Foma Gordeyev

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Foma Gordejew ( Russian Фома Гордеев ) is the first novel by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky and was first published in 1899 .

background

The historical background is a Russian society in upheaval, in which, on the one hand, the emerging bourgeoisie ousted the nobility from power, and, on the other hand , numerous communist or anarchist groups formed , promoted by the social upheaval caused by the industrialization of the country .

In contrast to Gorki's most famous novel, The Mother , the hero is not a proletarian , but belongs to the second generation of Russian capitalists, whose intellectual world was familiar to the author from his youth. Perhaps the most vivid figure in the novel is therefore not necessarily the eponymous hero, but its antagonist , the merchant Mayakin, with whose extremely materialistic philosophy of life Foma Gordejew cannot identify. In a letter to Anton Chekhov dated August 1899, Gorky noted that he had hidden the figure of Mayakin behind the figure of Foma Gordejew in order to remove it from censorship . The three generations of industrialists striped in the novel, from the generation of Ignat Gordeev, who had worked their way up from freight master to millionaire, to the generation of Afrikan Smolin, who later became the husband of Mayakin's daughter Lyubov, who had learned about Western European culture and technology abroad show the enormous speed of industrialization in Russia.

content

The novel describes the life of the eponymous protagonist Foma Gordejew, son of the wealthy Volga shipper Ignat Gordejew. Since his mother Natalja dies in childbirth, the death of his father leaves Foma as an orphan . Foma, who inherits his father's big, successful business, is brought up by his father's long-time friend, the shrewd merchant Mayakin, who hopes for a connection between Foma and his daughter Lyubov, which would be advantageous for him in business.

Foma, on the other hand, cannot fit into upper-class society and is increasingly becoming an outsider who neglects the inherited company and gives in to alcohol and debauchery more and more. Instead of associating with his own kind, the rich merchants, Foma increasingly spends his time with his school friend Jezhow, a poor, idealistic, bitter journalist who tries in vain to join the Russian workforce.

At the inauguration of a new ship belonging to the merchant Kononov, at which the best circles in the city have gathered and which Mayakin Foma had formally forced to take part, a scandal breaks out . Mayakin gives a fiery speech and praises the activity and creativity of the Russian merchant class, which causes great cheers among the assembled merchants. To the surprise of everyone present, Foma Mayakin's speech promptly replies, pours scorn and ridicule on the merchants, and exposes the moral depravity and hypocrisy of the merchant class, as well as the criminal machinations of individual merchants, until the angry crowd overwhelms him. After his discharge from the psychiatric hospital, about three years after Mayakin's death, he comes back to his hometown a broken man, lives poorly in the back house of Mayakin's daughter Lyubov and hangs out on the streets, torn down and shabby.

literature

  • Armin Knigge: Maksim Gor'kij. The literary work . Erich Wewel, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-87904-111-3 .

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