Yashka · Chapter
My Childhood of Toil explained
Maria Bochkareva recounts her early childhood, born into extreme poverty in a family of former serfs.
What happens
Maria Bochkareva recounts her early childhood, born into extreme poverty in a family of former serfs. Her father, Leonti Frolkov, a decorated veteran of the Russo-Turkish War, becomes abusive and alcoholic. The family migrates to Siberia in search of land, enduring hunger, illness, and homelessness. At age eight, Maria is sent to work as a nursemaid, facing harsh treatment and contemplating suicide. She briefly runs away, is taken to a police station, and is eventually reunited with her mother. The chapter ends with the family renting a basement and Maria encountering the grocer Nastasia Fuchsman.
Themes in this chapter
Class and Oppression
The chapter vividly depicts the crushing poverty of a former serf family, the struggle for survival, and the exploitation of child labor.
Suffering and Resilience
Maria endures hunger, abuse, and despair, yet continues to seek connection and meaning, exemplified by her contemplation of suicide and eventual return to her mother.
Survival and Agency
Despite being a child, Maria makes decisions to run away and later to remain at work, showing early signs of agency in dire circumstances.
Characters to notice
- Maria Bochkareva
Narrator and protagonist; describes her birth, early childhood, and first job at age eight.
- Leonti Semenovitch Frolkov
Maria's father; a former serf and soldier, becomes abusive and alcoholic after marriage.
- Olga Frolkova
Maria's mother; endured poverty, begging, and abuse, yet remained devoted to her family.
- Elizar Nazarev
Maria's maternal grandfather; a destitute fisherman in Tcharanda.
- Nastasia Leontievna Fuchsman
Jewish grocer in Tomsk; Maria is sent to her shop to buy salt at the chapter's end.
- Shura
One of Maria's elder sisters; born in Nikolsko.
Key passages
“My father, Leonti Semenovitch Frolkov, was born into serfdom at Nikolsko, a village in the province of Novgorod, some two hundred miles north of Moscow. He was fifteen when Alexander II emancipated the serfs in 1861, and remembers that historic event vividly, being fond even now of telling of the days of his boyhood.”
Maria's father was born a serf and was fifteen when serfdom was abolished in 1861; he still recalls that time clearly.
Establishes the family's background of serfdom and the historical context of emancipation.
“Such was the beginning of my career in life. I was eight and a half years old, small and very thin. I had never before left my mother’s side, and both of us wept bitterly at parting.”
At eight and a half, Maria started working as a nursemaid, separated from her mother for the first time.
Highlights the onset of child labor and emotional trauma.
“I would drown myself, I thought. Yes, I would run to the river and drown myself. Then I would go up, free of all pain, into the arms of God.”
Maria contemplated suicide by drowning, believing death would bring relief and reunion with God.
Reveals the depth of her despair and early thoughts of escape.