Story background and photos of childhood

This story vividly reproduces the living conditions of the lower classes in Russia in the 1970s and 1980s. Gorky spent his childhood in a family full of cruelty and hatred: he lost his father at the age of four, followed his grief-stricken mother and kind grandmother to his overbearing and bankrupt grandfather's house, but he was often beaten by his violent grandfather. But the kind grandmother protects him everywhere. As a young man, he realized the pain and ugliness of the world prematurely, and his young mind suffered many blows. Grandmother and people like her protect and support Gorky.