Story summary
Streszczenie książki Szpieg
- 9 min czytania
- 10 parts
- Nagranie wkrótce
A timid orphan who wants only to be unseen becomes a paid spy in revolutionary Russia.
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Szpieg — najważniejsze informacje
Streszczenie: 9 min czytania
- Czas czytania
- Około 5 h 35 min4 h 25 min fast, 6 h 40 min slow
- Długość
- Liczba słów: 79 900
- Poziom trudności w bibliotece
- Średni longer sentences, everyday words
- Pierwsze wydanie
- 1908by Maksim Gorki
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Ile czasu zajmuje przeczytanie klasyków · Zaktualizowano
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Szpieg in short
The Spy follows one weak young man through a society that runs on fear. Yevsey Klimkov begins as a beaten orphan who wants to be invisible. He becomes a clerk, then an informer, then a paid agent of the secret police.
What Szpieg is about
A boy of seven looks at his dead mother and feels no fear, only strangeness. Years later the same boy, small and timid, is working as a paid spy for the Czar's secret police. How does a person so afraid of the world end up hunting other people for it?
The Spy is a novel by Maksim Gorky, written in the years of the first Russian revolution. It follows Yevsey Klimkov from a village hut to a city bookshop, then to a police office and the streets where agents trail students and workers. Through one frail young man, you see what fear does to a soul.
Dla kogo. Readers who like Russian fiction, tales of spies and secret police, and close portraits of a troubled mind will enjoy it. It also suits anyone curious about how ordinary people drift into serving power.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A frightened child learns that hiding is safety
Yevsey Klimkov loses his father at four and his mother at seven. His uncle Piotr, a blacksmith, takes him in and calls him Old Man. The boy is tiny, with round pale eyes and a thin voice, and the village children beat him for it. At home his cousin Yakov pinches and kicks him under the table.
Yevsey answers by making himself small. When Yakov attacks, he drops to the ground, pulls up his knees and covers his head. Once Yakov tells him that the pain will pass, and Yevsey repeats those words to himself for years. The church draws him with its quiet, gentle twilight and singing, though choir rehearsals bring further beatings. He asks his uncle whether a person can live seeing everything while nobody sees him.
Then a fire breaks out in a rich peasant's granary, and the villagers pass buckets in a line, kind to one another for once. The next day Yevsey says he wishes there could be fires all the time. A child who learns that hiding is the only safety carries that lesson into every room he enters.
- 2Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
The city gives him a master who collects secrets
When school ends, Uncle Piotr drives Yevsey to the city.
- 3Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
One kind woman and one night change his life
The landlady Rayisa Petrovna plays the piano each evening at a house of ill fame.
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A clerk's desk and a strange old teacher
Dorimedont, a stout man who knew the master, places Yevsey as a copy clerk in a police chancery.
- 5Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Betraying his teachers earns him a badge
Yevsey cannot keep what he knows.
- 6Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Spies who do not believe in their work
Yevsey's first job is to follow a man in a worn coat, and he is overcome with pity for him.
- 7Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
His cousin and a kind girl test his loyalty
At a servant's birthday party, Yevsey meets a joiner named Zimin and blurts out that he knows the man is being watched.
- 8Zacznij za darmo, by czytać
Fear runs every life in this book
Gorky shows fear as a ruler.
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Trust, truth and the hope of another life
Against fear stands a stubborn longing.
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A story told close to a frightened mind
Gorky tells the story in short chapters, each one a scene or a turn.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Yevsey Klimkov A tiny, timid orphan who wants to go through life unseen and finds his only safety in obeying whoever holds power over him.
- Uncle Piotr The village blacksmith who raises Yevsey, argues with his own stupidity while he works, and sends the boy to the city with plain advice.
- Raspopov A bookseller with dark glasses who recites psalms, informs on his customers and teaches Yevsey that telling secrets earns approval.
- Rayisa Petrovna The calm piano player who rents rooms in the house, shows Yevsey kindness and keeps a dangerous secret of her own.
- Kapiton Ivanovich An old chancery clerk called the Smokestack who reads the New Testament and believes the Czar should share his wealth with the poor.
- Maklakov A fair-haired, serious agent who treats Yevsey with quiet decency and carries a private sorrow about the work they do.
- Sasha A sick, snarling agent who preaches hatred of the gentry and wants to unleash a counterrevolution in the streets.
- Olga A tall, gray-eyed factory girl who believes that to trust a person is to respect them and draws Yevsey toward a better life.
How it ends (spoiler)
After betraying Olga and Yakov, Yevsey sees his fellow spy Zarubin killed by a mob and tries to shoot Sasha but loses his nerve. He aims a revolver at Solovyov, fails to fire, and runs in terror to the woods. He tries to hang himself and falls, then lies across the railway tracks. At the last moment he jumps up screaming that he is guilty, and a train strikes him down.
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Pytania o Szpieg
What is The Spy by Maksim Gorky about?
It follows Yevsey Klimkov, a frightened orphan who moves from a village to the city and gradually becomes an informer for the Czar's secret police during the years of Russian revolution.
Who is Yevsey Klimkov?
Yevsey is a small, timid young man who wants to go unnoticed. He serves whoever gives him orders, and the book shows what that habit of obedience costs him and the people around him.
What does It will pass mean in the book?
It is a phrase Yevsey first hears from his bullying cousin Yakov. He repeats it as a comfort, but as he grows it becomes a habit that no longer feels like hope.
Is The Spy based on a true story, and when was it written?
It is a work of fiction, but it draws on real events in Russia, such as the 1905 unrest and the secret police that watched revolutionaries. Gorky wrote it in the years just after.
Is The Spy easy to follow?
Yes, the chapters are short and each one is built around a clear scene. The language is plain, and the story moves in time order from village to city, which makes it easy to follow.
Zacytuj to wydanie
Gorky, Maxim. The Spy. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-spy-gorky.
Gorky, M. (2026). The spy. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-spy-gorky (Original work published 1908)
Gorky, Maxim. The Spy. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-spy-gorky.
@book{gorky2026spy,
author = {Gorky, Maxim},
title = {The Spy},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-spy-gorky},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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