Summary: "My Universities" (Maxim Gorky)

We suggest you familiarize yourself with the autobiographical work created in 1923, to read its brief content. "My Universities" was written by Maxim Gorky (pictured below). The plot of the work is the following.

Alyosha goes to Kazan. He wants to study, he dreams of entering university. However, life was not the same as planned. On the fate of Alexei Peshkov you will learn by reading the summary. "My Universities" is a work in which the author describes his youth. This is part of the autobiographical trilogy, which also includes "Childhood" and "In People." The trilogy ends with the story "My Universities". The summary of the chapters of the first two parts of this article is not presented in this article.

Life at Evreinovs

Alex understood, having arrived in Kazan, that he would not have to prepare for university. Very poorly lived Evreinovs, could not support him. In order not to have dinner with them, he left the house in the morning, looking for a job. And in bad weather he was sitting in the basement, which was not far from their apartment, the protagonist of the work "My Universities". The summary, like the story itself, is devoted to the period of Gorky's life from 1884 to 1888.

Acquaintance with Guriy Pletnev

Often in the wasteland young people were going to play in the wasteland. Here Alesha became friends with Guriy Pletnev, a typographer. Learning how difficult it is for Alyosha to live, he suggested moving to him and starting to prepare for the work of the village teacher. However, nothing came of this idea. Alyosha found a refuge in a dilapidated house inhabited by the urban poor and hungry students. Pletnev worked at night and earned 11 cents a night. Alyosha slept on his bed when he went to work.

The narrator, Alexei Peshkov, ran in the mornings for boiling water to a neighboring tavern. Pletnev during tea read funny poems, told news from newspapers. Then he went to bed, and Alyosha went to the wharf of the Volga for work. He dragged loads, sawed wood. So Alyosha lived from the winter until the end of the summer.

Derenkov and his shop

We will describe further events that make up a short summary. "My universities" continue with the fact that in 1884, in the autumn, one of the students, with whom the narrator was familiar, brought him to Derenkov Andrei Stepanovich. He was the owner of a grocery store. Even the gendarmes did not realize that young people in the apartment of Andrei Stepanovich are going to be revolutionary, forbidden books are kept in his closet.

Alyosha quickly became friends with the owner of the shop. He read a lot, helped him in his work. In the evenings, schoolchildren and students often came together. Their congregation was noisy. These people were very different from those with whom Alexei lived in Nizhny Novgorod. They, like him, hated the well-fed stupid life of the petty bourgeois, wanted to change the existing order. Among them were the revolutionaries who remained in Kazan after returning from the Siberian exile.

Visiting revolutionary circles

New friends lived in anxiety and worries about the future of Russia. They were worried about the fate of the Russian people. Peshkov seemed at times that his own thoughts were heard in their speeches. He participated in the meetings of the circles they conducted. However, these circles seemed to the narrator "boring". He sometimes thought he knew life better than most of his teachers. He already read about a lot of what they told about, he experienced a lot himself.

Work in pretzel Semenov

Alyosha Peshkov soon after his acquaintance with Derenkov went to work in a pretzel, which was headed by Semenov. He began to work here as an assistant baker. The institution was in the basement. Alyosha had never worked in such unbearable conditions before. I had to work 14 hours a day in mud and stupefying heat. Workers Semenov neighbors in the house were called "prisoners". Alexei Peshkov could not reconcile himself to the fact that they endure such humiliating mockery of the master-tyrant. He read to the workers secretly forbidden books from him. I wanted to give hope to these people that a completely different life is possible, Alexei Peshkov (M. Gorky). "My universities", whose summary in the format of one article can only be given in general terms, continues with the description of the secret room.

Secret room in the bakery

Alyosha from the bakery Semenov soon left to work for Derenkov, who opened a bakery. Revenues from it were supposed to be launched for revolutionary purposes. Here Alexei Peshkov puts the bread in the oven, kneads the dough, and early in the morning, stuffing a basket with rolls, carries out baking in the apartments, places the loaves in the student's canteen. All this is described by Maxim Gorky ("My Universities"). The summary, which we compiled, should make it clear to the reader that even in his youth Gorky had an interest in revolutionary activity. Therefore, we note that under his rolls were leaflets, pamphlets, books, which he gave out imperceptibly together with baking to whom follows.

The secret room was located in the bakery. People came here, for whom there was only a pretext for buying bread. The bakery soon began to call the police suspicion. Gorodovaya Nikiforych became a "kite" whirling around Alyosha. He asked him about the visitors of the bakery, and also about the books Alexei reads, invited him to his place.

Mikhail Romas

In the bakery was among many other people and Romas Michael Antonovich, nicknamed Khokhol. It was a broad-chested, big man with a thick, thick beard and a shaved head in Tartar. He usually sat in a corner and smoked a pipe silently. Mikhail Antonovich, along with the writer Korolenko, Vladimir Galaktionovich, recently returned from the Yakut exile. He settled in Krasnovidovo, a Volga village, located near Kazan. Here, Romas opened a shop in which he sold cheap goods. He also organized an artel of fishermen. This was necessary for Mikhail Antonovich to make revolutionary propaganda among the peasants unnoticeable and more convenient, which is noted by Maxim Gorky ("My Universities"). The summary carries the reader to Krasnovidovo, where Peshkov decided to go.

Alyosha goes to Krasnovidovo

In 1888, in June, on one of his visits to Kazan, Romas suggested that Alyosha go to his village in order to help in the trade. Also, Mikhail Antonovich promised to help Peshkov learn. Naturally, Maksimych, as Alexei often called now, agreed to this. He did not abandon his dreams of learning. In addition, he liked Romas - his quiet perseverance, calmness, taciturnity. Alexei was curious to know what this bogatyr is silent about.

Maksimych in a few days already was in Krasnovidovo. He had a long talk with Romas on the first evening of his arrival. The conversation was very pleasant to Alexey. Then other evenings followed, when, closing the shutters tightly, a lamp was lit in the room. Mikhail Antonovich spoke, and the peasants listened attentively. Alyosha settled in the attic, studied hard, read a lot, walked around the village, talked with local peasants.

Fire

Continues to describe the events of his life in the autobiographical novel "My Universities" Gorky. The summary of the work introduces readers to the main ones.

The local rich men and the elder to Romas were hostile, suspicious. At night, he was trapped, tried to blow up the oven in his hut, and then, by the end of the summer, burned the shop Romas with all his goods. Alyosha, when she caught fire, was in the attic and first of all rushed to save the box in which the books were. He almost burned himself, but he guessed to jump out of the window, wrapped in a sheepskin coat.

Farewell Roma

Romas soon after this fire decided to leave the village. Saying goodbye to Alyosha on the eve of his departure, he ordered him to look calmly at everything, remembering that everything passes, everything changes for the better. At that time Alexei Maksimovich was 20 years old. He was a strong, big, awkward young man with blue eyes. He grew long hair, and they did not stick out in different directions with whiskers. His gnarled, rough face could not be called beautiful. But it changed when Alexei was smiling.

Childhood: life at the Kashirins

When Peshkov, the hero of the work "My Universities" (Gorky), whose brief content interests us, was a small boy, a cheerful young worker of the Kashirins, a Gypsy woman (grandmother's grandmother), once told him that Alyosha was "small but angry". And it was really so. Peshkov was angry with his grandfather when he offended his grandmother, his comrades, if they mistreated those who were weaker, their owners for greed, for their gray, boring life. He was always ready to fight and argue, he protested against the fact that he humiliated human dignity, prevented him from living.

Gradually, Alexei began to realize that the wisdom of his grandmother was not always correct. This woman said that you need to remember the good, and forget the bad. However, Alyosha felt that we must not forget him, we must fight against him, if the bad destroys a person, spoils his life. Gradually, in his soul, attention to the man, love for him, respect for work grew. He looked everywhere for good people and was attached to them firmly when he found them. So, Alyosha was tied to his grandmother, to the merry and intelligent Gypsy, Smuroy, Vyakhir. I met good people when I worked at the fair, and at Romas, and at Derenkov, and at Semenov, Gorky ("My Universities"). The summary of the chapters introduces only the main characters, so we have not described all. Alyosha made a solemn promise to serve these people.

As always, the books helped him to understand many things in life, explained, and Alexei began to treat literature more and more seriously, more demanding. For the rest of his life, from his childhood, he carried away in his soul the joy of first acquaintance with the work of Lermontov, Pushkin, with special affection always remembered grandmother's songs, tales ...

Reading the books, Alexei Peshkov dreamed of becoming like their heroes, he wanted to meet such a "simple, wise man" in his life, so that he would lead him to a clear wide path, on which there would be truth, direct and firm, like a sword.

"Universities" Gorky

Thoughts about the higher educational institution were far behind. Alyosha did not manage to do that. "My universities" (the summary does not replace the work itself) ends with a description of how he "traveled about life" instead of studying at the university, recognized people, got knowledge in circles of revolutionary youth, thought a lot and believed more and more that a person Is beautiful and great. Life itself became his university. This is what he told about in his third autobiographical book, with which we acquainted the reader, describing its brief content, "My Universities." You can read the original work in about 4 hours. Recall that the autobiographical trilogy is the following novellas: "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities". The summary of the last work describes the four years of Alexey Peshkov's life.