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Maxim Gorky Birth name: Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov (1868 – 1936) Around 1900 Ivanova A.V. UKP at Correctional Colony No. 2 in the village of Talitsy
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The novel “Foma Gordeev” (1899) M. Gorky’s novel “Foma Gordeev” presents a broad picture of Russian life, of which the author himself was a contemporary. M. Gorky shows the merchant environment at the turn of the century. The hero is unusual: he breaks with his surroundings, violently and tragically protests against lies and hypocrisy, tries to find his own path, his “I” in life. In the end, he becomes an alcoholic and can become an inhabitant of a flophouse, similar to the one that the author showed in the play “At the Lower Depths.” Ivanova A.V. UKP at Correctional Colony No. 2 in the village of Talitsy
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Father's instructions You need to feel sorry for people... you do that well! Only - you need to feel sorry with reason... First, look at the person, find out what good he is, what good is he? And if you see someone who is strong and capable of action, be sorry, help him. And if someone is weak, incapable of doing anything, spit on him, pass by. ...you help someone who is resilient in trouble.... He may not ask you for your help, so you guess it yourself, and help him without his asking. You can’t live alone without friendship... try to be friends with those who are better, smarter than you... Try not to be fake, but to be real... Don’t be worse than others in science... Honor God and your parents! ….books alone are not enough: one must also know how to use them… This must be learned from life itself… A person must take care of himself for his business and know the path to his business firmly… ….You are in sin, you are also responsible… Live honestly and firmly... Don’t covet someone else’s, take care of your own...
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Instructions from Yakov Mayakin: Live fearlessly and do what you are assigned to do. But man is appointed to organize life on earth... ... no one, brother, acts at a loss if he is smart... ...Why do we need to fix a house if we didn’t live in it and it’s not ours? Wouldn’t it be smarter if we stood on the sidelines and stood and watched for the time being... Life... is very simply put: either bite everyone, or lie in the mud... ...The merchant in the state is the first force, because he has millions with him. Ivanova A.V. UKP at Correctional Colony No. 2 in the village of Talitsy
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Lyubov Mayakina about the meaning of life ... every day I am more and more convinced that living is difficult... What should I do? Going to get married? For whom? For a merchant who will rob people all his life, drink, and play cards? Don't want! I want to be a person... I am a person because I already understand how badly life works. Study? Will my father let me... Run? I don't have enough courage... What should I do? Ivanova A.V. UKP at Correctional Colony No. 2 in the village of Talitsy
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Something is growing in my soul... Ivanova A.V. UKP at IK-2 in the village of Talitsy Debts must be paid... A visible court is needed... So that people can understand... And what joy does it (money) bring to a person? Don’t swear behind your back, but swear straight into your eyes... - A cockroach crawls - and it knows where and why it needs to, but what do you do? Where are you going?.. Is it possible for a person with a soul to live the way you live? There is a fire burning in my soul... there is shame in it... And I also feel that something is growing in my soul... Against everyone! ... Against falsehood!..! Gordeev and Mayakin Gordeev and Sasha
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Where is my place? Ivanova A.V. UKP at IK-2 in the village of Talitsy, Foma, handsome and slender, in a short drape jacket and high boots, stood leaning his back against the mast, and, pinching his beard with a trembling hand, admired the work. The noise around him made him want to shout, tinker with the men, chop down wood, carry heavy things, command - to make everyone pay attention to him and show everyone his strength, dexterity, living soul in itself. But he restrained himself and stood silently, motionless: he was ashamed. He is the boss of everyone here, and if he starts working on his own, no one will believe that he is working simply out of desire, and not in order to push them along, to show them an example... “Where is my place?” he thought gloomily. Where is my business?.."
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This kind of work needs to be done... Ivanova A.V. UKP at IK-2 in the village of Talitsa Having reached the handle of the gate, he swung his chest against it and, without feeling pain, began to roar around the gate, powerfully resting his feet on the deck... For the first time in his life he experienced such an inspiring feeling and all with the strength of his hungry soul he swallowed it, got drunk on it and poured out his joy in loud, jubilant shouts in harmony with the workers... “We need to do such work,” he said, moving his eyebrows, “so that a thousand years later people will say: these are Bogorodsk men done... yes!..
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My soul hurts! Ivanova A.V. Foma felt that the newly arising excitement would not last long in him. Some worm was sucking his heart... - If you feel sick, it means you want something... What do you want? - I do not know! - Foma answered sadly, shaking his head... - I don’t want to go on a spree... Everything is the same: people, and fun, and wine... I’m becoming angry - so I would beat everyone... I don’t like people. .. You just can’t understand why they live? ...it's hard to speak so that people understand you... it's hard! - My soul hurts! - ...And that’s why it hurts because it’s not reconciled!
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But he could not break out of the shackles of his wealth... Ivanova A.V. UKP at IK-2 in the village of Talitsy So Foma lived day after day, cherishing the vague hope of moving somewhere to the edge of life, out of this hustle and bustle. ...he wanted to scream, howl like a beast, to scare all the people - to stop their senseless fuss, to pour something of his own into the noise and bustle of life, to say something loud, firm words, to direct them all in one direction, and not against each other... He imagined himself outside the hollow in which people were seething; he saw himself firmly on his feet and dumb. He could shout to people: “How are you living? Aren’t you ashamed?” But if they, hearing his voice, ask: “How should one live?” He understood perfectly well that after such a question he would have to fly head over heels from a height, there, under the feet of people, to the millstone. The desire for freedom grew and strengthened in him. But he could not break free from the shackles of his wealth... ...he understood that the old man was pressing him in order to turn him on his own path. ... then he made peace with it and continued his reckless, drunken life,
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What should you do to be satisfied with yourself? Ivanova A.V. UKP at IK-2 in the village of Talitsy - ... what you need to do to live in peace ... that is, to be satisfied with yourself. - You must always live in love with something that is not accessible to you... A person becomes taller because he reaches upward... - There are two of us... rejected from life... We both want... the same thing ... attention to people... happiness in feeling needed by people... Gordeev and feuilletonist Yezhov
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Deceivers... Ivanova A.V. UKP at IK-2 in the village of Talitsy There were about thirty of them, all respectable people, the flower of the local merchants... Here is Lup Reznikov, he began his career as a landlord brothel... Kononov, about twenty years ago, was tried for arson, and now he is also under investigation for child molestation... ... Among these people there is almost not a single one about whom Foma does not know something criminal... ... Many of them are in a quarrel with each other, everyone gives no mercy to one another in combat trading, everyone knows each other’s bad, dishonest deeds... But now... they merged into a dense, dark mass and stood and breathed like one person... “Deceivers.. “- he thought, encouraging himself.
Target audience: 11th grade.
Type of development: problem-based lesson in literature, group form work (two groups).
The purpose of the lesson:
The moral search for the meaning of life by the main character of Gorky’s story “Foma Gordeev”;
Reflection of the historical situation in Gorky's story; pictures of merchant life;
- “superfluous” people, their limitations and “stupidity”, “they pointed out what I should not be...”;
Develop interest in research work, be able to independently draw conclusions, generalizations, and compare.
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Problem lesson based on M. Gorky’s story “Foma Gordeev”
“You need to know what you live for...”
The target audience: Grade 11.
Development type: problem lesson in literature, group work (two groups).
The purpose of the lesson:
The moral search for the meaning of life by the main character of Gorky's story
"Foma Gordeev";
Reflection of the historical situation in Gorky's story; paintings
Merchant life;
- “superfluous” people, their limitations and “stupidity”, “they pointed out what I
Shouldn't be...";
Develop an interest in research work and be able to do it yourself
Conclusions, generalizations, compare.
What have you done? No, you didn’t create a life, but a prison...
You did not create order - you forged chains for a person.
It’s stuffy, cramped, there’s nowhere for a living soul to turn.
A man is dying!
Gorky M. “Foma Gordeev”
No, I'll choose my own place.
Gorky M. “Foma Gordeev”
Revealing the topic of the lesson, proving the correctness of the chosen epigraphs,
determine the purpose of the lesson.
(Search for the meaning of life, your “I”, your place in it)
Gorky's story "Foma Gordeev" (1899) presents a broad picture of Russian life, a contemporary of which the author himself was. The writer is always
were concerned about human needs. The most important thing is that the desire is close to him
to a full-blooded, happy life. Most heroes don't implement
this is an aspiration. This is perceived as a personality drama. A Hero's Striving
to a full-blooded life is embodied by Gorky in the story “Foma Gordeev”.
The hero protests against lies and hypocrisy, he is oppressed by a “crowded” life, he is looking for
he is capable of doing things, trying to find his way in life, his “I”. In the end
becomes an alcoholic and can very easily become an inhabitant of a flophouse similar to the one
which Gorky showed in the play “At the Lower Depths”
Each group conducted its own searches, made conclusions about the story within the framework of the topic, and now you are given the right to defend your assignments.
Group 1 - Chapter 1 p.47-49(student of Kuznetsov)
Gorky begins his story with a story about Thomas’s father, Ignat Gordeev.
Why? What does this give us for understanding the image of the main character?
Tell us about him (about your father) (origin, social status, lifestyle,
Distinctive character traits) and about the mother.
What does Ignat Gordeev have in common with Dikiy and Kabanova from Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm”? What difference did you see?
The rebellious spirit of his parents was most evident in Thomas. The parents did not yet realize what was bothering them. What is happening around makes Thomas think about what place is destined for him in life, i.e. what his own “I” is like in life. The painful question about the meaning of life could have arisen before the father and mother if they had lived
They are at a different, later time.
Answer to question 2. Thomas’s father gave him his first life lessons. He often said to Foma: “We must teach you how to live.”
One day a dreamy boy got on a ship with his father, where in front of him
turned around new life. He looked at everything with wide eyes, it seemed to him that he was moving along a wide path into a wonderful land of fairy tales. About
He asked his father to everyone, and he explained it to him as best he could. One day a boy relayed a conversation between the pilot and the crew about his father. And Ignat then decided that it was time
teach my son life.
There was something clear and understandable in his father’s stories; Foma liked that his father
strong, dexterous. His heart beat strongly and hotly. Since then, he became more attentive to his surroundings, he felt everything keenly, everything that worried his soul aroused in him new vague sensations and desires. Co.
Foma treated everything seriously and thoughtfully. With his vague character, dreaminess, curiosity, and thoughtfulness, he resembled his mother. He felt something special in himself that distinguished him from his peers, but he also could not understand what it was? And he watched himself suspiciously. It influenced
on him, but did not clearly and definitely define his life path.
Already the first lessons of life make Thomas think about his own purpose and cause him to strive to live not according to orders.
Who gives Thomas the first serious lessons in life?
Father
What was the science of life taught to Thomas by his father? Was the young man able to accept
Her?
Life lessons?!
Father
“We need to teach you”...You are their master, they are yours
live" servants, so you know..."
Several rules are read out, Each member of the group reads out
given by the father. according to 1 teaching chapter (2,3 pp.26,27,
(Student response) 29,30,37).
Generalization. The main thing that Father Thomas taught was to be a master, to achieve one’s own, regardless of the means. Dreamy and thoughtful Thomas, rejecting the established rules of life, begins to search for his place in life.
In what works have we encountered the lessons of our fathers? What did they teach?
Pushkin A.S. " Captain's daughter" - “Take care of your honor from a young age", Gogol N.V. " Dead Souls- “save a penny...”
Is Ignat's morality close to Thomas?
He listened and became more attentive. He protests (although the protest is still spontaneous).
Task for group 2.
Life lessons continue.
Who else had a strong influence on Thomas? Who tried in their own way
Turn Thomas? (godfather, Yakov Mayakin).
What did Yakov Mayakin teach his godson?
Complementing the scheme
“I will teach you, Thomas”
Ch. Ш, 1У, У, Х., chapter 4 pp. 76,78,80,90,93, chapter 5 pp. 93-94,95
How does the relationship between Yakov Mayakin and Foma Gordeev and at the same time the merchant life and activities of Foma end? Growing hostility between them.
Does Thomas accept the lessons of Jacob's life?
Rejects
Foma, as he said, wanted to be like a person. He felt a deep hostility towards Mayakin, because... does not accept his life principles.
He did not feel any joy either from money or from his activities.
At first there is an internal break, and after the meeting on the ship - a final, open break. He feels strong, capable of something
big.
4. What is the meaning for understanding
The ideological content of the story is the scene of the merchant party on the ship
Merchant Kononov?
What is the merchant class like? What are they teaching Thomas?
Did this bring satisfaction to Thomas?
a) Gorky paints more and more vividly pictures of how he “beats furiously”, how he “searches for
A person can do things, but little things knock him down.” Foma Gordeev -
A person who has entered into a struggle with his environment. Like in Gogolevsky
"The Inspector General" on the boat - the stage passes through images of all the colors of the city.
Foma's speech, as if on a screen, mutilates the essence of everyone.
b) – Read out the speech of Mayakin and Thomas (dramatization) ch. 13 pp. 229-233
c) (students’ answer)
d) – Thomas’s speech is accusatory, he tells the truth to everyone. Is it always
Is it pleasant to hear the truth? (No)
Thomas is contrasted with other merchants, these ignoble money collectors. He is superior to his own kind because he “protests” and “convicts,” and
does not follow the laws, their truth.
What do they teach?
to question 4
We read the ending of the story - a gala dinner in honor of the launching of Kononov's steamship Ilya Muromets. Before us is a whole gallery of images of merchants. The power of the city’s owners is not limited, they speak openly about their position, striving to be the first everywhere - Mayakin, Kononov, Shchurov, Gushchin, Bobrov, etc., and some even without a name or surname. I feel some kind of anxiety. And in front of these people, Thomas makes his accusatory speech. He is filled with contradictory feelings (to say which ones) Chapter 13. But the spilled truth does not bring relief to Thomas; it “crushed” the accuser. And instead of a moral victory, he now seemed like a stranger to himself and did not understand what he had done to these people and why. Merchants cannot understand him, because... They are possessed only by the thirst for profit by any means, acquisitiveness, and inertia. This is how they teach Thomas to be. He found himself alone. The merchants do not understand Thomas because their morality is Thomas. He does not find a single living soul capable of understanding him, giving him even a drop of love.
5. In the story, in addition to Foma, Gorky draws images of several other young
people who came from the same merchant environment, the same age as Thomas. Why does the author talk about Lyuba M., Afrikan Smolin, Nikolai Yezhov?
Are they trying to teach Thomas something?
How does Thomas’ character manifest itself in his interactions with different people?
(answer) Thomas strives to get as close as possible to people who cause him
he has a keen interest.
Stories about Thomas's peers.
They are all different, he is disappointed in all of them, he feels their emptiness, but wants to see the truth in them. He is afraid that there is this truth, that there is something so unknown. Foma tries to understand why he lives, but does not find an answer. Gorky knew that there are values in a person, the loss of which is the moral death of a person.
In communicating with different people. Thomas's character manifests itself in different ways. He
Disdainful of the poor, while stealing an apple, he first felt the power over people and the power of money. Oddities of character manifest themselves in many ways; he is dreamy and loves to engage in soul-searching. He is interested and curious in comparing the people he meets with himself. They are all trying to teach Thomas something, but he strives to live not according to orders, but is looking for “himself,” his place in life (remember the episode with himself).
Generalization. All these images are given to compare with the main character. Some of them have come to terms with the surrounding reality. Dissatisfaction with their life is a temporary phenomenon. They are more educated, but their predatory nature is covered up by expensive clothes and good external manners. But the principles of life, their philosophy remained the same.
Foma quickly realized the empty ringer and Emelya Yezhov that he was too far from the people about whom he constantly talks.
Only Thomas went completely against the wolf laws of his environment. Romantic ideas about life came across real life, the laws of which he cannot understand and explain, but does not want to live by them.
Angrily, as best he can, he protests against lies and hypocrisy, tries to find his place in life, his “I”, in order to feel like a man. He is trying
find people who live and think differently.
Unable to find such people, he pours wine on his suffering soul, sees no way out of the dead end of life, and has lost faith in everyone and everything.
Thus, Thomas replenishes the gallery of extra people.
Name them. Who are they?
(Mtsyri, Evgeny Onegin, Pechorin, Bazarov, etc.)
Suggest a possible future for Thomas, taking into account the historical process
This time.
When was the story written? What time is this?
1899
Conclusion: At the turn of the century, a hero like Thomas is not typical either as a merchant or as a representative of his class, he is only a healthy person who wants a free life, who is cramped within the framework of modernity. He never found his path, his “I”. At the turn of the century, there was no person who could help Thomas find his “I”; he was a like-minded person. Challenging his class, accusing it of the fact that there is no life for a living soul, choosing his own path, Thomas never found it (the path).
Did Gorky manage to show such a person?
And why?
(didn’t study, didn’t read, he didn’t do anything)
Did Thomas know what he lived for? What is it created for?
Here Yezhov and Smolin found their “I”; they did not have the same perception of life as Foma.
You, too, are now standing on the threshold of life, you must choose your path, your
The road of life. We shouldn't be like Thomas, we need to immediately put
A big, bright goal in life.
Homework:
1. Make a table diagram “Image system of the heroes of the story in relation to
To the main character.
Annex 1.
Life lessons?!
Father
“We need to teach you how to live...”
Mayakin
“I will teach you, Thomas.”
Merchants “...only we love
order and life..."
Medynskaya
"We are our lives
To your block
Must do…"
Classmates
You need to study..."
Yezhov
"You need to live
Always in love
Into anything
available to you."
Smolin
"You're a bad student."
“Stop it, darling! What
are you crazy?"
Analysis of an episode of the work "Foma Gordeev" - "The Death of Ignat"
Ignat Gordeev is a gifted and intelligent man from the people, greedy for life, “seized with an indomitable passion for work,” a former waterman, and now a rich man - the owner of three steamships and a dozen barges. “His life did not flow smoothly, along a straight channel, like other people like him, but every now and then, rebelliously boiling, rushed out of the rut, away from profit, the main goal of existence.”
The image of Ignat Gordeev very clearly shows the type of merchant-robber, whom spiritual depravity pushes towards physical depravity, and the feeling of his vileness makes him repent hysterically. “Three souls lived in Ignat’s body”: profit, debauchery, repentance.
He belonged to people who internally protested against the order of this world, although they could not resist the emerging economic relations.
One of the last words of Ignat Gordeev, his last parting words to his son: “Don’t rely on people... don’t expect much from them... We all live to take, not to give...”, clearly illustrate his attitude towards life. The way this character lived his entire life is how he died. Everything he did, he did for himself and only for himself. Even his son, whom he was waiting for so much, was for him only something that he left behind, so that his goods would not be lost, would not leave him even after his death.
Thomas's father is Ignat Gordeev, a rather rich merchant. He created his fortune himself. Having left the working environment, Ignat managed to preserve some spiritual values that had long ago lost any meaning for other merchants. However, the thirst for accumulation took over, and Ignat began to spend all his energy on creating capital. “But, giving so much energy to this pursuit of the ruble, he was not greedy in the narrow sense of the concept and even, sometimes, revealed sincere indifference to his property.” Sometimes - “this usually happened in the spring, when everything on earth becomes so charming and beautiful and something reproachfully affectionate blows onto the soul from a clear sky - Ignat Gordeev seemed to feel that he was not the master of his body, but its low slave.” Then Ignat went on reckless sprees. On such days, “it seemed like he was furiously tearing at the chains that he had bound and carried around himself, tearing at them and being powerless to break them.” This protest soon ended, and the thirst for money took over. Such impulses did not bring anything new to Ignat’s soul, and nothing changed in his life.
Of course, despite the brevity of the episode, the scene of Ignat’s death is an extremely important and striking part of the work.
The death of his father greatly influenced the life of the main character, Foma Gordeev, changed its usual course, and, in addition, it was the description of death that once again emphasized the character of Ignat Gordeev himself, and the events that developed after it showed the character of his son.
Ignat passes on his rebellious spirit to his son, and it develops much stronger in him. In his childhood, when Aunt Anfisa reads fairy tales to him, robbers become Foma’s favorite heroes; he even counts his father among them as a child. Having become a little older, Foma naturally stops believing in fairy tales, but his favorite pastimes are “robber raids” into neighbor’s orchards for apples, into which “he puts his heart more than into all other adventures and games.” But life gradually takes its toll, and reality breaks into the wonderful world of childhood. And she bursts in very rudely: his father is dying. After this, life begins to “tug at him from all sides, not allowing him to concentrate on his thoughts.” He remains alone: he did not trust anyone as much as his father, even Mayakin, although in words he could not disagree with him, in his soul he opposed almost everything that he said. And now there was simply no one to guide him. He is surrounded mostly by people who are either weak, broken by life, or dishonest, or mean and cowardly. There is no one among them who could show Thomas his “path,” although among them there are those whose fate is very similar to the fate of Thomas. This is Lyubov Mayakina, his godsister, and his school friend Yezhov. Lyubov tried to find the meaning of life in books, but she read them randomly and superficially; as a result, her own concepts were blurred, and she did not have new ones, as such. Yezhov had a slightly different situation: he received a good education, became a feuilletonist writer, but life has battered him so much that he does not have the strength to move on, and he is no longer interested in almost anyone except himself. As a result, he, too, cannot help Foma.
The death of Thomas's father was a kind of turning point in the narrative, a transition for the main character to a new stage in his life, and this is precisely one of the main reasons for the importance of this scene.
In my opinion, Ignat Gordeev is far from the least of the characters in the work. This is a typical hero, through the description of whose life, partly its contrast with the lives of other merchants, Gorky was able to show the morals and habits of the merchants of his time. In addition, the description of the life of Ignat Gordeev helps to further understand the character and feelings of Thomas himself.
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Foma Gordeev
The action of the story takes place in a city on the Volga, in late XIX- early 20th century.
About sixty years ago, Ignat Gordeev served as a waterman on one of the barges of the rich merchant Zaev. Strong, handsome and intelligent, he was one of those people who do not think about the choice of means and do not know any other law than their desire. At the age of forty, Ignat Gordeev himself was the owner of three steamships and a dozen barges.
On the Volga he was respected as a rich man, but they gave him the nickname “Shaly”, because his life did not flow in a straight direction, but every now and then it boiled over rebelliously, rushing out of the rut. It was as if three souls lived in Ignat’s body. One of them, the most powerful, was greedy, and when Ignat obeyed her, he became a man gripped by an indomitable passion for work. But, devoting a lot of energy to the pursuit of the ruble, he was not petty, and sometimes showed sincere indifference to his property.
From time to time, usually in the spring, a second soul woke up in him - the violent and lustful soul of an animal irritated by hunger. It was as if a volcano of dirt was boiling inside him, he drank, debauched, got others drunk and lived like this for weeks. Then he would suddenly come home, meek and dumb as a sheep, listen to his wife’s reproaches and stand on his knees for several hours in a row in front of the images - this was the third soul taking power over him.
But in all three phases of Ignat’s life, one passionate desire did not leave him - to have a son. His wife, a fat, well-fed woman, bore him four daughters during their nine years of marriage, but they all died in infancy. After each birth, Ignat took pleasure in beating his wife because she did not bear him a son.
One day, while on business in Samara, he received news of his wife’s death. Ignat instructed godfather Mayakin to bury her, then served a memorial service in the church and decided to get married as soon as possible. At that time he was forty years old. There was much healthy and rugged beauty throughout his powerful figure. Less than six months had passed since Ignat married Natalya Fominishna, the daughter of a Ural Cossack Old Believer. He loved his tall, slender, beautiful wife and was proud of her, but soon began to look carefully at her. Natalya was thoughtful and indifferent to everything; nothing interested this strange woman. She was always thoughtful and distant, as if she was looking for some meaning in her life, but could not find it. Only godfather Mayakin, a clever and joker, sometimes made her smile palely.
When Natalya announced her pregnancy, Ignat began to follow his wife like a small child. Pregnancy made Natalia even more focused and silent. She could not bear the difficult birth and died, giving birth to Ignat's long-awaited son. Ignat christened his son Foma and gave him to the family of his godfather Mayakin, whose wife had also recently given birth. Mayakin lived in a huge two-story house, the windows of which were shaded by mighty old linden trees, which is why the rooms were always in strict twilight.
The family was pious - the smell of wax and incense filled the house, repentant sighs and prayerful words were carried in the stuffy atmosphere, female figures in dark dresses silently moved around the rooms. The family of Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin consisted of himself, his wife Antonina Ivanovna, a daughter and five relatives, the youngest of whom was thirty-four years old.
Mayakin also had a son, Taras, but his name was not mentioned in the family - Yakov disowned his son after he left for Moscow and married there against his father’s will. Yakov Mayakin - thin, nimble, with a fiery red beard - was the owner of a rope factory and had a shop in the city. Among the merchants, he enjoyed respect and fame as a “brain” man and was very fond of recalling the antiquity of his family.
Foma Gordeev lived in this family for six years. The big-headed, broad-chested boy seemed older than his six years both in height and in the serious look of his almond-shaped dark eyes. Foma tinkered with toys all day long with Mayakin's daughter, Lyuba. Foma lived amicably with the girl, and quarrels and fights strengthened the children’s friendship even more. Thomas's life was monotonous, his only entertainment was reading the Bible in the evenings.
Until the age of six, the boy had not heard a single fairy tale. Soon Ignat summoned his sister Anfisa, and the boy was taken to his father’s house. Anfisa, a funny, tall old woman with a long hooked nose and a large mouth without teeth, did not like the boy at first, but then he saw tenderness and affection in her black eyes.
This old woman introduced Thomas into a new world, still unknown to him. Every night he fell asleep to the velvety sounds of Anfisa’s voice telling a fairy tale, of which she had an inexhaustible supply. Thomas was afraid of his father, but he loved him. Because of his enormous height and trumpet voice, Thomas considered his father a fabulous robber and was very proud of it.
When Thomas was eight years old, Ignat instructed his sister to teach him to read and write. The boy mastered the alphabet very easily, and soon he was reading the Psalter. Foma's life rolled forward easily. Being his teacher, his aunt was also his playmate. The sun shone kindly and joyfully on the old, worn-out body, which retained a young soul within itself, old life, who, to the best of her ability and ability, decorated the life path of children. Sometimes Ignat came home drunk, but Foma was not afraid of him. And if Foma was not well, his father would drop everything and stay at home, boring his sister with stupid questions.
Spring came - and, fulfilling his promise, Ignat took his son with him on the ship. A new life unfolded before Foma. He spent whole days on the captain's bridge next to his father, looking at the endless panorama of the shores, and it seemed to him that he was traveling along a silver path to those fairy-tale kingdoms where sorcerers and heroes lived.
But wonderful kingdoms did not appear. Cities floated by, exactly the same as the one in which Thomas lived. opened up before him real life, and Thomas was a little disappointed with her. He began to look into the distance less often and not so persistently with the questioning gaze of his black eyes. The ship's crew loved the boy, and he loved these nice guys who fussed with him when Ignat went into town on business.
Once in Astrakhan, when fuel was being loaded onto the ship, Foma heard the driver scolding Ignat for his greed. In the evening, Foma asked his father if he was really greedy, and told him the driver’s words. In the morning the boy found out that there was a new driver on the ship. After this, Foma felt that he was disturbing everyone; the sailors looked at him unkindly. The incident with the driver awakened in the boy a desire to understand what threads and springs control the actions of people.
If you see a strong, capable person, have pity, help him. “And if someone is weak, not inclined to work, spit on him, pass by,” Ignat told his son, and then he talked about his youth, about people and their terrible strength and weakness.
In the fall, Thomas was sent to school. On the first day school life Foma singled out two boys from among them who seemed more interesting to him than the others. Fat, red-haired African Smolin was the son of a tanner, and small, nimble and smart Nikolai Yezhov was the son of a watchman from the government chamber, a poor man. Yezhov was the first student in the class, he let Foma and Smolin copy homework in exchange for food. Ignat did not see much benefit in teaching.
You have to learn from life itself,” he said. - A book is a dead thing. And life, as soon as you take the wrong step, will scream at you with a thousand voices, and even hit you, knock you off your feet.
On Sundays, the guys gathered at Smolin's, chased pigeons and raided other people's gardens. Thomas poured his heart into such robber raids more than into all other adventures and games, and behaved with courage and recklessness, which amazed and angered his comrades. The danger of being caught in the act of crime did not frighten him, but excited him.
So, day after day, Thomas’ life, not rich in excitement, slowly unfolded. The boy’s soul was still a quiet lake, and everything that touched him disappeared, briefly disturbing the sleepy water. After spending five years in the district school, Foma graduated from four classes and emerged as a brave, black-haired guy, with a dark face and large dark eyes that looked thoughtfully and naively.
Lyubov Mayakina at that time was studying in the fifth grade of some boarding school. When she met Foma on the street, she condescendingly nodded her head at him. Lyuba knew some high school students, and although Yezhov was among them, Foma was not attracted to them; in their company he felt embarrassed. However, he did not want to study.
“I’ll be in my place even without science,” Foma said mockingly. - Let the hungry study, I don’t need it.
Thomas began to learn the beauty of loneliness and the sweet poison of dreams. Sitting somewhere in a corner, he conjured up before him images of fairy-tale princesses, they appeared in the form of Lyuba and other young ladies he knew. He wanted to cry, he was ashamed of tears, and yet he cried quietly. Father patiently and carefully introduced Foma into the circle of trading affairs, took him with him to the stock exchange, and talked about the characters of his comrades. And yet, even at nineteen years old there was something childish and naive in Foma that distinguished him from his peers.
As if he was waiting for something, like there was some kind of veil before his eyes. His mother groped on the ground in the same way,” Ignat said sadly, and soon decided to try his son in action.
In the spring, Ignat sent Thomas with two barges of bread to the Kama. The barges were driven by the steamship "Prilegny", commanded by Efim Ilyich, a judicious and strict captain. Having sailed in April, the ship already arrived at its destination in early May. The barges stood opposite the village, and early in the morning a noisy crowd of women and men arrived to unload grain. Foma looked at the deck, covered with a briskly working crowd of people, and then the face of a woman with black eyes smiled tenderly and enticingly at him.
His heart was beating rapidly. Being physically pure, he already knew, from conversations, the secrets of a man’s intimate relationship with a woman, but he hoped that there was something purer, less rude and offensive to a person. Now, admiring the dark-eyed worker, Foma felt precisely a rough attraction to her; it was shameful and scary.
Efim noticed this and arranged for Foma to meet the worker. A few days later, a cart drove up to the shore and on it the black-eyed Palageya with a chest and some things. Efim tried to object, but Foma shouted at him, and the captain submitted - he was one of those people who like to feel a master over them. Soon the barge sailed to Perm.
The passion that flared up in Thomas burned out everything clumsy from him and filled his heart with young pride, consciousness of his human personality. This hobby, however, did not distract him from his work; it aroused him with equal strength thirst for work and love. Palageya treated him with the intensity of feeling that women of her age invest in their hobbies. She was truly selfless.
Foma was already thinking about marrying Palageya when he received a telegram from his godfather: “Leave as a passenger immediately.” A few hours later, pale and gloomy Foma stood on the gallery of the ship leaving the pier, and looked into the face of his sweetheart, sailing away from him into the distance. A caustic feeling of resentment against fate arose in his soul. He was too spoiled by life to take it easy on the first drop of poison in a freshly opened cup.
Foma was met by the excited Mayakin and declared that Ignat had lost his mind. It turned out that Sofya Pavlovna Medynskaya, the wife of a rich architect, known to everyone for her tirelessness in organizing various charitable undertakings, persuaded Ignat to donate seventy-five thousand for a shelter and a public library with a reading room. Sofya Pavlovna was considered the most beautiful woman city, but they spoke ill of her.
Thomas did not see anything wrong with this donation. Arriving home, he found Medynskaya there. In the front corner of the room, sitting with her elbows on the table, was a small woman with voluminous blond hair; her pale face stood out sharply with dark eyes, thin eyebrows and plump, red lips. When she silently passed by Foma, he saw that her eyes were dark blue and her eyebrows were almost black.
Once again, Foma's life flowed slowly and monotonously. His father began to treat him more strictly. Foma himself felt something special in himself that distinguished him from his peers, but he could not understand what it was and watched himself suspiciously. He had a lot of ambition, but he lived alone and did not feel the need for friends.
Foma often remembered Palageya, and at first he felt sad, but gradually her place in his dreams was taken by the small, angelic Medynskaya. In her presence, Foma felt clumsy, huge, heavy, and this offended him. Medynskaya did not arouse sensual attraction in the young man; she was incomprehensible to him. At times he felt a bottomless emptiness within himself that could not be filled with anything.
Meanwhile, Ignat became more and more restless, grouchy and increasingly complained of being unwell.
Death is guarding me somewhere nearby,” he said gloomily, but humbly. And indeed, she soon knocked his large, powerful body to the ground. Ignat died on Sunday morning without receiving absolution. The death of his father stunned Thomas. Silence poured into his soul - heavy, motionless, absorbing all the sounds of life.
He didn’t cry, didn’t grieve, and didn’t think about anything; gloomy, pale, he listened intently to this silence, which devastated his heart and, like a vice, squeezed his brain. Mayakin directed the funeral. At the wake, Foma looked with resentment in his heart at the fat lips and jaws chewing delicious dishes; he wanted to drive out all these people who had recently aroused respect in him.
What are they eating here? Did you come to the tavern or what? - Foma said loudly and angrily. Mayakin began to fuss, but he was unable to make amends for the offense. The guests began to leave.
Life tugged at Thomas from all sides, not allowing him to concentrate on his thoughts. On the fortieth day after Ignat’s death, he attended the ceremony of laying the foundation of a lodging house. The day before, Medynskaya informed him that he had been elected to the committee supervising the construction and to an honorary member of the society over which she chaired. Foma began to visit her often.
There he met the secretary of this society, Ukhtishchev. He spoke in a high tenor and his entire body - a plump, small, round-faced and cheerful talker - looked like a brand new bell. Foma listened to his chatter and felt pitiful, stupid, and funny to everyone. And Mayakin sat next to the mayor and said something briskly to him, playing with his wrinkles.
Foma understood that he had no place among these gentlemen. He was offended and sad from the realization that he could not speak as easily and as much as all these people. Lyuba Mayakina has laughed at him more than once for this. Foma did not love his godfather’s daughter, and after he learned about Mayakin’s intention to marry them, he even began to avoid meeting her. Nevertheless, after the death of his father, Foma visited the Mayakins almost every day. Soon their relationship took the form of a somewhat strange friendship.
Lyuba was the same age as Foma, but she treated him like an older woman treated a boy. At times she was simple and somehow especially friendly and affectionate towards him. But no matter how much time they spent talking, it only gave them a feeling of dissatisfaction with each other, as if a wall of misunderstanding was growing and separating them. Lyuba often persuaded Thomas to continue his studies, read more, and reproached him for his narrow-mindedness.
I don't like this. Fiction, deception,” Foma answered dissatisfied.
Lyuba was dissatisfied with her life. Her father did not allow her to study, believing that a woman’s destiny was marriage, and she did not have the courage to run away. She often repeated that she lived in prison, that she dreamed of equality and happiness for all people. Foma listened to her speeches, but did not understand, and this angered Lyuba. Godfather Mayakin instilled in Foma something completely different.
Every human deed has two faces. One in plain sight is fake, the other hidden is the real thing. “We need to find him in order to understand the meaning of the matter,” he insisted. Speaking against the construction of the shelter, Mayakin said:
Now we have come up with an idea: to lock the beggars in such special houses and so that they do not walk the streets, they would not awaken our conscience. That's why these houses are different, they are to hide the truth.
Thomas was stupefied by these speeches from his godfather. His ambivalent attitude towards Mayakin strengthened: listening to him with greedy curiosity, he felt that every meeting with his godfather increased his hostile, close to fear, feeling towards the old man. Mayakin's laughter, similar to the squeal of rusty hinges, sometimes aroused physical disgust in Foma. All this strengthened Foma’s confidence that his godfather had firmly decided to marry him to Lyuba.
He both liked Lyuba and seemed dangerous; it seemed to him that she was not living, but was delirious in reality. Foma's antics at his father's wake spread among the merchants and created an unflattering reputation for him. Rich people seemed to him greedy for money, always ready to cheat each other. But Mayakin’s monotonous speeches soon achieved their goal. Thomas listened to them and understood the purpose of life: you need to be better than others.
The ambition awakened by the old man ate deep into his heart, but did not fill it, for Thomas’s attitude towards Medynskaya took on the character that it should have taken. He was drawn to her, but in front of her he became timid, became clumsy and suffered from it. Foma treated Medynskaya with adoration; the consciousness of her superiority over him always lived in him. Medynskaya played with the young man like a cat with a mouse, and enjoyed it.
One day, Thomas and his godfather were returning from the backwater after inspecting the ships. Mayakin told Foma what kind of reputation Medynskaya had in the city.
You go to her and say directly: “I want to be your lover, I’m a young man, don’t take it dearly,” he taught his godson. At these words, Foma’s face fell, and there was a lot of heavy and bitter amazement in his longing gaze.
Foma came to the city, overwhelmed by melancholy and vengeful anger. Mayakin, having thrown Medynskaya into the mud, made her available to his godson, and the thought of the woman’s availability increased the attraction to her. He went to Vera Pavlovna, intending to tell her directly and simply what he wanted from her.
What am I to you? - she told him. - You need a different friend. I'm already an old woman. Don't listen to anyone but your heart. Live as it tells you.
Thomas walked home and seemed to be carrying this woman in his chest - her image was so bright. His house, six large rooms, was empty. Aunt Anfisa went to the monastery and, perhaps, will never return from there. He should get married, but Foma did not want to see any girl he knew as his wife.
A week has passed since the conversation with Medynskaya. Day and night her image stood before Thomas, causing an aching feeling in his heart. Work and melancholy did not prevent him from thinking about life. He began to listen sensitively to everything that people said about life, and felt that their complaints aroused distrust in him.
Silently, with a suspicious look, he looked at everyone, and a thin wrinkle cut his forehead. One day Mayakin sent Thomas on business to Anania Savvich Shchurov, a large timber merchant. There were terrible rumors about this tall old man with a long gray beard.
They said that he sheltered a convict in his bathhouse, who worked counterfeit money for him, and then killed him and burned him along with the bathhouse. Foma also knew that Shchurov had outlived two wives, then he took his wife away from his son, and when his daughter-in-law-lover died, he took a mute beggar girl into his house and she gave birth to a stillborn child. Going to Shchurov, Foma felt that he had become strangely interesting to him.
Shchurov had a bad opinion of Mayakin and called him a damned pharmacist.
At your age, Ignat was as clear as glass,” Shchurov said to Foma. - And I look at you - I don’t see - what are you? And you yourself, guy, don’t know this, and that’s why you’ll disappear.
That evening, Foma went to the club and met Ukhtishchev there. From him, Foma learned that Sofya Pavlovna was going abroad tomorrow for the whole summer. Some fat and mustachioed man intervened in their conversation and spoke ill of Medynskaya, calling her a cocotte. Foma growled quietly, grabbed the curly hair of the mustachioed man and began to roll him around the floor, experiencing burning pleasure.
At these moments he experienced a feeling of liberation from the boring heaviness that had long been oppressing him. Foma was forcibly torn away from this man, who turned out to be the son-in-law of the vice-governor. However, this did not frighten Thomas. Everything that Foma did that evening aroused Ukhtishchev’s great interest in him. He decided to shake things up and entertain the guy and took him to his familiar young ladies.
On the third day after the scene at the club, Foma found himself seven miles from the city, on the forest pier of the merchant Zvantsev in the company of this merchant’s son, Ukhtishchev, some gentleman with sideburns and four ladies. Foma's lady was a slender, dark-skinned brunette with wavy hair named Alexandra. Foma had been partying with them for three days already, and still couldn’t stop.
His outrages were written about in the newspaper. Yakov Mayakin scolded him last words, but couldn't stop it. Love listened silently to her father. As she grew older, she changed her attitude towards the old man. Lyuba saw his loneliness and her feelings for her father became warmer. Mayakin told Lyuba about writers:
Russia is confused, and there is nothing stable in it, everything is shaken! People have been given great freedom to think, but they are not allowed to do anything - because of this, a person does not live, but rots and stinks. The girl was silent, stunned by her father’s speeches, unable to object or free herself from them. She felt that he was turning her away from what seemed so simple and bright to her.
That same morning, Efim, the captain of the Ermak, came to Mayakin. He reported that drunken Thomas ordered him to be tied up, took control of the barge himself and crashed it. After this, Efim asked to be released, saying that he could not live without his owner.
Foma recalled what he had experienced in recent months, and it seemed to him that he was being carried somewhere by a cloudy, hot stream. Among the hustle and bustle of revelry, Sasha alone was always calm and even. Foma was attracted by some secret hidden in this woman, and at the same time he felt that he did not love her, that he did not need her. Parting with Foma, Sasha told him:
You have a difficult character. Boring. You were born from exactly two fathers.
Foma watched as they pulled the barge out of the river and thought: “Where is my place? Where is my business? He saw himself as the odd man out among people who were confident in their strength and who were ready to lift for him several tens of thousands of pounds from the bottom of the river. Foma was overcome by a strange excitement: he passionately wanted to join in this work. Suddenly he rushed towards the gate in big leaps, pale with excitement. For the first time in his life he experienced such an inspiring feeling; he became intoxicated with it and poured out his joy in loud, jubilant shouts in harmony with the workers. But after a while this joy disappeared, leaving behind an emptiness.
The next morning, Foma and Sasha stood on the gangway of a steamship approaching the pier at Ustye. Yakov Mayakin met them at the side of the pier. Having sent Sasha to the city, Thomas went to his godfather’s hotel.
Give me complete freedom, or take my whole business into your own hands. Everything, up to the ruble!
This came out of Foma unexpectedly; he suddenly realized that he could become completely a free man. Until that moment he had been entangled in something, but now the fetters themselves fell off him so easily and simply. An anxious and joyful hope flared up in his chest. But Mayakin refused and threatened to put him in a mental hospital. Foma knew that his godfather would not regret him. Yakov Tarasovich’s self-confidence blew up Foma, he spoke, gritting his teeth:
What do you have to boast about? Where is your son? What is your daughter? Tell me - why do you live? Who will remember you?
Having said that he would spend his entire fortune, Thomas left. Yakov Mayakin was left alone, and the wrinkles on his cheeks trembled with alarm.
After this quarrel, Foma went on a spree with embitterment, full of vengeful feelings towards the people who surrounded him. Of course there were women. He laughed at them, but never raised a hand to them. Sasha left Foma and entered the care of the son of some vodka manufacturer. Foma was glad of this: he was tired of her, and her cold indifference frightened him. This is how Thomas lived, cherishing the vague hope of moving away somewhere to the edge of life, away from this hustle and bustle, and looking around.
At night, closing his eyes, he imagined a huge, dark crowd of people crowded somewhere in a basin full of dusty fog. This crowd circled in confusion in one place, noise and howling can be heard, people are crawling, crushing each other like blind people. Money flies over their heads like bats.
This picture became stronger in Thomas’s head, becoming more and more colorful each time. He wanted to stop this senseless fuss, to direct all the people in one direction, and not against each other, but he did not have the right words. The desire for freedom grew in him, but he could not escape the shackles of his wealth.
Mayakin acted in such a way that Foma felt every day the weight of the responsibilities that lay upon him, but Foma felt that he was not the master of his business, but only a small part of it. This irritated him and pushed him further away from the old man. Thomas increasingly wanted to break out of the case, at least at the cost of his death. He soon learned that his godfather had started a rumor that Thomas was out of his mind and that guardianship would have to be established over him. Thomas came to terms with this and continued his drunken life, and his godfather kept a watchful eye on him.
After a quarrel with Foma, Mayakin realized that he had no heir, and instructed his daughter to write a letter to Taras Mayakin, calling him home. Yakov Tarasovich decided to marry Lyuba to African Smolin, who studied abroad and recently returned to his hometown to start his own business.
Behind Lately Lyuba increasingly came up with the idea of marriage - she saw no other way out of her loneliness. She had long since outlived the desire to study; the books she had read left a cloudy residue in her, from which a desire for personal independence developed. She felt that life was passing her by.
And Foma was still carousing and chattering. He woke up in a small room with two windows and saw a small black man sitting at a table and scratching a pen on paper. In the little man, Foma recognized his school friend Nikolai Yezhov. After high school, Yezhov graduated from university, but did not achieve much - he became a feuilletonist in a local newspaper.
For his failures, he blamed not himself, but the people whose kindness he took advantage of. He said that there is no person on earth more disgusting and disgusting than the one who gives alms, there is no person more unhappy than the one who receives it. In Foma, Yezhov felt “great audacity of heart.” Yezhov’s speeches enriched Thomas’s language, but poorly illuminated the darkness of his soul.
Mayakin’s decision to marry off his daughter was firm, and he brought Smolin to dinner to introduce him to his daughter. Lyuba’s dreams of a husband-friend, an educated man, were strangled in her by the unyielding will of her father, and now she is getting married because it’s time. Lyuba wrote a long letter to her brother in which she begged him to return.
Taras answered dryly and briefly that he would soon be on business on the Volga and would not fail to visit his father. This businesslike coldness upset Lyuba, but the old man liked it. Lyuba thought of her brother as an ascetic who, at the cost of his youth lost in exile, gained the right to judge life and people.
Smolin has changed little - the same redhead, covered in freckles, only his mustache has grown long and lush, and his eyes seem to have become larger. Lyuba liked his manners and appearance, his education, and this seemed to make the room brighter. A timid hope for happiness flared up more and more brightly in the girl’s heart.
Having learned from Yezhov what events were happening in his godfather’s house, Thomas decided to visit him and witnessed the meeting of the father and the prodigal son. Taras turned out to be a short, thin man, similar to his father. It turned out that Taras was not in hard labor. He spent about nine months in a Moscow prison, then was exiled to Siberia for a settlement and lived for six years in the Lena mountain district. Then he started his own business, married the daughter of the owner of the gold mines, became a widower, and his children also died.
Yakov Tarasovich was unusually proud of his son. Now he saw the heir in him. Lyuba did not take her admiring eyes off her brother. Foma did not want to go to the table where three happy people were sitting; he understood that he did not belong there. Going out into the street, he felt resentment towards the Mayakins: after all, these were the only people close to him. From every impression, Thomas immediately had the thought of his inability to live, and this fell like a brick on his chest.
In the evening, Foma went to see the Mayakins again. The godfather was not at home, Lyuba and her brother were drinking tea. Foma also sat down at the table. He didn't like Taras. This man admired the British and believed that only they had real love to work. Foma said that work is not everything for a person, but then he saw that his thoughts were not interesting to Taras. Foma became bored with this indifferent man. He wanted to say something offensive to Lyubov about her brother, but he couldn’t find the words and left the house.
The next morning, Yakov Mayakin and Foma attended a gala dinner with the merchant Kononov, who was dedicating a new ship that day. There were about thirty guests, all respectable people, the cream of the local merchant class. Thomas did not find a comrade among them, and stayed away, gloomy and pale.
He was haunted by the thought of why his godfather was so kind to him today, and why he persuaded him to come here. Among these people there was almost not a single one about whom Thomas did not know something criminal. Many of them were at enmity with each other, but now they merged into one dense mass, and this repelled Thomas and aroused timidity in him in front of them.
During lunch, Yakov Tarasovich was asked to make a speech. With his usual boastful self-confidence, Mayakin began to talk about how the merchant class is the guardian of culture and the stronghold of the Russian people. Thomas could not bear it. Baring his teeth, he silently looked at the merchants with burning eyes. At the sight of his wolfishly evil face, the merchants froze for a second. Thomas looked at the faces of his listeners with inexpressible hatred and exclaimed:
It's not your life that you've made, it's a prison. You didn’t create order - you forged chains for a person. It’s stuffy, cramped, there’s nowhere for a living soul to turn. Do you understand that you live only by human patience?
One by one, the merchants began to disperse from the ship. This irritated Thomas even more: he would have liked to chain them to the spot with his words, but could not find such words in himself. And then Gordeev began to remember everything he knew about these criminal people, without missing a single one. Thomas spoke and saw that his words had a good effect on these people. Addressing everyone at once, Foma realized that his words did not touch them as deeply as he would like.
But as soon as he spoke about each individually, the attitude towards his words changed dramatically. He roared joyfully, seeing how his words worked, how these people writhed and thrashed under the blows of his words. Thomas felt like a fairy-tale hero beating monsters.
A crowd gathered around Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin and listened to his quiet speech, nodding their heads angrily and affirmatively. Foma burst into loud laughter, throwing his head high. At that moment, several people rushed at Foma, crushed him with their bodies, tied him tightly hand and foot, and dragged him to the side.
A crowd of people stood above him and said evil and offensive things to him, but their words did not touch his heart. Some great bitter feeling grew in the depths of his soul. When Foma's legs were untied, he looked at everyone and said quietly with a pitiful smile:
I took yours.
Foma became shorter and lost weight. Mayakin spoke quietly with the merchants about guardianship. Thomas felt crushed by this dark mass of strong-willed people. He did not understand now what he had done to these people and why he had done it, and he even felt something akin to shame for himself in front of him. It was as if some kind of dust had showered my heart in my chest. The merchants looked at his suffering face, wet with tears, and silently walked away. And so Thomas was left alone with his hands tied behind his back at the table, where everything was overturned and destroyed.
Three years have passed. Yakov Tarasovich Mayakin died after a brief but very painful agony, leaving his fortune to his son, daughter and son-in-law Afrikan Smolin. Yezhov was expelled from the city for something shortly after the incident on the ship. A major trading house"Taras Mayakin and African Smolin." Nothing was heard from Thomas. They said that after leaving the hospital, Mayakin sent him beyond the Urals to his mother’s relatives.
Recently Foma appeared in the city. Almost always after drinking, he appears either gloomy or smiling with the pitiful and sad smile of a blessed one. He lives with his godsister in the yard, in an outbuilding. Merchants and townspeople who know him often laugh at him. Thomas very rarely approaches those who call him; he avoids people and does not like to talk to them. But if he approaches, they tell him:
Come on, say a word about the end of the world, eh, prophet.