Who was Maxim Gorky? The mysterious death of Maxim Gorky

The name of Maxim Gorky is probably familiar to any Russian person. Cities and streets were named after this writer in Soviet times. The outstanding revolutionary prose writer came from common people, self-taught, but the talent he possessed made him world famous. Such nuggets appear once every hundred years. The life story of this man is very instructive, since it clearly shows what a person from the bottom can achieve without any outside support.

Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov (this was the real name of Maxim Gorky) was born in Nizhny Novgorod. This city was renamed in his honor, and only in the 90s of the last century it was given back its original name.

The biography of the future writer began on March 28, 1868. The most important thing that he remembered from childhood, Alexey Maksimovich described in his work “Childhood”. Alyosha's father, whom he barely remembered, worked as a carpenter.

He died of cholera when the boy was very young. Alyosha's mother was pregnant at the time; she gave birth to another son, who died in infancy.

The Peshkov family lived in Astrakhan at that time, because his father had to work in last years his life in the shipping company. However, literary scholars are debating who Maxim Gorky’s father was.

Having taken two children, the mother decided to return to her homeland, to Nizhny Novgorod. There her father, Vasily Kashirin, ran a dyeing workshop. Alexey spent his childhood in his house (now there is a museum there). Alyosha's grandfather was a rather domineering man, had a stern character, and often punished the boy for trifles, using rods. One day Alyosha was whipped so severely that he was confined to bed for a long time. After this, the grandfather repented and asked the boy for forgiveness, treating him with candy.

The autobiography described in the story “Childhood” says that the grandfather’s house was always full of people. Numerous relatives lived in it, everyone was busy with business.

Important! Little Alyosha also had his own obedience; the boy helped dye fabrics. But my grandfather severely punished me for poorly done work.

Alexei’s mother taught him to read, then his grandfather taught his grandson the Church Slavonic language. Despite his stern character, Kashirin was a very religious person and often went to church. He forced Alyosha to go to church almost by force, but the child did not like this activity. He carried the atheistic views that Alyosha showed in childhood throughout his entire life. Therefore, his work was revolutionary; the writer Maxim Gorky in his works often said that “God is made up.”

As a child, Alyosha attended a parish school, but then became seriously ill and left school. Then his mother married a second time and took her son to her new home in Kanavino. There the boy went to primary school, but his relationship with the teacher and priest did not work out.

One day, coming home, Alyosha saw a terrible picture: his stepfather was kicking his mother. Then the boy grabbed a knife to intercede. She calmed her son, who was about to kill his stepfather. After this incident, Alexey decided to return to his grandfather's house. By that time the old man was completely broke. Alexey attended a school for poor children for some time, but was kicked out because the young man was unkempt and smelled bad. Alyosha most spent time on the street, stole to feed himself, and found clothes for himself in a landfill. Therefore, the teenager got involved with a bad company, where he received the nickname “Bashlyk”.

Alexey Peshkov did not study anywhere else, never receiving a secondary education. Despite this, he had a strong desire for self-education, independently reading and briefly memorizing the works of many philosophers, such as:

• Nietzsche;
• Hartmann;
• Selly;
• Karo;
• Schopenhauer.

Important! All his life, Alexei Maksimovich Gorky wrote with spelling and grammatical errors, which were corrected by his wife, a proofreader by training.

First independent steps

When Alyosha was 11 years old, her mother died of consumption. The grandfather, having become completely impoverished, was forced to let his grandson go in peace. The old man could not feed the young man and told him to go “to the people.” Alexey found himself alone in this big world. The young man decided to go to Kazan to enter university, but was refused.

Firstly, because that year the enrollment of applicants from the lower strata of society was limited, and secondly, because Alexey did not have a document on secondary education.

Then the young man went to work at the pier. It was then that a meeting took place in Gorky’s life that influenced his further worldview and creativity. He met a revolutionary group, which briefly explained the essence of this progressive teaching. Alexey began to attend revolutionary meetings and was engaged in propaganda. Then the young man got a job in a bakery, the owner of which sent income to support revolutionary development in the city.

Alexey has always been a mentally unstable person. Upon learning of the death of his beloved grandmother, the young man fell into a severe depression. One day, near the monastery, Alexey tried to commit suicide by shooting his lung with a gun. A watchman who witnessed this called the police. The young man was rushed to the hospital and managed to save his life. However, in the hospital, Alexey made a second suicide attempt by swallowing poison from a medical vessel. The young man was saved again by washing his stomach. The psychiatrist diagnosed Alexey with many mental disorders.

Wanderings

Further, the life of the writer Maxim Gorky was no less difficult; in short, we can say that he suffered from various misfortunes. At the age of 20, Alexey was first imprisoned for revolutionary activity. After this, the police conducted constant surveillance of the troubled citizen. Then M. Gorky went to the Caspian Sea, where he worked as a fisherman.

Then he went to Borisoglebsk, where he became a weigher. There he first fell in love with a girl, the boss’s daughter, and even asked for her hand in marriage. Having been refused, Alexey, however, remembered his first love all his life. Gorky tried to organize a Tolstoy movement among the peasants, for this he even went to meet Tolstoy himself, but the writer’s wife did not allow the poor man to see the living classic young man.

In the early 90s, Alexey met the writer Korolenko in Nizhny Novgorod. By that time, Peshkov was already writing his first works, one of which he showed famous writer. It is interesting that Korolenko criticized the work of the aspiring writer, but this could not in any way affect his strong desire to write.

Peshkov was then imprisoned again for revolutionary activities. After leaving prison, he decided to travel around Rus', visiting different cities, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Ukraine. In Tiflis I met a revolutionary who advised me to write down all my adventures. This is how the story “Makar Chudra” appeared, which was published in 1892 in the newspaper “Caucasus”.

Gorky's work

Creativity flourishes

It was then that the writer took the pseudonym Maxim Gorky, hiding his real name. Then several more stories appeared in Nizhny Novgorod newspapers. By that time, Alexey decided to settle in his homeland. All the interesting facts from Gorky’s life were used as the basis for his works. He wrote down the most important things that happened to him, and the results were interesting and truthful stories.

Korolenko again became the mentor of the aspiring writer. Gradually, Maxim Gorky gained popularity among readers. The talented and original author was talked about in literary circles. The writer met Tolstoy and.

In a short period of time, Gorky wrote the most talented works:

• “Old Woman Izergil” (1895);
• "Essays and Stories" (1898);
• "Three", novel (1901);
• "The Bourgeois" (1901);
• (1902).

Interesting! Soon Maxim Gorky was awarded the title of member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, but Emperor Nicholas II personally reversed this decision.

Useful video: Maxim Gorky - biography, life

Moving abroad

In 1906, Maxim Gorky decided to go abroad. He first settled in the United States. Then, for health reasons (he was diagnosed with tuberculosis), he moved to Italy. Here he wrote a lot in defense of the revolution. Then the writer returned to Russia for a short time, but in 1921 he went abroad again due to conflicts with the authorities and worsening illness. He returned to Russia only ten years later.

In 1936, at the age of 68, the writer Maxim Gorky ended his earthly journey. Some saw his death as the poisoning of ill-wishers, although this version was not confirmed. The writer's life was not easy, but filled with varied adventures. On sites where biographies are published different writers, you can see a table of chronological life events.

Personal life

M. Gorky had a rather interesting appearance, which can be seen by looking at his photo. He was tall, expressive eyes, thin hands with long fingers, which he waved when talking. He enjoyed success with women, and, knowing this, he knew how to show his attractiveness in the photo.

Alexei Maksimovich had many fans, many of whom he was close to. Maxim Gorky first married in 1896 to Ekaterina Volgina. She gave birth to two children: son Maxim and daughter Katya (died at age five). In 1903, Gorky became involved with actress Ekaterina Andreeva. Without filing a divorce from their first wife, they began to live as husband and wife. He spent many years abroad with her.

In 1920, the writer met Maria Budberg, a baroness, with whom he entered into an intimate relationship; they were together until 1933. There were rumors that she worked for British intelligence.

Gorky had two adopted children: Ekaterina and Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky, the latter became a famous Soviet director and cameraman.

Useful video: interesting facts from the life of M. Gorky

Conclusion

The work of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky made an invaluable contribution to Russian and Soviet literature. It is original, original, amazing in its beauty of words and power, especially considering that the writer was illiterate and uneducated. His works are still admired by his descendants and are studied in high school. The work of this outstanding writer is also known and revered abroad.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod. The son of the manager of the shipping office, Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov and Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina. At the age of seven he was left an orphan and lived with his grandfather, a once rich dyer, who by that time had gone bankrupt.

Alexei Peshkov had to earn his living from childhood, which prompted the writer to later take the pseudonym Gorky. In early childhood he worked as an errand worker in a shoe store, then as a draftsman's apprentice. Unable to withstand the humiliation, he ran away from home. He worked as a cook on a Volga steamship. At the age of 15, he came to Kazan with the intention of getting an education, but, without any financial support, he was unable to fulfill his intention.

In Kazan I learned about life in slums and shelters. Driven to despair, he made an unsuccessful suicide attempt. From Kazan he moved to Tsaritsyn and worked as a watchman on the railway. Then he returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where he became a scribe for attorney M.A. Lapin, who did a lot for young Peshkov.

Unable to stay in one place, he went on foot to the south of Russia, where he tried himself in the Caspian fisheries, and in the construction of a pier, and other work.

In 1892, Gorky's story "Makar Chudra" was first published. The following year he returned to Nizhny Novgorod, where he met with the writer V.G. Korolenko, who took a great part in the fate of the aspiring writer.

In 1898 A.M. Gorky was already a famous writer. His books sold thousands of copies, and his fame spread beyond the borders of Russia. Gorky is the author of numerous short stories, novels “Foma Gordeev”, “Mother”, “The Artamonov Case”, etc., plays “Enemies”, “Bourgeois”, “At the Demise”, “Summer Residents”, “Vassa Zheleznova”, the epic novel “ The life of Klim Samgin.

Since 1901, the writer began to openly express sympathy for the revolutionary movement, which caused a negative reaction from the government. Since that time, Gorky has been subjected to arrests and persecution more than once. In 1906 he went abroad to Europe and America.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Gorky became the initiator of the creation and first chairman of the Writers' Union of the USSR. He organized the publishing house “World Literature”, where many writers of that time had the opportunity to work, thereby escaping hunger. He is also credited with saving members of the intelligentsia from arrest and death. Often during these years, Gorky was the last hope of those persecuted by the new government.

In 1921, the writer’s tuberculosis worsened, and he went to Germany and the Czech Republic for treatment. Since 1924 he lived in Italy. In 1928 and 1931, Gorky traveled around Russia, including visiting the Solovetsky special purpose camp. In 1932, Gorky was practically forced to return to Russia.

The last years of the seriously ill writer’s life were, on the one hand, full of boundless praise - even during Gorky’s lifetime he hometown Nizhny Novgorod was named after him - on the other hand, the writer lived in practical isolation under constant control.

Alexey Maksimovich was married many times. First time on Ekaterina Pavlovna Volzhina. From this marriage he had a daughter, Ekaterina, who died in infancy, and a son, Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov, an amateur artist. Gorky's son died unexpectedly in 1934, which gave rise to speculation about his violent death. The death of Gorky himself two years later also aroused similar suspicions.

Married for the second time civil marriage on the actress, revolutionary Maria Fedorovna Andreeva. In fact, the third wife in the last years of the writer’s life was a woman with a stormy biography, Maria Ignatievna Budberg.

He died near Moscow in Gorki, in the same house where V.I. died. Lenin. The ashes are in the Kremlin wall on Red Square. The writer's brain was sent to the Moscow Brain Institute for study.

Unusual life and creative destiny Maxim Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov). He was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a cabinetmaker. Having lost his parents early, M. Gorky spent his childhood in the bourgeois family of his grandfather Kashirin, experienced hard life“in people”, traveled a lot around Rus'. He learned the life of tramps, the unemployed, the hard work of workers and hopeless poverty, which revealed the contradictions of life with even greater force to the future writer. To earn a living, he had to be a loader, a gardener, a baker, and a choir member. All this gave him such knowledge of the life of the lower classes, which no writer possessed at that time. He later embodied the impressions of these years in the trilogy “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.

In 1892, Gorky’s first story, “Makar Chudra,” revealed a new writer to Russian readers. A two-volume collection of essays and stories, published in 1898, brought him wide fame. There was something surprising in the speed with which his name spread to all corners of Russia.

The young writer, in a dark blouse, belted with a thin strap, with an angular face on which unyieldingly burning eyes stood out, appeared in literature as a herald of a new world. Even though at first he himself was not clearly aware of what kind of world it would be, every line of his stories called for a fight against the “leaden abominations of life.”

The extraordinary popularity of the aspiring writer in Russia and far beyond its borders is explained mainly by the fact that in the works of early Gorky, new hero- hero-fighter, hero-rebel.

The work of young Gorky is characterized by a persistent search for the heroic in life: “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel”, the poem “Man”. Boundless and proud faith in a person capable of supreme self-sacrifice is one of the most important properties of the writer’s humanism.

“In life... there is always room for exploits. And those who do not find them for themselves are simply lazy or cowards, or do not understand life...” wrote Gorky (“Old Woman Izergil”). The progressive youth of Russia enthusiastically greeted these proud Gorky words. This is what the worker Pyotr Zalomov, the prototype of Pavel Vlasov in Maxim Gorky’s novel “Mother,” tells about enormous power revolutionary impact of Gorky’s romantic images: “The Song of the Falcon” was more valuable to us than dozens of proclamations... Unless a dead or immeasurably low, cowardly slave could not wake up from it, not burn with anger and a thirst for fight.”

During these same years, the writer, drawing people from the people, revealed their dissatisfaction with life and their unconscious desire to change it (stories “Chelkash”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva”, “Emelyan Pilyai”, “Konovalov”).

In 1902, Gorky wrote the play “At the Lower Depths”. It is imbued with protest against the social order of capitalist society and a passionate call for a fair and free life.

“Freedom at all costs! – this is her spiritual essence.” This is how K. S. Stanislavsky defined the idea of ​​the play, who staged it on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. The gloomy life of the Kostylevo doss house is depicted by Gorky as the embodiment of social evil. The fate of the inhabitants of the “bottom” is a formidable indictment against the capitalist system. The people living in this cave-like basement are victims of an ugly and cruel order in which a person ceases to be human and is doomed to drag out a miserable existence.

The inhabitants of the “bottom” are thrown out of life due to the wolf laws that reign in society. Man is left to his own devices. If he stumbles, gets out of line, he is threatened with “the bottom”, inevitable moral, and often physical death. Anna died, the Actor commits suicide, and the rest are broken and disfigured by life. But under the dark and gloomy arches of the lodging house, among the pitiful and crippled, unfortunate and homeless vagabonds, words about Man, about his calling, about his strength and beauty sound like a solemn hymn. “Man – this is the truth! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! That sounds... proud!” If a person is beautiful in his essence and only the bourgeois system reduces him to such a state, then, therefore, everything must be done to destroy this system in a revolutionary way and create conditions under which a person will become truly free and beautiful.

In the play "The Bourgeois" (1901) main character worker Neil, when he first appears on stage, immediately attracts the attention of the audience. He is stronger, smarter and kinder than other characters introduced in "The Philistines". According to Chekhov, Neil is the most interesting figure in the play. Gorky emphasized in his hero the purposeful strength, the firm conviction that “rights are not given” - “rights are taken”, Neil’s belief that a person has the power to make life beautiful.

Gorky understood that only the proletariat and only through revolutionary struggle could realize Nile’s dream.

Therefore, the writer subordinated both his creativity and social activities to the service of the revolution. He wrote proclamations and published Marxist literature. For his participation in the 1905 revolution, Gorky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

And then angry letters flew from all over the world in defense of the writer. “Enlightened people, people of science in Russia, Germany, Italy, France, let us unite. Gorky's cause is our common cause. A talent like Gorky belongs to the whole world. The whole world is interested in his release,” wrote the leading French writer Anatole France in his protest. The tsarist government had to release Gorky.

According to the writer Leonid Andreev, Gorky in his works not only predicted the coming storm, he “called the storm behind him.” This was his feat in literature.

The story of Pavel Vlasov (“Mother”, 1906) shows the conscious entry of a young worker into the revolutionary struggle. In the fight against autocracy, Paul’s character matures, consciousness, willpower, and perseverance become stronger. Gorky was the first in literature to portray the revolutionary worker as a heroic person whose life is an example to follow.

No less remarkable life path Pavel's mother. From a timid, poverty-stricken woman who humbly believed in God, Nilovna turned into a conscious participant in the revolutionary movement, free from superstitions and prejudices, aware of her human dignity.

“Gather, people, your forces into a single force!” - Nilovna addresses these words to the people during the arrest, calling on new fighters under the banner of the revolution.

Focus on the future and poeticization of the heroic personality are combined in the novel “Mother” with real events and real fighters for a bright future.

In the first years after the revolution, M. Gorky published a number of literary portraits of his contemporaries, memoirs, and stories “about great people and noble hearts.”

It’s as if a gallery of Russian writers comes to life before us: L. Tolstoy, “the most complex man of the 19th century,” Korolenko, Chekhov, Leonid Andreev, Kotsyubinsky... Talking about them, Gorky finds precise, picturesque, unique colors, and reveals the originality of the writer’s talent , and the character of each of these outstanding people.

Gorky, who was greedily drawn to knowledge and people, always had many devoted friends and sincere admirers. They were attracted by Gorky's personal charm and the versatility of his talented nature.

V. I. Lenin highly valued the writer, who for Gorky was the embodiment of a human fighter, rebuilding the world in the interests of all humanity. Vladimir Ilyich came to Gorky’s aid when he doubted and was mistaken, supported him, and worried about his health.

At the end of 1921, Alexei Maksimovich’s long-standing tuberculosis process worsened. At the insistence of V.I. Lenin, Gorky leaves for treatment abroad, on the island of Capri. And although communication with the Motherland is difficult, Gorky still maintains extensive correspondence, edits numerous publications, carefully reads the manuscripts of young writers, and helps everyone find their creative personality. It is difficult to say which of the writers of that time managed without Gorky’s support and friendly advice. From the “wide Gorky sleeve,” as L. Leonov once noted, came K. Fedin, Vs. Ivanov, V. Kaverin and many other Soviet writers.

Gorky's creative rise during these years is striking. He writes famous memoirs about V.I. Lenin, completes an autobiographical trilogy, publishes novels “The Artamonov Case”, “The Life of Klim Samgin”, plays, stories, articles, pamphlets. In them, he continues the story about Russia, about the Russian people, boldly rebuilding the world.

In 1925, Gorky published the novel “The Artamonov Case,” where he revealed the complete doom of the possessive world. He showed how the true creators of “the cause”—the workers who made the great revolution in October 1917—become masters of life. The theme of the people and their labor has always remained leading in Gorky’s work.

The epic chronicle of M. Gorky “The Life of Klim Samgin” (1926–1936), dedicated to the fate of the Russian people, the Russian intelligentsia, covers a significant period of Russian life - from the 80s of the 19th century. until 1918 Lunacharsky called this work “a moving panorama of decades.” The writer reveals the personal fates of the heroes in connection with historical events. At the center of the story is Klim Samgin, a bourgeois intellectual masquerading as a revolutionary. The very movement of history exposes him, exposes the individualism and insignificance of this man, an “empty soul,” a “reluctant revolutionary.”

Gorky convincingly showed that isolation from the people, especially in the era of great revolutionary storms and upheavals, leads to the spiritual impoverishment of the human personality.

The life of individuals and families in Gorky’s works is assessed in comparison with the historical destinies and struggles of the people (“The Life of Klim Samgin”, dramas “Yegor Bulychov and Others”, “Dostigaev and Others”, “Somov and Others”).

The social and psychological conflict in the drama “Yegor Bulychev and Others” (1931) is very complex. The anxiety and uncertainty that have gripped the masters of life force the merchant Yegor Bulychev to persistently reflect on the meaning of human existence. And his furious cry: “I live on the wrong street! I ended up with strangers, for about thirty years all with strangers... My father drove rafts. And here I am...” - sounds like a curse to that dying world, in which the ruble is the “chief thief”, where the interests of money enslave and mutilate people. And it is no coincidence that the daughter of the merchant Bulychev Shura rushes with such hope to where the revolutionary anthem is played.

Returning to his homeland in 1928, Gorky became one of the organizers of the Union of Soviet Writers. And in 1934, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, he made a report in which he unfolded the broadest picture historical development humanity and showed that all cultural values ​​were created by the hands and minds of the people.

During these years, Gorky traveled a lot around the country and created essays “Around the Union of Soviets.” He excitedly talks about the great changes in the Soviet country, speaks with political articles, pamphlets, as a literary critic. With pen and word, the writer fights for high level mastery of writers, for the brightness and purity of the language of literature.

He created many stories for children (“Grandfather Arkhip and Lenka”, “Sparrow”, “The Case of Yevseyka”, etc.). Even before the revolution, he conceived the idea of ​​publishing the series “Life of Remarkable People” for young people. But only after the revolution did Gorky’s dream of creating great, real literature for children - “the heirs of all the grandiose work of mankind” come true.

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

Maksim Gorky - literary pseudonym Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov, the incorrect use of the writer’s real name in combination with a pseudonym is also well-established - Alexey Maksimovich Gorky, (March 16 (28), 1868, Nizhny Novgorod, Russian empire- June 18, 1936, Gorki, Moscow region, USSR) - Russian writer, prose writer, playwright. One of the most significant and famous Russian writers and thinkers in the world. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, he became famous as the author of works with a revolutionary tendency, personally close to the Social Democrats and in opposition to the tsarist regime.

Initially, Gorky was skeptical about the October Revolution. However, after several years of cultural work in Soviet Russia (in Petrograd he directed the publishing house “World Literature”, interceded with the Bolsheviks for those arrested) and life abroad in the 1920s (Berlin, Marienbad, Sorrento), he returned to the USSR, where in recent years life received official recognition as the founder of socialist realism.

Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov was born in Nizhny Novgorod, in the family of a carpenter (according to another version, the manager of the Astrakhan office of the shipping company I.S. Kolchin) - Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov (1840-1871), who was the son of a soldier demoted from the officers. M. S. Peshkov worked as a manager of a shipping office in the last years of his life, but died of cholera. Mother - Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina (1842-1879) - from a bourgeois family; Having become a widow at an early age, she remarried and died of consumption. Gorky’s grandfather Savvaty Peshkov rose to the rank of officer, but was demoted and exiled to Siberia “for cruel treatment of lower ranks,” after which he enrolled as a bourgeois. His son Maxim ran away from his father five times and at the age of 17 he left home forever. Orphaned early, Gorky spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather Kashirin. From the age of 11 he was forced to go “into the people”: he worked as a “boy” in a store, as a buffet cook on a steamship, as a baker, studied in an icon-painting workshop, etc.

In 1884 he tried to enter Kazan University. I became acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.
In 1888, he was arrested for connections with N. E. Fedoseev’s circle. He was under constant police surveillance. In October 1888 he became a watchman at the Dobrinka station in Gryaze-Tsaritsynskaya railway. Impressions from his stay in Dobrinka will serve as the basis for the autobiographical story “The Watchman” and the story “Boredom for the Sake.”
In January 1889, at a personal request (a complaint in verse), he was transferred to the Borisoglebsk station, then as a weighmaster to the Krutaya station.
In the spring of 1891 he set out to wander and soon reached the Caucasus.

Literary and social activities

In 1892 he first appeared in print with the story “Makar Chudra”. Returning to Nizhny Novgorod, he publishes reviews and feuilletons in Volzhsky Vestnik, Samara Gazeta, Nizhny Novgorod Listok, etc.
1895 - “Chelkash”, “Old Woman Izergil”.
1896 - Gorky writes a response to the first cinematic session in Nizhny Novgorod:

And suddenly something clicks, everything disappears, and a railway train appears on the screen. He rushes like an arrow straight towards you - watch out! It seems that he is about to rush into the darkness in which you are sitting, and turn you into a torn bag of skin, full of crumpled meat and crushed bones, and destroy, turn into rubble and dust this hall and this building where there is so much wine , women, music and vice.

1897 - " Former people", "The Orlov Spouses", "Malva", "Konovalov".
From October 1897 to mid-January 1898, he lived in the village of Kamenka (now the city of Kuvshinovo, Tver Region) in the apartment of his friend Nikolai Zakharovich Vasiliev, who worked at the Kamensk paper factory and led an illegal workers' Marxist circle. Subsequently, the life impressions of this period served the writer as material for the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin.”
1898 - The publishing house of Dorovatsky and A.P. Charushnikov published the first volume of Gorky's works. In those years, the circulation of the young author's first book rarely exceeded 1000 copies. A. I. Bogdanovich advised to release the first two volumes of M. Gorky’s “Essays and Stories”, 1200 copies each. Publishers “took a chance” and released more. The first volume of the 1st edition of “Essays and Stories” was published in a circulation of 3,000 copies.
1899 - novel “Foma Gordeev”, prose poem “Song of the Falcon”.
1900-1901 - the novel “Three”, personal acquaintance with Chekhov, Tolstoy.

1900-1913 - participates in the work of the publishing house "Knowledge".
March 1901 - “Song of the Petrel” was created by M. Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod. Participation in Marxist workers' circles in Nizhny Novgorod, Sormovo, St. Petersburg; wrote a proclamation calling for the fight against autocracy. Arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod.

In 1901, M. Gorky turned to drama. Creates the plays “The Bourgeois” (1901), “At the Lower Depths” (1902). In 1902, he became the godfather and adoptive father of the Jew Zinovy ​​Sverdlov, who took the surname Peshkov and converted to Orthodoxy. This was necessary in order for Zinovy ​​to receive the right to live in Moscow.
February 21 - election of M. Gorky to honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature.

In 1902, Gorky was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences... But before Gorky could exercise his new rights, his election was annulled by the government, since the newly elected academician was “under police surveillance.” In this regard, Chekhov and Korolenko refused membership in the Academy

1904-1905 - writes the plays “Summer Residents”, “Children of the Sun”, “Barbarians”. Meets Lenin. For the revolutionary proclamation and in connection with the execution on January 9, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Famous artists G. Hauptmann, A. France, O. Rodin, T. Hardy, J. Meredith, Italian writers G. Deledda, M. Rapisardi, E. de Amicis, composer G. Puccini, philosopher B. spoke in defense of Gorky. Croce and other representatives of the creative and scientific world from Germany, France, England. Student demonstrations took place in Rome. Under public pressure, he was released on bail on February 14, 1905. Participant in the revolution of 1905-1907. In November 1905 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

1906, February - Gorky and Maria Andreeva travel through Europe to America. Abroad, the writer creates satirical pamphlets about the “bourgeois” culture of France and the USA (“My Interviews”, “In America”). He writes the play “Enemies” and creates the novel “Mother”. Due to tuberculosis, he settled in Italy on the island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years (from 1906 to 1913). Checked into the prestigious Quisisana Hotel. From March 1909 to February 1911 he lived at the Villa Spinola (now Bering), stayed at the villas (they have commemorative plaques about his stay) Blesius (from 1906 to 1909) and Serfina (now Pierina) ). On Capri, Gorky wrote “Confession” (1908), where his philosophical differences with Lenin and rapprochement with the god-builders Lunacharsky and Bogdanov were clearly outlined.

1907 - delegate with the right of advisory vote to the V Congress of the RSDLP.
1908 - play “The Last”, story “The Life of an Useless Person”.
1909 - the stories “The Town of Okurov”, “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”.
1913 - Gorky edits the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, art department Bolshevik magazine "Prosveshchenie", publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes "Tales of Italy".
At the end of December 1913, after the announcement of a general amnesty on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Romanovs, Gorky returned to Russia and settled in St. Petersburg.

1914 - founded the journal “Letopis” and the publishing house “Parus”.
1912-1916 - M. Gorky creates a series of stories and essays that made up the collection “Across Rus'”, autobiographical stories “Childhood”, “In People”. In 1916, the Parus publishing house published the autobiographical story “In People” and a series of essays “Across Rus'.” The last part of the trilogy, “My Universities,” was written in 1923.
1917-1919 - M. Gorky does a lot of social and political work, criticizes the methods of the Bolsheviks, condemns their attitude towards the old intelligentsia, saves a number of its representatives from Bolshevik repression and famine.

Emigration

1921 - M. Gorky’s departure abroad. Official reason departure was the resumption of his illness and the need, at Lenin’s insistence, to be treated abroad. According to another version, Gorky was forced to leave due to worsening ideological differences with the established government. In 1921-1923 lived in Helsingfors (Helsinki), Berlin, Prague.
Since 1924 he lived in Italy, in Sorrento. Published memoirs about Lenin.
1925 - novel “The Artamonov Case”.

1928 - at the invitation of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, he tours the country, during which Gorky is shown the achievements of the USSR, which are reflected in the series of essays “Around the Soviet Union.”
1929 - Gorky visits the Solovetsky special purpose camp and writes a laudatory review of its regime. A fragment of A. I. Solzhenitsyn’s work “The Gulag Archipelago” is dedicated to this fact.

Return to the USSR

(From November 1935 to June 1936)

1932 - Gorky returns to the Soviet Union. The government provided him with the former Ryabushinsky mansion on Spiridonovka, dachas in Gorki and Teselli (Crimea). Here he receives Stalin’s order - to prepare the ground for the 1st Congress of Soviet Writers, and for this to carry out preparatory work among them.
Gorky created many newspapers and magazines: the book series “History of factories and factories”, “History civil war", "Poet's Library", "The Story of a Young person XIX century", the magazine "Literary Studies", he writes the plays "Yegor Bulychev and others" (1932), "Dostigaev and others" (1933).

1934 - Gorky holds the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, giving the main report at it.
1934 - co-editor of the book “Stalin Canal”.
In 1925-1936 he wrote the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which remained unfinished.
On May 11, 1934, Gorky’s son, Maxim Peshkov, unexpectedly dies. M. Gorky died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki, having outlived his son by a little more than two years.
After his death, he was cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.

The circumstances of the death of Maxim Gorky and his son are considered “suspicious” by many; there were rumors of poisoning, which, however, were not confirmed. At the funeral, among others, Molotov and Stalin carried Gorky’s coffin. It is interesting that among other accusations against Genrikh Yagoda at the Third Moscow Trial in 1938 was the accusation of poisoning Gorky’s son. According to Yagoda's interrogations, Maxim Gorky was killed on Trotsky's orders, and the murder of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, was his personal initiative. Some publications blame Stalin for Gorky's death. An important precedent for the medical side of the accusations in the “Doctors’ Case” was the Third Moscow Trial (1938), where among the defendants were three doctors (Kazakov, Levin and Pletnev), accused of the murders of Gorky and others.

“Here medicine is innocent...” This is exactly what doctors Levin and Pletnev initially said, who treated the writer in the last months of his life and were later brought in as defendants in the trial of the “right-wing Trotskyist bloc.” Soon, however, they “admitted” deliberately incorrect treatment...
and even “showed” that their accomplices were nurses who gave the patient up to 40 injections of camphor per day. But as it was in reality, there is no consensus.
Historian L. Fleischlan directly writes: “The fact of Gorky’s murder can be considered immutably established.” V. Khodasevich, on the contrary, believes in the natural cause of the death of the proletarian writer.

On the night when Maxim Gorky was dying, a terrible thunderstorm broke out at the state-owned dacha in Gorki-10.

The autopsy of the body was carried out right here, in the bedroom, on the table. The doctors were in a hurry. “When he died,” recalled Gorky’s secretary Pyotr Kryuchkov, “the doctors’ attitude towards him changed. For them he became just a corpse...

He was treated horribly. The orderly began to change his clothes and turned him from side to side, like a log. The autopsy began... Then they began to wash the insides. They sewed up the cut somehow with simple twine. The brain was put in a bucket..."

Kryuchkov personally carried this bucket, intended for the Brain Institute, into the car.

In Kryuchkov’s memoirs there is a strange entry: “Alexei Maksimovich died on the 8th.”

The writer’s widow Ekaterina Peshkova recalls: “June 8, 6 pm. Alexey Maksimovich’s condition deteriorated so much that the doctors, having lost hope, warned us that a near end was inevitable... Alexey Maksimovich is in a chair with his eyes closed, with his head bowed, leaning on something on one hand, then on the other, pressed to the temple and resting his elbow on the arm of the chair.

The pulse was barely noticeable, uneven, breathing became weaker, the face and ears and limbs of the hands turned blue. After a while, when we entered, hiccups began, restless movements of his hands, with which he seemed to be moving something away or taking something off..."

And suddenly the mise-en-scene changes... New faces appear. They waited in the living room. Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov enter the resurrected Gorky with a cheerful gait. They had already been informed that Gorky was dying. They came to say goodbye. Behind the scenes is the head of the NKVD, Genrikh Yagoda. He arrived before Stalin. The leader didn't like it.

“Why is this guy hanging out here? So that he wouldn’t be here.”

Stalin behaves like a master in the house. He scared Genrikh and intimidated Kryuchkov. "Why so many people? Who is responsible for this? Do you know what we can do to you?"

The “owner” has arrived... The leading party is his! All relatives and friends become only corps de ballet.

When Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov entered the bedroom, Gorky came to his senses so much that they started talking about literature. Gorky began to praise women writers, mentioned Karavaeva - and how many of them, how many more will appear, and everyone needs to be supported... Stalin playfully besieged Gorky: “We’ll talk about the matter when you get better.
If you are planning to get sick, get better soon. Or maybe there’s wine in the house, we’d like to drink a glass to your health.”

They brought wine... Everyone drank... As they left, at the door, Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov waved their hands. When they came out, Gorky allegedly said: “What good guys! How much strength they have...”

But how much can you trust these memories of Peshkova? In 1964, when asked by American journalist Isaac Levin about Gorky’s death, she answered: “Don’t ask me about that! I won’t be able to sleep for three days...”

The second time Stalin and his comrades came to the mortally ill Gorky on June 10 at two o’clock in the morning. But why? Gorky was sleeping. No matter how afraid the doctors were, Stalin was not allowed in. Stalin's third visit took place on June 12. Gorky did not sleep. The doctors gave us ten minutes to talk. What were they talking about? ABOUT peasant uprising Bolotnikov... We moved on to the situation of the French peasantry.

It turns out that on June 8, the main concern of the Secretary General and Gorky, who returned from the other world, was writers, and on the 12th, French peasants became the main concern. All this is somehow very strange.

The leader’s visits seemed to magically revive Gorky. It was as if he did not dare to die without Stalin’s permission. This is incredible, but Budberg will say this directly:
“He essentially died on the 8th, and if not for Stalin’s visit, he would hardly have returned to life.”

Stalin was not a member of the Gorky family. This means that the attempted night invasion was out of necessity. And on the 8th, and the 10th, and the 12th, Stalin needed either a frank conversation with Gorky, or a steely confidence that such a frank conversation would not take place with someone else. For example, with Louis Aragon traveling from France. What would Gorky say, what statement could he make?

After Gorky’s death, Kryuchkov was accused of having “killed” Gorky’s son Maxim Peshkov with doctors Levin and Pletnev, on Yagoda’s instructions, using “sabotage methods of treatment.” But why?

If we follow the testimony of other defendants, the political calculations were made by the “customers” - Bukharin, Rykov and Zinoviev. In this way, they allegedly wanted to speed up the death of Gorky himself, carrying out the task of their “leader” Trotsky. Nevertheless, even at this trial there was no talk of the direct murder of Gorky. This version would be too incredible, because the patient was surrounded by 17 (!) doctors.

One of the first to speak about the poisoning of Gorky was the emigrant revolutionary B.I. Nikolaevsky. Allegedly, Gorky was presented with a bonbonniere containing poisoned sweets. But the candy version doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Gorky did not like sweets, but he loved to treat them to guests, orderlies and, finally, his beloved granddaughters. Thus, it was possible to poison anyone around Gorky with sweets, except himself. Only an idiot could plan such a murder. Neither Stalin nor Yagoda were idiots.

There is no evidence of the murder of Gorky and his son Maxim. Meanwhile, tyrants also have the right to the presumption of innocence. Stalin committed enough crimes to pin one more on him - unproven.

The reality is this: on June 18, 1936, the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky died. His body, contrary to the will to bury him next to his son in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent, was cremated by order of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and the urn with the ashes was placed in the Kremlin wall.

Softmixer.com›2011/06/blog-post_18.html

The purpose of this article is to find out the true reason for the passing of the Russian writer ALEXEY MAKSIMOVITCH PESHKOV by his FULL NAME code.

Watch "Logicology - about the fate of man" in advance.

Let's look at the FULL NAME code tables. \If there is a shift in numbers and letters on your screen, adjust the image scale\.

16 22 47 58 73 76 77 89 95 106 124 130 140 153 154 165 183 193 206 221 224 234 258
P E S H K O V A L E K S E Y M A K S I M O V I C H
258 242 236 211 200 185 182 181 169 163 152 134 128 118 105 104 93 75 65 52 37 34 24

1 13 19 30 48 54 64 77 78 89 107 117 130 145 148 158 182 198 204 229 240 255 258
A L E K S E Y M A K S I M O V I C H P E S H K O V
258 257 245 239 228 210 204 194 181 180 169 151 141 128 113 110 100 76 60 54 29 18 3

PESHKOV ALEXEY MAKSIMOVICH = 258 = NATURAL DEATH.

258 = 77-SHORT\Oxygen\+ 181-SHORTAGE OF OXYGEN.

258 = OXYGEN STARVATION of myocardium\.

258 = 165-MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION\ a\ + 93-INFARCTION.

258 = 58-FROM IN\ myocardial infarction...\ + 200-FROM MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION\ a\.

258 = HYPOXIA OF THE HEART MYOCARDIUM\a\.

258 = 228-HEALTH LEADING TO DEATH + 30-...CT (the end of the word INFARCTION leading towards death).

Let's check this statement:

10 24 45 46 63 74 93
I N F A R K T
93 83 69 48 47 30 19

We see the numbers 19, 30, 48, 93

Let's decrypt individual columns:

89 = DEATH
_____
181 = 77-SHORTAGE + 104-OXYGEN

198 = SUDDEN DEATH
_____________________________
76 = LACK OF Oxygen

145 = PASSED AWAY
___________________________________________________
128 = FROM HYPOXIA = MYOCARDIUM WITHOUT CIS\ oxygen \ = FROM INFARCTION

140 = MYOCARDIUM WITHOUT ACID\orod\
__________________________________
128 = MYOCARDIUM WITHOUT CIS\lord\

193 = MYOCARDIUM WITHOUT OXYGEN
__________________________________
75 = HEART

73 = MYOCARDIA
___________________________________
200 = FROM MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION\ a\

154 = MYOCARDIAL STARVATION\ a\
________________________________
105 = FASTING MI\ okarda\

165 = NOT ENOUGH
_______________________
104 = OXYGEN

Reference:

Myocardial hypoxia is a condition in which the heart muscle, and the myocardium is the muscle of the heart, does not receive the required amount of oxygen.
ddhealth.ru›bolezni-i-lechenie/1190…miocarda

DATE OF DEATH code: 06/18/1936. This = 18 + 06 + 19 + 36 = 79 = FROM HYPO\ xia\ = FROM INF\ arcta\.

258 = 79 + 179-THE END IS COME.

Code of full DATE OF DEATH = 226-EIGHTEENTH OF JUNE + 55-\ 19 + 36 \-\ code of YEAR OF DEATH \-DIES = 281.

281 = 75-HEART + 206-OXYGEN HUNGRY = HEARTBEAT ENDED.

281 - 258-\ FULL NAME code\ = 23 = MI\ ocard\.

Number code full YEARS LIFE = 177-SIXTY + 84-EIGHT = 261 = SUDDEN MYOCARAL INFARCTION\ yes\.

Let's look at the column:

89 = DEATH
______________________________
180 = SIXTY V\ axis\

180 - 89 = 91 = DYING.

Reviews

Are you sure that he is a great Russian??? Very doubtful...
Maxim Gorky (real name and surname - Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov; 1868–1936), thanks to his pre-revolutionary writings, enjoyed a reputation as a friend of the poor and a fighter for social justice. Meanwhile, sympathy for people of the social “bottom” merged in these works with arguments that all Russian life is a complete “lead abomination” (“The Town of Okurov”, “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin”, etc.). Gorky argued that the Russian soul, by its very nature, is “cowardly” and “morbidly evil” (he considered the most successful portrait of it to be the disgusting old voluptuous Fyodor Karamazov from Dostoevsky’s novel). He wrote about “the sadistic cruelty inherent in the Russian people” (afterword to the book by S. Gusev-Orenburgsky about Jewish pogroms in Ukraine, 1923). Perhaps no publicist has written with such hostility about any nation - except perhaps Hitler's ideologists about the Jews. Such accusations as those expressed by Gorky in his work “On the Russian Peasantry” are brought only against those whom it is decided to destroy.
And Gorky took a direct part in this destruction. In 1905 he joined the RSDLP. In 1917, having disagreed with the Bolsheviks over the issue of the timeliness of their coup, he formally remained outside the party. He was rich and could afford to live in a villa on the island from 1906 to 1914. Capri and sacrifice large sums to the party treasury. He financed Lenin's newspapers Iskra and Vpered. During the December rebellion of 1905, his Moscow apartment, guarded by a Caucasian squad, became a workshop where bombs were made; where they brought weapons for the militants. In 1906, Gorky went on a tour of America and collected about 10 thousand dollars for the Bolsheviks. After the newspapers published his proclamation, “Don’t give money to the Russian government,” the United States refused to give Russia a half-billion-dollar loan. Gorky thanked America by describing it as a gloomy “country of the yellow devil.”
After 1917, Gorky continued to collaborate with the Bolsheviks. Often criticizing their policies in words (with their full permission), he actually took part in their actions. For example, in 1919, on behalf of the Bolsheviks, he formed an expert Commission, the conclusions of which served as the basis for the export of many works of art abroad. This devastated the largest art repositories in Russia.
Although Gorky understood that “the commissars treat Russia as material for experiment” and that “Bolshevism is a national misfortune,” he continued to be on friendly terms with the new government and with its leader, who in the essay “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” (1920; not to be confused with the later “V.I. Lenin”) equated to saints (I.A. Bunin called this article a “shameless akathist”).
From 1921 to 1931 Gorky lived abroad, mainly in Italy. Even from abroad, the proletarian writer sanctified with his authority death sentences imposed on absurd charges. Returning to the USSR, he energetically became involved in an all-out hunt for imaginary “enemies” and “spies.” In 1929–1931 Gorky regularly published articles in Pravda, which later formed the collection “Let's Be on Guard!” They urge readers to look around them for saboteurs who have secretly betrayed the cause of communism. The most famous of these articles is “If the enemy does not surrender, he is destroyed” (1930); its title became a kind of motto for the entire Soviet policy. At the same time, Gorky, like those who admired him punitive authorities, to attach the label “enemy” did not need any evidence. The worst enemies, in his opinion, are those against whom there is no evidence. “Gorky doesn’t just sing in the choir of accusers - he writes music for this choir,” states Swiss researcher J. Niva.
The language of these articles by the “humanist writer” is striking: people here are constantly called flies, tapeworms, parasites, semi-human creatures, degenerates. “There are traitors, traitors, spies among the mass of workers of the Union of Soviets... It is quite natural that the workers’ and peasants’ government beats its enemies like a louse.” At the same time, Gorky praised the “historically and scientifically grounded, truly universal, proletarian humanism of Marx - Lenin - Stalin” (article “Proletarian Humanism”); admired “how simple and accessible the wise Comrade Stalin is” (“Letter to the delegates of the All-Union Congress of Collective Farmers-Shock Workers”). Preserving his long-standing hatred of the peasantry, Gorky reminded that “the power of the peasant is a socially unhealthy force and that the cultural-political, consistent work of Lenin-Stalin is aimed precisely at eradicating this “power” from the consciousness of the peasant, for this power exists... the instinct of a small owner, expressed, as we know, in the forms of zoological bestiality” (“Open Letter to A.S. Serafimovich”, 1934). Let us remember that this was published in the years when the most hardworking and economic peasants (“kulaks”) were shot or evicted to the permafrost zone.
In support of the “case of the Industrial Party” fabricated by the OGPU, Gorky wrote the play “Somov and Others” (1930). In accordance with this absurd process, it has bred pest engineers who are slowing down production to spite the people. In the finale, “fair retribution” comes in the form of OGPU agents, who arrest not only the engineers, but also the former singing teacher (his crime was that he “poisoned” Soviet youth with conversations about the soul and ancient music). In the articles “To Workers and Peasants” and “Humanists,” Gorky supports an equally ridiculous accusation against Professor Ryazanov and his “accomplices,” who were shot for “organizing a food famine.”
Gorky did not necessarily approve of all repressions. The arrests of the old Bolsheviks, fighters against the “damned tsarism,” worried him. In 1932, he even expressed his bewilderment about the arrest of L. Kamenev to the head of the security officers, G. Yagoda. But the fate of millions condemned to death ordinary people he was not so perplexed. In 1929, Gorky visited the Solovetsky camp. One of the young prisoners, seeing him as a defender of the oppressed, risked telling him about the monstrous living conditions in this camp. Gorky shed tears, but after his conversation with the boy (who was almost immediately shot) in the “Book of Reviews” of the Solovetsky camp, he left enthusiastic praise for the jailers.
In 1934, the collection “White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin” was published under the editorship of Gorky. The book supports all the crazy accusations of those years: that engineers, for example, poison female workers with arsenic in factory canteens and secretly break machines. The concentration camp is depicted as a beacon of progress; it is claimed that no one dies in it (in reality, at least 100,000 prisoners died during the construction of the White Sea Canal). Speaking to the canal builders on August 25, 1933, Gorky admired “how the OGPU re-educates people” and spoke with tears of tenderness about the excessive modesty of the security officers. According to A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s assessment, given by him in “The Gulag Archipelago,” in the book “The White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin,” Gorky glorified slave labor for the first time in Russian literature.
Regardless of whether Gorky’s talent is considered first-class or exaggerated by the press; regardless of whether to believe in his sincerity or in the fact that in his soul he did not approve of Stalin’s policies; Regardless of whether one trusts the version that the 68-year-old writer, who had been treated for a long time for consumption, died not from illness, but from poison ordered by the Kremlin, the fact remains: Gorky contributed to the organized murder of millions of innocent people.

Indeed, the early years of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky (Peshkov) are known only from the autobiographies he himself wrote (there are several versions) and works of art- autobiographical trilogy: “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.

To what extent the “leaden abominations of wild Russian life” set forth in the mentioned works correspond to reality, and to what extent they are the author’s literary fiction is unknown to this day. We can only compare the texts of Gorky's early autobiographies with his other literary texts, but there is also no need to talk about the reliability of this information.

According to the memoirs of Vladislav Khodasevich, Gorky once told with a laugh how one clever Nizhny Novgorod publisher of “books for the people” persuaded him to write his biography, saying: “Your life, Alexey Maksimovich, is pure money.”

It seems that the writer took this advice, but left the prerogative to earn this “money” for himself.

In his first autobiography in 1897, written at the request of the literary critic and bibliographer S.A. Vengerov, M. Gorky wrote about his parents:

In subsequent autobiographies of writers, there is a lot of confusion in dates and inconsistencies with documented facts. Even with the day and year of his birth, Gorky cannot decide unambiguously. In his autobiography of 1897, he indicates the date March 14, 1869, in the next version (1899) - “born on March 14, either 1867 or 1868.”

It is documented that A.M. Peshkov was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Father - cabinetmaker Maxim Savvatievich Peshkov (1839-1871), the son of an officer demoted to soldier. Mother - Varvara Vasilievna (1844-1879), nee Kashirina, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, the owner of a dyeing establishment, who was a shop foreman and was more than once elected as a deputy of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma. Despite the fact that Gorky's parents got married against the wishes of the bride's father, the conflict between the families was soon successfully resolved. In the spring of 1871, M.S. Peshkov was appointed manager of the Kolchin Shipping Company office, and the young family moved from Nizhny Novgorod to Astrakhan. Soon the father died of cholera, and the mother and Alexei returned to Nizhny.

Gorky himself dates the date of his father’s death and mother’s return to the Kashirin family first to the summer of 1873, then to the autumn of 1871. The autobiographies also differ in information about Gorky’s life “in public.” For example, in one version he ran away from the shoe store where he worked as a “boy”, in another, repeated later in the story “In People” (1916), he was scalded with cabbage soup and his grandfather took him from the shoemaker, etc., etc. .…

In autobiographical works written by an already mature writer, in the period from 1912 to 1925, literary fiction is closely intertwined with childhood memories and early impressions of a still unformed personality. As if driven by long-standing childhood grievances that he was unable to overcome throughout his life, Gorky sometimes deliberately exaggerates the colors, adds unnecessary drama, trying again and again to justify the once chosen pseudonym.

In his Autobiography of 1897, the almost thirty-year-old writer allows himself to express himself this way about his own mother:

Did he seriously believe that an adult woman could consider her little son to be the cause of the death of her loved one? Blame your child for your unsettled personal life?

In the story “Childhood” (1912-1913), Gorky fulfills the explicit social order of the Russian progressive public of the early twentieth century: good literary language describes the misfortunes of the people, not forgetting to add personal childhood grievances here.

It is worth remembering with what deliberate antipathy Alyosha Peshkov’s stepfather Maksimov is described on the pages of the story, who did not give the boy anything good, but did not do anything bad either. The mother’s second marriage was clearly regarded by the hero of “Childhood” as a betrayal, and the writer himself spared neither causticity nor gloomy colors to describe his stepfather’s relatives - impoverished nobles. On the pages of the works of her famous son, Varvara Vasilievna Peshkova-Maximova is denied even that bright, largely mythologized memory that was preserved for her early deceased father.

Gorky's grandfather, the respected shop foreman V.V. Kashirin, appears before the reader in the image of a kind of monster with which to frighten naughty children. Most likely, Vasily Vasilyevich had an explosive, despotic character and was not very pleasant to talk to, but he loved his grandson in his own way and sincerely cared about his upbringing and education. The grandfather himself taught six-year-old Alyosha first Church Slavonic literacy, then modern, civil literacy. In 1877, he sent his grandson to the Nizhny Novgorod Kunavinsky School, where he studied until 1879, receiving a certificate of commendation upon entering the third grade for “excellent success in science and good behavior compared to others.” That is, the future writer still completed two classes of college, and with honors. In one of his autobiographies, Gorky claims that he attended school for about five months, received only “twos”, and sincerely hated studies, books and any printed texts, even his passport.

What is this? Resentment towards your not so “hopeless” past? Voluntary self-deprecation or a way to assure the reader that “from the aspen tree oranges will be born”? The desire to present oneself as an absolute “nugget,” a self-made man, was inherent in many “proletarian” writers and poets. Even S.A. Yesenin, having received a decent education at a teacher’s school, worked as a proofreader in a Moscow printing house, attended classes at the Shanyavsky People’s University, but all his life, obeying political fashion, he tried to present himself as an illiterate “peasant” and a hillbilly...

The only bright spot against the background of the general “dark kingdom” of Gorky’s autobiographical stories is the relationship with his grandmother, Akulina Ivanovna. Obviously, this illiterate, but kind and honest woman was able to completely replace the mother who “betrayed” him in the boy’s mind. She gave her grandson all her love and participation, perhaps awakening in the soul of the future writer the desire to see the beauty behind the gray reality surrounding him.

Grandfather Kashirin soon went bankrupt: the division of the family enterprise with his sons and subsequent failures in business led him to complete poverty. Unable to survive the blow of fate, he fell ill with mental illness. Eleven-year-old Alyosha was forced to leave school and go “to the people,” that is, to learn some kind of craft.

From 1879 to 1884, he was a “boy” in a shoe shop, a student in a drawing and icon-painting workshop, and a dishwasher in the galleys of the Perm and Dobry steamships. Here an event took place that Alexey Maksimovich himself is inclined to consider “the starting point” on his path to Maxim Gorky: meeting a cook named Smury. This remarkable cook, despite his illiteracy, was obsessed with collecting books, mainly leather-bound. The range of his “leather” collection turned out to be very unique - from the Gothic novels of Anna Radcliffe and the poems of Nekrasov to literature in the Little Russian language. Thanks to this, according to the writer, “the strangest library in the world” (Autobiography, 1897), Alyosha Peshkov became addicted to reading and “read everything that came to hand”: Gogol, Nekrasov, Scott, Dumas, Flaubert, Balzac, Dickens, magazines “Sovremennik” and “Iskra”, popular print books and Freemasonic literature.

However, according to Gorky himself, he began reading books much earlier. In his autobiography there is a mention that from the age of ten the future writer kept a diary in which he recorded impressions not only from life, but also from the books he read. Agree, it is difficult to imagine a teenager living a miserable life as a servant, merchant, dishwasher, but at the same time leading diary entries who reads serious literature and dreams of going to university.

Such fantasy “inconsistencies”, worthy of embodiment in Soviet cinema of the mid-1930s (“Shining Path”, “Jolly Fellows”, etc.), are constantly present on the pages of M. Gorky’s “autobiographical” works.

In 1912-1917, even before the Glavpolitprosvet and the People's Commissariat for Education, the revolutionary writer had already firmly taken the path that was later called “socialist realism.” He knew perfectly well what and how to display in his works in order to fit into the future reality.

In 1884, the “tramp” Alexey Peshkov actually went to Kazan with the intention of entering the university:

How fifteen-year-old Peshkov learned about the existence of the university, and why he decided that he could be accepted there, is also a mystery. Living in Kazan, he communicated not only with “former people” - tramps and prostitutes. In 1885, the baker’s assistant Peshkov began attending self-education circles (usually Marxist), student gatherings, and using the library of illegal books and proclamations at Derenkov’s bakery, who hired him. Soon a mentor appeared - one of the first Marxists in Russia, Nikolai Fedoseev...

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

Some biographers of Gorky believe that the reason for his unsuccessful suicide could be an internal struggle in the soul of the young man. Under the influence of haphazardly read books and Marxist ideas there was a reshaping of the consciousness of the future writer, the displacement from him of that boy who began life with a Church Slavonic literacy, and then the demon of rationalistic materialism fell...

This “demon” appeared, by the way, in Alexei’s farewell note:

In order to master his chosen path, Alexei Peshkov had to become a different person, and he became one. Here a fragment from Dostoevsky’s “Demons” involuntarily comes to mind: “... lately he has been noticed in the most impossible oddities. For example, he threw two of his master’s images out of his apartment and chopped one of them with an ax; in his own room he laid out on stands, in the form of three lecterns, the works of Vocht, Moleschott and Buchner and lit wax church candles in front of each lectern.”

For attempting suicide, the Kazan Spiritual Consistory excommunicated Peshkov from the Church for seven years.

In the summer of 1888, Alexei Peshkov began his famous four-year “walk around Rus'” in order to return from it as Maxim Gorky. Volga region, Don, Ukraine, Crimea, Caucasus, Kharkov, Kursk, Zadonsk (where he visited the Zadonsk Monastery), Voronezh, Poltava, Mirgorod, Kiev, Nikolaev, Odessa, Bessarabia, Kerch, Taman, Kuban, Tiflis - this is an incomplete list of his travel routes .

During his wanderings, he worked as a loader, a railway watchman, a dishwasher, worked as a laborer in villages, mined salt, was beaten by men and was hospitalized, served in repair shops, and was arrested several times - for vagrancy and for revolutionary propaganda. “I water the bucket of enlightenment with benign ideas, and they bring certain results,” A. Peshkov wrote at that time to one of his addressees.

During these same years, Gorky experienced a passion for populism and Tolstoyism (in 1889 he visited Yasnaya Polyana with the intention of asking Leo Tolstoy for a plot of land for an “agricultural colony”, but their meeting did not take place); he became ill with Nietzsche’s teaching about the superman, which forever left him views with their own “pockmarks”.

Start

The first story, “Makar Chudra,” signed by a new name - Maxim Gorky, was published in 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus” and marked the end of his wanderings. Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod. With his literary godfather he considered Vladimir Korolenko. Under his patronage, since 1893, the aspiring writer has been publishing essays in Volga newspapers, and a few years later he becomes a permanent employee of the Samara Newspaper. More than two hundred of his feuilletons signed by Yehudiel Chlamida were published here, as well as the stories “Song of the Falcon”, “On Rafts”, “Old Woman Izergil”, etc. At the editorial office of the Samara Newspaper, Gorky met the proofreader Ekaterina Pavlovna Volzhina. Having successfully overcome his mother’s resistance to the marriage of his noblewoman daughter to the “Nizhny Novgorod guild,” in 1896 Alexey Maksimovich married her.

The following year, despite worsening tuberculosis and concerns with the birth of his son Maxim, Gorky released new novels and short stories, most of which would become textbooks: “Konovalov”, “Zazubrina”, “Fair in Goltva”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva” , “Former People”, etc. Gorky’s first two-volume book “Essays and Stories” (1898), published in St. Petersburg, had unprecedented success both in Russia and abroad. The demand for it was so great that a re-edition was immediately required - released in 1899 in three volumes. Gorky sent his first book to A.P. Chekhov, whom I was in awe of. He responded with a more than generous compliment: “Undoubted talent, and a real, great talent at that.”

In the same year, the debutant came to St. Petersburg and caused a standing ovation from the capital: the enthusiastic public organized banquets in his honor, literary evenings. He was greeted by people from a variety of countries: the populist critic Nikolai Mikhailovsky, the decadents Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius, academician Andrei Nikolaevich Beketov (grandfather of Alexander Blok), Ilya Repin, who painted his portrait... “Essays and Stories” were perceived as the frontier of public self-determination , and Gorky immediately became one of the most influential and popular Russian writers. Of course, interest in him was also fueled by the legendary biography of Gorky the tramp, Gorky the nugget, Gorky the sufferer (by this time he had already been in prison several times for revolutionary activities and was under police supervision)...

"Lord of Thoughts"

“Essays and Stories”, as well as the writer’s four-volume work “Stories”, which began to be published by the publishing house “Znanie”, produced a huge critical literature- from 1900 to 1904, 91 books were published about Gorky! Neither Turgenev, nor Leo Tolstoy, nor Dostoevsky had such fame during their lifetime. What is the reason?

IN late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century, against the background of decadence (decadence), as a reaction to it, two powerful magnetic ideas began to take root: the cult of a strong personality, inspired by Nietzsche, and the socialist reorganization of the world (Marx). These were the ideas of the era. And Gorky, who walked all over Russia, with the brilliant instinct of an animal, felt the rhythms of his time and the smells of new ideas in the air. Gorky’s artistic expression, going beyond the boundaries of art, “opened a new dialogue with reality” (Petr Palievsky). The innovative writer introduced into literature an offensive style unusual for Russian classics, designed to invade reality and radically change life. He also brought a new hero - “a talented spokesman for the protesting masses,” as the Iskra newspaper wrote. The heroic-romantic parables “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel” (1901) became revolutionary appeals in the rising proletarian movement. Critics of the previous generation accused Gorky of apologizing for tramping and preaching Nietzsche's individualism. But they argued with the will of history itself, and therefore they lost this argument.

In 1900, Gorky joined the publishing partnership “Znanie” and for ten years he was its ideological leader, uniting around himself writers whom he considered “advanced.” At his instigation, books by Serafimovich, Leonid Andreev, Bunin, Skitalets, Garin-Mikhailovsky, Veresaev, Mamin-Sibiryak, Kuprin and others were published here. Social work did not slow down creativity at all: the magazine “Life” published the story “Twenty Six and One” (1899), the novels “Foma Gordeev” (1899), “Three” (1900-1901).

On February 25, 1902, thirty-four-year-old Gorky was elected honorary academician in the category of fine literature, but the election was declared invalid. Suspecting the Academy of Sciences of collusion with the authorities, Korolenko and Chekhov renounced the title of honorary academicians as a sign of protest.

In 1902, “Knowledge” published Gorky’s first play, “The Bourgeois,” as a separate edition, which premiered that same year in the famous Moscow art theater(Moscow Art Theater), six months later there was a triumphant premiere of the play “At the Depths”. The play “Summer Residents” (1904) was performed a few months later in the fashionable St. Petersburg theater of Vera Komissarzhevskaya. Subsequently, Gorky's new plays were staged on the same stage: “Children of the Sun” (1905) and “Barbarians” (1906).

Gorky in the 1905 revolution

Tense creative work did not prevent the writer from becoming closer to the Bolsheviks and Iskra before the first Russian revolution. Gorky arranged training camps for them Money and he himself made generous donations to the party treasury. In this attachment, apparently, not the least role was played by one of the most beautiful actresses Moscow Art Theater Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, a convinced Marxist, closely associated with the RSDLP. In 1903 she became common-law wife Gorky. She also brought the philanthropist Savva Morozov, her ardent admirer and admirer of M. Gorky’s talent, to the Bolsheviks. A wealthy Moscow industrialist who financed the Moscow Art Theater, he began to allocate significant sums to the revolutionary movement. In 1905, Savva Morozov shot himself in Nice due to a mental disorder. Nemirovich-Danchenko explained it this way: « Human nature cannot tolerate two equally strong opposing passions. A merchant... must be true to his element.". The image of Savva Morozov and his strange suicide were reflected on the pages of M. Gorky’s late novel “The Life of Klim Samgin.”

Gorky took an active part in the events of January 8-9, 1905, which still have not found their own clear historical version. It is known that on the night of January 9, the writer, together with a group of intellectuals, visited the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers S.Yu. Witte to prevent the impending bloodshed. The question arises: how did Gorky know that there would be bloodshed? The workers' march was initially planned as a peaceful demonstration. But martial law was introduced in the capital, at the same time G.A. himself was hiding in Gorky’s apartment. Gapon...

Together with a group of Bolsheviks, Maxim Gorky took part in the march of workers to the Winter Palace and witnessed the dispersal of the demonstration. On the same day, he wrote an appeal “To all Russian citizens and public opinion of European states.” The writer accused the ministers and Nicholas II “of the premeditated and senseless murder of many Russian citizens.” What could I oppose to force? artistic word Gorky's unfortunate monarch? Make excuses for your absence in the capital? Put the blame for the shooting on your uncle, the St. Petersburg Governor General? Largely thanks to Gorky, Nicholas II received his nickname the Bloody, the authority of the monarchy in the eyes of the people was undermined forever, and the “petrel of the revolution” acquired the status of a human rights activist and fighter for the people. Considering Gorky’s early awareness of the impending events, all this looks strange and resembles a carefully planned provocation...

On January 11, Gorky was arrested in Riga, taken to St. Petersburg and imprisoned in a separate cell in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress as a state criminal. During a month spent in solitary confinement, he wrote the play “Children of the Sun,” conceived the novel “Mother” and the play “Enemies.” Gerhard Hauptmann, Anatole France, Auguste Rodin, Thomas Hardy and others immediately spoke out in defense of the captive Gorky. The European noise forced the government to release him and stop the case “under an amnesty.”

Returning to Moscow, Gorky began publishing his “Notes on Philistinism” (1905) in the Bolshevik newspaper “ New life”, in which he condemned “Dostoevshchina” and “Tolstoyism”, calling the preaching of non-resistance to evil and moral improvement philistine. During December uprising In 1905, Gorky's Moscow apartment, guarded by the Caucasian squad, became the center where weapons for combat detachments were brought and all information was delivered.

First emigration

After the suppression of the Moscow uprising due to the threat of a new arrest in early 1906, Gorky and Andreeva emigrated to America, where they began collecting money for the Bolsheviks. Gorky protested against the provision of foreign loans to the tsarist government to fight the revolution, publishing an appeal “Do not give money to the Russian government.” The United States, which does not allow itself any liberalism when it comes to defending its statehood, launched a newspaper campaign against Gorky as a carrier of the “revolutionary infection.” The reason was his unofficial marriage with Andreeva. Not a single hotel agreed to accept Gorky and the people accompanying him. Thanks to a letter of recommendation from the Executive Committee of the RSDLP and a personal note from Lenin, he settled with private individuals.

During his tour of America, Gorky spoke at rallies, gave interviews, and met Mark Twain, Herbert Wells, and other famous figures with the help of whom public opinion about the tsarist government was created. He managed to collect only 10 thousand dollars for revolutionary needs, but a more serious result of his trip was the US refusal to provide Russia with a loan of half a billion dollars. There, Gorky wrote his journalistic works “My Interviews” and “In America” (which he called the country of the “yellow devil”), as well as the play “Enemies” and the novel “Mother” (1906). In the last two things (Soviet criticism long called them “artistic lessons of the first Russian revolution”) many Russian writers saw “the end of Gorky.”

“What kind of literature this is! - wrote Zinaida Gippius. “It wasn’t even the revolution, but the Russian Social Democratic Party that chewed up Gorky without a trace.” Alexander Blok rightly called “Mother” artistically weak, and “My Interviews” flat and uninteresting.

Six months later, Maxim Gorky left the United States and settled in Capri (Italy), where he lived until 1913. Gorky's Italian house became a refuge for many Russian political emigrants and a place of pilgrimage for his admirers. In 1909, a party school was organized in Capri for workers sent from Russia by party organizations. Gorky gave lectures here on the history of Russian literature. Lenin also came to visit Gorky, with whom the writer met at the 5th (London) Congress of the RSDLP and has been corresponding since then. At that time, Gorky was closer to Plekhanov and Lunacharsky, who represented Marxism as new religion with the revelation of the “real god” - the proletarian collective. In this they differed from Lenin, for whom the word “God” in any interpretation caused rage.

In Capri, in addition to a huge number of journalistic works, Gorky wrote the stories “The Life of an Useless Person,” “Confession” (1908), “Summer” (1909), “The Town of Okurov,” “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin” (1910), and the plays “The Last "(1908), "Meeting" (1910), "Eccentrics", "Vassa Zheleznova" (1910), the cycle of stories "Complaints", the autobiographical story "Childhood" (1912-1913), as well as stories that would later be included in the cycle “Across Rus'” (1923). In 1911, Gorky began working on the satire “Russian Fairy Tales” (finished in 1917), in which he exposed the Black Hundreds, chauvinism, and decadence.

Return to Russia

In 1913, in connection with the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov, a political amnesty was declared. Gorky returned to Russia. Having settled in St. Petersburg, he began extensive publishing activities, which relegated artistic creativity to the background. He publishes the “Collection of Proletarian Writers” (1914), organizes the publishing house “Parus”, publishes the magazine “Chronicle”, which from the very beginning of the First World War took an anti-militarist position and opposed the “world massacre” - here Gorky agreed with the Bolsheviks. The list of magazine employees included writers of various directions: Bunin, Trenev, Prishvin, Lunacharsky, Eikhenbaum, Mayakovsky, Yesenin, Babel, etc. The second part of it was written at the same time autobiographical prose"In People" (1916).

1917 and second emigration

In 1917, Gorky's views sharply diverged from those of the Bolsheviks. He considered the October Revolution a political adventure and published a series of essays about the events of 1917-1918 in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, where he drew scary pictures the savagery of morals in Petrograd, engulfed in red terror. In 1918, the essays were published as a separate publication, Untimely Thoughts. Notes on revolution and culture". The newspaper “New Life” was immediately closed by the authorities as counter-revolutionary. Gorky himself was not touched: the fame of the “petrel of the revolution” and personal acquaintance with Lenin allowed him, as they say, to open the door to the offices of all high-ranking comrades. In August 1918, Gorky organized the publishing house "World Literature", which in the most hungry years fed many Russian writers with translations and editorial work. On Gorky’s initiative, a Commission was created to improve the living conditions of scientists.

As Vladislav Khodasevich testifies, during these difficult times there was a crush in Gorky’s apartment from morning to night:

Only once did the memoirist see how Gorky refused the request of the clown Delvari, who asked the writer to become the godfather of his child. This contradicted the carefully created image of the “petrel of the revolution,” and Gorky did not intend to spoil his biography.

Against the backdrop of the growing Red Terror, the writer’s skepticism about the possibility of “building socialism and communism” in Russia deepened. His authority among political bosses began to decline, especially after a quarrel with the all-powerful commissar Northern capital G.E. Zinoviev. Gorky’s dramatic satire “Hard Worker Slovotekov” was directed against him, staged at the Petrograd Theater of Folk Comedy in 1920 and immediately banned by the prototype of the protagonist.

On October 16, 1921, Maxim Gorky left Russia. At first he lived in Germany and Czechoslovakia, and in 1924 he settled in a villa in Sorrento (Italy). His position was ambiguous: on the one hand, he rather sharply criticized Soviet power for violating freedom of speech and prohibitions on dissent, and on the other hand, he opposed the absolute majority of Russian political emigration with his commitment to the idea of ​​socialism.

At this time, the “Russian Mata-Hari”, Maria Ignatievna Benkendorf (later Baroness Budberg), became the sovereign mistress of the Gorky house. According to Khodasevich, it was Maria Ignatievna who persuaded Gorky to reconcile with Soviet Russia. Not surprising: she, as it turned out, was an agent of the INO OGPU.

Gorky with his son

Under Gorky, his son Maxim lived with his family, someone was sure to visit - Russian emigrants and Soviet leaders, eminent foreigners and admirers of talent, petitioners and aspiring writers, fugitives from Soviet Russia and just wanderers. Judging by many memoirs, Gorky never refused financial assistance to anyone. Only large print runs could provide Gorky with sufficient funds to maintain his home and family. Russian publications. In emigration, even such figures as Denikin and Wrangel could not count on large circulations. The “proletarian” writer could not afford to quarrel with the Soviets.

During the period of his second emigration, Gorky's leading genre became artistic memoirs. He completed the third part of his autobiography “My Universities”, memories of V.G. Korolenko, L.N. Tolstoy, L.N. Andreev, A.P. Chekhov, N.G. Garine-Mikhailovsky and others. In 1925, Gorky finished the novel “The Artamonov Case” and began work on the grandiose epic “The Life of Klim Samgin” - about the Russian intelligentsia during a turning point in Russian history. Despite the fact that this work remained unfinished, many critics consider it central to the writer’s work.

In 1928, Maxim Gorky returned to his homeland. He was greeted with great honor. His tour was organized at the state level Soviet country: The south of Russia, Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Volga region, new construction projects, the Solovetsky camps... All this made a great impression on Gorky, which was reflected in his book “According to the Union of Soviets” (1929). In Moscow, the writer was provided with housing famous mansion Ryabushinsky, for recreation - dachas in Crimea and near Moscow (Gorki), for trips to Italy and Crimea - a special carriage. Numerous renamings of streets and cities began (Nizhny Novgorod was named Gorky), and on December 1, 1933, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Maxim Gorky’s literary activity, the first Literary Institute in Russia named after him was opened. On the initiative of the writer, the magazines “Our Achievements” and “Literary Studies” were organized, the famous “Poet’s Library” series was created, the Writers’ Union was formed, etc.

The last years of Maxim Gorky’s life, as well as the death of his son and the death of the writer himself, are covered in all sorts of rumors, guesses and legends. Today, when many documents were opened, it became known that after returning to his homeland, Gorky was under the strict tutelage of the GPU, headed by G.G. Berry. Secretary of Gorky P.P. Kryuchkov, who was connected with the authorities, managed all his publishing and financial affairs, trying to isolate the writer from the Soviet and world community, since Gorky did not like everything in his “new life.” In May 1934, his beloved son Maxim died under mysterious circumstances.

A.M. Gorky and G.G. Berry

In his memoirs, Khodasevich recalls that back in 1924, through Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova, Maxim was invited to return to Russia by Felix Dzerzhinsky, offering a job in his department, Gorky did not allow this, uttering a phrase similar to the prophetic: “When they start a squabble there, they will finish him off.” together with others - but I feel sorry for this fool.”

The same V. Khodasevich also expressed his version of Maxim’s murder: he considered the reason for this to be Yagoda’s love for Maxim’s beautiful wife (rumors about their relationship circulated among the Russian emigration after Maxim’s death). Gorky’s son, who loved to drink, seemed to have been deliberately left drunk in the forest by his drinking companions, GPU officers. The night was cold, and Maxim died of a severe cold. This death completely undermined the strength of his sick father.

Alexei Maksimovich Gorky died on July 18, 1936, at the age of 68, from a long-standing lung disease, but was soon declared a victim of the “Trotskyist-Bukharin conspiracy.” A high-profile lawsuit was opened against the doctors who treated the writer... Much later, his last “love”, GPU-NKVD agent Maria Ignatievna Budberg, was accused of poisoning the elderly Gorky. Why might the NKVD need to poison an already half-dead writer? No one has answered this question clearly.

In conclusion, I would like to add that some researchers of Gorky’s work believe that the “negative” Luke from the play “At the Lower Depths” - the “evil old man” with his comforting lies - is the subconscious “I” of Gorky himself. Alexey Maksimovich, like most writers of that difficult era, loved to indulge in elevating deceptions in life. It is no coincidence that Luka is so passionately defended by the “positive” tramp Satin: “I understand the old man... yes! He lied... but it was out of pity for you, damn you!”

Yes, the “most realistic writer” and “petrel of the revolution” lied more than once, rewriting and altering the facts of his own biography for political purposes. The writer and publicist Gorky lied even more, overestimating and “distorting” new way undeniable facts from the history of a great country. Was it a lie dictated by pity for humanity? Rather, it is the same elevating self-deception that allows the artist to create great masterpieces from ordinary dirt...

Elena Shirokova