For other uses, see Maxim Gorky (disambiguation).
Maxim Gorky
Gorky in 1906 Native name Максим Горький Born Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov
(1868-03-28)28 March 1868
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia Died 18 June 1936(1936-06-18) (aged 68)
Gorki-10, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union Resting place Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow Pen name Maxim Gorky Occupation
• Writer • journalist • chief editor • publisher • political activist • philanthropist Language Russian Period Modern Genres
• Novel • novella • short story • sketch • fairy tale • fictional autobiography • travelogy • play • prose poem • long poem • opinion journalism • editorial • essay • satire • aphorism • memoir • diary • open letter • epistle • oration
Literary movement
• Neo-romanticism (1890s) • Proletarian literature (1900s) • Social realism • Socialist realism (disputed) • Modernism (1920s–1930s)
Years active 1892–1936 Notable works The Lower Depths (1902) Mother (1906) My Childhood. In the World. My Universities (1913–1923) The Life of Klim Samgin (1925–1936) Notable awards Griboyedov Prize (1903, 1904) Signature
•
Recorded in 1934
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov [a] (Russian: Алексей Максимович Пешков; [b] 28 March [O.S. 16 March] 1868 – 18 June 1936), a name he largely shed for the literary moniker Maxim Gorky (/ˈɡɔːrki/; Максим Горький), was a towering figure in Russian and later Soviet literature. He was a writer and a fervent, if often complicated, proponent of socialism. [1] His literary stature was such that he received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature an impressive five times, a testament to his international recognition. [2] Yet, before achieving acclaim as an author, Peshkov endured a nomadic existence, traveling extensively across the vast expanse of the Russian Empire and cycling through numerous menial jobs. These formative, often brutal, experiences would profoundly shape and infuse the raw, unflinching realism of his later literary output. He cultivated associations with other titans of Russian letters, including Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov, both of whom Gorky would later immortalize in his insightful memoirs.
Gorky's involvement with the burgeoning Marxist socialist movement was profound, and he eventually lent his support to the Bolsheviks. He was an outspoken critic of the oppressive Tsarist regime, aligning himself closely, for a period, with Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov's Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. During the tumultuous period of World War I, Gorky adopted a stance of pacifism and internationalism, actively participating in anti-war protests. For a significant portion of his life, he found himself in exile, first from Russia and then from the nascent Soviet Union, a direct consequence of his critical views on both Tsarism and the Bolsheviks throughout the Russian Civil War and into the 1920s, openly condemning their political repressions. However, in 1928, he was extended a personal invitation by Joseph Stalin to return to the USSR, where he resided from 1932 until his death in June 1936. Following his highly publicized return, he was officially, and perhaps conveniently, declared the "founder of Socialist Realism." Despite this official endorsement, Gorky's relationship with the Soviet regime remained fraught with difficulty. While publicly acting as a supporter of Stalin, he maintained friendships with figures like Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Bukharin, prominent leaders of the anti-Stalin opposition who were subsequently executed after Gorky's own demise. He harbored hopes of moderating Soviet cultural policies and made demonstrable efforts to defend writers who dared to deviate from official dictates. These efforts, however, ultimately led to him spending his final days under what amounted to an unannounced house arrest, a gilded cage for the "proletarian writer." [3] [4]
Among Gorky's most renowned literary contributions are his early short stories from the 1890s, including the stark portrayals in "Chelkash", the philosophical depths of "Old Izergil", and the poignant "Twenty-six Men and a Girl". His critically acclaimed play, The Lower Depths, captured the despair of society's outcasts, while his fictional autobiographical trilogy—My Childhood, In the World, My Universities (1913–1923)—offered a raw, expansive view of his early life. The novel Mother (1906), a foundational text for revolutionary literature, also stands out. Interestingly, Gorky himself was often harshly critical of some of these works, deeming them failures; Mother, in particular, was considered by him to be one of his greatest artistic missteps. [5] Yet, there have been more favorable re-evaluations of some of his lesser-known, post-revolutionary novels, such as The Artamonov Business (1925) and the sprawling The Life of Klim Samgin (1925–1936). The latter, in particular, has been lauded by some critics as Gorky's magnum opus and even viewed through a modernist lens. [6] [7] A notable departure from his pre-revolutionary writings, which were characterized by their "anti-psychologism," Gorky's later works reveal a more nuanced and ambivalent portrayal of the Russian Revolution and a burgeoning interest in the intricate depths of human psychology. [8] Despite the nuanced opinions of critics and scholars, it is widely acknowledged that Gorky's public image and literary legacy have been significantly complicated, if not compromised, by his political career. Consequently, many of his major works, including the highly-regarded post-revolutionary novels, remain regrettably obscure in the Western world.
Life
Early years
"Ex Libris Maxim Gorki" bookplate from his personal library depicts the unchained Prometheus rising from the pages of a book, breaking a multi-tailed whip and shooing away black crows. Saint Basil's Cathedral is portrayed in the background
Born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov on 28 March [O.S. 16 March] 1868, in the vibrant yet often brutal city of Nizhny Novgorod, his early life was marked by profound hardship. He became an orphan at the tender age of eleven, a fate that forced him into the care of his maternal grandmother. This period, though difficult, was also one of intellectual awakening, as his grandmother introduced him to the rich tapestry of Russian folklore and literature. However, the constraints of his home life proved too much for his restless spirit, and he famously ran away at the age of twelve in 1880. This impulsive act was merely the prelude to a life of wandering. Following a harrowing attempt at suicide in December 1887—a stark illustration of the despair that often shadowed his early years—he embarked on an arduous five-year journey across the vast Russian Empire. During this odyssey, he sustained himself by taking on a dizzying array of manual labor jobs, from baker to stevedore. These raw, visceral experiences, the countless faces and stories encountered on the road, served as an invaluable, if painful, education, accumulating a wealth of impressions that he would later meticulously weave into the fabric of his powerful prose. [1]
It was in 1895 that Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, a man whose formal education had ended at the age of 10 and who had once toiled as a shoemaker's apprentice, consciously chose to reinvent himself, adopting the resonant pseudonym: Maxim Gorky. [9] This wasn't merely a pen name; it was a declaration.
Prior to this, as a fledgling journalist contributing to provincial newspapers, he had written under the rather obscure pseudonym Иегудиил Хламида (Jehudiel Khlamida). [10] The more enduring and iconic pseudonym "Gorky" was first embraced in 1892, derived from the Russian word горький, meaning "bitter." This choice was no accident; it perfectly encapsulated the simmering anger he felt towards the pervasive injustices and harsh realities of life in Russia, alongside a steadfast determination to articulate those bitter truths without sugarcoating. His inaugural short story, "Makar Chudra", bearing this new name, was published by the newspaper Kavkaz (The Caucasus) in Tiflis, a city where he had spent several weeks undertaking various menial tasks, primarily within the workshops of the Caucasian Railway. [11] [12] [13] The sensational success of his first collected volume, Очерки и рассказы (Essays and Stories), published in 1898, marked the true commencement of his illustrious literary career. Gorky proved to be an incessant writer, viewing literature not merely as an aesthetic pursuit—though he undeniably dedicated rigorous effort to refining his style and form—but fundamentally as a moral and political instrument, a potent force capable of instigating societal change. His narratives unflinchingly depicted the lives of those relegated to the lowest strata and the margins of society, laying bare their hardships, their profound humiliations, and the brutalization they endured, yet always, crucially, illuminating the resilient, often hidden, spark of humanity within them. [1]
Political and literary development
Anton Chekhov and Gorky. 1900, Yalta
Gorky's reputation burgeoned rapidly, solidifying his position as a unique, authentic literary voice emerging from the very bedrock of society's underbelly. He became perceived as a fervent and articulate advocate for Russia's much-needed social, political, and cultural transformation. By 1899, his association with the burgeoning Marxist social-democratic movement became overt, catapulting him to celebrity status among both the intellectual elite, or intelligentsia, and the ever-growing ranks of "conscious" workers who found their struggles reflected in his unflinching prose. At the philosophical core of all his prodigious work lay an unwavering belief in the inherent worth and boundless potential of the human person. In his narratives, he frequently juxtaposed individuals who were acutely aware of their natural dignity, imbued with an almost defiant energy and powerful will, against those who tragically succumbed to the degrading and soul-crushing conditions of life surrounding them. Both his extensive writings and his candid letters reveal a perpetually "restless man"—a frequent self-description that perfectly captured his internal turmoil—constantly grappling with contradictory feelings of profound faith and gnawing skepticism, an ardent love of life, yet a palpable disgust at the pervasive vulgarity and petty cruelties of the human world. [ citation needed ]
A profound insight into Gorky's ethical framework came in 1916, when he revealed the deep influence of the teachings of the ancient Jewish sage Hillel the Elder on his life. He recounted: "In my early youth I read...the words of...Hillel, if I remember rightly: 'If thou art not for thyself, who will be for thee? But if thou art for thyself alone, wherefore art thou'? The inner meaning of these words impressed me with their profound wisdom...The thought ate its way deep into my soul, and I say now with conviction: Hillel's wisdom served as a strong staff on my road, which was neither even nor easy. I believe that Jewish wisdom is more all-human and universal than any other; and this not only because of its immemorial age...but because of the powerful humaneness that saturates it, because of its high estimate of man." [14] This statement, coming from a man who often seemed to embody bitterness, revealed a surprisingly foundational humanism.
His public opposition to the Tsarist regime was unyielding, leading to numerous arrests throughout his early career. Gorky cultivated friendships with many revolutionaries, eventually becoming a personal confidant of Vladimir Lenin after their initial meeting in 1902. He fearlessly exposed governmental control of the press, notably in the Matvei Golovinski affair, demonstrating his commitment to truth even when it was inconvenient. In 1902, Gorky's literary achievements were formally recognized with his election as an honorary Academician of Literature. However, this honor was swiftly and controversially annulled by order of Tsar Nicholas II, a move that sparked outrage in the literary community. In a powerful gesture of protest, two of Russia's most esteemed literary figures, Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko, resigned from the academy. [15]
Leo Tolstoy with Gorky in Yasnaya Polyana, 1900
Between 1900 and 1905, a discernible shift occurred in Gorky's writings, which began to adopt a more optimistic tone, perhaps reflecting a growing hope for political change. Simultaneously, his involvement in the opposition movement deepened, resulting in another brief imprisonment in 1901. In 1904, a significant professional rupture occurred when Gorky severed his ties with the prestigious Moscow Art Theatre following a fundamental conflict with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. This disagreement stemmed from Nemirovich-Danchenko's critical assessment of Gorky's new play, Summerfolk, which the director had dismissed as formless raw material lacking a coherent plot. Despite the earnest attempts by Konstantin Stanislavski to mediate and persuade him otherwise, Gorky, in December 1904, adamantly refused to grant the MAT permission to stage his play Enemies, declaring an end to "any kind of connection with the Art Theatre." [16] Undeterred, Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod with an ambitious plan to establish his own theatre. [c] This venture received crucial financial backing from both Konstantin Stanislavski and the wealthy patron Savva Morozov. [17] Stanislavski, ever the visionary, saw Gorky's theatrical endeavor as a vital opportunity to cultivate the network of provincial theatres he believed was essential for reforming the art of the stage across Russia, a dream he had nurtured since the 1890s. [17] To aid this cause, he dispatched several talented pupils from the Art Theatre School, along with Ioasaf Tikhomirov, who oversaw the school's operations, to work at Gorky's nascent theatre. [17] However, by the autumn, the project was tragically derailed when the censor, with an almost deliberate cruelty, banned every single play the theatre had proposed to stage, forcing Gorky to abandon his ambitious project. [17]
As a financially successful author, a respected editor, and an acclaimed playwright, Gorky consistently provided substantial financial support to the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). Concurrently, he also championed liberal appeals to the government, advocating for fundamental civil rights and much-needed social reform. The brutal and senseless shooting of unarmed workers marching peacefully to the Tsar with a petition for reform on 9 January 1905—an event now infamous as "Bloody Sunday"—proved to be a pivotal moment. This atrocity ignited the flames of the Revolution of 1905 and seemingly propelled Gorky with greater resolve towards more radical, uncompromising solutions. He became deeply associated with Vladimir Lenin and Alexander Bogdanov's Bolshevik wing of the party, with Bogdanov specifically handling the transfer of funds from Gorky to the Vpered faction. [18] While it remains unclear whether he ever formally joined the party, his relationship with Lenin and the Bolsheviks was, even then, characterized by frequent friction and occasional outright conflict. His most impactful writings during these years were a series of plays exploring pressing social and political themes, the most celebrated being The Lower Depths (1902), a stark portrayal of human degradation and resilience. During a brief imprisonment in the formidable Peter and Paul Fortress amidst the abortive 1905 Russian Revolution, Gorky penned the play Children of the Sun. Though nominally set during an 1862 cholera epidemic, its contemporary resonance with the tumultuous events of the day was universally understood. His release from prison was secured only after a widespread European campaign, garnering support from luminaries such as Marie Curie, Auguste Rodin, and Anatole France, among others, highlighting his burgeoning international stature. [19]
Gorky also lent his active support to the Moscow uprising of 1905. Following its brutal suppression, his apartment was subjected to a raid by the ultranationalist Black Hundreds. He subsequently sought refuge, fleeing to Lake Saimaa in Finland. [20] In 1906, the Bolsheviks dispatched him on a critical fund-raising tour to the United States, accompanied by Ivan Narodny. It was during a period of respite in the tranquil Adirondack Mountains that Gorky authored Mother, arguably his most renowned novel, a powerful narrative of revolutionary conversion and struggle. Despite its undeniable success and profound political impact, the novel garnered criticism from various literary figures, and Gorky himself was remarkably harsh in his assessment of its artistic merit, often dismissing it as one of his greatest failures. [5] His experiences in the United States—which notably included a public scandal surrounding his travel with his lover, the actress Maria Andreyeva, rather than his legal wife—only served to deepen his already pronounced contempt for what he perceived as the inherent hypocrisy and spiritual hollowness of the "bourgeois soul."
Capri years
Between 1909–1911 Gorky lived on the island of Capri in the burgundy-coloured "Villa Behring".
From 1906 to 1913, Gorky chose to reside on the idyllic island of Capri in southern Italy. This self-imposed exile was motivated by a dual purpose: partly for the sake of his precarious health, as he suffered from tuberculosis, and partly to escape the increasingly stifling and repressive political atmosphere that was tightening its grip on Russia. [1] Even from afar, he remained a staunch supporter of the Russian social-democratic movement, particularly the Bolsheviks, and frequently hosted prominent figures like Anatoly Lunacharsky at his Capri villa. The two men had previously collaborated on Literaturny Raspad, which saw publication in 1908. It was during this intellectually fertile period that Gorky, in concert with Lunacharsky, Bogdanov, and Vladimir Bazarov, conceived of an ambitious project: an Encyclopedia of Russian History, envisioned as a socialist counterpoint to Diderot's seminal Encyclopédie.
His prior visit to New York City in 1906, extended at the invitation of literary giants like Mark Twain and other prominent American writers, had been cut short by scandal. An initial invitation to the prestigious White House by President Theodore Roosevelt was abruptly rescinded after the New York World sensationally reported that the woman accompanying Gorky was, in fact, not his legal wife, but his mistress. [21] Following this public revelation, all the hotels in Manhattan refused to accommodate the couple, forcing them to seek lodging in a secluded apartment on Staten Island. [20]
During a visit to Switzerland, Gorky had a particularly revealing encounter with Lenin, whom he critically observed spent an inordinate amount of his precious time embroiled in feuds with other revolutionaries. Gorky's impression was stark: "He looked awful. Even his tongue seemed to have turned grey," a rather uncharitable but telling observation. [22] Despite his pronounced atheism, [23] Gorky was far from a simple materialist. [24] Most controversially, he, along with a few other independent-minded Bolsheviks, articulated a philosophical framework he termed "God-Building" (богостроительство, bogostroitel'stvo ). [1] This audacious concept sought to reclaim the potent power of myth for the revolutionary cause, aiming to forge a form of religious atheism. This new creed placed collective humanity in the divine void left by God, imbuing it with passion, a sense of profound wonderment, unshakeable moral certainty, and the ultimate promise of deliverance from evil, suffering, and even death itself. Though "God-Building" was met with ridicule and outright dismissal by Lenin, Gorky steadfastly retained his conviction that "culture"—which he defined as the moral and spiritual awareness of humanity's intrinsic value and potential—would prove far more critical to the revolution's ultimate success than any mere political or economic arrangements. It was a vision of humanity, not just ideology, at the core of true change.
World War I and the Russian Revolution
An amnesty granted to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty finally allowed Gorky to return to Russia in 1914. Upon his return, he continued his incisive social criticism, generously mentored other aspiring writers who, like him, hailed from the common people, and began to compose a series of profoundly important cultural memoirs, including the initial installment of his monumental autobiography. [1] [25] His immediate impression upon re-entering Russia was one of profound dismay, captured in his observation that "everyone is so crushed and devoid of God's image." The only viable solution, he repeatedly and emphatically declared, was "culture"—a term he imbued with a holistic sense of moral and intellectual enlightenment.
When Russia plunged into the maelstrom of World War I in 1914, and a virulent wave of patriotism swept the nation, Gorky was utterly devastated. Shortly after the tragic destruction of the Rheims Cathedral, a symbol of European heritage, Gorky wrote to his former lover, Maria Andreeva, expressing his profound despair: "All this is so terrible that I am unable to express even one one-hundredth of my heavy feelings, which are perhaps best described in words such as world catastrophe, the downfall of European culture." Initially, Gorky, alongside other prominent writers, signed a protest against the "barbarism of the Germans," blaming them for the war—a stance Lenin, with characteristic disdain, dismissed as merely "the despicable paper of the Russian liberals." However, Gorky soon shifted his position, penning a series of fervent anti-war publications. Yet, only one of these managed to see the light of day, an appeal to feelings of international brotherhood and cooperation. Another article was confiscated by the censor, and a third was condemned, leading to the entire journal being seized after its publication. While he stopped short of being a strong "defeatist" like Lenin, Gorky passionately advocated for "a speedy end of the war and for peace without annexation or indemnities." In 1915, he founded the publishing house Parus and the influential magazine Letopis, explicitly to disseminate his anti-war stance and to "defend the idea of international culture against all manifestations of nationalism and imperialism." Among its distinguished contributors were the celebrated poets Sergei Yesenin, Aleksandr Blok, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Lenin, ever critical, remarked on Gorky's political temperament: "In politics Gorky is always weak-willed and subject to emotions and moods." Gorky's most impactful publications of this period addressed the pervasive issue of antisemitism, written in direct response to the severe Tsarist repressions against the Jews. He also penned an essay titled "Two Souls," which sharply contrasted "the passive East" with "the active West," promoting the values of European culture and progress and urging Russia to cast off its "Eastern-Asiatic" "soul," and encouraging the Russian bourgeoisie to actively participate "in the work of reform." Although the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, had failed to find a legal pretext to shut down the journal, the government had decided to do so in January 1917, but these plans were preempted by the seismic shifts of the February Revolution. Gorky initially harbored distrust for this revolution, but by spring, he became cautiously optimistic about its potential. In the summer, Gorky's publishing house notably published one of Lenin's most famous theoretical works, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, albeit with Lenin's criticisms of Kautsky controversially excised from the text. [26] [27]
In the aftermath of the February Revolution, Gorky, accompanied by Nikolai Sukhanov and Vladimir Zenisinov, undertook a visit to the dilapidated headquarters of the Okhrana on Kronversky Prospekt. [28] Gorky, ever the literary observer, described the former secret police stronghold, where he sought inspiration for his writing, as derelict, with shattered windows and papers strewn haphazardly across the floor, a potent symbol of a fallen regime. [29] Later that same day, over dinner with Sukhanov, Gorky made a grimly prophetic declaration, predicting that the revolution, in its unchecked fervor, would inevitably descend into "Asiatic savagery." [30] Initially, Gorky had been a supporter of the Socialist-Revolutionary leader Alexander Kerensky, but he decisively shifted his allegiance to the Bolsheviks following the Kornilov affair. [31] In July 1917, Gorky candidly articulated that his extensive firsthand experiences with the Russian working class had been more than sufficient to disabuse him of any romanticized "notions that Russian workers are the incarnation of spiritual beauty and kindness." [32] Gorky conceded that he felt a certain attraction to Bolshevism, yet simultaneously admitted to profound concerns about a creed that presented the entire working class as uniformly "sweet and reasonable – I had never known people who were really like this." [33] He asserted, with the authority of lived experience, that he knew the poor—the "carpenters, stevedores, bricklayers"—in a way the intellectual Lenin never could, and he frankly harbored a deep distrust of them. [33]
During the turbulent years of World War I, his apartment in Petrograd became an unofficial Bolshevik staff room, reflecting his close political alignment with the faction throughout the revolutionary period of 1917. On the day immediately following the October Revolution of 7 November 1917, Gorky observed a gardener diligently working in the Alexander Park, a man who had cleared snow during the February Revolution, calmly ignored the gunshots during the July Days (even asking people not to trample the grass), and was now methodically chopping off branches. This image prompted Gorky to write that the man was "stubborn as a mole, and apparently as blind as one too," a poignant metaphor for the oblivious persistence of ordinary life amidst earth-shattering change. However, Gorky's relations with the Bolsheviks became increasingly strained after the October Revolution. One contemporary observer vividly recalled how Gorky would turn "dark and black and grim" at the mere mention of Lenin's name. [35] Gorky, with a searing indictment, wrote that Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky "have become poisoned with the filthy venom of power," brutally crushing the fundamental rights of the individual in their relentless pursuit of revolutionary dreams. [35] He further condemned Lenin as a "cold-blooded trickster who spares neither the honor nor the life of the proletariat. ... He does not know the popular masses, he has not lived with them." [35] Gorky extended his critique by comparing Lenin to a chemist conducting experiments in a laboratory, with the crucial distinction that the chemist experimented with inanimate matter to improve life, while Lenin was experimenting on the "living flesh of Russia." [35] A further exacerbation of Gorky's already tense relations with the Bolsheviks occurred when his newspaper, Novaya Zhizn (New Life), fell victim to stringent Bolshevik censorship during the ensuing civil war. Around this tumultuous time, Gorky published a collection of essays sharply critical of the Bolsheviks, titled Untimely Thoughts, in 1918. This collection would not see republication in Russia until the era of Perestroika, decades later. In these essays, he lambasted Lenin as a tyrant for his senseless arrests and the repression of free discourse, and as an anarchist for his conspiratorial tactics, drawing unsettling parallels between Lenin, the Tsar, and the nihilist Sergey Nechayev. [36]
"Lenin and his associates," Gorky wrote with grim conviction, "consider it possible to commit all kinds of crimes ... the abolition of free speech and senseless arrests." [37] These were not the words of a loyal party man, but a disillusioned observer.
He was also a member of the Committee for the Struggle against Antisemitism within the Soviet government, indicating a continued, if complicated, engagement with social justice issues even amidst his disillusionment. [38]
In 1921, he engaged Moura Budberg as his secretary, a woman who would later become his mistress and a significant figure in his life. In August of that same year, the acclaimed poet Nikolay Gumilev was arrested by the Petrograd Cheka on charges related to his monarchist views. A persistent story circulated that Gorky, upon hearing the news, hurried to Moscow and personally obtained an order for Gumilev's release from Lenin himself. However, upon his return to Petrograd, he tragically discovered that Gumilev had already been executed. Yet, Nadezhda Mandelstam, a close confidante of Gumilev's widow, Anna Akhmatova, offered a more nuanced account: "It is true that people asked him to intervene. ... Gorky had a strong dislike of Gumilev, but he nevertheless promised to do something. He could not keep his promise because the sentence of death was announced and carried out with unexpected haste, before Gorky had got round to doing anything." [39] Regardless of the precise sequence, the incident underscored the brutal, arbitrary nature of the nascent Soviet state. In October, Gorky, suffering from tuberculosis, returned to Italy, ostensibly for health reasons, but certainly also for political respite.
In July 1921, Gorky issued an urgent international appeal, warning the outside world that millions of lives were imperiled by widespread crop failure. He also proposed the establishment of the Pomgol (All-Russian Public Committee for Aid to the Hungry) and actively joined the organization to alleviate the devastating famine. While many members of this organization were subsequently arrested by Soviet authorities on fabricated charges of 'counterrevolutionary crimes,' Gorky had the foresight, or perhaps the luck, to leave Soviet Russia earlier, thereby avoiding incarceration. [40] The Russian famine of 1921–22, often referred to as the Povolzhye famine, claimed an estimated 5 million lives, primarily ravaging the Volga and Ural River regions, a grim backdrop to Gorky's attempts at humanitarian intervention. [41]
Second exile
Gorky c. 1926
Gorky departed Russia in September 1921, settling initially in Berlin. It was there that he learned of the impending Moscow Trial of 12 Socialist Revolutionaries, an event that unequivocally hardened his opposition to the Bolshevik regime. He penned a scathing letter to Anatole France, denouncing the trial as a "cynical and public preparation for the murder" of individuals who had courageously fought for the freedom of the Russian people. He also wrote to the Soviet vice-premier, Alexei Rykov, imploring him to convey to Leon Trotsky that any death sentences carried out on the defendants would constitute "premeditated and foul murder." [42] This impassioned plea elicited contemptuous reactions from both Lenin, who dismissed Gorky as "always supremely spineless in politics," and Trotsky, who haughtily characterized Gorky as an "artist whom no-one takes seriously." [43] He was subsequently denied permission by Italy's then-fascist government to return to Capri, but was eventually allowed to settle in Sorrento. He lived there from 1922 to 1932, maintaining an expansive household that included Moura Budberg, his ex-wife Andreyeva, her lover, Pyotr Kryuchkov—who served as Gorky's secretary (and, initially, a spy for Yagoda) for the remainder of his life—Gorky's son Max Peshkov, Max's wife, Timosha, and their two young daughters.
During his decade in Sorrento, Gorky authored several successful books, [44] but by 1928, the financial demands of his large household began to strain his resources, prompting him to seek a pragmatic accommodation with the increasingly powerful communist regime. The General Secretary of the Communist Party, Joseph Stalin, was equally eager to lure Gorky back to the USSR, recognizing the immense propaganda value of his return. Gorky made his first visit back to the Soviet Union in May 1928—a period coinciding precisely with the regime's first major show trial since 1922, the infamous Shakhty Trial of 53 engineers employed in the coal industry. One of the accused, Pyotr Osadchy, had even visited Gorky in Sorrento. In a stark contrast to his earlier vehement protests against the trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Gorky, with a troubling lack of critical inquiry, accepted the engineers' guilt without question, even expressing regret for his past interventions on behalf of professionals targeted by the regime. During this visit, he cultivated disturbing friendships with Genrikh Yagoda, the deputy head of the dreaded OGPU, who, it would later be revealed, harbored a vested interest in spying on Gorky. He also befriended two other high-ranking OGPU officers, Semyon Firin and Matvei Pogrebinsky, both of whom held significant positions within the burgeoning Gulag system. Pogrebinsky, in a chilling testament to these new associations, was Gorky's personal guest in Sorrento for four weeks in 1930. The following year, Yagoda dispatched his brother-in-law, Leopold Averbakh, to Sorrento with explicit instructions to persuade Gorky to return to Russia permanently, a mission that ultimately proved successful. [45]
Return to Russia
Avel Enukidze, Joseph Stalin and Maxim Gorky celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sportintern. Red Square, Moscow USSR. August 1931
Gorky's definitive return from Fascist Italy in 1932 was orchestrated as a monumental propaganda triumph for the Soviets, a carefully staged spectacle designed to legitimize the regime through the endorsement of its most celebrated writer. He was showered with honors, decorated with the prestigious Order of Lenin, and granted a luxurious mansion in Moscow—formerly the opulent residence of the millionaire Pavel Ryabushinsky, which today serves as the Gorky Museum—along with a sprawling dacha in the serene suburbs. The city of Nizhny Novgorod, his birthplace, and the entire surrounding province were symbolically renamed Gorky, erasing its historical identity in favor of his persona. [9] Not content with this, Moscow's main park and one of the central Moscow thoroughfares, Tverskaya Street, were also renamed in his honor, as was the esteemed Moscow Art Theatre. [9] Even the largest fixed-wing aircraft in the world in the mid-1930s, the majestic Tupolev ANT-20, was christened "Maxim Gorky" in a grand gesture of national veneration.
He was also appointed the inaugural President of the Union of Soviet Writers, an institution founded in 1932, deliberately coinciding with his much-publicized return to the USSR. This position cemented his role as the official arbiter of Soviet literary taste and policy. On 11 October 1931, Gorky, in a moment that would later be immortalized in Anatoly Yar-Kravchenko [ru]'s painting, read his evocative fairy tale poem "A Girl and Death" (a work he had composed back in 1892) to an intimate audience comprising Joseph Stalin, Kliment Voroshilov, and Vyacheslav Molotov. On that very day, Stalin, with an air of casual authority, inscribed his autograph on the final page of Gorky's work, appending a pronouncement that revealed more about Stalin's worldview than Gorky's art: "This piece is stronger than Goethe's Faust (love defeats death)." [46] Voroshilov, not to be outdone, also left his own "resolution," a rather blunt assessment: "I am illiterate, but I think that Comrade Stalin more than correctly defined the meaning of A. Gorky's poems. On my own behalf, I will say: I love M. Gorky as my and my class of writer, who correctly defined our forward movement." [ citation needed ]
However, as Vyacheslav Ivanov later recounted, Gorky was far from pleased by this condescending "endorsement":
They wrote their resolution on his fairy tale "A Girl and Death". My father, who spoke about this episode with Gorky, insisted emphatically that Gorky was offended. Stalin and Voroshilov were drunk and fooling around. [47]
A poignant glimpse into the forced conviviality and underlying power dynamics that defined Gorky's return.
Visits to Gulag camps
On his definitive return to the Soviet Union in 1932, Maxim Gorky received the Ryabushinsky Mansion, designed in 1900 by Fyodor Schechtel for the Ryabushinsky family. The mansion today houses a museum about Gorky.
In 1933, Gorky, with the dubious distinction of co-editing alongside Averbakh and Firin, produced an infamous book about the construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal. This publication was presented to the world as a shining example of the "successful rehabilitation of the former enemies of proletariat" through forced labor. For other writers, Gorky advocated for a brand of realism achieved not merely by depicting reality, but by "extracting the basic idea from reality, but by adding the potential and desirable to it," thereby injecting "romanticism with deep revolutionary potential." [48] For himself, however, Gorky seemed to avoid anything resembling true realism when it came to the Soviet system's dark underbelly. His explicit denials that even a single prisoner perished during the construction of the aforementioned canal were vehemently refuted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who meticulously documented that thousands of prisoners froze to death, not only in the evenings due to inadequate shelter and food, but even in the harsh light of day. Most damningly, Solzhenitsyn and the esteemed academician Dmitry Likhachov meticulously detail a particularly egregious visit Gorky made on 20 June 1929 to Solovki, the "original" forced labor camp (specifically the Solovetsky Islands), which served as the chilling blueprint for thousands of others. Given Gorky's towering reputation, both to the authorities and, crucially, to the desperate prisoners, the camp was hastily transformed. It was temporarily disguised from a place where prisoners (Zeks) were literally worked to death into one that ostensibly embodied the official Soviet ideal of "transformation through labor." Gorky, with an astonishing lack of critical observation, apparently failed to notice the hurried relocation of thousands of prisoners to alleviate overcrowding, the suspiciously new clothes on the emaciated prisoners (who were accustomed to toiling in their underwear), or even the frantic hiding of other prisoners under tarpaulins and the systematic removal of the torture chambers. The elaborate deception was exposed when Gorky was presented with a group of children, dubbed "model prisoners." One brave 14-year-old boy, seizing the moment, challenged Gorky directly, asking if he "wanted to know the truth." Upon Gorky's affirmative, the room was cleared, and the boy recounted, in horrifying detail, the unvarnished truth: the pervasive starvation, men worked to death, the unspeakable pole torture, the indignity of using men instead of horses for labor, the summary executions, the brutal practice of rolling prisoners, bound to heavy poles, down hundreds of steps, and the agony of spending nights in underwear in the freezing snow. Gorky, in a moment that stains his legacy, never wrote about the boy, nor did he make any apparent effort to take the boy with him. The boy was executed shortly after Gorky's departure. [49] Gorky, reportedly, left the room in tears, yet his entry in the visitor book was a chillingly compliant piece of boilerplate praise: "I am not in a state of mind to express my impressions in just a few words. I wouldn't want, yes, and I would likewise be ashamed to permit myself the banal praise of the remarkable energy of people who, while remaining vigilant and tireless sentinels of the Revolution, are able, at the same time, to be remarkably bold creators of culture." [50]
In a collection of academic papers concerning Gorky, published by the World Literature Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1995, it was noted that the poignant story of the boy was first recounted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. The institute's findings stated that no details regarding the boy's identity were ever provided, and the narrative lacked supporting documentation: "In the Solovki Museum... information about the real boy was not found; this story is considered by some to be a legend." This historical 'review,' however, must be critically weighed against the powerful first-person narrative of Dmitry Likhachov who, unlike Solzhenitsyn, was a prisoner at Solovki and a direct witness. [51] Regardless of the precise veracity of the "boy" anecdote, the inescapable truth remains that Gorky did visit the camp and was either willfully blind or knowingly ignorant of the true, horrific purpose and brutal conditions of the infamous Gulag. [52] Dmitry Bykov, in his comprehensive biography of Gorky, reflects on this enduring narrative, writing that whether or not the boy literally existed, "mass consciousness is structured in such a way that the boy is needed, and it is no longer possible to erase him from Gorky's biography." [53] Gorky's biographer Pavel Basinsky echoes a similar sentiment, suggesting that such "legends" often encapsulate "the essence of reality." He further posits that even if the boy did exist, it would have been practically impossible for Gorky to "take the boy with him," even with his immense reputation as a "great proletarian writer"; for instance, Gorky himself had to dedicate over two arduous years to secure the release of Julia Danzas, a prominent intellectual. [54]
Perhaps most tellingly of all, Gorky's own published description of his three-day visit to Solovki paints a disturbingly sanitized picture: “There is no impression of life being over-regulated. No, there is no resemblance to a prison; instead it seems as if these rooms are inhabited by passengers rescued from a drowned ship.” And, later, in an almost Orwellian flourish: “If any so-called cultured European society dared to conduct an experiment such as this colony,” he wrote, “and if this experiment yielded fruits as ours had, that country would blow all its trumpets and boast about its accomplishments.” [51] These words stand as a chilling testament to the power of self-delusion, or perhaps, forced compliance.
It is worth noting that Gorky did, at times, leverage his influence to help other political prisoners, often due to the persistent efforts of his estranged wife, Yekaterina Peshkova, who ran a humanitarian aid organization. For instance, thanks to Gorky's intervention, the initial verdict for the philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin—a harsh five years in Solovki—was commuted to six years of internal exile, a small but significant act of mitigation in a sea of brutality. [55]
1930s
1930s portrait photo
During the 1930s, the relationship between Gorky and Stalin's regime became increasingly convoluted and ambiguous. While Gorky publicly championed the regime, this period was simultaneously marked by perceptible conflicts with official policies, demonstrating a subtle, yet persistent, internal resistance.
Gorky was an outspoken and, by all accounts, sincere supporter of several key Stalinist policies, including the widespread usage of forced labor, the brutal collectivization of agriculture, the devastating "dekulakization" campaigns, and the infamous show trials orchestrated against alleged "saboteurs of the Plan." However, his role extended beyond merely being a propagandist for such policies; he was considered an invaluable "ideological asset," meticulously cultivated to personify the myth of "proletarian culture" and, crucially, to bring literature under the direct, centralized control of the party, as chronicled by Tovah Yedlin. [56] It was during this period that he was officially and lavishly praised as "the founder of Socialist Realism in literature," a title that would both elevate and ultimately constrain his legacy. [ citation needed ] Furthermore, Gorky vehemently supported the efforts to pass a law in 1934 that criminalized homosexuality. His stance on this issue was disturbingly colored by the fact that some members of the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA) were known to be homosexuals, leading to a grotesque logical leap. The chilling phrase "exterminate all homosexuals and fascism will vanish" is often, though perhaps apocryphally, attributed to him. [57] [58] In an article published in Pravda, he wrote, with a chilling lack of compassion: "There is already a sarcastic saying: Destroy homosexuality and fascism will disappear." [59] [60] This dark episode reveals a disturbing alignment with the regime's most repressive social policies.
However, Tovah Yedlin, in her political biography of Gorky, also meticulously details his various, often subtle, conflicts with the official cultural policies and the escalating pressure exerted upon him towards the end of his life. [26] In his final years, Gorky maintained friendly relations with Lev Kamenev and Nikolai Bukharin, prominent leaders of the opposition who would later be executed after Gorky's own death. He displayed a general sympathy for the centrist and Right Opposition factions; both Bukharin and Kamenev had been personal friends with Gorky since the 1920s, a dangerous affiliation in Stalin's increasingly paranoid regime. [61] [3] [62] Paola Cioni observes that while there are undeniable signs of conflict in Gorky's relations with Stalin and the state, it remains uncertain when this conflict was driven by psychological motives and when it was a direct consequence of his political stance. [62] What is certain, however, is Gorky's consistent intervention on behalf of politically persecuted individuals, demonstrating a humanitarian impulse that often clashed with state directives. He interceded for the historian Yevgeny Tarle and the literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin. He successfully facilitated the emigration of writers Yevgeny Zamyatin and Victor Serge, a remarkable feat given the regime's tight controls. He also attempted to intercede on behalf of Karl Radek and Bukharin, and secured Kamenev's appointment as director of the publishing house Academia. Crucially, Gorky made significant efforts to support literary "fellow travellers" and other writers who faced difficulties in getting their works published due to ideological or artistic disagreements, or whose work was simply disapproved by official critics.
For example, in a series of letters to Stalin, he bravely defended Mikhail Bulgakov, and partly due to Gorky's persistent advocacy, Bulgakov's controversial plays The Cabal of Hypocrites and The Days of the Turbins were eventually permitted for staging. [63] He took Andrei Platonov into "writers' brigades" after Platonov found himself unable to publish due to his works criticizing collectivization, although Gorky himself, ever the "proletarian writer," rejected Platonov's "pessimistic" texts. [64] With Gorky's direct intervention, Bukharin was not only allowed to be one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural Writers' Congress but boldly proclaimed Boris Pasternak, who was routinely denounced by Stalinist party critics as "decadent," to be the "first poet" of the USSR, a testament to Gorky's strategic use of influence. [61] [3] Gorky was not an advocate for unbounded artistic pluralism or diversity among writers, and he conceded that some level of censorship was perhaps inevitable, often being dismissive and rigid in his assessment of creative experiments. However, Gorky grew increasingly concerned with the bureaucratization of the Union of Writers and actively attempted to oppose the escalating pressure on writers, even attacking party-sanctioned authors who were rapidly ascending to the highest ranks within the literary bureaucracy. [65] Stalin's closest associates, such as Lazar Kaganovich, directly opposed Gorky and Bukharin in their efforts against the increasing party control over literature. Kaganovich, in his revealing letters to Stalin, frequently highlighted Gorky's perceived ideological faults and the ostensible influence of the Opposition on him. For instance, Kaganovich and several other Politburo members visited Gorky and demanded that his keynote speech for the Congress of Writers be rewritten. In his account of the visit, Kaganovich reported that Gorky's "mood [was] apparently not very good," and that the "aftertaste" of Gorky's critical remarks about certain aspects of life in the USSR "reminded [him] of Comrade Krupskaya," Lenin's widow, who was known for supporting the Right Opposition. Kaganovich also suspected that Kamenev seemingly played "an important role in shaping" Gorky's "moods." Kaganovich further proposed that Gorky's attack on members of the Organizing Committee be heavily edited before publication to prevent its illegal circulation. Another act that deeply concerned the Politburo was Gorky's support for members of the RAPP, a former party institution intended to control literature, whose members had fallen out of favor after its disbandment. Kaganovich specifically noted Gorky's support for the RAPP-led campaign against Stalin's hand-picked leadership of the Organizing Committee of the Union and his demands to allow Leopold Averbakh, the former leader of RAPP (who was executed in 1937), to speak at the congress. [61]
After his arrest in early 1935, Kamenev penned a letter to Gorky, a desperate and perhaps disingenuous attempt to salvage their friendship: "We didn't talk with you about politics, and when I told you about the feeling of love and respect for Stalin..., about my readiness to sincerely work with him, that all feelings of resentment and anger burned out in me — I told the truth... I loved you from the bottom of my heart." Gorky's secretary, Kryuchkov, notably failed to register this letter in Gorky's official correspondence receipt book, yet a handwritten copy in the Gorky archives bears the writer's characteristic annotations in red pencil, suggesting he read and pondered its contents. Meanwhile, as Gorky's relationship with Stalin visibly deteriorated, Stalin ceased visiting him and stopped returning his phone calls; their formal correspondence was almost entirely maintained by Gorky, with Stalin replying only occasionally, a clear sign of Gorky's diminishing favor. [61] Later, Gorky attempted to defend the publication of an issue of Dostoevsky's Demons, which had been prepared by Kamenev and was released after his arrest. This novel, with its themes of nihilism and revolutionary fanaticism, carried a dangerous reputation as a "counter-revolutionary" work. As the conflict between Gorky and the regime became more pronounced, Gorky's political and literary positions grew increasingly precarious. Fyodor Panferov, one of the party-sanctioned leaders of the Socialist Realism writers whom Gorky had previously criticized, published a sharp retort. In it, he dismissed Gorky's strategy of critiquing officially acclaimed Socialist Realism writers while simultaneously supporting ostensible enemies of Communism, such as D. S. Mirsky. David Zaslavsky published an ironic and deeply critical response to Gorky's article defending Demons, directly accusing Gorky of connivance in the formation of the "counter-revolutionary intelligentsia" and explicitly comparing his "liberal position" to that of ideological enemies, namely Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, provocatively stating: "Next thing you know you'll be calling for publication of White Guard writers," as Korney Chukovsky wryly summarized in his diary. Gorky's subsequent attempt at a second answer to Zaslavsky was, predictably, never published. [66] [67] During the officially organized campaign against the esteemed composer Dmitry Shostakovich, Gorky, once again demonstrating his independent streak, wrote a letter to Stalin in defense of the composer, demanding a "careful" treatment of him and disparaging his critics as "a bunch of mediocre people, hack-workers" who were "attack[ing] Shostakovich in every possible way." [68]
Such unimpeachable sources as Romain Rolland's diary reveal that, owing to Gorky's steadfast refusal to blindly conform to the increasingly brutal policies of Stalinism, he unequivocally lost the Party's goodwill. Consequently, he spent his final days under what amounted to an unannounced, yet undeniably effective, house arrest, a stark end for the "proletarian writer" who dared to think for himself. [26]
Death
Grave of Maxim Gorky in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
With the relentless increase of Stalinist repression, particularly after the shocking assassination of Sergei Kirov in December 1934, Gorky found himself placed under an unannounced, yet very real, house arrest. This confinement took place at his secluded residence near Moscow in Gorki‑10 (the name of the place is a completely different word in Russian, entirely unrelated to his surname). His long-serving secretary, Pyotr Kryuchkov, had, unbeknownst to Gorky, been recruited by Yagoda as a paid informer, a chilling betrayal that underscored the pervasive paranoia of the era. [69] Before his death from a lingering illness in June 1936, he received visits at his home from Stalin, Yagoda, and other leading communists, a macabre procession of power. Moura Budberg, his former mistress, who had wisely chosen not to return to the USSR with him, was granted special permission to attend his funeral, a final, public gesture of grudging respect.
The sudden and suspicious death of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, in May 1934, was eerily followed by the death of Maxim Gorky himself in June 1936, officially attributed to pneumonia. However, speculation has long swirled around the true circumstances of his death, casting a dark shadow over the official narrative. Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov conspicuously served as pallbearers, carrying Gorky's urn during the funeral, a public display of mourning that many found deeply ironic. During the infamous Bukharin trial in 1938, the last of the three grotesque Moscow Trials, one of the fabricated charges leveled was that Gorky had been deliberately murdered by Yagoda's NKVD agents, a confession extracted under duress that, while likely untrue in its specifics, hinted at a deeper, more sinister reality. [70]
Indeed, according to a consensus among several historians, Gorky and his son were, in all likelihood, poisoned by NKVD chief Genrikh Yagoda on the explicit orders from Stalin. This horrific act was possibly carried out with the complicit assistance of "Kremlin's doctors" Dmitry Pletnyov and Lev Levin, utilizing sophisticated substances developed at a clandestine special NKVD laboratory in Moscow. [71] [72] [73] [74] The truth, it seems, was far more bitter than any fiction Gorky ever penned.
Legacy
In the Soviet Union, the intricate complexities of Gorky's life, his evolving outlook, and his vast literary oeuvre were ruthlessly distilled into a simplistic, monolithic iconic image. This image, endlessly reiterated in heroic paintings and imposing statues dotted across the Soviet landscape, portrayed Gorky as a quintessential great Soviet writer who had heroically emerged from the common people, a steadfast and loyal friend of the Bolsheviks, and, most crucially, the undisputed founder of the increasingly canonical "Socialist Realism." [75] This state-sponsored cult, however, while elevating him, simultaneously and profoundly compromised his reputation and his rich literary legacy, particularly in the West. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, with characteristic bluntness, would later brand him "an apologist for executioners," a searing indictment that, while harsh, captured a painful truth about Gorky's later life. However, subsequent scholars have meticulously explored his deeply contradictory relationship with the Bolsheviks, highlighting crucial points such as his courageous condemnation of the Red Terror and his undeniably complicated, often fraught, interactions with Stalin (as detailed above). The German scholar of Gorky, Armin Knigge, has definitively concluded that Gorky "was never a Stalinist," a vital distinction. Regarding his enduring literary legacy, Knigge asserts that Gorky is "not a classical writer like Fyodor Dostoevsky, but a representative of world literature" and a "rigorous observer on a level comparable to German writer Thomas Mann." [76] In the West, out of his extensive dramatic works, only The Lower Depths (1902) has managed to retain a significant position in the theatrical canon, and only a select few of his early short stories achieved lasting influence. [77] However, in recent years, some of Gorky's works written prior to the Revolution, such as the play Children of the Sun (1905) and various early short stories, have seen renewed interest, with new stagings and republications. [76] Richard Freeborn, a prominent literary critic, acknowledges that while Gorky's reputation undeniably suffered due to his entanglement in politics, "nowadays his achievement as the creator of many vivid portraits, as a brilliant memoirist and autobiographer and successor to Chekhov as a dramatist is undeniable." [78] Yet, despite this growing appreciation, even his most widely recognized works, such as The Lower Depths and the novel Mother (1906), are regrettably difficult to procure in the West. His other significant works, including the highly acclaimed post-revolutionary novels The Artamonov Business (1925) and The Life of Klim Samgin (which have garnered considerable positive critical appraisal, as discussed below), have remained out of print for an astonishingly long time. According to Aaron Lake Smith of Lapham's Quarterly, "Gorky's work is so unavailable that it’s almost suspicious, as if there might still be a wizened Cold Warrior clanking away in a basement office somewhere in Washington..." In Russia, his figure is certainly more widely known, largely due to his former state-sponsored cult, but even there, his "legacy has been overtaken by a kind of fog, widely depoliticized and misunderstood," a testament to the complex and often contradictory nature of his enduring impact. [79]
Major works
The Lower Depths (1902)
• Main article: The Lower Depths
Gorky's seminal play, The Lower Depths (1902), stands as a stark, unflinching portrayal of human degradation and the desperate search for meaning amidst utter despair. Set in a squalid flophouse, it gathers a diverse cast of societal outcasts—paupers, prostitutes, thieves, and failed artists—each clinging to their own illusions or confronting brutal realities. The play probes profound philosophical questions about truth, illusion, and the nature of human dignity, particularly through the enigmatic character of Luka, an itinerant pilgrim who offers comforting lies, challenging the more cynical, brutal realism of other characters. Its premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre was a triumph, and it quickly gained international acclaim, becoming one of the most frequently performed Russian plays worldwide. Its enduring power lies in its raw depiction of human suffering and its timeless debate over whether a comforting illusion is preferable to a harsh truth.
Mother (1906)
• Main article: Mother (novel)
Gorky's novel Mother, a powerful narrative detailing the transformation of a poor, uneducated working woman who overcomes a life steeped in fear and ignorance in a provincial Russian town to embrace the revolutionary cause, is widely regarded as one of the most influential novels of the 20th century globally. [80] Among Gorky's extensive body of novels, it remains, perhaps ironically, his single best-known work, despite his personal reservations. It was written in 1906 during his time in the United States, with the explicit objective of galvanizing the revolutionary spirit among Russian workers by effectively conveying the political agenda of the Bolsheviks through an accessible and emotionally resonant narrative. [81] Gorky himself, with characteristic self-criticism, held a highly unfavorable view of the novel, famously declaring it "an unsuccessful thing, not only in its external appearance, because it is long, boring and carelessly written, but chiefly because it is insufficiently democratic." [82] This harsh opinion was, for a period, echoed by various literary critics. For instance, Marylin Minto notes that while the portrayal of Nilovna, the novel's titular main character, is remarkably successful and nuanced, many of the other characters tend towards being one-dimensional, serving more as ideological mouthpieces than fully fleshed-out individuals. [78] Richard Freeborn further elaborates on this, observing that the supporting characters are little more than "eloquent mouthpieces" for their respective viewpoints. However, he argues that Gorky ingeniously mitigates this flaw by filtering these characters and their pronouncements through Nilovna's evolving apprehension of them, allowing her subjective experience to lend them depth. [82] Despite these acknowledged artistic shortcomings, Mother continues to be read by the general public, and some contemporary reviewers have offered increasingly favorable comments. The Spectator, in a 2016 review occasioned by a new translation of the novel, described it as "surprisingly topical" and lauded its exploration of such "eternal themes" as "awakening from a life of fear and ignorance," suggesting its enduring relevance beyond its initial political context. [83]
My Childhood. In the World. My Universities (1915, 1916, 1923)
• Main article: Autobiographies of Maxim Gorky
Gorky's monumental trilogy of autobiographical prose works—My Childhood (1915), In the World (1916), and My Universities (1923)—is widely regarded by contemporary critics and scholars alike as one of his most significant and enduring literary achievements. [78] According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, these works are "considered to constitute one of the finest Russian autobiographies," revealing Gorky to be an extraordinarily "acute observer of detail with great descriptive powers." [84] Britannica further notes that the trilogy "contains many messages, which Gorky now tended to imply rather than preach openly: protests against motiveless cruelty, continued emphasis on the importance of toughness and self-reliance, and musings on the value of hard work." [85] The trilogy garnered significant praise from Gorky's contemporaries. D. S. Mirsky, for example, wrote that these works solidified Gorky's reputation as a "great realist." He also famously described the trilogy as "one of the strangest autobiographies ever written" precisely because it is "about everyone except himself [Gorky]. His person is only the pretext round which to gather a wonderful gallery of portraits," a testament to Gorky's ability to use his own life as a lens through which to capture the sprawling, often brutal, panorama of Russian society. [86]
The Artamonov Business (1925)
• Main article: The Artamonov Business
The novel The Artamonov Business (1925) has been consistently lauded as one of Gorky's finest and most accomplished works of fiction. Irwin Weil unequivocally declared it "perhaps Gorky's best single long work of fiction," [87] while Richard Freeborn, with similar conviction, hailed it as Gorky's "best novel." [78] Even the esteemed Encyclopaedia Britannica recognizes The Artamonov Business as "one of his [Gorky's] best novels," a rare consensus among critics. [85] Geoffrey Grigson drew an insightful parallel, noting that "it is like a less sophisticated Buddenbrooks," referring to Thomas Mann's chronicle of a family's decline. Indeed, the novel masterfully chronicles the inexorable decline of a pre-revolutionary industrialist family, tracing their fortunes and misfortunes from the burgeoning industrial landscape of the early 1860s through to the seismic upheaval of the Revolution of 1917. [78] It is a powerful, multi-generational saga that dissects the social and economic forces at play in a transforming Russia.
The Life of Klim Samgin (1927–1936)
• Main article: The Life of Klim Samgin
Gorky conceived his final, monumental work of fiction, The Life of Klim Samgin, as his ultimate masterpiece, a sprawling narrative that he painstakingly labored on until his death. His ambitious intention was to "depict all the classes, all the trends, all the tendencies, all the hell-like commotion of the last century, and all the storms of the 20th century." Out of the four envisioned volumes of this epic novel, Gorky managed to complete only three, which were published between 1927 and 1931. The final, fourth volume, tragically remained unfinished, seeing publication posthumously in 1937. The novel meticulously traces the intellectual and moral decadence of the Russian intelligentsia from the nascent stirrings of the 1870s and the assassination of Alexander II, through to the cataclysmic 1917 Revolution. This vast historical panorama is observed and filtered through the cynical, often detached eyes of Klim Samgin, a quintessential petit-bourgeois intellectual, whose journey serves as a microcosm of a society in flux.
The novel garnered a controversial reputation among Gorky's contemporaries, sparking both fervent praise and sharp criticism. Among those who lauded the work were the celebrated Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak and the English poet Brian Howard. In the years following Gorky's death, a growing number of critics and scholars have come to describe The Life of Klim Samgin as a truly notable work of 20th-century literature. It is often praised for its unique, laconic, experimental, and eclectic style, a masterful synthesis of diverse cultural traditions and innovative literary techniques. Its polyphony, achieved through an enormous cast of characters—each an "identity-seeker" creating "mirror images of each other"—is particularly striking. Some critics have drawn compelling parallels between Klim Samgin and such canonical modernist masterpieces as Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain (1924) and Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities (1930–1943). Yet, despite this growing chorus of critical appreciation, the novel in the West remains, as one critic put it, "so unavailable that it's almost suspicious." It has, astonishingly, never been reissued after its initial English publication in the 1930s, a testament to the lingering "fog" surrounding Gorky's complex legacy.
Bibliography
• Main article: Maxim Gorky bibliography
Portrait of Maxim Gorky by Mikhail Nesterov (1901)
Source: Turner, Lily; Strever, Mark (1946). Orphan Paul; A Bibliography and Chronology of Maxim Gorky. New York: Boni and Gaer. pp. 261–270.
Novels
• Goremyka Pavel , (Горемыка Павел, 1894). Published in English as Orphan Paul [89], this early work demonstrated Gorky's emerging talent for depicting the lives of the downtrodden.
• Foma Gordeyev (Фома Гордеев, 1899). Also translated as The Man Who Was Afraid, this novel delves into the psychological struggles of a merchant's son trapped between tradition and modernity.
• Three of Them (Трое, 1900). Also translated as Three Men and The Three, it explores the lives of three friends, each representing a different facet of Russian society.
• The Mother (Мать, 1906). First published in English in 1906, this novel became a foundational text for revolutionary literature worldwide.
• The Life of a Useless Man (Жизнь ненужного человека, 1908), a poignant exploration of an individual's struggle for purpose in a repressive society.
• A Confession (Исповедь, 1908), a philosophical novel reflecting Gorky's "God-Building" phase.
• Gorodok Okurov (Городок Окуров, 1908), a lesser-known work, not translated into English.
• The Life of Matvei Kozhemyakin (Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина, 1910), another deep dive into the lives of ordinary Russians.
• The Artamonov Business (Дело Артамоновых, 1925). Also translated as The Artamonovs and Decadence, this novel is often considered one of Gorky's finest.
• The Life of Klim Samgin (Жизнь Клима Самгина, 1925–1936). Published in English as Forty Years: The Life of Clim Samghin, this unfinished epic remains a complex and ambitious work.
• Volume I. Bystander (1930)
• Volume II. The Magnet (1931)
• Volume III. Other Fires (1933)
• Volume IV. The Specter (1938)
Novellas and short stories
• Sketches and Stories (Очерки и рассказы), 1899, a collection that marked the beginning of his widespread fame.
• Makar Chudra (Макар Чудра), 1892, his debut published short story.
• Old Izergil (Старуха Изергиль), 1895, a collection of tales exploring human nature and freedom.
• Chelkash (Челкаш), 1895, a powerful story of a tramp and a peasant.
• One Autumn Night (Однажды осенью), 1895.
• Konovalov (Коновалов), 1897.
• The Orlovs (Супруги Орловы), 1897.
• Creatures That Once Were Men (Бывшие люди), 1897, a collection whose title gave rise to a widely used Russian expression.
• Malva (Мальва), 1897.
• Varenka Olesova (Варенька Олесова), 1898.
• Twenty-six Men and a Girl (Двадцать шесть и одна), 1899, a poignant tale of resilience and vulnerability.
Plays
• The Philistines (Мещане), translated also as The Smug Citizens and The Petty Bourgeois (Мещане), 1901, a critique of the stagnant middle class.
• The Lower Depths (На дне), 1902, his most famous and enduring play.
• Summerfolk (Дачники), 1904, a critical look at the Russian intelligentsia seeking escape.
• Children of the Sun (Дети солнца), 1905, set during a cholera epidemic but reflecting contemporary social anxieties.
• Barbarians (Варвары), 1905.
• Enemies, 1906.
• The Last Ones (Последние), 1908. Translated also as Our Father [d].
• Reception (Встреча), 1910. Translated also as Children.
• Queer People (Чудаки), 1910. Translated also as Eccentrics.
• Vassa Zheleznova (Васса Железнова), 1910, 1935 (revised version), a powerful drama about a matriarch.
• The Zykovs (Зыковы), 1913.
• Counterfeit Money (Фальшивая монета), 1913.
• The Old Man (Старик), 1915. Revised 1922, 1924. Translated also as The Judge.
• Workaholic Slovotekov (Работяга Словотеков), 1920.
• Egor Bulychev (Егор Булычов и другие), 1932.
• Dostigayev and Others (Достигаев и другие), 1933.
Non-fiction
• My Childhood. In the World. My Universities (1913–1923), the acclaimed autobiographical trilogy.
• Chaliapin, articles in Letopis, 1917 [e], based on his friendship with the famous bass.
• My Recollections of Tolstoy, 1919, providing intimate insights into the literary giant.
• Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Andreyev, 1920–1928, a collection of personal accounts of his literary peers.
• Fragments from My Diary (Заметки из дневника), 1924.
• V.I. Lenin (В.И. Ленин), reminiscence, 1924–1931, a complex and often critical portrait of the revolutionary leader.
• The I.V. Stalin White Sea – Baltic Sea Canal, 1934 (editor-in-chief), a notorious propaganda piece.
• Literary Portraits [c.1935]. [91]
Essays
• O karamazovshchine (О карамазовщине, On Karamazovism/On Karamazovshchina), 1915, an exploration of Russian spiritual and moral questions, not translated.
• Untimely Thoughts. Notes on Revolution and Culture (Несвоевременные мысли. Заметки о революции и культуре), 1918, a collection of essays fiercely critical of the Bolsheviks, suppressed for decades.
• On the Russian Peasantry (О русском крестьянстве), 1922, a controversial and often negative assessment of the Russian peasantry.
• How I learnt to write [92].
Poems
• "The Song of the Stormy Petrel" (Песня о Буревестнике), 1901, a powerful symbol of revolutionary fervor.
• "Song of a Falcon" (Песня о Соколе), 1902. Also referred to as a short story.
Autobiography
• My Childhood (Детство), Part I, 1913–1914.
• In the World (В людях), Part II, 1916.
• My Universities (Мои университеты), Part III, 1923.
Collections
• Sketches and Stories, three volumes, 1898–1899.
• Creatures That Once Were Men, stories in English translation (1905). This contained an introduction by G. K. Chesterton [93]. The Russian title, Бывшие люди (literally "Former people"), gained widespread popularity as an expression referring to individuals who had experienced a severe decline in their social status, highlighting Gorky's keen eye for social commentary.
• Tales of Italy (Сказки об Италии), 1911–1913, a collection of stories reflecting his observations during his Italian exile.
• Through Russia (По Руси), 1923.
• Stories 1922–1924 (Рассказы 1922–1924 годов), 1925.
Commemoration
The sheer volume of places and institutions named after Maxim Gorky is a testament to his monumental, if often state-manufactured, legacy in the Soviet Union and its successor states. One might almost suspect they ran out of other names.
• In almost every large settlement of the states of the former USSR, there was [94] or is a Gorky Street. In 2013, a staggering 2110 streets, avenues, and lanes in Russia alone bore the name "Gorky," and another 395 were specifically named "Maxim Gorky." [95] A truly inescapable figure.
• Gorky was the name of Nizhny Novgorod, his birthplace, from 1932 to 1990, a significant symbolic erasure of its original identity.
• Gorkovsky suburban railway line, Moscow is named in his honor.
• Gorkovskoye village of Novoorsky District of Orenburg Oblast.
• Gorky village in the Leningrad oblast.
• Gorkovsky village (Volgograd) (formerly Voroponovo).
• Village named after Maxim Gorky, Kameshkovsky District of Vladimir Oblast.
• Gorkovskoye village is the district center of Omsk Oblast (formerly Ikonnikovo).
• Maxim Gorky village, Znamensky District of Omsk Oblast.
• Village named after Maxim Gorky, Krutinsky District of Omsk Oblast.
• In Nizhny Novgorod, the Central District Children's Library, the Academic Drama Theater, a prominent street, and a central square are all named after Maxim Gorky. And, most importantly, the city hosts the museum-apartment dedicated to Maxim Gorky, preserving his memory.
• Drama theaters in the following cities proudly bear the name of Maxim Gorky: Moscow (MAT, since 1932), Vladivostok (Primorsky Gorky Drama Theater – PGDT), Berlin (Maxim Gorki Theater), Baku (ASTYZ), Astana (Russian Drama Theater named after M. Gorky), Tula (Tula Academic Theatre), Minsk (Theater named after M. Gorky), Rostov-on-Don (Rostov Drama Theater named after M. Gorky), Krasnodar, Samara (Samara Drama Theater named after M. Gorky), Orenburg (Orenburg Regional Drama Theater), Volgograd (Volgograd Regional Drama Theater), Magadan (Magadan Regional Music and Drama Theater), Simferopol (KARDT), Kustanay, Kudymkar (Komi- Perm National Drama Theater), Young Spectator Theater in Lviv, as well as in Saint Petersburg from 1932 to 1992 (DB). The name was also bestowed upon the Interregional Russian Drama Theater of the Fergana Valley, the Tashkent State Academic Theater, the Tula Regional Drama Theater, and the Nur-Sultan Regional Drama Theater. A truly prolific patronymic.
• Palaces of Culture named after Maxim Gorky were constructed in Nevinnomyssk, Rovenky, Novosibirsk and Saint Petersburg, serving as cultural hubs.
• Universities: Maxim Gorky Literature Institute, Ural State University, Donetsk National Medical University, Minsk State Pedagogical Institute, Omsk State Pedagogical University. Until 1993, Turkmen State University in Ashgabat was named after Maxim Gorky (now named after Magtymguly Pyragy). Sukhum State University was named after Maxim Gorky. National University of Kharkiv bore his name from 1936–1999. Ulyanovsk Agricultural Institute, Uman Agricultural Institute, Kazan Order of the Badge of Honor The institute was named after Maxim Gorky until it was granted the status of an academy in 1995 (now Kazan State Agrarian University). The Mari Polytechnic Institute and Perm State University (from 1934–1993) also carried his name.
• The following cities feature parks named after Maxim Gorky, offering green spaces for public recreation: Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Saratov, Minsk, Krasnoyarsk, Melitopol, Moscow, Alma-Ata.
• Schools in Belgrade, Serbia and Podgorica, Montenegro are both named "Maksim Gorki".
Monuments
Monuments to Maxim Gorky stand proudly in numerous cities, a silent, concrete testament to his enduring, if complicated, place in history. Among them:
• In Russia – Borisoglebsk, Arzamas, Volgograd, Voronezh, Vyborg, Dobrinka, Izhevsk, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Nevinnomyssk, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Penza, Pechora, Rostov-on-Don, Rubtsovsk, Rylsk, Ryazan, St. Petersburg, Sarov, Sochi, Taganrog, Khabarovsk, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Yartsevo.
• In Belarus – Dobrush, Minsk. Mogilev, Gorky Park, bust.
• In Ukraine – Donetsk, Kryvyi Rih, Melitopol, Yalta, Yasynuvata. Notably, some of these monuments, like the one in Dnipro (as pictured below), have since been dismantled, reflecting changing political landscapes and reassessments of historical figures.
• In Azerbaijan – Baku.
• In Kazakhstan – Alma-Ata, Zyryanovsk, Kostanay.
• In Georgia – Tbilisi.
• In Moldova – Chișinău, Leovo.
• In Italy – Sorrento, a poignant reminder of his years in exile.
• In India – Gorky Sadan, [96] Kolkata, a testament to his global literary reach.
Monuments of Gorky
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Monument at Gorky Institute of World Literature
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Monument in Luhansk
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Monument in Chișinău
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Now dismantled monument in Dnipro as it was in 2021
Philately
Maxim Gorky's image has graced numerous postage stamps across the globe, a testament to his international recognition and the widespread impact of his literary and political persona. These philatelic tributes include issues from Albania (1986), [97] Vietnam (1968) [98], India (1968), [99] Maldives (2018), [100] and many other nations, solidifying his place as a figure of global cultural significance. Some notable examples are presented below, a visual timeline of his enduring presence.
• Maxim Gorky postage stamps
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Postage stamp USSR, 1932
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Postage stamp USSR, 1932
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Postage stamp, the USSR, 1943
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Postage stamp, the USSR, 1943
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Postage stamp, the USSR, "10 years since the death of M. Gorky" (1946, 30 kopeeks)
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Postage stamp, the USSR, "10 years since the death of M. Gorky" (1946, 60 kopeeks)
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Postage stamp, GDR, 1953
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Postage stamp, the USSR, 1956
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Postage stamp, the USSR, 1958
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Postage stamp, the USSR, 1959
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Postage stamp, the USSR, 1968
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Postage stamp, Russia, "Rusiia. XX век. Culture" (2000, 1,30 rubles)
In 2018, FSUE Russian Post released a commemorative miniature sheet specifically dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the writer's birth, continuing the tradition of honoring his legacy.
Numismatics
Silver commemorative coin, 2 rubles "Maxim Gorky", 2018
Maxim Gorky's image has also been immortalized on coinage, further cementing his status as a national icon.
• In 1988, a 1 ruble coin was issued in the USSR, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the writer's birth.
• In 2018, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birthday, the Bank of Russia issued a commemorative silver coin with a face value of 2 rubles within its esteemed "Outstanding Personalities of Russia" series.
Depictions and adaptations
Maxim Gorky's powerful narratives and dramatic works have provided fertile ground for numerous adaptations across various artistic mediums, demonstrating the enduring resonance of his stories.
• In 1912, the Italian composer Giacomo Orefice drew inspiration from Gorky's 1892 short story Makar Chudra, basing his opera Radda on the titular character.
• In 1932, the influential German playwright Bertolt Brecht published his renowned play The Mother, a significant adaptation directly based on Gorky's 1906 novel Mother. The same seminal novel also served as the source material for an opera by Valery Zhelobinsky in 1938.
• Between 1938 and 1939, Gorky's acclaimed three-part autobiography was brought to the silver screen by Soyuzdetfilm as a trilogy of feature films: The Childhood of Maxim Gorky, My Apprenticeship, and My Universities. All three were skillfully directed by Mark Donskoy, creating a cinematic classic.
• In 1975, Gorky's 1908 play The Last Ones (Последние), made its New York debut at the Manhattan Theater Club, presented under the alternative English title Our Father. The production was directed by Keith Fowler, introducing Gorky's work to a new American audience.
• In 1985, Gorky's 1906 play Enemies, translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair and Jeremy Brooks, was directed in London by Ann Pennington in association with the Internationalist Theatre. This production notably coincided with the tail end of the British miners' strike of 1984–1985. Critics observed that Gorky's "pseudo-populism" was effectively stripped away in this staging, with the actors speaking "without distinctive accents and consequently without populist sentiment," allowing the raw themes to emerge. [101]
• Drawing profoundly from Maxim Gorky's celebrated novel Mother, the silent film Mother (1926 film), directed by the visionary Vsevolod Pudovkin, was crafted with profound artistry, becoming a landmark of early Soviet cinema.
See also
• FK Sloboda Tuzla football club from Bosnia and Herzegovina, originally called FK Gorki.
• Gorky Park in Moscow and Central Park (former Park of Maxim Gorky) in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
• Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.
• Palace of Culture named after Maxim Gorky, Novosibirsk.
• Soviet cruiser Maxim Gorky, a Project 26bis (or Kirov-class) light cruiser, which served from 1940 to 1956 and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1944.
• Tupolev ANT-20 aircraft, famously nicknamed "Maxim Gorky".
• The Lives of Remarkable People.
Notes
• ^ In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Maximovich and the family name is Peshkov .
• ^ His own pronunciation, according to his autobiography Detstvo (Childhood), was [pʲˈeʃkʌ́vˈɛ], but most Russians say [pʲˈéʃkˈof], which is therefore found in reference books.
• ^ Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko had insulted Gorky with his critical assessment of Gorky's new play Summerfolk, which Nemirovich described as shapeless and formless raw material that lacked a plot. Despite Stanislavski's attempts to persuade him otherwise, in December 1904 Gorky refused permission for the MAT to produce his Enemies, and declined "any kind of connection with the Art Theatre." [16]
• ^ William Stancil's English translation, titled Our Father, was premiered by the Virginia Museum Theater in 1975, under the direction of Keith Fowler. Its New York debut was at the Manhattan Theater Club.
• ^ The manuscript of this work, which Gorky wrote using information supplied by his friend Chaliapin, was translated, together with supplementary correspondence of Gorky with Chaliapin and others. [90]