The name of Maxim Gorky is probably known to everyone. Several generations have studied and are studying his work since childhood. Certain stereotypes have developed about Gorky. He is perceived as the founder of the literature of socialist realism, the “petrel of the revolution”, literary critic and publicist, initiator of the creation and first chairman of the Union of Writers of the USSR. About his childhood and youth we know from the autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”. However, in last years Many publications have appeared that show a slightly different Gorky.
Student's message about Gorky's biography
Childhood
The future writer was born in Nizhny Novgorod. At the age of three he lost his father, and at ten - his mother. He spent his childhood in his grandfather's house, in a bourgeois environment with rude and cruel morals. On Sundays the street was often filled with the joyful cries of boys: “The Kashirins are fighting again!”. The boy's life was brightened by his grandmother, a beautiful portrait of whom Gorky would leave in his autobiographical story “Childhood” (1914). He studied for only two years. Having received a letter of commendation, due to poverty (my grandfather was bankrupt by that time), he was forced to leave his studies and go “to the people” to earn money as a student, journeyman, or servant.
"In people"
As a teenager, the future writer fell in love with books and used every free minute to voraciously read everything he could get his hands on. This chaotic reading, coupled with an extraordinary natural memory, determined much in his view of man and society.
In Kazan, where he went in the summer of 1884, hoping to enter the university, he also had to do odd jobs, and his self-education continued in populist and Marxist circles. “Physically, I was born in Nizhny Novgorod. But spiritually - in Kazan. Kazan is my favorite “university”“, the writer said later.
"My Universities"
Beginning of literary activity
In the late 80s - early 90s, Alyosha Peshkov wanders across the expanses of Russia: the Mozdok steppe, the Volga region, the Don steppes, Ukraine, Crimea, and the Caucasus. He himself is already engaged in agitation among the workers, falls under secret police surveillance, and becomes “unreliable.” During these same years, he began to publish under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky. In 1892, the story “Makar Chudra” appeared in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus”, and in 1895 the story “Old Woman Izergil” was published. Gorky was immediately noticed, and enthusiastic responses appeared in the press.
In 1900, Gorky met Leo Tolstoy, and he wrote in his diary "…I liked him. Real man from the people". Both writers and readers were impressed by the fact that he entered literature new person- not from the “upper” educated strata, but “from below”, from the people. The attention of Russian society has long been attracted to the people - primarily the peasantry. And then the people, as if in the person of Gorky, entered the living rooms of rich houses, and even holding their own unusual works in their hands. Naturally, he was greeted with enthusiastic interest.
The origins of Gorky's prose
The immediate predecessor of Gorky's prose were the works of Chekhov. But if Chekhov’s heroes complain that they have “strained themselves”, then in Gorky the figures of the “bottom” of society are content with what they have. They have a kind of “tramp” philosophy with a flavor of Nietzscheanism, which was then fashionable.
A tramp is a person without specific place residence, not connected by constant work, family, not owning any property and therefore not interested in maintaining peace and tranquility in society.
It was difficult to ignore the influence of Nietzsche in Russia late XIX– beginning of the 20th century. And in Gorky, already in the 90s, new motives for Russian literature were noted: greed for life, thirst and cult of power, a passionate desire to go beyond the usual, “philistine” framework of existence. Therefore, the writer abandons the usual prose genres and writes fairy tales (“Old Woman Izergil”, 1895), songs (“Song of the Falcon”, 1895), and prose poems (“Man”, 1904).
Beginning in 1889, Gorky was arrested several times for his revolutionary activities among the workers. The more famous he becomes, the more outrage every time he is taken into custody causes. The most famous people in Russia, including Leo Tolstoy, are working for the writer. During one of his arrests (1901), Gorky wrote “The Song of the Petrel” in the Nizhny Novgorod prison, the text of which quickly spread throughout the country. Cry “Let the storm blow harder!” left no options in choosing the path of development of Russia, especially for young people.
That same year he was deported to Arzamas, but given his poor health, he was allowed to live in Crimea for six months. There Gorky often meets with Chekhov and Tolstoy. The writer's popularity in all strata of society in those years was enormous. In February 1903, he was elected honorary academician in the category of fine literature. Nicholas II, having learned about this, wrote to the Minister of Education: “...such a person, in the present day Time of Troubles, The Academy of Sciences allows itself to be elected into its midst. I am deeply outraged...".
After this letter, the Imperial Academy of Sciences declared the elections invalid. As a sign of protest, Korolenko and Chekhov refused the title of honorary academicians.
In the 1900s, Gorky, thanks to his enormous literary success, was already a wealthy man and could help the revolutionary movement financially. And he hires capital lawyers for the arrested Sormovo and Nizhny Novgorod participants in labor demonstrations, gives large sums for the publication of Lenin’s newspaper “Forward”, published in Geneva.
As part of the Bolshevik group, Gorky takes part in the workers' march on January 9, 1905. After the authorities shot down a demonstration, he wrote an appeal in which he called “all citizens of Russia to an immediate, persistent and united struggle against the autocracy”. Soon after this, the writer was once again arrested, accused of a state crime and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Gorky was outraged that he was in the fortress for nine days “They didn’t give any news about M.F.’s situation.”(Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, his close friend, was then in the hospital), which was somewhat similar to torture...
A month later he was released on bail, and the conditions of detention in the fortress allowed him to write the play “Children of the Sun” there. In this play, the author complains about the lethargy of the intelligentsia.
Like most people living in Russia at the beginning of the century, Gorky simply could not imagine that as a result of the revolution led by the Bolsheviks, many writers, philosophers, scientists would end up in prisons, but only there they would no longer be allowed to write, they would not have news for years about the fate of their young children, they, innocent ones, will be tortured and killed...
The writer actively participates in the revolution of 1905, joins the Social Democratic Party, and supplies workers' squads with weapons during street battles in Moscow. At the author’s reading of “Children of the Sun”, a certain amount of money is taken from each person present - for weapons for the rebels.
The temperament of a fighter, a fighter, a herald takes Gorky further and further from his own artistic tasks.
Trip to America and Europe
In January 1906, the Bolshevik Party sent Gorky to America to raise money for underground work. This collection was not successful on the intended scale; but in America the novel “Mother” was written - about the awakening of “class consciousness” among the proletarians.
Criticism notes that Gorky could not stand the “major tone” with which he entered literature. Gorky's talent did not increase. Instead of a romantic tramp, he grew up with a clearly invented, gray figure of a “conscious worker.”
After leaving America, Gorky remained abroad: arrest awaited him in his homeland. In the fall of 1906, he settled in Italy, on the island of Capri. The writer was able to return to Russia only in 1913, when, in connection with the tercentenary of the House of Romanov, an amnesty was declared for political emigrants.
Gorky's talent, despite criticism, has not yet exhausted its potential. The writer endlessly studies and describes the Russian national character. Now he is interested not so much in “tramps” as in eccentrics and losers.
“...Rus' abounds with failed people... they are always there, with the mysterious power of a magnet. They caught my attention. They seemed more interesting, better than the dense mass of ordinary county people who live for work and for food...”
In the cycle of stories “Complaints” (1912), Gorky depicts “the hopeless, stupid melancholy of Russian life.” The book “Across Rus'” includes essays on what he saw during his past wanderings across the endless country. Gorky seemed to set out to create a register of Russian characters - infinitely diverse, but in some ways similar friends on a friend.
"Childhood"
In 1913, the first chapters from the story “Childhood” appeared in print. It is written on documentary material.
“Although “Childhood” depicts so much murder and abomination, it is, in essence, a cheerful book,– wrote Korney Chukovsky. – Gorky whines and complains the least... And “Childhood” is written cheerfully, in cheerful colors.”.
At Soviet power When it becomes impossible to lovingly write about “good” pre-revolutionary childhood, Gorky’s book will become a role model, a clear illustration of how one must be able to see mainly “lead abominations” in the past pre-revolutionary time.
Best stories 1922–1926 (“The Hermit”, “The Tale of Unrequited Love”, “The Tale of the Hero”, “The Tale of the Extraordinary”, “The Killers”), dedicated to his constant theme - Russian characters, are also largely documentary. And above all, the most qualified critics of the mid-20s will appreciate the short “Notes from a Diary. Memoirs" (1923–1924): in them Gorky writes mainly about real people under their real names (for example, the essay “A.A. Blok”).
Gorky, who had considered himself a socialist for many years, perceived the October and post-October events of 1917 tragically. In this regard, he did not re-register with the RSDLP and formally remained outside the party. The “Petrel of the Revolution” understands that it is proving disastrous for those “conscious workers” on whom he pinned his hopes.
“...The proletariat has not won, there is internecine carnage all over the country, hundreds and thousands of people are killing each other. ...But what amazes and frightens me most of all is that the revolution does not bear within itself signs of a person’s spiritual rebirth, does not make people more honest, more straightforward, does not increase their self-esteem and moral assessment of their work.”
This is what Gorky wrote shortly after the revolution in the newspaper “ New life”, where his harsh journalistic articles were published under the general title “Untimely Thoughts”. For some period they separated the writer from the Bolsheviks.
Six months later, it seems to him, he finds a way out: the proletariat needs to unite “with the fresh forces of the workers’ and peasants’ intelligentsia.”
“Having covered the entire country with a network of cultural and educational societies, having gathered in them all the spiritual forces of the country, we will light bonfires everywhere, which will give the country both light and warmth, help it heal and get back on its feet vigorous, strong and capable of construction and creativity... Only in this way and only in this way will we reach real culture and freedom.”.
A new utopia is being born - universal literacy as the path to freedom. From now on until the end of his life, she will guide the writer’s actions. He believes in uniting the forces of the intelligentsia and reasonable workers. The peasantry is considered a dark, “anti-revolutionary” element. He never saw through the tragedy of the Russian peasantry at the turn of the 20s and 30s.
Gorky's activities in the first post-revolutionary years
In the first post-revolutionary years, Gorky constantly bothered for the unfortunate people who were threatened with execution, which was very similar to lynching.
“Vladimir Ilyich!- he writes to Lenin in the fall of 1919. -...Several dozen of the most prominent Russian scientists have been arrested... Obviously, we have no hope of winning and no courage to die with honor if we resort to such a barbaric and shameful method, which I consider to be the extermination of the country's scientific forces... I know what you will say ordinary words: “political struggle”, “whoever is not with us is against us”, “neutral people are dangerous” and so on... It became clear to me that the “reds” are the same enemies of the people as the “whites”. Personally, of course, I prefer to be destroyed by the “whites,” but the “reds” are also not my comrades.”
Trying to save the remnants of the intelligentsia from starvation, Gorky organized private publishing houses and a commission to improve the living conditions of scientists, everywhere meeting fierce resistance from Soviet officials. In September 1920, the writer was forced to leave all the institutions he created, which he announced to Lenin: “I can’t do otherwise. I'm tired of the stupidity".
In 1921, Gorky tried to send the dying Blok abroad for treatment, but the Soviet authorities refused to do so. It is not possible to save those arrested in the so-called Tagantsev case, including Nikolai Gumilyov, from execution. The Famine Relief Committee, created on Gorky's initiative, was dispersed a few weeks later.
Treatment abroad
In 1921, the writer left Russia. He was treated in Germany and Czechoslovakia, and in 1924 he settled again in Italy, in Sorrento. But this time not as an emigrant. Years passed, and gradually Gorky’s attitude towards Soviet power changed: it began to seem to him like a people’s, workers’ power. In the USSR in those years, based on Lenin’s assessment, “Mother” was made a school textbook, convincing everyone that this was exemplary literature. Streets, theaters, and airplanes are named after Gorky. The authorities are doing everything to attract the writer to their side. She needs him as a screen.
Return to Moscow, last years of life
In 1928, Gorky returned to Moscow. He is greeted by crowds of new readers. The writer is immersed in literary and social work: he founded and headed new magazines and book series, took part in writers' destinies, helps some to overcome censorship restrictions (for example, Mikhail Bulgakov), someone to go abroad (Evgeny Zamyatin), and for others, on the contrary, it prevents them from publishing (for example, Andrei Platonov).
Gorky himself continues the multi-volume work “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which he began in Italy - a chronicle of Russian life in the pre-revolutionary decades. A huge number of characters, a considerable number of true details of the era, and behind all this there is one task - to show the double, cowardly, treacherous face of the former Russian intelligentsia.
He becomes closer to Stalin and People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yagoda, and this increasingly obscures from him the bloody meaning of what is happening in the country. Like many cultural figures, Gorky does not see that the political regime established in the USSR for its own purposes (like Hitler’s in Germany) manipulates culture, distorts the very meaning of enlightenment, subordinating it to inhumane goals. In his articles, Gorky stigmatizes the victims of the trials of the 28–30s. With all his knowledge of life, he does not want to understand that the testimony given by “enemies of the people” can only be obtained under torture.
Since 1933, Gorky has been deprived of the opportunity to travel abroad for the winter and meet with those whom he would like to see. Stalin can no longer allow even episodic, not foreseen by himself, participation of a writer in any literary and social affairs. Gorky actually finds himself under house arrest and in this situation, under unclear circumstances, dies the day before new wave mass repressions.
Literature
D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001
E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 20th century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002
N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments on Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11. I half of the year. M.: VAKO, 2005
Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov (better known as 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 then brought up in the house of his maternal grandfather, Kashirin, a bankrupt owner of a dyeing workshop. The stingy grandfather early forced young Alyosha to “go among the people,” that is, to earn money on his own. He had to work as a store delivery boy, baker, and wash dishes in a cafeteria. These early years Gorky later described his life in “Childhood,” the first part of his autobiographical trilogy. In 1884, Alexey unsuccessfully tried to enter Kazan University.
Gorky's grandmother, unlike his grandfather, was a kind and religious woman and an excellent storyteller. Alexey Maksimovich himself associated his suicide attempt in December 1887 with difficult feelings about his grandmother’s death. Gorky shot himself, but remained alive: the bullet missed his heart. She, however, seriously damaged her lung, and the writer suffered from respiratory weakness all his life.
In 1888 Gorky was on a short time arrested for connections with the Marxist circle of N. Fedoseev. In the spring of 1891 he set off to wander around Russia and reached the Caucasus. Expanding your knowledge by self-education, getting a job temporary work either as a loader or as a night watchman, Gorky accumulated impressions, which he later used to write his first stories. He called this period of his life “My Universities.”
In 1892, 24-year-old Gorky returned to his native place and began to collaborate as a journalist in several provincial publications. Alexey Maksimovich initially wrote under the pseudonym Yehudiel Chlamys (which, translated from Hebrew and Greek, gives some associations with “cloak and dagger”), but soon came up with another one - Maxim Gorky, hinting at “bitter” Russian life, and the desire to write only the “bitter truth.” He first used the name “Gorky” in correspondence for the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus”.
Maksim Gorky. Video
Gorky's literary debut and his first steps in politics
In 1892, Maxim Gorky’s first story “Makar Chudra” appeared. It was followed by “Chelkash”, “Old Woman Izergil” (see summary and full text), “Song of the Falcon” (1895), “ Former people"(1897), etc. All of them were not distinguished not so much by great artistic merit as by exaggerated pompous pathos, but they successfully coincided with 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 ignited by the proletariat and the poor. Lumpen tramps were the main characters of Maxim Gorky's stories. Society began to vigorously applaud them as a new fictional fashion.
In 1898, Gorky's first collection, Essays and Stories, was published. He was a resounding (albeit completely inexplicable in terms of literary talent) success. Public and creative career Gorky took off sharply. He depicted the life of beggars from the very bottom of society (“tramps”), depicting their difficulties and humiliations with strong exaggeration, intensely introducing feigned pathos of “humanity” into his stories. Maxim Gorky gained a reputation as the only literary exponent of the interests of the working class, a defender of the idea of a radical social, political and cultural transformation of Russia. His work was praised by intellectuals and “conscious” workers. Gorky struck up close acquaintances with Chekhov and Tolstoy, although their attitude towards him was not always clear.
Gorky acted as a staunch supporter of Marxist social democracy, openly hostile to “tsarism.” In 1901 he wrote “Song of the Petrel,” an open call for revolution. For drawing up a proclamation calling for “the fight against autocracy,” he was arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod that same year. Maxim Gorky became a close friend of many revolutionaries, including Lenin, whom he first met in 1902. He became even more famous when he exposed secret police officer Matvey Golovinsky as the author of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Golovinsky then had to leave Russia. When Gorky's election (1902) to a member of the Imperial Academy in the category of belles-lettres was annulled by the government, academicians A.P. Chekhov and V.G. Korolenko also resigned as a sign of solidarity.
Maksim Gorky
In 1900-1905 Gorky's work became more and more optimistic. Of his works from this period of his life, several plays that are closely related to public issues. The most famous of them is “At the Bottom” (see its full text and summary). Staged not without censorship difficulties in Moscow (1902), it had big success, and was then given throughout Europe and the United States. Maxim Gorky became increasingly close to the political opposition. During the revolution of 1905, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg for his play “Children of the Sun,” which was formally dedicated to the cholera epidemic of 1862, but clearly hinted at current events. Gorky's "official" companion in 1904-1921 was former actress Maria Andreeva – long-standing Bolshevik, which came after October revolution theater director.
Having become rich thanks to his writing, Maxim Gorky provided financial support to the Russian Social Democratic workers' party (RSDLP), while simultaneously supporting liberal appeals to civil and social reforms. The death of many people during the demonstration on January 9, 1905 (“Bloody Sunday”) apparently gave impetus to Gorky’s even greater radicalization. Without openly aligning himself with 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. A meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, chaired by Lenin, took place at his apartment in this city, which decided to stop the armed struggle for now. A.I. Solzhenitsyn writes (“March of the Seventeenth,” ch. 171) that Gorky “in 1905, in his Moscow apartment during the days of the uprising, kept thirteen Georgian vigilantes, and he made bombs.”
Fearing arrest, Alexey Maksimovich fled to Finland, from where he left for Western Europe. From Europe he traveled to the United States to raise funds in support of the Bolshevik Party. It was during this trip that Gorky began to write 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 the revolution by a simple working woman after the arrest of her son. In America, Gorky was initially welcomed with open arms. He met Theodore Roosevelt And Mark Twain. However, then the American press began to be outraged by the high-profile political actions of Maxim Gorky: he sent a telegram of support to the union leaders Haywood and Moyer, who was accused of murdering the governor of Idaho. The newspapers also did not like the fact that the writer was accompanied on the trip not 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 vehemently.
Gorky in Capri
Having returned from America, Maxim Gorky decided not to return to Russia yet, 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, Alexey 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 develop from revolutionary myths a “socialist spirituality”, with the help of which enriched with strong passions and new moral values humanity will 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 to the success of the revolution than political and economic measures. This theme lies at the heart of his novel 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 activity. 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, together with a number of other prominent Russian writers participated in the publication of the journalistic collection “Shield”, the purpose of which was to protect Jewry allegedly oppressed in Russia. Speaking at 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 progressive Duma member Mansyrev, 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 the revolutionary year of 1917 his relations with them worsened. Two weeks after the October Revolution of 1917, Maxim Gorky wrote:
However, as the Bolshevik regime strengthened, Maxim Gorky became more and more depressed and increasingly refrained from criticism. On August 31, 1918, having learned about the assassination attempt on Lenin, Gorky and Maria Andreeva sent a joint 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, which he described as follows: “I realized that I was mistaken, went to Ilyich and openly admitted my mistake.” Together with a number of other writers who joined the Bolsheviks, Gorky created the publishing house " World literature" It planned to publish the best classical works, however, in an environment of terrible devastation, almost nothing could be done. Gorky, however, started love affair with one of the employees of the new publishing house - Maria Benkendorf. It continued 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 execution by the security officers. In October of the same year, the writer left Bolshevik Russia and lived in German resorts, completing there the third part of his autobiography, “My Universities” (1923). He then returned to Italy "for treatment of tuberculosis." While living in Sorrento (1924), Gorky maintained contacts with his homeland. After 1928, Alexey Maksimovich came to Soviet Union, until he accepted Stalin’s proposal for a final return to his homeland (October 1932). According to some literary scholars, the reason for the return was the writer’s political convictions and his long-standing sympathies for the Bolsheviks, but there is a more reasonable opinion that the main role here was played by Gorky’s desire to get rid of debts incurred while living abroad.
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 I received detailed information from camp inmates on Solovki about the terrible cruelties that were happening there. This case is in “The Gulag Archipelago” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn. In the West, Gorky's article about the Solovetsky camp aroused 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 Soviet newspapers an article “Who are you with, masters of culture?” Designed in the style of Lenin-Stalin propaganda, it called on writers, artists and performers to put their creativity at the service of the communist movement.
Upon returning to the USSR, Alexey Maksimovich received the Order of Lenin (1933) and was elected head of the Union Soviet writers(1934). The government provided him with a luxurious mansion in Moscow, which belonged to millionaire Nikolai Ryabushinsky before the revolution (now the Gorky Museum), as well as a fashionable dacha in the Moscow region. During demonstrations, Gorky climbed to the podium of the mausoleum along 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 by Tupolev's bureau in the mid-1930s, was named "Maxim Gorky". There are numerous photographs of the writer with members of the Soviet government. All these honors came at a price. Gorky put his creativity at the service of Stalinist propaganda. In 1934, he co-edited a book that celebrated the slave labor built White Sea-Baltic Canal and convinced that in the Soviet “correctional” camps a successful “reforging” of the former “enemies of the proletariat” was taking place.
Maxim Gorky on the podium of the mausoleum. Nearby are Kaganovich, Voroshilov and Stalin
There is, however, information that all this lie cost Gorky considerable mental anguish. The higher-ups knew about the writer’s hesitations. 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 was poisoned by “enemies of the people.” Charges of poisoning were brought against prominent participants in the Moscow trials of 1936-1938. and were considered proven there. Former head OGPU And NKVD, Genrikh Yagoda, admitted that he organized the murder of Maxim Gorky on the orders of Trotsky.
Joseph Stalin and Writers. Maksim Gorky
Gorky's cremated ashes were buried near the Kremlin wall. The writer’s brain had previously been removed from his body and sent “for study” to a Moscow research institute.
Evaluation of Gorky's work
IN Soviet times, before and after the death of Maxim Gorky, government propaganda diligently obscured his ideological and creative wanderings, ambiguous relations with the leaders of Bolshevism in different periods life. The Kremlin presented him as the largest Russian writer of his time, a native of the people, true friend Communist Party and the father of “socialist realism”. Statues and portraits of Gorky were distributed throughout the country. Russian dissidents saw Gorky's work as the embodiment of a slippery compromise. In the West, they emphasized the constant fluctuations in his views on the Soviet system, recalling Gorky’s repeated criticism of the Bolshevik regime.
Gorky saw literature not so much as a way of artistic and aesthetic self-expression, but rather as a moral political activity with the goal of changing the world. Being the author of novels, short stories, autobiographical essays and plays, Alexey Maksimovich also wrote many treatises and reflections: articles, essays, memoirs about politicians (for example, Lenin), about people of art (Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc.).
Gorky himself argued that the center of his work was a deep belief in the value human personality, a celebration of human dignity and resilience in the midst of life's hardships. The writer saw in himself a “restless soul” that strives 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 they convince: these claims were mostly feigned.
Gorky's life and work reflected the tragedy and confusion of his extremely ambiguous time, 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. Best quality What is different is his autobiographical stories, which give a realistic and picturesque picture of Russian life at the end of the 19th century.
Real name and surname – Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov.
Russian writer, publicist, public figure. Maxim Gorky was born March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod in a bourgeois family. He lost his parents early and was raised in his grandfather’s family. He graduated from two classes of a suburban primary school in Kunavin (now Kanavino), a suburb of Nizhny Novgorod, but was unable to continue his education due to poverty (his grandfather’s dyeing establishment went bankrupt). M. Gorky was forced to work from the age of ten. Possessing a unique memory, Gorky spent his whole life intensely engaged in self-education. In 1884 went to Kazan, where he participated in the work of underground populist circles; connection with the revolutionary movement largely determined his life and creative aspirations. In 1888-1889 and 1891-1892. wandered around the south of Russia; impressions from these “walks around Rus'” subsequently became the most important source of plots and images for his work (primarily his early work).
The first publication was the story “Makar Chudra”, published in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus” September 12, 1892. In 1893-1896. Gorky actively collaborated with Volga newspapers, where he published many feuilletons and stories. The name of Gorky gained all-Russian and all-European fame soon after the release of his first collection “Essays and Stories” (vol. 1-2, 1898 ), in which the sharpness and brightness in conveying the realities of life was combined with neo-romantic pathos, with a passionate call for the transformation of man and the world (“Old Woman Izergil”, “Konovalov”, “Chelkash”, “Malva”, “On Rafts”, “Song of Sokol”, etc.). The symbol of the growing revolutionary movement in Russia became the “Song of the Petrel” ( 1901 ).
With the beginning of Gorky's work in 1900 His long-term literary and organizational activity began at the Znanie publishing house. He expanded the publishing program, organized since 1904 the release of the famous collections “Knowledge” rallied around the publishing house the largest writers close to the realistic direction (I. Bunin, L. Andreev, A. Kuprin, etc.), and actually led this direction in its opposition to modernism.
At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. M. Gorky’s first novels “Foma Gordeev” were published (1899) and "Three" ( 1900) . In 1902 His first plays were staged at the Moscow Art Theater - “Philistines” and “At the Lower Depths”. Together with the plays "Summer Residents" ( 1904 ), "Children of the Sun" ( 1905 ), "Barbarians" ( 1906 ) they defined a unique Gorky type of Russian realistic theater of the early 20th century, based on acute social conflict and clearly expressed ideological character. The play “At the Lower Depths” is still preserved in the repertoire of many theaters around the world.
Involved in active political activity at the beginning of the first Russian revolution, Gorky was forced in January 1906 emigrate (returned at the end of 1913). The peak of the writer’s conscious political engagement (social-democratic overtones) occurred in 1906-1907 years when the plays “Enemies” were published ( 1906 ), novel "Mother" ( 1906-1907 ), journalistic collections “My Interviews” and “In America” (both 1906 ).
A new turn in Gorky’s worldview and stylistic manner was revealed in the stories “The Town of Okurov” ( 1909-1910 ) and “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin” ( 1910-1911 ), as well as in autobiographical prose 1910s.: stories “Master” ( 1913 ), "Childhood" ( 1913-1914 ), "In people" ( 1916 ), collection of stories “Across Rus'” ( 1912-1917 ) and others: Gorky addressed the problem of the Russian national character. The same trends were reflected in the so-called. second dramaturgical cycle: plays “Eccentrics” ( 1910 ), “Vassa Zheleznova” (1st ed. – 1910 ), "Old Man" (created in 1915, published in 1918 ) and etc.
During the period of revolutions 1917 Gorky sought to fight the anti-humanistic and anti-cultural tyranny that the Bolsheviks relied on (a series of articles “Untimely Thoughts” in the newspaper “New Life”). After October 1917 on the one hand, he became involved in the cultural and social work of new institutions, and on the other hand, he criticized the Bolshevik terror and tried to save representatives of the creative intelligentsia from arrests and executions (in some cases, successfully). Increasing disagreements with the policies of V. Lenin led Gorky to October 1921 to emigration (formally it was presented as going abroad for treatment), which actually (with interruptions) continued before 1933.
First half of the 1920s marked by Gorky's search for new principles of artistic worldview. The book “Notes from a Diary” was written in an experimental memoir-fragmentary form. Memories" ( 1924 ), at the center of which is the theme of the Russian national character and its contradictory complexity. Collection "Stories of 1922-1924" ( 1925 ) marked by an interest in secrets human soul, a psychologically complicated type of hero, gravitating toward conventionally fantastic vision angles that were unusual for the former Gorky. In the 1920s Gorky's work began on broad artistic canvases, covering the recent past of Russia: “My Universities” ( 1923 ), novel “The Artamonov Case” ( 1925 ), epic novel “The Life of Klim Samgin” (parts 1-3, 1927-1931 ; unfinished 4 hours, 1937 ). Later, this panorama was supplemented by a cycle of plays: “Yegor Bulychov and others” ( 1932 ), "Dostigaev and others" ( 1933 ), "Vassa Zheleznova" (2nd edition, 1936 ).
Finally returning to the USSR in May 1933, Gorky took an active part in cultural construction, led the preparations for the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, and participated in the creation of a number of institutes, publishing houses and magazines. His speeches and organizational efforts played a significant role in establishing the aesthetics of socialist realism. Journalism of these years characterizes Gorky as one of the ideologists of the Soviet system, indirectly and directly advocating the Stalinist regime. At the same time, he repeatedly appealed to Stalin with petitions on behalf of repressed figures of science, literature and art.
The pinnacle of M. Gorky’s creativity includes a series of memoir portraits of his contemporaries (L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, L.N. Andreev, etc.), created by him in different time.
June 18, 1936 Maxim Gorky died in Moscow and was buried on Red Square (the urn with his ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall).
Initially, Gorky was skeptical about the October Revolution. However, after several years of cultural work in Soviet Russia(in Petrograd he headed the publishing house “World Literature”, interceded with the Bolsheviks on behalf of those arrested) and life abroad in the 1920s (Marienbad, Sorrento), returned to the USSR, where the last years of his life he was surrounded by official recognition as “the petrel of the revolution” and “ great proletarian writer”, founder of socialist realism.
Biography
Alexey Maksimovich came up with the pseudonym “Gorky” himself. Subsequently, he told Kalyuzhny: “I shouldn’t write Peshkov in literature...”. More information about his biography can be found in his autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.
Childhood
Alexey Peshkov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a carpenter (according to another version, the manager of the Astrakhan office of the shipping company I. S. Kolchin) - Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Mother - Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina (1842-1879). Gorky’s grandfather Savvaty Peshkov rose to the rank of officer, but was demoted and exiled to Siberia “for cruel treatment of lower ranks,” after which he enrolled as a bourgeois. His son Maxim ran away from his father five times and at the age of 17 left home forever. Orphaned early, Gorky spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather Kashirin. From the age of 11 he was forced to go “into the people”: he worked as a “boy” in a store, as a buffet cook on a steamship, as a baker, studied in an icon-painting workshop, etc.
Youth
- In 1884 he tried to enter Kazan University. I became acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.
- In 1888, he was arrested for connections with N. E. Fedoseev’s circle. He was under constant police surveillance. In October 1888, he became a watchman at the Dobrinka station of the Gryaze-Tsaritsyn Railway. Impressions from his stay in Dobrinka will serve as the basis for the autobiographical story “Watchman” and the story “Boredom for the Sake.”
- In January 1889, at a personal request (a complaint in verse), he was transferred to the Borisoglebsk station, then as a weighmaster to the Krutaya station.
- In the spring of 1891, he set out to wander around the country and reached the Caucasus.
Literary and social activities
- In 1892 he first appeared in print with the story “Makar Chudra”. Returning to Nizhny Novgorod, he publishes reviews and feuilletons in Volzhsky Vestnik, Samara Gazeta, Nizhny Novgorod Listok, etc.
- 1895 - “Chelkash”, “Old Woman Izergil”.
- 1896 - Gorky writes a response to the first cinematic session in Nizhny Novgorod:
- 1897 - “Former People”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva”, “Konovalov”.
- From October 1897 to mid-January 1898, he lived in the village of Kamenka (now the city of Kuvshinovo, Tver Region) in the apartment of his friend Nikolai Zakharovich Vasiliev, who worked at the Kamensk paper factory and led an illegal workers' Marxist circle. Subsequently, the life impressions of this period served the writer as material for the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin.”
- 1898 - The publishing house of Dorovatsky and A.P. Charushnikov published the first volume of Gorky's works. In those years, the circulation of the young author's first book rarely exceeded 1000 copies. A. I. Bogdanovich advised to release the first two volumes of M. Gorky’s “Essays and Stories”, 1200 copies each. Publishers “took a chance” and released more. The first volume of the 1st edition of “Essays and Stories” was published in a circulation of 3,000 copies.
- 1899 - novel “Foma Gordeev”, prose poem “Song of the Falcon”.
- 1900-1901 - the novel “Three”, personal acquaintance with Chekhov, Tolstoy.
- 1900-1913 - participates in the work of the publishing house "Knowledge"
- March 1901 - “Song of the Petrel” was created by M. Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod. Participation in Marxist workers' circles in Nizhny Novgorod, Sormovo, St. Petersburg, wrote a proclamation calling for the fight against autocracy. Arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod. According to contemporaries, Nikolai Gumilyov highly valued the last stanza of this poem.
- In 1901, M. Gorky turned to drama. Creates the plays “The Bourgeois” (1901), “At the Lower Depths” (1902). In 1902, he became the godfather and adoptive father of the Jew Zinovy Sverdlov, who took the surname Peshkov and converted to Orthodoxy. This was necessary in order for Zinovy to receive the right to live in Moscow.
- February 21 - election of M. Gorky to honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature.
- 1904-1905 - writes the plays “Summer Residents”, “Children of the Sun”, “Varvars”. Meets Lenin. He was arrested for the revolutionary proclamation and in connection with the execution on January 9, but then released under public pressure. Participant in the revolution of 1905-1907. In the fall of 1905 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
- 1906 - travels abroad, creates satirical pamphlets about the “bourgeois” culture of France and the USA (“My Interviews”, “In America”). He writes the play “Enemies”, creates the novel “Mother”. Due to tuberculosis, he settled in Italy on the island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years (from 1906 to 1913). Checked into the prestigious Quisisana Hotel. From March 1909 to February 1911 he lived at the Villa Spinola (now Bering), stayed at the villas (they have commemorative plaques about his stay) Blesius (from 1906 to 1909) and Serfina (now Pierina) ). On Capri, Gorky wrote “Confession” (1908), where his philosophical differences with Lenin and rapprochement with Lunacharsky and Bogdanov were clearly outlined.
- 1907 - delegate to the V Congress of the RSDLP.
- 1908 - play “The Last”, story “The Life of an Useless Person”.
- 1909 - the stories “The Town of Okurov”, “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”.
- 1913 - Gorky edits the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, art department Bolshevik magazine "Prosveshchenie", publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes "Tales of Italy".
- 1912-1916 - M. Gorky creates a series of stories and essays that made up the collection “Across Rus'”, autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”. The last part of the trilogy, “My Universities,” was written in 1923.
- 1917-1919 - M. Gorky does a lot of social and political work, criticizes the “methods” of the Bolsheviks, condemns their attitude towards the old intelligentsia, saves many of its representatives from Bolshevik repression and famine.
Abroad
- 1921 - M. Gorky’s departure abroad. In Soviet literature, there was a myth that the reason for his departure was the resumption of his illness and the need, at Lenin’s insistence, for treatment abroad. In fact, A. M. Gorky was forced to leave due to worsening ideological differences with the established government. In 1921-1923 lived in Helsingfors, Berlin, Prague.
- Since 1924 he lived in Italy, in Sorrento. Published memoirs about Lenin.
- 1925 - novel “The Artamonov Case”.
- 1928 - at the invitation of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, he tours the country, during which Gorky is shown the achievements of the USSR, which are reflected in the series of essays “Around the Soviet Union.”
- 1931 - Gorky visits the Solovetsky special purpose camp and writes a laudatory review of its regime. A fragment of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Gulag Archipelago” is dedicated to this fact.
Return to the USSR
- 1932 - Gorky returns to the Soviet Union. The government provided him with the former Ryabushinsky mansion on Spiridonovka, dachas in Gorki and Teselli (Crimea). Here he receives Stalin’s order - to prepare the ground for the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers, and to do this, to hold among them preparatory work. Gorky created many newspapers and magazines: the book series “History of factories and factories”, “History civil war", "Poet's Library", "History young man XIX century", the magazine "Literary Studies", he writes the plays "Yegor Bulychev and others" (1932), "Dostigaev and others" (1933).
- 1934 - Gorky holds the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, giving the main report at it.
- 1934 - co-editor of the book “Stalin Canal”
- In 1925-1936 he wrote the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which remained unfinished.
- On May 11, 1934, Gorky’s son, Maxim Peshkov, unexpectedly dies. M. Gorky died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki, having outlived his son by a little more than two years. After his death, he was cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. Before cremation, M. Gorky's brain was removed and taken to the Moscow Brain Institute for further study.
Death
The circumstances of the death of Maxim Gorky and his son are considered “suspicious” by many; there were rumors of poisoning, which, however, were not confirmed. At the funeral, among others, Molotov and Stalin carried Gorky’s coffin. It is interesting that among other accusations against Genrikh Yagoda at the Third Moscow Trial in 1938 was the accusation of poisoning Gorky’s son. According to Yagoda's interrogations, Maxim Gorky was killed on Trotsky's orders, and the murder of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, was his personal initiative.
Some publications blame Stalin for Gorky's death. An important precedent for the medical side of the accusations in the “Doctors’ Case” was the Third Moscow Trial (1938), where among the defendants were three doctors (Kazakov, Levin and Pletnev), accused of the murders of Gorky and others.
Family and personal life
- Wife - Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova (nee Volozhina).
- Son - Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov (1897-1934) + Vvedenskaya, Nadezhda Alekseevna (“Timosha”)
- Peshkova, Marfa Maksimovna + Beria, Sergo Lavrentievich
- daughters Nina and Nadezhda, son Sergei (they bore the surname “Peshkov” because of the fate of Beria)
- Peshkova, Daria Maksimovna + Grave, Alexander Konstantinovich
- Maxim and Ekaterina (carried the surname Peshkov)
- Alexey Peshkov, son of Catherine
- Maxim and Ekaterina (carried the surname Peshkov)
- Peshkova, Marfa Maksimovna + Beria, Sergo Lavrentievich
- Daughter - Ekaterina Alekseevna Peshkova (died as a child)
- Peshkov, Zinovy Alekseevich, brother of Yakov Sverdlov, godson of Peshkov, who took his last name, and de facto adopted son + (1) Lydia Burago
- Son - Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov (1897-1934) + Vvedenskaya, Nadezhda Alekseevna (“Timosha”)
- Concubine 1906-1913 - Maria Fedorovna Andreeva (1872-1953)
- Ekaterina Andreevna Zhelyabuzhskaya (Andreeva’s daughter from her first marriage, Gorky’s stepdaughter) + Abram Garmant
- Zhelyabuzhsky, Yuri Andreevich (stepson)
- Evgeniy G. Kyakist, Andreeva’s nephew
- A. L. Zhelyabuzhsky, nephew of Andreeva’s first husband
- Long-term life partner - Budberg, Maria Ignatievna
Environment
- Shaikevich Varvara Vasilievna - wife of A.N. Tikhonov-Serebrova, Gorky’s lover, who allegedly had a child from him.
- Tikhonov-Serebrov Alexander Nikolaevich - assistant.
- Rakitsky, Ivan Nikolaevich - artist.
- Khodasevichi: Valentin, his wife Nina Berberova; niece Valentina Mikhailovna, her husband Andrey Diederichs.
- Yakov Izrailevich.
- Kryuchkov, Pyotr Petrovich - secretary, later, together with Yagoda,
Born in Nizhny Novgorod. The son of the manager of the shipping office, Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov and Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina. At the age of seven he was left an orphan and lived with his grandfather, a once rich dyer, who by that time had gone bankrupt.
Alexei Peshkov had to earn his living from childhood, which prompted the writer to later take the pseudonym Gorky. IN early childhood served as an errand worker in a shoe store, then as a draftsman's apprentice. Unable to withstand the humiliation, he ran away from home. He worked as a cook on a Volga steamship. At the age of 15, he came to Kazan with the intention of getting an education, but, without any financial support, he was unable to fulfill his intention.
In Kazan I learned about life in slums and shelters. Driven to despair, he committed unsuccessful attempt suicide. From Kazan he moved to Tsaritsyn, worked as a watchman at railway. Then he returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where he became a scribe for attorney M.A. Lapin, who did a lot for young Peshkov.
Unable to stay in one place, he went on foot to the south of Russia, where he tried himself in the Caspian fisheries, and in the construction of a pier, and other work.
In 1892, Gorky's story "Makar Chudra" was first published. The following year he returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where he met with the writer V.G. Korolenko, who took a great part in the fate of the aspiring writer.
In 1898 A.M. Gorky was already a famous writer. His books sold thousands of copies, and his fame spread beyond the borders of Russia. Gorky is the author of numerous short stories, novels “Foma Gordeev”, “Mother”, “The Artamonov Case”, etc., plays “Enemies”, “Bourgeois”, “At the Demise”, “Summer Residents”, “Vassa Zheleznova”, the epic novel “ The life of Klim Samgin.
Since 1901, the writer began to openly express sympathy for the revolutionary movement, which caused a negative reaction from the government. Since that time, Gorky has been subjected to arrests and persecution more than once. In 1906 he went abroad to Europe and America.
After the October Revolution of 1917, Gorky became the initiator of the creation and first chairman of the Union of Writers of the USSR. He organized the publishing house “World Literature”, where many writers of that time had the opportunity to work, thereby escaping hunger. He is also credited with saving members of the intelligentsia from arrest and death. Often during these years, Gorky was the last hope of those persecuted by the new government.
In 1921, the writer’s tuberculosis worsened, and he went to Germany and the Czech Republic for treatment. Since 1924 he lived in Italy. In 1928 and 1931, Gorky traveled around Russia, including visiting the Solovetsky special purpose camp. In 1932, Gorky was practically forced to return to Russia.
The last years of the seriously ill writer's life were, on the one hand, full of boundless praise - even during Gorky's lifetime, his hometown of Nizhny Novgorod was named after him - on the other hand, the writer lived in practical isolation under constant control.
Alexey Maksimovich was married many times. First time on Ekaterina Pavlovna Volzhina. From this marriage he had a daughter, Ekaterina, who died in infancy, and a son, Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov, an amateur artist. Gorky's son died unexpectedly in 1934, which gave rise to speculation about his violent death. The death of Gorky himself two years later also aroused similar suspicions.
For the second time he was married in a civil marriage to the actress and revolutionary Maria Fedorovna Andreeva. In fact, the third wife in the last years of the writer’s life was a woman with a stormy biography, Maria Ignatievna Budberg.
He died near Moscow in Gorki, in the same house where V.I. died. Lenin. The ashes are in the Kremlin wall on Red Square. The writer's brain was sent to the Moscow Brain Institute for study.
