***
(по-англ. Gorky, Maksim; настоящие ФИО: Пешков, Алексей Максимович), русcкий писатель.
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 С И.В. Сталиным |
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Художественная литература: Каталог-прейскурант на покупку и продажу букинистических и антикварных книг. –
М.: Книга, 1977. – С. 56-61. №№ 362-376.
целый ряд художественных деятелей, к которым многие из нас применяют эпитет гения, не являются и никогда
не являлись вестниками. Ибо их художественная деятельность лишена одного из основных признаков
вестничества: чувства, что ими и через них говорит некая высшая, чем они сами, и вне их пребывающая
инстанция. Такими именами богата, например, литература французская, а у нас можно назвать двух-трех
деятелей эпохи революционного подъема: Горького, Маяковского. Можно спорить с
гениальностью этих писателей, но вряд ли кто-нибудь усмотрел бы в них вестников высшей реальности»
(2: 370).
В повести «Детство» Горький создал трогательный женский образ бабушки
(2: 409).
<Иронически оценивает Д. Андреев сталинский> общеизвестный афоризм по поводу
сказки Горького «Девушка и смерть» – «Эта штука посильнее “Фауста”
Гете» (2: 478).
<В посмертии пал в Укарвайр, о чем Д. Андреев пишет:> Весьма
известному писателю наших дней, виновному, конечно, не в осознанном садизме, а в подмене идеалов, в
извращении идей, в отравлении множества сознаний ложью, казалось, <…> что он здесь пробыл не десять лет,
как это было по времени Энрофа, а всего несколько дней
(2: 174).
<Эта тема развита также в стихотворении «К открытию памятника»:>
Все видел. Все понял. Все ведал.
Не знал? обманулся?.. Не верь:
За сладость учительства предал
И продал свой дар. А теперь?
Далеко, меж брызг Укарвайра,
Гоним он нездешней тоской,
Крича, как печальная кайра,
Над огненной ширью морской (1: 94).
О Горьком [Берберова, Будберг,
Бурцев, Головинский,
Луначарский, Равницкий,
Ходасевич; гениальность и талант
(2: 373), женский пантеон России (2: 409),
ПСМ §1, рус. художеств. гении и таланты (2: 370);
151, 309, 369.5,
29790, 34188,
34188а].
Горький М.
Очерки и рассказы: В 3-х т. / 2-е изд. – СПб.: С. Дороватский и А. Черушников, 1899. – Обл.
7 р. 50 к.
Т. 1. Челкаш; Песня о Соколе <и др.> – 4, 337 с. (Том вышел только 1-м изданием в 1898 г.)
Т. 2. Коновалов; Мальва <и др.>. – 6, 387 с.
Т. 3. Варенька Олесова; Каин и Артем <и др.>. 4, 384 с.
Сочинения: В 20-ти т. (21 кн.). – СПб.: Знание (тт. 1–9); Жизнь и знание (тт. 10-20),
1900–1915. – Обл. 30 р.
Т. 1. Рассказы. – 1900. – 323 с.
Т. 2. Рассказы. – 1901. – 394 с.
Т. 3. Рассказы. – 1900. – 318 с.
Т. 4. Рассказы. – 1900. – 402 с.
Т. 5. Трое; Песня о буревестнике. – 1903. – 386 с.
Т. 6. Пьесы: Мещане; На дне. – 1903. – 286 с.
Т. 7. Пьесы. – 1907. – 4, 298 с.
Т. 8. Пьесы. – 1908. – 6, 339 с.
Т. 9. Рассказы. – 1910. – 4, 322 с.
Т. 10. Жизнь ненужного человека. – 1914. – 184 с.; 2-е изд. – 1915.
Т. 11. Городок Окуров. – 1914. – 199 с.
Т. 12. Матвей Кожемякин. Кн. 1. Ч. 1-2. – 1914. – 457 с.
Т. 13. То же. Кн. 2. Ч. 3-4. – 1914. – 481 с.
Т. 14. Лето. – Выходные данные не уточнены.
Т. 15, кн. 1. Мать. – Выходные данные не уточнены.
Т. 15, кн. 2. – 1917. – 323 с.
Т. 16. Пожар <и др. рассказы>. – 1915. – 252 с.
Т. 17. Сказки. – 1915. – 258 с.
Т. 18. Хозяин; Три дня. – 1915. – 304 с.
Т. 19. По Руси. (Очерки). – 1915. – 380 с.
Т. 20. Детство. – 1915. – 340 с.
Собрание сочинений: В 21-м т. – Берлин: Книга, 1923–1928. (Со 2-го т. место
печати: Лейпциг). – Обл. 40 р.; Пер. 65 р.
Т. 1. Рассказы. – 2, 356 с., 1 л. портр.
Т. 2. Рассказы. – 328 с.
Т. 3. Рассказы. – 336 с.
Т. 4. Фома Гордеев. – 267 с.
Т. 5. Трое. – 276 с.
Т. 6. Исповедь; Лето. – 280 с.
Т. 7. Мать. – 313 с.
Т. 8. Жизнь ненужного человека; Городок Окуров. – 308 с.
Т. 9. Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина. – 484 с.
Т. 10. Детство. – 195 с.
Т. 11. В людях; Хозяин. – 396 с.
Т. 12. По Руси. – 396, 2 с.
Т. 13. Рассказы и очерки. – 452, 2 с.
Т. 14. Пьесы. – 488 с.
Т. 15. Пьесы. – 376 с.
Т. 16. Мои университеты. – 369, 5 с.
Т. 17. Заметки из дневника; Воспоминания; Рассказы. 1922–1924. – 522, 2 с.
Т. 18. Дело Артамоновых. – 259 с.
Т. 19. Воспоминания; Рассказы; Заметки. – 217, 3 с.
Т. 20. Жизнь Клима Самгина. – 500, 1 с.
Т. 21. То же. – 606 с.
Собрание сочинений: В 22-х т. – М.; Пг.: ГИЗ, 1924–1929. – Обл. 17 р. 50 к.; Пап. пер.
25 р. Тома 1-19 вышли 2-ым изданием в 1927 г. в том же объеме.
Т. 1. Рассказы. – 1924. – 356 с.
Т. 2. Рассказы. – 1924. – 328 с.
Т. 3. Рассказы. – 1924. – 350 с.
Т. 4. Фома Гордеев. – 1924. – 266 с.
Т. 5. Трое. – 1924. – 275 с.
Т. 6. Исповедь; Лето. – 1924. – 290 с.
Т. 7. Мать. – 1924. – 313 с.
Т. 8. Жизнь ненужного человека; Городок Окуров. – Л., 1924. 316 с.
Т. 9. Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина. – 1924. – 500 с.
Т. 10. Детство. – 1924. – 194 с.
Т. 11. В людях. – 1924. – 396 с.
Т. 12. По Руси. – 1924. – 396 с.
Т. 13. Рассказы и очерки. – Л., 1924. – 470 с.
Т. 14. Пьесы. – 1924. – 506 с.
Т. 15. Пьесы. – 1924. – 392 с.
Т. 16. Мои университеты. – 1924. – 381 с.
Т. 17. Заметки из дневника, воспоминания. – 1926. – 212 с.
Т. 18. Рассказы. 1922–1924 гг. – 1926. – 307 с.
Т. 19. Дело Артамоновых. М.; Л., – 1927. – 259 с.
Т. 20. Воспоминания; Рассказы; Заметки. – 1928. – 216 с.
Т. 21. Жизнь Клима Самгина. (Сорок лет). I. – 1929. – 501 с.
Т. 22. То же. II. – 1929. – 606 с.
Собрание сочинений: В 25-ти т. / Ред. и коммент. И.А. Груздева; Предисл. А.В. Луначарского.
– М.; Л.: ГИЗ, 1928–1931. – Цена 25 томов в темно-зеленом пер.: 50 р. # Первые 23 тома настоящего издания
были выпущены в темно-зеленых переплетах. Тома 24 и 25 вышли только при 2-м издании в 1933–1934 гг. Все тома
2-го издания имели бежевые переплеты, но часть тиража томов 24 и 25 была переплетена в темно-зеленые
переплеты. Эти тома являются дополнительными к 1-му изданию.
Т. 1. Максим Горький (Статья А.В. Луначарского); Макар Чудра <и др.>. – 1928. – 350 с., 1 л. портр.
Т. 2. Супруги Орловы <и др.>. – 1928. – 298 с.
Т. 3. Каин и Артем...; Фома Гордеев. – 1928. – 309 с.
Т. 4. Двадцать шесть и одна...; Трое. – 1928. – 268 с.
Т. 5. Песня о буревестнике; Мещане; На дне <и др.>. – 1928. – 267 с.
Т. 6. Тюрьма <и др.>. – 1928. – 215 с.
Т. 7. В Америке <и др.>. – 1929. – 221 с.
Т. 8. 9-ое января; Мать. – 1929. – 313 с.
Т. 9. Исповедь; Жизнь ненужного человека. – 1929. – 333 с.
Т. 10. Лето, <и др.>. – 1929. – 301 с.
Т. 11. Городок Окуров; Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина. – 1929. – 540 с.
Т. 12. Жалобы; Мордовка, <и др.>. – 1929. – 237 с.
Т. 13. Рождение человека <и др.>. – 1929. – 350 с.
Т. 14. Сказки об Италии; Рассказы <и др.>. – 1929. – 221 с.
Т. 15. Три дня <и др.>. – 1930. – 270 с.
Т. 16. Детство. – 1930. – 173 с.
Т. 17. В людях. – 1930. – 267 с.
Т. 18. Мои университеты <и др.>. – 1930. – 195 с.
Т. 19. Заметки из дневника, воспоминания <и др.>. – 1930. – 180 с.
Т. 20. Дело Артамоновых. – 1930. – 233 с.
Т. 21. Отшельник <и др.>. – 1930. – 342 с.
Т. 22. Н.Е. Каронин-Петропавловский <и др.>. – 1930. – 235 с.
Т. 23. Жизнь Клима Самгина. Ч. 1. – 1930. – 464 с.
Т. 24. То же. Ч. 2. (Изд. 2-е). – 1933. – 540 с.
Т. 25. То же. Ч. 3. (Изд. 2-е). – 1934. – 422 с., 2 с.
Собрание сочинений: В 25-ти т. / Ред. и коммент. И.А. Груздева; Предисл. А.В.
Луначарского; 2-е доп., юбил. изд. – М.; Л.: Гослитиздат, 1932–1934. – В бежевых переплетах. 50 р.
Т. 1. Максим Горький (статья А. Луначарского); Макар Чудра <и др.>. – 1933. – 353 с.
Т. 2. Супруги Орловы <и др.>. – 1933. – 299 с.
Т. 3. Каин и Артем <и др.>. – 1932. – 309 с.
Т. 4. Двадцать шесть и одна <и др.>. – 1932. – 290 с.
Т. 5. Песня о буревестнике; Мещане <и др.>. – 1932. – 264 с.
Т. 6. Тюрьма <и др.>. – 1932. – 214 с.
Т. 7. В Америке <и др.>. – 1932. – 233 с.
Т. 8. 9-ое января; Мать. – 1933. – 313 с.
Т. 9. Исповедь <и др.>. – 1933. – 326 с.
Т. 10. Лето <и др.>. – 1933. – 301 с.
Т. 11. Городок Окуров; Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина. – 1933. – 541 с.
Т. 12. Жалобы; Мордовка <и др.>. – 1933. – 237 с.
Т. 13. По Руси. – 1933. – 350 с.
Т. 14. Сказки об Италии <и др.>. – 1933. – 221 с.
Т. 15. Три дня <и др.>. – 1933. – 248 с.
Т. 16. Детство. – 1933. – 172 с.
Т. 17. В людях. – 1933. – 271 с.
Т. 18. Мои университеты <и др.>. – 1933. – 195 с.
Т. 19. Заметки из дневника; Воспоминания. – 1933. – 180 с.
Т. 20. Дело Артамоновых. – 1933. – 233 с.
Т. 21. Отшельник <и др.>. – 1933. – 342 с.
Т. 22. Воспоминания; Заметки. – 1933. – 233 с.
Т. 23. Жизнь Клима Самгина. Ч. 1. – 1933. – 453 с.
Т. 24. То же. Ч. 2. – 1933. – 540 с.
Т. 25. То же. Ч. 3. – 1934. – 422 с.
Собрание избранных сочинений: В 6-ти т. / Под ред. И.А. Груздева. – М.; Л.: Ленгихл,
1932. – Пер., суперобл. 10 р.
Т. 1. Мать. – 96, 363 с.
Т. 2. Дело Артамоновых. – 299 с.
Т. 3. Рассказы. Очерки. Воспоминания. – 605 с.
Т. 4. Детство. – 219 с.
Т. 5. В людях. – 343 с.
Т. 6. Мои университеты. – 284 с.
Избранные сочинения: В 6-ти т. / Под ред. и вступит. статьей И.А. Груздева; 2-е изд.
– М.: Гослитиздат, 1935. – 10 р.
Т. 1. Мать. – 542, 2 с., 1 л. портр.
Т. 2. Детство. – 244 с.
Т. 3. В людях. – 381 с.
Т. 4. Мои университеты; Хозяин. – 310 с.
Т. 5. Дело Артамоновых. – 330 с.
Т. 6. Рассказы. – 467 с.
Избранные сочинения: В 2-х т. / Вступит. статья, ред. и примеч. И.А. Груздева; 2-е изд.
– М.: Гослитиздат, 1936. – 5 р.
Т. 1. 592 с.
Т. 2. 700 с.
Собрание сочинений: В 15-ти т. / 3-е изд. – М.: Гослитиздат, 1938–1949. – 45 р.
Т. 1. Рассказы. – 1939. – 797 с., 1 л. портр.
Т. 2. Рассказы; Фома Гордеев; Трое. – 1938. – 733 с.
Т. 3. Рассказы; Пьесы <и др.>. – 1940. – 554 с.
Т. 4. В Америке <и др.>. – 1941. – 622 с.
Т. 5. Повести; Пьесы. 1907–1910. – 1945. – 742 с.
Т. 6. Городок Окуров; Жизнь Матвея Кожемякина. – 1946. – 638 с.
Т. 7. Рассказы; Пьесы. – 1946. – 581 с.
Т. 8. По Руси; Сказки об Италии; Русские сказки. – 1947. – 693 с.
Т. 9. Детство; В людях; Мои университеты. – 1947. – 765 с.
Т. 10. Заметки из дневника; Воспоминания; Дело Артамоновых. – 1947. – 512 с.
Т. 11. Рассказы; Пьесы. – 1949. – 577 с.
Т. 12. Жизнь Клима Самгина. I. – 1947. – 556 с.
Т. 13. То же. II. – 1947. – 659 с.
Т. 14. То же. III. – 1947. – 392 с.
Т. 15. То же. IV. – 1949. – 564 с.
Избранные произведения: В 5-ти т. – М.: Правда, 1946. – (Б-ка «Огонек». Приложение к
журналу за 1946 г.). – Обл. 10 р.
Т. 1. Рассказы и сказки. – 191 с.
Т. 2. Повести и рассказы. – 303 с.
Т. 3. Мать. – 192 с.
Т. 4. Детство; В людях; Мои университеты. – 372 с.
Т. 5. Дело Артамоновых. – 163 с.
Избранные сочинения. – М.: Гослитиздат, 1946. – 662 с; 2 л. портр. – 4 р.
Избранные сочинения. – М.: Гослитиздат, 1947. – 644 с.; 3 л. портр. (Отпечатано с матриц Воениздатом). – 5 р.
Собрание сочинений: В 30-ти т. / Акад. наук СССР, Ин-т Мировой литературы им. А.М.
Горького. – М.: Гослитиздат, 1949–1955. – Пер., суперобл. 85 р.
Т. 1. Повести, рассказы, стихи. 1892–1894. – 1949. – 512 с., 4 л. ил.
Т. 2. Рассказы, стихи 1895–1896. – 1949. – 586 с.; 2 л. портр.
Т. 3. Рассказы. 1896–1899. – 1950. – 532 с.; 3 л. ил.
Т. 4. Повести, очерки., рассказы. 1899–1900. – 1950. – 443 с.; 1 л. портр.
Т. 5. Повести, рассказы, очерки, стихи. 1900–1906. – 1950. – 556 с.; 4 л. ил., портр.
Т. 6. Пьесы. 1901–1906. – 1950. – 556 с.; 4 л. ил., портр.
Т. 7. Повести, рассказы, очерки, наброски. 1906–1907. – 1950. – 535 с.; 5 л. ил.
Т. 8. Повести. 1907–1909. – 1950. – 509 с.; 4 л. ил., портр.
Т. 9. Повести. 1909–1912. – 1950. – 636 с., 4 л. факс., портр.
Т. 10. Сказки, рассказы, очерки. 1910–1917. – 1951. – 524 с.; 3 л. портр.
Т. 11. Рассказы. 1912–1917. – 1951. – 417 с.; 3 л. ил.
Т. 12. Пьесы. 1908–1915. – 1951. – 464 с.; 5 л. ил.
Т. 13. Повести. 1913–1923. – 1951. – 644 с.; 5 л. ил.
Т. 14. Повести, рассказы, очерки, воспоминания, сказки, стихотворения. 1912–1923. – 1951. – 332 с.; 4 л.
ил.
Т. 15. Рассказы, очерки, заметки из дневника, воспоминания. 1921–1924. – 1951. – 431 с.; 4 л. портр.
Т. 16. Рассказы, повести. 1922–1925. – 1952. – 599 с.; 4 л. ил.
Т. 17. Рассказы., очерки, воспоминания. 1924–1936. – 1952. – 494 с.; 4 л. ил., портр.
Т. 18. Пьесы, сценарии, инсценировки. 1921–1935. – 1952. – 443 с.; 3 л. портр.
Т. 19. Жизнь Клима Самгина. 1925–1936. Ч. 1. – 1952. – 548 с.; 4 л. портр., факс.
Т. 20. То же. Ч. 2. – 1952. – 647 с.; 4 л. портр., факс.
Т. 21. То же. Ч. 3. – 1952. – 381 с.; 4 л. портр.
Т. 22. То же. Ч. 4. – 1953. – 560 с.; 3 л. портр.
Т. 23. Статьи. 1895–1906. – 1953. – 464 с.; 3 л. пл., портр.
Т. 24. Статьи, речи, приветствия. 1907–1928. – 1953. – 574 с.; 3 л. портр.
Т. 25. Статьи, речи, приветствия. 1929–1931. – 1953. – 520 с.; 3 л. ил.
Т. 26. То же. 1931–1933. – 1953. – 462 с.; 3 л. портр.
Т. 27. Статьи, документы, речи, приветствия. (1933–1936). – 1953. – 590 с.; 4 л. портр.
Т. 28. Письма, телеграммы, надписи. (1889–1906). – 1954. – 599 с.; 6 л. портр.
Т. 29. То же. 1907–1926. – 1954. – 672 с.; 8 л. ил., портр.
Т. 30. То же. 1927–1936. – 1955. – 819 с.; 8 л. ил.
Избранные произведения: В 3-х т. – М.: Гослитиздат, 1951. – 7 р. 50 к.
Т. 1. Макар Чудра <и др.>. – 731 с; 1 л. портр.
Т. 2. В Америке <и др.>. – 711 с.
Т. 3. Детство; В людях; Мои университеты; Хозяин. – 1951. – 716 с.
Несвоевременные мысли. – М., 1990. – 400 с. – Пер.
О Горьком
Коган П.С. Горький. – М.; Л., 1928.
Матвеева Т. Подпольный человек Алексей Пешков. – М., 1995. – 98 с. – Обл.
Русская литература XX века
Main page: Andreev encyclopædia
(in Russian Горький, Максим; also spelled Maxim Gorki, pseudonym of Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov). Born March 16 <March 28, New Style>, 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; died June 14, 1936. Russian short-story writer and novelist who first attracted attention with his naturalistic and sympathetic stories of tramps and social outcasts and later wrote other stories, novels, and plays, including his famous “The Lower Depths”.
Gorky's earliest years were spent in Astrakhan, where his father, a former upholsterer, became
a shipping agent. When the boy was five his father died; Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod to live with his
maternal grandparents, who brought him up after his mother remarried. The grandfather was a dyer whose
business deteriorated and who treated Gorky harshly. From his grandmother he received most of what little
kindness he experienced as a child.
Gorky knew the Russian working-class background intimately, for his grandfather
afforded him only a few months of formal schooling, sending him out into the world to earn his living at
the age of eight. His jobs included, among many others, work as assistant in a shoemaker's shop, as errand
boy for an icon painter, and as dishwasher on a Volga steamer, where the cook introduced him to
reading—soon to become his main passion in life. Frequently beaten by his employers, nearly always hungry
and ill clothed, he came to know the seamy side of Russian life as few other Russian authors before or
since. The bitterness of these early experiences later led him to choose the word gorky (“bitter”) as his
pseudonym.
His late adolescence and early manhood were spent in Kazan, where he worked as a baker,
docker, and night watchman. There he first learned about Russian revolutionary ideas from representatives
of the Populist movement, whose tendency to idealize the Russian peasant he later rejected. Oppressed by
the misery of his surroundings, he attempted suicide by shooting himself. Leaving Kazan at the age of 21,
he became a tramp, doing odd jobs of all kinds during extensive wanderings through southern Russia.
In Tbilisi (Tiflis) Gorky began to publish stories in the provincial press, of which the first was
“Makar Chudra” (1892), followed by a series of similar wild Romantic legends and allegories of only
documentary interest. But with the publication of “Chelkash” (1895) in a leading St. Petersburg
journal, he began a success story as spectacular as any in the history of Russian literature. “Chelkash,”
one of his outstanding works, is the story of a colourful harbour thief in which elements of Romanticism
and realism are mingled. It began Gorky's celebrated “tramp period,” during which he described the social
dregs of Russia. He expressed sympathy and self-identification with the strength and determination of the
individual hobo or criminal, characters previously described more objectively. “Twenty-Six Men and
a Girl” (1899), describing the sweated labour conditions in a bakery, is often regarded as
his best short story. So great was the success of these works that Gorky's reputation quickly soared, and
he began to be spoken of almost as an equal of Leo Tolstoy and
Anton Chekhov.
Next Gorky wrote a series of plays and novels, all less excellent than his best earlier stories.
The first novel, “Foma Gordeyev” (1899), illustrates his admiration for strength of body and will in
the masterful barge owner and rising capitalist Ignat Gordeyev, who is contrasted with his relatively
feeble and intellectual son Foma, a “seeker after the meaning of life,” as are many of Gorky's other
characters. From this point, the rise of Russian capitalism became one of Gorky's main fictional interests.
Other novels of the period are “Three of Them” (“Troye”, 1900), “A Confession”
(“Ispoved”, 1908), “Okurov City” (1909), and “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin (1910).
These are all to some extent failures because of Gorky's inability to sustain a powerful narrative, and also
because of a tendency to overload his work with irrelevant discussions about the meaning of life.
“Mother” (1906) is probably the least successful of the novels, yet it has considerable interest as
Gorky's only long work devoted to the Russian revolutionary movement. It was made into a notable silent
film by Vsevolod Pudovkin (1926) and dramatized by Bertolt Brecht in «Die Mutter» (1930–1931). Gorky
also wrote a series of plays, the most famous of which is “The Lower Depths” (“Na dne”, 1902).
A dramatic rendering of the kind of flophouse character that Gorky had already used so extensively in his
stories, it still enjoys great success abroad and in Russia.
Between 1899 and 1906 Gorky lived mainly in St. Petersburg, where he became a Marxist, supporting
the Social Democratic Party. After the split in that party in 1903, Gorky went with its Bolshevik wing. But
he was often at odds with the Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin. Nor did Gorky ever, formally, become a member of
Lenin's party, though his enormous earnings, which he largely gave to party funds, were one of that
organization's main sources of income. In 1901 the Marxist review “Zhizn” (“Life”) was suppressed for
publishing a short revolutionary poem by Gorky, “Song of the Stormy Petrel” (“Pesnya o
burevestnike”). Gorky was arrested but released shortly afterward and went to the Crimea, having
developed tuberculosis. In 1902 he was elected a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but his
election was soon withdrawn for political reasons, an event that led to the resignations of Chekhov and
the writer V.G. Korolenko from the academy. Gorky took a prominent part in the Russian Revolution of 1905,
was arrested in the following year, and was again quickly released, partly as the result of protests from
abroad. He toured America in the company of his mistress, an event that led to his partial ostracism there
and to a consequent reaction on his part against the United States as expressed in stories about New York
City, “The City of the Yellow Devil” (1906).
On leaving Russia in 1906, Gorky spent seven years as a political exile, living mainly in his villa on
Capri in Italy. Politically, Gorky was a nuisance to his fellow Marxists because of his insistence on
remaining independent, but his great influence was a powerful asset, which from their point of view
outweighed such minor defects. He returned to Russia in 1913, and during World War I he agreed with
the Bolsheviks in opposing Russia's participation in the war. He opposed the Bolshevik seizure of power in
November 1917 and went on to attack the victorious Lenin's dictatorial methods in his newspaper “Novaya
zhizn” (“New Life”) until July 1918, when his protests were silenced by censorship on Lenin's orders. From
1919 onward Gorky cooperated with Lenin's government, also helping to relieve the miseries of his fellow
Russian writers during the early post-Revolutionary years. He was often able to see that they received
payment, if only for work such as translating.
In the decade ending in 1923 Gorky's greatest masterpiece appeared. This is the autobiographical trilogy
“My Childhood” (1913–1914), “In the World” (“V lyudyakh”, 1915–1916), and “My
Universities” (1923). The title of the last volume is sardonic because Gorky's only university had been
that of life, and his wish to study at Kazan University had been frustrated. This trilogy is one of the finest
autobiographies in Russian. It describes Gorky's childhood and early manhood and reveals him as an acute
observer of detail, with a flair for describing his own family, his numerous employers, and a panorama of
minor but memorable figures. 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.
The trilogy was finished in his villa in Sorrento, Italy, to which Gorky immigrated
during 1921–1928. Gorky's health was poor, and he was disillusioned by post-Revolutionary life in Russia, but
in 1928 he yielded to pressures to return, and the lavish official celebration there of his 60th birthday
was beyond anything he could have expected. In the following year he returned to the U.S.S.R. permanently
and lived there until his death. His return coincided with the establishment of Stalin's ascendancy, and
Gorky became a prop of Stalinist political orthodoxy. He was now more than ever the undisputed leader of
Soviet writers, and, when the Soviet Writers' Union was founded in 1934, he became its first president. At
the same time, he helped to found the literary method of Socialist Realism, which was imposed on all Soviet
writers and which obliged them – in effect – to become outright political
propagandists.
Gorky remained active as a writer, but almost all his later fiction is concerned with
the period before the Revolution. In “The Artamonov Business” (1925), one of his best
novels, he showed his continued interest in the rise and fall of pre-Revolutionary Russian capitalism.
There were more plays – “Yegor Bulychov and Others” (1932) and “Dostigayev and Others”
(1933) – but the most generally admired work is a set of reminiscences of Russian writers –
“Reminiscences of Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy” (1919) and “About Writers” (1928). The memoir of
Tolstoy is so lively and free from the hagiographic approach traditional in
Russian studies of their leading authors that it has sometimes been acclaimed as Gorky's masterpiece.
Almost equally impressive is Gorky's study of Chekhov. He also wrote pamphlets on topical events and
problems in which he glorified some of the most brutal aspects of
Stalinism.
Some mystery attaches to Gorky's death, which occurred suddenly in 1936 while he was
under medical treatment. Whether his death was natural or not is unknown, but it came to figure in
the trial of Nikolay I. Bukharin and others in 1938, at which it was claimed that Gorky had been the victim
of an anti-Soviet plot by the “Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites.”
The former police chief Genrikh Yagoda,
who was among the defendants, confessed to having ordered his death. Some Western authorities have
suggested that Gorky was done to death on Stalin's orders, having finally become sickened by the excesses
of Stalinist Russia, but there is little evidence of this except that it was characteristic of Stalin to
frame others on the charge of accomplishing his own misdeeds.
After his death Gorky was canonized as the patron saint of Soviet letters. His reputation abroad has
also remained high, but it is doubtful whether posterity will deal with him so kindly. His success was
partly due, both in the Soviet Union and to a lesser extent abroad, to political accident. Though
technically of lower-middle-class origin, he lived in such poverty as a child and young man that he is
often considered the greatest “proletarian” in Russian literature. This circumstance, coinciding with
the rise of working-class movements all over the world, helped to give Gorky an immense literary
reputation, which his works do not wholly merit.
Gorky's literary style, though gradually improving through the years, retained its
original defects of excessive striving for effect, of working on the reader's nerves by the piling up of
emotive adjectives, and of tending to overstate. Among Gorky's other defects, in addition to his weakness
for philosophical digressions, are his lack of any sense of humour and a certain coarseness of emotional
grain. But his eye for physical detail, his talent for making his characters live, and his unrivaled
knowledge of the Russian “lower depths” are weighty items on the credit side. Gorky was the only Soviet
writer whose work embraced the prerevolutionary and postrevolutionary period so exhaustively, and, though
he by no means stands with Chekhov, Tolstoy, and others in the front rank of Russian writers, he remains
one of the more important literary figures of his age.
Hingley, Ronald Francis. Gorky, Vaksim // Encyclopædia Britannica,
2010.
Borras F.M. Maxim Gorky the Writer. – 1967. # A generally sound critical interpretation, though the material is rather weakly organized.
Clowes, Edith W. Maksim Gorky: A Reference Guide. – 1987. # A bibliography on Gorky's life and work and on Gorky criticism.
Gourfinkel, Nina. Gorky. – 1960, reprinted 1975. # A short, fragmentary critical work, though with some valuable insights.
Habermann, Gerhard. Maksim Gorki. – 1971. # A short popular biographical work.
Hare, Richard. – Maxim Gorky, Romantic Realist and Conservative Revolutionary. – 1962, reprinted 1978. # A study marred by some rather unbalanced critical attitudes and a general sense of authorial antipathy toward his subject.
Kaleps, Boriss A. (compiler), Maxim Gorky (1868–1936): A Bibliography of Publications from and on Gorky in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latvian Languages (1963). # A bibliography on Gorky's life and work and on Gorky criticism.
Kaun, Alexander. Maxim Gorky and His Russia. – 1931, reprinted 1968. # A fascinating and sensitive account of Gorky and his career by an American who knew him.
Levin, Dan. Stormy Petrel: The Life and Work of Maxim Gorky. – 1965, reissued 1986. # A generally well-researched and sensitive account.
Scherr, Barry P. Maxim Gorky. – 1988. # A critical study which includes a short biography.
Troyat, Henri. Gorky. – 1989. # A work of mainly biography.
Weil, Irwin. Gorky. – 1966. # A good account of Gorky's outstanding features as a writer and an extremely interesting, if somewhat speculative, attempt to trace his influence on the general development of Soviet literature as well as individual Soviet writers.
Wolfe, Bertram D. The Bridge and the Abyss: The Troubled Friendship of Maxim Gorky and V.I. Lenin. – 1967, reprinted 1983. # A fascinating account of a complex relationship that revealed vital aspects of personality in both men.
Russian 20th century literature
