11 h 16 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 16 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On Russia’s roads, hunger and cruelty live beside shared bread, strange stories and sudden dignity.
In Through Russia, Maxim Gorky draws on his years as a wanderer across the Russian empire. These short sketches bring you into villages, riverside towns, inns and shelters, among peasants, workers, vagrants, pilgrims and dreamers. There is no single plot to follow. Instead, each encounter brings another ordinary life into close, sometimes uncomfortable view.
Hardship presses on these people. Hunger, drink, quarrels and casual violence shape their days, but they do not tell the whole story. A stranger shares bread; a wanderer tells a moving tale; a poor man shows unexpected dignity. Against a background of war and mounting unrest before 1917, Gorky explores cruelty, patience and flashes of warmth without offering a political programme.
What you’ll discover
- Russia seen on foot Follow portraits drawn from Gorky’s own wandering, close to the people he meets.
- Lives under pressure Face hunger and everyday violence without a tidy picture to soften their force.
- Bread shared with strangers Find moments of kindness that make these rough places more than scenes of suffering.
- Voices along the road Meet workers, pilgrims and dreamers whose stories give the collection its varied human shape.
- A country before upheaval Explore ordinary lives in a Russia marked by war, unrest and the approach of change.
Who will love it
Readers who love short stories full of vivid strangers, road journeys, big skies and talk by the fire. It suits anyone curious about ordinary Russians of the late nineteenth century.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A stranger becomes a midwife by the sea
- Ossip leads seven men across breaking ice
- A ruined man digs a well and sins
- A holy fool blesses a hopeless suburb
- An old officer wants every grave to tell a life
- A mean prankster sails on a quiet river
- Tatiana looks for a husband and a home
- Two watchmen meet a stranger in a pass
- A wandering footman tells of devils and a powder
- A wanderer keeps vigil beside a dead man
Who’s who
- The narratorA young wanderer who listens to everyone he meets, helps where he can and tries to understand why people live as they do.
- OssipA silver-bearded carpenter foreman who loves telling stories and who must lead his men across a breaking river.
- GubinA ruined, stammering man who lives in a washhouse and believes it is his duty to expose other people's sins.
- Antipa VologonovA bowlegged pawnbroker who speaks in church phrases and hopes the holy fool Nilushka will give his life some meaning.
- Lieutenant KhorvatA brisk retired officer who wants every town to keep a book of life and every gravestone to record what a person did.
- TatianaA drifter from Riazan with a convent past, who searches for a steady husband and a plot of land to build a home.
- KalininA cheerful wandering former footman who tells tales of good devils and refuses to be tied to anyone but God.
- Deacon DemidA huge, drunken church deacon who grieves for his dead friend Vasil and for his own ruined life.
Formats and delivery
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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À travers la Russie
by Maxime Gorki
A young man bites through an umbilical cord on a Caucasus roadside, and ten Russian lives follow.
Medium level10–20 hours to readfrançais
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In short
Picture a young wanderer on a footpath near the Black Sea in the famine year of 1892. He hears a moan from the bushes.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A stranger becomes a midwife by the sea
In The Birth of a Man, the narrator sits on rocks above the Kodor River in the famine year of 1892, dipping bread into wild honey. Then hungry settlers from the province of Orlov pass by, heading for road work.
Among them is a pregnant woman in a yellow scarf, whose husband has died. The narrator walks on ahead and hears a moan from the bushes. He finds her in labor against a hazel stem. She curses him and tries to drive him off. He remembers the little he knows, runs to the sea to wash his hands and comes back to act as midwife.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 7 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Gorky, Maxim. Through Russia. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/through-russia.
Gorky, M. (2026). Through Russia. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/through-russia
Gorky, Maxim. Through Russia. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/through-russia.
@book{gorky2026through,
author = {Gorky, Maxim},
title = {Through Russia},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/through-russia}
}
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What is Through Russia by Maksim Gorky about?
It is a collection of ten stories about ordinary people met on the road in late nineteenth-century Russia, including carpenters, vagrants, monks and soldiers. A young narrator listens to their lives and questions about kindness, guilt and how to live.
How many stories are in Through Russia?
There are ten: The Birth of a Man, The Icebreaker, Gubin, Nilushka, The Cemetery, On a River Steamer, A Woman, In a Mountain Pass, Kalinin and The Dead Man. Each one stands on its own and can be read separately.
Who is the narrator of these stories?
He is a young wanderer who works odd jobs and talks with everyone he meets. He rarely gives his name, though people call him Makarei or Makar in two stories. He often seems to stand in for the author.
The author
Maxim Gorky
1868–1936 · Russian and Soviet novelist
Maksim Gorky (1868–1936) was a Russian and Soviet writer born in Nizhny Novgorod. His real name was Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov. He wrote novels, stories and plays, including The Lower Depths (1902) and Mother (1906). He lived in Russia and Italy and died near Moscow.
More by Maxime Gorki
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