Biography - Maxim Gorky. Literary and historical notes of a young technician When Gorky was born and he was dying

()

(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, the city of Petrograd (Vsemirnaya Literatura publishing house, a petition to the Bolsheviks for those arrested) and life abroad in the 1920s (Marienbad, Sorrento), Gorky returned to the USSR, where he was surrounded for the last years of his life official recognition as a "petrel of the revolution" and "great proletarian writer", the founder of socialist realism.
Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1929).

Biography

Surprising as it may seem, until now no one has an exact idea about many things in Gorky's life. Who knows his biography reliably?
Memories. Bunin I. A.

Aleksey Maksimovich invented his pseudonym himself. Subsequently, he told me: “I shouldn’t write in literature - Peshkov ...” (A. Kalyuzhny) You can learn more about his biography 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 shipping company I. S. Kolchin) - Maxim Savvatevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Mother - Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina (1842-1879). Orphaned at an early age, he spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather Kashirin (see Kashirin's house). From the age of 11 he was forced to go "to the people"; he worked as a “boy” at a shop, as a buffet utensil on a steamer, as an apprentice in an icon-painting workshop, as a baker, etc.

Youth

* In 1884 he tried to enter Kazan University. He got acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.
* In 1888 - arrested for connection with the circle of N. E. Fedoseev. He was under constant police surveillance. In October 1888 he entered as a watchman at the Dobrinka station of the Gryase-Tsaritsyno railway. Impressions from staying in Dobrinka will serve as the basis for the autobiographical story "The Watchman" and the story "For the sake of boredom".
* In January 1889, by personal request (a complaint in verse), he was transferred to the Borisoglebsk station, then as a weigher to the Krutaya station.
* In the spring of 1891 he went 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 the Volzhsky Vestnik, Samarskaya Gazeta, Nizhny Novgorod Leaflet, and others.
* 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 train of the railway appears on the screen. He rushes with an arrow straight at you - beware! It seems that he is about to rush into the darkness in which you sit, 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", "Spouses Orlovs", "Malva", "Konovalov".
* From October 1897 until 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 working Marxist circle. Subsequently, the life impressions of this period served as material for the writer's novel "The Life of Klim Samgin".
* 1898 - The publishing house of Dorovatsky and Charushnikov A.P. 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 to publish the first two volumes of “Essays and Stories” by M. Gorky, 1,200 copies each. Publishers "took a chance" and released more. The first volume of the 1st edition of Essays and Stories was published with a circulation of 3,000 .m/text 0520.shtml
* 1899 - the novel "Foma Gordeev", a poem in prose "The Song of the Falcon".
* 1900-1901 - the novel "Three", a personal acquaintance with Chekhov, Tolstoy.
* 1900-1913 - participates in the work of the publishing house "Knowledge"
* March 1901 - "The Song of the Petrel" was created by M. Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod. Participation in the Marxist workers' circles of Nizhny Novgorod, Sormov, St. Petersburg, wrote a proclamation calling for a fight against the autocracy. Arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod.
“Many do not consider Gorky a poet, and in vain. For example, "The Wallachian Legend" (aka "The Legend of Marko"). I once heard a contemporary song written to this poem. I immediately wondered if there would be a last stanza or not. As I expected, it was not. The line “At least a song remains from Marco” was followed by a vocalization (obviously, the mentioned song was meant). But for the sake of this last, Nietzsche stanza, Gorky wrote his ballad based on a rather typical folklore plot.
- Vadim Nikolaev, "Notes on Russian Poetry"

According to contemporaries, Nikolai Gumilyov highly appreciated the last stanza of this poem (“Gumilyov without gloss”, St. Petersburg, 2009).
* In 1901, M. Gorky turned to dramaturgy. Creates the plays "Petty Bourgeois" (1901), "At the Bottom" (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 - the election of M. Gorky to the honorary academicians of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. "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 the supervision of the police." 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. For the revolutionary proclamation and in connection with the execution on January 9, he was arrested, but then released under pressure from the public. Member of the revolution 1905-1907. In the autumn 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", creates the novel "Mother". Because of 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 identified (see "The Capri School").
* 1907 - delegate of the V Congress of the RSDLP.
* 1908 - the play "The Last", the story "The Life of an Unnecessary Man".
* 1909 - the story "The Town of Okurov", "The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin".
* 1913 - M. Gorky edits the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, the art department of the Bolshevik magazine Enlightenment, publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes Tales of Italy.
* 1912-1916 - M. Gorky creates a series of stories and essays that compiled the collection "In Rus'", autobiographical stories "Childhood", "In People". The last part of the My Universities trilogy 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 hunger. In 1917, having disagreed with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the timeliness of the socialist revolution in Russia, he did not pass the re-registration of party members and formally dropped out of it. [Source not specified 666 days]

Abroad

* 1921 - M. Gorky's departure abroad. A myth developed in Soviet literature that the reason for his departure was the resumption of his illness and the need, at Lenin's insistence, to be treated abroad. In reality, A. M. Gorky was forced to leave because of the aggravation of 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 - the novel "The Artamonov Case".
* 1928 - at the invitation of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, he makes a trip around the country, during which Gorky is shown the achievements of the USSR, which are reflected in the series of essays "On the Soviet Union."
* 1931 - Gorky visits the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp and writes a laudatory review of his regime. A fragment of the work of A. I. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago" is devoted to this fact.

Return to the Soviet Union

* 1932 - Gorky returns to the Soviet Union. The government provided him with the former Ryabushinsky mansion on Spiridonovka, dachas in Gorki and Teselli (Crimea). Here he receives an order from Stalin - 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 and Plants", "History of the Civil War", "Poet's Library", "History of a Young Man of the 19th Century", the journal "Literary Studies", he writes plays "Egor Bulychev and others" (1932), "Dostigaev and others" (1933).
* 1934 - Gorky "conducts" the I All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, speaks at it with the main report.
* 1934 - co-editor of the book "Stalin's Channel"
* In 1925-1936 he wrote the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin", which was never completed.
* 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, the ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. Before cremation, the brain of M. Gorky 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 by many to be "suspicious", there were rumors of poisoning, which, however, were not confirmed. At the funeral, among others, the coffin with the body of Gorky was carried by Molotov and Stalin. Interestingly, among other accusations of Genrikh Yagoda at the so-called Third Moscow Trial in 1938, there was an accusation of poisoning Gorky's son. According to Yagoda's interrogations, Maxim Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, 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), who were accused of killing Gorky and others.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

* 09.1899 - V. A. Posse's apartment in Trofimov's house - Nadezhdinskaya street, 11;
* 02. - spring 1901 - the 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 - apartment of K. P. Pyatnitsky in an apartment building - Znamenskaya street, 20, apt. 29;
* beginning 03.1914 - autumn 1921 - tenement house of E.K. Barsova - Kronverksky prospect, 23;
* 30.08. - 09/07/1928 - the hotel "European" - Rakov street, 7;
* 18.06. - 07/11/1929 - the hotel "European" - Rakov street, 7;
* the end of 09.1931 - the hotel "European" - Rakov street, 7.

Bibliography

Novels

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

Tale

* 1908 - "The life of an unnecessary person."
* 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" (a fairy tale poem, published in July 1917 in the New Life newspaper)
* 1892 - "Makar Chudra"
* 1895 - "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil".
* 1897 - "Former people", "Spouses Orlovs", "Malva", "Konovalov".
* 1898 - "Essays and Stories" (collection)
* 1899 - "Song of the Falcon" (poem in prose), "Twenty-six and one"
* 1901 - "The Song of the Petrel" (poem in prose)
* 1903 - "Man" (poem in prose)
* 1911 - "Tales of Italy"
* 1912-1917 - "In Rus'" (a cycle of stories)
* 1924 - "Stories 1922-1924"
* 1924 - "Notes from a diary" (a cycle of stories)

Plays

* 1901 - "Philistines"
* 1902 - "At the bottom"
* 1904 - "Summer Residents"
* 1905 - "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians"
* 1906 - "Enemies"
* 1910 - "Vassa Zheleznova" (revised in December 1935)
* 1915 - "The Old Man" (first published as a separate book by the publishing house of IP Ladyzhnikov in Berlin (not 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"

Publicism

* 1906 - "My interviews", "In America" ​​(pamphlets)
* 1917-1918 - a series of articles "Untimely Thoughts" in the newspaper "New Life" (in 1918 came out as a separate edition)
* 1922 - "On the Russian peasantry"

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

Movie incarnations

* Alexei Lyarsky ("Gorky's Childhood", 1938)
* Alexei Lyarsky ("In People", 1938)
* Nikolai Walbert ("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 mist, 1965, The Incredible Yehudiel Khlamida, 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)
* Nikolay Kachura ("Yesenin", 2005)
* Georgy Taratorkin ("Captivity of Passion", 2010)
* Nikolai Svanidze 1907. Maksim 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 district children's library, the drama theater, the street, and the square in the center of which there is a monument to the writer by sculptor V.I. Mukhina bear the name of Gorky. But the most remarkable is the museum-apartment of M. Gorky.
* In 1934, a Soviet propaganda multi-seat 8-engine passenger aircraft was built at an aviation plant in Voronezh, the largest aircraft of its time with a land chassis - ANT-20 "Maxim Gorky".
* In Moscow, there was Maxim Gorky lane (now Khitrovsky), Maxim Gorky embankment (now Kosmodamianskaya), Maxim Gorky square (formerly Khitrovskaya), Gorkovskaya metro station (now Tverskaya) of the Gorky-Zamoskvoretskaya (now Zamoskvoretskaya) line, Gorky street (now divided into Tverskaya and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya streets).

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

* In St. Petersburg, a metro station is named after Maxim Gorky.
* Moscow Literary Institute named after A. M. Gorky.
* In 1932, the Moscow Art Academic 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, the Turkmen State University in Ashgabat was named after M. Gorky (now named after Makhtumkuli).
* The name of M. Gorky is the Tula Drama Theater
* National Academic Drama Theater named after M. Gorky (Russian theater) in Minsk
* The main university of Yekaterinburg is named after Gorky (USU 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 district center in the Omsk region (the village of Gorkovskoye) is named after Gorky.
* Maxim Gorky Park in Odessa, Ukraine.
* Donetsk State Medical University. M. Gorky, Donetsk, Ukraine.

Gallery

Maxim Gorky on postage stamps

Literature about life and work

* Korney Chukovsky New works by Gorky
* Roots 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. - Protected Zvenigorod land. - 3rd ed. - M.: Mosk. worker, 1982
2. Memories. Bunin I. A.
3. Biography on Biographer.ru
4. Peshkov, Alexei Maksimovich // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg: 1890-1907.
5. GALO: Alexei Maksimovich Gorky. To the 140th anniversary of his birth.
6. Shilin N. K. Depot: The history of the locomotive depot of the Maxim Gorky station of the Volgograd branch of the Volga Railway. - Volgograd: GU "Publisher", 2001, 592 s; 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 screenings organized by Charles Aumont at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair "Nizhny Novgorod Leaf", 1896, 4 (16) July, No. 182, p. 31.
8. M. Arias Maxim Gorky's Odyssey on the "Isle of Sirens": "Russian Capri" as a socio-cultural problem. (Russian) // Toronto Slavic Quarterly. - Summer 2006. - No. 17.
9. So, it is known that in 1918 Gorky sent money to V. V. Rozanov, a beggar in Sergiev Posad
10. Solzhenitsyn, A. I. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956. [In 3 books], Parts III-IV: the experience of artistic research // AI Solzhenitsyn. - Astrel, 2009. - 560 p. - Articles 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. M. Gorky St. Petersburg State University
15. Numbers according to the CFA and Scott catalogs.

Maksim 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 officers, a cabinetmaker. In recent years, he worked as a manager of a steamship office, died of cholera. Mother, Varvara Vasilievna Kashirina (1842-79) - from a bourgeois family; widowed early, remarried, died of consumption. The childhood of the writer passed in the house of his grandfather Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin, who in his youth was bubbling, then became rich, became the owner of a dyeing establishment, and went bankrupt in old age. The grandfather taught the boy according to church books, grandmother Akulina Ivanovna introduced her grandson to folk songs and fairy tales, but most importantly, she replaced her mother, “saturating”, according to Gorky himself, “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 weigher.

Gorky did not receive a real education, graduating only from a vocational school. The thirst for knowledge was quenched independently, he grew up "self-taught". Hard work (a crockery worker on a ship, a “boy” in a store, a student in an icon-painting workshop, a foreman at fair buildings, etc.) and early deprivations taught a good knowledge of life and inspired dreams of rebuilding 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 the 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 birth to faith in Man and his potentialities. Romantic philosophy was born from the clash of conflicting principles, in which Man (ideal essence) did not coincide with man (real being) and even entered into a tragic conflict with him. Gorky's humanism carried rebellious and atheistic traits. His favorite reading was the biblical Book of Job, where "God teaches a person how to be equal to God and how to calmly stand 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 Khlamida). The pseudonym M. Gorky (he signed letters and documents with his real name - A. Peshkov; the designations "A. M. Gorky" and "Aleksey Maksimovich Gorky" contaminate the pseudonym with his real name) appeared in 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper "Caucasus", where the first story Makar Chudra. In 1895, thanks to the help of V. G. Korolenko, he was published in the most 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. Glory to Gorky grew with incredible speed and soon caught up with the popularity of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy.

From the very beginning, there was a discrepancy 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 of all interested in the social aspects of his prose, he sought and found in them a mood consonant with the times. According to 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”, which the author endowed the heroes of his own free will, not always consistent with the “truth of life”. Critics in connection with his texts did not solve social issues and the problems of their literary reflection, but directly the “question of Gorky” and the collective lyrical image he created, which began to be perceived as typical for Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. and which criticism compared with Nietzsche's "superman". All this allows, contrary to the traditional view, to consider him a modernist rather than a realist.

Gorky's public position was radical. He was arrested more than once, in 1902 Nicholas II ordered to annul 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 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 of the literary process. In 1901, he headed the publishing house of the Znanie partnership and soon began to publish the Collections of the Knowledge partnership, where I. A. Bunin, L. N. Andreev, A. I. Kuprin, V. V. Veresaev, E. N. .Chirikov, N.D. Teleshov, A.S. Serafimovich and others.

The pinnacle of early creativity, the play "At the Bottom", to a large extent owes its fame to the production of K. S. Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater (1902; played by Stanislavsky, V.I. Kachalov, I.M. Moskvin, O.L. Knipper- Chekhov, etc.) In 1903, the Kleines Theater in Berlin staged a performance of "At the Bottom" with Richard Wallenthin in the role of Satin. Gorky's other plays - Petty 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 made it necessary to reconsider the notion of the “end of Gorky” (D. V. Filosofov), which had developed in criticism, which was caused by his passion for the political struggle and the ideas of socialism, which were reflected in the story “Mother” (1906; second edition 1907). He created the novels "The Town of Okurov" (1909), "Childhood" (1913-14), "In People" (1915-16), a cycle of stories "Across Rus'" (1912-17). Disputes in criticism caused the story "Confession" (1908), highly appreciated by A. A. Blok. For the first time, the theme of god-building was sounded in it, which Gorky, with A. V. Lunacharsky and A. A. Bogdanov, preached in the Capri party school for workers, which caused him to disagree with Lenin, who hated "flirting with God."

The First World War seriously affected Gorky's state of mind. It symbolized the beginning of the historical collapse of his idea of ​​"collective mind", to which he came after being disappointed with Nietzsche's individualism (according to T. Mann, Gorky stretched a bridge from Nietzsche to socialism). Unlimited faith in the human mind, 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 louse", "cannon fodder", when people went berserk before their eyes and the human mind was powerless before the logic of historical events. Gorky's 1914 poem contains the lines:
“How are we going to live then?
What will this horror bring us?
What now from hatred for people
Save my soul?"

The 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 sink the remaining islands of culture. In "Untimely Thoughts" (a series of articles in the newspaper "New Life"; 1917-18; published in a separate edition 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 justifying, then explaining the ferocious treatment of these people by the Bolsheviks. The inconsistency of the position was also reflected in his book On the Russian Peasantry (1922). The undoubted merit of Gorky was the 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 Is it not for this purpose that such cultural events were conceived as the organization of the World Literature publishing house, the opening of the House of Scientists and the House of Arts (communes for the creative intelligentsia, described in the novel Crazy Ship by O. D. Forsh and the book by K. A Fedina "Bitter 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 too persistent advice from Lenin. Settled in Sorrento (Italy), without interrupting ties with 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 a Diary” (1924), the novel “The Artamonov Case” (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 search for Russian prose of the 1920s.

Gorky's return to the Soviet Union

In 1928, Gorky made a "trial" trip to the Soviet Union (in connection with the celebration arranged 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 railway station decided the matter; Gorky returned to his homeland. As an artist, he completely immersed himself in the creation of 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 stood at the head of the creation of a collective writer's book, which glorified the construction by prisoners of the White Sea-Baltic Canal. Stalin. He organized and supported many enterprises: the Academia publishing house, the book series History of Factories and Plants, History of the Civil War, the Literary Study magazine, and the Literary Institute, later 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 not yet been documented. 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 in the family of a carpenter. He received his primary education at the Sloboda-Kunavinsky School, from which he graduated in 1878. From that time on, Gorky's working life began. In subsequent years, he changed many professions, traveled around and around half of Russia. In September 1892, when Gorky was living in Tiflis, his first story, Makar Chudra, was published in the Kavkaz newspaper. 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 Incidentally. In the same year, such well-known stories as "Old Woman Izergil", "Chelkash", "Once Upon a Fall", "The Case with the Clasps" and others appeared, and the famous "Song of the Falcon" was published in one of the issues of the Samara Newspaper. . Feuilletons, essays and stories by Gorky soon attracted attention. His name became known to readers, the strength and lightness of his pen were appreciated by fellow journalists.

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. The 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 general reader. The publication was a huge success and sold out instantly. In 1899, a new edition in three volumes went out 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 sky of Russian literature. In Germany, six publishing companies at once undertook to translate and publish his works. In 1901, the novel "Three" and "Song of the Petrel" appeared. The latter was immediately banned by censors, but this did not in the least prevent its distribution. According to contemporaries, "Petrel" was reprinted in every city on a hectograph, on typewriters, rewritten by hand, read at evenings among young people and in workers' circles. Many people knew her by heart. But truly world fame came to Gorky after he turned to the theater. His first play, Petty Bourgeois (1901), staged in 1902 by the Art Theatre, was later performed in many cities. In December 1902, the premiere of the new play "At the Bottom" took place, which had an absolutely fantastic, incredible success with the audience. The staging of it by the Moscow Art Theater caused an avalanche of enthusiastic responses. In 1903, the procession of the play began on the stages of theaters in Europe. With triumphant success, she walked in England, Italy, Austria, Holland, Norway, Bulgaria and Japan. Warmly welcomed "At the bottom" in Germany. Only the Reinhardt Theater in Berlin, with a full house, played it more than 500 times!

The secret of young Gorky's success

The secret of the exceptional success of the young Gorky was explained primarily by his special attitude. 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 was 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 became apparent and the themes and plots of the great literature of the 19th century began to outlive themselves. The tragic note, which was always present in the works of the famous Russian classics and gave their work a special - mournful, suffering flavor, no longer aroused the former upsurge in society, but only caused pessimism. The Russian (and not only Russian) reader is fed up with the image of the Suffering Man, the Humiliated Man, the Man Who Should be Pity, passing 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, novels and plays the Man-Wrestler, the Man capable of Overcoming the Evil of the World. His cheerful, hopeful voice sounded loud and confident in the stale atmosphere of Russian timelessness and boredom, the general tone of which was determined by works like Chekhov's Chamber No. 6 or Saltykov-Shchedrin's Gentlemen Golovlevs. 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 created such a passionate and sublime hymn to the glory of Man. For in the Gorky Universe there is no God at all, it is all occupied by Man, who has grown to cosmic scales. Man, according to Gorky, is the Absolute Spirit, which should be worshiped, into which they leave and from which all manifestations of being originate. ("Man - that's the truth! - exclaims one of his heroes. - ... This is huge! In this - all beginnings and ends ... Everything is in a person, everything is for a person! There is only a person, everything else is his business Hands and his brain! Man! This is magnificent! It sounds ... proud!") However, depicting in his early creations a "breaking out" Man, a Man breaking with the petty-bourgeois environment, Gorky was not yet fully aware of the ultimate goal of this self-affirmation. Intensely reflecting on the meaning of life, he at first paid tribute to the teachings of Nietzsche with his glorification of the "strong personality", but Nietzscheism could not seriously satisfy him. From the glorification of Man, Gorky came to the idea of ​​Mankind. By this, he understood not just an ideal, well-organized society that unites all the people of the Earth on the way to new achievements; Mankind was presented to him as a single transpersonal being, as a "collective mind", a new Deity, in which the abilities of many individual people would be integrated. It was a dream of a distant future, which had to be started today. Gorky found its most complete embodiment in socialist theories.

Gorky's fascination with the revolution

Gorky's fascination with the revolution logically followed both from his convictions and from his relations with the Russian authorities, which 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 eyes of the writer, 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 stubborn 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 bail. In the autumn of the same year, he joined the RSDLP, which he remained until 1917.

Gorky in exile

After the suppression of the December armed uprising, to which Gorky openly sympathized, he had to emigrate from Russia. On the instructions of the Central Committee of the party, he went to America to collect money through agitation for the Bolshevik cash desk. 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 the central idea of ​​the resurrection from the darkness of the human soul, is filled with Christian symbolism: in the course of action, the analogy between the revolutionaries and the apostles of primitive Christianity is repeatedly played out; Pavel Vlasov’s friends merge in his mother’s dreams into the image of the collective Christ, and the son is in the center, himself Pavel is associated with Christ, and Nilovna is associated with the Mother of God, who sacrifices her son to save the world.The central episode of the novel - the May Day demonstration in the eyes of one of the characters turns into "a procession in the name of the New God, the God of light and truth, the God of reason and good" "The path of Paul, as you know, ends with the sacrifice of the cross. All these points were deeply thought out by Gorky. He was sure that the element of faith is very important in introducing the people to socialist ideas (in the articles of 1906 "On the Jews" and "On the Bund" he He directly wrote that socialism is “the religion of the masses.” One of the important points in 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 repeatedly happened in world history, can die and give way to new ones if the people believe in them. The motif of God-seeking was repeated by Gorky in the story "Confession" written in 1908. Her hero, disillusioned with the official religion, painfully searches for God and finds him merging with the working people, who thus turns 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) , the autobiographical story "Childhood" (1913).

Gorky's return to Russia

At the end of December 1913, taking advantage of the general amnesty announced on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs, Gorky returned to Russia and settled in St. Petersburg. In 1914, he founded his own magazine "Chronicle" and publishing house "Sail". Here, in 1916, his autobiographical story "In People" and a series of essays "Across Rus'" were published.

Gorky accepted the February Revolution of 1917 with all his heart, but his attitude to further events, and especially to the October Revolution, was very ambiguous. In general, after the 1905 revolution, Gorky's worldview underwent an evolution and became more skeptical. Despite the fact that his faith in Man and faith in socialism remained unchanged, he had doubts about the fact that the modern Russian worker and modern Russian peasant are able to perceive bright socialist ideas as they should. Already in 1905, he was struck by the roar of the awakened popular element, breaking out through all social prohibitions and threatening to sink the miserable islands of material culture. Later, several articles appeared that determined Gorky's attitude towards the Russian people. His article “Two Souls”, which appeared in the “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 nevertheless 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 definitely needs an “external lever” capable of moving it off the ground. 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 performed by the intelligentsia, primarily the revolutionary, but also the scientific, technical and creative. It should bring Western culture to the people and instill in them an activity that will kill the “lazy Asian” in their soul. Culture and science were, according to Gorky, just that force (and the intelligentsia - the bearer of this force) that "will allow us to overcome the abomination of life and relentlessly, 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 the revolution (reasonable transformation of society) should be fundamentally different from the "Russian rebellion" (which senselessly destroys it). Gorky was convinced that the country was not now ready for a constructive socialist revolution, that first the people "must be incinerated and cleansed of the slavery nurtured in them by the slow fire of culture."

Gorky's attitude to the revolution of 1917

When the Provisional Government was nevertheless 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 relations with Lenin escalated to the extreme. The bloody horrors of the Civil War that followed made a depressing impression on Gorky and freed him from his last illusions about the Russian peasant. In the book "On the Russian Peasantry" (1922), published in Berlin, Gorky included many bitter, but sober and valuable observations on the negative aspects of the Russian character. Looking the truth in the eye, he wrote: "I explain the cruelty of the forms of the revolution solely by 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 for Capri

Meanwhile, overwork and a bad climate caused an exacerbation of tuberculosis in Gorky. In the summer of 1921 he was forced to leave again for Capri. 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 stories and the first two volumes of the epic "The Life of Klim Samgin" (1927-1928) - a picture of intellectual and social life that is striking in its scope Russia in the 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 greedily sought to get to know this unfamiliar country and immediately began to travel around the Soviet Union. The result of these travels was a series of essays "On the Union of Soviets."

Gorky's efficiency during these years was amazing. In addition to multilateral editorial and public 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 finish only two plays: Yegor Bulychev and Others (1932), Dostigaev and Others (1933). Also left unfinished was the fourth volume of Samghin (the third came out in 1931), on which Gorky had been working in recent years. This novel is important in that Gorky says goodbye to his illusions in relation to the Russian intelligentsia. Samghin's life catastrophe is the catastrophe of the entire Russian intelligentsia, which at a turning point in 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 Muscovy. For the triumph of the ideals of socialism, violence had to be used. Therefore, a new Peter was needed.

One must think that the consciousness of these truths reconciled Gorky with socialist reality in many respects. It is known that he did not really like Stalin - he treated Bukharin and Kamenev with much greater sympathy. However, his relationship with the Secretary General remained smooth until his death and was not overshadowed by any major quarrel. Moreover, Gorky put his enormous authority at the service of the Stalinist regime. In 1929, together with some other writers, he traveled around the Stalinist camps, and visited the most terrible of them in 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 assuming a truly socialist character. This is an almost geological upheaval, and it is greater, immeasurably greater and deeper than all that has been done by the Party. The system of life that has existed for millennia is being destroyed, the system that has created a man of extremely ugly originality and capable of terrifying with his animal conservatism, his instinct of ownership. In 1931, under the impression of the process of the "Industrial Party", Gorky wrote the play "Somov and Others", in which he brings out pest engineers.

However, it must be remembered that in the last years of his life Gorky was seriously ill and he did not know much of what was going on in the country. Beginning in 1935, under the pretext of illness, inconvenient people were not allowed to see Gorky, their letters were not handed over to him, newspapers were printed especially for him, in which the most odious materials were absent. Gorky was weary of this guardianship and said that "he was besieged", but he could no longer do anything. He died on June 18, 1936.

K.V. Ryzhov

Abroad

Return to the Soviet Union

Bibliography

Stories, essays

Publicism

Movie incarnations

Also known as Alexei Maksimovich Gorky(at birth Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov; March 16 (28), 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire - June 18, 1936, Gorki, Moscow region, USSR) - Russian writer, prose writer, playwright. One of the most popular authors of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, famous for portraying a romanticized declassed character (“tramp”), an author of works with a revolutionary tendency, personally close to the Social Democrats, who was in opposition to the tsarist regime, Gorky quickly gained world fame.

At first, Gorky was skeptical about the Bolshevik revolution. After several years of cultural work in Soviet Russia, the city of Petrograd (Vsemirnaya Literatura publishing house, a petition to the Bolsheviks for those arrested) and life abroad in the 1920s (Marienbad, Sorrento), Gorky returned to the USSR, where he was surrounded for the last years of his life official recognition as a "petrel of the revolution" and "great proletarian writer", the founder of socialist realism.

Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1929).

Biography

Aleksey Maksimovich invented his pseudonym himself. Subsequently, he told me: “I shouldn’t write in literature - Peshkov ...” (A. Kalyuzhny) You can learn more about his biography 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 shipping company I. S. Kolchin) - Maxim Savvatevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Mother - Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina (1842-1879). Gorky's grandfather, Savvaty Peshkov, rose to the rank of officer, but was demoted and exiled to Siberia "for cruel treatment of the lower ranks," after which he signed up as a tradesman. His son Maxim ran away from his father-satrap five times and left home forever at the age of 17. Orphaned at an early age, Gorky spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather Kashirin. From the age of 11 he was forced to go "to the people"; worked as a "boy" at a store, as a buffet utensil on a steamer, as a baker, studied at an icon-painting workshop, etc.

Youth

• In 1884 he tried to enter Kazan University. He got acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.
• In 1888 he was arrested for his connection with the circle of N. E. Fedoseev. He was under constant police surveillance. In October 1888 he entered as a watchman at the Dobrinka station of the Gryase-Tsaritsyno railway. Impressions from staying in Dobrinka will serve as the basis for the autobiographical story "The Watchman" and the story "For the sake of boredom".
• In January 1889, by personal request (a complaint in verse), he was transferred to the Borisoglebsk station, then as a weigher to the Krutaya station.
• In the spring of 1891 he set off to wander around the country and reached the Caucasus.

Literary and social activities

• 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 working Marxist circle. Subsequently, the life impressions of this period served as material for the writer's novel "The Life of Klim Samgin".
• 1898 - The publishing house of Dorovatsky and Charushnikov A.P. 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 to publish the first two volumes of “Essays and Stories” by M. Gorky, 1,200 copies each. Publishers "took a chance" and released more. The first volume of the 1st edition of Essays and Stories was published with a circulation of 3,000.
• 1899 - the novel "Foma Gordeev", a poem in prose "The Song of the Falcon".
• 1900-1901 - the novel "Three", a personal acquaintance with Chekhov, Tolstoy.
• 1900-1913 - participates in the work of the publishing house "Knowledge"
• March 1901 - "The Song of the Petrel" was created by M. Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod. Participation in the Marxist workers' circles of Nizhny Novgorod, Sormov, St. Petersburg, wrote a proclamation calling for a fight against the autocracy. Arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod.

According to contemporaries, Nikolai Gumilyov highly appreciated the last stanza of this poem (“Gumilyov without gloss”, St. Petersburg, 2009).

• In 1901, M. Gorky turned to dramaturgy. Creates the plays "Petty Bourgeois" (1901), "At the Bottom" (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 - the election of M. Gorky to the honorary academicians of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. "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, since the newly elected academician “was under police surveillance.” In connection with this, Chekhov and Korolenko refused membership in the Academy.
• 1904-1905 - writes the plays "Summer Residents", "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians". Meets Lenin. For the revolutionary proclamation and in connection with the execution on January 9, he was arrested, but then released under pressure from the public. Member of the revolution 1905-1907. In the autumn 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", creates the novel "Mother". Because of 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 identified.
• 1907 - delegate to the V Congress of the RSDLP.
• 1908 - the play "The Last", the story "The Life of an Unnecessary Man".
• 1909 - the novels "The Town of Okurov", "The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin".
• 1913 - M. Gorky edits the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, the art department of the Bolshevik magazine Enlightenment, publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes Tales of Italy.

• 1912-1916 - M. Gorky creates a series of stories and essays that compiled the collection "In Rus'", autobiographical novels "Childhood", "In People". The last part of the My Universities trilogy was written in 1923.
• 1917-1919 - M. Gorky conducts a lot of public and political work, criticizes the "methods" of the Bolsheviks, condemns their attitude towards the old intelligentsia, saves many of its representatives from Bolshevik repressions and hunger. In 1917, having disagreed with the Bolsheviks on the issue of the timeliness of the socialist revolution in Russia, he did not pass the re-registration of party members and formally dropped out of it.

Abroad

• 1921 - M. Gorky's departure abroad. A myth developed in Soviet literature that the reason for his departure was the resumption of his illness and the need, at Lenin's insistence, to be treated abroad. In reality, A. M. Gorky was forced to leave because of the aggravation of 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 - the novel "The Artamonov Case".

• 1928 - at the invitation of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, he makes a trip around the country, during which Gorky is shown the achievements of the USSR, which are reflected in the series of essays "On the Soviet Union."
• 1931 - Gorky visits the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp and writes a laudatory review of his regime. A fragment of the work of A. I. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago" is devoted to this fact.

• 1932 - Gorky returns to the Soviet Union. The government provided him with the former Ryabushinsky mansion on Spiridonovka, dachas in Gorki and Teselli (Crimea). Here he receives an order from Stalin - 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 and Plants", "History of the Civil War", "Poet's Library", "History of a Young Man of the 19th Century", the journal "Literary Studies", he writes plays "Egor Bulychev and others" (1932), "Dostigaev and others" (1933).
• 1934 - Gorky "holds" the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, delivers a keynote speech at it.
• 1934 - co-editor of the book "Stalin's Channel"
• In 1925-1936 he wrote the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin", which was never completed.
• 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, the ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. Before cremation, the brain of M. Gorky 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 by many to be "suspicious", there were rumors of poisoning, which, however, were not confirmed. At the funeral, among others, the coffin with the body of Gorky was carried by Molotov and Stalin. Interestingly, among other accusations of Genrikh Yagoda at the so-called Third Moscow Trial in 1938, there was an accusation of poisoning Gorky's son. According to Yagoda's interrogations, Maxim Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, 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), who were accused of killing Gorky and others.

Family

1. First wife - Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova(née Volozhina).
1. Son - Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov (1897-1934) + Vvedenskaya, Nadezhda Alekseevna("Timosha")
1. Peshkova, Marfa Maksimovna + Beria, Sergo Lavrentievich
1. daughters Nina And Hope, son Sergey
2. Peshkova, Daria Maksimovna
2. Second wife - Maria Fedorovna Andreeva(1872-1953; civil marriage)
3. Long-term life partner - Budberg, Maria Ignatievna

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

• 09.1899 - V. A. Posse's apartment in Trofimov's house - Nadezhdinskaya street, 11;
• 02. - spring 1901 - V. A. Posse's apartment 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 - apartment of K. P. Pyatnitsky in an apartment building - Znamenskaya street, 20, apt. 29;
• beginning 03.1914 - autumn 1921 - profitable house of E.K. Barsova - Kronverksky prospect, 23;
• 30.08. - 09/07/1928 - the hotel "European" - Rakov street, 7;
• 18.06. - 07/11/1929 - the hotel "European" - Rakov street, 7;
• end of 09.1931 - hotel "European" - Rakov 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"

Tale

• 1908 - "The life of an unnecessary person."
• 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" (a fairy tale poem, published in July 1917 in the New Life newspaper)
• 1892 - "Makar Chudra"
• 1895 - "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil".
• 1897 - "Former people", "Spouses Orlovs", "Malva", "Konovalov".
• 1898 - "Essays and Stories" (collection)
• 1899 - "Song of the Falcon" (poem in prose), "Twenty-six and one"
• 1901 - "The Song of the Petrel" (poem in prose)
• 1903 - "Man" (poem in prose)
• 1911 - "Tales of Italy"
• 1912-1917 - "In Rus'" (a cycle of stories)
• 1924 - "Stories 1922-1924"
• 1924 - "Notes from a diary" (a cycle of stories)

Plays

Publicism

• 1906 - "My Interviews", "In America" ​​(pamphlets)
• 1917-1918 - a series of articles "Untimely Thoughts" in the newspaper "New Life" (in 1918 came out as a separate edition)
• 1922 - "On the Russian peasantry"

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

Movie incarnations

• Alexei Lyarsky ("Gorky's Childhood", 1938)
• Alexey Lyarsky ("In People", 1938)
• Nikolai Walbert (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 mist, 1965, Incredible Yehudiel Khlamida, 1969, The Kotsiubinsky family, 1970, "Red diplomat", 1971, Trust, 1975, "I am an actress", 1980)
• Valery Poroshin ("The 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 ("Captivity of Passion", 2010)
• Nikolay Svanidze 1907. Maksim 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 district children's library, the drama theater, the street, and the square in the center of which there is a monument to the writer by sculptor V.I. Mukhina bear the name of Gorky. But the most remarkable is the museum-apartment of M. Gorky.
• In 1934, in Voronezh, a Soviet propaganda passenger multi-seat 8-engine aircraft was built at an aviation plant, the largest aircraft of its time with a land chassis - ANT-20 "Maxim Gorky".

• In Moscow, there was Maxim Gorky lane (now Khitrovsky), Maxim Gorky embankment (now Kosmodamianskaya), Maxim Gorky square (formerly Khitrovskaya), Gorkovskaya metro station (now Tverskaya) of the Gorkovsko-Zamoskvoretskaya (now Zamoskvoretskaya) line, Gorky street ( now divided into Tverskaya and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya streets).

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

The great Russian writer Maxim Gorky (Peshkov Alexei Maksimovich) was born on March 16, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod - died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki. At an early age, "went into the people," in his own words. He lived hard, spent the night in the slums among all sorts of rabble, wandered, interrupted by a random piece of bread. He traveled vast territories, visited the Don, Ukraine, the Volga region, South Bessarabia, the Caucasus and the Crimea.

Start

He was actively engaged in social and political activities, for which he was arrested more than once. In 1906 he went abroad, where he began to successfully write his works. By 1910, Gorky gained fame, his work aroused great interest. Earlier, in 1904, critical articles began to appear, and then books "On Gorky". Gorky's works interested politicians and public figures. Some of them believed that the writer was too free to interpret the events taking place in the country. Everything that Maxim Gorky wrote, works for the theater or journalistic essays, short stories or multi-page stories, caused a resonance and was often accompanied by anti-government speeches. During World War I, the writer took an openly anti-militarist position. met the year enthusiastically, and turned his apartment in Petrograd into a turnout for political figures. Often, Maxim Gorky, whose works became more and more topical, spoke with reviews of his own work in order to avoid misinterpretation.

Abroad

In 1921, the writer went abroad for treatment. For three years, Maxim Gorky lived in Helsinki, Prague and Berlin, then moved to Italy and settled in the city of Sorrento. There he took up the publication of his memoirs of Lenin. In 1925 he wrote the novel The Artamonov Case. All Gorky's works of that time were politicized.

Return to Russia

The year 1928 was a turning point for Gorky. At the invitation of Stalin, he returns to Russia and for a month moves from city to city, meets people, gets acquainted with the achievements in industry, observes how socialist construction is developing. Then Maxim Gorky leaves for Italy. However, the following year (1929), the writer again comes to Russia and this time visits the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camps. At the same time, the reviews leave the most positive. Alexander Solzhenitsyn mentioned this trip of Gorky in his novel

The final return of the writer to the Soviet Union took place in October 1932. Since that time, Gorky has been living in the former on Spiridonovka, at a dacha in Gorki, and travels to the Crimea on vacation.

First Congress of Writers

After some time, the writer receives a political order from Stalin, who entrusts him with the preparation of the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers. In the light of this order, Maxim Gorky creates several new newspapers and magazines, publishes book series on the history of Soviet plants and factories, the Civil War and some other events of the Soviet era. Then he wrote plays: "Egor Bulychev and others", "Dostigaev and others". Some of Gorky's works, written earlier, were also used by him in the preparation of the first congress of writers, which took place in August 1934. At the congress, organizational issues were mainly resolved, the leadership of the future Union of Writers of the USSR was chosen, and writers' sections were created by genre. Gorky's works were also ignored at the 1st Congress of Writers, but he was elected chairman of the board. In general, the event was considered successful, and Stalin personally thanked Maxim Gorky for his fruitful work.

Popularity

M. Gorky, whose works for many years caused fierce controversy among the intelligentsia, tried to take part in the discussion of his books and especially theatrical plays. From time to time, the writer visited theaters, where he could see for himself that people were not indifferent to his work. Indeed, for many, the writer M. Gorky, whose works were understandable to the common man, became the conductor of a new life. Theater audience went to the performance several times, read and re-read books.

Gorky's early romantic works

The writer's work can be divided into several categories. Gorky's early works are romantic and even sentimental. They still do not feel the rigidity of political sentiments, which are saturated with later stories and novels of the writer.

The writer's first story "Makar Chudra" is about fleeting gypsy love. Not because it was fleeting because “love came and went”, but because it lasted only one night, without a single touch. Love lived in the soul, not touching the body. And then the death of a girl at the hands of a loved one, the proud gypsy Rada passed away, and after her Loiko Zobar himself - sailed together through the sky, hand in hand.

Amazing plot, incredible storytelling power. The story "Makar Chudra" became for many years the hallmark of Maxim Gorky, firmly taking first place in the list of "Gorky's early works."

The writer worked hard and fruitfully in his youth. Gorky's early romantic works are a cycle of stories whose heroes are Danko, Sokol, Chelkash and others.

A short story about spiritual excellence makes you think. "Chelkash" is a story about a simple person who carries high aesthetic feelings. Escape from home, vagrancy, Meeting of two - one is engaged in the usual business, the other is brought by chance. Envy, distrust, readiness for submissive obedience, fear and servility of Gavrila are opposed to Chelkash's courage, self-confidence, love of freedom. However, society does not need Chelkash, unlike Gavrila. Romantic pathos is intertwined with the tragic. The description of nature in the story is also shrouded in a veil of romance.

In the stories "Makar Chudra", "Old Woman Izergil" and, finally, in "The Song of the Falcon", the motivation for "the madness of the brave" can be traced. The writer puts the characters in difficult conditions and then, without any logic, leads them to the finale. That's why the work of the great writer is interesting, that the narration is unpredictable.

Gorky's work "Old Woman Izergil" consists of several parts. The character of her first story - the son of an eagle and a woman, the sharp-eyed Larra, is presented as an egoist, incapable of high feelings. When he heard the maxim that one inevitably has to pay for what he took, he expressed disbelief, stating that "I would like to remain unharmed." People rejected him, condemning him to loneliness. Larra's pride turned out to be fatal to him.

Danko is no less proud, but he treats people with love. Therefore, he obtains the freedom necessary for his fellow tribesmen who believe him. Despite the threats of those who doubt that he is able to lead the tribe out of the young leader, he continues on his way, dragging people along with him. And when everyone was running out of strength, and the forest did not end, Danko tore his chest, took out a burning heart and lit the path that led them to the clearing with its flame. The ungrateful tribesmen, breaking free, did not even look in the direction of Danko when he fell and died. People ran away, on the run they trampled on the flaming heart, and it scattered into blue sparks.

Gorky's romantic works leave an indelible mark on the soul. Readers empathize with the characters, the unpredictability of the plot keeps them in suspense, and the ending is often unexpected. In addition, Gorky's romantic works are distinguished by deep morality, which is unobtrusive, but makes you think.

The theme of individual freedom dominates in the early work of the writer. The heroes of Gorky's works are freedom-loving and even ready to give their lives for the right to choose their own destiny.

The poem "The Girl and Death" is a vivid example of self-sacrifice in the name of love. A young, full of life girl makes a deal with death for one night of love. She is ready to die without regret in the morning, just to meet her beloved again.

The king, who considers himself omnipotent, dooms the girl to death only because, returning from the war, he was in a bad mood and did not like her happy laugh. Death spared Love, the girl remained alive and "bony with a scythe" already had no power over her.

Romanticism is also present in the "Song of the Petrel". The proud bird is free, it is like a black lightning, rushing between the gray plain of the sea and the clouds hanging over the waves. Let the storm blow harder, the brave bird is ready to fight. And it is important for a penguin to hide his fat body in the rocks, he has a different attitude to the storm - no matter how wet his feathers.

Man in Gorky's works

The special, refined psychologism of Maxim Gorky is present in all his stories, while the personality is always assigned the main role. Even homeless vagrants, the characters of the rooming house, are presented by the writer as respected citizens, despite their plight. The person in Gorky's works is put at the forefront, everything else is secondary - the events described, the political situation, even the actions of state bodies are in the background.

Gorky's story "Childhood"

The writer tells the story of the life of the boy Alyosha Peshkov, as if on his own behalf. The story is sad, begins with the death of the father and ends with the death of the mother. Left an orphan, the boy heard from his grandfather, the day after his mother's funeral: "You are not a medal, you shouldn't hang around my neck ... Go to the people ...". And kicked out.

Thus ends Gorky's Childhood. And in the middle there were several years of living in the house of his grandfather, a lean little old man who used to flog everyone who was weaker than him with rods on Saturdays. And only his grandchildren, who lived in the house, were inferior to the grandfather in strength, and he beat them backhand, putting them on the bench.

Alexei grew up, supported by his mother, and in the house hung a thick fog of enmity between everyone and everyone. The uncles fought among themselves, threatened the grandfather that they would kill him too, the cousins ​​got drunk, and their wives did not have time to give birth. Alyosha tried to make friends with the neighbor boys, but their parents and other relatives were in such a complicated relationship with his grandfather, grandmother and mother that the children could only communicate through a hole in the fence.

"At the bottom"

In 1902, Gorky turned to a philosophical theme. He created a play about people who, by the will of fate, sank to the very bottom of Russian society. Several characters, the inhabitants of the rooming house, the writer described with frightening authenticity. In the center of the story are homeless people on the verge of despair. Someone is thinking about suicide, someone else is hoping for the best. M. Gorky's work "At the Bottom" is a vivid picture of the social and everyday disorder in society, often turning into a tragedy.

The owner of the doss house, Mikhail Ivanovich Kostylev, lives and does not know that his life is constantly under threat. His wife Vasilisa persuades one of the guests - Vaska Pepel - to kill her husband. This is how it ends: the thief Vaska kills Kostylev and goes to prison. The remaining inhabitants of the rooming house continue to live in an atmosphere of drunken revelry and bloody fights.

After some time, a certain Luca appears, a projector and idler. He "floods", how much in vain, conducts lengthy conversations, promises everyone indiscriminately a happy future and complete prosperity. Then Luke disappears, and the unfortunate people he has given hope to are at a loss. There was a severe disappointment. A forty-year-old homeless man, nicknamed the Actor, commits suicide. Others are not far from it either.

Nochlezhka, as a symbol of the dead end of Russian society at the end of the 19th century, is an undisguised ulcer of the social structure.

Creativity of Maxim Gorky

• "Makar Chudra" - 1892. A story about love and tragedy.
• "Grandfather Arkhip and Lenka" - 1893. A beggar sick old man and with him his grandson Lenka, a teenager. First, the grandfather cannot stand the hardships and dies, then the grandson dies. Good people buried the unfortunate by the road.
• "Old Woman Izergil" - 1895. A few stories of an old woman about selfishness and selflessness.
• "Chelkash" - 1895. A story about "an inveterate drunkard and a clever, bold thief."
• "Spouses Orlov" - 1897. A story about a childless couple who decided to help sick people.
• "Konovalov" - 1898. The story of how Alexander Ivanovich Konovalov, arrested for vagrancy, hanged himself in a prison cell.
• "Foma Gordeev" - 1899. The story of the events of the late XIX century, taking place in the Volga city. About a boy named Foma, who considered his father a fabulous robber.
• "Philistines" - 1901. A Tale of Petty-bourgeois Roots and a New Trend of the Times.
• "At the bottom" - 1902. A sharp topical play about homeless people who have lost all hope.
• "Mother" - 1906. A novel on the theme of revolutionary moods in society, about the events taking place within the limits of a manufactory, with the participation of members of the same family.
• "Vassa Zheleznova" - 1910. A play about a youthful 42-year-old woman, the owner of a steamship company, strong and powerful.
• "Childhood" - 1913. The story of a simple boy and his far from simple life.
• "Tales of Italy" - 1913. A series of short stories on the theme of life in Italian cities.
• "Passion-face" - 1913. A short story about a deeply unhappy family.
• "In people" - 1914. A story about an errand boy in a fashionable shoe store.
• "My Universities" - 1923. Tale of Kazan University and students.
• "Blue Life" - 1924. A story about dreams and fantasies.
• "The Artamonov Case" - 1925. The story of the events taking place at the woven fabric factory.
• "Life of Klim Samgin" - 1936. Events of the early XX century - St. Petersburg, Moscow, barricades.

Each read story, story or novel leaves an impression of high literary skill. Characters carry a number of unique features and characteristics. An analysis of Gorky's works involves comprehensive characterizations of the characters, followed by a summary. The depth of the narrative is organically combined with difficult, but understandable literary devices. All the works of the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky are included in the Golden Fund of Russian Culture.

Russian Soviet writer, playwright, publicist and public figure, founder of socialist realism.

Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in the family of a cabinetmaker Maxim Savvatevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Orphaned at an early age, the future writer spent his childhood in the house of his maternal grandfather, Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin (d. 1887).

In 1877-1879, A. M. Peshkov studied at the Nizhny Novgorod Sloboda Kunavinsky Primary School. After the death of his mother and the ruin of his grandfather, he was forced to leave his studies and go "to the people." In 1879-1884 he was an apprentice shoemaker, then - in a drawing workshop, after - in an icon painting. He served on a steamer that sailed along the Volga.

In 1884, A. M. Peshkov made an attempt to enter Kazan University, which ended in failure due to lack of funds. He became close to the revolutionary underground, participated in illegal populist circles, conducted propaganda among the workers and peasants. At the same time he was engaged in self-education. In December 1887, a streak of life failures almost led the future writer to suicide.

A. M. Peshkov spent 1888-1891 wandering around in search of work and impressions. He traveled around the Volga region, Don, Ukraine, Crimea, South Bessarabia, the Caucasus, managed to be a farm laborer in the village and a dishwasher, work in the fish and salt mines, as a watchman on the railway and as a worker in repair shops. Clashes with the police earned him a reputation for being "unreliable." At the same time, he managed to make the first contacts with the creative environment (in particular, with the writer V. G. Korolenko).

On September 12, 1892, the story of A. M. Peshkov “Makar Chudra” was published in the Tiflis newspaper “Kavkaz”, signed with the pseudonym “Maxim Gorky”.

The formation of A. M. Gorky as a writer took place with the active participation of V. G. Korolenko, who recommended the new author to publishers, corrected his manuscript. In 1893-1895, a number of the writer's stories were published in the Volga press - "Chelkash", "Revenge", "Old Woman Izergil", "Emelyan Pilyai", "Conclusion", "Song of the Falcon", etc.

In 1895-1896, A. M. Gorky was an employee of the Samarskaya Gazeta, where he wrote feuilletons daily under the heading “By the way,” signing with the pseudonym “Yehudiel Khlamida”. In 1896 - 1897 he worked in the newspaper "Nizhny Novgorod Leaf".

In 1898, the first collection of works by Maxim Gorky, Essays and Stories, was published in two volumes. It was recognized by critics as an event in Russian and European literature. In 1899, the writer began work on the novel Foma Gordeev.

A. M. Gorky quickly became one of the most popular Russian writers. He met with,. Neo-realist writers began to rally around A. M. Gorky (, L. N. Andreev).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, A. M. Gorky turned to dramaturgy. In 1902, his plays "At the Bottom" and "Petty Bourgeois" were staged at the Moscow Art Theater. The performances were an exceptional success and were accompanied by anti-government speeches of the public.

In 1902, A. M. Gorky was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature, but by personal order, the election results were annulled. In protest, V. G. Korolenko also refused their titles of honorary academicians.

A. M. Gorky was arrested more than once for social and political activities. The writer took an active part in the events of the Revolution of 1905-1907. For the proclamation on January 9 (22), 1905, with a call to overthrow the autocracy, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress (released under pressure from the world community). In the summer of 1905, A. M. Gorky joined the RSDLP, in November of the same year he met with at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. His novel "Mother" (1906) received a great response, in which the writer depicted the process of the birth of a "new man" in the course of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat.

In 1906-1913, A. M. Gorky lived in exile. He spent most of his time on the Italian island of Capri. Here he wrote many works: the plays "The Last", "Vassa Zheleznova", the novel "Summer", "The Town of Okurov", the novel "The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin". In April 1907, the writer was a delegate to the 5th (London) Congress of the RSDLP. He visited A. M. Gorky on Capri.

In 1913, A. M. Gorky returned to. In 1913-1915, he wrote the autobiographical novels "Childhood" and "In People", since 1915 the writer published the magazine "Chronicle". During these years, the writer collaborated in the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, as well as in the Enlightenment magazine.

A. M. Gorky welcomed the February and October revolutions of 1917. He began working at the publishing house "World Literature", founded the newspaper "New Life". However, his differences of opinion with the new government gradually increased. The journalistic cycle of A. M. Gorky “Untimely Thoughts” (1917-1918) caused sharp criticism.

In 1921, A. M. Gorky left the Soviet for treatment abroad. In 1921-1924 the writer lived in Germany and Czechoslovakia. His journalistic activity during these years was aimed at uniting Russian artists abroad. In 1923, he wrote the novel My Universities. Since 1924 the writer lived in Sorrento (Italy). In 1925, he began work on the epic novel The Life of Klim Samgin, which remained unfinished.

In 1928 and 1929, A. M. Gorky visited the USSR at the invitation of the Soviet government and personally. His impressions of traveling around the country were reflected in the books "On the Union of Soviets" (1929). In 1931, the writer finally returned to his homeland and launched a wide literary and social activity. On his initiative, literary magazines and book publishing houses were created, book series were published (The Life of Remarkable People, The Poet's Library, etc.)

In 1934, A. M. Gorky acted as the organizer and chairman of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. In 1934-1936 he headed the Writers' Union of the USSR.

A. M. Gorky died on June 18, 1936 at a dacha in Pod (now in). The writer is buried in the Kremlin wall behind the Mausoleum on Red Square.

In the USSR, A. M. Gorky was considered the founder of the literature of socialist realism and the founder of Soviet literature.

Real name Peshkov Alexei Maksimovich (1868), prose writer, playwright, publicist.

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.

At the age of eleven, having become an orphan, he began to work, replacing many "owners": a messenger at a shoe store, a cookware on steamboats, 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 of studying at the university, but very soon he realized the whole unreality of such a plan. Started to work. Later, Gorky would 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 to the 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 the workers and peasants (with the populist M. Romas in the village of Krasnovidovo). Since 1888, Gorky's wanderings around Russia began in order to get to know her better and get to know the life of the people better.

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

Since 1892, having returned to Nizhny Novgorod, he took up literary work, publishing in the Volga newspapers. Since 1895, Gorky's stories appeared in the capital's magazines, in the "Samarskaya Gazeta" he became known as a feuilletonist, speaking under the pseudonym Yehudiel Khlamida. In 1898, Gorky's Essays and Stories were published, which made him widely known in Russia. He works hard, quickly growing into a great artist, an innovator, able to lead. His romantic stories called for struggle, brought up heroic optimism ("Old Woman Izergil", "Song of the Falcon", "Song of the Petrel").

In 1899, the novel Foma Gordeev was published, which put Gorky in the ranks of world-class writers. In the autumn of this year, he arrived in St. Petersburg, where he met Mikhailovsky and Veresaev, with Repin; later in Moscow S.L. Tolstoy, L. Andreev, A. Chekhov, I. Bunin, A. Kuprin and other writers. He agrees with 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 a student demonstration.

In 1901 1902 he wrote his first plays, The Petty Bourgeoisie and At the Bottom, which were staged at the Moscow Art Theatre. In 1904, the plays "Summer Residents", "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians".

In the revolutionary events of 1905, Gorky 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 helping with money and weapons during the Moscow December armed uprising, Gorky was 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 autumn. Pamphlets "My Interviews" and essays "In America" ​​were written here.

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

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

After the February Revolution, Gorky participated in the publication of the New Life newspaper, 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 saving the nation: "The Russian intelligentsia must again take on the great work of spiritual healing of the people."

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

In 1921, at the insistence of Lenin, Gorky went abroad for treatment (tuberculosis resumed). First he lived in the resorts of Germany and Czechoslovakia, then moved to Italy in Sorrento. He continues to work hard: he completed the trilogy "My Universities" ("Childhood" and "In People" came out 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 dramaturgy: Yegor Bulychev and Others (1932), Dostigaev and Others (1933).

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