The Presidential Library marking the 155th anniversary of the birth of Maxim Gorky

On March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod a son Alexei was born into the family of cabinetmaker Maxim Peshkov. Left an orphan early and having gone through a harsh school of life, he was able to leave a deep mark on Russian literature of the 20th century. Under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky, he became one of the most famous Russian writers and thinkers in the world.

The major electronic collection of the Presidential Library Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), dedicated to the writer, includes his literary works, memoirs, correspondence, memoirs of his contemporaries, photographs and much more. By the anniversary of Alexei Maksimovich Gorky, the collection was entered with new, previously little-known archival materials. This can be seen in the annotations to the documents: in many cases, the use sheets are blank, in some they have only one or two marks. The received archival materials are connected with individual moments of the writer's biography, with his career, in particular, with the history of theatrical productions of his works.

Gorky's works have been translated into many languages, published in huge editions, and the author himself was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. However, at first life did not spoil Alexei Peshkov. The collection In Memory of A. M. Gorky (1938) says that the boy faced the harsh truth of life early. At the age of four, he fell ill with cholera, and his father carefully looked after the child. The son recovered, but the father, having become infected, died. After his death, his mother was forced to return to her parents' house. A harsh life began for the boy in his grandfather's house.

The best friend of the child was the grandmother, who instilled in him a love for his native language, folk tales, poems and songs. The new husband of the boy's mother was cruel, for which he once almost paid with his life: protecting his mother, Alexei rushed at him with a knife. Fortunately, she managed to push her stepfather aside. Soon the mother passed away. At the age of ten, Alexei was given to the people. To feed himself, he worked in a shoe store, as a crockery on a steamer, was a junk collector and was engaged in catching birds. This period of the life of the future writer is described, in particular, in the translated edition Maxim Gorky Abroad (1902). It was at this time that he seeks and finds a new support for himself - books. They entered his life as something the biggest, most important and joyful. The first librarian for the boy was a cook on a steamer.

Peshkov had a dream - to study at Kazan University. However, it did not come true. In Kazan, he realized that a homeless person could not get into the university. Something else was waiting for him - basements of outlying houses, river piers, acquaintances with tramps, students and revolutionaries. He traveled a lot in Russia - from Astrakhan to Moscow, visited South Bessarabia, Crimea and the Caucasus. It was a free university for revolutionary youth, the lessons of which cannot be forgotten. Gradually, Gorky made many acquaintances among the creative intelligentsia and students, who influenced his worldview. The fact that Alexei Peshkov was introduced to new acquaintances as follows: “Self-taught ... from the people”, - it is mentioned in the collection In Memory of A. M. Gorky. Inspired by revolutionary ideas, he began to write poetry and prose.

In September 1892, the newspaper Kavkaz, published in Tiflis, published the story Makar Chudra, signed M. Gorky. Most of the writer's subsequent publications appeared under this pseudonym.

Since 1901, Gorky openly supported the revolutionary movement, for which he was arrested and persecuted more than once. Before the revolution, Gorky became the author of the most famous plays, such as The Philistines, The Lower Depths, Dachniki, Children of the Sun, Vassa Zheleznova, as well as the novels Foma Gordeev, Mother. Reflecting in his works on the transformation of a person, on his exit to a new level of development, the author touched on topics that worried then progressive minds. The revolutionary movement in Russia gave hope for the realization of the dream of a happy future.

Literary activity gave Maxim Gorky income that he could not even dream of before. By 1902, his works had been translated into 16 languages, and his six-volume edition was published. The writer and his wife settled in Nizhny Novgorod. Here, with his money, the People's House was built, a folk theater was opened, he also financed the school named after Fedor Chaliapin.

Impressed by the execution of a peaceful demonstration in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905, Maxim Gorky wrote an appeal calling for the overthrow of the tsar, for which he was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, thanks to the intercession of the Russian and foreign intelligentsia (according to some reports, writer Anatole France and French sculptor Auguste Rodin were among those who stood up for Gorky), he was released a month later. Most clearly, his attitude to the tragedy that occurred is clear from the essay January 9th - an electronic copy of this publication of 1920 is on the library portal. Later, Gorky himself spoke in defence of cultural figures persecuted by the authorities: Mikhail Bulgakov, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Boris Pilnyak, Dmitry Shostakovich and others; at home, he organized a meeting between Stalin and Mikhail Sholokhov, which later helped the future Nobel laureate to avoid arrest.

At the beginning of 1906, Gorky left Russia with his beloved, actress Maria Andreeva (it was she, by the way, who introduced the writer to Vladimir Lenin). The main purpose of the trip was to raise funds for the Bolshevik Party in Russia. The writer settled on the island of Capri in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he lived for seven years (until 1913). Gorky regularly met with journalists, with colleagues in the writer's shop, in particular, he met Mark Twain. Twice - in April 1908 and June 1910 - Lenin came to Gorky in Capri.

At the end of December 1913, Alexei Maksimovich Gorky returned to Russia. Having first settled in St. Petersburg, he edits the Bolshevik newspapers Pravda and Zvezda here, publishes the first collection of works by proletarian writers and continues to actively communicate with Lenin. Lenin's telegrams have been preserved, from which it is clear that he discussed a variety of issues with Gorky. These materials are available on the portal and in the access centers to the resources of the Presidential Library.

Maxim Gorky, being essentially self-taught, paid great attention to the development of public education. He also proved himself as a publisher, having implemented projects that had never been seen before from 1902 to 1921. In order to make books accessible to the illiterate population, the writer achieved the publication of nationwide series and supplements: Cheap Library by the Znanie publishing house, People's Series by the World Literature publishing house, and others. Gorky took the educational function of the book very seriously. He participates in the publication of the Yolka collection for children, illustrated by the best graphic artists of that time. Gorky himself acted not only as the editor of the book, but also as one of the authors (he wrote the stories and fairy tales included in the collection Samovar, Vorobishko, The Case with Yevseyka). Korney Chukovsky, Mikhail Prishvin, Alexei Tolstoy, Valery Bryusov, Alexander Blok, Sergei Yesenin worked in publishing houses under the leadership of Gorky. Even when famine raged in the USSR, Gorky found an opportunity to pay royalties to the authors. Later, in 1934, he also initiated the creation of the Writers' Union of the USSR. The efforts to publish books for the people bore fruit: the Soviet Union became the most reading state in the world.

Gorky followed the experience of children's and youth communes in which homeless children were re-educated, supported advanced pedagogical ideas. With his support, the Pedagogical Poem and other works of the innovative teacher Anton Makarenko, with whom the writer was friends, were published.

Despite the fact that Gorky actively supported revolutionary ideas, he received the October Revolution of 1917 coldly. Due to disagreements with the young Soviet authorities and due to an aggravated illness, Gorky again goes abroad, to Italy, and returns to the USSR only in 1932. He was met with enthusiasm, enthusiastically continued to create and participate in public and state affairs, still closely following the literary process, noting the changes in the language of the young state that were noticeable to a recent emigrant.

The upbringing of the "new man" in practice is impossible without an attentive attitude to language in the book Issues of Language in the Sayings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Academician Marr and Maxim Gorky. In the article About the Language, first published in the Pravda newspaper in 1934, Gorky, in contrast to the futurists, who not so long ago called for throwing the classics off the steamboat of modernity, speaks of the undeniable value of pre-revolutionary classical literature.

Gorky traveled a lot around the country and was active in educational activities, in particular, he founded the journal Literary Study, designed to teach the basics of writing to every Soviet citizen. On his own initiative, the Literary Institute was founded, which still bears the name of Gorky.

The merits of the writer were highly appreciated by the Soviet government. So, even during the life of Gorky, in 1932, Nizhny Novgorod was renamed in his honor. After the writer's death in 1936, many streets, theaters, etc. were also named after him.

#Президентская библиотека #Горький #Горький о языке #История России #Русские писатели

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Коллекция «Максим Горький (1868–1936)».

М. Горький за границей: к десятилетию литературной деятельности. 1892–1902. / И. Е. Порицкий; перевод с немецкого С. Гринберга – [Бендеры]: издание С. Гринберга, 1902.

Памяти А. М. Горького: [сборник] / Союз советских писателей Карельской АССР. - [Петрозаводск]: Каргосиздат, 1938.

9-е января: очерк / Максим Горький. – Петербург: Государственное издательство, 1920.

Телеграммы с вызовом в Москву Горького и о наведении справок об отдельных лицах.

Вопросы языка в высказываниях Маркса, Энгельса, Ленина, Сталина, академика Марра и Максима Горького / П. Г. Иванов; Мордовский педагогический институт. – Саранск: Мордовское государственное издательство, 1934.