Maxim Gorky’s internal dialogue of an entire class.

‘A Talk with Life’ by Maxim Gorky from The Comrade. Vol. 4 No. 3. March, 1905.

Women who had been deceived by Life, so wild and so pitiless, once stood before her face to face. “What do you want of me?” asked she.

One of them answered in low tones as follows: “The cruelty of your contradictions appears revolting to me; my mind tries in vain to solve the riddle of existence; and my spirit is veiled by the darkness of doubt. But my reason tells me all the time that man is the most perfect being in all creation!”

“What do you seek from me?” interrupted Life, with sphinx-like face.

“I want happiness! And in order that I may be able to realize it, I must conciliate the two opposed principles that divide my heart in making ‘I want’ agree with ‘You ought.’”

“You have simply to desire what you ought to do for me,” answered Life in rather harsh tones.

“No! I cannot desire to be your victim!” cried the man. “I who would like to rule you, I am condemned to live under your laws. Why?”

“Don’t talk so boldly,” entreated his companion, who stood a little nearer to Life. “Don’t talk so boldly!”

But without paying attention the man went on:

“I claim to have the right to live in harmony with my ideals. I do not wish to be compelled either to be the brother or the slave of my neighbor. I want to be either brother or slave at my own sweet will, obeying only my own inclinations. I cannot be happy while Society disposes of me as a kind of lifeless stone which is only good to build up the prison walls of the common good. I am a man, I am a spirit, and I ought to be free!”

And the man replied with a very discouraged look on his countenance:

“You have forced me to an inner battle with my own self. Your words have sharpened my judgment, and now, like a keen blade, it plunges its edge deeper into my soul and wounds me all the time.” “Speak to her more boldly,” pleaded his companion; “don’t begin to whimper!”

“Say no more,” remarked Life, with a cold smile. “You have said a great deal, and anything you could add would be simple platitude. You demand liberty? Why do you not fight for it? Try a battle with me! Suppose you are victorious! Become my master and let me be your slave! You know with what resignation I yield to my conqueror! But you must conquer first! Do you feel able to cross swords with me in order to free yourself from your chains? Do you feel sure that you will triumph over me? Have you confidence in your own power?”

But the man continued: “Would that your tyranny would grant me a little breathing space! Oh, leave me for one short minute to enjoy some happiness!”

Life had now a fresh smile, like the cold sheen of ice.

“Tell me,” said she, “do you ask this of me as a favor?”

“I ask it as a favor,” answered the man, like an echo.

“Then you speak like a beggar! But know, poor fellow, that Life never bestows ought from motives of charity. And then, don’t you remember, you are a free man, and you can with your own right hand take away my gifts from me! But you–you are only the obedient slave of my I will! He alone is free who knows how to give up everything else in order to fix his heart on some chosen goal! Have you understood?…And now, go!”

The man had understood, and now, like an obedient dog, he crouched humbly at the feet of Life, and licked the crumbs which fell from the table.

But the austere face of Life turned away from the groveller, and sought the man who had not yet asked any question of her. He had a heavy face, but his look was kind.

“What do you want to get?” demanded Life. “I ask nothing. I demand something as a right.”

“What can that be?”

“Justice! Where can Justice be found? Give me Justice; I know afterwards how to get at everything else! At present I only seek for Justice. I have waited for Justice long and patiently, out in the night with sleepless eyes! I have waited–but the hour has at length come! Where is Justice?”

“Take Justice!” answered Life, with the same sphinx-like face.

The Comrade began in 1901 with the launch of the Socialist Party, and was published monthly until 1905 in New York City and edited by John Spargo, Otto Wegener, and Algernon Lee amongst others. Along with Socialist politics, it featured radical art and literature. The Comrade was known for publishing Utopian Socialist literature and included a serialization of ‘News from Nowhere’ by William Morris along work from with Heinrich Heine, Thomas Nast, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Edward Markham, Jack London, Maxim Gorky, Clarence Darrow, Upton Sinclair, Eugene Debs, and Mother Jones. It would be absorbed into the International Socialist Review in 1905.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/comrade/v04n03-mar-1905-The-Comrade.pdf