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Alexey Peshkov, better known as the writer Maxim Gorky, is a cult figure in Russian and Soviet literature. He was nominated five times Nobel Prize, was the most published Soviet author throughout the existence of the USSR and was considered on a par with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and the main creator of Russian literary art.

Alexey Peshkov - future Maxim Gorky | Pandia

He was born in the town of Kanavino, which at that time was located in the Nizhny Novgorod province, and is now one of the districts of Nizhny Novgorod. His father Maxim Peshkov was a carpenter, and in last years life he managed a shipping company. Vasilievna’s mother died of consumption, so Alyosha Peshkova’s parents were replaced by her grandmother Akulina Ivanovna. From the age of 11, the boy was forced to start working: Maxim Gorky was a messenger at a store, a barman on a ship, an assistant to a baker and an icon painter. The biography of Maxim Gorky is reflected by him personally in the stories “Childhood”, “In People” and “My Universities”.

After an unsuccessful attempt to become a student at Kazan University and arrest due to connections with a Marxist circle future writer became a watchman at railway. And at the age of 23, the young man set off to wander around the country and managed to reach the Caucasus on foot. It was during this journey that Maxim Gorky briefly wrote down his thoughts, which would later become the basis for his future works. By the way, the first stories of Maxim Gorky also began to be published around that time.

Having already become a famous writer, Alexey Peshkov leaves for the United States, then moves to Italy. This did not happen at all because of problems with the authorities, as some sources sometimes present, but because of changes in family life. Although abroad, Gorky continues to write revolutionary books. He returned to Russia in 1913, settled in St. Petersburg and began working for various publishing houses.

It is curious that, despite all his Marxist views, Peshkov perceived the October Revolution rather skeptically. After the Civil War, Maxim Gorky, who had some disagreements with new government, again leaves abroad, but in 1932 finally returns home.

Writer

The first published story by Maxim Gorky was the famous “Makar Chudra,” which was published in 1892. And the two-volume “Essays and Stories” brought fame to the writer. Interestingly, the circulation of these volumes was almost three times higher than what was usually accepted in those years. Of the most popular works of that period it is worth noting the stories “Old Woman Izergil”, “ Former people", "Chelkash", "Twenty six and one", as well as the poem "Song of the Falcon". Another poem, “Song of the Petrel,” has become a textbook. Maxim Gorky devoted a lot of time to children's literature. He wrote a number of fairy tales, for example, “Sparrow”, “Samovar”, “Tales of Italy”, published the first special children's magazine and organized holidays for children from poor families.

Very important for understanding the writer’s work are Maxim Gorky’s plays “At the Lower Depths,” “The Bourgeois” and “Yegor Bulychov and Others,” in which he reveals the playwright’s talent and shows how he sees the life around him. Big cultural significance for Russian literature they have the stories “Childhood” and “In People”, social novels“Mother” and “The Artamonov Case”. Last job Gorky’s epic novel “The Life of Klim Samgin” is considered, which has a second title “Forty Years”. The writer worked on this manuscript for 11 years, but never managed to finish it.

Personal life

The personal life of Maxim Gorky was quite stormy. He married for the first and officially only time at the age of 28. The young man met his wife Ekaterina Volzhina at the Samara Newspaper publishing house, where the girl worked as a proofreader. A year after the wedding, a son, Maxim, appeared in the family, and soon a daughter, Ekaterina, named after her mother. The writer was also raised by his godson Zinovy ​​Sverdlov, who later took the surname Peshkov.

But Gorky's love quickly disappeared. He began to feel burdened family life and their marriage to Ekaterina Volzhina turned into a parental union: they lived together solely because of the children. When little daughter Katya died unexpectedly, this tragic event became the impetus for the severance of family ties. However, Maxim Gorky and his wife remained friends until the end of their lives and maintained correspondence.

After separating from his wife, Maxim Gorky, with the help of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, met the Moscow Art Theater actress Maria Andreeva, who became his de facto wife for the next 16 years. It was because of her work that the writer left for America and Italy. From her previous relationship, the actress had a daughter, Ekaterina, and a son, Andrei, who were raised by Maxim Peshkov-Gorky. But after the revolution, Andreeva became interested in party work and began to pay less attention to her family, so in 1919 this relationship came to an end.

Gorky himself put an end to it, declaring that he was leaving for Maria Budberg, a former baroness and part-time his secretary. The writer lived with this woman for 13 years. The marriage, like the previous one, was unregistered. Last wife Maxima Gorky was 24 years younger than him, and all his acquaintances were aware that she was “having affairs” on the side. One of Gorky's wife's lovers was the English science fiction writer Herbert Wells, to whom she left immediately after the death of her actual husband. There is a huge possibility that Maria Budberg, who had a reputation as an adventurer and clearly collaborated with the NKVD, could be a double agent and also work for British intelligence.

Death

After his final return to his homeland in 1932, Maxim Gorky worked in newspaper and magazine publishing houses, created a series of books “History of Factories and Works”, “Poet’s Library”, “History civil war", organizes and conducts the First All-Union Congress Soviet writers. After unexpected death the writer wilted from his son's pneumonia. During his next visit to Maxim’s grave, he caught a bad cold. Gorky had a fever for three weeks, which led to his death on June 18, 1936. The body of the Soviet writer was cremated, and the ashes were placed in the Kremlin wall on Red Square. But first, Maxim Gorky’s brain was extracted and transferred to the Research Institute for further study.

Later, the question was raised several times that the legendary writer and his son could have been poisoned. By this case passed by People's Commissar Genrikh Yagoda, who was the lover of Maxim Peshkov's wife. They also suspected involvement and even. During the repressions and the consideration of the famous “Doctors’ Case,” three doctors were accused, including the death of Maxim Gorky.

Books by Maxim Gorky

• 1899 - Foma Gordeev
• 1902 - At the bottom
• 1906 - Mother
• 1908 - The life of an unnecessary person
• 1914 - Childhood
• 1916 - In People
• 1923 - My universities
• 1925 - Artamonov case
• 1931 - Egor Bulychov and others
• 1936 - Life of Klim Samgin

Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov (better known as literary pseudonym Maxim Gorky, March 16 (28), 1868 – June 18, 1936) - Russian and Soviet writer, public figure, founder of the style of socialist realism.

Childhood and youth of Maxim Gorky

Gorky was born in Nizhny Novgorod. His father, Maxim Peshkov, who died in 1871, in the last years of his life worked as the manager of the Astrakhan shipping office of Kolchin. When Alexei was 11 years old, his mother also died. The boy was then brought up in the house of his maternal grandfather, Kashirin, a bankrupt owner of a dyeing workshop. The stingy grandfather early forced young Alyosha to “go among the people,” that is, to earn money on his own. He had to work as a store delivery boy, a baker, and wash dishes in a cafeteria. These early years Gorky later described his life in “Childhood,” the first part of his autobiographical trilogy. In 1884, Alexey unsuccessfully tried to enter Kazan University.

Gorky's grandmother, unlike his grandfather, was a kind and religious woman and an excellent storyteller. Alexei Maksimovich himself associated his suicide attempt in December 1887 with difficult feelings about his grandmother’s death. Gorky shot himself, but remained alive: the bullet missed his heart. She, however, seriously damaged her lung, and the writer suffered from respiratory weakness all his life.

In 1888 Gorky was on a short time arrested for connections with the Marxist circle of N. Fedoseev. In the spring of 1891 he set off to wander around Russia and reached the Caucasus. Expanding his knowledge through self-education, getting temporary work either as a loader or as a night watchman, Gorky accumulated impressions, which he later used to write his first stories. He called this period of his life “My Universities.”

In 1892, 24-year-old Gorky returned to his native place and began to collaborate as a journalist in several provincial publications. Alexey Maksimovich initially wrote under the pseudonym Yehudiel Chlamys (which, translated from Hebrew and Greek, gives some associations with “cloak and dagger”), but soon came up with another one - Maxim Gorky, hinting at “bitter” Russian life, and the desire to write only the “bitter truth.” He first used the name “Gorky” in correspondence for the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus”.

Maksim Gorky. Video

Gorky's literary debut and his first steps in politics

In 1892, Maxim Gorky’s first story “Makar Chudra” appeared. It was followed by “Chelkash”, “Old Woman Izergil” (see summary and full text), “Song of the Falcon” (1895), “Former People” (1897), etc. All of them were not so different artistic merit, much with exaggerated pompous pathos, however, they successfully coincided with new Russian political trends. Until the mid-1890s, the left-wing Russian intelligentsia worshiped the Narodniks, who idealized the peasantry. But from the second half of this decade, Marxism began to gain increasing popularity in radical circles. Marxists proclaimed that the dawn of a bright future would be ignited by the proletariat and the poor. Lumpen tramps were the main characters of Maxim Gorky's stories. Society began to vigorously applaud them as a new fictional fashion.

In 1898, Gorky's first collection, Essays and Stories, was published. He was a resounding (albeit completely inexplicable in terms of literary talent) success. Public and creative career Gorky took off sharply. He depicted the life of beggars from the very bottom of society (“tramps”), depicting their difficulties and humiliation with strong exaggeration, intensely introducing feigned pathos of “humanity” into his stories. Maxim Gorky gained a reputation as the only literary exponent of the interests of the working class, a defender of the idea of ​​a radical social, political and cultural transformation of Russia. His work was praised by intellectuals and “conscious” workers. Gorky struck up close acquaintances with Chekhov and Tolstoy, although their attitude towards him was not always clear.

Gorky acted as a staunch supporter of Marxist social democracy, openly hostile to “tsarism.” In 1901 he wrote “Song of the Petrel,” an open call for revolution. For drawing up a proclamation calling for “the fight against autocracy,” he was arrested and expelled from Nizhny Novgorod that same year. Maxim Gorky became a close friend of many revolutionaries, including Lenin, whom he first met in 1902. He became even more famous when he exposed as the author of the “Protocols” Elders of Zion» secret police officer Matvey Golovinsky. Golovinsky then had to leave Russia. When Gorky's election (1902) as a member Imperial Academy by category belles lettres was canceled by the government, academicians A.P. Chekhov and V.G. Korolenko also resigned as a sign of solidarity.

Maksim Gorky

In 1900-1905 Gorky's work became more and more optimistic. Of his works from this period of his life, several plays that are closely related to social issues stand out. The most famous of them is “At the Bottom” (see its full text and summary). Staged not without censorship difficulties in Moscow (1902), it had big success, and was then given throughout Europe and the United States. Maxim Gorky became increasingly close to the political opposition. During the revolution of 1905, he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg for his play “Children of the Sun,” which was formally dedicated to the cholera epidemic of 1862, but clearly hinted at current events. Gorky's "official" companion in 1904-1921 was former actress Maria Andreeva – long-standing Bolshevik, which came after October revolution theater director.

Getting rich thanks to his creative writing, Maxim Gorky provided financial support Russian social democratic workers' party (RSDLP), while supporting liberal calls for civic and social reform. The death of many people during the demonstration on January 9, 1905 (“Bloody Sunday”), apparently, gave impetus to Gorky’s even greater radicalization. Without openly aligning himself with the Bolsheviks and Lenin, he agreed with them on most issues. During the December armed rebellion in Moscow in 1905, the headquarters of the rebels was located in the apartment of Maxim Gorky, not far from Moscow University. At the end of the uprising, the writer left for St. Petersburg. A meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP, chaired by Lenin, took place at his apartment in this city, which decided to stop the armed struggle for now. A.I. Solzhenitsyn writes (“March of the Seventeenth,” ch. 171) that Gorky “in 1905, in his Moscow apartment during the days of the uprising, kept thirteen Georgian vigilantes, and he made bombs.”

Fearing arrest, Alexey Maksimovich fled to Finland, from where he left for Western Europe. From Europe he traveled to the United States to raise funds in support of the Bolshevik Party. It was during this trip that Gorky began to write his famous novel"Mother", which was first released on English language in London, and then in Russian (1907). The theme of this very tendentious work is the joining of the revolution by a simple working woman after the arrest of her son. In America, Gorky was initially welcomed with open arms. He met Theodore Roosevelt And Mark Twain. However, then the American press began to be outraged by loud political actions Maxim Gorky: he sent a telegram of support to union leaders Haywood and Moyer, who was accused of murdering the governor of Idaho. The newspapers also did not like the fact that the writer was accompanied on the trip not by his wife Ekaterina Peshkova, but by his mistress, Maria Andreeva. Strongly wounded by all this, Gorky began to condemn the “bourgeois spirit” in his work even more vehemently.

Gorky in Capri

Having returned from America, Maxim Gorky decided not to return to Russia yet, because he could be arrested there for his connection with the Moscow uprising. From 1906 to 1913 he lived on the Italian island of Capri. From there, Alexey Maksimovich continued to support the Russian left, especially the Bolsheviks; he wrote novels and essays. Together with Bolshevik emigrants Alexander Bogdanov and A. V. Lunacharsky Gorky created an intricate philosophical system entitled " god-building" It claimed to develop from revolutionary myths a “socialist spirituality”, with the help of which the enriched strong passions and with new moral values, humanity will be able to get rid of evil, suffering and even death. Although these philosophical quests were rejected by Lenin, Maxim Gorky continued to believe that “culture,” that is, moral and spiritual values, was more important to the success of the revolution than political and economic measures. This theme lies at the heart of his novel Confession (1908).

Return of Gorky to Russia (1913-1921)

Taking advantage of the amnesty given for the 300th anniversary Romanov dynasty, Gorky returned to Russia in 1913 and continued his active social and literary activity. During this period of his life, he guided young writers from the people and wrote the first two parts of his autobiographical trilogy - “Childhood” (1914) and “In People” (1915-1916).

In 1915 Gorky, together with a number of other prominent Russian writers participated in the publication of the journalistic collection “Shield”, the purpose of which was to protect Jewry allegedly oppressed in Russia. Speaking at the Progressive Circle at the end of 1916, Gorky, “dedicated his two-hour speech to all sorts of spitting on the entire Russian people and exorbitant praise of Jewry,” says progressive Duma member Mansyrev, one of the founders of the Circle.” (See A. Solzhenitsyn. Two hundred years together. Chapter 11.)

During First World War his St. Petersburg apartment again served as a meeting place for the Bolsheviks, but in the revolutionary year of 1917 his relations with them worsened. Two weeks after the October Revolution of 1917, Maxim Gorky wrote:

However, as the Bolshevik regime strengthened, Maxim Gorky became more and more depressed and increasingly refrained from criticism. On August 31, 1918, having learned about the assassination attempt on Lenin, Gorky and Maria Andreeva sent a joint telegram to him: “We are terribly upset, we are worried. We sincerely wish you a speedy recovery, be of good spirits.” Alexey Maksimovich achieved a personal meeting with Lenin, which he described as follows: “I realized that I was mistaken, went to Ilyich and openly admitted my mistake.” Together with a number of other writers who joined the Bolsheviks, Gorky created the World Literature publishing house under the People's Commissariat of Education. It planned to publish the best classical works, however, in an environment of terrible devastation, almost nothing could be done. Gorky, however, started love affair with one of the employees of the new publishing house - Maria Benkendorf. It continued for many years.

Gorky's second stay in Italy (1921-1932)

In August 1921, Gorky, despite a personal appeal to Lenin, could not save his friend, the poet Nikolai Gumilyov, from execution by the security officers. In October of the same year, the writer left Bolshevik Russia and lived in German resorts, completing there the third part of his autobiography, “My Universities” (1923). He then returned to Italy "for treatment of tuberculosis." While living in Sorrento (1924), Gorky maintained contacts with his homeland. After 1928, Alexey Maksimovich came to the Soviet Union several times until he accepted Stalin’s offer to finally return to his homeland (October 1932). According to some literary scholars, the reason for the return was the writer’s political convictions, his long-standing sympathies for the Bolsheviks, however, there is a more reasonable opinion that main role Gorky’s desire to get rid of debts incurred while living abroad played a role here.

The last years of Gorky's life (1932-1936)

Even while visiting the USSR in 1929, Maxim Gorky made a trip to the Solovetsky special purpose camp and wrote a laudatory article about Soviet punitive system, although I received detailed information from camp inmates on Solovki about the terrible cruelties that were happening there. This case is in “The Gulag Archipelago” by A. I. Solzhenitsyn. In the West, Gorky's article about the Solovetsky camp aroused stormy criticism, and he began to bashfully explain that he was under pressure from Soviet censors. The writer's departure from fascist Italy and return to the USSR was widely used by communist propaganda. Shortly before his arrival in Moscow, Gorky published (March 1932) in Soviet newspapers an article “Who are you with, masters of culture?” Designed in the style of Lenin-Stalin propaganda, it called on writers, artists and performers to put their creativity at the service of the communist movement.

Upon returning to the USSR, Alexey Maksimovich received the Order of Lenin (1933) and was elected head of the Union of Soviet Writers (1934). The government provided him with a luxurious mansion in Moscow, which belonged to millionaire Nikolai Ryabushinsky before the revolution (now the Gorky Museum), as well as a fashionable dacha in the Moscow region. During demonstrations, Gorky climbed to the podium of the mausoleum along with Stalin. One of the main Moscow streets, Tverskaya, was renamed in honor of the writer, as well as his hometown, Nizhny Novgorod (which again found its historical name only in 1991, during the collapse Soviet Union). The largest aircraft in the world, the ANT-20, which was built by Tupolev's bureau in the mid-1930s, was named "Maxim Gorky". There are numerous photographs of the writer with members of the Soviet government. All these honors came at a price. Gorky put his creativity at the service of Stalinist propaganda. In 1934, he co-edited a book that celebrated the slave labor built White Sea-Baltic Canal and convinced that in the Soviet “correctional” camps a successful “reforging” of the former “enemies of the proletariat” was taking place.

Maxim Gorky on the podium of the mausoleum. Nearby are Kaganovich, Voroshilov and Stalin

There is, however, information that all this lie cost Gorky considerable mental anguish. The higher-ups knew about the writer’s hesitations. After the murder Kirov in December 1934 and the gradual deployment of the “Great Terror” by Stalin, Gorky actually found himself under house arrest in his luxurious mansion. In May 1934, his 36-year-old son Maxim Peshkov unexpectedly died, and on June 18, 1936, Gorky himself died of pneumonia. Stalin, who carried the writer’s coffin with Molotov during his funeral, said that Gorky was poisoned by “enemies of the people.” Charges of poisoning were brought against prominent participants in the Moscow trials of 1936-1938. and were considered proven there. Former head OGPU And NKVD, Genrikh Yagoda, admitted that he organized the murder of Maxim Gorky on the orders of Trotsky.

Joseph Stalin and Writers. Maksim Gorky

Gorky's cremated ashes were buried near the Kremlin wall. The writer’s brain had previously been removed from his body and sent “for study” to a Moscow research institute.

Evaluation of Gorky's work

In Soviet times, before and after the death of Maxim Gorky, government propaganda diligently obscured his ideological and creative wanderings, ambiguous relations with the leaders of Bolshevism in different periods life. The Kremlin presented him as the largest Russian writer of his time, a native of the people, true friend Communist Party and the father of “socialist realism”. Statues and portraits of Gorky were distributed throughout the country. Russian dissidents saw Gorky's work as the embodiment of a slippery compromise. In the West, they emphasized the constant fluctuations in his views on the Soviet system, recalling Gorky’s repeated criticism of the Bolshevik regime.

Gorky saw literature not so much as a way of artistic and aesthetic self-expression, but as a moral and political activity with the goal of changing the world. Being the author of novels, short stories, autobiographical essays and plays, Alexey Maksimovich also wrote many treatises and reflections: articles, essays, memoirs about politicians (for example, Lenin), about people of art (Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc.).

Gorky himself argued that the center of his work was a deep belief in the value human personality, glorification human dignity and inflexibility in the midst of life's hardships. The writer saw in himself a “restless soul” that strives to find a way out of the contradictions of hope and skepticism, love of life and disgust at the petty vulgarity of others. However, both the style of Maxim Gorky’s books and the details of his public biography they convince: these claims were mostly feigned.

Gorky's life and work reflected the tragedy and confusion of his extremely ambiguous time, when the promises of a complete revolutionary transformation of the world only masked the selfish thirst for power and bestial cruelty. It has long been recognized that from a purely literary point of view, most of Gorky’s works are rather weak. Best quality What is different is his autobiographical stories, where he gives a realistic and picturesque picture of Russian life late XIX century.

The name of Maxim Gorky is probably familiar to any Russian person. Cities and streets were named after this writer. Soviet time. 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, to Nizhny Novgorod. There her father, Vasily Kashirin, ran a dyeing workshop. Alexey spent his childhood in his house (now there is a museum there). Alyosha's grandfather was a rather domineering man, had a stern character, and often punished the boy for trifles, using rods. One day Alyosha was whipped so severely that he was confined to bed for a long time. After this, the grandfather repented and asked the boy for forgiveness, treating him with candy.

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

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

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

Alexey Peshkov did not study anywhere else, never receiving a secondary education. Despite this, he had 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, Alexey 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 engaged in propaganda. Then the young man got a job in a bakery, the owner of which sent income to support revolutionary development in the city.

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

Wanderings

Further, the life of the writer Maxim Gorky was no less difficult; in short, we can say that he suffered from various misfortunes. At the age of 20, 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. 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 go wandering around Rus', visited different cities, in Crimea, the Caucasus, 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 of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, but Emperor Nicholas II personally reversed this decision.

Useful video: Maxim Gorky - biography, life

Moving abroad

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

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

Personal life

M. Gorky had a rather interesting appearance, which can be seen by looking at his photo. He had high growth, expressive eyes, thin brushes 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.

Maxim Gorky is the creative pseudonym of the playwright, writer and prose writer Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov. Gorky's short story shows how a person, without succumbing to circumstances, creates himself.

Biography of Gorky briefly, the most important thing

Alyosha Peshkov was born in 1868 in the town of Kanavino. Left orphaned at the age of 11, he went to work. I read a lot. He traveled, emigrated from the country twice, but always returned. Posted by 61 literary work. Supported revolutionary views. He was treated for tuberculosis all his life. He died in the summer of 1936.

Childhood and adolescence

The father was nursing four-year-old Alyosha, who was sick with cholera. The boy survived, but Maxim Savvatievich himself became infected and died. The writer's mother, having become a widow, returned to Father's house. She married again and entrusted her son to her parents. Grandfather was a strict, stingy and religious man. Grandmother Akulina Ivanovna is the only one who loved little Lyosha. Thanks to her care, Alexey became imbued with love for folk tales and songs. The grandfather taught the boy to read from church books. At the end of the summer of 1879, the writer's mother died. The grandfather went broke and sent his grandson to earn his own bread.

Alexey worked as a “boy” in a shoe store and washed dishes on a ship. He was a bird catcher, sold icons, and repaired fair buildings. took possession creative professions: studied icon painting, was an extra in the theater. When the boy served on the ship, the cook, Mikhail Smury, a retired officer, aroused his interest in reading. Gorky later wrote that resistance environment shapes a person, creates him.

Youth, the beginning of literary creativity

Gorky worked as a watchman when he did not become a student at Kazan University. The first stories were published after a journey in which the writer came to the Caucasus on foot. He emigrated to America in 1906 and moved to the island of Capri in Italy. He wrote books filled with revolutionary ideas.

“Makar Chudra” is the first book in which the author refers to himself as M. Gorky. “Essays and Stories” became popular in the country and abroad. Short tales Alexey wrote for children and organized parties for them.

The playwright demonstrates his attitude to life through thoughtful works that schoolchildren study in the 11th grade: “”, “Physticians”. The final novel in the writer’s biography was the pearl of his work - “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which Gorky wrote for eleven whole years and never finished.

Personal life

In 1896 he married a newspaper proofreader, Ekaterina. Soon they gave birth to two children: a son, Maxim, and a daughter, Katya. The writer raised his godson, who was like a son to him. Love passed quickly. The family was supported by the parental obligations of the spouses. After the death of her daughter, the marriage broke up. Former spouses remained friends.

A friend of Gorky introduced him to Maria Andreeva, a theater actress. Although the lovers did not formalize their relationship, they lived together for 16 years. After the revolution, Maria was an active party worker, there was no time left for her family, and the couple quickly separated.

Studying Russian literature of the 20th century, one cannot help but dwell on Maxim Gorky, a writer and poet who laid the foundation for an entire genre, the so-called socialist realism. Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov - and that was Gorky’s actual name - became a real herald and ideologist of the revolution. Now some people call the writer Alexey Maksimovich Gorky, combining his real name (given at birth) and his pseudonym.

Growing up as a writer and pre-revolutionary life

The writer's childhood and youth were difficult. He was born in 1868 into a poor family, lost his father early, was brought up in his grandfather's house and was never able to receive a systematic education. Officially, he completed only two classes; subsequently he tried to enter a university in Kazan, but was unable to do so due to bureaucratic obstacles. Therefore, with early youth, despite his lively mind and desire for knowledge, he was forced not to study, but to grab literally any job - as a loader, farm laborer, fisherman.

Since the writer had no reason to love the existing society, it is not surprising that even in his youth he began to communicate closely with revolutionary movements. At the beginning of the twentieth century, this created many problems for him - in particular, police surveillance was established over him.

The writer had already gained a certain literary fame; in 1902 he was even awarded honorary title from the Imperial Academy of Sciences. But because political views writer, it was immediately annulled - such an order was given by the indignant emperor himself. Pressure from the authorities led to the fact that in 1906 the writer and his wife went on a long trip to America, then to Italy - and returned to their homeland only shortly before the revolution.

New emigration and final return

Although Gorky himself did not like tsarism, the communist regime also did not inspire confidence in him. For this reason, soon after the revolution, the writer left Russia again. Officially it was a trip for medical treatment, but in reality it was deportation from the country. The writer’s full-fledged return took place only in the 1930s - and he liked the Stalinist USSR. From then on, Gorky actively sang Soviet power in his writings and journals, he carried out educational work and defended proletarian ideology. It is a fact that the writer had a certain influence even on Stalin.

The writer died in 1936 from a cold; his death caused mourning throughout the country. His identity is still controversial today. But the brightest works, such as “Mother”, “At the Lower Depths” and others, are the pearls of Russian literature.