate daughter, Alexandra. Shura has a sharp tongue and a rebellious nature. She sincerely loves her father and pities him. His maid, Glafira, is also faithful to him. The family tries to treat Bulychov with quackery. They bring in the trumpeter Gavrila, who blows a copper trumpet, promising healing through sound. They call for the healer Zobunova. Blessed Propoteus appears, shouting out dire predictions. All this irritates Yegor. He drives away the hysterical women.

As the protagonist declines, the familiar order of the old way of life collapses. News arrives of the February Revolution. The Tsar’s abdication frightens the townsfolk. Zvontsov discusses political changes, hoping to preserve his fortune. Bulychov senses the inevitability of impending catastrophe. He begins to agonize. The sick man foresees the imminent demise of his class. With a loud cry, he calls for his daughter Shura and falls dead.

Vassa Zheleznova

Vassa Zheleznova, a wealthy shipping company owner, runs her family business with a firm hand. She thwarts any attempts by competitors to outflank her. Her husband, Sergei, is accused of child molestation. He faces a high-profile trial and hard labor. Vassa demands that her husband take poison. She wants to avoid shame for her daughters, Natalia and Lyudmila. Zheleznov resists, begging for mercy. Later, he dies suddenly. The family whispers about poisoning.

Vassa’s brother, Prokhor Khrapov, leads a dissolute life. He drinks wine, strums the guitar, and corrupts the servants. Because of his actions, the maid, Liza, hangs herself. Vassa tolerates her brother’s antics, trying to keep her fortune in one hand. His daughter-in-law, Rachel, a revolutionary, arrives illegally from abroad. Rachel’s husband, Vassa’s son, Fyodor, is terminally ill. Rachel demands that he hand over her young son, Kolya. She wants to take the boy to Europe, away from the merchant class.

Zheleznova categorically refuses her daughter-in-law. She needs the boy as the heir to the shipping company. Vassa is willing to do anything to keep her grandson. She threatens to hand Rachel over to the gendarmes. A bitter confrontation between the two powerful women begins. Natalya, resentful of her mother, advises Rachel to kidnap the child. Prokhor is ready to assist in this treacherous plan. Rachel rejects the idea of kidnapping, considering her unworthy.

Vassa orders her secretary, Anna Onoshenkova, to report her sister-in-law to the police. Anna fears being followed overnight, but promises to carry out the order in the morning. Zheleznova feels growing fatigue from the constant struggle. She remains alone in the room, experiencing sudden pain. Suddenly, she suffers a stroke. Vassa slumps heavily onto the couch. Anna, finding her dead mistress, quickly steals the money and the keys to the safe. Relatives come running. Prokhor maliciously rejoices at his sister’s death and anticipates his undivided control of the fortune.

My universities

Young Alexei Peshkov arrives in Kazan. He dreams of attending university. He quickly realizes the impossibility of his plan. Grammar school student Evreinov, who promised to help, lives in abject poverty with his mother. Peshkov refuses to be a burden and begins looking for work. He heads to the Volga wharves. There, he works as a loader and becomes acquainted with the harsh life of the lower classes. He overhears the speeches of the thief Bashkin and the fence Trusov.

Alexei lives in the Marusovka flophouse. The slum’s inhabitants are poor students, prostitutes, alcoholic artisans, and mad mathematicians. He befriends a cheerful young man, Gury Pletnev, a night proofreader. Together, they endure poverty, taking turns sleeping on the same bunk. Peshkov attends underground circles and reads banned books. The young man listens to the Narodniks debate about the fate of the country. These conversations seem important to him, although the peasant masses remain a mystery to him.

The hero works at Semyonov’s pretzel bakery, and then for Derenkov, a grocery store owner. Exhausting physical labor alternates with reading. In Kazan, the young man attends lectures at the clinic of the psychiatrist Bekhterev. He witnesses the filth of brothels and the savagery and cruelty of the inhabitants. He observes the secret lives of political exiles. The harsh conditions lead Alexei to a profound emotional crisis. Peshkov buys a drummer’s revolver. In December, he attempts to shoot himself. The bullet pierces his lung, and the young man miraculously survives.

After recovering, the hero meets the revolutionary Romas. He invites Alexei to the village of Krasnovidovo. The hero works in the village store. Romas admonishes the young man: "Don’t be too quick to judge!" Alexei helps educate the peasants and holds educational talks with the fisherman Izot. The local wealthy hate Romas. They cause a gunpowder explosion in the furnace, killing Izot, and then burn down Romas’s hut. Valuable books are destroyed in the fire.

After the fire, the mentor leaves for Vyatka. Alexei works as a farmhand in the village with the dreamer Barinov. He feels a keen sense of alienation from the murky peasant environment. Soon, the young man sails down the Volga on a barge. He works as a sailor, standing watch at the helm. Minor conflicts unfold on the vessel, and the helmsman throws himself into the river in despair. In Simbirsk, Alexei is driven ashore. He makes his way as a stowaway to the Caspian Sea. There, he is hired by a fishing crew at the sordid Kaban-kul-bai fishery. This harsh life experience forever replaces the hero’s academic education.