MOTHER by Maxim Gorky
This story takes place on the eve of the Russian revolution. I feel that this is the story of the beginning of the revolution itself.
The mother Pelagea Nilovna and her son are the main characters in this story. Mother who is a typical Russian woman who goes to work by day and returns to her household chores and a drunk husband at night turns in to a revolutionary through Gorkys remarkable abilities.
When Pelageas husband Mikhail dies her son a teenager Pavel starts to go to the factory for work. He also starts to follow his fathers path but soon learns that the workers are the real power that drives the wheel. Some like minded youths gather for discussions and reading sessions at Pavels place. These scenes get the mother suspicious at first because she does not understand their ideas.
As time goes by although she is barely literate she starts to become the mother of the whole group of revolutionaries.
There are some other characters in this book such as Natasha, Sasha, Ludmila and Sophia who are presented as brave women.
Andrei Nakhodka who is called by the mother as Khokhol which is a nickname for a Ukrainian is mothers special among Pavels friends. He also loves the mother and starts calling her Nenko an affectionate term in Ukrainian for mother.
When Pavel gets arrested for leading some of their co workers in to a revolutionary protest against their salary deductions the mothers role suddenly changes. She is entrusted by the party to smuggle forbidden leaflets and literature inside the factory. She plays her part disguised as a paddler. When the authorities realize that the activities are still going on inside the factory despite the arrest of Pavel they release him.
After this the mother is urged to learn to red by Khokhol, she shies away at first but in the night she takes a book from the collection of forbidden books and studies. Their house becomes the center of revolution, Comrades from distant lands starts to visit them. All of these experiences are described wonderfully through a mothers view.
Then comes the day when they decide to do a Mayday demonstration in which Pavel is to be up front bearing the flag. The mother and the loving Sasha wants Pavel to assign the task to someone else but Pavel insists on bearing the flag.
Finally the big day comes and the rally is attacked by the authorities and Pavel and Andrei gets arrested. Mother continues her work for the party by travelling extensively completing the tasks dutifully which are entrusted to her by the party.
Her son Pavel awaits trial while she is running the revolution which he had fired in his mothers heart.
On the trial her son gives a notorious speech in which he states “We are against the society whose interests you judges have been ordered to defend; we are its uncompromising enemies, and yours too, and no reconciliation between us is possible until we have won our fight… all of you, our masters, are more like slaves than we are. You are enslaved spiritually; we — only physically.”
With this her son is exiled, and the people outside the courtroom are gathering around her and telling her that her sons speech is to be printed and distributed among comrades.
Mother visits in secret the printer Ludmila to get the prints of her sons speech. She goes with heart filled intentions of distributing the copies and gets caught by the authorities in a railway station. While they beat her and choke her she says to them heroically “Not even an ocean of blood can drown the truth”
This is a book I have really loved reading and have felt to the cores of my being.
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