Articles about m bitter. What you couldn't even think about Maxim Gorky

M. Gorky

M. Gorky. Collected works in thirty volumes M., GIHL, 1953 Volume 27. Articles, reports, speeches, greetings (1933-1936) The question of the topics of children's books is, of course, the question of the line of social education of children. In our country, to educate means to revolutionize, that is, to free the child’s thinking from the technical skills of thought foreseen by the past of his grandfathers and fathers, from its delusions, which are based on the centuries-old experience of conservative life, built on the class struggle and on the desire of units for self-defense, to the assertion of individualism and nationalism as "eternal" forms and laws of social existence. It is necessary to arrange the education of children in such a way that from an early age, even at games, they decisively break away from the conscious and unconscious attraction to the past - from this it becomes clear that it is necessary to reveal the processes of the past to the children. This is unattainable through acquaintance only with facts, ideas, theories, this can only be achieved by stories about labor processes, about how these processes created facts and how concepts, ideas, theories flowed from facts. It must be shown that freedom of thought is possible only with complete freedom of labor activity, which absolutely did not find and does not find a place in the conditions of the capitalist system of society and is obligatory for everyone under the socialist system. We should not forget about the difference in the impact on thought of facts and processes. This happens not only in everyday life, but also in science, where the so-called "firmly established facts" often play a conservative role, keep thought captive to "evidence" and thereby delay the pace and freedom. cognitive process. Very often "truth" - an instrument of knowledge, its temporary starting point - expresses the personal conscious or instinctive desire of the "producer" of truth for peace, for power over minds and, rejecting criticism, is taught as an unshakable, "eternal" law, as "faith ". It is entirely possible that the hypothesis of "entropy" - the attraction of energy to rest - is only an expression of the desire of a tired thought to rest, to calm down. So is the doctrine of "supercompleteness" - that the physiological defects of the body are allegedly compensated for by an increase in intellectual abilities, -- is a doctrine, the main idea of ​​which, being transferred to the field of sociology, would justify the shameful deformities of social relations, as Malthus and many other bourgeois thinkers tried to justify them. All of them relied on facts, but only Marx brilliantly revealed the processes of creation of facts, only he clearly and indisputably showed that the main cause tragic life and all the suffering of mankind was the gap between the smart working hand and the smart head. Oliver Lodge, a biologist, in his youth a materialist, in his old age a mystic, in one of his first books argued that thinking arose from the sensation of pain, as a chemical reaction of a nerve cell to shocks and blows from the outside world. Prolonged and continuous collisions of some primitive organism with its environment created a neuro-cerebral sensory, which later developed as touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell, and, finally, in the ancient ancestor of man grew into the instinct of self-preservation, prompted him the need to arm in order to fight against phenomena that threaten his health and life. At some ancient stage of development, humans were no more "social" than wolves are today. But a relative of the ape, man, developed his forelimbs more skillfully, and these clever hands of his, it is they who are the force that, having singled out man from the environment of animals, contributed to the rapid growth of his thought and finally organized him as he is. in our day: the most skillful master of processing metals into the most precise instruments, apparatuses, machines, the most talented pianist, the surgeon who works miracles, etc. The foregoing does not at all diminish the power of the influence of social relations on the growth and development of thought, but this is a later moment. We need to show the kids historical man emanating from the "darkness of ages" and at the very beginning of his semi-conscious labor processes; it is necessary that children have some idea of ​​the paths that have been traversed from the inventor of the stone ax to Stephenson and Diesel, from the creator of a fairy tale, which was a fantastic hypothesis, to the great teachings of Marx, which showed us a wide and straight road to the bright future of working mankind. Entering the new world, the world of free, technically facilitated labor and a classless society, children should know how enormous is the importance of physical labor, how it changes not only the forms, but also the qualities of matter, how, mastering its elemental forces, it creates a "second nature ". It is undeniable that thinking is nothing but a reflection in the human brain of an objective, real existing world matter, the most amazing and complex product of which is the neuro-cerebral tissue of man. But it is necessary that the children know: if freedom labor activity not shy, not limited throughout history by the self-interest and greed of the commanding classes, working humanity would be at a height immeasurably higher than the modern level of "universal culture", built on the bones of the working people, cemented by their blood. Of course, "everything is conditioned," but history is no longer a fetish for us, we build it according to plan. We need to especially sharply emphasize the decisive importance of freedom of labor. In the example of the bourgeois world, we see that capitalism is increasingly resolutely abandoning its "culture", for it is becoming hostile to it. Using the example of the free vital activity of the working energy of the Union of Socialist Soviets, we have an undeniable right to show how quickly, in various ways, and firmly enriches the collective labor of our huge country, how in 15 years the strong foundations of a new culture are laid. Using many examples of crooked, distorted reflections in the bourgeois head of the phenomena of the objective world, we must show the children how and why the correct, natural perception of the world was distorted. Once again: we need to raise to the proper height the idea of ​​a historical working man, a reservoir of energy that organizes and transforms the world, creating its own "second nature" - the culture of the socialists. Man is the carrier of energy that organizes the world, creates a "second nature", culture - man is an organ of nature, created by it, as it were, for its self-knowledge and transformation - this is what children need to be taught. It is necessary that from the age of six or seven they begin to understand the miraculous power of the work of thought, to delve into the meaning of social phenomena, accustomed to the knowledge of their abilities. Therefore, the acquaintance of children with life must begin with stories about the distant past, about the beginning of labor processes and the thought that organizes the work. It should be firmly remembered that the history of the creation of culture began with helpless, illiterate people, completely absorbed in the struggle for their lives against natural phenomena hostile to them and predatory animals. Bourgeois cultural historians usually portray primitive man, a member of the tribal team, a thinker who was disturbed by questions: what is sleep, death, by what force the earth was created, why was man created, etc. But the man of that time lived in continuous physical labor and in a continuous state of self-defense, he was primarily creator of real facts and had no time to think abstractly. "The real turned into the ideal" exactly as the universal mind of Marx guessed it: under the influence of labor processes. Primitive man's methods of self-education were very simple: the man understood that he needed to become stronger than the beast, and, before learning how to defeat the beasts, he allowed this possibility, creating fairy tales about the winners of lions Samson, Hercules. He had no other need to create gods, except for the assumption of the possibility of a fantastic development of his powers and abilities. Assuming this, he was not mistaken: the best masters of primitive crafts were portrayed by him as the winners of the monstrous resistance to his will from nature, matter. Ancient myths they do not know gods who would not be masters: these are skillful blacksmiths, hunters, shepherds, sailors, musicians, carpenters; goddesses are also craftswomen: spinners, cooks, healers. What is called the "religious creativity of primitive people" was, in its essence, artistic creativity, devoid of signs of mysticism. Mysticism invaded when individuality, for one reason or another, breaking away from the collective, began to understand the meaninglessness of its existence and its powerlessness in the face of nature, and especially before the power of the collective, which demanded - could not but demand - equality in labor from the unit. It is extremely difficult to admit that a primitive family and clan tolerated idlers, lazy people and, in general, subjects who would evade participation in the collective labor of obtaining food and protecting life - such people were probably exterminated. A person began to think abstractly and mystically even when he became decrepit, when the stimulus of his thinking was the fear of the inevitability of death. Fear can cause panic in the collective, but the panic cannot be prolonged and does not suppress the biological energy of the collective. Natural catastrophes, for example, the activity of volcanoes, earthquakes, periodic floods have never served as reasons for the migration of peoples. The most pessimistic religion is Hinduism - Vedoism, Buddhism - but, as you know, this does not prevent Hindus from living and multiplying. The Indo-German philosophy of Schopenhauer and Hartmann did not noticeably increase the number of suicides, even in a bourgeois, fragmented society. nonentities. Individualists have learned to utilize their fear by instilling it in working people as the highest wisdom, as superintelligent penetration into secrets inaccessible to the mind. It is highly probable that the first founders of mystical religions, the organizers of cults, the priests were just frightened loafers and decrepit people. Cases of premature fatigue of thought, its fear of its own conclusions, can be traced throughout the history of the bourgeoisie. The closer to our era, the more frequent such cases. The 19th and 20th centuries are especially rich in leaps of scientific-revolutionary and materialistic thought into reactionary and mysticism. Oliver Lodge, Virchow, Mendeleev, Crookes, Richet and many more "men of science" confirm the senile decrepitude of bourgeois society by the facts of their mental fatigue. In order to achieve success in the creation of fiction and educational literature for children, we need a cadre of talented writers with the ability to write simply, interestingly and meaningfully, a cadre of cultural editors with sufficient political and literary training, we need specifications to ensure the timely release and quality of children's books. Such tasks are not resolved in one day. This means that they should be dealt with immediately. It is possible that we will help to some extent in the creation of a new children's book by outlining several topics to be developed:

Geochemical and geophysical understanding of the earth; the history of its formation; metals, minerals, origin of fertile soils. The role of high temperatures, mastering which, science from the main ore - from iron - creates steel and, by alloying with this or that metal, makes more and more resistant, hard metals. Practical conclusions.

His chemistry, gases, especially oxygen and hydrogen; physical action of air currents. Formation of acids, salts, alkalis. Burning, decay. Movement as the basis of all phenomena of physics and chemistry. Our attempts to utilize air currents. Her physical and chemical work. Movement - fall - of water as a source of electricity. These three topics should be worked out in such a way that the young reader will get a sufficiently clear idea, if possible, of all the various processes of change in matter and of the gradual conquest by science of the elemental forces of nature. Further themes need to be developed:

Plant

The history of its development and development by man.

Animal

The history of the growth of organic life from the plant cell to man.

How did humans appear on earth?

Mythological explanations: people came out of the water, from the forest, from animals, generally created by the forces of nature. Church, priestly explanations: the creators of people are the gods. Theory of organic evolution.

How people learned to think

The theory of the formation of a nerve cell. Skin touch and the development of the five senses. The role of similarities and differences in natural phenomena, in changing realities. Pleasant and unpleasant sensations. The instinct of self-preservation. Formation of concepts from observation of similarities and differences. The role of light and darkness in food production. Onomatopoeia as one of the possible stimuli of speech. Creak, roar, thunder, squeal, rustle, rustle, etc.

How did humans master fire?

Sparks during stone processing. Flashes of dry wood when rubbed. (Bushman's explanation: "If a tree is rubbed for a long time, it sweats, smokes and gets angry - it flares up." Coincidence: Slavic words - fire - anger, be angry, fire.) Lightning. The myth of Prometheus.

How people learned to make their work and life easier

invention and application primitive tools labor. Bird's nests as a sample of weaving; the beak of a bird sewing nests could give the idea of ​​a needle, the shell of a bird's egg or a nut - a prototype of a boat, a web - weaving. Observation of moles, field mice, seed-eating birds could lead to the development of cereals.

What was the significance of the development of iron and other metals for people

About sweet, sour, salty, insipid

Glucose, acids, salts, alkalis. Their role in the human body, importance in industry, etc.

About the miraculous in the work of science

Mainly in chemistry. Glass making: opaque matter becomes transparent like air. Refractory, flexible glass, etc. One can talk about the transformation of potatoes into rubber and a whole series of other processes that have a particularly strong effect on the imagination as a force that helps to expand the conceivable limits of the possible.

Thoughts and deeds

Their mutual connection, their contradictions, resolution of contradictions in the processes of labor experience.

About the technology of the future

Solar technology, radio technology, wind power utilization, temperature differences, etc.

Why and how people wrote fairy tales

There is no fantasy that is not based on reality. Existing and Desirable: Beast stronger than a man Man needs to be stronger than the beast. Large animals cannot catch a bird in the air, hence the desire to fly, move quickly on the ground - "boots-walkers", "flying carpet", etc. The fantasy of primitive man as an expression of what he wants, an idea of ​​what is possible for him . Skeletons of pterosaurs and a flying lizard - the "frilled dragon" - as a prototype of the dragon Serpent Gorynych. Fairy tale as a prototype of a hypothesis.

What is religion and why is it invented

Who Created Religions? The mystical gods of the priests were created according to the type of master gods: Vulcan, Thor, Valdur, Weinemeinen, Apollo, Yarila, etc., Bird Angels. The lives of the saints were built on the basis of folk tales. Priests-worshippers, people-theomachist. The oldest evidence of theomachism: Prometheus, Kadevi - the hero of the Estonian "Kalevipoeg", Loki - the enemy of the gods, etc. - the church included theomachists in the image of Satan. Materialism and skepticism of paganism. Mysticism of the Christian Church, its cruelty. The Inquisition, its incessant struggle with heretics and, despite this, chimeras and the devil on the towers of the Paris Cathedral, human buttocks as a drain on the cathedral in Freiburg of the Black Forest, etc. of this kind. Anti-church tales, legends. What has religion given to people?

About how science made people giants

The telescope, television lengthened the vision, the microscope deepened it. Telephone, radio - hearing amplification. Modern ways of moving on land, water, air - legs have grown. Management at a distance - long arms.

The history of the engine from a steam engine to a diesel engine, "what for - nothing?"

The meaning of emptiness in technology. Measure, weight. The value of the accuracy of measurements of space, time, gravity. Consequences of violation of accuracy: collision of trains, the need for accuracy in replacing worn-out parts of machines, poisoning with the wrong weight of medicines, etc.

Two natures

First part. The power of nature over man. Enemies of man: wind, thunderstorm, swamps, cold, heat, river rapids, deserts, predatory beast, poisonous plants, etc. Second part. Man's war with hostile nature and the creation of a new nature. Conquest of wind, water, electricity. Bogs provide man with peat as fuel and fertilizer. Animals and plants in the service of man, etc. The third part. Man's power over nature. Planned, organized labor in a socialist society. Victory over the elements, over illness and death. A particularly important and serious task - give children books about where private property came from and how property has become the main obstacle to human development in our time. This task can be solved by a number of historical books, and sharp political pamphlets, and everyday satire directed against the vestiges of possessiveness in the conditions of the Soviet Land, among adults and children. Before the revolution in Russia there were quite a few books devoted to Western countries, for example, books by Vodovozova. Most of these books were written rather superficially. The life of different countries was given outwardly, the peoples were distinguished by invariable traits of character, - say, the French - humor, the British - calmness, and the Dutch women - headdresses. There was no mention of any class struggle in these books. But still, the books developed in the child an interest in the life and culture of Western countries, encouraged him to learn foreign languages. We must ensure that the best writers and artists give us books and albums dedicated to the peoples of the world. Local historians and members of numerous expeditions scattered throughout the entire Union can best tell about the peoples of the USSR. They will show us the national way of life in the process of its change and development, they will bring up internationalism in children. IN the highest degree it is important to involve in the creation of these books and representatives of the national peoples - in particular, students studying in general universities and technical colleges, as well as in the institutes of the peoples of the North and East. In general, we need to build all literature for children on a completely new principle that opens up the broadest prospects for figurative scientific and artistic thinking; this principle can be formulated as follows: in human society, a struggle is flaring up for the liberation of the labor energy of the working masses from the yoke of property, from the power of the capitalists, a struggle for the transformation of the physical energy of people into the energy of the mind - intellectual, - the struggle for power over the forces of nature , for the health and longevity of working mankind, for its worldwide unity and for the free, varied, unlimited development of its abilities and talents. It is this principle that should be the basis of all literature for children and every book, starting with books for children. younger age. We must remember that there are no more fantastic tales that are not justified by labor and science, and that children should be given fairy tales based on the demands and hypotheses of modern scientific thought. Children must learn not only to count and measure, but also to imagine and foresee. It must not be forgotten that the unarmed imagination of ancient people foresaw the possibility for man to fly in the air, to live under water, to intensify motion on earth without limit, to transform matter, etc. Today, fantasy and imagination can be based on the real data of scientific experience and this limitlessly increase the creative power of the mind. We see among our inventors - people who, having little knowledge of mechanics, create right ideas new machines, machines, devices. We must call on science to help the imagination of children, we must teach children to think about the future. The strength of Vladimir Ilyich and his disciples is hidden precisely in their amazing ability to foresee the future. In our literature there should not be a sharp distinction between fiction and non-fiction books. How to achieve this? How to make an enlightening book effective and emotional? First of all - and again! - our book on the achievements of science and technology should not only give the final results of human thought and experience, but introduce the reader into the very process of research work, showing gradually the overcoming of difficulties and the search for the right method. Science and technology should be portrayed not as a warehouse of ready-made discoveries and inventions, but as an arena of struggle, where a concrete living person overcomes the resistance of material and tradition. The authors of such a book can and should be the best scientists, and not impersonal middlemen-compilers, ready to concoct an essay, an article or a whole treatise commissioned by any publishing house and on any topic. Soviet reality, which drives out intermediaries from industry, must also drive them out of the realm of literature. Only with the direct participation of genuine scientists and writers of high verbal technique can we undertake the publication of books devoted to the artistic popularization of scientific knowledge. The bold and successful experience of several authors who have created books for children and youth about the prospects of our construction: Ilyin - "The Story of the Great Plan", Paustovsky - "Kara-Bugaz", etc. - convinces us that with children it is possible speak simply and excitingly, without any didactics, on the most serious topics. Simplicity and clarity of style are achieved not by degrading literary quality, but by genuine craftsmanship. An author going into children's literature must take into account all the features of the reader's age. Otherwise, he will end up with a book devoid of an address, not needed by either a child or an adult. Along with writers, masters of the word, children's literature must be able to use a rich life experience"experienced people" - hunters, sailors, engineers, pilots, agronomists, MTS workers, etc. Books by people of various professions perfectly acquaint the child with the specific situation of our construction and struggle, with all the diverse Soviet reality. It goes without saying that only a rough scheme of work has been outlined here and that it must be carefully and thoroughly considered, for which a group of young scientists and writers should be immediately organized.

NOTES

The twenty-seventh volume includes articles, reports, speeches, greetings written and delivered by M. Gorky in 1933-1936. Some of them were included in authorized collections of journalistic and literary-critical works ("Publicistic Articles", edition 2nd - 1933; "On Literature", edition 1st - 1933, edition 2nd - 1935, as well as in the 3rd edition - 1937, prepared for publication during the life of the author) and were repeatedly edited by M. Gorky. Most of the articles, reports, speeches, and greetings included in the volume were published in periodicals and were not included in authorized collections. Articles, reports, speeches, greetings of M. Gorky are included in the collection of works for the first time.

First published simultaneously in the newspapers Pravda, 1933, No 287, October 17, Izvestia of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 1933, No 255, October 17, and Literaturnaya Gazeta, 1933, No 48, October 17. It was included in the second and third editions of the collection of articles by M. Gorky "On Literature". Published according to the text of the second edition of the specified collection, verified with the manuscript and authorized typescript (Archive of A. M. Gorky). ... books by Vodovozova.- We are talking about the three-volume work of E. N. Vodovozova "The Life of European Peoples", which is a geographical and ethnographic essay for youth. -- 106.

General view of Red Square during the funeral of Maxim Gorky. Photo by Emmanuil Evzerikhin. 1936 ITAR-TASS

The Gorky myth, having been formed in its main features even before the revolution, was cemented by the Soviet canon, and then debunked by dissident and perestroika criticism. The true figure of the writer was blurred to absolute indistinguishability under layers of contradictory mythologizations and demythologizations, and a biography full of fascinating episodes successfully replaced his work in the collective imagination. Arzamas collected controversial moments of the biography and work of the tramp writer, the petrel of the revolution, the founder of socialist realism, close friend Lenin, Soviet boss, singer of the White Sea Canal and the Solovetsky camp.

1. Gorky is an insignificant writer

The most famous formulation of this thesis belongs, apparently, to Vladimir Nabokov. "Gorky's artistic talent is not of great value" and "is not without interest" only "as a bright phenomenon of Russian public life”, Gorky is “pseudo-intelligent”, “deprived of visual acuity and imagination”, he “completely lacks intellectual scope”, and his gift is “wretched”. He tends to "flat" sentimentalism
“in the worst case”, in his works there is “not a single living word”, “only ready-made stamps”, “solid molasses with a small amount of soot”. Merezhkovsky spoke no less caustically about Gorky's literary talent:

“It is not worth talking about Gorky as an artist more than two words. The truth about the tramp, told by Gorky, deserves the greatest attention; but poetry, with which, unfortunately, he sometimes considers it necessary to decorate this truth, deserves nothing but condescending oblivion.

Dmitry Merezhkovsky. "Chekhov and Gorky" (1906)

Another recognized bearer of high literary taste, I. A. Bunin, directly wrote about the “unprecedented undeservedness” of Gorky’s world fame (“Gorky”, 1936), accusing him of almost falsifying his own tramp biography.

Stepan Wanderer, Leonid Andreev, Maxim Gorky, Nikolai Teleshov, Fyodor Chaliapin, Ivan Bunin, Evgeny Chirikov. Postcard from the beginning of the 20th century vitber.lv

But next to these derogatory characteristics it is easy to put others - directly opposite, breathing love for Gorky and admiration for his talent. According to Chekhov, Gorky is a "real", "roaring" talent; Blok calls him a "Russian artist"; the eternally caustic and reserved Khodasevich writes about Gorky as a writer of the highest standard; and Marina Tsvetaeva notes on the occasion of Bunin being awarded the Nobel Prize: “I don’t protest, I just don’t agree, because Gorky is incomparably more, and more humane, and more original, and more necessary. Gorky is an era, and Bunin is the end of an era ”(in a letter to A. A. Teskova dated November 24, 1933).

2. Gorky - the creator of socialist realism

Soviet literary criticism interpreted the development of realistic art as a transition from critical realism, embodied in the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev and Tolstoy, to socialist realism, which was the official and only artistic method of Soviet art. Chekhov was appointed the last representative of critical realism, and Gorky got the role of "the founder of the literature of socialist realism" and "the founder of Soviet literature" (Great Soviet Encyclopedia).

Gorky's play Enemies (1906) and especially the novel Mother (1906) were recognized as "outstanding works of socialist realism". At the same time, the theory of socialist realism finally took shape only in the 30s, it was then that the genealogy of this “artistic method ... which is an aesthetic expression of the socialist conscious concept of the world and man” was built - with Gorky at the head and with his writing almost 30 years ago in America, the novel "Mother" as the highest example.

Later, Gorky felt the need to justify the fact that the masterpiece of socialist realism was written in America, away from Russian realities. In the second edition of the essay "V. I. Lenin "(1930), the phrase appeared:" In general, the trip was not a success, but I wrote "Mother" there, which explains some of the "blunders", shortcomings of this book.

Maxim Gorky in Italy, 1907 Archive ITAR-TASS

Maxim Gorky in Italy, 1912 Archive ITAR-TASS

Maxim Gorky in Italy, 1924 Archive ITAR-TASS

Today, Gorky researchers discover the ideological spring of the exemplary Soviet novel not at all in Marxism, as Soviet literary criticism wanted, but in the peculiar ideas of god-building that occupied Gorky throughout his life:

Gorky was not fascinated by Marxism, but was fascinated by the dream of a new man and a new God...<…>The main idea of ​​"Mother" is the idea of ​​a new world, and it is symbolic that the place of God the Father in it is occupied by the Mother.<…>The scenes of the meetings of the working circle are sustained in the same quasi-biblical style: they resemble the secret meetings of the apostles.

Dmitry Bykov."Was there Gorky?"

It is noteworthy that, contrary to the iron chronological logic of the Soviet theory of styles, Gorky's last work, The Life of Klim Samgin (1925-1936; the fourth part was not completed), is classified as critical realism in the article of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia on socialist realism.

3. Gorky is a fighter against social injustice

Maxim Gorky at the presidium of the solemn meeting dedicated to the celebration of May 1. Petrograd, 1920 Wikimedia Commons

There is no doubt that Gorky rebelled against the contemporary world order, but his rebellion was not limited to the social sphere. The metaphysical, theomachic nature of Gorky's work was pointed out by his fierce critic D. S. Merezhkovsky:

“Chekhov and Gorky are indeed ‘prophets’, although not in the sense they are thought of, as perhaps they think of themselves. They are "prophets" because they bless what they wanted to curse and curse what they wanted to bless. They wanted to show that man without God is God; but they showed that he is a beast, worse than a beast is cattle, worse than cattle is a corpse, worse than a corpse is nothing.

Dmitry Merezhkovsky."Chekhov and Gorky", 1906

It is known that Gorky was close to the ideas of Russian cosmism, the idea of ​​fighting death as the embodiment of absolute evil, overcoming it, gaining immortality and resurrecting all the dead (N. F. Fedorov’s Common Cause). According to O. D. Chertkova, two days before his death in delirium, Gorky said: “... you know, I just argued with the Lord God. Wow, how he argued! The Gorky rebellion captured the universe, life and death, was called upon to change the world order and man, that is, it aimed much higher than a simple change in the social structure. The direct artistic expression of this is the fairy tale in verse "The Girl and Death" (1892), which caused Stalin's famous resolution: "This thing is stronger than Goethe's Faust (love conquers death)".

4. Gorky is an anti-modernist

The image of Gorky as a champion of realistic tendencies in literature, an opponent of decadence and modernism, the founder of socialist realism crumbles if you look closely at his real place in the literary process Silver Age. Bright romanticism early stories, Nietzscheanism and God-seeking turn out to be consonant with the modernist tendencies of Russian literature at the turn of the century. Annensky writes about the play "At the Bottom":

“After Dostoevsky, Gorky, in my opinion, is the most pronounced Russian symbolist. His realism is not at all the same as that of Goncharov, Pisemsky or Ostrovsky. Looking at his paintings, one recalls the words of the author of The Teenager, who once said that at certain moments the most everyday atmosphere seems to him a dream or an illusion.

Innokenty Annensky."Drama at the Bottom" (1906)

Portrait of Maxim Gorky. OK. 1904 Getty Images/Fotobank

Gorky's mythologization of his life can also be read in a new way in the context of symbolist life-creation, and closeness with many modernists clearly demonstrates the relativity of the traditional Soviet view of Gorky's place in the literary process. It is no coincidence that the subtlest look at the nature of Gorky's art belongs to none other than Vladislav Khodasevich, the most important figure of Russian modernism, who for several years was part of the writer's home circle.

5. Gorky and Lenin

The image of Gorky as a great proletarian writer, canonized by Soviet official culture, necessarily included a legend about the closest friendship that connected the petrel of the revolution with Lenin: the legend had a powerful visual component: numerous sculptures, paintings and photographs depicting scenes of lively conversations between the creator of socialist realism and the proletarian leader.

Lenin and Gorky with fishermen on Capri. Painting by Efim Cheptsov. 1931 Getty Images/Fotobank

In fact, Gorky's political position after the revolution was far from unambiguous, and his influence was limited. Already since 1918, the writer played a somewhat ambiguous role in Petrograd, the reason for which was his very critical essays in relation to the socialist revolution, which compiled the book Untimely Thoughts (the book was not reprinted in Russia until 1990), and enmity with the powerful chairman of the Petrograd Soviet Grigory Zinoviev. This situation eventually led to Gorky's honorary exile, which lasted almost twelve years: there was no place for the singer of the revolution in post-revolutionary reality.

However, Gorky himself had a hand in the creation of this myth, in sentimental colors depicting friendship with Lenin in a biographical sketch about him.

6. Gorky and Stalin

The last period of Gorky's life - after his return to Soviet Russia- just like his entire biography, overgrown with legends, bearing, however, the opposite ideological charge. A special place among them is occupied by popular rumors that Gorky, upon returning, fell under the strict control of the Chekists, that Stalin threatened him and his family and eventually cracked down on the objectionable writer (having previously organized the murder of his son).

But the facts show that Gorky's Stalinism was sincere, and relations with Stalin at least neutral. After returning, the writer changed his mind about the methods of the Bolsheviks, seeing in Soviet reality a grandiose laboratory for remaking a person, which aroused his deep admiration.

“In 1921-1928, Gorky was embarrassed and burdened by the semi-disgraced position of the petrel of the revolution, forced to live abroad in the position of almost an emigrant. He wanted to be where the proletarian revolution was going on. Stalin, who dealt with his foe Zinoviev (I mean not the execution of Zinoviev, but his preliminary disgrace), gave Gorky the opportunity to return and occupy that high position arbitrator on cultural issues, which Gorky could not achieve even under Lenin. The very personality of Stalin, of course, impressed him to the highest degree.<…>Undoubtedly, he flattered Stalin not only in official speeches and writings.

Vladislav Khodasevich."On the Death of Gorky" (1938)

Molotov, Stalin, Mikoyan carry the urn with the ashes of Gorky to the Kremlin wall.

Gorky's funeral. Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich take out an urn with ashes from the House of Unions.

Moscow workers at a mourning meeting on Red Square.Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow

Gorky's funeral. Stalin, Molotov, Kaganovich, Ordzhonikidze and Andreev carry an urn with ashes during a funeral meeting.

The version that Gorky was killed was first voiced during the Third Moscow Trial in 1937: the former People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Genrikh Yagoda, as well as Gorky's secretary Pyotr Kryuchkov and three well-known doctors - Lev Levin, Ignatius Kazakov and Dmitry Pletnev. All this was presented as part of a vast "right-wing Trotskyist" conspiracy. In particular, Yagoda admitted that he had killed Gorky on Trotsky’s personal order, transmitted through Yenukidze: allegedly, the conspirators tried to quarrel Gorky with Stalin, and when nothing came of it, they decided to eliminate him, fearing that after the overthrow of the Stalinist leadership, Gorky, whose opinion was listened to and in the country, and abroad, "will raise his voice of protest against us." Yagoda allegedly ordered Maxim Peshkov to be poisoned for personal reasons, since he was in love with his wife. A little later, versions arise according to which Stalin himself ordered Yagoda to poison Gorky, or even did it himself, sending him a box of chocolates. It is known, however, that Gorky did not like sweets, but loved to give sweets to relatives and guests, so it would be difficult to poison him in this way. In general, no convincing evidence of the version of the murder is known, although a lot has been written about it.

But this version turned out to be profitable: Stalin used it as a pretext for reprisals against the Trotskyist-Zinovievist bloc. Stalin's whistleblowers, in turn, were happy to list Gorky among Stalin's victims.

7. Gorky, Russian people and Jews

Portrait of Maxim Gorky. Painting by Boris Grigoriev. 1926 Wikipedia Foundation

The image of Gorky as the singer of the Russian people will crumble if we take into account that the great proletarian writer treated the Russian peasantry and the countryside with hatred. In Gorky's system of views, the peasant personified all the negative properties of human nature: stupidity, laziness, earthiness, narrow-mindedness. The tramp, Gorky's favorite type, coming from a peasant milieu, towered over her and denied her with his whole existence. The clash of Chelkash, "the old poisoned wolf", "an inveterate drunkard and a clever, bold thief", with the cowardly, weak and insignificant peasant Gavrila vividly illustrates this opposition.

“The semi-wild, stupid, heavy people of Russian villages and villages will die out ... and they will be replaced by a new tribe - literate, reasonable, vigorous people. In my opinion, it will not be a very “nice and sympathetic Russian people”, but it will be - finally - a businesslike people, distrustful and indifferent to everything that is not directly related to its needs.

Maksim Gorky."On the Russian peasantry" (1922)

Merezhkovsky understood Gorky’s attitude towards the peasantry in his own way: “The tramp hates the people, because the people—the peasantry—still unconscious Christianity, while the old, blind, dark one is the religion of God, only God, without humanity, but with the possibility of paths to a new Christianity. , sighted, bright - to the conscious religion of God-manhood. The last essence of being a bosyatstvo is anti-Christianity…” (“Chekhov and Gorky”, 1906).

For Gorky, the Jews served as an example of a nationality in which the desired ideals of reason, diligence and efficiency had already been embodied. More than once he wrote about the Jews in the same terms in which he painted the image of a new person who would replace the Russian peasant. The Jewish theme occupies an important place in the writer's journalism; he always acts as a consistent defender of Jewry and a tough opponent of anti-Semitism:

“In the course of the entire difficult path of mankind to progress, to the light ... the Jew stood in a living protest ... against everything dirty, everything low in human life, against gross acts of violence of man against man, against disgusting vulgarity and spiritual ignorance.”

Maksim Gorky."About the Jews" (1906)

His name was Alexei Peshkov, but he went down in history under the name of Maxim Gorky. The proletarian writer spent half his life abroad, lived in mansions and stood at the origins of "socialist realism". His fate was full of paradoxes.

Tramp rich man

For a long time, Gorky was portrayed by Soviet propaganda as a proletarian writer who came "from the people" and endured deprivation and want. The writer Bunin, however, in his memoirs quotes the dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: “Gorky-Peshkov Alexei Maksimovich. Born in 1868, in a completely bourgeois environment: his father is the manager of a large shipping office; mother is the daughter of a wealthy merchant-dyer. It would seem that this is not significant, the writer's parents died early, and his grandfather raised him, but it is clear that Gorky quickly became one of the richest people of his time, and his financial well-being was fueled not only by fees.

Korney Chukovsky wrote interestingly about Gorky: “Now I remembered how Leonid Andreev scolded Gorky for me: “Pay attention: Gorky is a proletarian, and everything clings to the rich - to the Morozovs, to Sytin, to (he named a number of names). I tried to ride with him in Italy on the same train - where are you going! Broke. There are no forces: he travels like a prince. Poet Zinaida Gippius also left interesting memories. On May 18, 1918, while still in Petrograd, she wrote: “Gorky buys old things for nothing from the “bourgeois” who are dying of hunger.” As you can understand, Gorky was far from a stranger material well-being, and his biography, created already in Soviet time, a well-made myth that still requires a detailed and impartial study.

Patriot Russophobe

Maxim Gorky more than once gave reason to doubt his patriotism. During the years of the Red Terror, he wrote: “I explain the cruelty of the forms of the revolution by the exceptional cruelty of the Russian people. The tragedy of the Russian revolution is played out among "half-savage people". “When the leaders of the revolution are accused of “atrocity” - a group of the most active intelligentsia - I consider this accusation as a lie and slander, inevitable in the struggle of political parties, or - among honest people - as a conscientious error. "A recent slave" - ​​noted Gorky in another place - became "the most unbridled despot."

Political artist

The main contradiction of Gorky's life was the close connection between his literary and political careers. He had an uneasy relationship with both Lenin and Stalin. Stalin needed Gorky no less than Stalin needed Gorky. Stalin provided Gorky with everything necessary for life, the supply of the writer went through the channels of the NKVD, Gorky provided the regime of the "leader" with legitimacy and a cultural platform. On November 15, 1930, the Pravda newspaper published an article by Maxim Gorky: “If the enemy does not surrender, he is destroyed.” Gorky allowed himself to "flirt" with the Soviet authorities, but did not always imagine the consequences of his actions. The title of this article became one of the slogans of the Stalinist repressions. At the end of his life, Gorky wanted to Once again wanted to go abroad, but Stalin could not let him go: he was afraid that the proletarian writer would not return. The "Leader of the Peoples" reasonably believed that Gorky abroad could pose a danger to the Soviet regime. He was unpredictable and knew too much.

Bolshevik who did not accept the revolution

Gorky for a long time positioned himself as a fierce revolutionary, a Bolshevik, who stood at the helm of the cultural revolutionary process, but immediately after the October coup, from the pages of the social democratic newspaper Novaya Zhizn, Gorky fiercely attacked the Bolsheviks: “Lenin, Trotsky and those accompanying them have already been poisoned by the rotten poison of power , as evidenced by their shameful attitude towards freedom of speech, the individual and the whole sum of those rights for the triumph of which democracy fought. Boris Zaitsev recalled that once Gorky told him: “The matter, you know, is simple. A handful of communists. And there are millions of peasants ... millions! .. Those who have more, they will cut out. It's a foregone conclusion. Communists will be slaughtered." They didn’t cut them out, they also found revolvers, and Maxim Gorky, who spoke so negatively about the Bolsheviks and the Communists, became the tribune of the new regime.

godfather godless

Gorky's relationship with religion cannot be called simple. Gorky was characterized by a spiritual quest, in his youth he even went to monasteries, talked with priests, met with John of Kronstadt, became godfather brother Yakov Sverdlov Zinovy. Gorky and Tolstoy ensured the financial emigration of Molokan Christians to the West, but Gorky never became a religious man. In 1929, at the opening of the Second All-Union Congress of militant atheists, the writer said that "in the love that churchmen, Christians preach, there is a huge amount of hatred for man." Maxim Gorky was one of those who signed a letter with a request to destroy the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Something, but Christian humility was alien to Gorky. Back in 1917, in Untimely Thoughts, he wrote: “I have never repented of anything and no one, because I have an organic disgust for this. And there’s nothing for me to repent of.”

Friend Yagoda, homophobe

Gorky was very intolerant towards homosexuals. He openly opposed them from the pages of the Pravda and Izvestia newspapers. On May 23, 1934, he calls homosexuality “socially criminal and punishable” and says that “there is already a sarcastic saying: “Destroy homosexuality - fascism will disappear!”. However, Gorky's inner circle also included homosexuals. If you don't touch creative environment, in which homosexuality was a phenomenon, if not common, then widespread (Eisenstein, Meyerhold), we can say about the deputy chairman of the OGPU Heinrich Yagoda, with whom Gorky was in close contact. Yagoda wrote memos to Stalin stating that “buggers launched recruitment among the Red Army, Red Navy and individual university students”, while he himself was not alien to the condemned phenomenon, arranged orgies at his dacha, and after his arrest, a dildo was found among the belongings of the former deputy chairman of the OGPU.

Defender of writers-Stalinist tribune

Gorky's contribution to the organization literary process the country cannot be denied. He published magazines, founded publishing houses, Gorky's project was the Literary Institute. It was in Gorky's apartment, in the Ryabushinsky mansion, that the term "socialist realism" was coined, in line with which Soviet literature developed for a long time. Gorky also headed the publishing house " world literature” and served as a kind of cultural “window to Europe” for Soviet readers. With all these undoubted merits of Gorky, one cannot but note his negative role in justifying the repressions of the Stalinist regime. He was the editor of the voluminous book "The White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin", published in 1934. In it, Gorky openly does not skimp on praise “... this is an excellently successful experiment in the mass transformation of former enemies of the proletariat ... into qualified employees of the working class and even into enthusiasts of state-necessary labor ... The corrective labor policy adopted by the State Political Administration ... once again brilliantly justified itself. In addition, Gorky, by his mere presence on the Soviet literary Olympus, justified the repressive policy pursued by Stalin. He was worldwide famous writer to which they listened and believed.

Alexei Peshkov, better known as the writer Maxim Gorky, is a cult figure for Russian and Soviet literature. He was nominated five times for the 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 now is one of the districts of Nizhny Novgorod. His father, Maxim Peshkov, was a carpenter, and in the last years of his life he ran a steamship office. Mother Vasilievna died of consumption, so Alyosha Peshkov'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 the store, a barmaid on a steamer, an assistant baker and an icon painter. The biography of Maxim Gorky is reflected by him personally in the stories "Childhood", "In People" and "My Universities".

Photo of Gorky in his youth | Poetic portal

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

Alexei Peshkov, pseudonym Gorky | Nostalgia

Having already become a famous writer, Alexei Peshkov leaves for the United States, then moves to Italy. This happened not 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, for all his Marxist views, Peshkov took the October Revolution rather skeptically. After the Civil War, Maxim Gorky, who had some disagreements with the new government, again went abroad, but in 1932 he finally returned home.

Writer

The first of the published stories by Maxim Gorky was the famous "Makar Chudra", which was published in 1892. And the fame of the writer was brought by the two-volume Essays and Stories. It is interesting that the circulation of these volumes was almost three times higher than 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" became 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 in the Soviet Union and organized holidays for children from poor families.

Legendary Soviet writer | Kyiv Jewish Community

The plays “At the Bottom”, “Petty Bourgeois” and “Egor Bulychov and Others” by Maxim Gorky are very important for understanding the work of the writer, in which he reveals the talent of the playwright 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 work Gorky is considered the epic novel "The Life of Klim Samgin", which has the second name "Forty Years". The writer worked on this manuscript for 11 years, but did not have time to finish it.

Personal life

The personal life of Maxim Gorky was quite stormy. For the first and officially the only time he married at the age of 28. The young man met his wife Ekaterina Volzhina at the Samarskaya Gazeta publishing house, where the girl worked as a proofreader. A year after the wedding, the son Maxim appeared in the family, and soon the daughter Ekaterina, named after her mother. Also in the upbringing of the writer was his godson Zinovy ​​Sverdlov, who later took the name Peshkov.

With his first wife Ekaterina Volzhina | Livejournal

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

With his second wife, actress Maria Andreeva | Livejournal

After parting with his wife, Maxim Gorky, with the help of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, met the actress of the Moscow Art Theater 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 a 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, began to pay less attention to the family, so in 1919 this relationship also came to an end.

With third wife Maria Budberg and writer HG Wells | Livejournal

Gorky himself put an end to it, declaring that he was leaving for Maria Budberg, the former baroness and concurrently 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 her acquaintances were aware that she was "spinning novels" on the side. One of the lovers of Gorky's wife 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 the final return to his homeland in 1932, Maxim Gorky works in the publishing houses of newspapers and magazines, creates a series of books "The History of Factories and Plants", "The Poet's Library", "The History of the Civil War", organizes and conducts the First All-Union Congress Soviet writers. After unexpected death son from pneumonia, the writer wilted. During the next visit to the grave of Maxim, he caught a bad cold. For three weeks Gorky had a fever that 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, the brain of Maxim Gorky was removed and transferred to the Research Institute for further study.

In the last years of life | Digital library

Later, the question was raised several times that the legendary writer and his son could have been poisoned. By this case passed People's Commissar Genrikh Yagoda, who was the lover of Maxim Peshkov's wife. They also suspected involvement and even. During the repressions and consideration of the famous "doctors' case", three doctors were blamed, among other things, for the death of Maxim Gorky.

Books by Maxim Gorky

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

This personality is so grandiose, and the significance of what Gorky accomplished not only in literature, but also in different areas social life is so great that it is impossible to even briefly reflect everything in one article or even in several newspaper materials. That is why we believe that Pravda should not confine itself to Gorky's publications only until March 28, the anniversary day. For us, this entire year is undoubtedly the Year of Gorky.

And this is all the more true, because Alexei Maksimovich was a friend and author of Lenin's Pravda from the first issues of its creation. Of course, the enemies of the great proletarian writer have his closeness to V.I. Lenin, the Bolsheviks always caused a particularly fierce rejection, which has come down to the present day. In our planned publications, this topic will be considered in detail.

And let's start our Year of Gorky with an article by one of the most prominent contemporary researchers of the life and work of the Russian, Soviet classic. For many years, Doctor of Philology, Professor Lidia Alekseevna Spiridonova has been the head of the Gorky Department at the A.M. Gorky of the Russian Academy of Sciences, she is the author of almost five hundred scientific papers and eight monographs.

The article, which we are publishing with slight abridgements, precedes the recently published book by L.A. Spiridonova "The Real Gorky: Myths and Reality". In our opinion, the book is in many respects interesting for modern readers, and you can discuss its controversial provisions (as well as the published article) in your responses.

PERSONALITY and creativity of Gorky have always been surrounded by legends and myths. How can this be explained? First of all - the unusualness of his biography. Tsekhovoi Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov, an orphan and a tramp who graduated from only two classes of a parochial school, worked as an "errand boy", a cook, a loader, a baker's assistant, walked almost all of Rus' on foot, constantly lived under police supervision, became the world-famous writer Maxim Gorky . When he was twenty years old, he was still writing with grammatical errors, and at thirty he woke up famous after the release of the two-volume Essays and Stories. Already in 1899, his works began to be translated into foreign languages, and the portrait of Gorky, written by I. Repin, was in the center of attention of the spoiled St. Petersburg public on Peredvizhnaya art exhibition 1900.

A man who made himself (today they would say: “self made man”) was incomprehensible not only to the general public, but also to people who knew him well. I. Bunin assured that Gorky's autobiographical trilogy was all invented.

K. Chukovsky thought slyly: “As you wish, but I do not believe in his biography. Craftsman's son? Tramp? Did you leave Russia on foot? I do not believe. In my opinion, Gorky is the son of a consistory official, he graduated from Kharkov University and is now - well, at least a candidate for judicial positions.

The harsh life school and the constant work of a restless searching thought eventually formed a genuine intellectual from a semi-literate tramp, who headed the House of Scientists, the House of Arts, the House of Writers, the World Literature publishing house, and in the second half of the 1920-1930s became the organizer of everything cultural process in USSR. Working in the "World Literature" together with renowned professors and writers, K.I. Chukovsky was surprised at his vast knowledge: “... I was convinced that Gorky not only knows better than any of us the darkest nooks and crannies of Russian literary history(knows Voronov, and Platon Kuskov, and Sergei Koloshin), but also understands the “trends”, “trends”, “trends” to the subtleties that make the history of literature history. Byronism, naturalism, symbolism - in general, all kinds of "isms" were thoroughly studied by him.

Gorky, like no one else, constantly found himself at the forefront of a sharp ideological struggle and, in his own words, liked to intervene "in the middle of a fight." It is not surprising that he often got it on the right and on the left. Gets today. Trying to debunk the writer, they recall that D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius and D. Philosophers, who wrote about the “end of Gorky” at the beginning of the 20th century, saw in him the “coming Ham”, V. Khodasevich - an arsonist, introducing “elements of rebellion into the world or mischief”, and K. Chukovsky - General Pful, obsessed with the fanatical idea of ​​collectivism. For I. Bunin and V. Nabokov, he was "an eternal semi-intellectual, a scribbler", and B. Zaitsev assured that the writer had turned into a "Nepman, a suspicious antiquarian, carousing with the Chekists", a philanthropist and a fist.

Let us recall other assessments: the same B. Zaitsev called Gorky the “banner” of a whole generation (“a new man spoke of new people”), K. Chukovsky admitted that he was amazed by his great erudition and understood: in front of him ... “a writer of the greatest culture, the most educated man of his generation." D. Merezhkovsky wrote: “Chekhov and Gorky of the Russian intelligentsia are just on the shoulder. They are her spiritual leaders and teachers, "rulers of thoughts" modern generation Russian intelligentsia".

WHAT DOES IT DO? Young Gorky, who really was a semi-intelligent dropout, acted as the ruler of the thoughts of a whole generation, and when he became an educated person, he turned into a wretched tradesman, a preacher of homegrown Nietzscheanism and permissiveness? The mature master was buried and buried, declaring that he not only ended as a writer, but did not even begin. The answer is simple: Gorky was not forgiven, and still is not forgiven, for his sincere enthusiasm for the ideas of socialism, his connection with the Bolshevik Party.

But even here everything was not easy ...

Realizing that he was self-taught and "bound by the chains of ignorance," Gorky informed F.D. Batyushkov: “... my thoughts and feelings will never balance, they will never come to the same denominator - there is no place for God in my soul. And also I have neither the time nor the desire to achieve inner peace and clarity - I am a wave of the sea, reflecting the rays of the sun and singing about life with praise and anger. (Letters, 1, 275).

IN YOUTH, V. Korolenko, A. Chekhov and L. Tolstoy were the authorities for Gorky. But, learning from them and listening to their advice, he remained a heretic and a romantic who wants to have his say in literature. Collaborating in populist and Marxist publications, the writer, however, did not fully share the views of political orthodoxies and even approved of the tendency to "merge populism and Marxism into one harmonious whole." (Letters, 1, 305). A.P. He wrote to Chekhov about St. Petersburg journalists: “... all these parties of theirs are a matter of little vitality, in which there is much more personal pride of not very talented people than souls inflamed with the desire to build a new life free for a person on the ruins of an old, cramped one” . (Letters 1, 305)…

The revolutionary pathos of the early Gorky was wider than any party framework, and the desire to sing about life "with praise and anger" sometimes brought him closer to the modernists. In letters to A.L. Volynsky, he admits that he really likes the poems of Z. Gippius, in which she declares: "I want what is not in the world." It is characteristic that the poem "Song" mentioned by Gorky was published in the Gippius collection "New People", to which, no doubt, he attributed himself. In the poetry of modernists, as well as in the articles of A.L. Volynsky, he was attracted by "the courage to go against the current", "sadness about the meaning of life and a complaint about its emptiness in our days, a passion for the secrets of life and a lot of beauty and pain, a lot of searching." (Letters, 1, 245).

Gorky's idealism, which over the years turned either into god-building or myth-making, never deprived him of faith in a person capable of rebuilding life on a new just basis. In a letter to I.E. Repin dated November 23, 1899, the writer argued that a person is capable of endless improvement, and his spirit, developing, should lead "to the fusion of intellect and instinct in harmonious harmony." (Letters, 1, 377). At the same time, the philistinism hated by Gorky was portrayed as an obstacle to the spiritual improvement of the individual.

Later, when Gorky gets close to the Bolsheviks and considers himself a member of their party for a while, he will still not give up the freedom to think in his own way. Speaking about his political sympathies in a letter to V.A. Chernov in July 1905, he wrote: “Are you gray-haired? I am very, but still red in places. (Letters, 5, 68). So, half-jokingly, he told a friend about his connections with the Social Democrats (gray-haired) and at the same time about maintaining his own position.

Over the years, Gorky's understanding of the tasks of literature and the mission of the artist changed, but the desire to write about the fundamental issues of the spirit, about the heroic and bright, arousing in people the dream of a different life, remained unchanged. Inspiration was a property of the very nature of the writer. At the very beginning of the 20th century, Gorky felt that “the collapse of that philosophical and ethical basis on which the well-being of the bourgeoisie is based” was taking place (Letters, 2, 217), and proclaimed heroic romanticism as the main principle of life. In the 1930s, when socialist realism arose, the writer would be declared the founder of a new literary movement. But even then Gorky will defend the right to see the world in his own way and portray it accordingly.

A restless and contradictory person, Peshkov did not hesitate to express his “heretical” thoughts to the Bolshevik leaders, admitted more than once that he was a bad Marxist, and understood socialism either according to K. Kautsky, or A. Bogdanov, or according to his own ideas. own ideas about faith and religion. Around November 15 (28), 1906, he wrote to Z. Grzhebin: “Only socialism will free art from external and internal dependence, only in the era of free Humanity will the world see Free Art and artists like gods, always intoxicated by the beauty of life, always full of passion to create” . (Letters, 5, 232). Perceiving life as a ruthless process, Gorky was guided by his own impressions, which arose first in the process of walking around Rus', and then, after “walking” along all the steps of the social ladder, from a tramp and a proletarian to grand dukes and leaders of the revolution. Therefore, he was convinced that socialism is the only way to improve the world and man.

MAIN artistic discoveries of Gorky are associated primarily with the comprehension of Russia and Russian national character. No one else could show the people with such penetration, which he compares with uncontrollable sea ​​element, then with Christ the Wonderworker, then with Ivanushka the Fool, striving to heaven after the unattainable firebird. The poetry of collective labor already resounds in early stories writer. Such is the symphony labor day in the descriptions of the seaside harbor (“Chelkash”), the port of Feodosia in “Konovalov”, work on a barge in “Foma Gordeev”. And in the final work, The Life of Klim Samgin, Gorky depicts the process of enlightenment of the people, which from a blind crowd turns into a powerful organized force. Penetrating into the very depths of people's self-consciousness, the writer showed the soul of a working man striving for a new life.

The world of Gorky's artistic images is sometimes colorfully romantic, sometimes ruthlessly rude, always unique, resonant and alive. A person in Gorky's works is like a child in the palm of the earth, "clothed in a warm dusk, covered with a starry sky" (Letters, 9, 333). The writer hears both the powerful symphony of labor and the rustle of a blade of grass crushed by the human body.

A. Remizov wrote: “In terms of the trepidation of the word, Gorky goes along with Chekhov, who, with his quiet bitterness, is no less necessary for human life, like Gorky’s proud consciousness of a person, without which there is nothing to breathe. Gorky's word is from the whole rebellious heart.

The writer preached "the activity of the soul", sang of exploits and a hero capable of rebuilding the world according to the laws of justice and equality. A fanatic of collectivism, he believed that people of labor, united by a great idea, can create miracles that only the Creator can do. God the people symbolizes for him the entire multi-million Russian people, the “synthetic personality” (Dostoevsky’s expression) of the whole people. At the same time, the universal in Gorky is always closely connected with the national. Even the story "Mother", according to K. Kautsky, teaches understanding of "foreign social conditions" due to its life authenticity. On November 2 (15), 1907, he wrote to Gorky that "the strength and artistic expressiveness of the writer allow me to penetrate so deeply into these conditions, as if I myself lived in them." And he admitted: "... if Tolstoy teaches me to understand the Russia that was, then your works teach me to understand the Russia that will be, to understand the forces that are nurturing the new Russia." (Letters, 8, 480-481).

Gorky's enemy was always the tradesman, whom he opposed to Man. The images of Russian "masters of life", industrialists and merchants, overseas "kings" and European bankers are united in his work by one common feature- thirst for profit and power over people. Their god is a profit, and it doesn't matter what the writer calls him: the "yellow devil" in America is no different from the bourgeois Moloch in Russia. “Today there are so many people, only there is no person,” Gorky wrote in 1896, observing the impudent Russian capitalism. Tracing the fate of its origin and development, he writes: “... the civilization and culture of the bourgeoisie is based on the continuous brutal struggle of a minority - well-fed "neighbors" - against the vast majority - hungry "neighbors". It is absolutely impossible to “love your neighbor” when it is necessary to rob him, and if he resists robbery, kill him. The cruel logic of "proletarian hatred", which Gorky wrote about in the last years of his life, was caused by his rejection of the hypocritical "bourgeois humanism" of the philistines. Acutely sensing the danger of the impending World War II, the writer urged the Soviet people to prepare for a merciless struggle against fascism, the ideology of shopkeepers. In his dying delirium, he repeated: "There will be wars." "We need to get ready."

The UNUSUALITY of the biography and personality of the writer, his fantastic talent and amazing diligence created a phenomenon that critics call the legend named Gorky. First of all, the scale of his personality is striking. Calling the writer "an oceanic man", B. Pasternak wrote that he was "big with his heart and his true patriotism". M. Prishvin, considering his acquaintance with Gorky a great reward, exclaimed: “I am a happy man!” Let's try to list at least the main aspects of the writer's diverse activities.

Prose writer, playwright, publicist and critic who wrote more than 80 volumes of the Collected Works, which has not yet been published. Among his works of art- universally recognized masterpieces: the autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities", the cycles "Across Russia", "Stories of 1922-1924", the plays "At the Bottom", "Vassa Zheleznova", "Egor Bulychov and others”, literary portraits of L. Tolstoy, A. Chekhov, V. Korolenko, L. Andreev, V. Lenin and others. a new faith, a holistic worldview capable of renewing the world and man. The cycles of his articles “Untimely Thoughts”, “Revolution and Culture”, the articles “Destruction of the Personality”, “Two Souls”, the stories “Mother” and “Confession” raise worldview issues that have not yet been resolved, and are relevant in the 21st century.

Political and public figure who has passed the path from the participant revolutionary movement 1890s and an active figure in the First Russian Revolution to a member of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR and at the same time retained its independence. Yu. Annenkov wrote: "In politics, as in his personal life, he remained an artist." The playful signature of Gorky under the letter of E.P. Peshkova in early February 1919: “A. Peshkov, writer. Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Union of Writers, Chairman of the Antiques and Evaluation Commission, the Island "Culture and Freedom", the Petrograd Section of the Red Cross, member of the Hermitage Council, member of the Presidium of the Executive Committee, member of the Supreme Council of T<еатров>from<релищ>, head of the publishing house "World Literature", chairman of the house committee at 23 Kronverksky, honorary citizen of the Republic of San Marino, shop paint shop, etc., and so on. With all this, I am still not quite an enemy of the Soviet Fatherland. (Letters, 12, 217).

Chronicler of the era late XIX- the first third of the 20th century, capturing in his works, especially in The Life of Klim Samgin, not only the true history of Russia, which survived two wars and three revolutions at that time, but also the history of the development of social thought. Gorky's writings, covering the period from 1889 to 1936, allow us to see the history of Russia, taken from different angles - political, philosophical, social, domestic - and to present with maximum completeness Russian life end of the 19th - first third of the 20th century. K. Fedin wrote: "He was a biography of his century."

Publisher, main founder of several publishing houses in Russia and abroad, included in the history of book printing ("Knowledge", publishing house of I.P. Ladyzhnikov, "Sail", publishing house of Z. Grzhebin, "Book", "World Literature", "Academia") .

Initiator and creator of a series of books ("History of the Civil War", "History of Factories and Plants", "History of Cities", "History of young man XIX century, etc.), newspapers, magazines and almanacs, some of them still exist (Literary Newspaper, Literary Study, Poet's Library, Life of Remarkable People).

The organizer of the cultural and scientific process in the USSR in 1920-1930, on whose initiative the VIEM (All-Union Institute of Experimental Medicine. - Ed.) was reorganized, the Literary Institute, the Institute of World Literature and other institutions bearing the name of Gorky appeared. He was a teacher and friend of many Soviet writers. L. Leonov admitted: "We all came out of the wide Gorky sleeve."

An educator who began the work of introducing culture into the most backward layers of the Russian people with the creation of the People's House in Nizhny Novgorod, who became one of the organizers of the Capri Party School for propagandist workers and until the end of his days remained a teacher of young writers from the people. Gorky's blue-red pencil left traces of editing on thousands of manuscripts sent to him for review.

A humanist who saved even strangers from arrest and death, who eased punishment during the years of the Civil War and the terror of the 1930s. In 1919, Gorky headed the CUBU (Commission for the Improvement of the Life of Scientists. - Ed.), Saved thousands of scientists, writers and other cultural figures from death. In 1921, as chairman of the Petrograd Committee for Assistance to the Starving, he was actively involved in organizing its activities. After the death of the writer, Chaliapin claimed that intercession for those arrested "was the main meaning of his life in the first period of Bolshevism." Gorky's correspondence with G. Yagoda, R. Rollan, P. Kryuchkov, which became known only at the very end of the 20th century, shows that, having returned to his homeland, the writer in the 1930s also actively saved the victims of repression.

He is the author of about 20,000 letters addressed to political and public figures, writers and scientists all over the world, work correspondents, village correspondents, "delegates", ordinary housewives and children. The writer corresponded with almost everyone prominent people of his time: L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, V.G. Korolenko, I.E. Repin, F.I. Chaliapin, I.A. Bunin, L.N. Andreev, A.M. Remizov, V.V. Rozanov, M.M. Prishvin, I.S. Shmelev, M.A. Sholokhov, I.E. Babel, V.F. Khodasevich, B.L. Pasternak, M.M. Zoshchenko, A.P. Platonov, P.D. Korin, K.S. Stanislavsky, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko and many others.

Among Gorky's foreign correspondents are B. Shaw, R. Rolland, A. France, G. Wells, K. Hamsun, G. Hauptman, B. Brecht, S. Zweig, A. Barbusse, K. Kautsky, M. Hilquit and others . Correspondence was intensively conducted with political, public and state figures: G.V. Plekhanov, V.I. Lenin, I.V. Stalin, L.D. Trotsky, L.B. Kamenev, N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov, G.E. Zinoviev, M.P. Tomsky, V.M. Molotov, S.M. Kirov, G.G. Yagoda, A.V. Lunacharsky, A.A. Bogdanov, G.A. Aleksinsky, V.L. Burtsev, V.E. Zhabotinsky, B.I. Nikolaevsky and others.

No less intense was Gorky's correspondence with the leading scientists of Russia and the world: I.P. Pavlov, K.A. Timiryazev, A.D. Speransky, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, L.N. Fedorov, A.N. Bach, F.A. Brown, W. Ostwald, F. Nansen, A.M. Ignatiev, S.F. Oldenburg, N.A. Semashko, S.I. Metalnikov and many others. The list of his addressees alone testifies not only to the breadth of the writer's interests, but also to his great erudition. Over the years, Gorky turned from a personality into an entire "institution" that dealt with the most significant issues of the cultural life of Russia and the USSR. His signature is on business papers, appeals, declarations, documents of various literary and public organizations, editorial offices, institutions.

Gorky's epistolary heritage allows us to reveal many aspects of his multifaceted activity, range of interests, stages of spiritual and creative evolution, relationships with contemporaries, look into the depths of the creative laboratory, learn the intimate aspects of his life. First of all, it shows the rapid growth of a talented self-taught writer, a native of the lower classes, Alexei Peshkov. The letters contain the history of the development of social thought in Russia, passed through the prism of the consciousness of an outstanding personality, richly gifted and sensitive.

It is not surprising that Gorky always attracted the attention of friends and foes, readers and critics, and especially the townsfolk, who did not disdain the most fantastic rumors about him. Not understanding how a person who lived 68 years could do everything listed above, D. Bykov calls him “inhumanly Gorky”, A. Vaksberg reflects: “A man or a myth?”, And P. Basinsky writes: “Imagine to yourself that Gorky was not quite a man. Yes, this admirer of Man himself was of a different origin. Imagine that he is a messenger of another, more “developed” world than ours, who was “seconded” to Earth with the aim of incarnating and studying human nature from the inside.

Legends and myths were created and are being created even around the death of the writer. Today, they are again trying to bury him as a great writer and person, destroying the monuments erected to him, removing a memorial plaque on the house where he died. But Gorky's voice still sounds in the world, his plays are staged on many stages in Russia and abroad, and the Gorky Readings dedicated to him are held annually in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan. Recognizing the phenomenon of Gorky, A.V. Amfiteatrov once answered the critics who proclaimed the "end" of the writer after the release of the story "Mother": "What is there to defend Gorky? He will protect himself from anyone. One can argue, argue, debate about Gorky, but one cannot “praise” or “scold” Gorkys. This is as ridiculous and impossible as praising or scolding Chatyr-Dag or the Black Sea.”

In the article “Gorky's Return”, published in the anniversary issue of Literaturnaya Gazeta, where Gorky's profile reappeared next to Pushkin, Yu. Polyakov wrote: “In any case, the period of self-destruction is clearly ending. Of course, we are not creating yet, but it seems that we are already concentrating. And in this sense, the return of Gorky's profile to our logo is, of course, a symbolic act, restoring the connection of times, for the kingdom, divided in time, will inevitably fall apart in space.

The purpose of this book of mine, which I called The Real Gorky: Myths and Reality, is to try to explain the complex and contradictory path of Gorky, to help the reader hear the real voice of the writer, to understand him as a person and thinker. Without pretending to solve all the most difficult problems facing Gorky scholars, we will only touch on those that are especially relevant today.