Maksim Gorky







     Maksim, Gorky. Pen-name  of Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov, born 28 March
(16 March,  Old Style) 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod, a city later  to be renamed
Gorky in his honor.
     Early in his life, Gorky's family moved  to Astrakhan, where he father
worked as a shipping agent. His father died when  the young  Gorky was only
five years old, and he was sent to live with his  grandparents.  At the age
of  eight,  he  quit  school  and  was  apprenticed  to various  tradesmen,
including a shoemaker  and an icon painter. When he was 12, Gorky left home
and drifted from job to job.  He worked as a dishwasher on a Volga steamer,
where  a cook taught him  to read. In 1884, he moved to  Kazan, dreaming of
entering Kazan University, but was rejected. Gorky knew that  he would have
to make his own fortune in life:
     I  didn't wait for help  from outside  and I didn't hope for any lucky
chance.... From early on I  understood that man creates his own  opposition
to  the  surrounding  environment. It  was  at  this  point that  he  began
political propaganda work among the workers and peasants.
     In 1889, Gorky attempted suicide, shooting a bullet through his lungs.
The attempt, of course, failed, but Gorky's lungs  were damaged permanently
and led to frequent bouts with tuberculosis.
     Following his suicide attempt, Gorky set off on a two-year trek around
Russia, ranging from Nizhny-Novgorod to Ukraine, the Caucasus, Tbilisi, and
back again. He spent about a year in Tbilisi, working as a blacksmith, then
a railway  clerk  while  at  the same  time  participating  in  underground
revolutionary circles. It was also at this time that Gorky  wrote his first
story, Makar Chudra, which was published in a Tbilisi newspaper.
     During  his  trip, Gorky got to know the  poor  and downtrodden, bums,
thieves, and prostitutes - characters who were to play a major part  in his
writings.
     In 1892, Gorky returned to Nizhny-Novgorod, where he  took a job as  a
reporter for a  provincial newspaper and continued his  writing.  His story
Chelkash in 1893, the  story of  a harbor  thief, was an immediate success,
and by  1895 his works were  appearing in Petersburg publications.  He also
worked  as  a  feuilletonist,  using  the  pen-name  Iegudiil  Khlamida.  A
three-volume  collection of  his  work,  Sketches and  Stories appeared  in
1898-1899. In 1899, he published his first  novel, Foma Gordeyev, the story
of a  masterful barge owner and rising capitalist and his relatively feeble
and intellectual son.
     The the  autumn of 1899,  Gorky  moved to Petersburg,  becoming as the
literary editor  of  Zhizn'.  He  also  served  as  editor of  the  Znaniye
publishing  house  in 1900.  Gorky  also  continued  his  association  with
revolutionary  circles and his revolutionary writings.  In  1901 Gorky  was
arrested  for  publishing the  poem Song  of the  Stormy  Petrel (Pesnay  o
Burevestnike), a call for and a prediction of  a stormy revolution. But  he
was released shortly thereafter.
     Gorky became acquainted with Chekhov, who introduced him to the Moscow
Art Theatre in the spring of 1900.  The theatre company convinced  Gorky to
produce  some  plays for them.  The  first to  be  produced  was The  Petty
Bourgeois (Meshchane). The  play, which portrays the worker as superior  to
the average intellectual, was performed  in  1902,  but  only in a censored
version,  and,  to  discourage  any public demonstrations,  a  squadron  of
mounted Cossocks surrounded the theatre during the premiere.
     Gorky was a popular  and  cricital  success.  He  was  elected to  the
Imperial Academy of  Russian Artists; but, because of  his outspoken views,
the  tsarist authorities  had  the  election  nullified. Chekhov  and other
members of the Academy resigned in protest.
     1902 also saw the  debut of Gorky's second, more influential play, The
Lower  Depths (Na Dne).  In 1904, three  more plays appeared on the  stage:
Summer Folk  (Datchiki), Children of the Sun (Deti Solntsa), and Barbarians
(Varvary).  The  profits  from  Gorky's  plays  went  mainly  to  fund  the
Bolsheviks.
     Gorky  took  an  active  part  in  the  Revolution  of  1905,  writing
anti-tsarist proclamations.  For this, he was arrested and locked up in the
Petro-pavlosky Fortress. But protests from within as well as without Russia
persuaded the authorities to release him.
     In 1906, Gorky left Russia and spent some  time  raising money for the
Bolshevik cause. He visited American, where he  caused a ruckus when it was
learned that the woman traveling with him was not his wife. It  was also in
America  that  Gorky  wrote  the majority  of  his novel The  Mother  (Mat)
(1906-1907). The novel tells the  story of a religious  woman who comes  to
join the socialists after her son's arrest as a political activist.
     Gorky went to live in a villa on the Italian island of Capri, where he
continued to  write.  During  this  time,  he  produced  the novel  Ispoved
("Confession") (1908). This novel touches upon secular issues (the power of
money, the degredation  of the workers, and the need to end the division of
the people into social classes).  But it is primarily a book about religion
and  one  man's  search  for  God. The  hero of the  novel,  Matvei  visits
monasteries, seeking out wise, holy men. These  holy men, however, all turn
out to be  fakes and charlatans. He then meets a truly  wise man who steers
Matvei  to a group known as  "God-builders". This group teaches that  it is
wrong  to raise up individual leaders;  that  man's state degenerated  when
humanity split into  separate egos, apart from the  Whole. When the  people
splintered, God died;  when the people flow together as one, an irresitable
strength  will grow in it, and God will be  resurrected. After  leaving the
God-builders,  Matvei,  filled  with  mystic   wonder,   takes  part  in  a
mass-faith-healing,  where hundreds  of  religious marchers  combine  their
psychic energy to give a paralyzed girl the ability to walk.
     Other  works  from  this  period  include  the  plays  The  Last  Ones
(Posledniye)  (1908)  and Vassa  Zheleznova (1910)  as well as  the  novels
Summer (Leto) (1909) and The  Life  of Matvei Kozhemyakin (1910-1911). Also
Enemies  (1906); The Life of a  Useless Man  (1907); The Confession (1908);
The Last Ones (1908); The Meeting (1910); Strange People (1910).
     The plays Enemies and The Last Ones were banned in Russia.
     In 1913, Gorky published Childhood (Detstvo),  the first volume of his
autobiography. In this  year he also returned to  Russian, taking advantage
of a amnesty afforded  to  political activists. He  settled in  Petersburg,
where he worked on the Bolshevik publications Zvezda and Pravda. In 1915 he
established the journal Letopis, in which other writers - such as Shishkov,
Prishvin,  and Gladkov - also  participated.  The  second  volume  of   his
autobiography,   My   Apprenticeship,   appeared   in   1916.   The   story
Strasti-Mordasti  ("Fat-Faced  Passions"),  said   to  be  one  of  Lenin's
favorites, appeared in 1917.
     Following the Revolution of February 1917, Gorky established the paper
Novaya  Zhizn. Although allied  with  the  Bolsheviks, Gorky thought  their
seizure of power in October of 1917 was premature; and he used his paper to
criticize  various  aspects  of  the Bolshevik program.  Harsh  words  were
exchanged. Gorky accused the Bolsheviks of adventurism  and  dogmatism  and
claimed they  were in  danger of  destroying  Russian culture "in the chaos
arising  from  their  crude  instincts." The  Bolsheviks  accused  Gorky of
betraying the revolution. In the end, Lenin approved the order to shut down
Novaya Zhizn in July 1918.
     Gorky   eagerly  immersed   himself  in  in  the  artistic  frenzy  of
revolutionary Petrograd.  He helped organize the first Workers and Peasants
University, the  Bolshoi  Dramatic  Theatre  in  Petrograd, and  the  World
Literature  Publishing House.  He was of great help  in  sustaining writers
through the troubles and hunger of the Civil War years.
     In  1921,  Gorky  again  went   abroad,  seeking  treatment   for  his
tuberculosis  in  Germany  and  Czechoslovakia.  He  then settled  down  in
Sorrento, Italy. He worked as  editor  of  Dialogue and  produced the final
installment  of his  autobiography,  My  Universities,  and  the novel  The
Artamonov  Business,  about  three generations  of  a  self-made  bourgeois
family.  In addition to the  burly and amoral founder  of  the dynasty, the
three  main characters are Peter, the  eldest son who comes to run the firm
and tries to come to a better understanding of life, but fails; Nikita, the
youngest son, a cripple who becomes a saintly monk  who tells pilgrims what
he  knows to be  beautiful lies; and Tikhon, the old servant of the family.
Following the October Revolution, the firm and house are seized and the now
elderly Peter is left to die a natural death from hunger.
     In  1928,  amid great  public  fanfare,  Gorky returned to  the Soviet
Union. He  admitted that his position concerning the timing of  the October
Revolution  has been  mistaken  and that he had underestimated the creative
forces of the proletariate in revolution.  He was generous in his praise of
Stalin,  collectivization,  and Soviet constrcution projects, including the
Belomorsky Canal. He settled down in Moscow and  set to writing dramas.  He
produced the play Somov and Others (1931). This work takes as its theme the
sabotage of Soviet industry  by engineers; GPU agents show up in the end to
arrest the evil engineers.
     The play Egor Bulychev and Others (1932) is  set  in a provincial town
in February  1917. Social order is falling apart, and Bulychev, the head of
a large  local  firm,  is dying.  He tries various priests, sorcerers,  and
faith-healers - even though he knows they are all frauds - but none of them
of  course,  can  cure  his  cancer.  He   watches  as  the  vultures - his
relatives - all gather, eager to divide up his wealth. He knows  their true
nature; but he also knows that his  own life was built on  fraud  and so he
cannot  bring himself to  denounce  them. As he  dies, he  shouts, "And the
Kingdom perishes where there is  foulness." This work was  a great literary
success.             Nemirovich-Danchenko             called             it
"Youthful...alive...simple...Fearless, wide-souled." A.N. Tolstoy wrote  to
Gorky:
     You  never before rose to such  simplicity  of art....The presentation
makes an  enormouse  and  lofty impression. It is  astonishing that, having
traveled  such a path,  you  have arrived at such a fresh and youthful art.
Another play followed in 1933, Dostigaev and Others.
     In 1932, Nizhny-Novgorod was  renamed "Gorky", and  the writer's  name
was given to countless factories, theatres, ships, kolkhozes, streets, etc.
He  championed the  cause of Socialist Realism as  the best way to tell the
story  of  the  new Soviet man.  Serving as head of the  newly  established
Writers Union, he told its first Congress in 1934:
     A new type of man is springing up  in the Soviet Union. He possesses a
faith in  the  organizing power of reason.  He  is conscious of  being  the
builder  of a  new  world, and  although his conditions  of  life are still
arduous, he knows that it is his arm  and the purpose of  his rational will
to create different conditions  and he  has no grounds for pessimism. Gorky
served  as head of  the Writers Union from 1934  until his death on 18 June
1936. There is some mystery surrounding Gorky's death, which occurred while
he  was  undergoing routine  medical treatment.  Years later,  police chief
Grenrikh Yagoda confessed to having  ordered Gorky's death. But there is no
proof of this, and some say Gorky was killed under orders from Stalin.
     Maksim Gorky was buried by the Kremlin wall in Red Square.