Yushka (Platonov)
Short summary
Long ago, in an old Russian town near a major Moscow road, there lived a blacksmith's assistant named Efim Dmitrievich, whom everyone called Yushka.
He lived humbly, drinking only water instead of tea, wearing the same worn clothes for years. Children tormented him on the street, throwing stones and sticks at him, but he never got angry, believing they loved him but didn't know how to express it. Adults also abused him, beating him when they were drunk or angry. Every summer, Yushka left for a month to visit someone in a distant village, spending his saved money—about a hundred rubles a year.
One evening, a cheerful passerby mocked Yushka, and for the first time in his life, Yushka got angry and answered back:
I was put to live by my parents, I was born by law, I am also needed by the whole world, just like you, without me too, it means, it's impossible!..
The passerby became enraged and pushed Yushka hard in the chest. Yushka fell and died from internal bleeding. After his death, people forgot about him, but life became worse—their anger and mockery now turned on each other. In autumn, a young woman doctor came looking for Efim Dmitrievich. She revealed that Yushka had supported her since childhood, paying for her education and upbringing while denying himself everything. She had come to treat his tuberculosis, but arrived too late. She stayed in the town, treating tuberculosis patients for free. Years later, people called her the daughter of good Yushka, having forgotten Yushka himself and that she wasn't actually his daughter.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Yushka the forge worker: A life of hardship and humility
Long ago, in old times, an elderly-looking man lived on a street. He worked in a forge by the main Moscow road as an assistant to the head blacksmith because his eyesight was poor and his hands lacked strength. He carried water, sand, and coal to the forge, operated the bellows, held hot iron with tongs on the anvil while the master blacksmith hammered it, led horses into the stall for shoeing, and performed various other necessary tasks. His name was Efim, but everyone called him Yushka.
Childrens cruelty and Yushkas mysterious patience
Yushka lived in quarters at the blacksmith owner's house, in the kitchen. He earned seven rubles and sixty kopecks a month but never bought tea or sugar, drinking only water. He wore the same clothes for years: black work pants and blouse burned through with sparks, going barefoot in summer, and in winter adding an old sheepskin coat inherited from his deceased father and felt boots he patched each autumn. When Yushka walked to the forge early in the morning, old people would say it was time to wake up, and when he returned at night, people knew it was time for supper and bed.
Small children and even teenagers, seeing the quietly shuffling old Yushka, would stop playing and run after him, shouting and throwing dry branches, stones, and handfuls of dirt at him.
Yushka never responded or got offended; he walked just as quietly as before, not covering his face from the stones and dirt. The children were amazed that he was alive but didn't get angry at them. They would touch him and push him, not understanding why he wouldn't scold them or chase them with a stick like other adults did. The children didn't know any other person like this and wondered if Yushka was really alive.
He believed that the children loved him, that they needed him, only they didn't know how to love a person and didn't know what to do for love, and therefore they tormented him.
Adults rage and Yushkas silent acceptance
Adult people also sometimes offended Yushka on the street. When they had evil grief or resentment, or were drunk, their hearts filled with fierce rage.
Seeing Yushka walking to the forge or home, an adult would say: "Why do you walk around so strange, unlike others? What special things are you thinking?" Yushka would stop, listen, and remain silent. After such conversations, during which Yushka stayed silent, the adult would become convinced that Yushka was guilty of everything and would beat him.
From Yushka's meekness an adult would become embittered and beat him more than he wanted at first, and in this evil he would forget his own grief for a time.
Annual journeys: Yushkas secret and his love of nature
Yushka would lie in the dust on the road for a long time. Sometimes the blacksmith owner's daughter would come for him, lift him up, and lead him away.
She would tell him it would be better if he died, but Yushka didn't understand why he should die when he was born to live. When Dasha pointed out that people beat him, Yushka insisted that people loved him.
He loves me without understanding, - said Yushka. - The heart in people can be blind.
Every summer, due to his illness, Yushka would leave for a month, walking to a distant remote village where relatives supposedly lived. He would put bread in a knapsack and walk through fields and forests. Along the way, he breathed in the fragrance of grasses and forests, watched white clouds, listened to rivers murmuring over stone rapids, and his sick chest would rest.
Having gone far away, where it was completely deserted, Yushka no longer hid his love for living beings. He bent down to the earth and kissed flowers, trying not to breathe on them so they wouldn't spoil.
The fatal encounter and Yushkas death
One summer, when it was time for Yushka to leave for his distant village, he didn't go. Walking home from the forge one evening, he encountered a cheerful passerby who mocked him.
For the first time in his life, Yushka became angry and said he was born by his parents' will, that he was needed in the world just like anyone else. The passerby became furious and, with angry force, pushed Yushka in the chest. Yushka fell backward. A carpenter passing by found him lying face down with white open motionless eyes and blood that had gushed from his throat.
Farewell, Yushka, and forgive us all. People rejected you, but who is your judge!..
All the people came to say goodbye to Yushka's body, both old and young, everyone who had known and tormented him during his life. After Yushka was buried and forgotten, life became worse for people.
Now all the malice and mockery remained among the people and was spent between them, because there was no Yushka, who silently endured all others' evil, bitterness, and ridicule.
The truth revealed: Yushkas legacy
In late autumn, a young girl came to the forge asking for Efim Dmitrievich. The blacksmith finally realized she meant Yushka. The girl explained that she had been an orphan, and Efim Dmitrievich had placed her with a family in Moscow, then sent her to boarding school. Every year he came to visit her and brought money for the whole year so she could live and study. She had just graduated from university and become a doctor, but this summer he hadn't come.
The blacksmith led her to the cemetery.
There the girl fell to the ground where dead Yushka lay, the man who had fed her since childhood, never eating sugar so that she could eat it.
She had finished medical school and came to treat the one who loved her most in the world. The girl-doctor remained forever in the city, working in a hospital for consumptives, visiting tuberculosis patients at home, and taking no payment for her work. She aged but continued treating and comforting sick people all day long. Everyone in the city knew her, calling her the daughter of good Yushka, having long forgotten Yushka himself and that she wasn't actually his daughter.