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Where the bitter one died. The mysterious life and death of Maxim Gorky

His death then raised many questions, the answers to which have not been found to this day. Did he die on his own or did they help - poisoned, healed by killer doctors? And how could a writer who glorified a man of a new - revolutionary - type interfere with Stalin? In the secrets of Gorky, "AiF" understood together with the writer Pavel BASINSKY, the author of a recently published study about Maxim Gorky.

"Window to Europe"

"AiF": - Did Stalin kill Gorky? Personally, I am absolutely convinced that Gorky died a natural death.

P.B.: The dying Gorky was surrounded by more than a dozen leading Moscow doctors, and by no means all of them, like Levin and Pletnev, were then executed. Some survived until the 60s, when a lot could, if not written, then spoken aloud. Until the mid-60s, Gorky's legal wife Ekaterina Peshkova also survived, and she, as far as is known, strongly denied the fact of the possible murder of her husband. At the death of Gorky, Maria Budberg was present, who then left for England without hindrance ... In general, Gorky was surrounded by so many different and by no means stupid people that it was virtually impossible to secretly poison him. And what? Notorious sweets that he himself did not eat, but would definitely pass on to his granddaughters or household servants? The pills given to him by the nurse Olimpiada Chertkova, who was in love with him? The injections she gave?

But the fact that Gorky interfered with Stalin on the eve of the gigantic purge is true. Gorky remained such the last big “window to Europe”, which, although Stalin tightly closed, isolating Gorky from the world community, but from which, nevertheless, he constantly “blew”. Either Romain Rolland will come to Moscow on a visit, or Louis Aragon will go to Russia to meet with the sick Gorky ... And although his behavior in relation to Stalinism was “higher than all praise” (he justified, sang, what a sin to conceal!), but the man was unpredictable. His death, of course, untied Stalin's hands. Personally, it is not so important for me whether Gorky was killed or not. In any case, such a terrible end to Gorky - in a state-owned dacha, under the supervision of the NKVD, with constant humiliations of the great writer of the world - was, alas, natural.

The colossal tragedy of Gorky is that he, who communicated on an equal footing with Tolstoy and Chekhov, Korolenko and Rozanov, Blok and Gumilyov, at the end of his life stood on the same level with all these "riding breeches". Can you imagine the sincere dialogue between Chekhov and Yagoda? Absurd! And Gorky quite sincerely communicated with Yagoda, who was “his own” in his house. Can you imagine a constructive conversation between Tolstoy and Stalin? Wildness! And Gorky, six days before his death, discusses the future of Russian literature with the leader. I have been studying Gorky for more than one decade, but I cannot comprehend it, fit it into my idea of him!

"AiF": - Gorky owns the phrase: "For everything that a person takes, he pays with himself." What did he have to pay for? After all, perhaps it is impossible to say that he sold out to the Soviet authorities when he returned from Europe to the USSR in 1928, when he supported Stalin's policy? Rather, he gave himself to that power.

Why do you share these things? And he sold himself, and gave ... He paid - at the price of future literary authority - for rich life family, but most importantly - for the opportunity not to vegetate in exile, writing nostalgic novels about Russia, "which we have lost", but to actively participate in new culture. It is necessary to understand the peculiarities of that era before judging Gorky's behavior. Did Stalin humiliate Russian writers? And Bunin was not humiliated in France, when the Nazis came to Grasse, where the writer then lived? And Kuprin was not humiliated by his begging in a miserable Parisian apartment? And why did the proud Marina Tsvetaeva return to the USSR from France in order to hang herself in Yelabuga a few years later? Gorky, of course, bears much greater responsibility for much that has happened in the country. But you don't have to take it off tragic fate Russia and the world. In addition, Gorky was just a living person, with his weaknesses and shortcomings ...

"Alyosha, help!"

"AiF": - And what were his weaknesses? Indeed, in the memoirs of contemporaries, he appears almost as an ascetic.

P.B.:- Well, if I start listing all Gorky's weaknesses... Firstly, I have no moral right to do so. Secondly, one must clearly understand that these are the weaknesses of a great man.

Well, yes, he had weaknesses. Collector's passion. Women. A fanatical attitude towards science, culture, which was the result of the fact that he himself was a nugget, self-taught. He loved expensive clothes, good wine, beautiful villas. Smoked terribly. Could drink a lot without ever getting drunk. Probably, he behaved somewhat coldly towards his friend, the writer Leonid Andreev, when he came to him in Capri in 1906 after the death of his wife, lost, crushed. He spoke cruelly, unfairly about Mayakovsky's suicide: "I found the time!" Did not help Andrei Platonov, pushed him away at a difficult moment.

Yes, he was a sinful person. But also incredibly generous! The only one who cared about other writers all his life, and not just about himself. Here we say: did not help Platonov. And who helped? Who could possibly help? And why did Platonov, like everyone else, turn to Gorky for help? Yes, because Gorky from the very beginning of his writing career, since the time of the publishing house "Knowledge", has become such a "cash cow". Just a little - they run to Gorky! Write to Gorky! Alexey Maksimovich! Help!" Vasily Rozanov is dying of hunger and cold in Sergiev Posad - to whom does he write? “Maximushka, save me from the last despair! I'm dying! I'm dying!" And the Bolshevik Zinoviev writes to him from the prison where Stalin put him. And the artist Korin. And dozens, hundreds of scientists, writers, intellectuals ... Because Gorky, in their view, is such a "social security", you can get something from him - from material assistance to getting out of prison. After the revolution, members of the imperial family and disgraced Social Revolutionaries hid in his apartment in Petrograd on Kronverksky Prospekt.

As for civil wives and muses ... Gorky was not always successful with women. In his youth, there was an angular, ugly and "mental" young man - girls do not like such people. One of the reasons for his suicide attempt in Kazan was connected precisely with failures on the love front. Gorky begins to enjoy success with women when he becomes famous and rich. The usual story. He had one civil wife - the actress of the Moscow Art Theater Maria Andreeva. Legal wife - Ekaterina Peshkova. And passionate, long-term love - Maria Budberg, to whom he dedicated "The Life of Klim Samgin." Here are the women who really occupied a huge place in Gorky's life, with whom he had a difficult relationship and who influenced his personality.

He loved his son Maxim, loved Budberg, and loved many more. Sometimes at all mysterious people, like the adopted son of Zinovy \u200b\u200bPeshkov. Gorky adopted Zinovy Sverdlov, the elder brother of Yakov Sverdlov, one of the leaders of the Bolshevik Party. Zinovy came from a large Jewish Nizhny Novgorod family of an engraver, with whom Peshkov was familiar in his youth. Zinovy had a very difficult relationship with his real father. There is a version that he cursed Zinovy for betraying the Jewish faith, for being baptized into the Orthodox faith, and Gorky was his godfather.

Subsequently, Zinovy \u200b\u200bbecame a hero of France, a military officer, fought in Africa, lost his arm, was a military attache in Japan and China, became a general and was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor. Very extraordinary personality! Quite bitter taste.

His own son Maxim Gorky was very fond of and deeply worried about his death in 1934 - a sudden death from pneumonia, which then caused a lot of gossip. Maxim was multi-talented (artist, inventor, race car driver), but unlike his father, he did not have internal discipline. During the years of the revolution and the Civil War, when his father saved the intelligentsia from the Bolsheviks, Maxim worked in the Cheka and took part in the arrests of the very people whom his father tried to save. Maxim had a beautiful wife, Timosha, with whom the People's Commissar of the NKVD Heinrich Yagoda and the "Red Count" Alexei Tolstoy were in love. Maxim is part of Gorky's rather confused family life.

AiF: - Who, in your opinion, turned out to be more valuable for Russian culture - Gorky the writer or Gorky the man who saved writers and professors?

P.B.:- I am opposed to the division of Gorky into "writer" and "social activist". Gorky is a synthetic personality. For example, the story "Mother" is an insanely interesting thing, if you understand the depth of the topical issues raised in it. It is easy to write a novel about the love of a young lady and a schoolboy. But about the revolutionary... Especially about the mother of the revolutionary... You say: who needs it now? But appears in early XXI century novel "Sankya" by Zakhar Prilepin, and suddenly it turns out that this topic is by no means dead. But it was Gorky who beat her.

Gorky was the first to combine culture and commercial success. He managed to combine almost all the best prose writers in his Znanie publishing house and make this enterprise commercially profitable. If our current owners of large publishing houses had looked closely at this experience of Gorky, we would not have had the horror of the 90s, when readers were inundated with the most base literary junk.

Researchers on the life and work of Maxim Gorky today are divided into two camps: some believe that the writer died of pneumonia, others believe that he was “helped” to die. Who could take part in the death of the world-famous writer, how could 17 doctors who were on duty at the patient’s bedside not save him, why was Gorky injected with an extremely painful drug of camphor, and why did Stalin visit the dying man twice?

Writer Pavel Basinsky, author of biographical bestsellers about Gorky and Tolstoy, will answer these intriguing questions in his lecture. Read more about the author

Pavel Basinsky: The circumstances of Gorky's life in the USSR and his last days spent in Gorki 10 are shrouded in the darkness of mystery. It is known that Gorky February Revolution received her warmly, greeted her, but did not accept Oktyabrskaya and rather cruelly argued with Lenin on the pages of the newspaper " New life", which will soon be closed. In 1921, Gorky left the country, in fact, this was his second emigration.

And the first emigration from the end of 1905 to 1914 was forced. For participation in the first Russian revolution, Gorky falls into Peter and Paul Fortress. Under pressure from both Russian and global cultural community, many stand up for him famous writers, including abroad. He is expelled, that is, released from the country, but he must not return.

Gorky leaves for Europe. This departure is also connected with changes in his personal destiny: he is leaving Ekaterina Peshkova, his only, by the way, legal wife. His civil wife becomes the actress of the Moscow Art Theater Maria Andreeva. First they go to Europe, and for the first time Gorky finds himself abroad. Europe fascinates him in many ways, on the other hand, he travels like an emissary. One of his tasks when he comes to France is to convince the French government not to give a loan to the tsarist government. Because the revolutionaries understand that this the loan will go to raise the country's economy, and they absolutely do not need it. But they still gave me a loan. Gorky leaves France terribly annoyed, writes an evil essay "My Beautiful France".

Gorky sails to America, this is already 1906, but it should be noted that all Russian writers wanted to see America. Gorky is going to the USA again with a specific purpose, as an emissary from the revolutionaries. One of his tasks in this case is to convince American millionaires to give money for the Russian revolution. By the way, Gorky was known in America, read, he was quite popular there. But he did not appreciate that America is a completely different civilization. He understood this when he and Maria Andreeva tried to settle in a hotel, in the same room. And one day, they arrived and saw that their things were standing on the street, because at that time in the USA an unmarried man and woman could not live in the same hotel room. America was puritanical religious country. This angered Gorky to the core. They moved to Summer Brook Villa, on the border with Canada, to their fans, and there Gorky wrote the story "Mother".

The biggest "bummer" for Gorky was that in America they did not support his idea of raising funds in favor of the revolution. It was terribly insulting for him, the mission failed.

After America, he sails to Naples and there they arrange a grand meeting for him. It turns out that in Italy the writer is incredibly loved, almost carried in his arms. He is accommodated in the best hotels. He likes the south of Italy very much and suits his health. Many thought that Gorky had tuberculosis because he coughed. But the fact is that at the age of 18 he shot himself, shot himself in the lung. In any case, Italy was very suitable for his health.

Gorky settles on the island of Capri, begins one of his most interesting periods life span of 7 years. And in total, he will spend 17 years in Italy, first in Capri, then in Sorrento. Gorky writes his best works in Capri, people come there and live there for a long time, who could not meet and communicate anywhere outside of Capri. Bunin and Leonid Andreev, Chaliapin and Dzerzhinsky and others come and live there at the same time. Lenin came there twice and there is a version that he used Gorky for financial needs, because all financial flows went through Gorky since the first Russian revolution. This separate story. Plus, Gorky gave his money to the revolution.

In 1914, Gorky returned to Russia and until 1921 he settled in Petrograd, in an apartment on Kronverksky Prospekt, where he met revolutions and civil war. A difficult period of life begins, because many of his illusions have been dispelled. The revolution in his view was a kind of cultural act, he is waiting for a large-scale cultural construction of a new civilization. Instead, a civil war begins, and Gorky does not like this very much.

First of all, he has to save the Petrograd intelligentsia from arrest and starvation. He organizes the publishing house “World Literature”, the first books are translated, he attracts poets, writers, translators to this. At the same time, under this, he knocks out rations, firewood, clothes, living space for them. The last straw for him was the death of Blok and the execution of Gumilyov, whom Gorky tried to save, but did not have time. At the end of 1921, the writer went abroad. This is the second immigration. But already in 1923, the first proposals appeared for Gorky to return back to Russia.

In Europe, Gorky now did not like it, he did not develop relations with the Russian emigration. On the one hand, they went to him, but on the other hand, for the Parisian emigration, Gorky was not his own. They are refugees, but he is not, he has a passport of the new state. Gorky is given permission to come to Italy, but they are not allowed to go to Capri. However, they are allowed to settle in Sorrento - on the mainland. But this is already fascist Italy, although it is still not clear what fascism is, but things are moving towards the fact that Europe will become fascist and this is felt.

Sorrento has its own world, and the second incredibly fruitful period in Gorky's life. But attempts to return the writer to Russia continue, he is important as a world figure. Young Soviet writers come to him in Sorrento one after another, and they talk about their lives. Gorky begins to come every year to the USSR. A huge role in the fact that the writer returned was played by the fact that he did not receive Nobel Prize, Bunin received it. Gorky needed funds and in 1933 finally returned to the USSR.

As Khodasevich writes, he, of course, sold himself, but not for money, but for a dream - to realize his illusions. This can be seen in the correspondence between Gorky and Stalin, they are discussing the creation of a writers' club, a literary institute, a writers' town. Gorky is given full carte blanche and funding for all his projects.

In 1934, Gorky's son Maxim dies, believed to be under mysterious circumstances. Then, at the trial of 1938, where the so-called “Gorky killers” were convicted and subsequently executed, they were also accused of killing Maxim, which was their first act of killing Gorky himself.

Genrikh Yagoda entered the writer's house, they were on "you" with him. In reality, this is what happened. In May 1936, Gorky returned from the Crimea to Moscow and fell ill with the flu, which turned into pneumonia. The doctors said that after the autopsy, his lungs fell like glass. Gorky smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, there were no antibiotics at that time. About 17 doctors were on duty near the patient's bed. Poisoning a person with so many doctors is difficult. Four of them subsequently died, the rest lived to advanced years.

Gorky historians today are divided into two groups, there are those who believe that Gorky was helped to die, but not Stalin. There is a version, which I will tell you about, that Yagoda was interested in Gorky's death, he led the opposition against Stalin. It included Bukharin and some other figures. In the last days, when Gorky is dying, there is one moment that is very difficult to explain. IN notebook The secretary of the writer Kryuchkov wrote that Gorky died on June 8. But official date Gorky's death - June 18.

"Cult Brigade" is a well-known platform for discussions, lectures, and master classes in the capital. Significant people share their knowledge on it Russian writers, directors, musicians, journalists, publicists and public figures. More about the project.

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At the end of September 1935, Alexei Maksimovich Gorky arrived from Moscow in the Crimea, in Tesseli. Next to him was only one person close to him - Olimpiada Dmitrievna Chertkova (Lipa).

Mysteries of the history of Russia / Nikolai Nepomniachtchi. — M.: Veche, 2012.

At the bedside of the sick A. M. Gorky. Artist V. P. Efanov. 1944

Alexei Maksimovich has long been "under the hood" in power. In Crimea, he was practically in complete isolation. Even Kryuchkov, his secretary for many years and permanent informer of the Lubyanka, remained in Moscow. Stalin and the head of the NKVD, Genrikh Yagoda, stopped responding to the writer's letters.

It would seem that now he has become uninteresting to the authorities. However, only six months ago, he was not allowed to go to Paris for the International Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture. And in Tesseli, he was still surrounded by NKVD officers in uniform and in civilian clothes. Almost no one was allowed to see Gorky, all his correspondence was looked through.

But at the end of May 1936, Marfa and Daria, two of his beloved granddaughters, who remained in Moscow, fell ill with the flu. Alexei Maksimovich had an excuse to break out of the Crimean prison. He immediately left for Moscow. On May 27, he was already in the capital, visited his granddaughters, visited the grave of his son on Novodevichy cemetery, hosted the leaders of the Komsomol on Malaya Nikitskaya, and then his old friend Nikolai Burenin, who arrived from Leningrad. And on June 1, he became seriously ill. Diagnosis - influenza, and then - lobar pneumonia and heart failure ...

The disease developed in exactly the same way as two years ago with his son Maxim. And his son, he was almost sure of this, was killed by the NKVD. Now Aleksei Maksimovich is in Gorki, where Lenin died twelve years ago. The writer was treated and consulted by 17 (!) most famous doctors from Moscow and Leningrad. But the patient got worse. Pravda began publishing bulletins on Gorky's health on June 6, 1936.

On June 8, doctors declared his condition critical. And then there was a call from the Kremlin. It was reported that Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov were going to Gorki. Chertkova (she was a midwife) administered a very large dose of camphor to Alexei Maksimovich at her own peril and risk. “The result was stunning,” writes Arkady Vaksberg in his recently published book “The Death of the Petrel,” “Stalin expected to see, if not a corpse, then already dying, but he saw a writer who had clearly regained life.” Gorky did not want to talk about his illness - he turned the conversation to "current affairs": about the publication of "History civil war”, “The history of two five-year plans” ... Stalin demanded wine, and the three “leaders”, drinking to the health of the “great proletarian writer”, departed for Moscow.

By June 16, there was such an obvious improvement that the doctors decided: the crisis was over. But on the night of the 17th, suddenly, without any apparent reason, the situation changed dramatically. Gorky began to suffocate, his pulse made incredible leaps, his temperature rose sharply, then suddenly fell, his lips turned blue ...

At 11:10 am on June 18, death occurred. Gorky's body had not yet been taken out of Gorki, when Genrikh Yagoda personally sealed all the rooms, briefly reviewing the writer's papers. Two days later, Gorky's funeral took place on Red Square, and the urn with the ashes was immured in the Kremlin wall.

Medical documents - a medical history, a death certificate, a forensic medical "examination" at the trial of "killer doctors" in 1938, a retrospective examination in 1990, and others - are full of contradictions and do not answer main question, from which, in fact, Gorky died. All his life he was treated for pulmonary tuberculosis, but this disease was not noted at all in the conclusion of the pathologist IV Davydovsky.

The medical report speaks of some kind of “severe infection”, from which death allegedly occurred, and in the autopsy report - of an “acute infection”, although the doctors knew perfectly well that infections “in general” - neither severe, nor acute, nor mild - does not exist, but there are specific, moreover, various infections that give rise to a particular disease.

Recently it became known that during those two-plus tragic weeks in Gorki, one after another, people from service personnel: the commandant, his wife, the cook - only seven people, and everyone was given the same diagnosis - tonsillitis. All had symptoms similar to those noted by Gorky. These people did not have any contact with him, they could not get infected from him, and his relatives, who constantly communicated with the writer, did not get sick with anything. It remains to be assumed that the source of infection was the food that was prepared for Gorky and that the sick could also eat. A similar picture of the disease could be caused by serum from a mixture of pneumococci and staphylococci.

Back in 1933-1934, Genrikh Yagoda, a former pharmacist, organized in the depths of the OGPU-NKVD a secret laboratory for the production of poisons to eliminate "enemies of the people" first abroad and then inside the country. Special poisons were created at the Lubyanka, leading to instant or quick death with imitation of symptoms of other diseases. As it became known from partially accessible archival documents of this laboratory, experiments were carried out there on a combination of various pathogens to enhance the "effect". In the experiments on living people and in their killing involved prominent medical specialists who were awarded awards and the highest scientific titles for their experiments.

One gets the impression that, having given impetus to Gorky's illness, the initiators relied on its natural course, since the writer's body, exhausted by a variety of ailments, was indeed very weakened. But the body's reserve forces, Gorky's will to live, began to overcome the disease. When this became obvious (most likely on June 16), the illnesses decided to “help” ...

Let us note some more, almost mystical oddities of those dramatic days. Alexei Maksimovich fell ill, as already mentioned, on June 1, and the "philosopher professor" Yudin, who is also the secretary of the Writers' Union and an unspoken employee of the NKVD, told his friends on May 31 that Gorky was mortally ill and there was no hope that he would survive no.

In June, in the first days of Alexei Maksimovich's illness, unknown people called to the house on Malaya Nikitskaya, and then to Gorki (via the Kremlin "turntable"), asking where to deliver wreaths and send telegrams of condolences.

Several such telegrams were even received! People came to Malaya Nikitskaya with a warrant from the district architect to occupy the “vacated” house. It was some kind of terrible, someone coordinated psychological pressure!

It is unlikely that the illness and death of the writer were "organized" by Heinrich Yagoda on his own initiative. Stalin did not tolerate such initiative in relation to major figures. This means that the order to kill Gorky was given by Stalin himself. But why? What danger did Gorky pose for him in 1936?

“What he could give to Stalin, he already gave,” Vaksberg writes. - Dead Gorky automatically turned into an ally, no one could vouch for a living one. His friendship with Bukharin was obvious, his friendship with Stalin was imaginary. Gorky should have been canonized as soon as possible, declared Stalin’s best friend, a Soviet saint, and do this before he could do anything, casting doubt on such a possibility.”

Arkady Vaksberg sets out another, more specific motive for the crime. In 1935-1936, a new, "Stalinist" constitution was being prepared. Part of the opposition-minded Soviet scientific and creative intelligentsia, and above all Maxim Gorky, put forward the idea of creating the so-called "non-party party", or the "Union of Intellectuals", which could act in the elections to the Soviet parliament as a separate list, and in the future "constructively help" the ruling party - the CPSU (b).

It was assumed that the list of candidates for deputies from this party would be headed by A. M. Gorky, academicians I. P. Pavlov, A. P. Karpinsky (president of the USSR Academy of Sciences) and V. I. Vernadsky. Pavlov and Karpinsky were known for their rejection of the Soviet partocratic regime. Pavlov openly said that if what the Bolsheviks are doing with Russia is an experiment, then for such an experiment he would regret even providing a frog ...

Maxim Gorky sought to humanize power, tried to "re-educate" first Lenin and then Stalin. Of course, he couldn't do anything. But Gorky thought otherwise. For the sake of this illusory goal, he made many sacrifices, compromises, stepped over his own moral principles, and as a result lost his freedom, and then his life.

“In the niche of the Kremlin wall,” writes Arkady Vaksberg, “not only the secret of his life is immured, but also the secret of death - one of the most terrible in an endless series of bloody Soviet mysteries.”

DEATH OF MAXIM GORKY

Nikolai Nepomniachtchi - 100 great mysteries of the 20th century...

“Medicine is innocent here…”. This is exactly what the doctors Levin and Pletnev, who treated the writer in recent months of his life, and later brought in as defendants in the process of the "Right-Trotsky bloc". Soon, however, they "recognized" the deliberately wrong treatment and even "showed" that their accomplices were nurses who gave the patient up to 40 injections of camphor per day. But as it was in fact, there is no consensus. The historian L. Fleischlan directly writes: "The fact of Gorky's murder can be considered irrevocably established." V. Khodasevich, on the contrary, believes in the natural cause of the death of a proletarian writer.

As you know, Gorky's adopted son, Zinovy Peshkov, made a brilliant military and diplomatic career in France, which could have an extremely unfavorable effect on his closest relatives in the country of the Soviets. Aleksey Maksimovich warned about this in his letters to Zinovy, resorting to the "Aesopian language". The writer did not trust the mail, but handed them over with an opportunity - through the journalist Mikhail Koltsov or through close friends whom he completely trusted. “The fear of death” was felt in these letters of Gorky, we read in the memoirs of Louis Aragon, now stored in the Triol-Aragon archival fund in Paris. However, there are no original letters and telegrams from Gorky in this archive! No traces of their presence have been found in other writers' archives either. Some researchers believe that Gorky wanted to send his friends in France and his Personal diary. However, this diary disappeared without a trace, repeating the fate of many of his letters.

In his letters to Aragon and Triola, the writer repeatedly urged them to come to Moscow, persistently called them to the USSR for a necessary and urgent conversation. What? This could not be trusted in a letter, and, realizing this, in May 1936, Elsa and Louis went to the USSR. Their path ran through London and Leningrad. In the northern capital, they stayed for a while at Lily Brik. The delay of the guests in Leningrad looked strange, since at that time Alexei Maksimovich fell seriously ill. And yet Aragon hesitated. One gets the impression that he deliberately delayed the day of his arrival in Moscow and appeared in the capital, as previously known documents testify, only on June 18 - the day Gorky died! However, in an interview with the Pravda newspaper published on June 16 (!) 1936, Aragon said that he had arrived in Moscow the day before, that is, on June 15!

It was officially reported that on June 1, Gorky caught an elementary flu, which caused serious complications. Bulletins about the state of the writer's health were published on the front pages of Pravda and Izvestia - a fact unprecedented even for famous writer. The impression was that readers were being "prepared" for the worst, although there seemed to be no reason for this.

There were two periods of improvement in the patient's condition. The first refers to the time after the June 8 visit to Gorky by Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov. As the Kolkhoznik magazine wrote in those days, "Gorky literally got up from the grave ...".

The second time the patient suddenly felt better from 14 to 16 June. Gorky then got out of bed and, according to eyewitnesses, said: “Enough lying around! I have to work, answer letters! He shaved, cleaned himself up, sat down at his desk...

Little is known about what happened in the next two days, but the fact remains: Gorky's health deteriorated sharply, and on June 18 at 11.10 in the morning he died ...

In 1938, the process of the "right-wing Trotskyist bloc" already mentioned above took place, in which doctor Pletnev appeared among other "enemies of the people". For the "deliberately incorrect treatment" of the great proletarian writer, Pletnev received a solid sentence and was sent to the Vorkuta camps. There, in 1948, he met with the German communist B. Hermand, who was serving a term. They often had conversations in which they touched on the circumstances of Gorky's death. B. Hermand, after her release, spoke about these conversations in her memoirs. It followed from them that the sharp deterioration in Gorky's health on June 17 was due to the fact that he tried ... sweets given to him by Stalin! As you know, Yagoda had a special laboratory that prepared various poisons ... By the way, the report on the autopsy of Gorky's body does not mention "testing for poisoning." The testimony of a certain A. Novikov has been preserved, former captain The NKVD, with whom M. Brown, a member of the French Resistance, spoke, who left a note about this conversation in his diary: “When I said that an autopsy was supposed to detect poisoning if poisons were used, Novikov just waved his hand: “You don’t understand anything! The autopsy protocol was drawn up before Gorky's death!

Story about last days The writer's life would be incomplete without mentioning the woman who was the last to see Gorky alive. Her name is Mura Zakrevskaya-Budberg. She lived with Alexei Maksimovich for 12 whole years, 7 of them abroad, and he loved her passionately and selflessly. It is not surprising that the writer dedicated his largest novel, The Life of Klim Samgin, to her. Moura was admitted to all business and financial papers and to the most intimate archives of the writer. The tragedy lies in the fact that Mura was closely associated with the Cheka, and every step of Gorky instantly became known to the authorities. This woman lived long life and died in 1974, leaving behind hundreds of notes, drawings, notes and stories about herself. But none of these pieces of paper brought researchers closer to unraveling the mystery of Gorky's death, because Mura destroyed her entire personal archive in advance ...

If we accept the version of the deliberate murder of Gorky on Stalin’s orders, then the question arises: why was it necessary to hasten the death of a writer who supported the policy of the “leader of the peoples”, approved the process of the “Industrial Party” in 1930, spoke very positively about “forced labor in the name of reforging”? But, on the other hand, it was Gorky who never wrote a biography of Stalin, although he was given such a "party order" and provided everything for this. necessary materials. The writer disobeyed the leader, and this was never forgiven to anyone! In addition, Gorky was fussing about the publication of "Demons" by F. M. Dostoevsky and defended the repressed writers and scientists.

The consequences of such disobedience were the denial of a passport for a trip to Italy for treatment, the establishment of censorship for correspondence with Romain Rolland, the perusal of correspondence addressed to the writer ... “Surrounded ... Surrounded ... Neither back nor forward! This is unusual! - such a desperate confession escaped Gorky in one of his letters. The assassination of Kirov was an event that put an end to hopes for reconciliation between the authorities and the intelligentsia and the Bolshevik opposition. Mass executions, exile, the liquidation of the Society of Old Bolsheviks and the Society of Political Prisoners, the trials of Zinoviev and Kamenev, apparently, could not help but lay a heavy burden on the writer's heart ...

Romain Rolland noted in his diary that the cause of Gorky's untimely and not entirely natural death was his high prestige in the West. This opinion was shared by many of the writer's contemporaries. Even the “accuser” A. Ya. Vyshinsky admitted this in his speech: “The enemies of the people could not deprive Gorky of the opportunity to conduct an active political activity otherwise, how to stop his life!”.

After the death of M. Gorky, persecution and repression began against his employees and closest associates. And a certain G. Stetsky, who kept under personal control the correspondence between Gorky and Romain Rolland, was appointed chairman of the commission on literary heritage writer. Literary critics to this day sometimes call this fact the “second death” of the great writer ...

M. Ershov's material

Alexey Peshkov, better known as the writer Maxim Gorky, for Russian and Soviet literature cult figure. 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 Nizhny Novgorod. His father Maxim Peshkov was a carpenter, and in last years life ran the shipping 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 future writer became a caretaker 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

Already becoming famous writer, Alexey 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 with all the Marxist views October revolution Peshkov took it rather skeptically. After the Civil War, Maxim Gorky, who had some disagreements with new government, again goes abroad, but in 1932 he finally returns 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 gravitate 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, it tragic event led to the breaking of 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 worked in the publishing houses of newspapers and magazines, created a series of books "The History of Factories and Plants", "The Poet's Library", "The History of the Civil War", organized and held the First All-Union Congress of 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. Body 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.