The literary activity of Maxim Gorky lasted more than forty years - from the romantic "Old Woman Izergil" to the epic "Life of Klim Samgin"

Text: Arseniy Zamostyanov, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Istorik magazine
Collage: Year of Literature. RF

In the twentieth century, he was both the master of thoughts, and a living symbol of literature, and one of the founders of not only new literature, but also the state. Do not count dissertations and monographs devoted to the "life and work" of the "classic of proletarian literature." Alas, his posthumous fate was too closely linked with the fate of the political system, which Gorky, after many years of hesitation, nevertheless blessed. After the collapse of the USSR, they began to diligently forget about Gorky. Although we have not had and will not have a better chronicler of the “era of initial capital”. Gorky found himself "in an artificial position on the sidelines." But it seems that he came out of it, and someday he will come out for real.

From a huge and multi-genre heritage, it is not easy to choose the “top ten” and therefore useful. But we will talk almost entirely about textbook works. At least in the recent past, they were diligently studied at school. I don't think it will be forgotten in the future. We don't have a second Gorky...

1. OLD WOMAN IZERGIL

This is a classic of the "early Gorky", the result of his first literary searches. A harsh parable of 1891, a terrible tale, a favorite (in Gorky's system) conflict of Prometheus with both Zeus and birds of prey. This is new literature for that time. Not Tolstoy, not Chekhov, not Leskovsky story. The alignment turns out to be somewhat pretentious: Larra is the son of an eagle, Danko raises his own heart high above his head ... The narrator herself, an old woman, in contrast, is earthy and harsh. In this story, Gorky explores not only the essence of heroism, but also the nature of egoism. Many were hypnotized by the melody of prose.

Actually, this is a ready-made rock opera. And the metaphors are appropriate.

2. SPOUSES ORLOV

Such cruel naturalism - and even with knowledge of the environment - Russian literature did not know. Here you can’t help but believe that the author went barefoot all over Russia. Gorky spoke in detail about the life that he would like to change. Ordinary fights, a tavern, basement passions, illnesses. The light in this life is a medical student. This world wants to throw: “Oh, you bastards! Why do you live? How do you live? You are hypocritical crooks and nothing else! The spouses have the will to change the situation. They work in the cholera barracks, they work furiously.

However, Gorky does not like "happy endings". But faith in a person shows through even in the dirt.

If you think about it, this is not a banality at all. Such is the peshkovskaya grip. Such are the Gorky tramps. In the 1980s, the creators of perestroika “chernukha” worked in the style of these paintings.

3. THE SONG ABOUT THE FALCON, THE SONG ABOUT THE PETTER

All his life Alexei Maksimovich wrote poetry, although he did not consider himself a poet. Stalin's half-joking words are known: “This thing is stronger than Goethe's Faust. Love conquers death." The leader spoke about Gorky's poetic fairy tale "The Girl and Death", forgotten in our time. Gorky composed poetry in a somewhat old-fashioned way. He did not delve into the searches of the then poets, but read many. But two of his "songs", written in blank verse, cannot be deleted from Russian literature. Although ... Poems published as prose in 1895 were perceived as something outlandish:

“We sing glory to the madness of the brave!

The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life! 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 ignite many brave hearts with an insane thirst for freedom, light!

Let you die! .. But in the song of the brave and strong in spirit, you will always be a living example, a proud call to freedom, to light!

We sing a song to the madness of the brave! .. "

It's about the Falcon. And Burevestnik (1901) became a real anthem of the Russian revolution. In particular - the revolution of 1905. The revolutionary song was illegally republished in thousands of copies. You can not accept the stormy Gorky pathos, but it is impossible to erase this melody from memory: “A petrel soars proudly between the clouds and the sea.”

Gorky himself was considered a petrel.

The petrel of the revolution, which really happened, although at first it did not please Alexei Maksimovich.

4. MOTHER

This novel, written under the impressions of the events of 1905, was considered the foundation of socialist realism. At school, he was studied with special tension. Reprinted countless times, filmed several times and, between us, imposed. This caused not only respect, but also rejection.

On the barricade wave of 1905, Gorky joined the Bolshevik Party. An even more convinced Bolshevik was his companion, the actress Maria Andreeva, the most charming revolutionary of the 20th century.

The novel is tendentious. But how convincing is he emotionally

Including in their hope for the proletariat. But the main thing is that this novel is not only a historical document. The strength of the preacher and the strength of the writer multiplied, and the book turned out to be powerful.

5. CHILDHOOD, IN PEOPLE, MY UNIVERSITIES

Korney Chukovsky said after reading this book: "In his old age, Gorky was drawn to colors." Between the revolution of 1905 and the war, the main writer showed how a rebel, Prometheus, is born and matures in a child. During this time, Tolstoy left, and Gorky became the "main" Russian writer - in terms of influence on the minds of readers, in terms of reputation among colleagues - even as picky as Bunin. And the story with Nizhny Novgorod motives was perceived as the program of the ruler of thoughts. Comparisons with "Childhood" cannot be dismissed: half a century separates the two stories, but the main thing is that the authors are from different constellations. Gorky revered Tolstoy, but crossed out Tolstoyism. He did not know how to recreate real worlds in prose, Gorky composed a song, an epic, a ballad about the young years of the hero, about his paths, paths.

Gorky admires harsh, brave, thick-skinned people, he is admired by strength, struggle.

He shows them enlarged, neglecting halftones, but refrains from hasty judgments. He despises lack of will and humility, but even admires the cruelty of the world. You can’t say better than Gorky: “A dense, motley, inexpressibly strange life began and flowed with terrible speed. I remember her as a harsh tale, well told by a kind, but painfully truthful genius. One of the most striking episodes in the story "Childhood" is about how Alyosha learned to read and write: "Beeches-people-az-la-bla." This became the main thing in his life.

6. AT THE BOTTOM

Here attestations are superfluous, this is just the Gorky Bible, the apotheosis of Russian outcasts. Gorky brought to the stage the inhabitants of the rooming house, vagabonds, thieves. It turns out that high tragedies and struggles take place in their world, no less significant than those of Shakespeare's kings ... "Man - that sounds proud!" - proclaims Satin, Gorky's favorite hero, a strong personality who was not broken by either prison or drunkenness. He has a strong rival - a wandering preacher of forgiveness. Gorky hated this sweet hypnosis, but refrained from unambiguously exposing Luke. Luke has his own truth.

The heroes of the Gorky rooming house were applauded not only by Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also by Berlin, Paris, Tokyo ...

And they will always put "At the bottom". And in the grumbling of Sateen - a seeker and a robber - they will find new subtexts: “There is only a person, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Man! It's great!"

7. BARBARS

As a playwright, Gorky is the most interesting. And "Barbarians" in our list are represented immediately after several Gorky plays about people of the early twentieth century. "Scenes in a county town" are sad: the characters turn out to be false, the provincial reality has gone and is cloudy. But in longing for a hero there is a premonition of something great.

While pumping up sadness, Gorky does not fall into straightforward pessimism.

It is not surprising that the play had a happy theatrical fate: at least two roles - Cherkun and Monakhova - are spelled out with brilliance. There is something for interpreters to look for.

8. Vassa ZHELEZNOVA

But this tragedy in our time simply needs to be re-read and reviewed. I think there is no more insightful book (not to mention plays) about Russian capitalism. Merciless play. Even in our time, hypocrites are afraid of her. It is easiest to repeat the common truth that behind every great fortune there is a crime.

And Gorky managed to show the psychology of this crime of rich quarters.

He knew how to paint vices like no one else. Yes, he exposes Vassa. And yet she came alive. Actresses play it incredibly interesting. Some even manage to justify this killer. Vera Pashennaya, Faina Ranevskaya, Nina Sazonova, Inna Churikova, Tatyana Doronina - Vassa was played by actresses who were worshiped by the theatrical world. And the public watched how mad with fat, weird and dying Russian capitalism.

9. TOWN OF OKUROV

Gorky wrote this story in 1909. A gray county town, the eternal orphanage of fussy, unhappy people. The chronicle is complete. Gorky is observant and ironic: “The main street, Porechnaya, or Berezhok, is paved with large cobblestones; in the spring, when young grass breaks through the stones, Sukhobaev, the head of the city, calls the prisoners, and they, big and gray, heavy, silently crawl along the street, uprooting the grass. On Porechnaya, the best houses lined up harmoniously - blue, red, green, almost all with front gardens - the white house of Vogel, the chairman of the district council, with a turret on the roof; red-brick with yellow shutters - heads; pinkish - the father of Archpriest Isaiah Kudryavsky and a long row of boastful cozy houses - the authorities lodged in them: the military commander Pokivaiko, a passionate lover of singing, was nicknamed Mazepa for his big mustache and thickness; tax inspector Zhukov, a gloomy man who suffered from hard drinking; zemstvo chief Strehel, theater-goer and playwright; police officer Karl Ignatievich Worms and cheerful doctor Ryakhin, the best artist of the local circle of comedy and drama lovers.

An important topic for Gorky is the eternal dispute about philistinism. Or - "mixture"?

After all, a lot of things are mixed in a Russian person, and perhaps this is precisely his mystery.

10. THE LIFE OF KLIMA SAMGIN

The novel - the largest in Gorky's heritage, "for eight hundred people," as the parodists taunted - remained unfinished. But what remains, in terms of refinement, surpasses everything written by Gorky. It turns out that he knew how to write with restraint, almost academically, but at the same time in a Gorky way.

According to Gorky's definition, this is a book about "an intellectual of average value who goes through a whole range of moods, looking for the most independent place in life, where he would be comfortable both financially and internally."

And all this against the backdrop of the turning-point revolutionary years, right up to 1918. Gorky for the first time showed himself to be a realist, an objective analyst, found a harmonious narrative tone for his last book. He wrote "Samgin" for decades. At the same time, the author does not like the title character. Samghin is a real snake, reminiscent of Shchedrin's Judas Golovlev. But he crawls "throughout all the great Rus'" - and the space of history opens up to us. It seems that Gorky, who lived in an eternal hurry, did not want to part with this book. The result was an encyclopedia, and not an idealistic one at all. Gorky writes without hypocrisy about love and flirting, about politics and religion, about nationalism and financial scams... This is both a chronicle and a confession. Like Cervantes, he even mentions himself in the novel: the characters discuss the writer Gorky. Just like us a hundred years later.

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Years of life: from 03/28/1868 to 06/18/1936

Russian writer, playwright, public figure. One of the most popular authors of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Maxim Gorky (real name - Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov) was born (16) March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. 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.”

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. Participated in illegal populist circles. After his arrest in 1889, he was under police surveillance.

I found myself in the world of great literature with the help of V.G. Korolenko. In 1892, Maxim Gorky published the first story - "Makar Chudra", and in 1899-1900 he met L.N. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov, is moving closer to the Moscow Art Theater, which staged his plays "Petty Bourgeois" and "At the Bottom".

The next period of Gorky's life is associated with revolutionary activity. He joined the Bolshevik Party, later, however, disagreeing with it on the issue of the timeliness of the socialist revolution in Russia. He took part in the organization of the first legal Bolshevik newspaper Novaya Zhizn. During the days of the December armed uprising of 1905 in Moscow, he supplied the workers' squads with weapons and money.

In 1906, on behalf of the party, Maxim Gorky illegally left for America, where he campaigned in support of the revolution in Russia. Among the Americans who ensured the reception of Gorky in the United States was Mark Twain.

Upon his return to Russia, he writes the play "Enemies" and the novel "Mother" (1906). In the same year, Gorky traveled 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 he 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, Gladkov, and others.

Gorky met the February Revolution of 1917 enthusiastically. He was a member of the "Special Meeting on Art Affairs", was chairman of the Commission on Art under the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet of the RSD. After the 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.

In the autumn of 1921, due to the exacerbation of the tuberculosis process, he went abroad for treatment. First he lived in the resorts of Germany and Czechoslovakia, then moved to Italy in Sorrento. He continues to work hard: he finishes the trilogy - "My Universities" ("Childhood" and "In People" came out in 1913 - 16), writes the novel "The Artamonov Case" (1925). He begins work on the book "The Life of Klim Samgin", which he continued to write until the end of his life. In 1931 Gorky returned to his homeland. In the 1930s, he again turned to drama: Yegor Bulychev and Others (1932), Dostigaev and Others (1933).

Summing up the acquaintance and communication with the great people of his time, Gorky writes literary portraits of L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, V. Korolenko, the essay "V.I. Lenin". In 1934, through the efforts of M. Gorky, the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers was prepared and held.

On May 11, 1934, Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, unexpectedly dies. The writer himself died on June 18, 1936 in the town of Gorki, near Moscow, outliving 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 A. M. Gorky was removed and taken to the Moscow Brain Institute for further study. Around his death, as well as the death of his son Maxim, there is still a lot of obscurity.

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) appeared in 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz", where the first story "Makar Chudra" was published.

The circumstances of the death of Gorky and his son are considered "suspicious" by many. There were rumors of poisoning, which, however, were not confirmed. According to the interrogations of Genrikh Yagoda (one of the main leaders of the state security organs), 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.

Bibliography

Tale
1908 - "The life of an unnecessary person."
1908 - "Confession"
1909 - "", "".
1913-1914- ""
1915-1916- ""
1923 - ""

Stories, essays
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)
1913 - "Egor Bulychov and others (1953)
Egor Bulychov and others (1971)
The Life of a Baron (1917) - based on the play "At the Bottom"
Life of Klim Samgin (TV series, 1986)
Life of Klim Samgin (film, 1986)
Well (2003) - based on the story by A.M. Gorky "Gubin"
Summer People (1995) - based on the play "Summer Residents"
Malva (1956) - based on the stories
Mother (1926)
Mother (1955)
Mother (1990)
Philistines (1971)
My Universities (1939)
At the Bottom (1952)
At the Bottom (1957)
At the Bottom (1972)
Washed in blood (1917) - based on the story of M. Gorky "Konovalov"
Premature Man (1971) - based on the play by Maxim Gorky "Yakov Bogomolov"
Across Rus' (1968) - based on early stories
For boredom (1967)
Tabor goes to the sky (1975)
Three (1918)
Foma Gordeev (1959)

Gorky's works: a complete list. Maxim Gorky: early romantic works The great Russian writer Maxim Gorky (Peshkov Alexei Maksimovich) was born March 16, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod - died 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 passed vast territories, visited the Don, Ukraine, the Volga region, South Bessarabia, the Caucasus and the Crimea. Beginning 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. He met the revolution of 1917 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 Gulag Archipelago. 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 Ryabushinsky mansion on Spiridonovka, in a dacha in Gorki, and travels to the Crimea on vacation. The 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 roughly 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, complicity in a crime. The 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 dense forest, the young leader 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 are. 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 the 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 Luke 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.

The first works of Maxim Gorky

Maksim Gorky(Aleksey 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". 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 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", 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!

Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov (better known under the literary pseudonym Maxim Gorky, March 16 (28), 1868 - June 18, 1936) - Russian and Soviet writer, public figure, founder of the style of socialist realism.

Childhood and youth of Maxim Gorky

Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod. His father, Maxim Peshkov, who died in 1871, in the last years of his life worked as the manager of the Astrakhan shipping office of Kolchin. When Alexei was 11 years old, his mother also died. The boy was brought up after that in the house of his maternal grandfather, Kashirin, the ruined owner of a dyeing workshop. The stingy grandfather early forced the young Alyosha to "go to the people", that is, to earn money on his own. He had to work as a delivery boy at a store, a baker, and wash dishes in a canteen. Gorky later described these early years of his life in Childhood, the first part of his autobiographical trilogy. In 1884, Alexei unsuccessfully tried to enter Kazan University.

Gorky's grandmother, unlike her grandfather, was a kind and religious woman, an excellent storyteller. Alexei Maksimovich himself associated his suicide attempt in December 1887 with heavy feelings about his grandmother's death. Gorky shot himself, but survived: the bullet missed the heart. She, however, seriously damaged the lung, and the writer suffered all his life afterwards from respiratory weakness.

In 1888, Gorky was arrested for a short time for his connection with the Marxist circle of N. Fedoseev. In the spring of 1891 he set off to wander around Russia and reached the Caucasus. Expanding his knowledge by self-education, getting a temporary job either as a loader or a night watchman, Gorky accumulated impressions that he later used to write his first stories. He called this life period "My Universities".

In 1892, 24-year-old Gorky returned to his native place and began to collaborate as a journalist in several provincial publications. Aleksey Maksimovich first wrote under the pseudonym Yehudiel Khlamida (which in Hebrew and Greek gives some associations with “cloak and dagger”), but soon came up with another one for himself - Maxim Gorky, hinting at both the “bitter” Russian life and the desire to write only the "bitter truth". For the first time, the name "Gorky" was used by him in correspondence for the Tiflis newspaper "Kavkaz".

Maksim Gorky. video film

Gorky's literary debut and his first steps in politics

In 1892, Maxim Gorky's first short story "Makar Chudra" appeared. He was followed by "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil" (see summary and full text), "Song of the Falcon" (1895), "Former people" (1897), etc. All of them did not differ not so much in great artistic merits, how much exaggerated pompous pathos, but successfully coincided with the new Russian political trends. Until the mid-1890s, the left-wing Russian intelligentsia worshiped the Narodniks, who idealized the peasantry. But from the second half of this decade, Marxism began to gain increasing popularity in radical circles. Marxists proclaimed that the dawn of a bright future would be kindled by the proletariat and the poor. Tramps-lumpen were the main characters of the stories of Maxim Gorky. Society began to applaud them vigorously as a new fiction fashion.

In 1898, Gorky's first collection, Essays and Stories, was published. He had a resounding (albeit completely inexplicable for reasons of literary talent) success. Gorky's public and creative career took off sharply. He portrayed the life of beggars from the very bottom of society (“tramps”), depicting their difficulties and humiliations with strong exaggerations, strenuously introducing the feigned pathos of “humanity” into his stories. Maxim Gorky earned a reputation as the only literary spokesman for the interests of the working class, defender of the idea of ​​radical social, political and cultural transformation of Russia. His work was praised by intellectuals and "conscious" workers. Gorky struck up a close acquaintance with Chekhov and Tolstoy, although their attitude towards him was not always unambiguous.

Gorky acted as a staunch supporter of the Marxist social democracy, openly hostile to "tsarism." In 1901, he wrote the "Song of the Petrel" openly calling for revolution. For compiling a proclamation calling for a "fight against the autocracy", he was arrested in the same year and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod. Maxim Gorky became close friends with many revolutionaries, including Lenin, whom he first met in 1902. He became even more famous when he exposed the secret police officer Matvey Golovinsky as the author of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Golovinsky then had to leave Russia. When the election of Gorky (1902) as a member of the Imperial Academy in the category of fine literature was annulled by the government, academicians A.P. Chekhov and V.G. Korolenko also resigned in solidarity.

Maksim Gorky

In 1900-1905. Gorky's work became more and more optimistic. Of his works of this period of life, several plays that are closely related to public issues stand out. The most famous of them is "At the Bottom" (see its full text and summary). Produced not without censorship difficulties in Moscow (1902), it was a great success, and then given throughout Europe and in the United States. Maxim Gorky became closer and closer to the political opposition. During the revolution of 1905, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg for the play "Children of the Sun", which was formally dedicated to the cholera epidemic of 1862, but clearly alluded to current events. The "official" companion of Gorky in 1904-1921 was the former actress Maria Andreeva - a long-standing Bolshevik, who became the director of theaters after the October Revolution.

Having grown rich through his writing, Maxim Gorky provided financial support to the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party ( RSDLP) while supporting liberal calls for civic and social reform. The death of many people during the manifestation on January 9, 1905 ("Bloody Sunday"), apparently, gave impetus to Gorky's even greater radicalization. Without openly joining the Bolsheviks and Lenin, he agreed with them on most issues. During the December armed rebellion in Moscow in 1905, the headquarters of the rebels was located in the apartment of Maxim Gorky, not far from Moscow University. At the end of the uprising, the writer left for St. Petersburg. At his apartment in this city, a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP was held under the chairmanship of Lenin, which decided to stop the armed struggle for the time being. A.I. Solzhenitsyn writes (“March 17th”, ch. 171) that Gorky “in Nine Hundred and Fifth, in his Moscow apartment during the days of the uprising, kept thirteen Georgian combatants, and bombs were made from him.”

Fearing arrest, Alexei Maksimovich fled to Finland, from where he left for Western Europe. From Europe, he traveled to the United States to raise funds for the Bolshevik Party. It was during this trip that Gorky began writing his famous novel Mother, which was first published in English in London, and then in Russian (1907). The theme of this very tendentious work is the joining of a simple working woman to the revolution after the arrest of her son. In America, Gorky was initially welcomed with open arms. He got acquainted with Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. However, then the American press began to resent the high-profile political actions of Maxim Gorky: he sent a telegram of support to trade union leaders Haywood and Moyer, who was accused of murdering the governor of Idaho. The newspapers did not like the fact that the writer was not accompanied on the trip by his wife, Ekaterina Peshkova, but by his mistress, Maria Andreeva. Strongly wounded by all this, Gorky began to condemn the “bourgeois spirit” in his work even more fiercely.

Gorky on Capri

Returning from America, Maxim Gorky decided not to return to Russia for the time being, because he could be arrested there for his connection with the Moscow uprising. From 1906 to 1913 he lived on the Italian island of Capri. From there Alexei Maksimovich continued to support the Russian left, especially the Bolsheviks; he wrote novels and essays. Together with Bolshevik emigrants Alexander Bogdanov and A. V. Lunacharsky Gorky created an intricate philosophical system called " god-building". It claimed to work out from revolutionary myths "socialist spirituality", with the help of which humanity, enriched with strong passions and new moral values, would be able to get rid of evil, suffering and even death. Although these philosophical quests were rejected by Lenin, Maxim Gorky continued to believe that "culture", that is, moral and spiritual values, was more important for the success of the revolution than political and economic events. This theme underlies his novel The Confession (1908).

Return of Gorky to Russia (1913-1921)

Taking advantage of the amnesty given for the 300th anniversary Romanov dynasty, Gorky returned to Russia in 1913 and continued his active social and literary activities. During this period of his life, he guided young writers from the people and wrote the first two parts of his autobiographical trilogy - "Childhood" (1914) and "In People" (1915-1916).

In 1915, Gorky, along with a number of other prominent Russian writers, participated in the publication of the journalistic collection The Shield, the purpose of which was to protect the allegedly oppressed Jews in Russia. Speaking in the Progressive Circle at the end of 1916, Gorky “dedicated his two-hour speech to all sorts of spitting on the entire Russian people and exorbitant praise of Jewry,” says Mansyrev, a progressive Duma member, one of the founders of the Circle. (See A. Solzhenitsyn. Two hundred years together. Chapter 11.)

During First World War his St. Petersburg apartment again served as a meeting place for the Bolsheviks, but in revolutionary 1917 his relations with them deteriorated. Two weeks after the October Revolution of 1917, Maxim Gorky wrote:

However, as the Bolshevik regime strengthened, Maxim Gorky became more and more despondent and increasingly refrained from criticism. On August 31, 1918, having learned about the assassination attempt on Lenin, Gorky and Maria Andreeva sent a general telegram to him: “We are terribly upset, we are worried. We sincerely wish you a speedy recovery, be of good spirits.” Alexey Maksimovich achieved a personal meeting with Lenin, about which he spoke as follows: “I realized that I was mistaken, went to Ilyich and frankly confessed my mistake.” Together with a number of other writers who joined the Bolsheviks, Gorky created the World Literature publishing house under the People's Commissariat for Education. It planned to publish the best classical works, but in a situation of terrible devastation, it could not do almost anything. Gorky, on the other hand, began a love affair with one of the employees of the new publishing house, Maria Benkendorf. It went on for many years.

Gorky's second stay in Italy (1921-1932)

In August 1921, Gorky, despite a personal appeal to Lenin, could not save his friend, the poet Nikolai Gumilyov, from being shot by the Chekists. In October of the same year, the writer left Bolshevik Russia and lived in German resorts, where he completed the third part of his autobiography, My Universities (1923). He then returned to Italy "for the treatment of tuberculosis". Living in Sorrento (1924), Gorky maintained contacts with his homeland. After 1928, Alexei Maksimovich visited the Soviet Union several times until he accepted Stalin's proposal for a final return to his homeland (October 1932). According to some literary critics, the reason for the return was the writer’s political convictions, his long-standing sympathies for the Bolsheviks, but there is also a more reasonable opinion that Gorky’s desire to get rid of debts made during his life abroad played a major role here.

The last years of Gorky's life (1932-1936)

Even while visiting the USSR in 1929, Maxim Gorky made a trip to the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp and wrote a laudatory article about Soviet punitive system, although he received detailed information from the campers on Solovki about the terrible atrocities that are happening there. This case is in The Gulag Archipelago by A. I. Solzhenitsyn. In the West, Gorky's article about the Solovetsky camp provoked stormy criticism, and he began to bashfully explain that he was under pressure from Soviet censors. The writer's departure from fascist Italy and return to the USSR were widely used by communist propaganda. Shortly before his arrival in Moscow, Gorky published (March 1932) in the Soviet newspapers the article "Who are you with, masters of culture?". Designed in the style of Leninist-Stalinist propaganda, it called on writers, artists and artists to put their creativity at the service of the communist movement.

Upon his return to the USSR, Alexei Maksimovich received the Order of Lenin (1933) and was elected head of the Union of Soviet Writers (1934). The government provided him with a luxurious mansion in Moscow, which belonged to the millionaire Nikolai Ryabushinsky before the revolution (now the Gorky Museum), as well as a fashionable dacha in the Moscow region. During the demonstrations, Gorky went up to the podium of the mausoleum together with Stalin. One of Moscow's main streets, Tverskaya, was renamed in honor of the writer, as was his hometown, Nizhny Novgorod (which only regained its historical name in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union). The largest aircraft in the world, the ANT-20, which was built in the mid-1930s by the Tupolev bureau, was named "Maxim Gorky". There are numerous photos of the writer with members of the Soviet government. All these honors had to be paid for. Gorky put his work at the service of Stalinist propaganda. In 1934 he co-edited a book that glorified the slave-built White Sea-Baltic Canal and convinced that in the Soviet "correctional" camps a successful "reforging" of the former "enemies of the proletariat" was being carried out.

Maxim Gorky on the podium of the mausoleum. Nearby - Kaganovich, Voroshilov and Stalin

There is, however, evidence that all this lies cost Gorky considerable mental anguish. The writer's hesitation was known at the top. After the murder Kirov in December 1934 and the gradual deployment of the "Great Terror" by Stalin, Gorky actually found himself under house arrest in his luxurious mansion. In May 1934, his 36-year-old son Maxim Peshkov unexpectedly died, and on June 18, 1936, Gorky himself died of pneumonia. Stalin, who carried the writer's coffin with Molotov during his funeral, said that Gorky had been poisoned by "enemies of the people." Prominent participants in the Moscow trials of 1936-1938 were charged with poisoning. and are found to be proven. former head OGPU and NKVD, Heinrich Yagoda, confessed that he organized the assassination of Maxim Gorky on the orders of Trotsky.

Joseph Stalin and Writers. Maksim Gorky

The cremated ashes of Gorky were buried at the Kremlin wall. Before that, the writer's brain was removed from his body and sent "for study" to the Moscow Research Institute.

Assessment of Gorky's work

In Soviet times, before and after the death of Maxim Gorky, government propaganda diligently obscured his ideological and creative throwing, ambiguous relations with the leaders of Bolshevism at different periods of his life. The Kremlin presented him as the greatest Russian writer of his time, a native of the people, a true friend of the Communist Party and the father of "socialist realism." Statues and portraits of Gorky were distributed throughout the country. Russian dissidents saw in Gorky's work the embodiment of a slippery compromising compromise. In the West, they emphasized the constant fluctuations of his views on the Soviet system, recalling Gorky's repeated criticism of the Bolshevik regime.

Gorky saw in literature not so much a way of artistic and aesthetic self-expression as moral and political activity with the aim of changing the world. As the author of novels, short stories, autobiographical essays and plays, Aleksey Maksimovich also wrote many treatises and reflections: articles, essays, memoirs about politicians (for example, about Lenin), about people of art (Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc.).

Gorky himself claimed that the center of his work was a deep belief in the value of the human person, the glorification of human dignity and inflexibility in the midst of life's hardships. The writer saw in himself a "restless soul", which seeks to find a way out of the contradictions of hope and skepticism, love of life and disgust at the petty vulgarity of others. However, both the style of Maxim Gorky's books and the details of his public biography are convincing: these claims were mostly feigned.

The tragedy and confusion of his extremely ambiguous time were reflected in Gorky's life and work, when the promises of a complete revolutionary transformation of the world only masked the selfish thirst for power and bestial cruelty. It has long been recognized that, from a purely literary point of view, most of Gorky's works are rather weak. His autobiographical stories are of the best quality, where a realistic and picturesque picture of Russian life at the end of the 19th century is given.