We suggest you familiarize yourself with the autobiographical work created in 1923, read its summary. "My Universities" was written by Maxim Gorky (pictured below). The plot of the work is as follows.
Alyosha goes to Kazan. He wants to study, dreams of going to university. However, life did not work out as planned. You will learn about the future fate of Alexei Peshkov by reading a brief 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." A summary of the chapters of the first two parts of this article is not presented.
Life at the Evreinovs
Alexei understood when he arrived in Kazan that he would not have to prepare for university. The Evreinovs lived very poorly, they could not feed him. In order not to have dinner with them, he left home in the morning, looking for a job. And in bad weather, the protagonist of "My Universities" was sitting in the basement, not far from their apartment. The summary, like the story itself, is dedicated to the period of Gorky's life from 1884 to 1888.
Acquaintance with Guriy Pletnev
Often in the wasteland studying youth were going to play in the towns. Here Alyosha made friends with Guriy Pletnev, a printing employee. Having learned how hard Alyosha was living, he suggested moving to him and starting to prepare for the work of a rural teacher. However, nothing came of this venture. Alyosha found refuge in a dilapidated house inhabited by the urban poor and hungry students. Pletnev worked at night and earned 11 kopecks on the night. Alyosha was sleeping in his bunk when he went to work.
The narrator, Alexei Peshkov, ran in the mornings for boiling water to a nearby tavern. Pletnev during tea read funny poems, told the news from newspapers. Then he went to bed, and Alyosha went to the Volga pier to earn money. He carried cargo, sawed firewood. So Alyosha lived from winter to the end of summer.
Derenkov and his shop
We describe further events that make up a brief summary. “My universities” continue with the fact that in 1884, in the fall, one of the students with whom the narrator was familiar brought him to Andrei Stepanovich Derenkov. This was the owner of a grocery store. Even the gendarmes did not realize that revolutionary Stephenovitch was gathering in Andrei Stepanovich’s apartment, banned books were kept in his closet.
Alyosha quickly made friends with the owner of the shop. He read a lot, helped him in his work. In the evenings, high school students and students often met. Their gathering was noisy. These people were very different from those with whom Alex lived in Nizhny. They, like him, hated the well-fed dumb life of the bourgeoisie, wanted to change the existing order. Among them were revolutionaries who remained to live in Kazan after returning from Siberian exile.
Visiting revolutionary circles
New acquaintances lived in anxiety and worries about the future of Russia. They were worried about the fate of the Russian people. It sometimes seemed to Peshkov that his own thoughts were heard in their speeches. He participated in the meetings of the circles that they held. However, these circles seemed to the narrator "boring." He sometimes thought that he knew life better than most of his teachers. He had already read about a lot of what they were talking about, he had experienced a lot himself.
Work in a pretzel institution Semenova
Alyosha Peshkov soon after meeting Derenkov joined the 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 the mud and intoxicating heat. Workers Semenov housemates called "prisoners." Aleksey Peshkov could not accept the fact that they endure so resignedly the bullying of a master-tyrant. He read forbidden books secretly from him. I wanted to give hope to these people that a completely different life is possible, Alexey Peshkov (M. Gorky). My Universities, a brief summary of which in the form of a single article can be given only in general terms, continues with a description of the secret room.
Secret room in a bakery
Alyosha from the Semenov bakery soon left to work for Derenkov, who opened a bakery. The income from it was supposed to be spent on revolutionary goals. Here Aleksey Peshkov puts bread in the oven, kneads the dough, and early in the morning, having stuffed a basket with rolls, carries the pastries to the apartments, takes the rolls to the student canteen. All this is described by Maxim Gorky ("My Universities"). The summary that we have compiled should make it clear to the reader that already in his youth, Gorky developed an interest in revolutionary activity. Therefore, we note that under the rolls there were leaflets, brochures, books, which he handed out unnoticed, along with pastries to whom should be.
The secret room was located in a bakery. People came here for whom there was only an excuse to buy bread. This bakery soon began to arouse suspicion among the police. City Nikiforych became a "kite circling" near Alyosha. He asked him about the visitors to the bakery, as well as about the books that Alexey reads, invited him to his place.
Mikhail Romas
Among the many other people, there was Romas Mikhail Antonovich, nicknamed Khokhol , in the bakery . He was a broad-chested, large man with a thick bushy beard and a Tatar shaved head. He usually sat in the corner and silently smoked a pipe. Mikhail Antonovich, along with writer Korolenko Vladimir Galaktionovich, recently returned from the Yakut exile. He settled in Krasnovidov, a Volga village not far from 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 in order to quietly and more conveniently carry out revolutionary propaganda among the peasants, as noted by Maxim Gorky ("My Universities"). The summary takes the reader to Krasnovidovo, where Peshkov decided to go.
Alyosha goes to Krasnovidovo
In 1888, in June, in one of his visits to Kazan, Romas suggested that Alyosha go to his village in order to help him with trade. Also, Mikhail Antonovich promised to help Peshkov learn. Naturally, Maksimych, as Alexey was often called now, agreed to this. He did not give up his dreams of learning. In addition, he liked Romas - his quiet tenacity, calmness, silence. Alexei was curious to find out what this hero was silent about.
Maksimych was already in Krasnovidov a few days later. He talked for a long time with Romas on the first evening upon arrival. Alexei really liked the conversation. 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 got a job in the attic, studied diligently, read a lot, walked around the village, talked with local peasants.
Fire
He continues to describe the events of his life in the autobiographical story "My Universities" Gorky. The summary of the work introduces readers to the main ones.
Local rich people and elders were hostile, suspicious of Romasy. At night he was trapped, they tried to blow up a stove in his hut, and then, by the end of the summer, they burnt the shop of 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.
Parting words
Romas soon after this fire decided to leave the village. Saying goodbye to Alyosha on the eve of departure, he ordered him to look calmly at everything, remembering that everything was passing, everything was changing for the better. At that time, Alexei Maksimovich was 20 years old. He was a strong, big, clumsy young man with blue eyes. He grew long hair, and they did not stick out in different directions already in swirls. His skinny, rude face could not be called beautiful. But it changed when Alex smiled.
Childhood: life with the Kashirins
When Peshkov, the hero of the work “My Universities” (Gorky), the summary of which we are interested in, was a little boy, the cheerful young worker of the Kashirins, Tsyganok (grandmother's adoptive), once told him that Alyosha was “small and angry”. And that was really so. Peshkov was angry at his grandfather when he offended his grandmother, at his comrades, if they mistreated those who were weaker, at their masters for greed, for their gray, boring life. He was always ready to fight and argue, protested against what humiliated human dignity, interfered with life.
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 the bad to forget. However, Alyosha felt that he must not be forgotten, he must be fought with if bad destroys a person and spoils his life. Gradually, in his soul grew attention to a man, love for him, respect for work. He sought good people everywhere and became attached to them when he found them. So, Alyosha was attached to his grandmother, to the cheerful and clever Gypsy, to Smuriy, to Vyakhir. I met good people even when I worked at the fair, and with Romas, and with Derenkov, and with Semenov, Gorky ("My Universities"). A 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, books helped him understand a lot in life, explained, and Alexei began to take literature more seriously, more demanding. For all his life since childhood, he took away in his soul the joy of the first acquaintance with the works of Lermontov, Pushkin, with special tenderness he always recalled grandmother’s songs, fairy tales ...
Reading books, Alexei Peshkov dreamed of becoming like their heroes, he also wanted to meet such a “simple, wise man” in his life that he would lead him on a clear, wide path, on which there would be truth, direct and firm, like a sword.
Gorky Universities
Thoughts about a higher education institution are far behind. And it was not possible to enter Alyosha there. "My Universities" (a brief summary will not replace the work itself) ends with a description of how he "wandered through life" instead of studying at the university, recognized people, received knowledge in circles of revolutionary-minded youth, thought a lot and believed more and more that people beautiful and great. Life itself has become his university. This is what he told about in his third autobiographical book, with which we introduced the reader, describing its brief content, “My Universities”. You can read the original work in about 4 hours. Recall that the autobiographical trilogy consists of the following stories: "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities". A summary of the last work describes 4 years of life of Alexei Peshkov.