Kashirin’s house in Nizhny Novgorod is both a living illustration of Maxim Gorky’s story “Childhood” and an opportunity to see with your own eyes a huge number of things that the great writer touched.

Survived by a miracle

“The flow of people wanting to see the house where the great writer grew up is huge,” says Tamara Shukhareva, head of the Museum of Childhood A.M. Gorky "Kashirin's House". - We constantly have guests - both children and adults. They come in families, classes, university groups. There are many foreigners among the guests: Gorky is one of the most famous Russian writers abroad. At one point there was a real pilgrimage of Chinese students. Apparently, one group came first, and then these guys told their compatriots about this museum.”

The history of the small estate at the Postal Congress is unique. Before acquiring the status of a museum, it was twice under threat of demolition: at the beginning of the 20th century (but urban planning plans were interfered with by the First World War and the Revolution), then in the 1930s - then the Nizhny Novgorod intelligentsia came to its defense.

The founder and first director of Kashirin's House was Fyodor Pavlovich Khitrovsky. He knew Gorky personally - they worked together at Nizhny Novgorod List. The museum opened to visitors on January 1, 1938. The house and furnishings have been restored since 1935. Khitrovsky asked Gorky personally to help recreate everything here as it was under the Kashirins. In 1936, Gorky sent a plan of the house drawn with his own hand.

Grandfather Vasily Kashirin's room. The famous raccoon coat remains behind the scenes. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina

“It’s like the Kashirins just came out!”

Many people who were here under the Kashirins helped to recreate the atmosphere of the house. Neighbors, friends, relatives - everyone remembered how the furniture was arranged, what kind of curtains were on the windows.

“There are a lot of real things here, from Kashirin,” says Tamara Shukhareva. - When grandfather Vasily Kashirin decided to divide the inheritance between his sons, Mikhail’s family lived in a separate room in the house at the Postal Congress. He, unlike his brother Yakov, did not squander his property. Many things were brought to the museum by the descendants of Mikhail Kashirin. So almost all the dishes, the round table and the velvet tablecloth returned here. Even grandmother’s feather bed and quilted blanket, spoons and forks that the Kashirins used have been preserved. A beautiful sugar bowl-house and a butter dish with chickens were also in the house when little Alyosha Peshkov came here.”

The restorers were delighted to find old wallpaper under the plaster. Under the wallpaper there was a layer of newspapers with dates that corresponded to the time the Kashirins lived. The artists restored the wallpaper design, and new ones were printed to special order.

Before the opening, we were invited to the museum Anna Kirillovna Zalomova, friend of Gorky's mother. Zalomova often visited the Kashirins, and it was she who became the prototype for the main character of the novel “Mother.” Anna Kirillovna was almost 90 years old in 1938. She looked around the house and said: “It’s as if the Kashirins just left here!”

Stove in Kashirin's house. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina

Fairy tales and rods

“Little Alyosha listened to fairy tales every evening,” continues Tamara Shukhareva. “He slept in his grandmother’s room on a chest, and opposite his bed there was a stove with tiles. They are perfectly preserved. The subjects of the pictures are different on each one. They, one might say, were the first illustrations for fairy tales for the future writer.”

In the Kashirins' house, colored glass was inserted into some frames - this was an indicator of prosperity. The glass has been preserved. These colored highlights also seemed fabulous to Alyosha.

But nearby in the kitchen there was a bench and rods in a large tub... While his father was alive, no one touched Alyosha with a finger. But, once at his grandfather’s house, the boy encountered a different world - almost immediately he had to taste the rod. The child, realizing that he was going to be spanked, did not behave resignedly like the other children in the family. He pulled his grandfather's beard and bit his finger.

But we must not forget that it was the grandfather who was the first teacher of the future writer. He taught him to read and write, noticed that his grandson had a good memory and an ability to learn. In a good mood, Kashirin even promised Alyosha to give him his raccoon fur coat.

Did the gypsy survive?

“Gorky’s story “Childhood” describes both this house at the Postal Congress and its inhabitants,” says Tamara Shukhareva. - But we must understand that “Childhood” is still not a scientific article, but a work of art. So, for example, literary scholars do not have a clear opinion about who was the prototype of the Gypsy.”

The gypsy woman in Gorky's story is one of Alyosha's close friends; he clearly had a great influence on the future writer. It is Tsyganok who teaches Alyosha how to behave correctly during a spanking and tries to help him avoid punishment for his pranks. The guy works in a dye shop, he is his grandmother’s favorite, cheerful, lively, and crafty.

In the story, Gypsy dies because of the Kashirin brothers. But what really happened? And was Gypsy even in this house?

The gypsy, it turns out, did not die under the cross. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina

“The story says that Vanya Tsyganok is a foundling: “in early spring, on a rainy night, he was found at the gate of the house on a bench,” says Tamara Shukhareva. - Nikolai Zaburdaev, who headed the State Gorky Museum for almost 20 years, studied the prototypes and the history of the creation of the story for many years. In the police archives, he did not find any mention of a baby being thrown into the Kashirins’ house. There were also no records of adoption in the city government papers.”

Most likely, Gypsy is a collective image of several students of grandfather Kashirin.

One of these students was the company foreman, cantonist Movsha Festovsky, he was 19 years old. It was him who Vasily Kashirin adopted and even baptized - Movsha became Nikolai. But Nikolai Festovsky did not die like the Gypsy under the cross. In 1864 he was recruited as a soldier and returned to Nizhny Novgorod in 1870 with the rank of non-commissioned officer of the 145th Novocherkassk Infantry Regiment. Nikolai Zaburdaev writes that after the service, Festovsky was assigned to the Nizhny Novgorod philistinism and, apparently, went back to work for the Kashirins. In 1874, Festovsky got married and began trading. His house with the sign “Vegetable Trade” is captured in the photo of Maxim Dmitriev.

In Gorky’s story “In People,” grandmother Akulina Ivanovna says that the grandfather went completely bankrupt, giving money in interest without a receipt to his godson Nikolai. In the 1930s, Khitrovsky, while collecting materials for the museum, talked with Mikhail Kashirin’s son, Konstantin. He remembered that in life, Vasily Kashirin, shortly before his death, lent 3 thousand rubles to a fruit merchant, but did not issue a receipt, and the money disappeared. True, Konstantin Kashirin calls the merchant Krestovsky. Zaburdaev believed that the confusion in surnames was simply a memory error.

The tiles on the stove near Alyosha’s bed are perfectly preserved. Photo: AiF-Nizhny Novgorod/ Natalya Burukhina

Three facts about “Childhood” and Kashirin’s House

• There were no children's books in the Kashirins' house, although little Alyosha listened to fairy tales every evening.
• My grandfather's raccoon coat, which is now more than 200 years old, hangs in the museum in his room. Vasily Kashirin was proud of this outfit. In those days, such fur coats were mainly worn by merchants. Grandfather Kashirin was the foreman of a dyeing shop, he was elected to the Duma, but he never became a merchant.
• The prototype of the Gypsy Movsha (Nikolai) Festovsky in 1870 acted as the groom's guarantor in the second wedding of Alyosha Peshkov's uncle - Yakov.

Alyosha Peshkov's grandfather was short and frail, but this did not stop him from being the head of the house. All his sons obeyed him and obeyed him.

At the beginning of the story, the grandfather seems to us to be a very rude, cruel person. For any offense, even the most insignificant, he punishes his grandchildren with flogging. Spanks long and hard. After Alyosha was first subjected to this punishment, he could not get out of bed for a long time. But it is precisely this incident with Alyosha’s illness that allows us to see in the elder Kashirin a different person - kind, strong, who suffered a lot and was hardworking. The grandfather does not tolerate any disobedience because life treated him too cruelly. He got what he had acquired through hard, backbreaking labor - the exhausting work of a barge hauler. Therefore, any encroachment on his property infuriated his grandfather.

However, how this man valued any manifestation of talent in people! He was very supportive of his adopted son Ivan, who, according to him, had golden hands. Noticing Alyosha’s intelligence, his grandfather teaches him his letters and is incredibly happy to see the boy’s success.

Unlike the stern grandfather, Kashirin’s grandmother immediately wins over everyone, as well as Alyosha. She was “all dark, but she shone from within—through her eyes—with an unquenchable, cheerful and warm light. She was stooped, almost hunchbacked, very plump, and she moved easily and deftly, like a big cat - she is soft, just like this affectionate animal.”

Always affectionate and friendly, Kashirina’s grandmother could also be strong. She did not panic during the fire, but gave orders to all household members and neighbors in a firm voice. She reproached Alyosha’s mother for not taking her son away from under his grandfather’s rods.

Thanks to his grandmother, Alyosha Peshkov became acquainted with Russian folklore. This woman could tell fairy tales, epics, legends endlessly. She was a master of Russian dance. Alyosha says that “before her, it was as if I was sleeping, hidden in the dark, but she appeared, woke me up, brought me into the light, tied everything around me into a continuous thread, wove everything into multi-colored lace and immediately became a lifelong friend, closest to my heart.” to me, the most understandable and dear person, it was her selfless love for the world that enriched me, saturating me with strong strength for a difficult life.”

Grandfather Kashirin: the fate of one person in Gorky's story "Childhood"

The little hero of M. Gorky’s story “Childhood”, after the death of his father, ends up in the family of his grandfather. He was a stern man who spent his whole life “saving a penny.”

Grandfather Kashirin was engaged in trade. He had a fairly large family - two sons and a daughter - Lenka's mother. The sons fought over their father's inheritance and were very afraid that their sister would get something. Grandfather was even afraid that they would do the worst thing - “they would harass Varvara.”

Lenka ends up in her grandfather’s family when things are still going well for Kashirin. The family lives in prosperity, and the grandfather is happy with everything so far. This is how Lenka describes him at that time: “He was all folded, chiseled, sharp. His satin, silk-embroidered waistcoat was old and worn out, his cotton shirt was wrinkled, there were large patches on the knees of his pants, and yet he seemed dressed cleaner and more handsome than his sons...”

The grandfather is very worried about the behavior of his sons; he sees that they will stop at nothing in pursuit of money.

Kashirin singled out Lenka from all his grandchildren; for some reason he liked him more than all the others. But he didn’t let the boy go free, he also flogged him for his offenses. Moreover, sometimes the grandfather was very cruel to Lenka.

This man was hot-tempered and angry. Having dispersed, he could have screwed his grandson until he lost consciousness. And this happened when the grandmother and mother stood up for the boy. Kashirin did not tolerate being contradicted, especially in his house.

It is Lenka who tells the grandfather the story of his life. In his youth, Kashirin was a barge hauler: “with his strength he pulled barges against the Volga.” He tells his grandson how difficult it is. The person is exhausted with all his strength, literally bleeding with sweat and blood. But there’s nowhere to go - we have to drag it out: “This is how we lived before the eyes of God, before the eyes of the merciful Lord Jesus Christ!..”

Kashirin says that he measured the Volga three times back and forth - many thousands of miles. But there were also pleasant moments in this life, when on vacation the whole team sang a barge hauler song. Kashirin says that he “got a chill all over his skin, and it was as if the Volga was going faster, and it would have reared up like a horse, right up to the clouds.”

Gradually, the Kashirin family goes bankrupt. Grandfather is getting old. At the end of the story we already see that this is a sick and decrepit man. My grandfather’s financial situation deteriorated significantly. It got to the point that my grandmother went to beg for alms. My grandfather, who was so afraid of losing money, at the end of his life turned into an almost beggar.

We see how he has changed: “the grandfather has shrunk even more, wrinkled, his red hair has turned grey, the calm importance of his movements has been replaced by hot fussiness, his green eyes look suspicious.”

The lack of money really depresses Kashirin. He even separates from his wife so as not to have an extra mouth to feed: “Even the oil for the icon lamp before each one bought his own - this is after fifty years of joint work!” He reproaches his grandmother and Lenka: “You get me drunk, you eat me to the bone, oh, you…” And this is despite the fact that the grandson practically lived on the street.

At the end of the story, the grandfather kicks Lenka out into the street. The boy’s mother dies, and his grandfather tells him: “Well, Lexey, you are not a medal, on my neck there is no place for you, but go join the people...

And I went among the people.”

The fate of grandfather Kashirin is difficult and ambiguous. From a successful merchant he turned into a poor and lonely old man. It is important that he “dispersed” his relatives himself: he quarreled with his sons, separated from his wife, kicked out his grandson, dooming him to independent survival.

The little hero of M. Gorky’s story “Childhood”, after the death of his father, ends up in the family of his grandfather. He was a stern man who spent his whole life “saving a penny.”

Grandfather Kashirin was engaged in trade. He had a fairly large family - two sons and a daughter - Lenka's mother. The sons fought over their father's inheritance and were very afraid that their sister would get something. Grandfather was even afraid that they would do the worst thing - “they would harass Varvara.”

Lenka ends up in her grandfather’s family when things are still going well for Kashirin. The family lives in prosperity, and the grandfather is happy with everything so far. This is how Lenka describes him at that time: “He was all folded, chiseled, sharp. His satin, silk-embroidered waistcoat was old and worn out, his cotton shirt was wrinkled, there were large patches on the knees of his pants, and yet he seemed dressed cleaner and more handsome than his sons...”

The grandfather is very worried about the behavior of his sons; he sees that they will stop at nothing in pursuit of money.

Kashirin singled out Lenka from all his grandchildren; for some reason he liked him more than all the others. But he didn’t let the boy go free, he also flogged him for his offenses. Moreover, sometimes the grandfather was very cruel to Lenka.

This man was hot-tempered and angry. Having dispersed, he could have screwed his grandson until he lost consciousness. And this happened when the grandmother and mother stood up for the boy. Kashirin did not tolerate being contradicted, especially in his house.

It is Lenka who tells the grandfather the story of his life. In his youth, Kashirin was a barge hauler: “with his strength he pulled barges against the Volga.” He tells his grandson how difficult it is. The person is exhausted with all his strength, literally bleeding with sweat and blood. But there’s nowhere to go - we have to drag it out: “This is how we lived before the eyes of God, before the eyes of the merciful Lord Jesus Christ!..”

Kashirin says that he measured the Volga three times back and forth - many thousands of miles. But there were also pleasant moments in this life, when on vacation the whole team sang a barge hauler song. Kashirin says that he “got a chill on his skin, and it was as if the Volga was going faster, and it would have reared up like a horse, right up to the clouds.”

Gradually, the Kashirin family goes bankrupt. Grandfather is getting old. At the end of the story we already see that this is a sick and decrepit man. My grandfather’s financial situation deteriorated significantly. It got to the point that my grandmother went to beg for alms. My grandfather, who was so afraid of losing money, at the end of his life turned into an almost beggar.

We see how he has changed: “the grandfather has shrunk even more, wrinkled, his red hair has turned grey, the calm importance of his movements has been replaced by hot fussiness, his green eyes look suspicious.”

The lack of money really depresses Kashirin. He even separates from his wife so as not to have an extra mouth to feed: “Even the oil for the icon lamp before each one bought his own - this is after fifty years of joint work!” He reproaches his grandmother and Lenka: “You get me drunk, you eat me to the bone, oh, you…” And this is despite the fact that the grandson practically lived on the street.

At the end of the story, the grandfather kicks Lenka out into the street. The boy’s mother dies, and his grandfather tells him: “Well, Lexey, you are not a medal, there is no place for you on my neck, but go join the people...

And I went among the people.”

The fate of grandfather Kashirin is difficult and ambiguous. From a successful merchant he turned into a poor and lonely old man. It is important that he “dispersed” his relatives himself: he quarreled with his sons, separated from his wife, kicked out his grandson, dooming him to independent survival.

“Childhood” is a story by Gorky that was written in 1913. This work became autobiographical, because the writer in his poem told many episodes from his childhood. The hero of the story is Alexey Kashirin, who was left without parents and is taken in by the old Kashirins. It is precisely the Kashirin grandparents that we need to give, while the images of old people: Kashirin’s grandparents are very different and opposite.

Characteristics of Kashirin's grandparents

When working on an essay on the topic: “Kashirina’s grandfather and grandmother,” I would like to first give their description. The author depicted the grandmother as “round, big-headed”; she had huge eyes and a loose nose. Grandma had a long braid, and despite her weight, she moved like a cat. Grandfather, through the author’s eyes, is “a small, dry old man, with a red beard like gold, a bird’s nose and green eyes.”

Grandfather Kashirin is strict, with a stern disposition. For any reason, even the slightest offense, he can rebuke him with all severity. He does not get along with his children and has a tense relationship with them, and they are no better with his grandchildren, because very often he resorts to punishment such as spanking. Although, sometimes he shows good feelings. So, he himself came to make peace with Alyosha after the spanking, telling many interesting stories from his life, and he began to teach the boy to read and write.

Comparing grandfather Kashirin and grandmother, we see that the old woman on the contrary was kind, sympathetic, and always ready to defend. The woman is friendly, strong and does not panic in a variety of life situations. It was the grandmother who became the boy’s intercessor, the light and warmth that warmed the boy, the grandmother gave joy and love.

If we talk about grandfather Kashirin’s attitude towards his grandmother, we see that he could raise his hand against her too. Moreover, in his old age he completely went crazy, becoming stingier and greedier, and therefore he even refused to feed his grandmother, and then they completely divided the household, where everyone lived on their own.