What Maxim Gorky wrote. Maxim Gorky - biography, information, personal life

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

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

Maxim Gorky (real name - Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) was born (16) on March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. Father, Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov (1840-71) - the son of a soldier, demoted from officers, a cabinet-maker. In recent years, he worked as a manager of a steamship office, died of cholera. Mother, Varvara Vasilievna Kashirina (1842-79) - from a bourgeois family; Widowed early, remarried, died of consumption. The writer's childhood passed in the house of Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin's grandfather, who in his youth boiled over, then became rich, became the owner of a dyeing establishment, and went bankrupt in old age. His grandfather taught the boy from church books, grandmother Akulina Ivanovna introduced her grandson to folk songs and fairy tales, but most importantly, she replaced his mother, “saturating”, in the words of Gorky himself, “with strong strength for a difficult life”.

Gorky did not receive a real education, graduating only from a vocational school. The thirst for knowledge quenched independently, he grew up "self-taught". Hard work (a dishwasher on a steamer, a "boy" in a store, an apprentice in an icon-painting workshop, a foreman at fairgrounds, etc.) and early privations taught a good knowledge of life and inspired dreams of rebuilding the world. Participated in illegal populist circles. After his arrest in 1889, he was under police surveillance.

With the help of V.G. Korolenko. In 1892, Maxim Gorky published his first story - "Makar Chudra", and in 1899-1900 he met L.N. Tolstoy and A.P. Chekhov, moves closer to the Moscow Art Theater, which staged his plays "Bourgeois" and "At the bottom".

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

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

Upon his return to Russia, he wrote the play "Enemies" and the novel "Mother" (1906). In the same year, Gorky went to Italy, to Capri, where he lived until 1913, giving all his strength to literary creativity. During these years, the plays "The Last" (1908), "Vassa Zheleznova" (1910), the stories "Summer", "Okurov Town" (1909), the novel "The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin" (1910 - 11) were written.

Using the amnesty, in 1913 he returned to St. Petersburg, collaborated in the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda. In 1915 he founded the Letopis magazine, headed the literary department of the magazine, rallying around it such writers as Shishkov, Prishvin, Trenev, Gladkov, and others.

Gorky greeted the February revolution of 1917 with enthusiasm. He was a member of the "Special Meeting on Art Affairs", was the chairman of the Commission on Art at the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of the RSD. After the revolution, Gorky participated in the publication of the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, which was the organ of the Social Democrats, where he published articles under the general title Untimely Thoughts.

In the fall of 1921, due to an exacerbation of the tuberculous process, he left for treatment abroad. At first he lived in the resorts of Germany and Czechoslovakia, then moved to Italy in Sorrento. He continues to work a lot: he finishes the trilogy - "My Universities" ("Childhood" and "In People" were published in 1913 - 16), writes the novel "The Artamonovs Case" (1925). Begins work on the book "The Life of Klim Samgin", which he continued to write until the end of his life. In 1931, Gorky returned to his homeland. In the 1930s, he again turned to drama: "Yegor Bulychev and others" (1932), "Dostigaev and others" (1933).

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

On May 11, 1934, Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, unexpectedly dies. The writer himself died on June 18, 1936 in the town of Gorki, near Moscow, having outlived his son by a little more than two years. After his death, he was cremated, the ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. Before cremation, A.M. Gorky's brain was removed and taken to the Moscow Brain Institute for further study. Around his death, as well as the death of his son Maxim, there is still a lot that is unclear.

Gorky started out as a provincial newspaper (published under the name of Yehudiel Chlamida). The pseudonym M. Gorky (letters and documents signed by his real name - A. Peshkov) appeared in 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper Kavkaz, where the first story, Makar Chudra, was published.

The circumstances of the death of Gorky and his son are considered by many to be "suspicious." There were rumors about the poisoning, which, however, have not been confirmed. According to the interrogations of Genrikh Yagoda (one of the main leaders of the state security organs), Maxim Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, and the murder of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, was his personal initiative. Some publications blame Stalin for Gorky's death.

Bibliography

Stories
1908 - "The Life of an Unnecessary Person".
1908 - "Confession"
1909 - "", "".
1913-1914- ""
1915-1916- ""
1923 - ""

Stories, essays
1892 - "Makar Chudra"
1895 - "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil".
1897 - Former People, The Orlovs, Malva, Konovalov.
1898 - "Essays and Stories" (collection)
1899 - "Song of the Falcon" (prose poem), "Twenty six and one"
1901 - "Song of the Petrel" (prose poem)
1903 - "Man" (prose poem)
1913 - "Yegor Bulychov and others (1953)
Egor Bulychov and others (1971)
The Life of the Baron (1917) - based on the play "At the Bottom"
The Life of Klim Samgin (TV series, 1986)
The life of Klim Samgin (film, 1986)
The Well (2003) - based on the story of A.M. Gorky "Gubin"
Summer People (1995) - based on the play "Summer Residents"
Malva (1956) - based on short stories
Mother (1926)
Mother (1955)
Mother (1990)
Bourgeois (1971)
My Universities (1939)
At the bottom (1952)
At the Bottom (1957)
At the bottom (1972)
Washed in blood (1917) - based on the story of M. Gorky "Konovalov"
The Premature Man (1971) - based on the play by Maxim Gorky "Yakov Bogomolov"
Across Russia (1968) - based on early stories
For Boredom (1967)
Tabor goes to heaven (1975)
Three (1918)
Foma Gordeev (1959)

Maxim Gorky, Alexey Maximovich Gorky. Real name Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov. Born March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod, died June 18, 1936 in Gorki, Moscow Region. Russian Soviet writer, literary critic and publicist, founder of Soviet literature, active participant in the revolutionary movement, public figure. One of the most popular authors at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Alias Alexei Maksimovich invented himself. Subsequently, he said: "Do not write to me in literature - Peshkov ...".

it pseudonym- phrenonym *. The pseudonym of Alexei Maksimovich characterizes not only his fate, but also the direction of his work. Thus, the life of the young Alyosha Peshkov “in people” was bitter, and he wrote about the bitter fate of the disadvantaged.

With his literary name, Alexei made the name of his father, whom he loved very much and lost early. By the same name he gave his son, whom he also lost very early. There is a version that the name Maxim was borrowed from the criminal who killed Gorky's great-grandfather, Maxim Bashlyk, about whom Alyosha loved to talk in childhood. It is also worth noting that the surname Maksimov was borne by the stepfather of A. Peshkov. Therefore, be that as it may, with the name Maxim, Gorky had a lot in life and the choice of such a pseudonym is not accidental.

This deeply symbolic signature first appeared under the story “Makar Chudra” in the Tiflis newspaper “Kavkaz” on September 12, 1892. The 24-year-old author was then a clerk in railway workshops. This was the literary debut of Alexei Peshkov. Subsequently, he used a number of pseudonyms, but the very first of them brought world fame.

M. Gorky under the notes in "Samarskaya Gazeta" and "Nizhegorodsky leaf" (1896) he put Pacatus (peaceful), and in the collection "Red Panorama" (1928) signed Unicus (the only one). In "Samara Gazeta" feuilletons "Samara in all respects" with the subtitle "Letters of a knight errant" were signed by Don Quixote (1896). bitter in the signatures to the feuilletons he often used the incognitonym N. Kh., which should have been read: "Someone X".

A number of notes by Alexei Maksimovich in the "Samarskaya Gazeta" (1895-1896), as well as the story "Nightingale" were signed by Dvaga, i.e. two "Gs" - Gorky and Gusev (journalist who provided materials for notes).

It happened that bitter performed under the name of a character of his own work. Once he used the name of a literary hero he himself had created as a pseudonym. One of his feuilletons in "The Eccentric" (1928) was signed by the Self-critic Slovotekov. This surname was borne by the character of Gorky's satirical play "The Worker Slovotekov", written by him in 1920 for the Theater of the National Comedy. About this alias bitter I told the editorial staff of "Chudak" the following: "I can hardly find time to personally collaborate in your magazine, but let me recommend you a friend of mine, Samokritik Kirillovich Slovotekov. Self-critic is his real name given by his parents at birth. He is a rather old man, but a "beginner". Non-partisan. The attitude to alcohol is moderate. "

To make readers laugh bitter he came up with comic pseudonyms, choosing old, long-obsolete names in combination with an intricate surname. In his youth, Yehudiel Chlamida signed in the Samara and Saratov newspapers of the late 90s. One of the letters to his 15-year-old son reads: Your father is Polycarp Unesibozhenozhkin. On the pages of the home handwritten magazine Sorrentyiskaya Pravda (1924), he signed Metranpage Goryachkin, Invalid muses, Osip Tikhovoev, Aristid Balyk.

In literary biography Gorky there have been cases of plagiarism, or rather plagiarism "for the good", i.e. the desire of an already popular writer to help his budding colleague, without any selfish motives. In 1918, in Novaya Zhizn, it was published signed with the name M. Gorky story "Lanpochka". But it would be in vain to look for this story in the collected works of Gorky. In 1933 he told the editorial board of Sibirskiye Ogni: "The story" Lanpochka "you are asking about was written not by me, but by my son Maxim, who was in Siberia in 1918 and saw this light bulb in action."

However, A. Peshkov was not the first Russian writer who invented pseudonym Gorky: according to the testimony of the Russian writer and poet N.D. Teleshov, the same was one of the early pseudonyms of the poet I.A. Belousov.

Later, derivatives of the pseudonym began to appear. Maxim Leonov, father of the Soviet writer Leonid Leonov, poet and journalist, a man of a difficult fate, signed by Maxim Goremyka. In honor of Gorky the outstanding Belarusian poet Maksim Tank (autonym - Evgeniy Skurko) also named himself.

I wonder what when pseudonym Maxim Gorky had to be used with a patronymic, then they used the real name and patronymic - Alexei Maksimovich.

Short biography:

Orphaned early bitter spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather Kashirin. From the age of 11 he was forced to go “to the people”: he worked as a “boy” at a store, as a cupboard on a steamer, as a baker, studied in an icon-painting workshop, etc.

At the age of 16 he tried to enter Kazan University. I got acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work. In 1888 he was arrested for communication with N. Ye. Fedoseev's circle. M. Gorky was under constant police surveillance. He worked on the railroad. In the spring of 1891 he went to wander around the country and reached the Caucasus. For five and a half years of travel, he described social problems in society. At this time, the stories "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil", "Former People", "The Orlov Spouses" and others appeared.

In 1898 in St. Petersburg the book "Essays and Stories" was published, which had a sensational success. In 1899, the prose poem Twenty-six and One and the first big story, Foma Gordeev, appeared. Glory A.M. Gorky grew with incredible speed and soon caught up with the popularity of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy.

Public position Gorky was radical. He worked closely with revolutionary organizations. In 1905 he joined the ranks of the RSDLP and met V. I. Lenin. Bitter provided serious financial support for the revolution of 1905-1907. After the revolution due to tuberculosis bitter settles in Italy on the island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years. There bitter writes "Confession" (1908), where his philosophical differences with Lenin were clearly indicated.

After returning to Russia in 1913 bitter writes autobiographical stories "Childhood", "In People", a cycle of stories "Across Russia" (1912-17). Edits the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, the art department of the Bolshevik magazine Prosveshchenie, publishes the first collection of proletarian writers.

bitter he reacted with enthusiasm to the February Revolution of 1917, but he had an ambiguous attitude to the October Revolution. In 1917-1919 M. Gorky conducts great public and political work, criticizes the "methods" of the Bolsheviks, condemns their attitude towards the old intelligentsia, saves many of its representatives from Bolshevik repression and famine.

In the fall of 1921 bitter again went abroad, in 1922 he wrote the story "My Universities", which became the last part of his autobiographical trilogy. In 1925 he published the novel The Artamonovs Case, which became, in fact, the history of the development of capitalism in Russia.

In 1928, at the invitation of the Soviet government and personally I. Stalin, he toured the country, during which Gorky show the achievements of the USSR, which are reflected in the cycle of essays "Around the Soviet Union".

In 1932 bitter returns to the USSR, where he immediately becomes the "head" of Soviet literature. M. Gorky creates new magazines, a series of books - "Life of Remarkable People", "History of the Civil War", "History of Factories and Plants", "Library of the Poet". is the initiator of the creation and the first chairman of the board of the Writers' Union of the USSR. Member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.

M. Gorky died on June 18, 1936. There is an unconfirmed version that he was poisoned on the orders of Trotsky, when Stalin was preparing the Moscow show trials, at which many of Gorky's old friends were supposed to be accused. After his death, he was cremated, the ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. Before cremation, the brain M. Gorky was extracted and taken to the Moscow Brain Institute for further study.

In the name Maxim Gorky settlements, streets, lanes and embankments, squares and parks, railway and metro stations, many theaters and libraries, film studios, universities and institutes are named. Airplanes and ships, factories and factories bore his name. In almost every city Gorky a monument was erected (there are four of them in Nizhny Novgorod alone). Town bitter- the name of Nizhny Novgorod from 1932 to 1990. Name Gorky given to a reservoir on the Volga River.

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A very short biography (in a nutshell)

Born March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. Birth name - Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov. Father - Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov (1840-1871), carpenter. Mother - Varvara Vasilievna Kashirina (1842-1879). He studied for 2 years at the suburban primary school in Kanavino. He started working at the age of 11. In 1896 he married Ekaterina Volzhina. In 1900 he began to meet with Maria Andreeva. In 1906 he left with her to the Italian island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years. In 1913 he returned, and in 1921 he went abroad again. From 1928 to 1933 he lived in Italy, then in the USSR. 5 times nominated for the Nobel Prize. Had a son, Maxim, and a daughter, Catherine (she died as a child). He died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki, at the age of 68. The writer's ashes are placed in the Kremlin wall in Moscow. Major works: "Mother", "Chelkash", "Childhood", "Makar Chudra", "At the Bottom", "Old Woman Izergil" and others.

Brief biography (in detail)

Maxim Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) is an outstanding Russian writer, thinker, playwright and prose writer. He is also considered to be the ancestor of Soviet literature. Born March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a carpenter. Quite early he was left without parents and was brought up by a despotic grandfather by nature. The boy's education lasted only two years, after which he had to quit school and go to work. Thanks to the ability for self-education and a brilliant memory, he still managed to acquire knowledge in various fields.

In 1884, the future writer tried unsuccessfully to enter Kazan University. Here he met a Marxist circle and became interested in propaganda literature. A few years later, he was arrested for communication with a circle, and then sent as a watchman to the railroad. About life during this period, he later wrote the autobiographical story "Watchman".

The first work of the writer was published in 1892. It was the story "Makar Chudra". In 1895 the stories "The Old Woman Izergil" and "Chelkash" appeared. From 1897 to 1898, the writer lived in the village of Kamenka, Tver region. This period of his life became the material for the novel The Life of Klim Samgin.

At the beginning of the XX century there was an acquaintance with Chekhov and Tolstoy, and also the novel "Three" was published. In the same period, Gorky became interested in drama. The plays "Bourgeois" and "At the Bottom" were published. In 1902 he was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Along with literary activity until 1913 he worked in the publishing house "Knowledge". In 1906, Gorky went abroad, where he wrote satirical essays on the French and American bourgeoisie. On the Italian island of Capri, the writer spent 7 years to treat the developed tuberculosis. During this period he wrote "Confession", "Life of an Unnecessary Man", "Tales of Italy".

The second departure abroad took place in 1921. It was associated with the resumption of the disease and with the exacerbation of disagreements with the new government. For three years, Gorky lived in Germany, the Czech Republic and Finland. In 1924 he moved to Italy, where he published his memoirs about Lenin. In 1928, at the invitation of Stalin, the writer visits his homeland. In 1932 he finally returned to the USSR. During the same period, he was working on the novel The Life of Klim Samgin, which was never completed.

In May 1934, the writer's son, Maxim Peshkov, unexpectedly died. Gorky himself survived his son by only two years. He died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki. The writer's ashes were placed in the Kremlin wall.

CV video (for those who prefer to listen)

The name of Maxim Gorky is known, perhaps, to everyone. Several generations have studied and are studying his work since childhood. Certain stereotyped ideas have developed about Gorky. He is perceived as the founder of the literature of socialist realism, the "storm petrel of the revolution", literary critic and publicist, initiator and first chairman of the USSR Writers' Union. We know about his childhood and adolescence from the autobiographical stories "Childhood", "In people", "My universities". However, in recent years, many publications have appeared that show a somewhat different Gorky.

Student message about the biography of Gorky

Childhood

The future writer was born in Nizhny Novgorod. At the age of three he lost his father, and at ten he lost his mother. He spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather, in a bourgeois environment with rude and cruel morals. The street on Sundays was often filled with joyful shouts of boys: "The Kashirins are fighting again!"... The boy's life was brightened up by his grandmother, whose beautiful portrait Gorky will leave in his autobiographical story Childhood (1914). He studied for only two years. Having received a commendable diploma, he was forced out of poverty (his grandfather had gone bankrupt by that time) to leave his studies and go “among the people” to earn money as an apprentice, apprentice, and servant.

"In people"

As a teenager, the future writer fell in love with books and took advantage of every free minute to read voraciously everything that came to hand. This disorderly reading, with an extraordinary natural memory, determined much in his view of man and society.

In Kazan, where he went in the summer of 1884, hoping to enter the university, he also had to make odd jobs, and self-education continued in populist and Marxist circles. “Physically, I was born in Nizhny Novgorod. But spiritually - in Kazan. Kazan is my favorite "university", - said the writer later.

"My Universities"

The beginning of literary activity

In the late 80s - early 90s, Alyosha Peshkov wanders across the vastness of Russia: the Mozdok steppe, the Volga region, the Don steppes, Ukraine, the Crimea, the Caucasus. He himself is already engaged in agitation among the workers, will come under the tacit surveillance of the police, and become "unreliable." In the same years, he began to publish under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky. In 1892 the story “Makar Chudra” appeared in the Tiflis newspaper “Kavkaz”, and in 1895 the story “The Old Woman Izergil” was published. Gorky was immediately noticed, enthusiastic responses appeared in the press.

In 1900, Gorky will meet Leo Tolstoy, and he will write in his diary "…I liked him. A real man of the people "... Both writers and readers were impressed by the fact that a new person entered literature - not from the “upper,” educated, strata, but “from below,” from the people. The people - primarily the peasantry - have long attracted the attention of Russian society. And then the people, as it were, in the person of Gorky, entered the living rooms of rich houses, and even holding their own unusual compositions in their hand. Of course, he was greeted with enthusiastic interest.

The origins of Gorky's prose

The immediate predecessor of Gorky's prose was the works of Chekhov. But if in Chekhov's heroes they complain that they are "overstrained", then in Gorky the figures of the "bottom" of society are content with what they have. They have a kind of "tramp" philosophy with a taste of the then fashionable Nietzscheanism.

A tramp is a person without a fixed place of residence, not tied to constant work, family, not owning any property and therefore not interested in maintaining peace and tranquility in society.

It was difficult to pass by the influence of Nietzsche in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And in Gorky, already in the 90s, they noted motives that were new for Russian literature: greed for life, thirst for and the cult of strength, a passionate desire to go beyond the usual, "bourgeois" framework of existence. Therefore, the writer abandons the usual prose genres and writes fairy tales (The Old Woman Izergil, 1895), songs (Song of the Falcon, 1895), prose poems (The Man, 1904).

Beginning in 1889, Gorky was arrested several times for revolutionary activities among the workers. The more famous he becomes, the more indignation arouses every imprisonment. The most famous people of Russia, among whom are Leo Tolstoy, are busy with the writer. During one of his arrests (1901), Gorky wrote "Song of the Petrel" in the Nizhny Novgorod prison, the text of which quickly spread throughout the country. Cry "Let the storm break out stronger!" did not leave options in choosing the path of development of Russia, especially for young people.

In the same year he was deported to Arzamas, but given his poor health, he was allowed to live in Crimea for six months. There Gorky often meets Chekhov and Tolstoy. The popularity of the writer in all strata of society in those years is enormous. In February 1903 he was elected an honorary academician in the category of fine literature. Nicholas II, learning about this, wrote to the Minister of Education: “… Such a person, in the present time of troubles, the Academy of Sciences allows itself to choose in its environment. I am deeply indignant ... ".

After this letter, the Imperial Academy of Sciences declared the elections invalid. In protest, Korolenko and Chekhov renounced the title of honorary academicians.

In the 1900s, Gorky, thanks to his enormous literary success, was already a wealthy man and could help the revolutionary movement financially. And he hires lawyers from the capital for the arrested Sormovo and Nizhny Novgorod participants in workers' demonstrations, gives large sums to the publication of the Leninist newspaper Vperyod, which was published in Geneva.

In a group of Bolsheviks, Gorky participates in the workers' march on January 9, 1905. After the shooting of the demonstration by the authorities, he writes a proclamation in which he urges "All citizens of Russia to an immediate, stubborn and united struggle against the autocracy"... Shortly thereafter, the writer was once again arrested, charged with a crime against the state, and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Gorky was outraged that in the fortress for nine days "Did not give any news about the situation of M.F."(Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, his close friend, was then in the hospital), which was somewhat like torture ...

A month later, he was released on bail, and the conditions of detention in the fortress allowed him to write the play "Children of the Sun" there. In this play, the author laments the lethargy of the intelligentsia.

Like most people living in Russia at the beginning of the century, Gorky simply could not imagine that as a result of the revolution led by the Bolsheviks, many writers, philosophers, scientists would end up in prisons, but only there they would no longer be allowed to write, they would not have news for years about the fate of their young children, they, innocent, will be tortured and killed ...

The writer takes an active part in the 1905 revolution, joins the Social Democratic Party, and supplies workers' squads with weapons during street battles in Moscow. At the author's reading of Children of the Sun, a certain amount of money is taken from each present - for weapons for the rebels.

The temperament of a fighter, a fighter, a herald leads Gorky further and further away from artistic tasks proper.

Trip to America and Europe

In January 1906, the Bolshevik party sent Gorky to America to collect money for underground work. This collection on a planned scale failed; on the other hand, the novel Mother was written in America, about the awakening of "class consciousness" in the proletarian environment.

Critics note that Gorky could not stand the "major tone" with which he entered literature. Gorky's talent did not increase. Instead of a romantic tramp, he has grown up a clearly invented, gray figure of a "class-conscious worker."

After leaving America, Gorky remained abroad: in his homeland he was awaited by an arrest. In the fall of 1906 he settled in Italy, on the island of Capri. The writer was able to return to Russia only in 1913, when, in connection with the three-centenary of the House of Romanov, an amnesty was announced to political emigrants.

Gorky's talent, despite the verdicts of criticism, has far from exhausted its potential. The writer endlessly studies and describes the Russian national character. Now he is interested not so much in "tramps" as in eccentrics, losers.

“... Russia abounds in failed people ... they are always, with the mysterious power of a magnet. They grabbed my attention. They seemed more interesting, better than the dense mass of ordinary district people who live for work and for food ... ".

In the cycle of stories "Complaints" (1912), Gorky draws "the hopeless, stupid melancholy of Russian life." The book "Across Russia" includes sketches of what he saw in past wanderings across the boundless country. Gorky seemed to set himself the goal of creating a register of Russian characters - infinitely diverse, but somewhat similar to each other.

"Childhood"

In 1913, the first chapters from the story "Childhood" appeared in print. It is written on documentary material.

“Although Childhood depicts so many murders and abominations, it is, in essence, a funny book,- wrote Korney Chukovsky. - Least of all is Gorky whimpering and complaining ... And "Childhood" is written in cheerful, cheerful colors ".

Under Soviet rule, when it will be impossible to write lovingly about "good" pre-revolutionary childhood, Gorky's book will become a role model, a clear illustration of how one should be able to see mainly "leaden abominations" in the past pre-revolutionary times.

The best stories of 1922-1926 (The Hermit, The Story of Unrequited Love, The Story of the Hero, The Story of the Extraordinary, The Murderers), dedicated to his invariable theme - Russian characters, are also largely documentary. And above all, the most qualified critic of the mid-1920s will appreciate the short Notes from the Diary. Memories ”(1923–1924): in them Gorky writes mainly about real people under their real names (for example, the essay“ A.A. Blok ”).

"Untimely Thoughts"

The October and post-October events of 1917, Gorky, who for many years considered himself a socialist, took it tragically. In this regard, he did not re-register with the RSDLP and formally remained outside the party. The "petrel of revolution" realizes that it turns out to be disastrous for those "class-conscious workers" on whom he pinned his hopes.

“... The proletariat did not win, there is an internecine massacre all over the country, hundreds and thousands of people are killing each other. ... But most of all I am amazed and frightened by the fact that the revolution does not bear signs of a person's spiritual rebirth, does not make people more honest, more straightforward, does not increase their self-esteem and moral assessment of their work. "

This is how Gorky wrote shortly after the revolution in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, where his harsh publicistic articles were published under the general title Untimely Thoughts. For some period they divorced the writer from the Bolsheviks.

Six months later, it seems to him, he finds a way out: the proletariat needs to unite "with the fresh forces of the workers 'and peasants' intelligentsia."

“Having covered the whole country with a network of cultural and educational societies, having gathered in them all the spiritual forces of the country, we will light bonfires of fire everywhere, which will give the country both light and warmth, help it to heal and stand on its feet vigorous, strong and capable of building and creativity ... Only in this way and only in this way will we come to real culture and freedom ".

A new utopia is being born - universal literacy as a path to freedom. From now on and until the end of his life, she will guide the actions of the writer. He believes in the unification of the forces of the intelligentsia and intelligent workers. The peasantry, however, regards it as a dark, "anti-revolutionary" element. He never saw the tragedy of the Russian peasantry at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s.

Gorky's activities in the first post-revolutionary years

In the first post-revolutionary years, Gorky constantly fusses for the unfortunate, who are threatened with execution, very similar to lynching.

“Vladimir Ilyich!- he writes to Lenin in the fall of 1919. “… Several dozen of the most prominent Russian scientists have been arrested… Obviously, we have no hope of victory and no courage to die with honor if we resort to such a barbaric and shameful method as I consider the extermination of the country's scientific forces… I know that you will say the usual words:“ political struggle ”,“ who is not with us is against us ”,“ neutral people are dangerous ”and so on ... It became clear to me that the“ reds ”are the same enemies of the people as the“ whites ”. Personally, of course, I prefer to be destroyed by the “whites”, but the “reds” are not my comrades either ”.

Trying to save the remnants of the intelligentsia from starvation, Gorky organized private publishing houses, a commission to improve the life of scientists, everywhere he met with fierce resistance from Soviet officials. In September 1920, the writer was forced to resign from all the institutions he created, which he announced to Lenin: “I cannot do otherwise. I'm tired of confusion ".

In 1921, Gorky tried to send the dying Bloc for treatment abroad, but the Soviet government refused to do so. It is not possible to save from execution those arrested in the so-called Tagantsev case, including Nikolai Gumilyov. The Famine Aid Committee, created on the initiative of Gorky, was dispersed in a few weeks.

Treatment abroad

In 1921 the writer left Russia. He underwent medical treatment in Germany and Czechoslovakia, and from 1924 he settled again in Italy, in Sorrento. But this time not as an emigrant. Years passed, and gradually Gorky's attitude towards Soviet power changed: it began to seem to him a people's, workers' power. In the USSR in those years, relying on Lenin's assessment, "Mother" was made a school textbook, convincing everyone that this is exemplary literature. Streets, theaters and airplanes are named after Gorky. The authorities do everything to attract the writer to their side. She needs him - like a screen.

Return to Moscow, last years of life

In 1928, Gorky returned to Moscow. Crowds of new readers welcome him. The writer immerses himself in literary and social work: he founds and heads new magazines and book series, takes part in literary fates, helps someone to overcome censorship bans (for example, Mikhail Bulgakov), someone go abroad (Evgeny Zamyatin), and who on the contrary, it interferes with publishing (for example, Andrei Platonov).

Gorky himself continues the multivolume work The Life of Klim Samgin, begun in Italy, chronicling Russian life in the pre-revolutionary decades. A huge number of characters, a considerable number of correct details of the era, and behind all this one task - to show the double, cowardly, treacherous face of the former Russian intelligentsia.

He is drawing closer to Stalin and the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Yagoda, and this increasingly obscures from him the bloody meaning of what is happening in the country. Like many cultural figures, Gorky does not see that the political regime established in the USSR for its own purposes (like Hitler's in Germany) manipulates culture, distorts the very meaning of enlightenment, subordinating it to inhuman goals. In his articles, Gorky stigmatizes the victims of lawsuits in the 28-30s. With all his knowledge of life, he does not want to understand that the testimony given by the "enemies of the people" can only be obtained under torture.

Since 1933, Gorky has been deprived of the opportunity to travel abroad for the winter, to meet with those whom he would like to see. Stalin can no longer allow even an episodic, not provided for by himself, participation of a writer in any kind of literary and social affairs. Gorky actually ends up under house arrest and in this position, under unclear circumstances, dies on the eve of a new wave of mass repressions.

Literature

D.N. Murin, E. D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11 program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001

E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the XX century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002

N.V. Egorova. Lesson developments in Russian literature of the twentieth century. Grade 11. 1st half of the year. M .: VAKO, 2005