Biography

Maxim Gorky Born in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a cabinetmaker, after the death of his father he lived in the family of his grandfather V. Kashirin, the owner of a dyeing establishment.

Real name - Peshkov Alexey Maksimovich

At the age of eleven, having become an orphan, he began to work, having replaced many “owners”: a messenger at a shoe store, a cook on ships, a draftsman, etc. Only reading books saved him from the despair of a hopeless life.

In 1884 he came to Kazan to fulfill his dream - to study at the university, but very soon he realized the unreality of such a plan. Started working. Later Bitter will write: “I did not expect outside help and did not hope for a lucky break... I realized very early that a person is created by his resistance environment". At the age of 16, he already knew a lot about life, but the four years spent in Kazan shaped his personality and determined his path. He began to conduct propaganda work among workers and peasants (with the populist M. Romas in the village of Krasnovidovo). Since 1888 wanderings began Gorky around Russia in order to get to know it better and get to know the life of the people better.

Passed Bitter through the Don steppes, across Ukraine, to the Danube, from there - through the Crimea and North Caucasus- to Tiflis, where he spent a year working as a hammer hammer, then as a clerk in railway workshops, communicating with revolutionary figures and participating in illegal circles. At this time, he wrote his first story, “Makar Chudra,” published in a Tiflis newspaper, and the poem “The Girl and Death” (published in 1917).

Since 1892, having returned to Nizhny Novgorod, he took up literary work, published in Volga newspapers. Stories from 1895 Gorky appear in metropolitan magazines, in the Samara Gazeta he became known as a feuilletonist, speaking under the pseudonym Yehudiel Khlamida. “Essays and Stories” was published in 1898 Gorky, which made him widely known in Russia. Works hard and grows quickly great artist, an innovator who can lead. His romantic stories called to fight, fostered heroic optimism (“Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel”).

In 1899, the novel Foma Gordeev was published, which put forward Gorky among the world-class writers. In the fall of this year he came to St. Petersburg, where he met Mikhailovsky and Veresaev, Repin; later in Moscow - S.L. Tolstoy, L. Andreev, A. Chekhov, I. Bunin, A. Kuprin and other writers. He became close to revolutionary circles and was exiled to Arzamas for writing a proclamation calling for the overthrow of the tsarist government in connection with the dispersal of student demonstrations.

In 1901 - 1902 he wrote his first plays, “The Bourgeois” and “At the Lower Depths,” staged on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. In 1904 - the plays "Summer Residents", "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians".

In the revolutionary events of 1905 Bitter took an active part, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress for anti-tsarist proclamations. The protest of the Russian and world community forced the government to release the writer. For assistance with money and weapons during the Moscow December armed uprising Gorky threatened with reprisals from the official authorities, so it was decided to send him abroad. At the beginning of 1906 he arrived in America, where he stayed until the fall. The pamphlets “My Interviews” and the essays “In America” were written here.

Upon returning to Russia, he created the play “Enemies” and the novel “Mother” (1906). In the same year Bitter went to Italy, to Capri, where he lived until 1913, giving all his strength literary creativity. During these years, the plays “The Last” (1908), “Vassa Zheleznova” (1910), the stories “Summer”, “Okurov Town” (1909), and the novel “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin” (1910 - 11) were written.

Using the amnesty, in 1913 the writer returned to St. Petersburg and collaborated with the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda. In 1915 he founded the magazine "Letopis", headed the literary department of the magazine, uniting around him such writers as Shishkov, Prishvin, Trenev, Gladkoe and others.

After the February Revolution, Maxim Gorky participated in the publication of the newspaper " New life", which was the organ of the Social Democrats, where he published articles under the general title "Untimely Thoughts". He expressed fears about the unpreparedness of the October Revolution, was afraid that "the dictatorship of the proletariat would lead to the death of politically educated Bolshevik workers...", reflected on the role of the intelligentsia in salvation of the nation: “The Russian intelligentsia must again take upon itself the great work of spiritual healing of the people.”

Soon Bitter became actively involved in construction new culture: helped organize the First Workers' and Peasants' University, the Bolshoi Drama Theater in St. Petersburg, created the publishing house " World literature"During the years of the civil war, famine and devastation, he showed concern for the Russian intelligentsia, and many scientists, writers and artists were saved by him from death by starvation.

In 1921 Bitter at Lenin’s insistence he went abroad for treatment (tuberculosis had returned). At first he lived in resorts in Germany and Czechoslovakia, then moved to Italy in Sorrento. He continues to work a lot: he finished the trilogy “My Universities” (“Childhood” and “In People” were published in 1913-16), wrote the novel “The Artamonov Case” (1925). He began work on the book “The Life of Klim Samgin,” which he continued to write until the end of his life. In 1931 Gorky returned to his homeland. In the 1930s, he again turned to drama: “Egor Bulychev and others” (1932), “Dostigaev and others” (1933).

Summing up my acquaintance and communication with the great people of my time. Bitter created literary portraits L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, V. Korolenko, essay “V.I. Lenin” (new edition 1930). In 1934, through the efforts of M. Gorky, the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers was prepared and held. On June 18, 1936, M. Gorky died in Gorki and was buried on Red Square.

Novels

1899 - Foma Gordeev
1900-1901 - “Three
1906 - Mother (second edition - 1907)
1925 - Artamonov case
1925-1936- Life of Klim Samgin

Stories

1900 - Man. Essays
1908 - The life of an unnecessary person.
1908 - Confession
1909 - Summer
1909 - Okurov town,
1913-1914 - Childhood
1915-1916 - In people
1923 - My universities
1929 - At the End of the Earth

Stories, essays

1892 - The Girl and Death
1892 - Makar Chudra
1892 - Emelyan Pilyay
1892 - Grandfather Arkhip and Lenka
1895 - Chelkash, Old Woman Izergil, Song about the Falcon
1897 - Former people, Spouses Orlovs, Malva, Konovalov.
1898 - Essays and stories” (collection)
1899 - Twenty six and one
1901 - Song about the Petrel (prose poem)
1903 - Man (prose poem)
1906 - Comrade!
1908 - Soldiers
1911 - Tales of Italy
1912-1917 - Across Rus'" (cycle of stories)
1924 - Stories of 1922-1924
1924 - Notes from a diary (series of stories)

Plays

1901 - Bourgeois
1902 - At the bottom
1904 - Summer residents
1905 - Children of the Sun
1905 - Barbarians
1906 - Enemies
1908 - The Last
1910 - Oddballs
1910 - Children
1910 - Vassa Zheleznova
1913 - Zykovs
1913 - Counterfeit coin
1915 - Old Man
1930-1931 - Somov and others
1931 - Egor Bulychov and others
1932 - Dostigaev and others

Alexey Peshkov, better known as the writer Maxim Gorky, is a cult figure in Russian and Soviet literature. He was nominated five times Nobel Prize, was the most published Soviet author throughout the existence of the USSR and was considered on a par with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and the main creator of Russian literary art.

Alexey Peshkov - future Maxim Gorky | Pandia

He was born in the town of Kanavino, which at that time was located in the Nizhny Novgorod province, and is now one of the districts of Nizhny Novgorod. His father Maxim Peshkov was a carpenter, and in recent years life he managed a shipping company. Vasilievna’s mother died of consumption, so Alyosha Peshkova’s parents were replaced by her grandmother Akulina Ivanovna. From the age of 11, the boy was forced to start working: Maxim Gorky was a messenger at a store, a barman on a ship, an assistant to a baker and an icon painter. The biography of Maxim Gorky is reflected by him personally in the stories “Childhood”, “In People” and “My Universities”.

Photo of Gorky in his youth | Poetic portal

After an unsuccessful attempt to become a student at Kazan University and arrest due to connections with a Marxist circle, the future writer became a watchman on the railway. And at the age of 23, the young man set off to wander around the country and managed to reach the Caucasus on foot. It was during this journey that Maxim Gorky briefly wrote down his thoughts, which would later become the basis for his future works. By the way, the first stories of Maxim Gorky also began to be published around that time.

Alexey Peshkov, who took the pseudonym Gorky | Nostalgia

Having already become a famous writer, Alexey Peshkov leaves for the United States, then moves to Italy. This did not happen at all because of problems with the authorities, as some sources sometimes present, but because of changes in family life. Although abroad, Gorky continues to write revolutionary books. He returned to Russia in 1913, settled in St. Petersburg and began working for various publishing houses.

It is curious that, despite all his Marxist views, Peshkov perceived the October Revolution rather skeptically. After Civil War Maxim Gorky, who had some disagreements with new government, again leaves abroad, but in 1932 finally returns home.

Writer

The first published story by Maxim Gorky was the famous “Makar Chudra,” which was published in 1892. And the two-volume “Essays and Stories” brought fame to the writer. Interestingly, the circulation of these volumes was almost three times higher than what was usually accepted in those years. Among the most popular works of that period, it is worth noting the stories “Old Woman Izergil”, “Former People”, “Chelkash”, “Twenty Six and One”, as well as the poem “Song of the Falcon”. Another poem, “Song of the Petrel,” has become a textbook. Maxim Gorky devoted a lot of time to children's literature. He wrote a number of fairy tales, for example, “Sparrow”, “Samovar”, “Tales of Italy”, published the first special children's magazine and organized holidays for children from poor families.

Legendary Soviet writer | Kyiv Jewish Community

Very important for understanding the writer’s work are Maxim Gorky’s plays “At the Lower Depths,” “The Bourgeois” and “Yegor Bulychov and Others,” in which he reveals the playwright’s talent and shows how he sees the life around him. Big cultural significance for Russian literature they have the stories “Childhood” and “In People”, the social novels “Mother” and “The Artamonov Case”. Last job Gorky’s epic novel “The Life of Klim Samgin” is considered, which has a second title “Forty Years”. The writer worked on this manuscript for 11 years, but never managed to finish it.

Personal life

The personal life of Maxim Gorky was quite stormy. He married for the first and officially only time at the age of 28. The young man met his wife Ekaterina Volzhina at the Samara Newspaper publishing house, where the girl worked as a proofreader. A year after the wedding, a son, Maxim, appeared in the family, and soon a daughter, Ekaterina, named after her mother. The writer was also raised by his godson Zinovy ​​Sverdlov, who later took the surname Peshkov.

With his first wife Ekaterina Volzhina | LiveJournal

But Gorky's love quickly disappeared. He began to feel burdened family life and their marriage to Ekaterina Volzhina turned into a parental union: they lived together solely because of the children. When little daughter Katya died unexpectedly, this tragic event became the impetus for the severance of family ties. However, Maxim Gorky and his wife remained friends until the end of their lives and maintained correspondence.

With his second wife, actress Maria Andreeva | LiveJournal

After separating from his wife, Maxim Gorky, with the help of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, met the Moscow Art Theater actress Maria Andreeva, who became his de facto wife for the next 16 years. It was because of her work that the writer left for America and Italy. From her previous relationship, the actress had a daughter, Ekaterina, and a son, Andrei, who were raised by Maxim Peshkov-Gorky. But after the revolution, Andreeva became interested in party work and began to pay less attention to her family, so in 1919 this relationship came to an end.

With third wife Maria Budberg and writer H.G. Wells | LiveJournal

Gorky himself put an end to it, declaring that he was leaving for Maria Budberg, a former baroness and part-time his secretary. The writer lived with this woman for 13 years. The marriage, like the previous one, was unregistered. Maxim Gorky's last wife was 24 years younger than him, and everyone he knew knew that she was having affairs on the side. One of Gorky's wife's lovers was the English science fiction writer Herbert Wells, to whom she left immediately after the death of her actual husband. There is a huge possibility that Maria Budberg, who had a reputation as an adventurer and clearly collaborated with the NKVD, could be a double agent and also work for British intelligence.

Death

After his final return to his homeland in 1932, Maxim Gorky worked in the publishing houses of newspapers and magazines, created a series of books “History of Factories”, “Library of the Poet”, “History of the Civil War”, organized and conducted the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. After the unexpected death of his son from pneumonia, the writer wilted. During his next visit to Maxim’s grave, he caught a bad cold. Gorky had a fever for three weeks, which led to his death on June 18, 1936. The body of the Soviet writer was cremated, and the ashes were placed in the Kremlin wall on Red Square. But first, Maxim Gorky’s brain was extracted and transferred to the Research Institute for further study.

In the last years of life | Electronic library

Later, the question was raised several times that legendary writer and his son could have been poisoned. By this case passed by People's Commissar Genrikh Yagoda, who was the lover of Maxim Peshkov's wife. They also suspected involvement and even. During the repressions and the consideration of the famous “Doctors’ Case,” three doctors were blamed, including the death of Maxim Gorky.

Books by Maxim Gorky

• 1899 - Foma Gordeev
• 1902 - At the bottom
• 1906 - Mother
• 1908 - The life of an unnecessary person
• 1914 - Childhood
• 1916 - In People
• 1923 - My universities
• 1925 - Artamonov case
• 1931 - Egor Bulychov and others
• 1936 - Life of Klim Samgin

Russian writer, prose writer, playwright Maxim Gorky(Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) was born in 1868. Despite the fame of the writer, Gorky’s biography, especially in childhood, is full of uncertainties. His father, Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov (1840-1871), came from the bourgeoisie of the Perm province. Gorky’s grandfather, Savvaty Peshkov, was a man of tough character: he rose to the rank of officer, but for cruel treatment of his subordinates he was demoted and exiled to Siberia. His attitude towards his son Maxim was no better, which is why he ran away from home several times. At the age of 17, he left home forever - after that, the son and father did not see each other again. Maxim Peshkov was a talented, creative person. He learned the craft of cabinet-making, settled in Nizhny Novgorod and began working as a carpenter at the shipping company of I. S. Kolchin. Here he married Varvara Vasilyevna Kashirina (1842-1879), who came from a family of Nizhny Novgorod merchants. Only the mother of the bride, Akulina Ivanovna, gave consent to the marriage, but the father, Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, did not give consent, but then reconciled. In the spring of 1871, Maxim Peshkov left with his family for Astrakhan, where he began working as manager of the Astrakhan office of the Kolchin Shipping Company. In the summer of 1871, Maxim Savvatievich, while nursing Alyosha, who was sick with cholera, became infected himself and died. Varvara Vasilievna with her son and mother returned to Nizhny Novgorod to her father’s house.

Gorky's grandfather, Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, was a barge hauler in his youth, then became rich and became the owner of a dyeing workshop. At one time, he was the foreman of the dyeing shop, and was elected as a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma. In addition to Gorky’s grandfather, his two sons lived in the house with their families. The best times for the Kashirin family were over - because of factory production, the business was in decline. In addition, the Kashirin family was not friendly. They lived as if in war, and Alyosha Peshkov was only a burden there. Gorky believed that his mother did not love him, considering him the culprit of misfortunes, and therefore moved away from him. She began to arrange her personal life and remarried. Only the grandmother, Akulina Ivanovna, treated Alyosha with kindness. She replaced his mother and supported her grandson as best she could. It was his grandmother who gave him love for folk songs and fairy tales. Grandfather, despite his complex character, taught a boy at the age of six to read and write using church books. In 1877-1879, Alyosha Peshkov successfully studied at the Nizhny Novgorod Slobodsk Kanavinsky Primary School. In August 1879, his mother died of consumption. By that time, the grandfather was completely broke and sent his 11-year-old grandson “to the people.”

“In People” Alexey Peshkov changed many occupations: he worked as a “boy” in a shoe store, as a boatman on a steamship, was in service, caught birds, was a salesman in an icon shop, a student in an icon-painting workshop, an extra in the theater at the Nizhny Novgorod fair, a foreman in repairs fair buildings, etc. While working on the Dobry steamship, Alexei Peshkov’s boss was a cook - retired guards non-commissioned officer Mikhail Smury, who noticed the boy’s curiosity and awakened in him a love of reading. Books in many ways saved Alexei Peshkov from an evil, unjust world and helped him understand a lot. Despite early hardships and suffering, he managed to maintain his love of life. Subsequently, M. Gorky wrote: “I did not expect outside help and did not hope for a happy occasion... I realized very early that a person is created by his resistance to the environment.”

In 1884, Alexey Peshkov went to enter Kazan University. He returned to Nizhny Novgorod in 1889 and lived here intermittently until 1904. In 1913-1914, M. Gorky wrote the autobiographical story “Childhood.”

In Nizhny Novgorod there is A. M. Gorky’s Museum of Childhood “Kashirin’s House”. Alyosha Peshkov began living in this house at the end of August 1871, after arriving with his mother from Astrakhan. In the spring of 1872, Gorky's grandfather divided the property between his sons, and the house remained with his son Yakov. Vasily Vasilyevich himself, with his wife Akulina Ivanovna and grandson Alyosha, moved to live in another house. The Museum of Childhood of A. M. Gorky reproduces the original furnishings of the Kashirin family home.

The name of Maxim Gorky is probably known to everyone. Several generations have studied and are studying his work since childhood. Certain stereotypes have developed about Gorky. He is perceived as the founder of literature socialist realism, “petrel of the revolution”, literary critic and publicist, initiator of the creation and first chairman of the Union of Writers of the USSR. About his childhood and youth we know from the autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”. However, in recent years many publications have appeared that show a slightly different Gorky.

Student's message about Gorky's biography

Childhood

The future writer was born in Nizhny Novgorod. At the age of three he lost his father, and at ten - his mother. He spent his childhood in his grandfather's house, in a bourgeois environment with rude and cruel morals. On Sundays the street was often filled with the joyful cries of boys: “The Kashirins are fighting again!”. The boy's life was brightened up by his grandmother, a beautiful portrait of whom Gorky would leave in his autobiographical story “Childhood” (1914). He studied for only two years. Having received a letter of commendation, due to poverty (my grandfather was bankrupt by that time), he was forced to leave his studies and go “to the people” to earn money as a student, journeyman, or servant.

"In People"

As a teenager, the future writer fell in love with books and used every free minute to voraciously read everything he could get his hands on. This chaotic reading, coupled with an extraordinary natural memory, determined much in his view of man and society.

In Kazan, where he went in the summer of 1884, hoping to enter the university, he also had to do odd jobs, and his self-education continued in populist and Marxist circles. “Physically, I was born in Nizhny Novgorod. But spiritually - in Kazan. Kazan is my favorite “university”“, the writer said later.

"My Universities"

Beginning of literary activity

In the late 80s - early 90s, Alyosha Peshkov wanders across the expanses of Russia: the Mozdok steppe, the Volga region, the Don steppes, Ukraine, Crimea, and the Caucasus. He himself is already engaged in agitation among the workers, falls under secret police surveillance, and becomes “unreliable.” During these same years, he began to publish under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky. In 1892, the story “Makar Chudra” appeared in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus”, and in 1895 the story “Old Woman Izergil” was published. Gorky was immediately noticed, and enthusiastic responses appeared in the press.

In 1900, Gorky met Leo Tolstoy, and he wrote in his diary “...I liked him. A real person from the people". Both writers and readers were impressed by the fact that he entered literature new person- not from the “upper” educated strata, but “from below”, from the people. The attention of Russian society has long been attracted to the people - primarily the peasantry. And then the people, as if in the person of Gorky, entered the living rooms of rich houses, and even holding their own unusual works in their hands. Naturally, he was greeted with enthusiastic interest.

The origins of Gorky's prose

The immediate predecessor of Gorky's prose were the works of Chekhov. But if Chekhov’s heroes complain that they have “strained themselves”, then in Gorky the figures of the “bottom” of society are content with what they have. They have a kind of “tramp” philosophy with a flavor of Nietzscheanism, which was then fashionable.

A tramp is a person without a fixed place of residence, not bound by constant work or family, not owning any property and therefore not interested in maintaining peace and tranquility in society.

It was difficult to ignore the influence of Nietzsche in Russia late XIX– beginning of the 20th century. And in Gorky, already in the 90s, new motives for Russian literature were noted: greed for life, thirst and cult of power, a passionate desire to go beyond the usual, “philistine” framework of existence. Therefore, the writer abandons the usual prose genres and writes fairy tales (“Old Woman Izergil”, 1895), songs (“Song of the Falcon”, 1895), and prose poems (“Man”, 1904).

Since 1889 revolutionary activity Among the workers, Gorky was arrested several times. The more famous he becomes, the more outrage every time he is taken into custody causes. The most famous people in Russia, including Leo Tolstoy, are working for the writer. During one of his arrests (1901), Gorky wrote “The Song of the Petrel” in a Nizhny Novgorod prison, the text of which quickly spread throughout the country. Cry “Let the storm blow harder!” left no options in choosing the path of development of Russia, especially for young people.

That same year he was deported to Arzamas, but given his poor health, he was allowed to live in Crimea for six months. There Gorky often meets with Chekhov and Tolstoy. The writer's popularity in all strata of society in those years was enormous. In February 1903 he was elected honorary academician in the category belles lettres. Nicholas II, having learned about this, wrote to the Minister of Education: “...such a person, in the present day time of troubles, The Academy of Sciences allows itself to be elected into its midst. I am deeply outraged...".

After this letter, the Imperial Academy of Sciences declared the elections invalid. As a sign of protest, Korolenko and Chekhov refused the title of honorary academicians.

In the 1900s, Gorky, thanks to his enormous literary success, was already a wealthy man and could help the revolutionary movement financially. And he hires capital lawyers for arrested Sormovo and Nizhny Novgorod participants in labor demonstrations, gives large sums for the publication of Lenin’s newspaper “Forward”, published in Geneva.

As part of the Bolshevik group, Gorky takes part in the workers' march on January 9, 1905. After the authorities shot down a demonstration, he wrote an appeal in which he called “all citizens of Russia to an immediate, persistent and united struggle against the autocracy”. Soon after this, the writer was once again arrested, accused of a state crime and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Gorky was outraged that he was in the fortress for nine days “They didn’t give any news about M.F.’s situation.”(Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, his close friend, was then in the hospital), which was somewhat similar to torture...

A month later he was released on bail, and the conditions of detention in the fortress allowed him to write the play “Children of the Sun” there. In this play, the author complains about the lethargy of the intelligentsia.

Like most people living in Russia at the beginning of the century, Gorky simply could not imagine that as a result of the revolution led by the Bolsheviks, many writers, philosophers, scientists would end up in prisons, but only there they would no longer be allowed to write, they would not have news for years about the fate of their young children, they, innocent ones, will be tortured and killed...

The writer actively participates in the revolution of 1905, joins the Social Democratic Party, and supplies workers' squads with weapons during street battles in Moscow. At the author’s reading of “Children of the Sun”, a certain amount of money is taken from each person present - for weapons for the rebels.

The temperament of a fighter, a fighter, a herald takes Gorky further and further from his own artistic tasks.

Trip to America and Europe

In January 1906, the Bolshevik Party sent Gorky to America to raise money for underground work. This collection was not successful on the intended scale; but in America the novel “Mother” was written - about the awakening of “class consciousness” among the proletarians.

Criticism notes that Gorky could not stand the “major tone” with which he entered literature. Gorky's talent did not increase. Instead of a romantic tramp, he grew into a clearly invented, gray figure of a “conscious worker.”

Having left America, Gorky remained abroad: arrest awaited him in his homeland. In the fall of 1906, he settled in Italy, on the island of Capri. The writer was able to return to Russia only in 1913, when, in connection with the tercentenary of the House of Romanov, an amnesty was declared for political emigrants.

Gorky's talent, despite criticism, has not yet exhausted its potential. The writer endlessly studies and describes the Russian national character. Now he is interested not so much in “tramps” as in eccentrics and losers.

“...Rus' abounds with failed people... they are always there, with the mysterious power of a magnet. They caught my attention. They seemed more interesting, better than the dense mass of ordinary county people who live for work and for food...”

In the cycle of stories “Complaints” (1912), Gorky depicts “the hopeless, stupid melancholy of Russian life.” The book “Across Rus'” includes essays on what he saw in his past wanderings across the endless country. Gorky seemed to set out to create a register of Russian characters - infinitely diverse, but somehow similar to each other.

"Childhood"

In 1913, the first chapters from the story “Childhood” appeared in print. It is written on documentary material.

“Although “Childhood” depicts so much murder and abomination, it is, at its core, a cheerful book,– wrote Korney Chukovsky. – Gorky whines and complains the least... And “Childhood” is written cheerfully, in cheerful colors.”.

Under Soviet rule, when it will be impossible to lovingly write about a “good” pre-revolutionary childhood, Gorky’s book will become a role model, a clear illustration of how one must be able to see mainly “lead abominations” in the past pre-revolutionary time.

Best stories 1922–1926 (“The Hermit”, “The Tale of Unrequited Love”, “The Tale of the Hero”, “The Tale of the Extraordinary”, “The Killers”), dedicated to his constant theme - Russian characters, are also largely documentary. And above all, the most qualified critics of the mid-20s will appreciate the short “Notes from a Diary. Memoirs" (1923–1924): in them Gorky writes mainly about real people under their real names (for example, the essay “A.A. Blok”).

"Untimely Thoughts"

Gorky, who had considered himself a socialist for many years, perceived the October and post-October events of 1917 tragically. In this regard, he did not re-register with the RSDLP and formally remained outside the party. The “Petrel of the Revolution” understands that it is proving disastrous for those “conscious workers” on whom he pinned his hopes.

“...The proletariat has not won, there is internecine carnage all over the country, hundreds and thousands of people are killing each other. ...But what amazes and frightens me most of all is that the revolution does not carry within itself signs of a person’s spiritual rebirth, does not make people more honest, more straightforward, does not increase their self-esteem and moral assessment of their work.”

This is what Gorky wrote shortly after the revolution in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, where his harsh journalistic articles were published under the general title “Untimely Thoughts.” For some period they separated the writer from the Bolsheviks.

Six months later, it seems to him, he finds a way out: the proletariat needs to unite “with the fresh forces of the workers’ and peasants’ intelligentsia.”

“Having covered the entire country with a network of cultural and educational societies, having gathered in them all the spiritual forces of the country, we will light fires everywhere, which will give the country both light and warmth, help it heal and get back on its feet vigorous, strong and capable of construction and creativity... Only in this way and only in this way will we reach real culture and freedom.”.

A new utopia is being born - universal literacy as the path to freedom. From now on until the end of his life, she will guide the writer’s actions. He believes in uniting the forces of the intelligentsia and reasonable workers. The peasantry is considered a dark, “anti-revolutionary” element. He never saw through the tragedy of the Russian peasantry at the turn of the 20s and 30s.

Gorky's activities in the first post-revolutionary years

In the first post-revolutionary years, Gorky constantly bothered for the unfortunate people who were threatened with execution, which was very similar to lynching.

“Vladimir Ilyich!- he writes to Lenin in the fall of 1919. “...Several dozen of the most prominent Russian scientists have been arrested... Obviously, we have no hope of winning and no courage to die with honor if we resort to such a barbaric and shameful method, which I consider to be the extermination of the country’s scientific forces... I know that you will say the usual words: “ political struggle”, “whoever is not with us is against us”, “neutral people are dangerous” and so on... It became clear to me that the “reds” are the same enemies of the people as the “whites”. Personally, of course, I prefer to be destroyed by the “whites,” but the “reds” are also not my comrades.”

Trying to save the remnants of the intelligentsia from starvation, Gorky organized private publishing houses and a commission to improve the living conditions of scientists, everywhere meeting fierce resistance from Soviet officials. In September 1920, the writer was forced to leave all the institutions he created, which he announced to Lenin: “I can’t do otherwise. I'm tired of the stupidity".

In 1921, Gorky tried to send the dying Blok abroad for treatment, but the Soviet authorities refused to do so. It is not possible to save those arrested in the so-called Tagantsev case, including Nikolai Gumilyov, from execution. The Famine Relief Committee, created on Gorky's initiative, was dispersed a few weeks later.

Treatment abroad

In 1921, the writer left Russia. He was treated in Germany and Czechoslovakia, and in 1924 he settled again in Italy, in Sorrento. But this time not as an emigrant. Years passed, and gradually Gorky’s attitude towards Soviet power changed: it began to seem to him like a people’s, workers’ power. In the USSR in those years, based on Lenin’s assessment, “Mother” was made a school textbook, convincing everyone that this was exemplary literature. Streets, theaters, and airplanes are named after Gorky. The authorities are doing everything to attract the writer to their side. She needs him as a screen.

Return to Moscow, last years of life

In 1928, Gorky returned to Moscow. He is greeted by crowds of new readers. The writer is immersed in literary and social work: he founded and headed new magazines and book series, took part in writers' destinies, helps some to overcome censorship restrictions (for example, Mikhail Bulgakov), someone to go abroad (Evgeny Zamyatin), and for others, on the contrary, it prevents them from publishing (for example, Andrei Platonov).

Gorky himself continues the multi-volume work “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which he began in Italy - a chronicle of Russian life in the pre-revolutionary decades. A huge number of characters, a considerable number of true details of the era, and behind all this there is one task - to show the double, cowardly, treacherous face of the former Russian intelligentsia.

He becomes closer to Stalin and People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yagoda, and this increasingly obscures from him the bloody meaning of what is happening in the country. Like many cultural figures, Gorky does not see that the political regime established in the USSR for its own purposes (like Hitler’s in Germany) manipulates culture, distorts the very meaning of enlightenment, subordinating it to inhumane goals. In his articles, Gorky stigmatizes the victims of the trials of the 28–30s. With all his knowledge of life, he does not want to understand that the testimony given by “enemies of the people” can only be obtained under torture.

Since 1933, Gorky has been deprived of the opportunity to travel abroad for the winter and meet with those whom he would like to see. Stalin can no longer allow even episodic, not foreseen by himself, participation of a writer in any literary and social affairs. Gorky actually finds himself under house arrest and in this situation, under unclear circumstances, dies the day before new wave mass repressions.

Literature

D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 20th century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments on Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade. I half of the year. M.: VAKO, 2005

()

(March 16 (28), 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire- June 18, 1936, Gorki, Moscow region, USSR)

en.wikipedia.org

At first, Gorky was skeptical about the Bolshevik revolution. After several years of cultural work in Soviet Russia, Petrograd (World Literature publishing house, petition to the Bolsheviks for those arrested) and life abroad in the 1920s (Marienbad, Sorrento), Gorky returned to the USSR, where the last years of his life he was surrounded official recognition as the “petrel of the revolution” and “the great proletarian writer”, the founder of socialist realism.
Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1929).

Biography

Surprisingly, no one still has an accurate idea of ​​much of Gorky’s life. Who knows his biography reliably?
Memories. Bunin I. A.

Alexey Maksimovich came up with a pseudonym for himself. Subsequently, he told me: “I shouldn’t write in literature - Peshkov...” (A. Kalyuzhny) More information about his biography can be found in his autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.

Childhood

Alexey Peshkov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a carpenter (according to another version, the manager of the Astrakhan office of the shipping company I. S. Kolchin) - Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Mother - Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina (1842-1879). Having been orphaned early, he spent his childhood years in the house of his grandfather Kashirin (see Kashirin's House). From the age of 11 he was forced to go “to the people”; worked as a “boy” at a store, as a pantry cook on a steamship, as an apprentice in an icon-painting workshop, as a baker, etc.

Youth

* In 1884 he tried to enter Kazan University. I became acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.
* In 1888 - arrested for connections with N. E. Fedoseev’s circle. He was under constant police surveillance. In October 1888, he became a watchman at the Dobrinka station of the Gryaze-Tsaritsyn Railway. Impressions from his stay in Dobrinka will serve as the basis for the autobiographical story “Watchman” and the story “Boredom for the Sake.”
* In January 1889, at a personal request (a complaint in verse), he was transferred to the Borisoglebsk station, then as a weighmaster to the Krutaya station.
* In the spring of 1891, he set out to wander around the country and reached the Caucasus.

Literary and social activities

* In 1892 he first appeared in print with the story “Makar Chudra”. Returning to Nizhny Novgorod, he publishes reviews and feuilletons in Volzhsky Vestnik, Samara Gazeta, Nizhny Novgorod Listok, etc.
* 1895 - “Chelkash”, “Old Woman Izergil”.
* 1896 - Gorky writes a response to the first cinematic session in Nizhny Novgorod:
And suddenly something clicks, everything disappears, and a railway train appears on the screen. He rushes like an arrow straight towards you - watch out! It seems that he is about to rush into the darkness in which you are sitting, and turn you into a torn bag of skin, full of crumpled meat and crushed bones, and destroy, turn into rubble and dust this hall and this building where there is so much wine , women, music and vice.
(Maxim Gorky - 1896)

* 1897 - “Former People”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva”, “Konovalov”.
* From October 1897 to mid-January 1898, he lived in the village of Kamenka (now the city of Kuvshinovo, Tver Region) in the apartment of his friend Nikolai Zakharovich Vasiliev, who worked at the Kamensk paper factory and led an illegal workers’ Marxist circle. Subsequently, the life impressions of this period served the writer as material for the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin.”
* 1898 - The publishing house of Dorovatsky and A.P. Charushnikov published the first volume of Gorky’s works. In those years, the circulation of the young author's first book rarely exceeded 1,000 copies. A. I. Bogdanovich advised releasing the first two volumes of M. Gorky’s “Essays and Stories” in 1,200 copies each. Publishers “took a chance” and released more. The first volume of the 1st edition of “Essays and Stories” was published in a circulation of 3,000 .m/text 0520.shtml
* 1899 - novel “Foma Gordeev”, prose poem “Song of the Falcon”.
* 1900-1901 - the novel “Three”, personal acquaintance with Chekhov, Tolstoy.
* 1900-1913 - participates in the work of the publishing house "Knowledge"
* March 1901 - “Song of the Petrel” was created by M. Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod. Participation in Marxist workers' circles in Nizhny Novgorod, Sormovo, St. Petersburg, wrote a proclamation calling for the fight against autocracy. Arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod.
“Many people do not consider Gorky a poet, and it’s completely wrong. For example, “The Wallachian Legend” (aka “The Legend of Marco”). I once had a chance to hear a modern song written based on this poem. I immediately became interested in whether there would be a last stanza or not. As I expected, she was not there. The line “At least a song remains from Marco” was followed by a vocalise (obviously the mentioned song was meant). But for the sake of this last, Nietzschean stanza, Gorky wrote his ballad based on a fairly typical folklore plot.”
- Vadim Nikolaev, “Notes on Russian Poetry”

According to contemporaries, Nikolai Gumilev highly valued the last stanza of this poem (“Gumilev without gloss”, St. Petersburg, 2009).
* In 1901, M. Gorky turned to drama. Creates the plays “The Bourgeois” (1901), “At the Lower Depths” (1902). In 1902, he became the godfather and adoptive father of the Jew Zinovy ​​Sverdlov, who took the surname Peshkov and converted to Orthodoxy. This was necessary in order for Zinovy ​​to receive the right to live in Moscow.
* February 21 - election of M. Gorky to honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of belles-lettres. "In 1902, Gorky was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. But before Gorky could exercise his new rights, his election was annulled by the government, so as a newly elected academician “was under police surveillance.” In this regard, Chekhov and Korolenko refused membership in the Academy” (Mirsky D.S. Maxim Gorky).
* 1904-1905 - writes the plays “Summer Residents”, “Children of the Sun”, “Barbarians”. Meets Lenin. He was arrested for the revolutionary proclamation and in connection with the execution on January 9, but then released under public pressure. Participant in the revolution of 1905-1907. In the fall of 1905 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
* 1906 - M. Gorky travels abroad, creates satirical pamphlets about the “bourgeois” culture of France and the USA (“My Interviews”, “In America”). He writes the play “Enemies” and creates the novel “Mother”. Due to tuberculosis, Gorky settled in Italy on the island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years. Here he writes “Confession” (1908), where his philosophical differences with Lenin and rapprochement with Lunacharsky and Bogdanov were clearly outlined (see “The Capri School”).
* 1907 - delegate to the V Congress of the RSDLP.
* 1908 - the play “The Last”, the story “The Life of an Useless Person”.
* 1909 - the stories “The Town of Okurov”, “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”.
* 1913 - M. Gorky edits the Bolshevik newspapers “Zvezda” and “Pravda”, art department Bolshevik magazine "Prosveshchenie", publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes "Tales of Italy".
* 1912-1916 - M. Gorky creates a series of stories and essays that made up the collection “Across Rus'”, autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”. The last part of the trilogy, “My Universities,” was written in 1923.
* 1917-1919 - M. Gorky does a lot of social and political work, criticizes the “methods” of the Bolsheviks, condemns their attitude towards the old intelligentsia, saves many of its representatives from Bolshevik repression and famine. In 1917, having disagreed with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the timeliness of the socialist revolution in Russia, he did not undergo re-registration of party members and formally dropped out of it. [source not specified 666 days]

Abroad

* 1921 - M. Gorky’s departure abroad. In Soviet literature, there was a myth that the reason for his departure was the resumption of his illness and the need, at Lenin’s insistence, for treatment abroad. In fact, A. M. Gorky was forced to leave due to worsening ideological differences with the established government. In 1921-1923 lived in Helsingfors, Berlin, Prague.
* Since 1924 he lived in Italy, in Sorrento. Published memoirs about Lenin.
* 1925 - novel “The Artamonov Case”.
* 1928 - at the invitation of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, he tours the country, during which Gorky is shown the achievements of the USSR, which are reflected in the series of essays “On Soviet Union».
* 1931 - Gorky visits the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp and writes a laudatory review of its regime. A fragment of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Gulag Archipelago” is dedicated to this fact.

Return to the Soviet Union

* 1932 - Gorky returns to the Soviet Union. The government provided him with the former mansion of Ryabushinsky on Spiridonovka, dachas in Gorki and Teselli (Crimea). Here he receives Stalin’s order - to prepare the ground for the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers, and for this to carry out preparatory work among them. Gorky created many newspapers and magazines: the book series “History of Factories”, “History of the Civil War”, “Poet’s Library”, “History young man XIX century", the magazine "Literary Studies", he writes the plays "Yegor Bulychev and others" (1932), "Dostigaev and others" (1933).
* 1934 - Gorky “conducts” the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, giving the main report at it.
* 1934 - co-editor of the book “Stalin Canal”
* In 1925-1936 he wrote the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin,” which was never finished.
* On May 11, 1934, Gorky’s son, Maxim Peshkov, unexpectedly dies. M. Gorky died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki, having outlived his son by a little more than two years. After his death, he was cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. Before cremation, M. Gorky's brain was removed and taken to the Moscow Brain Institute for further study.

Death

The circumstances of the death of Gorky and his son are considered “suspicious” by many; there were rumors of poisoning, which, however, were not confirmed. At the funeral, among others, Molotov and Stalin carried Gorky’s coffin. It is interesting that among other accusations against Genrikh Yagoda at the so-called Third Moscow Trial of 1938 was the accusation of poisoning Gorky’s son. According to Yagoda's interrogations, Maxim Gorky was killed on Trotsky's orders, and the murder of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, was his personal initiative.

Some publications blame Stalin for Gorky's death. An important precedent for the medical side of the accusations in the “Doctors' Case” was the Third Moscow Trial (1938), where among the defendants were three doctors (Kazakov, Levin and Pletnev), accused of the murders of Gorky and others.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

* 09.1899 - apartment of V. A. Posse in Trofimov’s house - Nadezhdinskaya street, 11;
* 02. - spring 1901 - apartment of V. A. Posse in Trofimov’s house - Nadezhdinskaya street, 11;
* 11.1902 - K.P. Pyatnitsky’s apartment in an apartment building - Nikolaevskaya Street, 4;
* 1903 - autumn 1904 - K. P. Pyatnitsky’s apartment in an apartment building - Nikolaevskaya Street, 4;
* autumn 1904-1906 - K. P. Pyatnitsky’s apartment in an apartment building - Znamenskaya street, 20, apt. 29;
* beginning 03.1914 - autumn 1921 - apartment building of E. K. Barsova - Kronverksky Avenue, 23;
* 30.08. - 09/07/1928 - hotel "European" - Rakova street, 7;
* 18.06. - 07/11/1929 - European Hotel - Rakova Street, 7;
* end of 09.1931 - hotel "European" - Rakova street, 7.

Bibliography

Novels

* 1899 - “Foma Gordeev”
* 1900-1901 - “Three”
* 1906 - “Mother” (second edition - 1907)
* 1925 - “The Artamonov Case”
* 1925-1936- “The Life of Klim Samgin”

Stories

* 1908 - “The Life of an Useless Man.”
* 1908 - “Confession”
* 1909 - “The Town of Okurov”, “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”.
* 1913-1914 - “Childhood”
* 1915-1916 - “In People”
* 1923 - “My Universities”

Stories, essays

* 1892 - “The Girl and Death” (fairy tale poem, published in July 1917 in the newspaper “New Life”)
* 1892 - “Makar Chudra”
* 1895 - “Chelkash”, “Old Woman Izergil”.
* 1897 - “Former People”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva”, “Konovalov”.
* 1898 - “Essays and Stories” (collection)
* 1899 - “Song of the Falcon” (prose poem), “Twenty-six and one”
* 1901 - “Song of the Petrel” (prose poem)
* 1903 - “Man” (prose poem)
* 1911 - “Tales of Italy”
* 1912-1917 - “Across Rus'” (cycle of stories)
* 1924 - “Stories of 1922-1924”
* 1924 - “Notes from a Diary” (series of stories)

Plays

* 1901 - “Bourgeois”
* 1902 - “At the Bottom”
* 1904 - “Summer Residents”
* 1905 - “Children of the Sun”, “Barbarians”
* 1906 - “Enemies”
* 1910 - “Vassa Zheleznova” (reworked in December 1935)
* 1915 - “The Old Man” (first published as a separate book in the publishing house of I.P. Ladyzhnikov in Berlin (no later than 1921; staged on January 1, 1919 on the stage of the State Academic Maly Theater).
* 1930-1931 - “Somov and others”
* 1932 - “Egor Bulychov and others”
* 1933 - “Dostigaev and others”

Journalism

* 1906 - “My Interviews”, “In America” (pamphlets)
* 1917-1918 - a series of articles “Untimely Thoughts” in the newspaper “New Life” (published as a separate publication in 1918)
* 1922 - “On the Russian peasantry”

Initiated the creation of a series of books “History of Factories and Works” (IFZ), took the initiative to revive the pre-revolutionary series “Life of Remarkable People”

Film incarnations

* Alexey Lyarsky (“Gorky’s Childhood”, 1938)
* Alexey Lyarsky (“In People”, 1938)
* Nikolai Valbert (“My Universities”, 1939)
* Pavel Kadochnikov (“Yakov Sverdlov”, 1940, “Pedagogical Poem”, 1955, “Prologue”, 1956)
* Nikolai Cherkasov (“Lenin in 1918”, 1939, “Academician Ivan Pavlov”, 1949)
* Vladimir Emelyanov (Appasionata, 1963)
* Afanasy Kochetkov (This is how a song is born, 1957, Mayakovsky began like this..., 1958, Through the icy darkness, 1965, The incredible Yehudiel Chlamida, 1969, The Kotsyubinsky family, 1970, “Red Diplomat”, 1971, Trust, 1975, “I am an actress” , 1980)
* Valery Poroshin (“Enemy of the People - Bukharin”, 1990, “Under the Sign of Scorpio”, 1995)
* Alexey Fedkin (“Empire under attack”, 2000)
* Alexey Osipov (“Two Loves”, 2004)
* Nikolai Kachura (“Yesenin”, 2005)
* Georgy Taratorkin (“Captive of Passion”, 2010)
* Nikolai Svanidze 1907. Maxim Gorky. " Historical chronicles with Nikolai Svanidze

Memory

* In 1932, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed the city of Gorky. The historical name was returned to the city in 1990.
* In Nizhny Novgorod, the central regional children's library bears the name of Gorky, drama theater, street, as well as a square, in the center of which there is a monument to the writer by sculptor V. I. Mukhina. But the most interesting thing is the museum-apartment of M. Gorky.
* In 1934, at the Voronezh aviation plant, a Soviet propaganda multi-seat 8-engine passenger aircraft was built, the largest aircraft of its time with a land landing gear - the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky.
* In Moscow there was Maxim Gorky Lane (now Khitrovsky), Maxim Gorky Embankment (now Kosmodamianskaya), Maxim Gorky Square (formerly Khitrovskaya), Gorkovskaya (now Tverskaya) metro station of the Gorkovsko-Zamoskvoretskaya (now Zamoskvoretskaya) line, Gorky Street (now divided into Tverskaya and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya streets).

Also, a number of streets in other settlements of the states of the former USSR bear the name of M. Gorky.

* In St. Petersburg, a metro station is named after Maxim Gorky.
* Moscow Literary Institute named after A. M. Gorky.
* In 1932, the Moscow Academic Art Theater was named after Maxim Gorky.
* Primorsky Academic Regional Theater named after M. Gorky in Vladivostok.
* Azerbaijan Theater for Young Spectators named after. M. Gorky in Baku.
* Russian Drama Theater named after M. Gorky in Astana.
* Until 1993 Turkmen state university in Ashgabat was named after M. Gorky (now named after Magtymguly).
* The Tula Drama Theater is named after M. Gorky
* National Academic Drama Theater named after M. Gorky (Russian theater) in Minsk
* The main university of Yekaterinburg is named after Gorky (Ural State University named after A. M. Gorky).
* Libraries in Baku, Vladimir, Volgograd, Zaporozhye, Krasnoyarsk, Lugansk, Odessa, Ryazan, St. Petersburg, Tver are named after Gorky.
* Saratov city park of culture and recreation is named after M. Gorky.
* Central Park named after Maxim Gorky in Minsk, Belarus.
* The Central Park of Krasnoyarsk bears the name of M. Gorky.
* Central Park of Culture and Leisure named after Maxim Gorky, as well as a street, lane and entrance in Kharkov, Ukraine.
* A regional center in the Omsk region (the village of Gorkovskoye) is named after Gorky.
* Park named after Maxim Gorky in Odessa, Ukraine.
* Donetsk National Medical University named after. M. Gorky, Donetsk, Ukraine.

Gallery

Maxim Gorky on postage stamps

Literature about life and creativity

* Korney Chukovsky New works by Gorky
* Korney Chukovsky Gorky from the book Contemporaries
* Shulyatikov, Vladimir Mikhailovich About Maxim Gorky. Courier. 1901. No. 222, 236 w m/text 0430.shtml
* Maksimov P. Kh. Memories of Gorky. - Ed. 3rd, rev. and additional - M.: Soviet writer, 1956. - 191 p.

Notes

1. Borovkova Serafima Nikolaevna. - Reserved Zvenigorod land. - 3rd ed. - M.: Moscow. worker, 1982
2. Memories. Bunin I. A.
3. Biography on Biographer.ru
4. Peshkov, Alexey Maksimovich // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg: 1890-1907.
5. GALO: Alexey Maksimovich Gorky. To the 140th anniversary of his birth.
6. Shilin N.K. Depot: History of the locomotive depot of the Maxim Gorky station of the Volgograd branch of the Volga Railway. - Volgograd: State Institution “Publisher”, 2001, 592 p.; ill.
7. The film Arrival of a train at the La Ciotat station is mentioned in an article by Maxim Gorky (published under the pseudonym “M. Pacatus”), dedicated to the first film shows organized by Charles Aumont at the Nizhny Novgorod fair “Nizhny Novgorod leaf”, 1896, July 4 (16), no. 182, p. 31.
8. M. Arias Maxim Gorky’s Odyssey on the “Island of Sirens”: “Russian Capri” as a socio-cultural problem. (Russian) // Toronto Slavic Quarterly. - Summer 2006. - No. 17.
9. Thus, it is known that in 1918 Gorky sent money to V.V. Rozanov, a beggar in Sergiev Posad
10. Solzhenitsyn, A. I. GULAG Archipelago, 1918-1956. [In 3 books], Parts III-IV: experience artistic research// A. I. Solzhenitsyn. - Astrel, 2009. - 560 p. - Art. 49-51.
11. Annenkov Yu. Diary of my meetings
12. Tales of Italy
13. Truth and fiction about the giant aircraft ANT-20
14. Scientific Library named after. M. Gorky St. Petersburg State University
15. Numbers according to the TsFA and Scott catalogs.

Maxim Gorky. Biography

In 1889, Maxim Gorky worked at the Krutoy station (later Voroponovo, and now the station named after Maxim Gorky) in Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd).

Origin, education, worldview of Maxim Gorky

Father, Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov (1840-71) - the son of a soldier, demoted from the officers, a cabinetmaker. In recent years he worked as a manager of a shipping office, but died of cholera. Mother, Varvara Vasilievna Kashirina (1842-79) - from a bourgeois family; Having become a widow at an early age, she remarried and died of consumption. The writer spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, who in his youth was a barracks worker, then became rich, became the owner of a dyeing establishment, and went bankrupt in his old age. The grandfather taught the boy from church books, his grandmother Akulina Ivanovna introduced her grandson to folk songs and fairy tales, but most importantly, she replaced his mother, “filling him,” in Gorky’s own words, with “strong strength for a difficult life” (“Childhood”).

A story about the life of Maxim Gorky in Tsaritsyn

Letters from Maxim Gorky to Maria Basargina, the daughter of the head of the Krutaya railway station, where in 1889 M. Gorky served as a weighmaster.

Gorky did not receive a real education, graduating only from a vocational school. His thirst for knowledge was quenched independently; he grew up “self-taught.” Hard work (a boatman on a ship, a “boy” in a store, a student in an icon-painting workshop, a foreman at fair buildings, etc.) and early hardships taught him a good knowledge of life and inspired dreams of reorganizing the world. “We came into the world to disagree...” - a surviving fragment of the destroyed poem by the young Peshkov “The Song of the Old Oak.”

Hatred of evil and ethical maximalism were a source of moral torment. In 1887 he tried to commit suicide. He took part in revolutionary propaganda, “went among the people,” wandered around Rus', and communicated with tramps. He experienced complex philosophical influences: from the ideas of the French Enlightenment and the materialism of J. W. Goethe to the positivism of J. M. Guyot, the romanticism of J. Ruskin and the pessimism of A. Schopenhauer. In his Nizhny Novgorod library, next to “Capital” by K. Marx and “Historical Letters” by P. L. Lavrov, there were books by E. Hartmann, M. Stirner and F. Nietzsche.

The rudeness and ignorance of provincial life poisoned his soul, but also - paradoxically - gave rise to faith in Man and his potential. From the collision of contradictory principles, a romantic philosophy was born, in which Man (the ideal essence) did not coincide with man (the real being) and even entered into tragic conflict. Gorky's humanism carried rebellious and atheistic features. His favorite reading was the biblical Book of Job, where “God teaches man how to be equal to God and how to stand calmly next to God” (Gorky’s letter to V.V. Rozanov, 1912).

Early works of Gorky (1892-1905)

Gorky began as a provincial newspaperman (published under the name Yehudiel Chlamida). Pseudonym M. Gorky (signed letters and documents real name- A. Peshkov; designations "A. M. Gorky" and "Alexey Maksimovich Gorky" contaminate the pseudonym with the real name) appeared in 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper "Caucasus", where the first story "Makar Chudra" was published. In 1895, thanks to the help of V.G. Korolenko, he was published in the popular magazine “Russian Wealth” (the story “Chelkash”). In 1898, the book “Essays and Stories” was published in St. Petersburg, which had a sensational success. In 1899, the prose poem “Twenty Six and One” and the first long story “Foma Gordeev” appeared. Gorky's fame grew with incredible speed and soon became equal to the popularity of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy.

From the very beginning, a discrepancy emerged between what critics wrote about Gorky and what the average reader wanted to see in him. The traditional principle of interpreting works from the point of view of the social meaning contained in them did not work in relation to the early Gorky. The reader was least interested in the social aspects of his prose; he looked for and found in them a mood in tune with the times. According to the critic M. Protopopov, Gorky replaced the problem of artistic typification with the problem of “ideological lyricism.” His heroes combined typical features, behind which stood a good knowledge of life and literary tradition, and a special kind of “philosophy” that the author endowed the heroes with at his own request, not always consistent with the “truth of life.” In connection with his texts, critics resolved not social issues and problems of their literary reflection, but directly the “question of Gorky” and the collective collective he created. lyrical image, which began to be perceived as typical for Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. and which critics compared to Nietzsche’s “superman”. All this allows, contrary to the traditional view, to consider him more of a modernist than a realist.

Gorky's social position was radical. He was arrested more than once; in 1902, Nicholas II ordered the annulment of his election as an honorary academician in the category of fine literature (in protest, Chekhov and Korolenko left the Academy). In 1905 he joined the ranks of the RSDLP (Bolshevik wing) and met V.I. Lenin. They received serious financial support for the revolution of 1905-07.

Gorky quickly showed himself as a talented organizer literary process. In 1901 he became the head of the publishing house of the Knowledge Partnership and soon began to publish Collections of the Knowledge Partnership, where I. A. Bunin, L. N. Andreev, A. I. Kuprin, V. V. Veresaev, E. N. were published .Chirikov, N.D.Teleshov, A.S.Serafimovich and others.

Vertex early creativity, the play “At the Bottom”, owes its fame to a great extent to the production by K. S. Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater (1902; played by Stanislavsky, V. I. Kachalov, I. M. Moskvin, O. L. Knipper-Chekhova and others .) In 1903, the performance “At the Bottom” with Richard Wallentin in the role of Satin took place at the Berlin Kleines Theater. Gorky's other plays - "The Bourgeois" (1901), "Summer Residents" (1904), "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians" (both 1905), "Enemies" (1906) - did not have such sensational success in Russia and Europe.

Gorky between two revolutions (1905-1917)

After the defeat of the revolution of 1905-07, Gorky emigrated to the island of Capri (Italy). The “Capri” period of creativity forced us to reconsider the idea that had developed in criticism about the “end of Gorky” (D. V. Filosofov), which was caused by his passion for political struggle and the ideas of socialism, reflected in the story “Mother” (1906; second edition 1907). He creates the stories “The Town of Okurov” (1909), “Childhood” (1913-14), “In People” (1915-16), and the cycle of stories “Across Rus'” (1912-17). The story “Confession” (1908), highly appreciated by A. A. Blok, caused controversy in criticism. In it, for the first time, the theme of god-building was heard, which Gorky preached with A.V. Lunacharsky and A.A. Bogdanov at the Capri party school for workers, which caused his differences with Lenin, who hated “flirting with the little god.”

First world war had a hard impact on state of mind Gorky. It symbolized the beginning of the historical collapse of his idea of ​​“collective reason,” which he came to after disappointment with Nietzschean individualism (according to T. Mann, Gorky built a bridge from Nietzsche to socialism). Boundless faith in human reason, accepted as the only dogma, was not confirmed by life. The war became a blatant example of collective madness, when Man was reduced to a “trench lice”, “cannon fodder”, when people went wild before our eyes and the human mind was powerless before logic historical events. Gorky's 1914 poem contains the lines:
“How will we live then?
What will this horror bring us?
What now from hatred of people
Will he save my soul?

Years of emigration of Maxim Gorky (1917-28)

The October Revolution confirmed Gorky's fears. Unlike Blok, he heard in it not “music,” but the terrible roar of a hundred million peasant element, breaking through all social prohibitions and threatening to drown the remaining islands of culture. In “Untimely Thoughts” (a series of articles in the newspaper “Novaya Zhizn”; 1917-18; published as a separate publication in 1918), he accused Lenin of seizing power and unleashing terror in the country. But in the same place he called the Russian people organically cruel, “bestial” and thereby, if not justified, then explained the ferocious treatment of these people by the Bolsheviks. The inconsistency of his position was also reflected in his book “On the Russian Peasantry” (1922). Gorky’s undoubted merit was his energetic work to save the scientific and artistic intelligentsia from starvation and executions, gratefully appreciated by his contemporaries (E. I. Zamyatin, A. M. Remizov, V. F. Khodasevich, V. B. Shklovsky, etc.) Barely Isn’t it for this reason that such cultural events as the organization of the publishing house “World Literature”, the opening of the “House of Scientists” and the “House of Arts” (communes for creative intelligentsia, described in the novel by O. D. Forsh “The Crazy Ship” and the book by K. A. Fedin “Gorky Among Us”). However, many writers (including Blok, N.S. Gumilyov) could not be saved, which became one of the main reasons for Gorky’s final break with the Bolsheviks.

From 1921 to 1928, Gorky lived in exile, where he went after Lenin’s too persistent advice. Settled in Sorrento (Italy), without breaking ties with his young Soviet literature(L. M. Leonov, V. V. Ivanov, A. A. Fadeev, I. E. Babel, etc.) Wrote the cycle “Stories of 1922-24”, “Notes from the Diary” (1924), the novel “The Case” Artamonov" (1925), began working on the epic novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" (1925-36). Contemporaries noted the experimental nature of Gorky's works of this time, which were created with an undoubted eye on the formal quest of Russian prose of the 20s.

Return of Gorky to the Soviet Union

In 1928, Gorky made a “test” trip to the Soviet Union (in connection with the celebration organized on the occasion of his 60th birthday), having previously entered into cautious negotiations with the Stalinist leadership. The apotheosis of the meeting at the Belorussky station decided the matter; Gorky returned to his homeland. As an artist, he completely immersed himself in creating “The Life of Klim Samgin,” a panoramic picture of Russia over forty years. As a politician, he actually provided Stalin with moral cover in the face of the world community. His numerous articles created an apologetic image of the leader and were silent about the suppression of freedom of thought and art in the country - facts that Gorky could not have been unaware of. He headed the creation of a collective book of writers glorifying the construction by prisoners of the White Sea-Baltic Canal. Stalin. He organized and supported many enterprises: the publishing house “Academia”, the book series “History of Factories”, “History of the Civil War”, the magazine “Literary Studies”, as well as the Literary Institute, then named after him. In 1934 he headed the Union of Writers of the USSR, created on his initiative. Gorky's death was surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery, as was the death of his son, Maxim Peshkov. However, versions of the violent death of both have still not found documentary confirmation. The urn with Gorky's ashes is placed in the Kremlin wall in Moscow.

P. V. Basinsky

Maxim Gorky - life and work.

The first works of Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) was born in March 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod into the family of a carpenter. Primary education he received his education at the Slobodsko-Kunavinsky School, which he graduated from in 1878. From that time on, Gorky’s working life began. In subsequent years, he changed many professions, traveled and walked around half of Russia. In September 1892, when Gorky lived in Tiflis, his first story, “Makar Chudra,” was published in the newspaper Kavkaz. In the spring of 1895, Gorky, having moved to Samara, became an employee of the Samara Newspaper, in which he led the departments of the daily chronicle “Essays and Sketches” and “By the Way.” In the same year, such his famous stories, like “Old Woman Izergil”, “Chelkash”, “Once in the Autumn”, “The Case with the Clasps” and others, and in one of the issues of the “Samara Newspaper” the famous “Song of the Falcon” was published. Gorky's feuilletons, essays and stories soon attracted attention. His name became known to readers, and fellow journalists appreciated the strength and lightness of his pen.

A turning point in the fate of the writer Gorky

The turning point in Gorky’s fate was 1898, when two volumes of his works were published as a separate publication. Stories and essays that had previously been published in various provincial newspapers and magazines were collected together for the first time and became available to the mass reader. The publication was an extraordinary success and sold out instantly. In 1899, a new edition in three volumes was sold in exactly the same way. The following year, Gorky's collected works began to be published. In 1899, his first story “Foma Gordeev” appeared, which was also met with extraordinary enthusiasm. It was a real boom. In a matter of years, Gorky turned from an unknown writer into a living classic, into a star of the first magnitude in the horizon of Russian literature. In Germany, six publishing companies immediately began to translate and publish his works. In 1901, the novel “Three” and “Song of the Petrel” appeared. The latter was immediately banned by censorship, but this did not in the least prevent its spread. According to contemporaries, “Burevestnik” was reprinted in every city on a hectograph, on typewriters, copied by hand, and read at evenings among young people and in workers’ circles. Many people knew it by heart. But true world fame came to Gorky after he turned to the theater. His first play, “The Bourgeois” (1901), staged in 1902. Art Theater, then went on in many cities. The premiere took place in December 1902 new play“At the Bottom,” which had an absolutely fantastic reception among the audience, incredible success. Its production by the Moscow Art Theater caused an avalanche of enthusiastic responses. In 1903, the play began to march across the stages of European theaters. It was a triumphant success in England, Italy, Austria, Holland, Norway, Bulgaria and Japan. “At the Lower Depths” was warmly welcomed in Germany. The Reinhardt Theater in Berlin alone played it to full houses more than 500 times!

The secret of young Gorky's success

The secret of young Gorky's exceptional success was explained primarily by his special worldview. Like all great writers, he posed and solved the “damned” questions of his age, but he did it in his own way, not like others. The main difference lay not so much in the content as in the emotional coloring of his writings. Gorky came to literature at the moment when the crisis of the old critical realism and the themes and plots of the great literature of the 19th century V. The tragic note, which was always present in the works of famous Russian classics and gave their work a special - mournful, suffering flavor, no longer awakened the previous uplift in society, but caused only pessimism. The Russian (and not only Russian) reader has grown tired of the image of a Suffering Man, a Humiliated Man, a Man Who Must Be Pityed, moving from the pages of one work to another. There was an urgent need for a new positive hero, and Gorky was the first to respond to it - he brought out on the pages of his stories, tales and plays a Man-Fighter, a Man capable of Overcoming the Evil of the World. His cheerful, hopeful voice sounded loudly and confidently in the stuffy atmosphere of Russian timelessness and boredom, the general tonality of which was determined by works like “Ward No. 6” by Chekhov or “The Golovlev Lords” by Saltykov-Shchedrin. It is not surprising that the heroic pathos of such things as “Old Woman Izergil” or “Song of the Petrel” was like a breath of fresh air for contemporaries.

In the old dispute about Man and his place in the world, Gorky acted as an ardent romantic. No one in Russian literature before him had created such a passionate and sublime hymn to the glory of Man. For in Gorky’s Universe there is no God at all; it is all occupied by Man, who has grown to cosmic proportions. Man, according to Gorky, is the Absolute spirit, which should be worshiped, into which all manifestations of existence go and from which they originate. (“Man is the truth!” exclaims one of his heroes. “...This is huge! In this are all the beginnings and ends... Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is his business hands and his brain! Man! This is great! It sounds... proud! ") However, depicting a “breaking out” Man in his early works, a Man breaking with the bourgeois environment, Gorky was not yet fully aware of the ultimate goal of this self-affirmation. Thinking intensely about the meaning of life, he initially paid tribute to the teachings of Nietzsche with his glorification of the “strong personality,” but Nietzscheanism could not seriously satisfy him. From the glorification of Man, Gorky came to the idea of ​​Humanity. By this he meant not just an ideal, well-ordered society that unites all the people of the Earth on the path to new achievements; He saw humanity as a single transpersonal being, as a “collective mind,” a new Deity in which the abilities of many would be integrated individuals. It was a dream of a distant future, the beginning of which had to be made today. Gorky found its most complete embodiment in socialist theories.

Gorky's fascination with revolution

Gorky's passion for the revolution logically followed both from his convictions and from his relations with the Russian authorities, who could not remain good. Gorky's works revolutionized society more than any incendiary proclamations. Therefore, it is not surprising that he had many misunderstandings with the police. The events of Bloody Sunday, which took place before the writer’s eyes, prompted him to write an angry appeal “To all Russian citizens and the public opinion of European states.” “We declare,” it said, “that such an order should no longer be tolerated, and we invite all citizens of Russia to an immediate and persistent struggle against the autocracy.” On January 11, 1905, Gorky was arrested, and the next day he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. But the news of the writer’s arrest caused such a storm of protests in Russia and abroad that it was impossible to ignore them. A month later, Gorky was released on a large cash bail. In the autumn of the same year he became a member of the RSDLP, which he remained until 1917.

Gorky in exile

After the suppression of the December armed uprising, which Gorky openly sympathized with, he had to emigrate from Russia. On instructions from the Party Central Committee, he went to America to collect money for the Bolsheviks through campaigning. In the USA he completed Enemies, the most revolutionary of his plays. It was here that the novel “Mother” was mainly written, conceived by Gorky as a kind of Gospel of socialism. (This novel, which has a central idea of ​​resurrection from darkness human soul, is filled with Christian symbolism: during the course of the action, the analogy between the revolutionaries and the apostles of primitive Christianity is played out many times; Pavel Vlasov's friends merge in his mother's dreams into the image of a collective Christ, with the son in the center, Pavel himself associated with Christ, and Nilovna with the Mother of God, who sacrifices her son for the salvation of the world. The central episode of the novel - the May Day demonstration in the eyes of one of the characters turns into "a religious procession in the name of the New God, the God of light and truth, the God of reason and goodness." Paul's path, as we know, ends with the sacrifice of the cross. All these points were deeply thought out by Gorky. He was confident that the element of faith was very important in introducing the people to socialist ideas (in his 1906 articles “On the Jews” and “On the Bund,” he directly wrote that socialism is “the religion of the masses”). One of important points Gorky's worldview was that God is created by people, invented, constructed by them in order to fill the emptiness of the heart. Thus, the old gods, as has happened many times in world history, can die and give way to new ones if the people believe in them. The motive of seeking God was repeated by Gorky in his story “Confession” written in 1908. Its hero, disillusioned with the official religion, painfully searches for God and finds him in merging with the working people, who thus turn out to be the true “collective God.”

From America, Gorky went to Italy and settled on the island of Capri. During the years of emigration, he wrote “Summer” (1909), “The Town of Okurov” (1909), “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin” (1910), the play “Vassa Zheleznova”, “Tales of Italy” (1911), “The Master” (1913) , autobiographical story “Childhood” (1913).

Return of Gorky to Russia

At the end of December 1913, taking advantage of the general amnesty declared on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs, Gorky returned to Russia and settled in St. Petersburg. In 1914, he founded his magazine “Letopis” and the publishing house “Parus”. Here in 1916 it was published autobiographical story“In People” and a series of essays “Across Rus'”.

Gorky accepted the February Revolution of 1917 with all his soul, but further events, and especially towards the October revolution, his attitude was very ambiguous. In general, Gorky’s worldview after the 1905 revolution underwent an evolution and became more skeptical. Despite the fact that his faith in Man and faith in socialism remained unchanged, he doubted that the modern Russian worker and modern Russian peasant were able to perceive bright socialist ideas as they should. Already in 1905, he was struck by the roar of the awakened national element, which broke out through all social prohibitions and threatened to drown the miserable islands material culture. Later, several articles appeared defining Gorky’s attitude towards the Russian people. His article “Two Souls,” which appeared in “Chronicles” at the end of 1915, made a great impression on his contemporaries. While paying tribute to the richness of the soul of the Russian people, Gorky still treated its historical possibilities with great skepticism. The Russian people, he wrote, are dreamy, lazy, their powerless soul can flare up beautifully and brightly, but it does not burn for long and quickly fades away. Therefore, the Russian nation necessarily needs an “external lever” capable of moving it from a dead point. Once the role of the “lever” was played by Peter I. Now the time has come for new achievements, and the role of the “lever” in them must be played by the intelligentsia, primarily revolutionary, but also scientific, technical and creative. She must bring to the people Western culture and instill in him an activity that will kill the “lazy Asian” in his soul. Culture and science were, according to Gorky, precisely the force (and the intelligentsia the bearer of this force) that “will allow us to overcome the abomination of life and tirelessly, stubbornly strive for justice, for the beauty of life, for freedom.”

Gorky developed this theme in 1917-1918. in his newspaper “New Life”, in which he published about 80 articles, later combined into two books “Revolution and Culture” and “Untimely Thoughts”. The essence of his views was that revolution (a reasonable transformation of society) should be fundamentally different from the “Russian revolt” (meaninglessly destroying it). Gorky was convinced that the country was now not ready for a creative socialist revolution, that first the people “must be calcined and cleansed of the slavery nurtured in them by the slow fire of culture.”

Gorky's attitude to the 1917 revolution

When the Provisional Government was finally overthrown, Gorky sharply opposed the Bolsheviks. In the first months after the October revolution, when an unbridled crowd smashed the palace cellars, when raids and robberies were committed, Gorky wrote with anger about the rampant anarchy, about the destruction of culture, about the cruelty of terror. During these difficult months, his relationship with Lenin became extremely strained. The bloody horrors of the Civil War that followed made a depressing impression on Gorky and freed him from his last illusions in relation to the Russian peasant. In his book “On the Russian Peasantry” (1922), published in Berlin, Gorky included many bitter, but sober and valuable observations on negative sides Russian character. Looking the truth in the eye, he wrote: “I attribute the cruelty of the forms of the revolution exclusively to the cruelty of the Russian people.” But of all the social strata of Russian society, he considered the peasantry to be the most guilty of it. It was in the peasantry that the writer saw the source of all the historical troubles of Russia.

Gorky's departure to Capri

Meanwhile, overwork and bad climate caused an exacerbation of tuberculosis in Gorky. In the summer of 1921 he was forced to leave for Capri again. The following years were filled with hard work for him. Gorky writes the final part of the autobiographical trilogy “My Universities” (1923), the novel “The Artamonov Case” (1925), several short stories and the first two volumes of the epic “The Life of Klim Samgin” (1927-1928) - a picture of intellectual and social life Russia last decades before the revolution of 1917

Gorky's acceptance of socialist reality

In May 1928, Gorky returned to the Soviet Union. The country amazed him. At one of the meetings, he admitted: “It seems to me that I have not been in Russia for not six years, but at least twenty.” He eagerly sought to get to know this unfamiliar country and immediately began traveling around the Soviet Union. The result of these travels was a series of essays “Around the Union of Soviets.”

Gorky's performance during these years was amazing. In addition to the multilateral editorial and social work, he devotes a lot of time to journalism (over the last eight years of his life he published about 300 articles) and writes new works of art. In 1930, Gorky conceived a dramatic trilogy about the revolution of 1917. He managed to complete only two plays: “Yegor Bulychev and Others” (1932), “Dostigaev and Others” (1933). Also, the fourth volume of Samgin remained unfinished (the third was published in 1931), on which Gorky worked in recent years. This novel is important because in it Gorky says goodbye to his illusions in relation to the Russian intelligentsia. Samghin’s catastrophe in life is the catastrophe of the entire Russian intelligentsia, which turning point Russian history was not ready to become the head of the people and become the organizing force of the nation. In a more general, philosophical sense, this meant the defeat of Reason before the dark element of the Masses. A just socialist society, alas, did not develop (and could not develop - Gorky was now sure of this) by itself from the old Russian society, just as the Russian Empire could not be born from the old Muscovite kingdom. For the triumph of the ideals of socialism, violence had to be used. Therefore, a new Peter was needed.

One must think that the awareness of these truths largely reconciled Gorky with socialist reality. It is known that he did not like Stalin very much - he treated Bukharin and Kamenev with much greater sympathy. However, his relationship with the Secretary General remained smooth until his death and was not marred by a single major quarrel. Moreover, Gorky put his enormous authority at the service of the Stalinist regime. In 1929, together with some other writers, he toured Stalin’s camps and visited the most terrible of them on Solovki. The result of this trip was a book that, for the first time in the history of Russian literature, glorified forced labor. Gorky welcomed collectivization without hesitation and wrote to Stalin in 1930: “... the socialist revolution is taking on a truly socialist character. This is an almost geological revolution and it is greater, immeasurably greater and deeper than everything that has been done by the party. The system of life that has existed for millennia is being destroyed, a system that created a man who is extremely ugly and unique and capable of terrifying with his animal conservatism, his instinct of ownership.” In 1931, under the impression of the “Industrial Party” process, Gorky wrote the play “Somov and Others,” in which he portrays sabotage engineers.

We must remember, however, that in the last years of his life Gorky was seriously ill and he did not know much of what was happening in the country. Starting from 1935, under the pretext of illness, inconvenient people were not allowed to see Gorky, their letters were not given to him, and newspaper issues were printed especially for him, in which the most odious materials were absent. Gorky was burdened by this guardianship and said that “he was surrounded,” but he could no longer do anything. He died on June 18, 1936.

K.V.Ryzhov