The Artamonov Business

A family saga, Gorky's novel chronicles the fortunes of several generations of families between the liberation of the serfs and the cataclysm of the Great War and the subsequent Bolshevik revolution. The beginnings and growth of a bourgeois class is told by a short-sighted artist whose provides the following description of workers:
"Everyone lives for work, but whether men live for anything beyond their work we can't see." That this short-sightedness would contribute to the success of the Bolsheviks can be seen in the author's long association with Lenin. In spite of this the novel is a good picture of Russia before the coming of the Soviet, as long as you maintain the healthy skepticism of an intelligent reader.

A story of Russia told through the family saga of the Artamonov covers the time period of Russia industrial revolution to it's conclusion in the Bolshevik Revolution. The Artamonov are the new class of Russian merchants born out of the end of the serfdom declared by Tsar Alexander. Artamonov comes to the sleepy village of Dromov to build a Linen Factory. Ilia Artamonov barges into the town, interrupting life as it was formerly lived by the citizens. The story takes us through to the third generation and as may be the norm, the business deteriorates as we get further from it's origins.

Quotes:
"There are no human beings at all, only workers, except for beggars and the gentry. We all live merely to work; work overshadows everybody." page show more 95.

"he (Peter) saw with astonishment that his son by some miracle had become his match, either by rising to a grown-up in authority, or else by reducing a grown-up to his own level." page 129
Rating 3.57 show less

After the peasants are freed, Artamanov Sr moves to a new town and starts a linen factory. He brings his wife and sons. The townspeople are not sure they trust him or like him, or that they want a factory. But he quickly marries his oldest son to the daughter of a local widow, and is then part of town life.

As he ages his sons grow, have children, and Sr dies. Then the grandkids become involved in the business and have kids of their own.

This is, of course, all going on in the late 1800s/early 1900s. The Artamonovs, though previously owned themselves, are now merchants and thus not trustworthy. And their lives are somewhat decadent, with lots of food and alcohol, traveling to Moscow and back, and marrying daughters off to other wealthy show more merchants so they leave the town. The factory runs itself, they just take, while the townspeople pour their lives into working for them. Some of the Artamanovs worry about the peasant uprisings and talk, but most just go about their business.

Not a long book, but I would it slow going. show less

Story of a russian familiy that becomes rich and independend by creating a manufactory - and looses all at the beginning of the russian revolution.