GORKY’S ‘MOTHER’

RAGUNATHAN

Even before the emergence of Maxim Gorky in the literary arena of Russia, the Russian literature of the 19th century was, as Gorky himself has written, “ever strong in its democratic feeling, its passionate striving to find a solution for our social problems, its advocacy of humanity, its praise of liberty, its deep interest in the life of the common people, its lofty attitude towards women, its indefatigable searching for some universal, all-illuminating truth.

Although Gorky took legitimate pride in this noble literary heritage of his fatherland and absorbed all these traditional traits into his own works, he did not remain a mere successor to this cultural wealth, but wanted to add something and to enrich this heritage with new values so far unknown in the realm of Russian literature. Thus he innovated new aesthetic and literary values in the course of his unending quest for truth and reality and opened a new chapter in the history of Russian literature.

As he had said in his paper read at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, “the basic theme of 19th century European and Russian literature was the human personality in its conflicts with society, the state and nature.” Although this kind of literary productions were realistic in criticizing the prevailing social condition and in exposing its imperfections, Gorky believed that such a kind of realism had neither served nor could ever serve to educate those who stand for socialistic ideals, because this kind of realism, although it criticised everything, had never made a positive contribution and, in some cases, had even come to approve of what it had previously criticized.

Therefore, even though such realistic works portrayed rebels who criticized the society of their time, the motives of such criticism of the existing order of things did not arise out of a profound and correct conception of social and economic laws and causes.

We all know that Gorky started writing his first novels is end of the 90’s of the last century. His first novel Foma Gordeyev came out in book form in 1900 and his next one, The Three in the year 1901.

In these two novels we find Gorky as a realist, a critical realist. In Foma Gordeyev, the hero who is an energetic person rising against the moral principles of his own class, the merchants, wants to get away from his class, but becomes disillusioned because of his impotent protest. His dream of a free and independent life becomes frustrated. Again in Gorky’s second novel, The Three the young hero Ilya Lunev, who tries to make his way in life to win a position in society, ends in frustration and meets a tragic death. In both these novels, we find individual rebels who vehemently protest against the ills of the existing order of things and who strive their best to break out of their own social environment. But despite their strong and passionate protests, they do not see the way out to change the society. Being cut off from the vanguard of the people, they are not able to see any positive path before them and so they meet their inevitable tragic end.

No doubt, these two novels of Gorky present him before us only as a critical realist. But, at the same time, we find Gorky definitely differing from the critical realists of his days. His heroes remain rebels to the last and they never reconcile or compromise themselves with the existing order of things or with their own class. Because Gorky had established contacts with Marxist circles of his day and had seen for himself how people lived, and had understood the spirit of his own people even before the publication of these two novels. Therefore, he was fully aware of the fact that the time was not far off when a new force, the proletariat would join the social struggle and would play the role of the vanguard. This awareness of Gorky had already been reflected in his earlier writings, in which he had expressed, in his own way, the beginning of this new phase, the active and militant mood of the vanguard of the people preparing for a battle. Moreover, we find that Gorky himself was arrested more than once by the authorities accusing him of participation in revolutionary activities.

Then came the first Russian Revolution of the years 1905-1907. In this Revolution, Gorky realized the tremendous force of the people who defined the Czarist rule and this revolution was really a rehearsal for the victorious one which was yet to come, for it became apparent after this revolution that the one and the only consistent fighter for the liberation of the working people and of the entire mankind will be the proletariat. Gorky himself wrote about this revolution later like this: “Our people had made an elemental but mighty effort to free their hands and unseal their lips. This effort was unsuccessful. Yet, it should be considered most valuable because it was the first concerted effort made by our whole people in all our history.”

Following this great event in the history of the Russian people, Gorky finished his most popular and powerful novel, Mother.

In contrast to his above-mentioned earlier novels of the 90’s Gorky had found a new relationship between the individual and society. In his novel, Mother, the conflicts were no longer mere clashes between individuals driven by their own limited interests, but were struggles of the people for the basic objectives and ideals of a noble life. Thus we find, for the first time in the history of literature of the entire world, no single individual revolting against the existing order of things and its evils, but the entire working people rising against the social system and the state which deprives them of their rights and a good life. Therefore, we find in Gorky’s Mother that the main hero of the novel is the people and that the basic action of the story is the historical activity of the people, who under the leadership of the party of the working class, armed with the indomitable weapon of the most advanced theory, undertake the decisive battle for emancipation. In this novel, Gorky vividly describes the types of men and women who combine the correct understanding of the historical process and the aims of the people, with the ability to fight for the acceleration of this process and the achievement of these aims in practice. They are fully confident that a new world will come into existence in the near future and this confidence is reflected in the words of one of its heroes. He says that, “the time will come when people will wonder at their own beauty, when each will be like a star to all others. The earth will be peopled with free men, great their freedom. The hearts of all will be open, and every heart will be innocent of envy and malice. Then life will be transformed into the great service of man and man will have become something fine and exalted, for all things are attainable to those who are free. Then people will live in truth and freedom for the sake of beauty, and the best people will be accounted, those whose hearts most capable of embracing the world and of loving it, those who are most free, for in them lies the greatest beauty. They will be great people, those of the new life.”

This colourful and heart-warming picture of the world to come does not in any way seem to be an Utopia, for Gorky unfolds before our very eyes of reason and understanding, the concrete development of the awakened masses and the role played by them in the inevitable historical conflict, in the most convincing method enriched by a historical perspective about the essential aspects of his epoch, and thus makes us realise that this is no day-dream of any idle romanticist, but a goal at sight yet to be reached by the active participants who are advancing on the path of revolution, making the history of their own. After reading this great novel, we become fully convinced that the development of this living process of human history has been shown with such clarity and conviction by no other writer except Gorky.

Only this portrayal of the social activity based on socialist principles, which Gorky has drawn in his novel, has made him as the genuine exponent of the revolutionary rebirth of the world and has won for him the honour and privilege of being the founder of socialist realism in literature. Thus this great masterpiece of Maxim Gorky has set itself not only as an example to the Soviet writers of his times but has also served as a literary manifesto for the writers of the entire world, who are striving to help the struggle for the establishment of universal justice on earth.

It is a known fact that the Russian Revolution of the year 1905 gave an impetus to the peoples of the East in their struggle to overthrow autocracy and alien rule and that our national movement also took a militant turn in the first decade of this century, inspired by the example of the Russian workers. Likewise, Gorky’s Mother, which came out in the year of 1906 following the First Russian Revolution, has also played a decisive role in shaping the literary outlook of many Indian writers in the years of struggle for our independence.

We can definitely say that it was Gorky who taught us what real humanism is. We all know that Gorky was a great humanist. But his humanism was not of the type of his predecessors. It was something entirely different. His love for mankind is not merely a humanitarian sympathy which sheds helpless tears for the oppressed and the humiliated. Neither was it the philanthropy which the sophisticated well-to-do’s show towards those who have fallen low because of the so-called fate. Humanitarians and philanthropists of this kind do not consider these fallen ones as men but treat them only as two-legged creatures, which are in need of some comfort and solace. Gorky never considered this kind of impotent sympathy which does not raise even a single finger against the existing evils of society, as humanism. Real humanism does not shed tears for the people who are suffering, but it really serves as a source of indignant inspiration to shed even the blood to the cause of the well-being of all mankind. Therefore, Gorky’s humanism was of a militant type which not only abhorred human suffering but also strove to abolish it. Gorky considered human suffering as the world’s shame and wanted that we must learn to hate it and strive to abolish it. This is the humanism, the militant and socialist humanism which we all have learnt from Gorky.

Moreover, it was Gorky who taught us by his very life and his writings that writers should mix with the people and write about what is concerned with the lives of men and women in a world which is changing and being changed. A writer must be intimately concerned with this change. He must be always struggling to understand it. His writing must reflect his experience of this change and his understanding of his experience. And since this change is world-wide and is taking place on innumerable levels at once and all the time, he may experience some difficulty. Yet this difficulty excuses none of the writers for retreating into a world made artificially static, by excluding from it all the factors of change which are found in the real world. And, therefore, writers who strive for real humanistic ideals should not be mere onlookers of the struggle waged by people for the welfare of mankind, but should become active participants as one among them in fulfilling the historic task of their struggles.

I should say that this was the influence which Gorky has exerted on the writers of India, as well as of the world, by his writings, especially by his immortal classic, Mother.

Gorky’s Mother has served for us as such a unique example in moulding our literary outlook and ideas and I am sure that it will also remain so for the future writers in the years to come.

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