Mother

Name: Mother
Author: Maxim Gorky

Mother is a novel written by Maxim Gorky and published in 1907. It is about a woman who fights against the Tsarist regime.

The story begins with the death of Mikhail Vlasov, a worker who mistreated his wife Pelagia for many years.

The couple had a son, Pavel, a young man whose growing reserve his mother cannot explain. One day Pavel brings his comrades home, and there she discovers what has been occupying him: he has become a socialist organizer at the factory where he works.

Initially, this is bad news for her, since she detests political activity, mainly out of fear of reprisals and because of what her marriage had taught her, but little by little she becomes more involved in these political meetings and ends up considering her son's companions as her own children.

Everything changes when the police move against them: her son and his comrades are arrested, and Pelagia, who began by dreading all of it, ends up carrying their leaflets herself...

Why Read Mother in 2026?

A factory town, a son, and a woman who learns what courage looks like when it is shared. Gorky turns meetings and leaflets into lived stakes.

Today's connection

Beyond slogans, this is a novel about care that grows outward—kitchen tables, crowded streets, and the risk of speaking up. It shows how ordinary people become organizers and how fear and hope travel through families. Read it for the human scale of movements: bread, coats, and trust. Whatever your politics, the portrait of resolve and tenderness under pressure is the point.