Maxim Gorky initials. Maxim Gorky - autobiography

Initially, Gorky was skeptical about the October Revolution. However, after several years of cultural work in Soviet Russia (in Petrograd he headed the publishing house "World Literature", interceded with the Bolsheviks for those arrested) and life abroad in the 1920s (Marienbad, Sorrento), he returned to the USSR, where the last years of his life he was surrounded official recognition as a "petrel of the revolution" and "a great proletarian writer", the founder of socialist realism.

Biography

The pseudonym "Gorky" Aleksey Maksimovich invented himself. Subsequently, he told Kalyuzhny: "Don't write to me in literature - Peshkov ...". More information about his biography can be found in his autobiographical stories "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities".

Childhood

Alexey Peshkov was born in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a carpenter (according to another version - the manager of the Astrakhan shipping company I. S. Kolchin) - Maxim Savvatevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Mother - Varvara Vasilievna, nee Kashirina (1842-1879). Gorky's grandfather Savvaty Peshkov rose to the rank of officer, but was demoted and exiled to Siberia "for ill-treatment of the lower ranks", after which he signed up as a tradesman. His son Maxim ran away from his father five times and left home forever at the age of 17. Orphaned early, Gorky spent his childhood in the house of his grandfather Kashirin. From the age of 11, he was forced to go “to the people”: he worked as a “boy” at a store, as a buffet utensil on a steamer, as a baker, studied at an icon-painting workshop, etc.

Youth

• In 1884 he tried to enter Kazan University. He got acquainted with Marxist literature and propaganda work.
• In 1888 he was arrested for his connection with the circle of N. E. Fedoseev. He was under constant police surveillance. In October 1888 he entered as a watchman at the Dobrinka station of the Gryase-Tsaritsyno railway. Impressions from staying in Dobrinka will serve as the basis for the autobiographical story "The Watchman" and the story "For the sake of boredom".
• In January 1889, by personal request (a complaint in verse), he was transferred to the Borisoglebsk station, then as a weigher to the Krutaya station.
• In the spring of 1891 he set off to wander around the country and 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, Samarskaya Gazeta, Nizhegorodsky Leaflet, etc.
• 1895 - "Chelkash", "Old Woman Izergil".
• 1896 - Gorky writes a response to the first cinematic session in Nizhny Novgorod:

• 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 working Marxist circle. Subsequently, the life impressions of this period served as material for the writer's 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 1,000 copies. AI Bogdanovich advised to publish the first two volumes of "Essays and Stories" by M. Gorky, 1200 copies each. Publishers "took a chance" and released more. The first volume of the 1st edition of Essays and Stories was published in 3,000 copies.
• 1899 - the novel "Foma Gordeev", a poem in prose "The Song of the Falcon".
• 1900-1901 - the novel "Three", a personal acquaintance with Chekhov, Tolstoy.

• 1900-1913 - participates in the work of the publishing house "Knowledge"
• March 1901 - "The Song of the Petrel" was created by M. Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod. Participation in the Marxist workers' circles of Nizhny Novgorod, Sormov, St. Petersburg, wrote a proclamation calling for a fight against the autocracy. Arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod. According to contemporaries, Nikolai Gumilyov highly appreciated the last stanza of this poem.

• In 1901, M. Gorky turned to dramaturgy. Creates the plays "Petty Bourgeois" (1901), "At the bottom" (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 - the election of M. Gorky to the honorary academicians of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature.

• 1904-1905 - writes the plays "Summer Residents", "Children of the Sun", "Varvara". Meets Lenin. For the revolutionary proclamation and in connection with the execution on January 9, he was arrested, but then released under pressure from the public. Member of the revolution of 1905-1907. In the autumn of 1905 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party.

• 1906 - goes abroad, creates satirical pamphlets about the "bourgeois" culture of France and the USA ("My Interviews", "In America"). He writes the play "Enemies", creates the novel "Mother". Because of tuberculosis, he settled in Italy on the island of Capri, where he lived for 7 years (from 1906 to 1913). He settled in the prestigious hotel Quisisana. From March 1909 to February 1911 he lived at the Spinola villa (now Bering), stayed at the villas (they have commemorative plaques about his stay) Blasius (from 1906 to 1909) and Serfina (now Pierina) ). On Capri, Gorky wrote "Confession" (1908), where his philosophical differences with Lenin and rapprochement with Lunacharsky and Bogdanov were clearly identified.

• 1907 - delegate to the V Congress of the RSDLP.
• 1908 - the play "The Last", the story "The Life of an Unnecessary Man".
• 1909 - the novels "The Town of Okurov", "The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin".
• 1913 - Gorky edits the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, the art department of the Bolshevik journal Enlightenment, publishes the first collection of proletarian writers. Writes Tales of Italy.
• 1912-1916 - M. Gorky creates a series of stories and essays that compiled the collection "Across Russia", autobiographical novels "Childhood", "In People". The last part of the My Universities trilogy was written in 1923.
• 1917-1919 - M. Gorky does a lot of public and political work, criticizes the "methods" of the Bolsheviks, condemns their attitude towards the old intelligentsia, saves many of its representatives from Bolshevik repression and hunger.

Abroad

• 1921 - M. Gorky's departure abroad. A myth developed in Soviet literature that the reason for his departure was the resumption of his illness and the need, at the insistence of Lenin, to be treated abroad. In reality, A. M. Gorky was forced to leave because of the aggravation of ideological differences with the established government. In 1921-1923. lived in Helsingfors, Berlin, Prague.
• Since 1924 he lived in Italy, in Sorrento. Published memoirs about Lenin.
• 1925 - the novel "The Artamonov Case".

• 1928 - at the invitation of the Soviet government and Stalin personally, he makes a trip around the country, during which Gorky is shown the achievements of the USSR, which are reflected in the series of essays "On the Soviet Union".
• 1931 - Gorky visits the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp and writes a laudatory review of his regime. A fragment of the work of A. I. Solzhenitsyn "The Gulag Archipelago" is devoted to this fact.

Return to the USSR

• 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 an order from Stalin - 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 Plants", "History of the Civil War", "Poet's Library", "History of a Young Man of the 19th Century", the journal "Literary Studies", he writes plays "Egor Bulychev and others" (1932), "Dostigaev and others" (1933).

• 1934 - Gorky holds the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, speaks at it with the main report.
• 1934 - co-editor of the book "Stalin's Channel"
• 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, the ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow. Before cremation, the brain of M. Gorky was removed and taken to the Moscow Brain Institute for further study.

Death

The circumstances of the death of Maxim Gorky and his son are considered by many to be "suspicious", there were rumors of poisoning, which, however, were not confirmed. At the funeral, among others, the coffin with the body of Gorky was carried by Molotov and Stalin. Interestingly, among other accusations of Genrikh Yagoda at the Third Moscow Trial in 1938, there was an accusation of poisoning Gorky's son. According to Yagoda's interrogations, Maxim Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, and the murder of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, was his personal initiative.

Some publications blame Stalin for Gorky's death. 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), who were accused of killing Gorky and others.

Family and personal life

1. Wife - Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova (née Volozhina).
   1. Son - Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov (1897-1934) + Vvedenskaya, Nadezhda Alekseevna ("Timosha")
      1. Peshkova, Marfa Maksimovna + Beria, Sergo Lavrentievich
         1. daughters Nina and Nadezhda, son Sergei (they bore the surname "Peshkov" because of the fate of Beria)
      2. Peshkova, Daria Maksimovna + Grave, Alexander Konstantinovich
         1. Maxim and Ekaterina (they bore the surname Peshkov)
            1. Alexey Peshkov, son of Catherine
   2. Daughter - Ekaterina Alekseevna Peshkova (died as a child)
   3. Peshkov, Zinovy ​​Alekseevich, brother of Yakov Sverdlov, godson of Peshkov, who took his last name, and de facto adopted son + (1) Lydia Burago
2. Cohabitant 1906-1913 - Maria Fedorovna Andreeva (1872-1953)
   1. Ekaterina Andreevna Zhelyabuzhskaya (daughter of Andreeva from the 1st marriage, stepdaughter of Gorky) + Abram Garmant
   2. Zhelyabuzhsky, Yuri Andreevich (stepson)
   3. Evgeny G. Kyakist, Andreeva's nephew
   4. A. L. Zhelyabuzhsky, nephew of Andreeva's first husband
3. Long-term life partner - Budberg, Maria Ignatievna

Environment

• Shaikevich Varvara Vasilievna - the wife of A.N. Tikhonov-Serebrov, Gorky's lover, who allegedly had a child from him.
• Tikhonov-Serebrov Alexander Nikolaevich - assistant.
• Rakitsky, Ivan Nikolaevich - artist.
• Khodasevichi: Valentin, his wife Nina Berberova; niece Valentina Mikhailovna, her husband Andrey Diderikhs.
• Yakov Izrailevich.
• Kryuchkov, Pyotr Petrovich - secretary, later, together with Yagoda, races

Russian Soviet writer, playwright, publicist and public figure, founder of socialist realism.

Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in the family of a cabinetmaker Maxim Savvatevich Peshkov (1839-1871). Orphaned at an early age, the future writer spent his childhood in the house of his maternal grandfather, Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin (d. 1887).

In 1877-1879, A. M. Peshkov studied at the Nizhny Novgorod Sloboda Kunavinsky Primary School. After the death of his mother and the ruin of his grandfather, he was forced to leave his studies and go "to the people." In 1879-1884 he was an apprentice shoemaker, then - in a drawing workshop, after - in an icon painting. He served on a steamer that sailed along the Volga.

In 1884, A. M. Peshkov made an attempt to enter Kazan University, which ended in failure due to lack of funds. He became close to the revolutionary underground, participated in illegal populist circles, conducted propaganda among the workers and peasants. At the same time he was engaged in self-education. In December 1887, a streak of life failures almost led the future writer to suicide.

A. M. Peshkov spent 1888-1891 wandering around in search of work and impressions. He traveled around the Volga region, the Don, Ukraine, Crimea, South Bessarabia, the Caucasus, managed to be a farm laborer in the village and a dishwasher, work in the fish and salt mines, as a watchman on the railway and as a worker in repair shops. Clashes with the police earned him a reputation for being "unreliable". At the same time, he managed to make the first contacts with the creative environment (in particular, with the writer V. G. Korolenko).

On September 12, 1892, the story of A. M. Peshkov “Makar Chudra” was published in the Tiflis newspaper “Kavkaz”, signed with the pseudonym “Maxim Gorky”.

The formation of A. M. Gorky as a writer took place with the active participation of V. G. Korolenko, who recommended the new author to publishers, corrected his manuscript. In 1893-1895, a number of the writer's stories were published in the Volga press - "Chelkash", "Revenge", "Old Woman Izergil", "Emelyan Pilyai", "Conclusion", "Song of the Falcon", etc.

In 1895-1896, A. M. Gorky was an employee of the Samarskaya Gazeta, where he wrote feuilletons daily under the heading “By the way,” signing with the pseudonym “Yehudiel Khlamida”. In 1896 - 1897 he worked in the newspaper "Nizhny Novgorod Leaf".

In 1898, the first collection of works by Maxim Gorky, Essays and Stories, was published in two volumes. It was recognized by critics as an event in Russian and European literature. In 1899, the writer began work on the novel Foma Gordeev.

A. M. Gorky quickly became one of the most popular Russian writers. He met with,. Neo-realist writers began to rally around A. M. Gorky (, L. N. Andreev).

At the beginning of the twentieth century, A. M. Gorky turned to dramaturgy. In 1902, his plays "At the Bottom" and "Petty Bourgeois" were staged at the Moscow Art Theater. The performances were an exceptional success and were accompanied by anti-government speeches of the public.

In 1902, A. M. Gorky was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature, but by personal order, the election results were annulled. In protest, V. G. Korolenko also refused their titles of honorary academicians.

A. M. Gorky was arrested more than once for social and political activities. The writer took an active part in the events of the Revolution of 1905-1907. For the proclamation on January 9 (22), 1905, with a call to overthrow the autocracy, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress (released under pressure from the world community). In the summer of 1905, A. M. Gorky joined the RSDLP, in November of the same year he met with at a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP. His novel "Mother" (1906) received a great response, in which the writer depicted the process of the birth of a "new man" in the course of the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat.

In 1906-1913, A. M. Gorky lived in exile. He spent most of his time on the Italian island of Capri. Here he wrote many works: the plays "The Last", "Vassa Zheleznova", the novel "Summer", "The Town of Okurov", the novel "The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin". In April 1907, the writer was a delegate to the 5th (London) Congress of the RSDLP. He visited A. M. Gorky on Capri.

In 1913, A. M. Gorky returned to. In 1913-1915, he wrote the autobiographical novels "Childhood" and "In People", since 1915 the writer published the magazine "Chronicle". During these years, the writer collaborated in the Bolshevik newspapers Zvezda and Pravda, as well as in the Enlightenment magazine.

A. M. Gorky welcomed the February and October revolutions of 1917. He began working at the publishing house "World Literature", founded the newspaper "New Life". However, his differences of opinion with the new government gradually increased. The journalistic cycle of A. M. Gorky “Untimely Thoughts” (1917-1918) caused sharp criticism.

In 1921, A. M. Gorky left the Soviet for treatment abroad. In 1921-1924 the writer lived in Germany and Czechoslovakia. His journalistic activity during these years was aimed at uniting Russian artists abroad. In 1923, he wrote the novel My Universities. Since 1924 the writer lived in Sorrento (Italy). In 1925, he began work on the epic novel The Life of Klim Samgin, which remained unfinished.

In 1928 and 1929, A. M. Gorky visited the USSR at the invitation of the Soviet government and personally. His impressions of traveling around the country were reflected in the books "On the Union of Soviets" (1929). In 1931, the writer finally returned to his homeland and launched a wide literary and social activity. On his initiative, literary magazines and book publishing houses were created, book series were published (The Life of Remarkable People, The Poet's Library, etc.)

In 1934, A. M. Gorky acted as the organizer and chairman of the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. In 1934-1936 he headed the Writers' Union of the USSR.

A. M. Gorky died on June 18, 1936 at a dacha in Pod (now in). The writer is buried in the Kremlin wall behind the Mausoleum on Red Square.

In the USSR, A. M. Gorky was considered the founder of the literature of socialist realism and the founder of Soviet literature.

The biography of Maxim Gorky is set out in his works: "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities", or rather, the beginning of his life. Maxim Gorky is the pseudonym of the outstanding Russian writer, playwright Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov. In his creative biography there was another pseudonym: Yehudiel Khlamida.

The nugget talent was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. Usually he is called a proletarian, revolutionary writer for his struggle against the autocracy. The biography of Maxim Gorky was not easy. This will be discussed in this article.

Maxim Gorky was born in 1868. His biography began in Nizhny Novgorod. His maternal grandfather, Kashirin, was a demoted officer due to his harsh treatment of his subordinates. After returning from exile, he became a tradesman, kept a dye workshop. His daughter married a carpenter and left with her husband for Astrakhan. There they had two children.

The eldest of them, Alyosha, fell ill with cholera at the age of four. Because the mother was pregnant with her second child, the father took care of the sick child and contracted the disease from him. Soon he died, and the boy went on the mend. From experiences mother has given birth before term. She decided to return to her parents' house with her children. On the way, her youngest child died.

They settled in her father's house in Nizhny Novgorod. Now there is a museum - Kashirin's house. The furnishings and furniture of those years have been preserved, even the rods with which grandfather flogged Alyosha. He was a tough, quick-tempered character and could whip anyone in anger, even a small grandson.

Maxim Gorky was educated at home. His mother taught him to read, and his grandfather taught him church reading and writing. Despite his temper, grandfather was a very pious man. He often attended church and took his grandson there, usually against his will, by force. Thus, in little Alyosha, a negative attitude towards religion was born, as well as a spirit of opposition, which would later develop into a revolutionary direction in his works.

One day, the boy took revenge on his grandfather by cutting his favorite “Lives of the Saints” with scissors. For which, of course, he received, as it should.

For a short time, Maxim attended the parish school. But due to illness, he was forced to stop studying there. Maxim Gorky also studied at the Sloboda school for two years. Here, perhaps, and all his education. All his life he wrote with errors, which were later corrected by his wife, a proofreader by profession.

Alyosha's mother got married a second time and moved in with her husband, taking her son with her. But his relationship with his stepfather did not work out. One day Alyosha saw him beating his mother. The boy attacked his stepfather and beat him. After that, I had to run away to my grandfather, which, of course, was not the best option.

For a long time, the school of life for Alyosha was the street where he got the nickname "Bashlyk". For some time he stole firewood to heat the house, food, and looked for rags in the landfill. After his classmates complained to the teacher that it was impossible to sit next to him because of the bad smell emanating from him, Maxim Gorky was offended and did not come to the school anymore. He never received his secondary education.

Youth years

Soon, Alexei's mother fell ill with scabies and died. Left an orphan, Alyosha was forced to earn his living. Grandfather by that time was completely ruined. Gorky himself writes well about this time: “... my grandfather told me:

- Well, Lexey, you are not a medal, on my neck there is no place for you, but go to the people ...

And I went to the people. Thus ends the story "Childhood". The adult, independent period of the biography of Maxim Gorky begins. And he was then only eleven years old!

Alexey worked in different places: in a shop as an assistant, as a cook, on a steamer as a crockery, in an icon-painting workshop as an apprentice.

When he was sixteen years old, he decided to try to enter Kazan University. But, to his great regret, he was refused. Firstly, the poor were not accepted there, and secondly, he did not even have a certificate.

Then Alexei went to work at the pier. There he met revolutionary-minded youth, began to visit their circles, and read Marxist literature.

When the young man worked in a bakery, he met the populist Derenkov. He sent income from the sale of products to support the popular movement.

In 1987 Alexei's grandmother and grandfather died. He was very fond of his grandmother, who often protected him from his grandfather's outbursts of anger, told him fairy tales. On her grave in Nizhny Novgorod there is a monument depicting her telling a fairy tale to her beloved grandson Alyosha.

The young man was very worried about her death. He developed depression, in a fit of which he attempted suicide. Alexei shot himself in the chest with a gun. But the watchman managed to call for medical help. The unfortunate man was taken to the hospital, where he was urgently operated on. He survived, but the consequences of this injury will cause him a lifelong lung disease.

Later, in the hospital, Alexei made another suicide attempt. He drank poison from a medical vessel. They managed to pump it out again by washing the stomach. Here the psychiatrists had to examine the young man. Many mental disorders were found, which were later rejected. For suicide attempts, Alexei was excommunicated from church fellowship for four years.

In the 88th year, Alexei, along with other revolutionaries, leaves for Krasnovidovo to conduct revolutionary propaganda. He joins Fedoseev's circle, for which he is arrested. From that moment on, the police began to follow him. At that time he was a laborer, worked as a watchman at the station, then moved to the Caspian Sea, where he began to work among other fishermen.

In the 89th year, he wrote a petition in verse with the aim of transferring him to Borisoglebsk. Then he worked at the Krutaya station. Here Alexei fell in love for the first time with the daughter of the head of the station. His feeling was so strong that he decided on a marriage proposal. He, of course, was denied. But he remembered the girl all his life.

Alexei was fascinated by the ideas of Leo Tolstoy. He even went to see him in Yasnaya Polyana. But the writer's wife ordered the walker to be driven away.

The beginning of a creative career

In 1989, Maxim Gorky met the writer Korolenko and ventured to show him his work. The beginning of the creative biography was very unsuccessful. The writer criticized his Song of the Old Oak. But the young man did not despair and continued to write.

This year, Peshkov goes to prison for participating in the revolutionary youth movement. Coming out of prison, he decides to go on a trip to Mother Russia. He visited the Volga region, Crimea, the Caucasus, Ukraine (where he ended up in the hospital). I traveled, what is now called "hitchhiking" - on passing carts, walked a lot on foot, climbed into empty freight cars. The young romantic liked such a free life. The opportunity to see the world and feel the happiness of liberty - all this is easily the basis of the works of a novice writer.

Then the manuscript "Makara Chudra" was born. In Georgia, Peshkov met the revolutionary Kalyuzhny. He published this work in the newspaper. Then a pseudonym was born - Maxim Gorky. Maxim - in honor of his father, and Gorky - because bitterness was constantly present in his biography.

His works began to be published willingly in newspapers and magazines. Soon everyone was talking about a new talent. By that time, he had already settled down and got married.

Resurgence in fame

In 1998, two volumes of the writer's works were published. They brought him not only great fame, but also trouble. Gorky was arrested for his revolutionary views and imprisoned in a castle in the capital of Georgia.

After his release, the writer settled in St. Petersburg. There he created the best works: "Song of the Petrel", "At the Bottom", "Petty Bourgeois", "Three" and others. In 1902 he was elected an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. The emperor himself highly appreciated the writer's work, despite his struggle with the autocracy. His sharp, direct language, courage, liberty, genius of thought, present in his works, could not leave anyone indifferent. The talent was obvious.

During that period, Gorky continued to take part in the revolutionary movement, attending circles, and distributing Marxist literature. It was as if the lessons of past arrests hadn't had any effect on him. Such courage simply pissed off the police.

Now the famous writer already freely communicated with the idol of youth Leo Tolstoy. They talked for a long time in Yasnaya Polyana. He also met other writers: Kuprin, Bunin and others.

In 1902, Gorky, together with his family, which already had two children, moved to Nizhny Novgorod. He rents a spacious house in the city center. Now there is a museum there. This apartment was a haven for creative people of that time. It gathered and talked for a long time, exchanging new works, such famous people as: Chekhov, Tolstoy, Stanislavsky, Andreev, Bunin, Repin and, of course, his friend Fedor Chaliapin. He played the piano and sang musical pieces.

Here he finished "At the Bottom", wrote "Mother", "Man", "Summer Residents". He did well not only in prose, but also in poetry. But some of them, for example, "The Song of the Petrel", are written, as you know, in blank verse. A revolutionary, proud spirit, a call to struggle are present in almost all of his works.

Last years

In 1904, Gorky joined the RSDLP, and the following year he met Lenin. The writer is again arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. But soon, under pressure from the public, he was released. In 1906, Gorky was forced to leave the country and became a political emigrant.

He lived first in the USA. Then, due to a serious illness that tormented him for a long time (tuberculosis), he settled in Italy. Everywhere he conducted revolutionary propaganda. Concerned authorities recommended that he settle on the island of Capri, where he lived for about seven years.

On the roof of the building of the editorial office of the newspaper "Izvestia"

Here he was visited by many Russian writers and revolutionaries. Once a week, a seminar for novice writers was even held in his villa.

Here Gorky wrote his Tales of Italy. In the 12th year, he traveled to Paris, where he spoke with Lenin.

In 1913, Gorky returned to Russia. He settled in St. Petersburg for five years. Relatives and acquaintances found refuge in his spacious house. Once a woman named Maria Budberg brought him papers to sign and fainted from hunger. Gorky fed her and left her in his house. She would later become his mistress.

With writer Romain Rolland

Gorky, who was active in revolutionary activity, oddly enough reacted negatively to the October coup in the country. He was struck by the cruelty of the revolution, interceded for the arrested whites. After the assassination attempt on Lenin, Gorky sent him a sympathetic telegram.

In the 21st year, Gorky again leaves his homeland. According to one version, the reason for this was the deterioration of health, according to another, disagreement with the policy in the country.

In 1928, the writer was invited to the USSR. For five weeks he traveled around the country, then returned back to Italy. And in the 33rd year he came to his homeland, where he lived until his death.

In the last years of his life, he created the book "The Life of Klim Samgin", striking in its philosophy of life.

In 1934, Gorky held the First Congress of the Writers' Union of the USSR.

The last years he lived in the Crimea. In 1936, Gorky visited his sick grandchildren in Moscow. Apparently, he got infected from them or caught a cold along the way. But his health deteriorated sharply. The writer fell ill, it was clear that he would not recover.

The dying Gorky was visited by Stalin. The writer died on June 18. At autopsy, it turned out that his lungs were in a terrible state.

The coffin of the writer was carried by Molotov and Stalin. Both Gorky's wives followed the coffin. The city of Nizhny Novgorod, where the writer was born, bore his name from 1932 until 1990.

Personal life

Gorky always possessed an enviable masculine strength, according to surviving information, despite his chronic illness.

The first unofficial marriage of the writer was with the midwife Olga Kamenskaya. Her mother, also a midwife, delivered Peshkov's mother. It seemed interesting to him that his mother-in-law helped him to be born. But with Olga they did not live long. Gorky left her after she fell asleep while the author was reading The Old Woman Izergil.

In 1996, Alexey got married to Ekaterina Volzhina. She was the only official wife of the writer. They had two children: Ekaterina and Maxim. Katya soon died. The son died two years before Gorky.

In 1903, he became friends with the actress Maria Andreeva, who left her husband and two children for him. He lived with her until her death. Moreover, there was no divorce from Gorky's first wife.

(ratings: 6 , average: 3,17 out of 5)

Name: Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov
Aliases: Maxim Gorky, Yehudiel Chlamyda
Birthday: March 16, 1868
Place of Birth: Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire
Date of death: June 18, 1936
A place of death: Gorki, Moscow region, RSFSR, USSR

Biography of Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1868. In fact, the writer's name was Alexei, but his father was Maxim, and the writer's surname was Peshkov. My father worked as a simple carpenter, so the family could not be called wealthy. At the age of 7, he went to school, but after a couple of months he had to quit his studies due to smallpox. As a result, the boy received a home education, and he also independently studied all subjects.

Gorky had a rather difficult childhood. His parents died too early and the boy lived with his grandfather , who had a very difficult character. Already at the age of 11, the future writer went to earn his own bread, moonlighting either in a bakery or in a dining room on a steamer.

In 1884, Gorky ended up in Kazan and tried to get an education, but this attempt failed, and he had to work hard again to earn money for his livelihood. At the age of 19, Gorky even tries to commit suicide due to poverty and fatigue.

Here he is fond of Marxism, trying to agitate. In 1888 he was arrested for the first time. He gets a job at an iron job, where the authorities keep a close eye on him.

In 1889, Gorky returned to Nizhny Novgorod, got a job with the lawyer Lanin as a clerk. It was during this period that he wrote "The Song of the Old Oak" and turned to Korolenko to appreciate the work.

In 1891, Gorky set off to travel around the country. In Tiflis, his story "Makar Chudra" is published for the first time.

In 1892, Gorky again went to Nizhny Novgorod and returned to the service of the lawyer Lanin. Here it is already published in many editions of Samara and Kazan. In 1895 he moved to Samara. At this time, he actively writes and his works are constantly printed. The two-volume Essays and Stories, published in 1898, is in great demand and is very actively discussed and criticized. In the period from 1900 to 1901 he met Tolstoy and Chekhov.

In 1901, Gorky created his first plays, The Philistines and At the Bottom. They were very popular, and "Petty Bourgeois" was even staged in Vienna and Berlin. The writer became known already at the international level. Since that moment, his works have been translated into different languages ​​of the world, and he and his works have become the object of close attention of foreign critics.

Gorky became a participant in the revolution in 1905, and since 1906 he has been leaving his country in connection with political events. He has been living on the Italian island of Capri for a long time. Here he writes the novel "Mother". This work influenced the emergence of a new trend in literature as socialist realism.

In 1913, Maxim Gorky was finally able to return to his homeland. During this period, he is actively working on his autobiography. He also works as an editor for two newspapers. Then he gathered proletarian writers around him and published a collection of their works.

The period of the revolution in 1917 was a mixed one for Gorky. As a result, he joins the ranks of the Bolsheviks, despite doubts and torments. However, he does not support some of their views and actions. In particular, regarding the intelligentsia. Thanks to Gorky, most of the intelligentsia in those days escaped starvation and painful death.

In 1921 Gorky left his country. There is a version that he does this because Lenin was too worried about the health of the great writer, whose tuberculosis worsened. However, Gorky's contradictions with the authorities could also be the reason. He lived in Prague, Berlin and Sorrento.

When Gorky was 60 years old, Stalin himself invited him to the USSR. The writer was given a warm welcome. He traveled around the country, where he spoke at meetings and rallies. He is honored in every possible way, taken to the Communist Academy.

In 1932, Gorky returned to the USSR for good. He leads a very active literary activity, organizes the All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, publishes a large number of newspapers.

In 1936, terrible news swept across the country: Maxim Gorky had left this world. The writer caught a cold when he visited his son's grave. However, there is an opinion that both the son and the father were poisoned because of political views, but this has never been proven.

Documentary

Your attention is a documentary film, a biography of Maxim Gorky.

Bibliography of Maxim Gorky

Novels

1899
Foma Gordeev
1900-1901
Three
1906
Mother (second edition - 1907)
1925
The Artamonov case
1925-1936
Life of Klim Samgin

Tale

1908
The life of an unwanted person
1908
Confession
1909
Okurov town
Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin
1913-1914
Childhood
1915-1916
In people
1923
My universities

Stories, essays

1892
girl and death
1892
Makar Chudra
1895
Chelkash
Old Isergil
1897
former people
Spouses Orlovs
Mallow
Konovalov
1898
Essays and stories (collection)
1899
Song of the Falcon (poem in prose)
twenty six and one
1901
Song about the petrel (poem in prose)
1903
Man (poem in prose)
1913
Tales of Italy
1912-1917
In Russia (a cycle of stories)
1924
Stories 1922-1924
1924
Notes from the diary (a cycle of stories)

Plays

1901
Philistines
1902
At the bottom
1904
summer residents
1905
Children of the Sun
Barbarians
1906
Enemies
1910
Vassa Zheleznova (revised in December 1935)
1915
Old man
1930-1931
Somov and others
1932
Egor Bulychov and others
1933
Dostigaev and others

Publicism

1906
My interviews
In America" ​​(pamphlets)
1917-1918
a series of articles "Untimely Thoughts" in the newspaper "New Life"
1922
About the Russian peasantry

If you ask: "What do you think about the work of Alexei Gorky?", then few people will be able to answer this question. And not because these people do not read, but because not everyone knows and remembers that this is the well-known writer Maxim Gorky. And if you decide to complicate the task even more, then ask about the works of Alexei Peshkov. Here, only a few will remember for sure that this is the real name of Alexei Gorky. It was not just a writer, but also an active one. As you already understood, we will talk about a truly popular writer - Maxim Gorky.

Childhood and youth

The years of life of Gorky (Peshkov) Alexei Maksimovich - 1868-1936. They fell on an important historical epoch. The biography of Alexei Gorky is rich in events, starting from his very childhood. The native city of the writer is Nizhny Novgorod. His father, who worked as a manager of a steamship company, died when the boy was only 3 years old. After the death of her husband, Alyosha's mother remarried. She passed away when he was 11 years old. The grandfather was engaged in the further education of little Alexei.

Being an 11-year-old boy, the future writer already "went among people" - he earned his own bread. Whoever he worked: he was a baker, worked as a delivery boy in a store, a dishwasher in a buffet. Unlike the stern grandfather, the grandmother was a kind and believing woman and an excellent storyteller. It was she who instilled in Maxim Gorky a love of reading.

In 1887, the writer will attempt to commit suicide, which he will associate with the difficult feelings caused by the news of his grandmother's death. Fortunately, he survived - the bullet did not hit the heart, but damaged the lungs, which caused problems with the respiratory system.

The life of the future writer was not easy, and he, unable to stand it, ran away from home. The boy wandered a lot around the country, saw the whole truth of life, but in an amazing way he was able to maintain faith in the ideal Man. He will describe his childhood years, life in his grandfather's house in "Childhood" - the first part of his autobiographical trilogy.

In 1884, Alexei Gorky tries to enter Kazan University, but because of his financial situation, he learns that this is impossible. During this period, the future writer begins to gravitate toward the romantic philosophy, according to which the ideal Man does not look like a real Man. Then he became acquainted with Marxist theory and became a supporter of new ideas.

The emergence of a pseudonym

In 1888, the writer was arrested for a short period of time for his connection with the Marxist circle of N. Fedoseev. In 1891, he decided to start traveling around Russia and eventually managed to reach the Caucasus. Alexei Maksimovich was constantly engaged in self-education, saving up and expanding his knowledge in various fields. He agreed to any job and carefully kept all his impressions, they later appeared in his very first stories. Subsequently, he called this period "My Universities".

In 1892, Gorky returned to his native places and took his first steps in the literary field as a writer in several provincial publications. For the first time his pseudonym "Gorky" appeared in the same year in the newspaper "Tiflis", in which his story "Makar Chudra" was published.

The pseudonym was not chosen by chance: he hinted at the "bitter" Russian life and that the writer would write only the truth, no matter how bitter it was. Maxim Gorky saw the life of the common people and, with his temperament, could not fail to notice the injustice that was on the part of the rich estates.

Early creativity and success

Alexey Gorky was actively engaged in propaganda, for which he was under the constant control of the police. With the help of V. Korolenko in 1895, his story "Chelkash" was published in the largest Russian magazine. Following were printed "Old Woman Izergil", "The Song of the Falcon", They were not special from a literary point of view, but they successfully coincided with the new political views.

In 1898, his collection Essays and Stories was published, which was an extraordinary success, and Maxim Gorky received all-Russian recognition. Although his stories were not highly artistic, they depicted the life of the common people, starting from their very bottom, which brought Alexei Peshkov recognition as the only writer who writes about the lower class. At that time, he was no less popular than L. N. Tolstoy and A. P. Chekhov.

In the period from 1904 to 1907, the plays "Petty bourgeois", "At the Bottom", "Children of the Sun", "Summer Residents" were written. His earliest works did not have any social orientation, but the characters had their own types and a special attitude to life, which readers really liked.

revolutionary activity

The writer Alexei Gorky was an ardent supporter of Marxist social democracy and in 1901 wrote "The Song of the Petrel", which called for revolution. For open propaganda of revolutionary actions, he was arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod. In 1902, Gorky met Lenin, in the same year his election as a member of the Imperial Academy in the category of fine literature was canceled.

The writer was also an excellent organizer: from 1901 he was the head of the Znanie publishing house, which published the best writers of that period. He supported the revolutionary movement not only spiritually, but also materially. The writer's apartment was used as a headquarters for the revolutionaries before important events. Lenin even spoke at his apartment in St. Petersburg. After that, in 1905, Maxim Gorky, for fear of arrest, decided to leave Russia for a while.

Life abroad

Alexey Gorky went to Finland and from there - to Western Europe and the USA, where he raised funds for the struggle of the Bolsheviks. At the very beginning, he was met there friendly: the writer made acquaintance with Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. In America, his famous novel "Mother" is published. However, later the Americans began to resent his political actions.

In the period from 1906 to 1907, Gorky lived on the island of Capri, from where he continued to support the Bolsheviks. At the same time, he creates a special theory of "god-building". The point was that moral and cultural values ​​are much more important than political ones. This theory formed the basis of the novel "Confessions". Although Lenin rejected these beliefs, the writer continued to adhere to them.

Return to Russia

In 1913, Alexei Maksimovich returned to his homeland. During the First World War, he lost faith in the power of Man. In 1917, his relations with the revolutionaries worsened, he became disillusioned with the leaders of the revolution.

Gorky understands that all his attempts to save the intelligentsia do not meet with a response from the Bolsheviks. But later, in 1918, he recognizes his beliefs as erroneous and returns to the Bolsheviks. In 1921, despite a personal meeting with Lenin, he failed to save his friend, the poet Nikolai Gumilyov, from execution. After that, he leaves Bolshevik Russia.

Repeated emigration

In connection with the intensification of bouts of tuberculosis and according to Lenin, Alexei Maksimovich leaves Russia for Italy, in the city of Sorrento. There he completes his autobiographical trilogy. The author was in exile until 1928, but continues to maintain contacts with the Soviet Union.

He does not leave his writing activity, but writes already in accordance with new literary trends. Far from the Motherland, he wrote the novel "The Artamonov Case", stories. An extensive work "The Life of Klim Samgin" was begun, which the writer did not have time to finish. In connection with the death of Lenin, Gorky writes a book of memoirs about the leader.

Return to the Motherland and the last years of life

Alexei Gorky visited the Soviet Union several times, but did not stay there. In 1928, during a trip around the country, he was shown the "front" side of life. The delighted writer wrote essays about the Soviet Union.

In 1931, at the personal invitation of Stalin, he returned to the USSR forever. Aleksey Maksimovich continues to write, but in his works he praises the image of Stalin and the entire leadership, without mentioning the numerous repressions. Of course, this state of affairs did not suit the writer, but at that time statements that contradicted the authorities were not tolerated.

In 1934, Gorky's son dies, and on June 18, 1936, Maxim Gorky dies under unclear circumstances. The entire leadership of the country saw off the national writer on his last journey. The urn with his ashes was buried in the Kremlin wall.

Features of the work of Maxim Gorky

His work is unique in that it was during the period of the collapse of capitalism that he was able to very clearly convey the state of society through the description of ordinary people. After all, no one before him described with such detail the life of the lower strata of society. It was this undisguised truth of the life of the working class that won him the love of the people.

His faith in man can be traced in his early works, he believed that a person can make a revolution with the help of his spiritual life. Maxim Gorky managed to combine the bitter truth with faith in moral values. And it was this combination that made his works special, the characters memorable, and made Gorky himself a writer of workers.