Mother by Maxim Gorky

‘The Mother’ by Maxim Gorky is a novel based on the Russian revolution. It is Gorky’s worldwide famous work on the Russian Revolution. The political agenda behind the novel was that he wanted to raise the spirit of the proletarian movement after the defeat of first Russian movement in 1905. He was trying to raise the spirit among the revolutionaries to battle the defeatist mood.
The novel demonstrates the plight of revolutionary factory workers at that time. It is said to be semi-autobiographical as Gorky was related to the protagonists of the story. The novel revolves around a young Russian boy – Pavel Vlasov, involved in revolutionary activities, and his mother, whose motherly concern and urge to help her son leads her to get involved in the revolution. Nilovna, despite being uneducated, overcomes her political ignorance, and becomes the true protagonist of the story.