Mother - revisited

I recently posted a quotation I like from the book Mother, by Maxim Gorky after reading it.

Although at the beginning I found it a rather slow read, the book eventually picked up its pace and I found it quite intriguing. Mother is a story published over a hundred years ago by one of Russia’s revolutionary writers. Although the book revolves around the events of 1902, it reflects how the Russian proletariat was warming up to revolutionary emotions and dissent.  However, Lenin did not lead the Russian proletariat into the successful October Socialist Revolution until 1917, unease with the Tsar and attempts at revolt began long before that.

Already the people, the intellectuals, were talking of “camaraderie” and a classless society – the ideas of Karl Marx. The feelings of change were brewing before they actually succeeded in taking down the Tsar. It is marveling what drives people and how certain leaders can mobilize a whole nation just on an idea. Of course, it was not only an idea, but the suffering of hundreds and the torturous and unequal work conditions were the helm of what spurred them forward into their revolt.

But when you examine the ideas put forward, the teachings of Marx and Lenin, the idea of a classless, stateless society, the desire for global camaraderie it makes you think – were the people following some Utopian notion that was never meant to be practically implemented? I don’t even think it can even be classified as Utopian; I mean what is Utopian?

But another quotation from the book, this time by Andrei shows how some people viewed the future of the world if a global revolution over ‘evil’ was to be successful:

“I know the time will come when people will wonder at their own beauty, when each will be like a star to all the others. The earth will be peopled with free men, great in 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 are most capable of embracing the world and of loving it, those who are the most free, for in them lies the greatest beauty. They will be great people, those of the new life...”And of the sake of that life I am ready to do anything at all.”

It makes me wonder, now that the Tsar is no longer, now that the revolution happened, not only in Russia but in so many countries of the world – have we achieved those goals? Have we reached the greatest beauty and become ‘fine and exalted’? What has the free man done with his freedom?

I wonder if the problem is with the goals that revolutionaries set for themselves. What goes wrong, why don’t we learned?

Maxim Gorky got it right with this other passage, said by the mother herself; it could very well be a premonition:

“The mother loved to listen to his speeches, and they left her with a strange impression: it seemed that the most vicious enemy of the people, those who most often deceived them and were most cruel to them, were fat, redfaced little men, mean, greedy, sly and cruel. When they were themselves hard-pressed by the tsar of their land, they set the common people on him, and when the people had overthrown their ruler, these little men seized the power by fraud, driving the people back to their hovels, or, if resisted, killing hundreds and thousands of them.”

In such a complicated world we live in, it’s intriguing that we are all manipulated by such simplistic views in our distorted perception of “good” vs “evil” and “us” vs “them”. The pure sheep mentality. Cattling along…(no, cattling is not a word).

Shouldn’t it be easier to attain peace?

So many questions prompted by the stupidity of human-kind.

On the other hand, the book provides food for thought because it is based on real events and Gorky himself admits that the novel was based on factual historical events. The novel offers a window into a different world, a different way of living that isn’t too far from present reality in some places on earth. Gorky does have a beautiful style of writing; I personally love his descriptions, depictions and metaphors. He captures the emotions of the mother so well; it’s hard to believe that the mother herself didn't write it.