unknown facts from the life of Gorky. April 19th, 2009
There were many mysteries in Gorky. For example, he did not feel physical pain, but at the same time he experienced someone else's pain so painfully that when he described the scene of a woman being stabbed, a huge scar swelled on his body. From a young age he suffered from tuberculosis and smoked 75 cigarettes a day. He tried several times to commit suicide, and each time he was saved by an unknown force, for example, in 1887, he deflected a bullet aimed at the heart by a millimeter from the target. He could drink as much alcohol as he wanted and never got drunk. In 1936 he died twice, on June 9 and 18. On June 9, the already practically dead writer was wonderfully revived by the arrival of Stalin, who came to Gorky's dacha in Gorki near Moscow in order to say goodbye to the deceased.
On the same day, Gorky arranged a strange vote of relatives and friends, asking them: should he die or not? In fact, he controlled the process of his dying ...
Gorky's life is an amazing carnival that ended tragically. The question still remains unresolved: whether Gorky died a natural death or was killed on Stalin's orders. The last days and hours of Gorky are filled with some kind of horror. Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov drank champagne near the bedside of the dying Russian writer. Nizhny Novgorod friend of Gorky, and then a political emigrant Ekaterina Kuskova wrote: "But they also stood over the silent writer with a candle day and night ..."
Leo Tolstoy at first mistook Gorky for a peasant and spoke obscenities to him, but then he realized that he had made a big mistake. “I can’t treat Gorky sincerely, I don’t know why myself, but I can’t,” he complained to Chekhov. “Gorky is an evil person. and reports everything to some kind of his god.
Gorky paid the intelligentsia in the same coin. In letters to I. Repin and Tolstoy, he sang hymns in praise of Man: "I don't know anything better, harder, more interesting than a person..."; "I deeply believe that better than a man there is nothing on earth ... "And at the same time he wrote to his wife:" It would be better if I did not see all this bastard, all these pathetic, little people ..." (this is about those who in St. Petersburg raised their glasses in his honor (Yes, and who is his wife, an NKVD agent?)
He passed Luka, a crafty wanderer,” wrote the poet Vladislav Khodasevich. This is just as true as the fact that he was a wanderer always and everywhere, being connected and in correspondence with Lenin, Chekhov, Bryusov, Rozanov, Morozov, Gapon, Bunin, Artsybashev, Gippius, Mayakovsky, Panferov, realists, symbolists, priests, Bolsheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, monarchists, Zionists, anti-Semites, terrorists, academicians, collective farmers, GEP workers and all people on this sinful earth. "Gorky did not live, but examined ... ." - said Viktor Shklovsky.
Everyone saw in him "Gorky", not a person, but a character that he himself invented while in Tiflis in 1892, when he signed his first story "Makar Chudra" with this pseudonym
A contemporary of the writer, emigrant I.D. Surguchev seriously believed that Gorky once made a pact with the devil - the same one that Christ refused in the wilderness. "And to him, average in general writer, a success was given that neither Pushkin, nor Gogol, nor Leo Tolstoy, nor Dostoevsky knew during their lifetime. He had everything: fame, money, and female sly love. "Maybe it's true. Only this is not our business.
Pundits on his planet, after reading the report on the trip, nevertheless asked:
- Did you see the man?
- Saw!
- What is he?
- Oh-oh... That sounds proud!
- What does it look like?
And he drew a strange figure in the air with his wing.
Gorky was married to Ekaterina Pavlovna Volzhina, in marriage - Peshkova (1876-1965; public figure, employee of the International Red Cross).
Son - Maxim Maksimovich Peshkov (1896-1934). His sudden death explained, like Gorky's death, by poisoning.
The adopted son of Gorky, whose godfather he was - Zinovy \u200b\u200bMikhailovich Peshkov - General French army, brother of Ya. Sverdlov).
Among the women who enjoyed Gorky's special favor was Maria Ignatievna Budberg (1892-1974), a baroness, nee Countess Zakrevskaya, by her first marriage, Benkendorf. Lev Nikulin writes about her in his memoirs; “When we are asked who Klim Samgin is dedicated to, who Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya is, we think that her portrait stood on Gorky’s table until his last days” (Moscow. 1966. N 2). She was with him and in the last hours of his life. A photograph has been preserved where Budberg, next to Stalin, walks behind the coffin of Gorky. It was she, who, fulfilling the task of the GPU, brought Gorky's Italian archive to Stalin, which contained what Stalin was especially interested in - Gorky's correspondence with Bukharin, Rykov and other Soviet figures who, having escaped from the USSR on a business trip, bombarded Gorky with letters about the atrocities of "the wisest and greatest" (about Budberg, see: Berberova N. Iron Woman. New York, 1982).
http://belsoch.exe.by/bio2/04_16.shtml
The common-law wife of M. Grky was also Maria Andreeva.
YURKOVSKAYA MARIA FYODOROVNA (ANDREEVA, ZHELYABUZHSKAYA, PHENOMENON) 1868-1953 Born in St. Petersburg. Actress. On stage since 1886, in 1898-1905 at the Moscow Art Theater. Roles: Rautendelein ("The Drowned Bell" by G. Hauptmann, 1898), Natasha ("At the Bottom" by M. Gorky, 1902), etc. In 1904 she joined the Bolsheviks. Publisher of the Bolshevik newspaper "New Life" (1905). In 1906 she married an official Zhelyabuzhsky, but later became civil wife Maxim Gorky and emigrated with him. In 1913 she returned to Moscow after breaking off relations with Gorky. Resumed acting work in Ukraine. Participated together with M. Gorky and A. A. Blok in the creation of the Bolshoi drama theater(Petrograd, 1919), until 1926 an actress of this theater. Commissioner of theaters and spectacles of Petrograd (in 1919-1921), director of the Moscow House of Scientists (in 1931-1948).
With what did Gorky come to our world?
In 1895, almost simultaneously, he published in Samarskaya Gazeta the romantic tale "About the Little Fairy and the Young Shepherd", the famous "Old Woman Izergil" and the realistic story "On the Salt", dedicated to describing the hard work of tramps in the salt mines. Patterned, colorful bright colors textile artistic narrative in the first two works, it does not harmonize in any way with the mundane everyday depiction of tramps, in one of which the author himself is guessed. The text of the story "On the salt" is replete with rude cruel images, common speech, abuse, conveying feelings of pain and resentment, "senseless rage" of people brought to complete stupefaction in salt hard labor. Romantically colored landscape in "Old Woman Izergil" ("dark blue patches of the sky, decorated with golden specks of stars"), the harmony of colors and sounds, amazing beautiful heroes legends about a little fairy (the shepherd does not resemble a Wallachian shepherd, but biblical prophet) create sunny fairy tale about love and freedom. The story "On the Salt" also describes the sea, the sky, the shore of the estuary, but the color of the story is completely different: unbearably scorching heat, cracked gray earth, red-brown grass like blood, women and men swarming like worms in greasy mud. Instead of a solemn symphony of sounds - the squeal of wheelbarrows, rude and angry abuse, groans and "dreary protest".
Larra is the son of a woman and an eagle. His mother brought him to people in the hope that he would live happily among his kind. Larra was the same as everyone else, "only his eyes were cold and proud, like those of the king of birds." The young man did not respect anyone, did not listen to anyone, behaved arrogantly and proudly. There was both strength and beauty in him, but he repelled him with pride and coldness. Larra behaved among people, as animals behave in a herd, where everything is allowed to the strongest. He kills the "obstinate" girl right in front of the whole tribe, not knowing that by doing so he signs a sentence for himself to be rejected for the rest of his life. Angry people decided that: “The punishment for him is in himself!” They let him go, gave him freedom.
the theme of an ungrateful, capricious crowd, because people, having fallen into the thickest darkness of the forest and swamp swamps, attacked Danko with reproaches and threats. They called him "an insignificant and harmful person", they decided to kill him. However, the young man forgave the people for their anger and unfair reproaches. He tore out his heart from his chest, which burned with a bright fire of love for these same people, and lit the way for them: “It (the heart) burned as brightly as the sun, and brighter than the sun, and the whole forest fell silent, lit by this great torch love for people...
Danko and Larra are antipodes, they are both young, strong and beautiful. But Larra is a slave to his egoism, and this makes him lonely and rejected by everyone. Danko lives for people, therefore he is truly immortal.
The falcon is a symbol of a fearless fighter: "We sing glory to the madness of the brave." And Already is a symbol of a cautious and sensible man in the street. The images of cowardly loons, a penguin and seagulls are allegorical, which frantically rush about, trying to hide from reality and its changes.
Chudra says: “You have chosen a glorious fate for yourself, falcon. That’s the way it should be: go and look, you’ve seen enough, lie down and die - that’s all!”
Izergil lives among people, looking for human love ready for her heroic deeds. Why is the ugliness of her old age so cruelly emphasized by the writer? She is “almost a shadow” - this is associated with the shadow of Larra. Apparently, because her way is life strong man but lived for himself.
“... O brave Falcon! In a battle with enemies you bled to death... But there will be time - and drops of your hot blood, like sparks, will flare up in the darkness of life and will light many brave hearts with an insane thirst for freedom, light! .. We sing a song to the madness of the brave! .. "
For him, a fact, a case from reality, was always important. He was hostile to the human imagination, he did not understand fairy tales.
Russian writers of the 19th century were mostly his personal enemies: He hated Dostoevsky, despised Gogol as a sick person, he laughed at Turgenev.
His personal enemies were the Kamenev family.
- Trotsky's sister, Olga Kameneva (Bronstein) - the wife of Lev Kamenev (Rozenfeld Lev Borisovich), who headed the Moscow Soviet from 1918 to 1924, a former member of the Politburo of the Central Committee. But the most interesting thing is that until December 1934 (before his arrest), Lev Kamenev was the director of the Institute of World Literature. M. Gorky (?!).
Olga Kameneva was in charge of the theatrical department of the People's Commissariat of Education. In February 1920, she told Khodasevich: “I am surprised how you can get to know Gorky. All he does is cover up scammers - and he himself is a scammer. If not for Vladimir Ilyich, he would have been in prison long ago! Gorky had a long acquaintance with Lenin. Nevertheless, it was Lenin who advised Gorky to leave new Russia.
Having gone abroad in 1921, Gorky, in a letter to V. Khodasevich, sharply criticized N. Krupskaya's circular about the removal from Soviet libraries for the mass reader of the works of Plato, Kant, Schopenhauer, V. Solovyov, L. Tolstoy and others.
One of the many testimonies that Gorky was poisoned by Stalin, and perhaps the most convincing, although indirect, belongs to B. Gerland and was published in No. 6 of the Socialist Bulletin in 1954. B. Gerland was a Gulag prisoner in Vorkuta and worked in the barracks of the camp together with Professor Pletnev, also exiled. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Gorky, later replaced by 25 years in prison. She recorded his story: “We treated Gorky for heart disease, but he suffered not so much physically as morally: he did not stop tormenting himself with self-reproach. He no longer had anything to breathe in the USSR, he passionately longed back to Italy. The Kremlin was most afraid of the famous writer's open speech against his regime, and, as always, he came up with an effective remedy at the right time. who loved to treat his visitors. This time he generously gave sweets to two orderlies who worked with him, and he himself ate some sweets. An hour later, all three began excruciating stomach pains, and an hour later death occurred. An autopsy was immediately performed. Result "He lived up to our worst fears. All three died of the poison."
Long before Gorky's death, Stalin tried to make him his political ally. Those who knew Gorky's incorruptibility could imagine how hopeless the task was. But Stalin never believed in human incorruptibility. On the contrary, he often pointed out to the NKVD officers that in their activities they should proceed from the fact that incorruptible people do not exist at all. Everyone has their own price.
Under the influence of these appeals, Gorky returned to Moscow. From that moment on, a program of appeasing him, sustained in the Stalinist style, began to operate. At his disposal were given a mansion in Moscow and two comfortable villas - one in the Moscow region, the other in the Crimea. The supply of the writer and his family with everything necessary was entrusted to the same department of the NKVD, which was responsible for providing for Stalin and the members of the Politburo. For trips to the Crimea and abroad, Gorky was allocated a specially equipped railway car. On Stalin's instructions, Yagoda (Enoch Gershonovich Yehuda) sought to catch Gorky's slightest desires on the fly and fulfill them. Around his villas, his favorite flowers were planted, specially delivered from abroad. He smoked special cigarettes ordered for him in Egypt. On demand, any book from any country was delivered to him. Gorky, by nature a modest and moderate person, tried to protest against the defiant luxury that surrounded him, but he was told that Maxim Gorky was alone in the country.
Along with concern for Gorky's material well-being, Stalin instructed Yagoda to "re-educate" him. It was necessary to convince the old writer that Stalin was building real socialism and was doing everything in his power to raise the standard of living of the working people.
He participated in the work of the so-called association of proletarian writers, headed by Averbakh, who was married to Yagoda's niece.
IN famous book"The Stalin Canal", written by a group of writers led by Maxim Gorky, who visited the White Sea Canal, tells, in particular, about the gathering of the builders of the canal - Chekists and prisoners - in August 1933. M. Gorky also spoke there. He said excitedly, “I am happy, overwhelmed. Since 1928, I have been looking closely at how the OGPU re-educates people. You have done a great job, a great job!”
Completely isolated from the people, he moved along the conveyor organized for him by Yagoda, in the constant company of Chekists and several young writers who collaborated with the NKVD. Everyone who surrounded Gorky was made to tell him about the miracles of socialist construction and sing praises to Stalin. Even the gardener and cook assigned to the writer knew that from time to time they had to tell him that they "just" received a letter from their village relatives who report that life there is getting more and more beautiful.
Stalin was impatient for a popular Russian writer to immortalize his name. He decided to shower Gorky with royal gifts and honors and thus influence the content and, so to speak, the tone of the future book.
Sun. Vishnevsky was at Gorky's banquet and says that it even mattered who was further and who was closer to Gorky. He says that this spectacle was so disgusting that Pasternak could not stand it and ran away from the middle of the banquet.
They boast that there has never been slavery in Russia, that she immediately stepped into feudalism. Pardon me, Russia has not stepped anywhere. All attempts to reform the social order burned down in slave psychology, so convenient for the bureaucratic-feudal state ...
In a short time, Gorky received such honors that the greatest writers of the world could not even dream of. Stalin ordered to name a large industrial center after Gorky - Nizhny Novgorod. Accordingly, all Nizhny Novgorod Region renamed Gorkovskaya. Gorky's name was given to the Moscow Art Theatre, which, by the way, was founded and gained worldwide fame thanks to Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, and not Gorky.
The Council of People's Commissars by a special resolution noted his great services to Russian literature. Several businesses have been named after him. The Moscow City Council decided to rename the main street of Moscow - Tverskaya - into Gorky Street.
The famous French writer, Russian by origin, Victor Serge, who stayed in Russia until 1936, in his diary, published in 1949 in the Parisian magazine Le Tan Modern, spoke about his recent meetings with Gorky:
“I once met him on the street,” writes Serge, “and was shocked by his appearance. He was unrecognizable - it was a skeleton. He wrote official articles, really disgusting, justifying the trials of the Bolsheviks. But in an intimate setting he grumbled. He spoke with bitterness and contempt about the present, entered into or almost entered into conflicts with Stalin. Serge also said that Gorky cried at night.
In Russia, Gorky lost his son, perhaps skillfully groomed by Yagoda, who liked Maxim's wife. There is a suspicion that Kryuchkov killed Maxim on behalf of Yagoda. From Kryuchkov’s confession: “I asked what I need to do. To this he answered me:“ Eliminate Maxim. ”Yagoda said that he should be given as much alcohol as possible and then he should have caught a cold. Kryuchkov, according to him, did this When it turned out that Maxim had pneumonia, they did not listen to Professor Speransky, but listened to Dr. Levin and Vinogradov (not brought to trial), who gave Maxim champagne, then a laxative, which hastened his death.
In the last years of his life, Gorky became a dangerous burden for the Soviet government. He was forbidden to leave Moscow, Gorki and the Crimea when he traveled south.
As a sample" socialist realism", government critics usually point to Gorky's story "Mother", written by him in 1906. But Gorky himself in 1933 told his old friend and biographer V. A. Desnitsky that "Mother" was "long, boring and carelessly written." And in a letter to Fyodor Gladkov, he wrote: "Mother" is a book, really only a bad one, written in a state of vehemence and irritation.
“After Gorky’s death, the NKVD officers found carefully hidden notes in his papers. When Yagoda finished reading these notes, he cursed and said: "No matter how you feed the wolf, he keeps looking into the forest."
« Untimely Thoughts”- this is a series of articles by M. Gorky, published in 1917-1918 in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, where he, in particular, wrote: “Rumors are spreading more and more persistently that on October 20 there will be a“ performance of the Bolsheviks ”- in other words: the disgusting scenes of July 3-5 can be repeated ... An unorganized crowd will crawl out into the street, poorly understanding what it wants, and, hiding behind it, adventurers, thieves, professional killers will begin to “create the history of the Russian revolution” ”(emphasis mine. - In .B.).
After October revolution Gorky wrote: “Lenin, Trotsky and those accompanying them have already been poisoned by the rotten poison of power ... The working class must know that hunger awaits it, the complete breakdown of industry, the destruction of transport, a long bloody anarchy ...”.
“Imagining themselves as Napoleons from socialism, the Leninists tear and rush, completing the destruction of Russia - the Russian people will pay for this with lakes of blood.”
“To frighten with terror and pogrom people who do not want to participate in the frantic dance of Mr. Trotsky over the ruins of Russia is shameful and criminal.”
“People's commissars treat Russia as a material for experiment, the Russian people for them are the horse into which bacteriologists inoculate typhus so that the horse develops anti-typhoid serum in its blood. It is precisely such a cruel and doomed to failure experiment that the commissars perform on the Russian people, not thinking that the exhausted, half-starved horse can die.
At Lubyanka, the investigator was summoned to the office one at a time. Each signed a non-disclosure agreement. Everyone was warned that if he let out even one word, at least to his own wife, he would be immediately liquidated along with his entire family.
The notebook found in the mansion on Povarskaya Street was M. Gorky's diary. Full text This diary was read only by the most responsible NKVD officer, by some of the Politburo and, of course, by Stalin.
Stalin, puffing on his pipe, was sorting through photographs of pages from Gorky's diary lying in front of him. He fixed his heavy gaze on one.
“An idle mechanic calculated that if an ordinary vile flea is increased hundreds of times, then the most scary beast on a land that no one else would be able to control. With modern great technique a giant flea can be seen in the cinema. But the monstrous grimaces of history are sometimes created in real world such exaggerations ... Stalin is such a flea that Bolshevik propaganda and the hypnosis of fear have increased to incredible proportions.
On the same day, June 18, 1936, Genrikh Yagoda went to Gorki, where Maxim Gorky was being treated for influenza, accompanied by several of his henchmen, including a mysterious woman in black. The People's Commissar of the NKVD looked at Alexei Maksimovich for a short time, but the woman, according to eyewitnesses, spent more than forty minutes at the writer's bedside ...
It's been a day solar eclipse.
On the morning of June 19, a mournful message was placed in Soviet newspapers: the great proletarian writer Alexei Maksimovich Gorky died of pneumonia.
But here is other evidence. During last illness Gorky, M.I. Budberg was on duty at Gorky’s deathbed and, together with other people close to him (P.P. Kryuchkov, nurse O.D. Chertkova, his last affection), was an eyewitness to the last moments of his life. Particularly difficult for her were the night hours of duty, when Gorky often woke up and was tormented by attacks of suffocation. All these observations of M.I. Budberg are confirmed by the memoirs of E.P. Peshkova, P.P. Kryuchkov and M.I. Budberg herself, which were recorded by A.N. Tikhonov, a friend and colleague of Gorky, immediately after the death of the writer.
Whether it really was so or not (there are many versions of what Gorky died from, and the above is just one of them), we will probably never know.
MARIA Ignatievna Budberg, nee Zakrevskaya, by her first marriage, Countess Benckendorff, a truly legendary woman, an adventurer and a double (and maybe triple, even German intelligence) agent of the GPU and British intelligence, the mistress of Lockhart and Herbert Wells.
Being the mistress of the English envoy, Lockhart, she came to him for the family's departure documents. But while she was in the capital, bandits attacked her estate in Estonia and killed her husband. But the Chekists found Moura herself in bed with Lockhart and escorted her to the Lubyanka. The accusations were clearly not groundless, since the head of the English mission Lockhart himself rushed to rescue the countess. He failed to rescue the agent-mistress, and he himself fell under arrest.
Most likely, it was not beauty (Maria Ignatievna was not a beauty in the full sense of the word), but Zakrevskaya's wayward character and independence that captivated Gorky. But in general, her energy potential was huge and immediately attracted men to her. At first he took her to his literary secretary. But very soon, despite big difference aged (she was 24 years younger than the writer), offered her a hand and a heart. Maria did not want to officially marry the petrel of the revolution, or maybe she did not receive a blessing for marriage from her "godparents" from the NKVD, however, be that as it may, for 16 years she remained Gorky's common-law wife.
Agents of the NKVD, and specifically, the well-known Yagoda, allegedly bring her to the dying writer. Moura removes the nurse from the room, declaring that she will prepare the medicine herself (by the way, she never studied medicine). The nurse sees how Mura dilutes some liquid in a glass and gives the writer a drink, and then hurriedly leaves, accompanied by Yagoda. The nurse, peeping behind her through the crack of the half-open door, rushes to the patient and notices that the glass from which Gorky drank the medicine has disappeared from the writer's table. So Moura took it with her. 20 minutes after her departure, Gorky dies. But this is most likely another legend.
Although the NKVD did indeed have a huge secret laboratory engaged in the manufacture of poisons, this project was supervised by Yagoda, a former pharmacist. In addition, it is necessary to recall one more episode: a few days before Gorky's death, he was sent a box of chocolates, which the writer loved very much. Not eating them, Gorky treats two orderlies caring for him. A few minutes later, the orderlies show signs of poisoning and die. Subsequently, the death of these orderlies will become one of the main points of indictment in the "doctors' case", when Stalin accuses the doctors who treated the writer of killing him.
In Russia, people are buried according to seven categories, Kipnis joked. - The seventh is when the deceased himself controls the horse that carries him to the cemetery.
Leon Trotsky, who was well versed in the Stalinist climate prevailing in Moscow, wrote:
“Gorky was neither a conspirator nor a politician. He was a kind and sensitive old man, protective of the weak, sensitive Protestant. During the famine and the first two five-year plans, when general indignation threatened the authorities, repressions exceeded all limits ... Gorky, who enjoyed influence at home and abroad, could not endure the liquidation of the old Bolsheviks, prepared by Stalin. Gorky would have immediately protested, his voice would have been heard, and the Stalinist trials of the so-called "conspirators" would have turned out to be unfulfilled. It would also be absurd to attempt to prescribe silence to Gorky. His arrest, deportation or open liquidation was even more unthinkable. There was only one possibility: to hasten his death with poison, without shedding blood. The Kremlin dictator saw no other way out.”
But Trotsky himself could have desired the removal of a writer who knew too much and was unpleasant to him for family reasons.
In his book Vladimir Lenin, published in Leningrad in 1924, on page 23, Gorky wrote about Lenin:
“I often heard him praise his comrades. And even about those who, according to rumors, did not seem to enjoy his personal sympathies. Surprised by his assessment of one of these comrades, I noticed that for many this assessment would have seemed unexpected. “Yes, yes, I know,” said Lenin. - There's something lying about my relationship with him. They lie a lot and even especially a lot about me and Trotsky. Hitting the table with his hand, Lenin said: “But they would point out another person who is capable of organizing an almost exemplary army in a year and even gaining the respect of military specialists. We have such a person!”
All this was thrown out by the editors of the posthumous edition of Gorky's collected works, and instead they inserted the following gag: “But still, not ours! With us, not ours! Ambitious. And there is something bad in him, from Lassalle. This was not in the book written by Gorky in 1924, shortly after Lenin's death, and published in the same year in Leningrad.
Gorky's book on Lenin ended (in 1924) with these words:
“In the end, the honest and truthful, created by man, wins, that without which there is no man wins.”
In the collected works of Gorky, these words of his were thrown out, and instead of them, the party editors entered the following gag: “Vladimir Lenin is dead. The heirs of his mind and will are alive. They are alive and working as successfully as no one has ever worked anywhere in the world.”
Nadya Vvedenskaya is married to her father's intern Dr. Sinichkin. Around - nine brothers of the young bride... The wedding night. As soon as the groom approached the bride, at the moment when they were alone in the room, she ... jumped out the window and ran away to Maxim Peshkov, her first love ...
Nadia met the son of Maxim Gorky in the last grade of the gymnasium, when one day she came to the skating rink with her friends. Maxim immediately struck her with boundless kindness and equally boundless irresponsibility. They didn't get married right away.
After October and the Civil War, Maxim Peshkov was going to the Italian shores, to his father. And then Lenin gave Maxim Peshkov an important party assignment: to explain to his father the meaning of the "great proletarian revolution" - which the great proletarian writer took for an immoral massacre.
Together with her son Gorky, in 1922 Nadezhda Vvedenskaya also went abroad. They got married in Berlin. The Peshkovs' daughters were born already in Italy: Marfa - in Sorrento, Daria two years later - in Naples. But family life young spouses did not work out. The writer Vladislav Khodasevich recalled: “Maxim was then about thirty years old, but by nature it was difficult to give him more than thirteen.”
In Italy, Nadezhda Alekseevna discovered her husband's strong addiction to strong drinks and women. However, here he followed in the footsteps of his father ...
great writer did not hesitate there, in Italy, to show all sorts of signs of attention to Varvara Sheikevich, the wife of Andrey Diderikhs. She was an amazing woman. After the break with Gorky, Varvara alternately became the wife of the publisher A. Tikhonov and the artist Z. Grzhebin. Gorky courted V. Sheikevich in the presence of his second wife, actress Maria Andreeva. Of course, my wife was crying. However, Alexei Maksimovich was also crying. In fact, he loved to cry. But in fact, Gorky's wife at that time was a well-known adventurer associated with the Chekists, Maria Benkendorf, who, after the writer left for her homeland, married another writer, Herbert Wells.
Maria Andreeva was not going to lag behind her husband - a "traitor". She made her lover Pyotr Kryuchkov, Gorky's assistant, who was 21 years her junior. In 1938, P. Kryuchkov, who was undoubtedly an agent of the OGPU, was accused of "villainous killing" of Gorky and shot.
Before Kryuchkov, Andreeva's lovers were a certain Yakov Lvovich Izrailevich. Upon learning of his unexpected resignation, he did not find anything better than to beat his opponent, driving him under the table. The situation that prevailed in the family is also evidenced by the following fact: the mother of M. Andreeva committed suicide, having previously gouged out the eyes of her granddaughter Katya in the portrait.
Gerling-Grudzinsky in the article “Seven Deaths of Maxim Gorky” draws attention to the fact that “there is no reason to believe the indictment of the 1938 trial, which said that Yagoda decided - partly for political, partly for personal reasons (it was known that he was in love to Nadezhda) - to send Maxim Peshkov to the next world.
The daughter of Nadezhda Alekseevna - Marfa Maksimovna Peshkova - was a friend of the daughter of I.V. Stalin Svetlana and became the wife of Sergo Lavrentievich Beria (son of Lavrenty Pavlovich).
Well, Gorky and Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov knew each other from Nizhny Novgorod. In 1902, the son of Yakov Sverdlov, Zinovy, converted to Orthodoxy, Gorky was his godfather, and Zinovy Mikhailovich Sverdlov became Zinovy Alekseevich Peshkov, the adopted son of Maxim Gorky.
Subsequently, Gorky wrote in a letter to Peshkova: “This handsome boy Lately behaved towards me surprisingly boorish, and my friendship with him is over. It's very sad and hard."
Fathers Sverdlov and Yagoda were cousins
Berries are gone. But the Chekists continued to influence the life of Nadezhda Peshkova. She had just gathered on the eve of the war to marry her longtime friend I. K. Lupol - one of the most educated people of his time, philosopher, historian, writer, director of the Institute of World Literature. Gorky, - how her chosen one ended up in the dungeons of the NKVD and died in the camp in 1943. After the war, Nadezhda Alekseevna married the architect Miron Merzhanov. Six months later, in 1946, her husband was arrested. Already after the death of Stalin, in 1953, N.A. Peshkova agreed to become the wife of engineer V.F. Popov ... The groom was arrested ...
Nadezhda Alekseevna carried the cross of the "untouchable" until the end of her days. As soon as a man appeared near her, who could have serious intentions, he disappeared. Most often - forever. All the years in the USSR, she lived under a magnifying glass, which was constantly held in her hands by the "organs" ... The daughter-in-law of Maxim Gorky was supposed to go to the grave as his daughter-in-law.
Gorky's son Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov. The monument of the sculptor Mukhina is so good, so similar to the original, that when Maxim's mother saw it, she had an attack. "You extended my meeting with my son," she said to Mukhina. For hours I sat near the monument. Now resting nearby.
Maxim Alekseevich's wife, Gorky's daughter-in-law - Nadezhda. She was a stunningly beautiful woman. She painted beautifully. Surrounded by Gorky, it was customary to give playful nicknames: his second common-law wife, actress of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Petrograd, Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, had the nickname "Phenomenon", Maxim's son was called "The Singing Worm", Gorky's secretary Kryuchkov's wife - "Tse-tse" ... Wife Maxim's son Nadezhda Gorky gave the nickname "Timosha". Why? For recalcitrant curls sticking out in all directions. First there was a scythe, with which it was possible to kill the spine of a teenage calf. Nadezhda secretly cut it off and at the hairdresser's (it was in Italy) they laid down what was left after the haircut. For the first half hour, it seemed to look good, but in the morning ... Gorky, seeing his son's wife, named her Timosha - in honor of the coachman Timofey, whose unkempt tufts always aroused general delight. However, Nadezhda-Timosha was so good that Genrikh Yagoda fell in love with her. (For the country's chief Chekist, by occupation, it seems that falling in love meant betraying the Motherland. Assess the risk of Yagoda - he openly gave Gorky's daughter-in-law orchids).
Maxim died early - at the age of 37. Died weird. His daughter Martha, sharing her memories with the poetess Larisa Vasilyeva, suspects poisoning. Maxim liked to drink (they even quarreled on this basis with the patient but proud Timosha). But on that ill-fated day (early May 1934) he did not take a sip. We were returning from the dacha Yagoda. Felt bad. Gorky's secretary, Kryuchkov, left Maxim on the bench - in one shirt, there was still snow in Gorki.
Maxim Gorky - the famous Russian writer who replenished Russian literature famous works: "Makar Chudra", "Old Woman Izergil", "Chelkash", "At the Bottom".
Born March 16, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod in the Peshkov family. He was given a name at birth - Alexei. But later he himself invented a pseudonym, under which he became known to the whole world. The writer was orphaned early and was brought up by his paternal grandfather and grandmother.
Fate turned out so that Alyosha Peshkov had to early childhood work. He washed dishes on a steamboat, baked and did other jobs that brought in at least a small income. Admission to Kazan University in 1884 ended complete collapse. Back then young writer interested in politics and revolution. His life was colorful and controversial. This is confirmed by a number of interesting facts from his biography:
- There were many mysteries in Gorky. For example, he did not feel physical pain, but at the same time he experienced someone else's pain so painfully that when he described the scene of a woman being stabbed, a huge scar swelled on his body. According to one of the stories of his wife, one day, while doing housework, she heard a roar. Running to the place, she saw a bloodied husband. Asking him what happened, the writer replied that he was deliberately hurting himself in order to feel the pain of the character he was writing about.
- From a young age he suffered from tuberculosis and smoked 75 cigarettes a day.
- He tried several times to commit suicide, and each time he was saved by an unknown force, for example, in 1887, he deflected a bullet aimed at the heart by a millimeter from the target.
- He could drink as much alcohol as he wanted and never got drunk.
- More than once resorted to the help of a psychiatrist. Mental imbalance and mental anguish brought Gorky suffering and pain. But the attitude towards suicides was negative, even dismissive.
- Gorky was a zealous revolutionary figure: he was a party member, engaged in propaganda and paid for all the needs of the revolution. For this he was imprisoned. But we must pay tribute to the moral component of his struggle - he was not involved in the repressions and, on the contrary, asked the authorities for freedom for many repressed writers and other representatives of the opposition. But the relationship with Lenin was very strained. The reason lay in Gorky's unjustified hopes: he wanted to change the life of Russia, to change the attitude of the authorities towards common man, imbued with the ideas of the Bolsheviks, but faced a reality in which there was a place for both the physical elimination of objectionable people and the destruction of the thinking intelligentsia in the most cruel way. But Lenin reckoned with Maxim Gorky. And Stalin appreciated him literary talent. They were not friends in fact, but both successfully used each other: Gorky prepared the “First Congress Soviet writers”, Throughout his life he was a link between the authorities and the Russian intelligentsia, Stalin, in turn, made concessions, provided freedom to Gorky's literary activity.
- Gorky's life is an amazing carnival that ended tragically. The question still remains unresolved: whether Gorky died a natural death or was killed on Stalin's orders. The last days and hours of Gorky are filled with some kind of horror. Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov drank champagne near the bedside of the dying Russian writer. Nizhny Novgorod friend of Gorky, and then a political emigrant, Ekaterina Kuskova wrote: “But they also stood over the silent writer with a candle day and night ...”
- In 1936 he died twice, on June 9 and 18. On June 9, the already practically dead writer was wonderfully revived by the arrival of Stalin, who came to Gorky's dacha in Gorki near Moscow in order to say goodbye to the deceased. On the same day, Gorky arranged a strange vote of relatives and friends, asking them: should he die or not? In fact, he controlled the process of his dying ...
- Maxim Gorky had special treatment to the Jews. More than once in his work he touched upon the theme of the genocide of the Jewish people. He wrote an eloquent appeal to the Russian people in defense of the Jews. And he even adopted a Jewish boy, who received the name of the writer. Thus, Zalman Sverdlov officially became Zinovy Alekseevich Peshkov. The common-law wife, Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, was of Jewish origin, and the mistress of Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya, Benkendorf-Budberg, also had Jewish roots.
- Gorky, as it is now fashionable to say, is a homophobe. Luto hated people with such a deviation, called from the pages of newspapers for the destruction of this shameful phenomenon, which he equated with fascism. Maxim Gorky believed that homosexuality is extremely dangerous for society and requires immediate suppression and punishment.
- Gorky often lived abroad. In 1906, in the company of his beloved Maria Andreeva, he visits Italy and lives on the island of Capri. It was at this time that he worked on the revision of the novel "Mother". In 1913, he received permission from the tsarist government to return to his homeland. In the 1920s, he returned to Italy again, but already lives in Sorrento. It is noteworthy that already in these years Mussolini was in power in Italy, who adhered to fascist doctrines.
- During his life he was nominated 5 times for Nobel Prize on literature.
- Gorky was still a walker, despite the fact that he had several wives throughout his life, he also had enough mistresses. This cannot be taken away. He was successful with women.
- Gorky's own granddaughters Daria and Martha are still alive. By the way, Martha was in close contact with Stalin's daughter, Svetlana, and married the son of Lavrenty Beria. Daria is still playing at the Vakhtangov Theater, despite her advanced age.
- Often, relatives and friends of the writer were honored with cute nicknames. He called his son's wife, Nadezhda Vvedenskaya, affectionately Timosha. The nickname was born after the daughter-in-law had a haircut at the hairdresser. Immediately after styling, the hairstyle looked pretty beautiful, but the next day the hair stuck out like the coachman Timofey. So they called her in the Timosha family.
- Maxim Gorky was friends with English writer Herbert Wells. In 1920, Herbert visits the USSR and stays at the house of the writer, who at that time cohabited with Maria Ignatievna Zakrevskaya - Benkendorf - Budberg. Loving Maria Ignatievna spent one of the nights with Herbert Wells. Gorky was insanely passionate about this lady, that he even forgave her betrayal and continued to communicate with her.
- Most of the Russian writers of the 19th century were his personal enemies: he hated Dostoevsky, he despised Gogol as a sick man, he laughed at Turgenev.
- One of the many testimonies that Gorky was poisoned by Stalin, and perhaps the most convincing, although indirect, belongs to B. Gerland and was published in No. 6 of the Socialist Bulletin in 1954. B. Gerland was a Gulag prisoner in Vorkuta and worked in the barracks of the camp together with Professor Pletnev, also exiled. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Gorky, later replaced by 25 years in prison. She recorded his story: “We treated Gorky for heart disease, but he suffered not so much physically as morally: he did not stop tormenting himself with self-reproach. He no longer had anything to breathe in the USSR, he passionately longed back to Italy. But the incredulous despot in the Kremlin was most afraid of the famous writer's open speech against his regime. And, as always, he came up with an effective remedy at the right time. It turned out to be a bonbonniere, yes, a light pink bonbonniere adorned with a bright silk ribbon. She stood on the night table by the bed of Gorky, who loved to treat his visitors. This time he generously gave sweets to two orderlies who worked with him, and he himself ate some sweets. An hour later, all three began excruciating stomach pains, and an hour later they died. An autopsy was performed immediately. Result? It lived up to our worst fears. All three died from the poison."
- The official cause of Maxim Gorky's death was pneumonia. But not unreasonably, there are versions that several people were involved in his death. Genrikh Yagoda was interrogated in this case, who was also accused of murdering the writer's son, Maxim. The reason for this could be the love of Heinrich Yagoda for Maxim's wife, Nadezhda Vvedenskaya. And the elimination of Gorky, dangerous for the authorities, may have been ordered by Stalin. Suspicions also fall on Maria Budberg, Maxim Gorky's mistress, who spent the last hours of his life next to him. But how it really happened is still unknown, only conjectures and assumptions remain.
Researchers on the life and work of Maxim Gorky today are divided into two camps: some believe that the writer died of pneumonia, others believe that he was “helped” to die. Who could have participated in the death of the world-famous writer, how could 17 doctors who were on duty at the patient’s bedside not save him, why was Gorky injected with an extremely painful drug of camphor, and why did Stalin visit the dying man twice?
These intriguing questions will be answered in his lecture by the writer Pavel Basinsky, the author of biographical bestsellers about Gorky and Tolstoy. Read more about the author
Pavel Basinsky: The circumstances of Gorky's life in the USSR and his last days spent in Gorki 10 are shrouded in the darkness of mystery. It is known that Gorky February Revolution received her warmly, greeted her, but did not accept Oktyabrskaya and rather cruelly argued with Lenin on the pages of the Novaya Zhizn newspaper, which was soon closed. In 1921, Gorky left the country, in fact, this was his second emigration.
And the first emigration from the end of 1905 to 1914 was forced. For participation in the first Russian revolution, Gorky falls into Peter and Paul Fortress. Under pressure from both the Russian and world cultural community, many famous writers, including abroad. He is expelled, that is, released from the country, but he must not return.
Gorky leaves for Europe. This departure is also connected with changes in his personal destiny: he is leaving Ekaterina Peshkova, his only, by the way, legal wife. The Moscow Art Theater actress Maria Andreeva becomes his common-law wife. First they go to Europe, and for the first time Gorky finds himself abroad. Europe fascinates him in many ways, on the other hand, he travels like an emissary. One of his tasks when he comes to France is to convince the French government not to give a loan to the tsarist government. Because the revolutionaries understand that this loan will be used to raise the country's economy, and they absolutely do not need it. But they still gave me a loan. Gorky leaves France terribly annoyed, writes an evil essay "My Beautiful France".
Gorky sails to America, this is already 1906, but it should be noted that all Russian writers wanted to see America. Gorky is going to the USA again with a specific purpose, as an emissary from the revolutionaries. One of his tasks in this case is to convince American millionaires to give money for the Russian revolution. By the way, Gorky was known in America, read, he was quite popular there. But he did not appreciate that America is a completely different civilization. He understood this when he and Maria Andreeva tried to settle in a hotel, in the same room. And one day, they arrived and saw that their things were standing on the street, because at that time in the USA an unmarried man and woman could not live in the same hotel room. America was a Puritan religious country. This angered Gorky to the core. They moved to Summer Brook Villa, on the border with Canada, to their fans, and there Gorky wrote the story "Mother".
The biggest "bummer" for Gorky was that in America they did not support his idea of raising funds in favor of the revolution. It was terribly insulting for him, the mission failed.
After America, he sails to Naples and there they arrange a grand meeting for him. It turns out that in Italy the writer is incredibly loved, almost carried in his arms. He is accommodated in the best hotels. He likes the south of Italy very much and suits his health. Many thought that Gorky had tuberculosis because he coughed. But the fact is that at the age of 18 he shot himself, shot himself in the lung. In any case, Italy was very suitable for his health.
Gorky settles on the island of Capri, begins one of his most interesting periods life span of 7 years. And in total in Italy he will spend 17 years, first in Capri, then in Sorrento. Gorky writes his best works in Capri, people come there and live there for a long time, who could not meet and communicate anywhere outside of Capri. Bunin and Leonid Andreev, Chaliapin and Dzerzhinsky and others come and live there at the same time. Lenin came there twice and there is a version that he used Gorky for financial needs, because all financial flows went through Gorky since the first Russian revolution. This separate story. Plus, Gorky gave his money to the revolution.
In 1914, Gorky returned to Russia and until 1921 he settled in Petrograd, in an apartment on Kronverksky Prospekt, where he met revolutions and civil war. Begins difficult period life, because many of his illusions were dispelled. The revolution in his mind was a kind of cultural act, he is waiting for large-scale cultural construction new civilization. Instead, a civil war begins, and Gorky does not like this very much.
First of all, he has to save the Petrograd intelligentsia from arrest and starvation. He organizes the publishing house “World Literature”, the first books are translated, he attracts poets, writers, translators to this. At the same time, under this, he knocks out rations, firewood, clothes, living space for them. The last straw for him was the death of Blok and the execution of Gumilyov, whom Gorky tried to save, but did not have time. At the end of 1921, the writer went abroad. This is the second immigration. But already in 1923, the first proposals appeared for Gorky to return back to Russia.
In Europe, Gorky now did not like it, he did not develop relations with the Russian emigration. On the one hand, they went to him, but on the other hand, for the Parisian emigration, Gorky was not his own. They are refugees, but he is not, he has a passport of the new state. Gorky is given permission to come to Italy, but they are not allowed to go to Capri. However, they are allowed to settle in Sorrento - on the mainland. But this is already fascist Italy, although it is still not clear what fascism is, but things are moving towards the fact that Europe will become fascist and this is felt.
Sorrento has its own world, and the second incredibly fruitful period in Gorky's life. But attempts to return the writer to Russia continue, he is important as a world figure. Young Soviet writers come to him in Sorrento one after another, and they talk about their lives. Gorky begins to come every year to the USSR. A huge role in the fact that the writer returned was played by the fact that he did not receive the Nobel Prize, Bunin received it. Gorky needed funds and in 1933 finally returned to the USSR.
As Khodasevich writes, he, of course, sold himself, but not for money, but for a dream - to realize his illusions. This can be seen in the correspondence between Gorky and Stalin, they are discussing the creation of a writers' club, a literary institute, a writers' town. Gorky is given full carte blanche and funding for all his projects.
In 1934, Gorky's son Maxim dies, as it is believed, with mysterious circumstances. Then, at the trial of 1938, where the so-called “Gorky killers” were convicted and subsequently executed, they were also accused of killing Maxim, which was their first act of killing Gorky himself.
Genrikh Yagoda entered the writer's house, they were on "you" with him. In reality, this is what happened. In May 1936, Gorky returned from the Crimea to Moscow and fell ill with the flu, which turned into pneumonia. The doctors said that after the autopsy, his lungs fell like glass. Gorky smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, there were no antibiotics at that time. About 17 doctors were on duty near the patient's bed. Poisoning a person with so many doctors is difficult. Four of them subsequently died, the rest lived to advanced years.
Gorky historians today are divided into two groups, there are those who believe that Gorky was helped to die, but not Stalin. There is a version, which I will tell you about, that Yagoda was interested in Gorky's death, he led the opposition against Stalin. It included Bukharin and some other figures. In the last days, when Gorky is dying, there is one moment that is very difficult to explain. IN notebook The secretary of the writer Kryuchkov wrote that Gorky died on June 8. But the official date of Gorky's death is June 18.
"Cult Brigade" is a well-known platform for discussions, lectures, and master classes in the capital. Significant people share their knowledge on it Russian writers, directors, musicians, journalists, publicists and public figures. More about the project.
Eighty years ago, the great Russian writer and public figure Maxim Gorky died. The circumstances of his death are still in doubt.
Text: Pavel Basinsky
Photo courtesy aif.ru
Did he die due to illness, due to old age (but Gorky was not yet old - 68 years old), or was he killed by Stalin?
Before going to the state dacha in Gorki on May 28, 1936, he demanded to turn to the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. He has not yet seen the monument by Vera Mukhina to her son Maxim, who died of pneumonia two years ago. Having examined the grave of his son, he wished to look at the monument to Stalin's wife, Alliluyeva, who had committed suicide.
In the memoirs of Secretary Kryuchkov there is a strange entry: “ A.M. died on the 8th". But Gorky died on June 18!
The widow Ekaterina Peshkova recalls: “ 8/VI 6 p.m.… A. M. — in a chair with eyes closed, with his head bowed, leaning now on one, then on the other hand, pressed to his temple and resting his elbow on the arm of the chair. The pulse was barely noticeable, uneven, breathing weakened, the face and ears and limbs of the hands turned blue. After a while, as we entered, hiccups began, restless movements of his hands, with which he seemed to be pushing something away or filming something ...»
“We” are the closest members of a large family to Gorky: Ekaterina Peshkova, Maria Budberg, Nadezhda Peshkova (Gorky’s daughter-in-law), nurse Lipa Chertkova, Pyotr Kryuchkov, Ivan Rakitsky (an artist who has lived in the “family” since the revolution).
Budberg: " His hands and ears turned black. Was dying. And dying, he weakly moved his hand, as they say goodbye at parting».
But suddenly… " After a long pause, A. M. opened his eyes, the expression of which was absent and distant, slowly looked around everyone, stopping for a long time at each of us, and with difficulty, muffled, but separately, in some strangely alien voice, said: “I was so far away, it's so hard to come back from there"».
He was brought back from the other world by Chertkova, who persuaded the doctors to allow him to inject twenty cubes of camphor. After the first injection was the second. Gorky did not immediately agree. Peshkova: A. M. shook his head negatively and said very firmly: “Don’t, you have to stop.” Kryuchkov recalled that Gorky "did not complain", but sometimes asked him to "let go", "pointed to the ceiling and doors, as if wanting to escape from the room."
But there are new faces. Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov came to Gorky. They had already been informed that Gorky was dying. Budberg: " Politburo members who were informed that Gorky was dying entered the room and expected to find the dying man, were surprised by his cheerful appearance.».
Why was he given a second injection of camphor? Stalin is coming! Budberg: " At this time, P. P. Kryuchkov, who had left before, came in and said: “They just called on the phone - Stalin is inquiring, can he and Molotov come to you? A smile flashed across A.M.’s face, he replied: “Let them go, if they still have time.” Then A. D. Speransky (one of the doctors who treated Gorky. - P. B.) entered with the words: “Well, A. M., Stalin and Molotov have already left, but it seems that Voroshilov is with them. Now I insist on an injection of camphor, because without this you will not have enough strength to talk with them.».
Peshkova: " When they entered, A. M. had already come to his senses so much that he immediately started talking about literature. talking about a new French literature, about the literature of nationalities. He began to praise our female writers, mentioned Anna Karavaeva - and how many of them, how many more of these we will have, and we all need to be supported ... They brought wine ... Everyone drank ... Voroshilov kissed Al. M. arm or shoulder. Al. M. smiled happily, looked at them lovingly. They left quickly. As they left, they waved at him at the door. When they left, A.M. said: “What good guys! How much power they have ... "»
This was recorded in 1936. In 1964, when asked by journalist Isaac Don Levin about the circumstances of Gorky's death, Peshkova said something else: “ Don't ask me about it! I won't be able to sleep for three days if I talk to you about this.».
Stalin came a second time on June 10 at two o'clock in the morning. Gorky was asleep. Stalin was not allowed. A visit at two in the morning to a terminally ill patient is difficult to understand normal person. The third - and last - visit took place on 12 June. Gorky did not sleep. However, the doctors, no matter how they trembled before Stalin, gave ten minutes to talk. What were they talking about? ABOUT peasant uprising Bolotnikov. Then they moved on to the position of the French peasantry.
Stalin undoubtedly guarded the dying Gorky. And he was buttoned up with all the buttons. Gorky lived in a "golden cage". L. A. Spiridonova published a secret sheet of household expenses of the 2nd department of the ACS of the NKVD “along the line” of the Gorky family:
“The approximate consumption for 9 months of 1936 is as follows:
a) food rub. 560 000
b) repair expenses and park expenses rub. 210 000
c) the content of the state rub. 180 000
d) different households. expenses rub. 60,000 Total: rub. 1010 000".
An ordinary doctor received at that time about 300 rubles a month. Writer for a book - 3000 rubles. Gorky's "family" cost the state about 130,000 rubles a month.
He understood the falsity of his position. There is evidence that he suffered in recent years. Read The Moscow Diary by Romain Rolland and the memoirs of the writer Ilya Shkapa. But Gorky died stoically, like a very strong man.
And let's not forget that his sins are not our sins. Gorky sinned a lot because he did a lot. Behind him is not only his literature, but also the political struggle, and newspapers, and magazines, and entire publishing houses (before the revolution and Soviet), scientific institutions, institutes, the Writers' Union. And yes! Solovki and Belomorkanal. Behind him not only him writer's biography, but also a biography of the entire pre-revolutionary Russia and the first twenty years of Soviet power.
Mighty, great man! Let's change him.
Mosaic at the Moscow metro station "Park Kultury", opened on May 15, 1935, i.е. a year before the death of Maxim Gorky
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In May 1928, the writer returned to the USSR. Against his will, he was forced to settle in a mansion that belonged to the merchant and industrialist S.P. before the revolution. Ryabushinsky (Malaya Nikitskaya, 6; now there is a Museum
A.M. Gorky). The whole life of the writer, meetings, correspondence were now controlled by the organs of the OGPU. A fragment of the “Moscow Diary” by Romain Rolland, a friend of the writer who sincerely worried about him, gives an idea of how lonely Gorky was during these years, how much he remained misunderstood: “... his tired smile suggests that the former anarchist did not die - he still regrets his vagabond life. Moreover, he tries in vain to see in the work in which he participates, only greatness, beauty, humanity (although this is really magnificent), - he does not want to see, but he sees the mistakes and suffering, and sometimes even the inhumanity of this work ...
He allowed himself to be locked up in his own house...<,..>Kryuchkov became the sole mediator of all Gorky's contacts with the outside world: letters, visits (or rather, requests to visit Gorky) are intercepted by him, he alone can judge who can and who cannot see Gorky (in addition, Gorky, who does not read at any foreign language, is entirely at the mercy of translators).<...>You have to be as weak-willed as Gorky to submit to every second control and guardianship ...
I love him very much and I feel sorry for him. He is very lonely, although he is almost never alone! It seems to me that if we were alone with him (and the language barrier would collapse), he would hug me and sob silently for a long time. (May he forgive me if I made a mistake!)
After returning, Gorky took up literary and social work. In 1932, he wrote a program article "Who are you with," masters of culture ""? The writer called in her creative intelligentsia to unite against the threat of fascism.
On the initiative of Gorky and under his editorship, the magazines "Our Achievements", "Literary Studies", "Abroad", "USSR at a Construction Site" were published. He took part in the creation of the Institute of World Literature and Literary Institute, publishing a series of books "Life wonderful people", "Story civil war”, “History of factories and factories”, “Library of the poet”.
Gorky's plays were successfully staged in the best theaters countries: in 1932-1933 the plays "Egor Bulychov and Others", "Dostigaev and Others" were staged at the Evg. Vakhtangov, at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre.
I.V. often visited Gorky's house. Stalin. Taking advantage of his position, the writer, as in the post-revolutionary years, constantly spoke out in defense of unfairly, in his opinion, persecuted people. He organized a meeting between Sholokhov and Stalin, which saved the writer from arrest, defended M.A. Bulgakov, E.I. Zamyatina, B.A. Pilnyak, D.D. Shostakovich and many others. There is evidence that Gorky convinced I.V. Stalin to write the articles "Dizziness from Success" and "Response to Comrade Collective Farmers". (You are familiar with them from the course of Russian history.) Recalling Gorky’s conversations with Stalin, E. Zamyatin wrote: “I think I will not be mistaken if I say that the correction of many “excesses” in the policy of the Soviet government and the gradual softening of the dictatorship the result of these friendly conversations. This role of Gorky will be appreciated only sometime later.
During these years, the basic principles of the new artistic method- socialist realism, about which A.V. Lunacharsky made a report on the eve of the First Congress of Writers. Did M. Gorky accept the ideas of socialist realism? It is impossible to give a definite answer. Yu.P. Annenkov stated: “Now we often read ... that Gorky is the forerunner and founder of “socialist realism”. This is completely untrue, and I rebel against such slander."
In 1934 Gorky chaired the First All-Union Congress Soviet writers. He made a presentation on "Soviet Literature". After some hesitation, Gorky also accepted the post of chairman of the Union of Soviet Writers. He believed that the Writers' Union would be a creative organization capable of helping the development and development of young talents. However, already in the process of preparing the congress, serious disagreements between Gorky and the country's leadership appeared. After the 40th anniversary celebration creative activity Gorky, when the “rewarding” of the writer took on excessive forms (Nizhny Novgorod was renamed Gorky), the position of the writer changed dramatically. He was not allowed to attend the International Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture, and publications appeared in the central press criticizing his work.
Literary critic L.A. Spiridonova explains the position of the writer in this way: “The tragedy of the last years of M. Gorky’s life in his homeland can be explained different reasons: creative crisis, the collapse of the socialist ideal, the realization of the falsehood that surrounded him. No matter how hard Stalin's entourage tried, the writer could not be made a court singer of the Stalin era, which severely limited his opportunities in social activities. The death of his son in May 1934, very similar to a murder, completely undermined his health.
Gorky died on June 18, 1936 in the Gorki estate near Moscow. His body was cremated against the will of his relatives, the ashes were buried in Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
