The history of the creation of the play “Vassa Zheleznova”
Maxim Gorky, a Russian writer, composed the dramatic play "Vassa Zheleznova" in 1910, which was included in all published collections of his works under the title "Mother".
The first production of “Vassa Zheleznova” was presented to the audience on the stage of the Korsh Theater even before the revolution. M. Gorky himself called the first version “a play about a mother.” The author's essay shows a family drama in which there is neither right nor wrong. This is a story about a tragedy in a family where profit, deception, betrayal, and murder reign. According to legend, the prototype of the main character was the widow of a merchant and steamship operator in Nizhny Novgorod, Maria Kapitonovna Kashina (1857-1916). 25 years later, Maxim Gorky rewrote the play, where the emphasis on motherhood was muted by the theme of political realism and the class struggle between the young revolutionary Rachel and the wealthy industrialist Vassa. In the second version, the plot and characters were slightly changed, but the idea of motherhood is still the main one in the play. A new version of “Vassa Zheleznova” was published in 1935 and gained popularity. Both versions of the play are interesting because the author managed to create two artistic images of mothers, which reflected the realities of the time occurring in Russian society.
Vassa Zheleznova
Gorky Maxim (1868-1936)
Play (1935, publ. 1936)
Vassa Borisovna Zheleznova, nee Khrapova, 42 years old (but looks younger), owner of a shipping company, a very rich and influential person, lives in her own house with her drunken husband, Sergei Petrovich Zheleznov, 60 years old, a former captain, and brother, Prokhor Borisovich A ratcheting, careless, drinking person who collects all kinds of locks (the collection seems to parody the sister’s possessive instincts). Natalya and Lyudmila, the daughters of Vassa and Sergei Petrovich, also live in the house; Anna Onoshenkova is Vassa’s young secretary and confidante and at the same time a domestic spy; Liza and then Polya are maids. The sailor Pyaterkin is constantly in the house, playing the role of a jester and secretly hitting on Aiza in the hope of marrying her and getting rich; Gury Krotkikh - manager of the shipping company; Melnikov - a member of the district court and his son Evgeniy (tenants).
Rachelle, the wife of Vassa’s son Fyodor, who is dying far from his homeland, arrives from abroad. Rachelle is a socialist revolutionary wanted by the police. She wants to take away her young son Kolya, whom Vassa is hiding in the village and does not want to give to his daughter-in-law, since she expects to make him the heir to the fortune and the continuer of her business. Vassa threatens to hand Rachel over to the gendarmes if she insists on the return of her son.
The precarious prosperity of Vassa’s house rests on crime. She poisons her husband Sergei Petrovich when he becomes involved in seducing a minor and faces hard labor. But first she invites him to commit suicide, and only when he refuses does Vassa, saving the honor of her unmarried daughters, add powder to her husband. Thus, the family avoids the shame of the trial. The series of crimes did not end there. The maid Lisa suffered from her brother Vassa and, in the end, hanged herself in the bathhouse (people were told that she had gone crazy). Vassa is ready to do anything just to save her home and her business. She madly loves her failed children, who were victims of their father’s former unbridled life and his cruel treatment of their mother. Fedor is not a good person in this world. Lyudmila, as a child, having seen enough of your father’s fun with dissolute girls, you grew up weak-minded. Natalya gradually becomes an alcoholic with her uncle and does not like her mother, whom she nevertheless closely resembles in terms of her toughness. The last hope is a grandson, but he is still too young.
There is some similarity between Rachel and Vassa that they both feel. These are solid, fanatical characters - “masters of life”; only Vassa is all in the past, and Rachelle is the future. They are irreconcilable enemies, but respect each other. Nevertheless, Vassa orders the secretary to report Rachel to the gendarmes, but does this solely for the sake of his grandson; the ending of the play is unexpected. Vassa dies suddenly. This feels like a punishment from above for the absurd, sudden death of her husband and the mockery of fate: part of Vassa’s money is stolen by Onoshenkova, and the rest of the wealth, according to the law, will be disposed of by the dissolute brother, who will undoubtedly squander everything. Only the weak-minded Lyudmila mourns her mother. The rest are not affected by her death at all.
P. V. Basinsky
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A brief retelling of the play “Vassa Zheleznova”
Characters in the play:
- Vassa Borisovna Zheleznova - nee Khrapova, owner of a shipping company, mother of three children, 42 years old, but looks younger than her years.
- Sergei Petrovich Zheleznov - Vassa’s husband, 60 years old, former captain, sailed in the Black Sea, then on river ships, retired, abuses alcohol, chases young girls.
- Prokhor Borisovich Khrapov - Vassa’s brother, 57 years old, a carefree playmaker.
- Natalya, Lyudmila are the daughters of Vassa and Sergei Petrovich, they are 18 and 16 years old.
- Rachelle is Vassa’s daughter-in-law, about 30 years old, the wife of her son Fyodor, an active social revolutionary.
- Kolya is the little grandson of Vassa Zheleznova, the son of Rachel and Fyodor.
- Anna Onoshenkova - secretary and assistant to Vassa in business, 30 years old.
- Lisa and Polya are maids in Vassa’s house.
- Gury Krotkikh is the manager of the Vassa shipping company.
- Pyaterkin is a sailor, Anna’s boyfriend, apparently 27-30 years old.
- Melnikov, a member of the district court, Evgeniy, his son are Vassa Zheleznova’s tenants.
The action takes place in the Zheleznovs’ private house on the banks of the Volga River. The author introduces readers to the main character and the inhabitants of the house. At first glance, life goes calmly and measuredly. Vassa Borisovna is a mother and the main mistress not only in the house, but also in the family business. Vassa is a powerful, intelligent, calculating person. She gives orders to her manager Gury Krotkikh, which relate to the work of the company and making a profit. Vassa Borisovna likes to humiliate and mock those who are lower in “rank” than her.
Vassa is helped in his business by the girl Anna, who spies and reports everything to the hostess, and at the same time is not averse to profiting at her expense.
Her husband, Sergei Petrovich, a drunkard and libertine, retired long ago and became a burden to the family. His behavior is being examined in court in a case of seducing a minor girl. He faces hard labor, and this will lead to a worsening of the Zheleznovs’ position in society and will become an obstacle to getting their daughters married. Vassa is trying in every possible way to get her husband out of this scandal, acting through her tenant Melnikov, a member of the district court, and offers a bribe to the investigator of three thousand rubles, but this does not help. Vassa decides to talk to her husband so that he takes poison and does not disgrace the family, and thinks about the future of his daughters.
She breaks up with him ruthlessly, just as he once ruthlessly treated her. The husband dies from poison. One less problem.
Her brother, Prokhor Borisovich Khrapov, is a careless man and a drinker. On the sly, he got Vassa's daughters addicted to drinking. He is especially friendly with the eldest Natalya. She likes her uncle's cheerful disposition. He seduced the maid Lisa, who is expecting a child from him.
Unable to bear the shame, Lisa hanged herself in the bathhouse. In a conversation with Natalya, Prokhor condemns Vassa’s husband and says: “Oh, it will be a shame! ...It’s not so much Captain Zheleznov who will be judged, but us, the Khrapovs.”
The youngest daughter, Lyudmila, due to her father’s depraved behavior and his passion for bringing prowling girls into the house, became slightly insane. She is the only one who truly loves her loved ones. The eldest Natalya is very similar to her mother. She is just as calculating and strong in character, but she despises her mother. Vassa understands all this, she loves her children like a mother, this is felt in her conversations, but she loves prudence and money more. Step by step, the author reveals the essence of each family member. Tragedy follows tragedy.
Somewhere abroad lives a terminally ill son, Fyodor. His wife, Rachel, unexpectedly arrives at the house and wants to take little Kolya, whom Vassa is raising. Zheleznova hopes that he will become her heir, because there is no one else to pass on her life’s work. Rachel is an active social revolutionary. She is a brave and decisive person. Knowing that the police are hunting for her and that she might be handed over to the authorities in Vassa, she appears at the house and wants to take her son away. Rachel and Vassa have a lot in common: strong character, perseverance, achieving goals. They are irreconcilable class enemies, defending their opposing positions, but respect each other. Vassa orders Anna, his secretary, to report Rachel to the police. The main reason is not politics, but the fact that her grandson will be taken away from her.
The ending of the play is unexpected: Vassa dies of a heart attack. Everyone in the house is trying to take advantage and steal. Anna steals part of the mistress's money, the other part goes to her scoundrel brother, who drinks it all away and lets it go to waste. Vassa Zheleznova’s body lies in the room, no one cares. One weak-minded Lyudmila mourns her.
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Conclusions from the play “Vassa Zheleznova”
Maxim Gorkov’s drama “Vassa Zheleznova” is one of the best works in Russian literature. The author realistically told the story of one wealthy family in beautiful Russian language. He showed the base traits of family members: permissiveness, vile attitude towards people not of his own circle, bribery, child molestation, thirst for profit at any cost, murder, betrayal, separation of mother and child, theft and more. For what? As old as time: money! All for the sake of money. Vassa saved all her life, humiliated herself, then humiliated others herself; after her death, all the characters are obsessed with the thirst for profit.
M. Gorky created the image of Vassa the capitalist, powerful and confident in her own infallibility, naively believing that such a situation was impossible in a proletarian family. This is a story about the spiritual degeneration of bright maternal feelings. Vassa exchanged maternal qualities such as love, care, protection, compassion for money. Her children, surrounded by profit, grew up to be losers and slackers. The main theme of the play is a spiritual heritage that is lost.
Summary of “Vassa Zheleznova”
Vassa Borisovna Zheleznova
, maiden name - Khrapova, 42 years old (but looks younger), owner of a shipping company, a very rich and influential person, lives in her own house with her drunken husband, Sergei Petrovich Zheleznov, 60 years old, a former captain, and brother, Prokhor Borisovich Khrapov, a carefree , a drinking man who collects all kinds of locks (the collection seems to parody the sister’s possessive instincts). Natalya and Lyudmila, the daughters of Vassa and Sergei Petrovich, also live in the house; Anna Onoshenkova is Vassa’s young secretary and confidante and at the same time a domestic spy; Liza and then Polya are maids. The sailor Pyaterkin is constantly in the house, playing the role of a jester and secretly hitting on Liza in the hope of marrying her and getting rich; Gury Krotkikh - manager of the shipping company; Melnikov - a member of the district court and his son Evgeniy (tenants).
Rachelle, the wife of Vassa’s son Fyodor, who is dying far from his homeland, arrives from abroad. Rachelle is a socialist revolutionary wanted by the police. She wants to take away her young son Kolya, whom Vassa is hiding in the village and does not want to give to his daughter-in-law, since she expects to make him the heir to the fortune and the continuer of her business. Vassa threatens to hand Rachel over to the gendarmes if she insists on the return of her son.
The precarious prosperity of Vassa’s house rests on crime. She poisons her husband Sergei Petrovich when he becomes involved in seducing a minor and faces hard labor. But first she invites him to commit suicide, and only when he refuses does Vassa, saving the honor of her unmarried daughters, add powder to her husband. Thus, the family avoids the shame of the trial. The series of crimes did not end there. The maid Lisa suffered from Vassa's brother and, in the end, hanged herself in the bathhouse (people were told that she was crazy). Vassa is ready to do anything just to save the house and her business. She is madly in love with her failed children, who were victims of their father's former unbridled life and his cruel treatment of their mother. Fedor is not a good person in this world. Lyudmila, having seen enough of her father’s fun with dissolute girls as a child, grew up weak-minded. Natalya gradually becomes an alcoholic with her uncle and does not like her mother, whom she nevertheless resembles very much in terms of her toughness. The last hope is a grandson, but he is still too young.
There is some similarity between Rachel and Vassa that they both feel. These are solid, fanatical characters - “masters of life”;
Only Vassa is all in the past, and Rachelle is the future. They are irreconcilable enemies, but respect each other. Nevertheless, Vassa orders the secretary to report Rachel to the gendarmes, but does this solely for the sake of his grandson; the ending of the play is unexpected. Vassa dies suddenly. This feels like a punishment from above for the absurd, sudden death of her husband and the mockery of fate: part of Vassa’s money is stolen by Onoshenkova, and the rest of the wealth, according to the law, will be disposed of by the dissolute brother, who will undoubtedly squander everything. Only the weak-minded Lyudmila mourns her mother. The rest are not affected by her death at all.
The play “Vassa Zheleznova” on stage and in film
The performance based on the work of the same name was staged in many theaters of the Soviet state, several films were released in which the roles were played by famous actors.
In 1936, the main role of Vassa Zheleznova was played on the stage of the Red Army Theater by the famous actress Faina Ranevskaya. The play was often included in the repertoire of many Soviet drama theaters. The image of Vassa on stage was presented by such great actresses as: Vera Pashennaya, Serafima Birman, Elizaveta Nikishchikhina, Antonina Shuranova, Tatyana Doronina, Svetlana Kryuchkova.
In 1982, film director Gleb Panfilov made a film of the same name, where Vassa was brilliantly played by Inna Churikova, and little Kolya was played by their son, Ivan.
In the film production, Vassa Zheleznova bears the burden of her family, trying with all her might to maintain at least the semblance of a normal life with her libertine husband, alcoholic brother and unlucky children, however, as in the play, the heroine’s whole life is in ruins.
M. Gorky’s work “Vassa Zheleznova” was brought to life on screen by filmmakers from Germany (1963) and France (1972).
