: A father dies in a boy. Together with his mother, he moves to the house of a cruel and greedy grandfather. Mother gets married, and the boy is raised by grandmother. When the mother dies, the grandfather sends the boy "to the people."

1913, Nizhny Novgorod. The narration is conducted on behalf of the boy Alyosha Peshkov.

I

The first memory of Alyosha is the death of his father. He did not understand that his father was no longer there, but the cry of Varvara's mother crashed into his memory. Before that, the boy was very ill, and Akulina Ivanovna Kashirina's grandmother came to help, "round, big-headed, with huge eyes and a funny, loose nose." My grandmother sniffed tobacco and was all “black, soft”, like a bear, with very long and thick hair.

On the day of the death of her father, Varvara began premature birth, the baby was born weak. After the funeral, my grandmother took Alyosha, Barbara and the newborn to Nizhny Novgorod. They rode on the ship. On the way, the baby died. Grandmother, trying to distract Alyosha, told tales that a great many knew.

In the Lower they were met by many people. Alyosha met his grandfather Vasily Vasilich Kashirin - a small, dry old man "with a red as gold, a beard, with a bird's nose and green eyes." With him came the uncles of the boy, Jacob and Mikhailo, and cousins. Grandfather Alyosha did not like him, he "immediately felt the enemy in him."

II

The grandfather's family lived in a large house, the lower floor of which was occupied by a dyeing workshop. Lived unfriendly. Barbara got married without blessing, and now uncles demanded her dowry from her grandfather. From time to time, uncles fought.

Grandfather's house was filled with a hot fog of mutual enmity between everyone and everyone.

Alyosha’s arrival with her mother only intensified this enmity. A boy who grew up in a friendly family was very hard.

On Saturdays, the grandfather of the grandson of the grandchildren who were guilty of the week. Alyosha, this punishment also did not pass. The boy resisted, and his grandfather spotted him half to death.

After, when Alyosha was bedridden, his grandfather came to put up. After that, the boy realized that his grandfather was “not evil and not terrible,” but he could not forget and forgive the beatings. Ivan Tsyganok especially struck him in those days: he put his hand under the rods, and part of the blows went to him.

III

After Alyosha he became very friends with this funny guy. Ivan Tsyganok was a foundling: his grandmother found him somehow in the winter near her home and raised her. He promised to become a good master, and uncles often quarreled over him: after the section, everyone wanted to take a Gypsy for himself.

Despite his seventeen years, Gypsy was kind and naive. Every Friday he was sent to the market for groceries, and Ivan spent less and brought more than he should. It turned out he was stealing to please the stingy grandfather. My grandmother cursed - she was afraid that one day the Gypsy would be seized by the police.

Soon, Ivan died. In the grandfather's yard lay a heavy oak cross. Uncle Jacob vowed to take him to the grave of his wife, whom he himself killed. The gypsy had to carry the butt of this huge cross. The guy overstrained and died of bleeding.

IV — VI

Time has passed. The house was getting worse. Alyoshin’s soul was saved only by grandmother’s tales. Grandmother was not afraid of anyone but cockroaches. One evening, the workshop caught fire. At the risk of her life, her grandmother led the stallion out of the burning stable and burned her hands very much.

“By the spring, the uncles were divided,” and my grandfather bought a big house, on the ground floor of which there was a tavern. The grandfather handed over the remaining rooms. Around the house grew a dense neglected garden descending into a ravine. Grandmother and grandson settled in a comfortable room in the attic.

Everyone loved her grandmother and turned to her for advice - Akulina Ivanovna knew many prescriptions for herbal medicines. She came from the Volga. Her mother “offended” the master, the girl jumped out of the window and remained crippled.

From childhood, Akulina walked “around the people”, asking for alms.Then her mother, who was a skilled lace-maker, learned her daughter's skills, and when fame went about her, and her grandfather appeared. Grandfather, in a good mood, also told Alyosha about his childhood, which he remembered "from the Frenchman", and about his mother, an angry Kalashnitsa woman.

Some time later, the grandfather undertook to teach Alyosha literacy in church books. He turned out to be capable of this, and soon fluently dismantled the church charter. Grandfather was a believer, but the god to whom he prayed aroused “fear and hostility” in Alyosha.

He did not love anyone, he followed the strict eye, he, first of all, sought and saw in man evil, evil, sinful. It was clear that he did not believe in man, always waiting for repentance and loves to punish

The boy was rarely released into the street - every time local boys beat him to bruises.

Soon Alyoshin's quiet life ended. One evening, Uncle Jacob came running and said that Uncle Mikhailo was going to kill his grandfather. From that evening, Uncle Mikhailo appeared daily and made scandals, to the joy of the whole street. So he tried to lure his grandfather Varvarino dowry, but the old man did not give up.

VII — X

Closer to spring, my grandfather suddenly sold the house and bought another. The new house also had an overgrown garden with a pit - the remains of a burnt bath. On his left was Colonel Ovsyannikov, and on his right the Betleng family.

The house was packed with interesting people. Especially interesting for Alyosha was a parasite nicknamed the Good Deal. His room was filled with strange things, and he constantly invented something.

Soon the boy became friends with Good Deed. He taught him to correctly state events without repeating himself and cutting off all unnecessary things. Grandmother and grandfather did not like this friendship - they considered a parasite a sorcerer, and Good Work had to move out.

Alyosha and Ovsyannikov’s house were very interested. In the gap of the fence or from a tree branch, he saw three boys playing in the yard together and without quarrels. Once, playing hide and seek, the youngest boy fell into a well. Alyosha rushed to the rescue and, together with the older children, pulled out the baby.

The children were friends until Alyosha caught the eye of the colonel. While he was putting the boy out of the house, he managed to call him the "old devil", for which he was beaten. Since then, Alyosha communicated with the Ovsyannikovs Jr. only through a hole in the fence.

Alyosha recalled infrequently about his mother, who lived separately. One winter, she returned, settled in the room of the parasite and began to teach her son grammar and arithmetic. Alyosha lived in those days is difficult. Often, the grandfather quarreled with his mother, tried to force her to a new marriage, but she always refused.

Russian people, because of the poverty and poverty of their lives, generally love to have fun with grief, play with them like children, and are rarely ashamed of being unhappy.

Grandmother stood up for her daughter, and one day her grandfather severely beat her. Alyosha took revenge on his grandfather, ruining his beloved clergy.

Mother made friends with a neighbor, the wife of a military man, whom guests from the Betlengs often came to. Grandfather also began to arrange "evenings" and even found the groom's mother - a crooked and bald watchmaker. Barbara, a young and beautiful woman, refused him.

XI — XII

“After this story, the mother immediately got stronger, straightened up tightly and became the mistress of the house.” The Maximov brothers, who migrated to her from the Betlengs, often began to visit her.

After Christmas time, Alyosha was sick with smallpox for a long time. All this time his grandmother looked after him. Instead of a fairy tale, she told the boy about her father. Maxim Peshkov was the son of a soldier who "rose to the rank of officers and was exiled to Siberia for cruelty with his subordinates." In Siberia, Maxim was born. His mother died, and he wandered for a long time.

Once in Nizhny Novgorod, Maxim began to work at the joiner and soon became a noble cabinetmaker. Barbara married him against the will of his grandfather - he wanted to marry his beautiful daughter for a nobleman.

Soon, Barbara married the younger Maximov, Eugene. Alyosha immediately hated his stepfather. The grandmother from the frustration began to drink strong wine and was often drunk.In the pit remaining from the burnt bath, the boy built a shelter for himself and spent the whole summer in it.

In autumn, the grandfather sold the house and told his grandmother that he would not feed her anymore. "Grandfather rented two dark rooms in the basement of an old house." Soon after the move, a mother and stepfather appeared. They said that their house burned down with all the belongings, but grandfather knew that his stepfather had lost and came to ask for money.

Mother and stepfather rented a poor house and took Alyosha with them. Barbara was pregnant, and her stepfather deceived the workers, buying half-price credit notes for products that were paid instead of money at the factory.

Alyosha was sent to school, where he really did not like. The children laughed at his poor clothes, and the teachers did not like. At that time, the boy often bullied and annoyed his mother. Life, meanwhile, was getting harder. Mom gave birth to a son, a strange big-headed boy, who quickly and quietly died. My stepfather had a lover.

Soon Varvara became pregnant again Once Alyosha saw a stepfather beating a pregnant mother in the chest with his thin and long leg. He swung his knife at Eugene. Varvara managed to push him away - the knife only cut his clothes and slipped along the ribs.

XIII

Alyosha returned to his grandfather. The old man became stingy. He divided the farm into two parts. Now they even made tea with their grandmother in turn.

In order to earn a living, her grandmother started embroidering and weaving lace, and Alyosha with a group of guys gathered rags and bones, robbed the drunk and stole firewood and dogwood "in the woods along the banks of the Oka." Classmates knew what he was doing, and scoffed even more.

When Alyosha moved to third grade, Varvara with their newborn Nikolai moved to them. The stepfather disappeared again. Mom was seriously ill. Grandmother went into the house of a wealthy merchant to embroider a cover, and Nikolai was busy with his grandfather, often out of greed, underfeeding a child. Alyosha also loved to play with his brother. Mother died a few months later in the arms of a boy, without having seen her husband.

After the funeral, the grandfather said that he was not going to feed Alyosha, and sent him "to the people."