Maxim Gorky (real name Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. The persistent legends about his “barefoot” origin, which so impressed the revolutionary-minded intelligentsia, are contradicted by the Brockhaus and Efron Dictionary (which speaks of him as coming from a “completely bourgeois” environment) and facts. Gorky's paternal grandfather was an officer, although demoted for cruel treatment of his subordinates. Father, Maxim Savvateevich Peshkov, being a gifted and lucky man, achieved significant success in life. Some features of his biography will then be repeated by his son, but on a larger scale.
At the age of three, the Peshkovs’ son Alyosha fell ill with cholera and infected his father. The boy survived, but his father passed away. The mother lost interest in her son, considering him to be the culprit in the death of her beloved husband. Soon his mother gave him to his grandfather and grandmother Kashirin to raise.
Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin had an explosive, despotic character, and the boy grew up in an atmosphere of constant family scandals. Nevertheless, he was attached to his grandson, taught him at the age of six, first Church Slavonic literacy, and only then modern. At the age of nine, the boy was sent to the Nizhny Novgorod Kunavinsky School, where he completed two classes and was transferred to the third with a diploma of commendation for “excellent success in science and good behavior compared to others.” At this time, my grandfather went bankrupt and, unable to survive the blow of fate and come to terms with poverty, fell ill with mental illness. Eleven-year-old Alyosha was forced to leave school and go “to the people,” that is, to learn some kind of craft.
From 1879 to 1884, he was an apprentice in a shoe shop, in a drawing and icon-painting workshop, in the galley of the steamship "Dobry", where an event took place that can be called the starting point for Alyosha Peshkov on his path to Maxim Gorky - a meeting with a cook named Smury. This remarkable cook, despite his illiteracy, was obsessed with collecting books, mainly in leather bindings, which determined the “range” of his collection - from the Gothic novels of Anna Radcliffe to literature in the Little Russian language. Thanks to this, according to the writer, “the strangest library in the world” (“Autobiography”, 1897), he became addicted to reading and “read everything that came to hand”: Gogol, Dumas, Nekrasov, Scott, Flaubert, Balzac, Dickens , Sovremennik and Iskra magazines, popular print books and Freemasonic literature...
Having felt a taste for knowledge, Alexey Peshkov in 1884 went to Kazan to enter the university, but due to poverty, life became his “university”: settling in a rooming house among his future heroes and, working as a laborer, he began to attend self-education circles, student gatherings, and a library of illegal books and proclamations at Derenkov’s bakery, who hired him as a baker’s assistant. Soon a mentor appeared - one of the first Marxists in Russia, Nikolai Fedoseev...
And suddenly, having already found the “fateful” revolutionary vein, on December 12, 1887, Alexei Peshkov tries to commit suicide (shoots himself in the lung). Some biographers find the reason for this in his unrequited love for Derenkov’s sister Maria, others - in the beginning of repressions against student circles. These explanations seem formal, since they do not at all suit the psychophysical makeup of Alexei Peshkov. By nature he was a fighter, and all the troubles along the way only refreshed his strength.
For attempting suicide, the Kazan Spiritual Consistory excommunicated Peshkov from the church for seven years.
In the summer of 1888, Alexey Peshkov began his famous four-year “walk around Rus'” in order to return from it as Maxim Gorky. Volga region, Don, Ukraine, Crimea, Caucasus, Kharkov, Kursk, Zadonsk (where he visited the Zadonsk Monastery), Voronezh, Poltava, Mirgorod, Kyiv, Nikolaev, Odessa, Bessarabia, Kerch, Taman, Kuban, Tiflis - this is an incomplete list of his routes. During his wanderings, he worked as a loader, a railway watchman, a dishwasher, worked as a laborer in villages, mined salt, was beaten by men and was hospitalized, served in repair shops, and was arrested several times - for vagrancy and for revolutionary propaganda. During these same years, he experienced a passion for populism and Tolstoyism (in 1889 he visited Yasnaya Polyana with the intention of asking Leo Tolstoy for a plot of land for an “agricultural colony,” but their meeting did not take place), became ill with Nietzsche’s teaching about the superman, which forever left its “pockmarks” in his views.
The first story, “Makar Chudra,” signed by his new name, Maxim Gorky, was published in 1892 in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus” and marked the end of his wanderings. Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod. With his literary godfather he considered Vladimir Korolenko. Under his patronage, in 1893 he began publishing essays in Volga newspapers, and a few years later he became a permanent contributor to the Samara Newspaper, where more than two hundred of his feuilletons signed by Yehudiel Chlamida were published, as well as the stories “Song of the Falcon”, “On the Rafts”, “Old Woman Izergil” and others. Here he met the proofreader of the Samara Newspaper, Ekaterina Pavlovna Volzhina, and, having overcome his mother’s resistance to the marriage of his noble daughter with a “Nizhny Novgorod guild,” he married her in 1896.
The following year, despite worsening tuberculosis and worries 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"and others. Gorky's first two-volume book, Essays and Stories (1898), published in St. Petersburg, had unprecedented success both in Russia and abroad. The demand for it was so great that a re-edition was immediately required - released in 1899 in three volumes. Gorky sent his first book to Chekhov, whom he was in awe of, and he responded with a more than generous compliment: “An undoubted talent, and a real, great talent at that.”
Gorky's social position was radical. He was arrested more than once; in 1902, Nicholas II ordered the annulment of his election as an honorary academician in the category of fine literature (in protest, Chekhov and Korolenko left the Academy). In 1905 he joined the ranks of the RSDLP (Bolshevik wing) and met V.I. Lenin. They received serious financial support for the revolution of 1905-07.
Gorky quickly showed himself as a talented organizer literary process. In 1901 he became the head of the publishing house of the Knowledge Partnership and soon began to publish Collections of the Knowledge Partnership, where I. A. Bunin, L. N. Andreev, A. I. Kuprin, V. V. Veresaev, E. N. were published. Chirikov, N. D. Teleshov, A. S. Serafimovich, etc.
Vertex early creativity, the play “At the Lower Depths,” owes its fame to a great extent to the production of K. S. Stanislavsky at the Moscow art theater(1902; played by Stanislavsky, V.I. Kachalov, I.M. Moskvin, O.L. Knipper-Chekhova, etc.) In 1903, the performance “At the Lower Depths” with Richard Wallentin in the role of Satin took place at the Berlin Kleines Theater. Gorky's other plays - "The Bourgeois" (1901), "Summer Residents" (1904), "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians" (both 1905), "Enemies" (1906) - did not have such sensational success in Russia and Europe.
After the defeat of the revolution of 1905-07, Gorky emigrated to the island of Capri (Italy). The “Capri” period of creativity forced us to reconsider the idea that had developed in criticism about the “end of Gorky” (D. V. Filosofov), which was caused by his passion for political struggle and the ideas of socialism, reflected in the story “Mother” (1906; second edition 1907). He creates the stories “The Town of Okurov” (1909), “Childhood” (1913-14), “In People” (1915-16), and the cycle of stories “Across Rus'” (1912-17). The story “Confession” (1908), highly appreciated by A. A. Blok, caused controversy in criticism. In it, for the first time, the theme of god-building was heard, which Gorky preached with A.V. Lunacharsky and A.A. Bogdanov at the Capri party school for workers, which caused his differences with Lenin, who hated “flirting with the little god.”
First world war had a hard impact on state of mind Gorky. It symbolized the beginning of the historical collapse of his idea of “collective reason,” which he came to after disappointment with Nietzschean individualism (according to T. Mann, Gorky built a bridge from Nietzsche to socialism). Boundless faith in human reason, accepted as the only dogma, was not confirmed by life. The war became a blatant example of collective madness, when Man was reduced to a “trench lice”, “cannon fodder”, when people went wild before our eyes and the human mind was powerless before logic historical events. In Gorky’s poem from 1914 there are the lines: “How will we then live?//What will this horror bring us?//What will now save my soul from hatred of people?”
The October Revolution confirmed Gorky's fears. Unlike Blok, he heard in it not “music,” but the terrible roar of a hundred million peasant element, breaking through all social prohibitions and threatening to drown the remaining islands of culture. In “Untimely Thoughts” (a series of articles in the newspaper “ New life"; 1917-18; published in a separate publication in 1918) he accused Lenin of seizing power and unleashing terror in the country. But in the same place he called the Russian people organically cruel, “bestial” and thereby, if not justified, then explained the brutal treatment of these people by the Bolsheviks. The inconsistency of his position was also reflected in his book “On the Russian Peasantry” (1922).
Gorky’s undoubted merit was his energetic work to save the scientific and artistic intelligentsia from starvation and executions, gratefully appreciated by his contemporaries (E. I. Zamyatin, A. M. Remizov, V. F. Khodasevich, V. B. Shklovsky, etc.) Barely Isn't that why they thought about this? cultural events, as the organization of the publishing house "World Literature", the opening of the "House of Scientists" and the "House of Arts" (communes for the creative intelligentsia, described in the novel by O. D. Forsh "The Crazy Ship" and the book by K. A. Fedin "Gorky Among Us") . However, many writers (including Blok, N.S. Gumilyov) could not be saved, which became one of the main reasons for Gorky’s final break with the Bolsheviks.
From 1921 to 1928, Gorky lived in exile, where he went after Lenin’s too persistent advice. Settled in Sorrento (Italy), without breaking ties with young Soviet literature (L. M. Leonov, V. V. Ivanov, A. A. Fadeev, I. E. Babel, etc.) Wrote the cycle “Stories of 1922-24 ", "Notes from the Diary" (1924), the novel "The Artamonov Case" (1925), began working on the epic novel "The Life of Klim Samgin" (1925-36). Contemporaries noted the experimental nature of Gorky's works of this time, which were created with an undoubted eye on the formal quest of Russian prose of the 20s.
In 1928, Gorky made a “test” trip to Soviet Union(in connection with the celebration organized on the occasion of his 60th birthday), having previously entered into cautious negotiations with the Stalinist leadership. The apotheosis of the meeting at the Belorussky station decided the matter; Gorky returned to his homeland. As an artist, he completely immersed himself in creating “The Life of Klim Samgin,” a panoramic picture of Russia over forty years. As a politician, he actually provided Stalin with moral cover in the face of the world community. His numerous articles created an apologetic image of the leader and were silent about the suppression of freedom of thought and art in the country - facts that Gorky could not have been unaware of. He headed the creation of a collective book of writers glorifying the construction by prisoners of the White Sea-Baltic Canal. Stalin. Organized and supported many enterprises: the Academia publishing house, the book series “History of factories and factories”, “History civil war", the magazine "Literary Studies", as well as the Literary Institute, then named after him. In 1934 he headed the Union of Writers of the USSR, created on his initiative.
Gorky's death was surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery, as was the death of his son, Maxim Peshkov. However, versions about violent death Both have not yet been documented. The urn with Gorky's ashes is placed in the Kremlin wall in Moscow.
The name of Maxim Gorky is probably known to everyone. Several generations have studied and are studying his work since childhood. Certain stereotypes have developed about Gorky. He is perceived as the founder of literature socialist realism, “petrel of the revolution”, literary critic and publicist, initiator of the creation and first chairman of the Union of Writers of the USSR. About his childhood and youth we know from autobiographical stories“Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”. However, in recent years many publications have appeared that show a slightly different Gorky.
Student's message about Gorky's biography
Childhood
The future writer was born in Nizhny Novgorod. At the age of three he lost his father, and at ten - his mother. My childhood was spent in my grandfather's house, in a bourgeois environment with rude and cruel morals. On Sundays the street was often filled with the joyful cries of boys: “The Kashirins are fighting again!”. The boy's life was brightened by his grandmother, a beautiful portrait of whom Gorky would leave in his autobiographical story “Childhood” (1914). He studied for only two years. Having received a letter of commendation, due to poverty (my grandfather was bankrupt by that time), he was forced to leave his studies and go “to the people” to earn money as a student, journeyman, or servant.
"In People"
As a teenager, the future writer fell in love with books and used every free minute to voraciously read everything he could get his hands on. This chaotic reading, coupled 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 do odd jobs, and his self-education continued in populist and Marxist circles. “Physically, I was born in Nizhny Novgorod. But spiritually - in Kazan. Kazan is my favorite “university”“, the writer said later.
"My Universities"
Beginning of literary activity
In the late 80s - early 90s, Alyosha Peshkov wanders across the expanses of Russia: the Mozdok steppe, the Volga region, the Don steppes, Ukraine, Crimea, and the Caucasus. He himself is already engaged in agitation among the workers, falls under secret police surveillance, and becomes “unreliable.” During these same years, he began to publish under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky. In 1892, the story “Makar Chudra” appeared in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus”, and in 1895 the story “Old Woman Izergil” was published. Gorky was immediately noticed, and enthusiastic responses appeared in the press.
In 1900, Gorky met Leo Tolstoy, and he wrote in his diary “...I liked him. A real person from the people". Both writers and readers were impressed by the fact that he entered literature new person- not from the “upper” educated strata, but “from below”, from the people. The attention of Russian society has long been attracted to the people - primarily the peasantry. And then the people, as if in the person of Gorky, entered the living rooms of rich houses, and even holding their own unusual works in their hands. Naturally, he was greeted with enthusiastic interest.
The origins of Gorky's prose
The immediate predecessor of Gorky's prose were the works of Chekhov. But if Chekhov’s heroes complain that they have “strained themselves”, 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 flavor of Nietzscheanism, which was then fashionable.
A tramp is a person without a fixed place of residence, not bound by constant work or family, not owning any property and therefore not interested in maintaining peace and tranquility in society.
It was difficult to ignore the influence of Nietzsche in Russia late XIX– beginning of the 20th century. And in Gorky, already in the 90s, new motives for Russian literature were noted: greed for life, thirst and cult of power, a passionate desire to go beyond the usual, “philistine” framework of existence. Therefore, the writer abandons the usual prose genres and writes fairy tales (“Old Woman Izergil”, 1895), songs (“Song of the Falcon”, 1895), and prose poems (“Man”, 1904).
Since 1889 revolutionary activity Among the workers, Gorky was arrested several times. The more famous he becomes, the more outrage every time he is taken into custody causes. The most people care about the writer famous people Russia, including Leo Tolstoy. During one of his arrests (1901), Gorky wrote “The Song of the Petrel” in a Nizhny Novgorod prison, the text of which quickly spread throughout the country. Cry “Let the storm blow harder!” left no options in choosing the path of development of Russia, especially for young people.
That 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 with Chekhov and Tolstoy. The writer's popularity in all strata of society in those years was enormous. In February 1903, he was elected honorary academician in the category of fine literature. Nicholas II, having learned about this, wrote to the Minister of Education: “...such a person, in the present day time of troubles, The Academy of Sciences allows itself to be elected into its midst. I am deeply outraged...".
After this letter, the Imperial Academy of Sciences declared the elections invalid. As a sign of protest, Korolenko and Chekhov refused the title of honorary academicians.
In the 1900s, Gorky, thanks to his enormous literary success, is already a wealthy person and can help revolutionary movement materially. And he hires capital lawyers for the arrested Sormovo and Nizhny Novgorod participants in labor demonstrations, gives large sums for the publication of Lenin’s newspaper “Forward”, published in Geneva.
As part of the Bolshevik group, Gorky takes part in the workers' march on January 9, 1905. After the authorities shot down a demonstration, he wrote an appeal in which he called “all citizens of Russia to an immediate, persistent and united struggle against the autocracy”. Soon after this, the writer once again was arrested, accused of a state crime and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Gorky was outraged that he was in the fortress for nine days “They didn’t give any news about M.F.’s situation.”(Maria Fedorovna Andreeva, his close friend, was then in the hospital), which was somewhat similar to 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 complains about 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 ones, will be tortured and killed...
The writer actively participates in the revolution of 1905, 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 person present - for weapons for the rebels.
The temperament of a fighter, a fighter, a herald takes Gorky further and further from his own artistic tasks.
Trip to America and Europe
In January 1906, the Bolshevik Party sent Gorky to America to raise money for underground work. This collection was not successful on the intended scale; but in America the novel “Mother” was written - about the awakening of “class consciousness” among the proletarians.
Criticism notes 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 grew into a clearly invented, gray figure of a “conscious worker.”
Having left America, Gorky remained abroad: arrest awaited him in his homeland. 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 tercentenary of the House of Romanov, an amnesty was declared for political emigrants.
Gorky's talent, despite criticism, has not yet exhausted its potential. The writer endlessly studies and describes Russian national character. Now he is interested not so much in “tramps” as in eccentrics and losers.
“...Rus' abounds with failed people... they are always there, with the mysterious power of a magnet. They caught my attention. They seemed more interesting, better than the dense mass of ordinary county people who live for work and for food...”
In the cycle of stories “Complaints” (1912), Gorky depicts “the hopeless, stupid melancholy of Russian life.” The book “Across Rus'” includes essays on what he saw in his past wanderings across the endless country. Gorky seemed to set out to create a register of Russian characters - infinitely diverse, but somehow 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, funny book, – wrote Korney Chukovsky. – Gorky whines and complains the least... And “Childhood” is written cheerfully, in cheerful colors.”.
Under Soviet rule, when it will be impossible to lovingly write about “good” pre-revolutionary childhood, Gorky’s book will become a role model, a clear illustration of how one must be able to see mainly “lead abominations” in the past pre-revolutionary time.
Best stories 1922–1926 (“The Hermit”, “The Tale of Unrequited Love”, “The Tale of the Hero”, “The Tale of the Extraordinary”, “The Killers”), dedicated to his constant theme - Russian characters, are also largely documentary. And above all, the most qualified critics of the mid-20s will appreciate the short “Notes from a Diary. Memoirs" (1923–1924): in them Gorky writes mainly about real people under their real names (for example, the essay “A.A. Blok”).
Gorky, who had considered himself a socialist for many years, perceived the October and post-October events of 1917 tragically. In this regard, he did not re-register with the RSDLP and formally remained outside the party. The “Petrel of the Revolution” understands that it is proving disastrous for those “conscious workers” on whom he pinned his hopes.
“...The proletariat has not won, there is internecine carnage all over the country, hundreds and thousands of people are killing each other. ...But what amazes and frightens me most of all is that the revolution does not bear within itself 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 what Gorky wrote shortly after the revolution in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, where his harsh journalistic articles were published under common name"Untimely thoughts." For some period they separated 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 entire country with a network of cultural and educational societies, having gathered in them all the spiritual forces of the country, we will light fires everywhere, which will give the country both light and warmth, help it heal and get back on its feet vigorous, strong and capable of construction and creativity... Only in this way and only in this way will we reach real culture and freedom.”.
A new utopia is being born - universal literacy as the path to freedom. From now on until the end of his life, she will guide the writer’s actions. He believes in uniting the forces of the intelligentsia and reasonable workers. The peasantry is considered a dark, “anti-revolutionary” element. He never saw through the tragedy of the Russian peasantry at the turn of the 20s and 30s.
Gorky's activities in the first post-revolutionary years
In the first post-revolutionary years, Gorky constantly bothered for the unfortunate people who were threatened with execution, which was 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 winning and no courage to die with honor if we resort to such a barbaric and shameful method, which I consider to be the extermination of the country’s scientific forces... I know that you will say the usual words: “ political struggle”, “whoever 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 also not my comrades.”
Trying to save the remnants of the intelligentsia from starvation, Gorky organized private publishing houses and a commission to improve the living conditions of scientists, everywhere meeting fierce resistance from Soviet officials. In September 1920, the writer was forced to leave all the institutions he created, which he announced to Lenin: “I can’t do otherwise. I'm tired of the stupidity".
In 1921, Gorky tried to send the dying Blok abroad for treatment, but the Soviet authorities refused to do so. It is not possible to save those arrested in the so-called Tagantsev case, including Nikolai Gumilyov, from execution. The Famine Relief Committee, created on Gorky's initiative, was dispersed a few weeks later.
Treatment abroad
In 1921, the writer left Russia. He was treated in Germany and Czechoslovakia, and in 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 like a people’s, workers’ power. In the USSR in those years, based on Lenin’s assessment, “Mother” was made a school textbook, convincing everyone that this was exemplary literature. Streets, theaters, and airplanes are named after Gorky. The authorities are doing everything to attract the writer to their side. She needs him as a screen.
Return to Moscow, last years of life
In 1928, Gorky returned to Moscow. He is greeted by crowds of new readers. The writer is immersed in literary and social work: he founded and headed new magazines and book series, took part in writers' destinies, helps some to overcome censorship restrictions (for example, Mikhail Bulgakov), someone to go abroad (Evgeny Zamyatin), and for others, on the contrary, it prevents them from publishing (for example, Andrei Platonov).
Gorky himself continues the multi-volume work “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which he began in Italy - a chronicle of Russian life in the pre-revolutionary decades. A huge number of characters, a considerable number of true details of the era, and behind all this there is one task - to show the double, cowardly, treacherous face of the former Russian intelligentsia.
He becomes closer to Stalin and 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 established political regime for its own purposes (like Hitler’s in Germany) manipulates culture, distorts the very meaning of enlightenment, subordinating it to inhumane goals. In his articles, Gorky stigmatizes the victims of the trials of the 28–30s. With all his knowledge of life, he does not want to understand that the testimony given by “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 and meet with those whom he would like to see. Stalin can no longer allow even episodic, not foreseen by himself, participation of a writer in any literary and social affairs. Gorky actually finds himself under house arrest and in this situation, under unclear circumstances, dies the day before new wave mass repressions.
Literature
D.N. Murin, E.D. Kononova, E.V. Minenko. Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade program. Thematic lesson planning. St. Petersburg: SMIO Press, 2001
E.S. Rogover. Russian literature of the 20th century / St. Petersburg: Parity, 2002
N.V. Egorova. Lesson-based developments on Russian literature of the twentieth century. 11th grade. I half of the year. M.: VAKO, 2005
Alexey Peshkov did not receive a real education; he only graduated from a vocational school.
In 1884, the young man came to Kazan with the intention of studying at the university, but did not enter.
In Kazan, Peshkov became acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.
In 1902, the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature. However, the election was annulled by the government because the newly elected academician “was under police surveillance.”
In 1901, Maxim Gorky became the head of the publishing house of the Znanie partnership and soon began publishing collections in which Ivan Bunin, Leonid Andreev, Alexander Kuprin, Vikenty Veresaev, Alexander Serafimovich and others were published.
The play “At the Depths” is considered the pinnacle of his early work. In 1902, it was staged at the Moscow Art Theater by Konstantin Stanislavsky. Stanislavsky, Vasily Kachalov, Ivan Moskvin, Olga Knipper-Chekhova performed in the performances. In 1903, at the Berlin Kleines Theater, the performance "At the Bottom" with Richard Wallentin in the role of Satin took place. Gorky also created the plays "The Bourgeois" (1901), "Summer Residents" (1904), "Children of the Sun", "Barbarians" (both 1905), "Enemies" (1906).
In 1905, he joined the ranks of the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Party, Bolshevik wing) and met Vladimir Lenin. Gorky provided financial support revolutions of 1905-1907.
The writer took an active part in the revolutionary events of 1905, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and was released under pressure from the world community.
At the beginning of 1906, Maxim Gorky arrived in America, fleeing persecution Russian authorities, where he stayed until the fall. The pamphlets “My Interviews” and the essays “In America” were written here.
Upon returning to Russia in 1906, Gorky wrote the novel "Mother". In the same year, Gorky left Italy for the island of Capri, where he stayed until 1913.
Returning to St. Petersburg, he collaborated with the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda. During this period, the autobiographical stories “Childhood” (1913-1914) and “In People” (1916) were published.
After October Revolution In 1917, Gorky was actively engaged in social activities, participated in the creation of the publishing house "World Literature". In 1921 he went abroad again. The writer lived in Helsingfors (Helsinki), Berlin and Prague, and since 1924 - in Sorrento (Italy). In exile, Gorky more than once spoke out against the policies pursued by the Soviet authorities.
The writer was officially married to Ekaterina Peshkova, née Volzhina (1876-1965). The couple had two children - son Maxim (1897-1934) and daughter Katya, who died in childhood.
Later, Gorky tied himself into a civil marriage with actress Maria Andreeva (1868-1953), and then Maria Brudberg (1892-1974).
The writer's granddaughter Daria Peshkova is an actress at the Vakhtangov Theater.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Maxim Gorky (real name Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod.
His father was a cabinetmaker. In the last years of his life he worked as a manager of a shipping office and died of cholera. Mother came from a family of philistines. Her father once worked as a barge hauler, but managed to get rich and acquired a dyeing establishment. After the death of her husband, Gorky's mother soon arranged her destiny again. But she did not live long, dying of consumption.
The boy who was left an orphan was taken by his grandfather. He taught him to read and write from church books, and his grandmother instilled a love for folk tales and songs. From the age of 11, his grandfather gave Alexey “to the people” so that he could earn his own living. He worked as a baker, a “boy” in a store, a student in an icon-painting workshop, and a cook in a canteen on a ship. Life was very difficult and, ultimately, Gorky could not stand it and ran away “out into the street.” He wandered a lot around Rus' and saw the undisguised truth of life. But in an amazing way he retained his faith in Man and the possibilities hidden in him. The cook from the ship managed to instill in the future writer a passion for reading, and now Alexey tried in every possible way to develop it.
In 1884 he tried to enter Kazan University, but learned that given his financial situation this was impossible.
A romantic philosophy is brewing in Gorky’s head, according to which the ideal and the real Man do not coincide. He becomes acquainted with Marxist literature for the first time and begins to engage in propaganda of new ideas.
Creativity of the early period
Gorky began his writing career as a provincial writer. The pseudonym M. Gorky first appeared in 1892 in Tiflis, in the newspaper “Caucasus” under the first printed story “Makar Chudra”.
For his active propaganda activities, Alexey Maksimovich was under the vigilant supervision of police authorities. In Nizhny Novgorod he was published in the newspapers “Volzhsky Vestnik”, “Nizhny Novgorod Listok” and others. Thanks to the assistance of V. Korolenko, in 1895 he published the story “Chelkash” in the popular magazine “Russian Wealth”. In the same year, “Old Woman Izergil” and “Song of the Falcon” were written. In 1898, “Essays and Stories” were published in St. Petersburg, which received universal recognition. The following year, the prose poem “Twenty Six and One” and the novel “Foma Gordeev” were published. Gorky's fame is growing incredibly; he is read no less than Tolstoy or Chekhov.
In the period before the first Russian revolution of 1905-1907, Gorky conducted active revolutionary propaganda activities and personally met Lenin. At this time, his first plays appeared: “The Bourgeois” and “At the Lower Depths”. In 1904-1905, “Children of the Sun” and “Summer Residents” were written.
Gorky's early works did not have a particular social orientation, but the heroes in them were well recognizable by their type and at the same time had their own “philosophy” of life, which attracted readers unusually.
During these years, Gorky also showed himself as a talented organizer. Since 1901, he became the head of the publishing house "Knowledge", which began to publish best writers of that time. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” was staged at the Moscow Art Theater; in 1903 it was performed on the stage of the Berlin Kleines Theater.
For his extremely revolutionary views, the writer was arrested more than once, but continued to support the ideas of the revolution not only spiritually, but also financially.
Between two revolutions
The First World War made an extremely painful impression on Gorky. His boundless faith in the progressiveness of the human mind was trampled upon. The writer saw with his own eyes that a person, as an individual, does not mean anything at all in war.
After the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907 and due to worsening tuberculosis, Gorky left for treatment in Italy, where he settled on the island of Capri. Here he lived for seven years, studying literary creativity. At this time, his satirical pamphlets about the culture of France and the USA, the novel “Mother”, and a number of stories were written. “Tales of Italy” and the collection “Across Rus'” were also created here. The greatest interest and controversy was caused by the story “Confession,” which contains themes of god-building, which the Bolsheviks categorically did not accept. In Italy, Gorky edited the first Bolshevik newspapers, Pravda and Zvezda, and headed the department for fiction magazine "Prosveshchenie", and also helps to publish the first collection of proletarian writers.
At this time, Gorky was already opposing the revolutionary reorganization of society. He is trying to persuade the Bolsheviks not to carry out an armed uprising, because... the people are not yet ready for radical changes and their spontaneous force can demolish all the best that exists in tsarist Russia.
After October
The events of the October Revolution confirmed that Gorky was right. Many representatives of the old tsarist intelligentsia died during the repressions or were forced to flee abroad.
Gorky, on the one hand, condemns the actions of the Bolsheviks led by Lenin, but on the other hand, he calls the common people barbaric, which, in fact, justifies the brutal actions of the Bolsheviks.
In 1818-1819, Alexey Maksimovich was active in public and political activity, comes out with articles condemning the power of the Soviets. Many of his undertakings are conceived precisely in order to save the intelligentsia of old Russia. He organizes the opening of the publishing house “World Literature” and heads the newspaper “New Life”. In the newspaper, he writes about the most important component of power - its unity with humanism and morality, which he categorically does not see in the Bolsheviks. Based on such statements, the newspaper was closed in 1918, and Gorky was attacked. After the assassination attempt on Lenin in August of the same year, the writer again returned “under the wing” of the Bolsheviks. He admits his previous conclusions are erroneous, arguing that the progressive role of the new government is much more important than its mistakes.
Years of second emigration
Due to another exacerbation of the disease and at the urgent request of Lenin, Gorky again travels to Italy, stopping this time in Sorrento. Until 1928, the writer remained in exile. At this time, he continues to write, but in accordance with the new realities of Russian literature of the twenties. During his last residence in Italy, the novel “The Artamonov Case”, a large cycle of stories, and “Notes from the Diary” were created. Gorky's fundamental work was begun - the novel "The Life of Klim Samgin". In memory of Lenin, Gorky published a book of memoirs about the leader.
Living abroad, Gorky follows with interest the development of literature in the USSR and maintains contacts with many young writers, but is in no hurry to return.
Return to Homeland
Stalin considers it wrong that a writer who supported the Bolsheviks during the revolution lives abroad. Alexey Maksimovich was given an official invitation to return to his homeland. In 1928, he came to the USSR on a short visit. A trip around the country was organized for him, during which the writer was shown the ceremonial side of life. Soviet people. Impressed by the solemn meeting and the achievements he saw, Gorky decided to return to his homeland. After this trip, he wrote a series of essays “Around the Soviet Union.”
In 1931, Gorky returned to the USSR forever. Here he plunges headlong into work on the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin,” which he never manages to finish before his death.
At the same time, he was engaged in enormous social work: he created the publishing house “Academia”, the magazine “ Literary studies", Union of Writers of the USSR, book series about the history of factories and factories, and on the history of the civil war. On Gorky's initiative, the first literary institute was opened.
With his articles and books, Gorky, in fact, paints a high moral and political image of Stalin, showing only the achievements of the Soviet system and hushing up the repressions of the country's leadership against its own people.
On June 18, 1936, having outlived his son by two years, Gorky dies under circumstances that are not completely clear. Perhaps his truthful nature prevailed, and he dared to voice some complaints to the party leadership. In those days, no one was forgiven for this.
IN last path The writer was seen off by the entire leadership of the country; the urn with the ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall.
Interesting facts:
On June 9, 1936, the almost deceased Gorky was revived by the arrival of Stalin, who came to say goodbye to the deceased.
Before cremation, the writer's brain was removed from his body and transferred to the Moscow Brain Institute for study.
The name of Maxim Gorky is probably familiar to any Russian person. Cities and streets were named after this writer. Soviet era. 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 at that time in Astrakhan, because his father had to work in the last years of his life in a 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, 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. Once Alyosha was whipped so severely that he was forced into 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 remarried and took her son to live with her. new house 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 spent most of his time on the street, stealing to feed himself, and finding 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 strong desire to 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. Alexei began attending 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 serious depressive state. 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, Alexei was first imprisoned for revolutionary activities. 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 young man to see the living classic.
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 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 Imperial Academy 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 the table chronological events life.
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 while 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.