The creation of Maxim Gorky is associated with the activities of Maxim Gorky. Emigration and return to the USSR

Abroad

Bibliography

Stories, essays

Journalism

Film incarnations

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

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

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

Biography

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

Childhood

Alexey Peshkov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a carpenter (according to another version, the manager of the Astrakhan office of the shipping company I. S. Kolchin) - Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Mother - Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina (1842-1879). 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 satrap 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 “to the people”; worked as a “boy” in a store, as a pantry cook on a ship, 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. Was under constant police surveillance. In October 1888 he became a watchman at the Dobrinka station in Gryaze-Tsaritsynskaya 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

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 first book young author rarely exceeded 1,000 copies. A. I. Bogdanovich advised releasing the first two volumes of M. Gorky’s “Essays and Stories” in 1,200 copies each. Publishers “took a chance” and released more. The first volume of the 1st edition of “Essays and Stories” was published in a circulation of 3,000.
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 Nizhny Novgorod, Sormova, St. Petersburg, wrote a proclamation calling for the fight against autocracy. Arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod.

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

In 1901, M. Gorky turned to drama. Creates the plays “The Bourgeois” (1901), “At the Lower Depths” (1902). In 1902, he became the godfather and adoptive father of the Jew Zinovy Sverdlov, who took the surname Peshkov and converted to Orthodoxy. This was necessary in order for Zinovy to receive the right to live in Moscow.
February 21 - election of M. Gorky to honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of belles-lettres. "In 1902, Gorky was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. But before Gorky could exercise his new rights, his election was annulled by the government, since the newly elected academician “was under police surveillance.” In this regard, Chekhov and Korolenko refused membership in the Academy.
1904-1905 - writes the plays “Summer Residents”, “Children of the Sun”, “Barbarians”. Meets Lenin. He was arrested for the revolutionary proclamation and in connection with the execution on January 9, but then released under public pressure. Participant in the revolution of 1905-1907. In the fall of 1905 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.
1906 - M. Gorky travels abroad, creates satirical pamphlets about the “bourgeois” culture of France and the USA (“My Interviews”, “In America”). He writes the play “Enemies” and creates the novel “Mother”. Due to tuberculosis, Gorky settled in Italy on the island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years. Here he writes “Confession” (1908), where his philosophical differences with Lenin and rapprochement with Lunacharsky and Bogdanov were clearly outlined.
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 - M. Gorky edits the Bolshevik newspapers “Zvezda” and “Pravda”, art department Bolshevik magazine "Prosveshchenie", publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes "Tales of Italy".

1912-1916 - M. Gorky creates a series of stories and essays that made up the collection “Across Rus'”, autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”. The last part of the trilogy, “My Universities,” was written in 1923.
1917-1919 - M. Gorky does a lot of social and political work, criticizes the “methods” of the Bolsheviks, condemns their attitude towards the old intelligentsia, saves many of its representatives from Bolshevik repression and famine. In 1917, having disagreed with the Bolsheviks on the issue of timeliness socialist revolution in Russia, did not undergo re-registration of party members and formally dropped out of it.

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.

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

Death

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

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

Family

First 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 Hope, son Sergey

Peshkova, Daria Maksimovna

Second wife - Maria Fedorovna Andreeva(1872-1953; civil marriage)
Long-term life partner - Budberg, Maria Ignatievna

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd - Leningrad

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

Bibliography

Novels

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

Stories

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

Stories, essays

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

Plays

Journalism

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

Initiated the creation of a series of books “History of factories and factories” (IFZ), took the initiative to revive the pre-revolutionary series “Life wonderful people»

Film incarnations

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

Memory

In 1932, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed the city of Gorky. The historical name was returned to the city in 1990.

In Nizhny Novgorod, the central regional children's library bears the name of Gorky, Theatre of Drama, street, as well as a square, in the center of which there is a monument to the writer by sculptor V. I. Mukhina. But the most interesting thing is the museum-apartment of M. Gorky.

In 1934, at the Voronezh aviation plant, a Soviet propaganda passenger multi-seat 8-engine aircraft was built, the largest aircraft of its time with a land landing gear - the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky.

In Moscow there was Maxim Gorky Lane (now Khitrovsky), Maxim Gorky Embankment (now Kosmodamianskaya), Maxim Gorky Square (formerly Khitrovskaya), Gorkovskaya (now Tverskaya) metro station of the Gorkovsko-Zamoskvoretskaya (now Zamoskvoretskaya) line, Gorky Street ( now divided into Tverskaya and 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya streets).

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

1868 - Alexey Peshkov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a carpenter - Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov.

1884 – tried to enter Kazan University. Gets acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.

1888 – arrested for connections with N.E. Fedoseev’s circle. Is under constant police surveillance. In October 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 “The Watchman” and the story “Boredom for the Sake.”

1889 , January - at personal request (complaint in verse), transferred to Borisoglebsk station, then as a weighmaster to Krutaya station.

1891 , spring - went to wander around the country and reached the Caucasus.

1892 – 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.

1897 – “Former People”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva”, “Konovalov”.

1897, October - mid-January 1898 - lives in the village of Kamenka (now the city of Kuvshinovo, Tver region) in the apartment of his friend N.Z. Vasiliev, who worked at the Kamensk paper factory and led an illegal workers' Marxist circle. Life impressions of this period served as material for the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin.”

1898 – the publishing house of Dorovatsky and A.P. Charushnikov releases the first volume of Gorky’s works “Essays and Stories” in a circulation of 3,000 copies.

1899 - novel "Foma Gordeev".

1900–1901 – novel “Three”, personal acquaintance with Chekhov, Tolstoy.

1900–1913 – participates in the work of the publishing house "Znanie".

1901 , March - “Song of the Petrel” was created 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.
Turns to dramaturgy. Creates the play "The Bourgeois".

1902 - play "At the Bottom". Elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. But before Gorky could exercise his new rights, his election was annulled by the government, since the writer “was under police surveillance.”

1904–1905 - plays "Summer Residents", "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians". Meeting Lenin. He was arrested for a revolutionary proclamation in connection with the execution on January 9, but then released under public pressure. Participant in the revolution 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”).
The play "Enemies", the novel "Mother". Due to tuberculosis, Gorky settled in Italy on the island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years.

1907 - Delegate to the V Congress of the RSDLP.

1908 – play “The Last”, story “The Life of an Useless Person”.

1909 – stories “Town of Okurov”, “Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”.

1913 - edits the Bolshevik newspapers "Zvezda" and "Pravda", the art department of the Bolshevik magazine "Prosveshchenie", publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes "Tales of Italy".

1912–1916 - creates a series of stories and essays that make up the collection “Across Rus'”, autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”. The last part of the trilogy “My Universities” was written in 1923.

1917–1919 – carries out extensive social and political work.

1921 – M. Gorky’s departure abroad.

1921–1923 – lives in Helsingfors, Berlin, Prague.

1924 – lives in Italy, in Sorrento. Published memoirs about Lenin.

1925 - the novel “The Artamonov Case”, begins to write the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which was never finished.

1928 - at the invitation of the Soviet government, makes a trip around the country, during which Gorky is shown the achievements of the USSR, depicted by the writer in the series of essays “Around the Soviet Union”.

1931 – visits the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp.

1932 - returns to the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of Gorky, many newspapers and magazines were created: the book series “History of Factories and Factories”, “History of the Civil War”, “Poet’s Library”, “History young man XIX century", magazine "Literary studies".
The play "Egor Bulychev and others."

1933 - play "Dostigaev and others".

1934 – Gorky holds the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers and makes the main report at it.

Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov born in 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. He lost his parents early, lived in his grandfather’s family, experienced many troubles and hardships with early childhood. This explains his nickname - Bitter, which he took in 1892, signing with it the story “Makar Chudra”, published in the newspaper. This is not so much a pseudonym-phrenonym - a pseudonym indicating main feature the author's character or main feature his creativity. Knowing for certain about the difficult life, the writer described the bitter fate of the disadvantaged. Gorky described the impressions of the beginning of his life in the trilogy “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.

Creative activity

Since 1892, the aspiring writer published feuilletons and reviews in newspapers. In 1898, his two-volume book “Essays and Stories” was published, which made Maxim Gorky a famous revolutionary author and attracted the attention of the authorities to him. This period in the writer’s life is characterized by a search for the heroic in life. “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel” were enthusiastically received by progressive youth.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Gorky finally subordinated his creativity to the service of the revolution. For his participation in the revolutionary movement in 1905, the writer was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but under the influence of the world community the authorities had to release him. To avoid persecution, the party sent Gorky to America in 1906. Impressions of the country and that time are described in the essays “The City of the Yellow Devil”, “Belle France”, “My Interviews”. Gorky did not stay abroad for long for the first time.

Emigration and return to the USSR

Gorky met the October Revolution without much enthusiasm, but continued his creative activity and wrote many patriotic works. In 1921, he was forced to emigrate abroad, according to one version - at the insistence of V.I. Lenin, for treatment of tuberculosis, according to another - due to ideological differences with the established government. And only in 1928 he came to Russia at the personal invitation of Stalin. The writer finally returned to his homeland in 1932, and for a long time remained the “head of Soviet literature”, created new magazines and series of books, and initiated the creation of the “Union of Soviet Writers”. Despite his extensive social work, he continues his creative activities.

Personal life

The writer’s personal life was just as eventful as his creative one, but not as happy. IN different time he had several long-term affairs, but he was married to one woman - E.P. Peshkova (Volzhina). They had two children, but the daughter died in infancy, leaving only one son, Maxim. In 1934, Maxim died tragically.

Alexey Maksimovich Gorky died in 1936, cremated and buried in Moscow, on Red Square. There are still conflicting rumors surrounding his death, as well as the death of his son.

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Maxim Gorky (real name Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. The persistent legends about his “barefoot” origin, which so impressed the revolutionary-minded intelligentsia, are contradicted by the Brockhaus and Efron Dictionary (which speaks of him as coming from a “completely bourgeois” environment) and facts. Gorky's paternal grandfather was an officer, although demoted for cruel treatment of his subordinates. Father, Maxim Savvateevich Peshkov, being a gifted and lucky man, achieved significant success in life.

Some features of his biography will then be repeated by his son, but on a larger scale.
Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin had an explosive, despotic character, and the boy grew up in an atmosphere of constant family scandals. Nevertheless, he was attached to his grandson, taught him at the age of six, first Church Slavonic literacy, and only then modern. At the age of nine, the boy was sent to the Nizhny Novgorod Kunavinsky School, where he completed two classes and was transferred to the third with a diploma of commendation for “excellent success in science and good behavior compared to others.” At this time, my grandfather went bankrupt and, unable to survive the blow of fate and come to terms with poverty, fell ill with mental illness. Eleven-year-old Alyosha was forced to leave school and go “to the people,” that is, to learn some kind of craft.

From 1879 to 1884, he was an apprentice in a shoe shop, in a drawing and icon-painting workshop, in the galley of the steamship "Dobry", where an event took place that can be called the starting point for Alyosha Peshkov on his path to Maxim Gorky - a meeting with a cook named Smury. This remarkable cook, despite his illiteracy, was obsessed with collecting books, mainly in leather bindings, which determined the “range” of his collection - from the Gothic novels of Anna Radcliffe to literature in the Little Russian language. Thanks to this, according to the writer, “the strangest library in the world” (“Autobiography”, 1897), he became addicted to reading and “read everything that came to hand”: Gogol, Dumas, Nekrasov, Scott, Flaubert, Balzac, Dickens , Sovremennik and Iskra magazines, popular print books and Freemasonic literature...

Having felt a taste for knowledge, Alexey Peshkov in 1884 went to Kazan to enter the university, but due to poverty, life became his “university”: settling in a rooming house among his future heroes and, working as a laborer, he began to attend self-education circles, student gatherings, and a library of illegal books and proclamations at Derenkov’s bakery, who hired him as a baker’s assistant. Soon a mentor appeared - one of the first Marxists in Russia, Nikolai Fedoseev...

And suddenly, having already found the “fateful” revolutionary vein, on December 12, 1887, Alexei Peshkov tries to commit suicide (shoots himself in the lung). Some biographers find the reason for this in his unrequited love for Derenkov’s sister Maria, others - in the beginning of repressions against student circles. These explanations seem formal, since they do not at all suit the psychophysical makeup of Alexei Peshkov. By nature he was a fighter, and all the troubles along the way only refreshed his strength.
For attempting suicide, the Kazan Spiritual Consistory excommunicated Peshkov from the church for seven years.

In the summer of 1888, Alexey Peshkov began his famous four-year “walk around Rus'” in order to return from it as Maxim Gorky. Volga region, Don, Ukraine, Crimea, Caucasus, Kharkov, Kursk, Zadonsk (where he visited the Zadonsk Monastery), Voronezh, Poltava, Mirgorod, Kyiv, Nikolaev, Odessa, Bessarabia, Kerch, Taman, Kuban, Tiflis - this is an incomplete list of his routes. During his wanderings, he worked as a loader, a railway watchman, a dishwasher, worked as a laborer in villages, mined salt, was beaten by men and was hospitalized, served in repair shops, and was arrested several times - for vagrancy and for revolutionary propaganda. During these same years, he experienced a passion for populism and Tolstoyism (in 1889 he visited Yasnaya Polyana with the intention of asking Leo Tolstoy for a plot of land for an “agricultural colony,” but their meeting did not take place), he became ill with Nietzsche’s teaching about the superman, which forever left its “pockmarks” in his views.

The first story, “Makar Chudra,” signed by his new name, Maxim Gorky, was published in 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus” and marked the end of his wanderings. Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod. With his literary godfather he considered Vladimir Korolenko. Under his patronage, in 1893 he began publishing essays in Volga newspapers, and a few years later he became a permanent contributor to the Samara Newspaper, where more than two hundred of his feuilletons signed by Yehudiel Chlamida were published, as well as the stories “Song of the Falcon”, “On the Rafts”, “Old Woman Izergil” and others. Here he met the proofreader of the Samara Newspaper, Ekaterina Pavlovna Volzhina, and, having overcome his mother’s resistance to the marriage of his noble daughter with a “Nizhny Novgorod guild,” he married her in 1896.

IN next year, despite worsening tuberculosis and concerns with the birth of his son Maxim, Gorky releases new stories and short stories, most of which will become textbooks: “Konovalov”, “Zazubrina”, “Fair in Goltva”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva”, “The Former people" and others. Gorky's first two-volume book, Essays and Stories (1898), published in St. Petersburg, had unprecedented success both in Russia and abroad. The demand for it was so great that a re-edition was immediately required - released in 1899 in three volumes. Gorky sent his first book to Chekhov, whom he admired, and he responded with a more than generous compliment: “An undoubted talent, and a real, great talent at that.”

Gorky's social position was radical. He was arrested more than once; in 1902, Nicholas II ordered the annulment of his election as an honorary academician in the category of fine literature (in protest, Chekhov and Korolenko left the Academy). In 1905 he joined the ranks of the RSDLP (Bolshevik wing) and met V.I. Lenin. They received serious financial support for the revolution of 1905-07.
Gorky quickly showed himself as a talented organizer literary process. In 1901 he became the head of the publishing house of the Knowledge Partnership and soon began to publish Collections of the Knowledge Partnership, where I. A. Bunin, L. N. Andreev, A. I. Kuprin, V. V. Veresaev, E. N. were published. Chirikov, N. D. Teleshov, A. S. Serafimovich, etc.
Vertex early creativity, the play “At the Lower Depths,” owes its fame to a great extent to the production of K. S. Stanislavsky at the Moscow art theater(1902; played by Stanislavsky, V.I. Kachalov, I.M. Moskvin, O.L. Knipper-Chekhova, etc.) In 1903, the performance “At the Lower Depths” with Richard Wallentin in the role of Satin took place at the Berlin Kleines Theater. Gorky's other plays - "The Bourgeois" (1901), "Summer Residents" (1904), "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians" (both 1905), "Enemies" (1906) - did not have such sensational success in Russia and Europe.

After the defeat of the revolution of 1905-07, Gorky emigrated to the island of Capri (Italy). The “Capri” period of creativity forced us to reconsider the idea that had developed in criticism about the “end of Gorky” (D. V. Filosofov), which was caused by his hobbies political struggle and the ideas of socialism, reflected in the story “Mother” (1906; second edition 1907). He creates the stories “The Town of Okurov” (1909), “Childhood” (1913-14), “In People” (1915-16), and the cycle of stories “Across Rus'” (1912-17). The story “Confession” (1908), highly appreciated by A. A. Blok, caused controversy in criticism. In it, for the first time, the theme of god-building was heard, which Gorky preached with A.V. Lunacharsky and A.A. Bogdanov at the Capri party school for workers, which caused his differences with Lenin, who hated “flirting with the little god.”
First World War had a hard impact on state of mind Gorky. It symbolized the beginning of the historical collapse of his idea of “collective reason,” which he came to after disappointment with Nietzschean individualism (according to T. Mann, Gorky built a bridge from Nietzsche to socialism). Boundless faith in human reason, accepted as the only dogma, was not confirmed by life. The war became a blatant example of collective madness, when Man was reduced to a “trench lice”, “cannon fodder”, when people went wild before our eyes and the human mind was powerless before logic historical events. In Gorky’s poem from 1914 there are the lines: “How will we then live?//What will this horror bring us?//What will now save my soul from hatred of people?”

The October Revolution confirmed Gorky's fears. Unlike Blok, he heard in it not “music,” but the terrible roar of a hundred million peasant element, breaking through all social prohibitions and threatening to drown the remaining islands of culture. In “Untimely Thoughts” (a series of articles in the newspaper “Novaya Zhizn”; 1917-18; published as a separate publication in 1918), he accused Lenin of seizing power and unleashing terror in the country. But in the same place he called the Russian people organically cruel, “bestial” and thereby, if not justified, then explained the ferocious treatment of these people by the Bolsheviks. The inconsistency of his position was also reflected in his book “On the Russian Peasantry” (1922).
Gorky’s undoubted merit was his energetic work to save the scientific and artistic intelligentsia from starvation and executions, gratefully appreciated by his contemporaries (E. I. Zamyatin, A. M. Remizov, V. F. Khodasevich, V. B. Shklovsky, etc.) Barely Is it not for this that such cultural events as the organization of the publishing house “World Literature”, the opening of the “House of Scientists” and the “House of Arts” (communes for the creative intelligentsia, described in the novel “The Crazy Ship” by O. D. Forsh and the book by K. A) were conceived Fedina "Gorky Among Us"). However, many writers (including Blok, N.S. Gumilyov) could not be saved, which became one of the main reasons for Gorky’s final break with the Bolsheviks.
From 1921 to 1928, Gorky lived in exile, where he went after Lenin’s too persistent advice. Settled in Sorrento (Italy), without breaking ties with young Soviet literature (L. M. Leonov, V. V. Ivanov, A. A. Fadeev, I. E. Babel, etc.) Wrote the cycle “Stories of 1922-24” ", "Notes from the Diary" (1924), the novel "The Artamonov Case" (1925), began working on the epic novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" (1925-36).

Contemporaries noted the experimental nature of Gorky's works of this time, which were created with an undoubted eye on the formal quest of Russian prose of the 20s.

Gorky's death was surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery, as was the death of his son, Maxim Peshkov. However, versions about violent death both have not yet been found documentary evidence. The urn with Gorky's ashes is placed in the Kremlin wall in Moscow.

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 ) etc.: Gorky addressed the problem of 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 towards 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 at different times.

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).