DISCOVERY 



169 



mother who died for the workers' cause. In his stories, 

 written under the fresh influence of the social-demo- 

 cratic ideas, Gorki idealised the factory workers by 

 attributing to them a certain spaciousness and integrity 

 of outlook, courage in thought and action, love for 

 humanity, and faith in the triumph of their ideal. 

 He lifted his working heroes above the general level, 

 as he had previously dnne with hi^ tramps. But the 



extends the sphere of his observations to the general 

 inquiry of " What is Russia, and why is the life of the 

 people so hard, and why are all so unhappy and con- 

 vulsive, so immovable, as if they were turned into 

 stones ? " Gorki speaks of a general decline of charac- 

 ter prevailing in all classes of the community, and one 

 of his men remarks that the little town Okurov, which 

 is so deeply sunk in the morass of its stupid and 



time came when the sense of life made him change his 

 attitude towards his former gods. He threw off his 

 romantic clothing and came face to face with the bare 

 facts of everyday life. Freed of his doctrinaire creed, 

 Gorki realised at once those depths of ignorance, 

 poverty, humiliation, brutishness, and stupidity which 

 form the daily life of the grey Russian masses. Con- 

 tinually, in the stories of Russian rural and urban life, 

 he draws grim pictures of degradation. Describing 

 "some incidents in the life of town Okurov," Gorki 



ANTON' CHEKOV. 

 (.By kind permission of Messrs. Challo and Windus.) 



uncivUised life, is only a small part of " that blissful 

 country which has everything in abundance and lacks 

 one thing only — common sense. " The author's spokes- 

 men are deploring the " double-naturedness of man, 

 his moral pliancy and slavishness, his lack of faith and 

 creative ideas," etc. Gorki feels sad at the sight of 

 this tragic picture, but he does not become bitter or 

 pessimistic. 



There is a note of optimism and enthusiasm in the 

 words he assigned to Kozhemiakin, who says: " New 



