A brief account of Gorky's life and work. Return of Gorky to Russia. Romantic ideas in the early works of M. Gorky

Born on March 16, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod into a poor family of a carpenter. The real name of Maxim Gorky is Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov. His parents died early, and little Alexey remained to live with his grandfather. His grandmother became a mentor in literature, who led her grandson into the world of folk poetry. He wrote about her briefly, but with great tenderness: “In those years, I was filled with my grandmother’s poems, like a beehive with honey; It seems that I was thinking in the forms of her poems.”

Gorky's childhood was spent in harsh, difficult conditions. WITH early years future writer was forced to do part-time work, earning a living whatever he could.

Training and beginning of literary activity

In Gorky's life, only two years were devoted to studying at the Nizhny Novgorod School. Then, due to poverty, he went to work, but was constantly engaged in self-education. 1887 was one of the most difficult years in Gorky's biography. Due to the troubles that beset him, he tried to commit suicide, but nevertheless survived.

Traveling around the country, Gorky propagated the revolution, for which he was taken under police surveillance and then arrested for the first time in 1888.

Gorky's first published story, "Makar Chudra", was published in 1892. Then, his essays in two volumes, “Essays and Stories,” published in 1898, brought fame to the writer.

In 1900-1901 he wrote the novel “Three”, met Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy.

In 1902 he was awarded the title of member Imperial Academy sciences, but by order of Nicholas II it was soon declared invalid.

TO famous works Gorky’s works include: the story “The Old Woman Izergil”, the plays “The Bourgeois” and “At the Demise”, the stories “Childhood” and “In People”, the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin”, which the author never finished, as well as many cycles of stories.

Gorky also wrote fairy tales for children. Among them: “The Tale of Ivanushka the Fool”, “Sparrow”, “Samovar”, “Tales of Italy” and others. Recalling his difficult childhood, Gorky devoted Special attention children, organized holidays for children from poor families, published a children's magazine.

Emigration, return to homeland

In 1906, in the biography of Maxim Gorky, he moved to the USA, then to Italy, where he lived until 1913. Even there, Gorky’s work defended the revolution. Returning to Russia, he stops in St. Petersburg. Here Gorky works in publishing houses and is involved in social activities. In 1921, due to worsening illness, at the insistence of Vladimir Lenin and disagreements with the authorities, he again went abroad. The writer finally returned to the USSR in October 1932.

Last years

At home, he continues to actively write and publishes newspapers and magazines.

Maxim Gorky died on June 18, 1936 in the village of Gorki at mysterious circumstances. There were rumors that the cause of his death was poisoning and many blamed Stalin for this. However, this version was never confirmed.

Gorky Maxim, Russian writer, publicist, public figure

V.G. helped him enter literature. Korolenko. In 1892, Gorky first appeared in print with the story “Makar Chudra”. From that moment on, he began to systematically engage in literary work. The collection “Essays and Stories” had a great resonance. In the novel "Mother" he sympathetically showed the growth revolutionary movement in Russia. In the play “At the Bottom” he raised the question of freedom and the purpose of man.

Many of the writer's works became literary sensation: autobiographical triptych “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”; the play “Yegor Bulychov and Others”, the unfinished epic novel “The Life of Klim Samgin”.

Abroad and after returning to Russia, Gorky provided big influence on the formation of ideological and aesthetic principles Soviet literature, including the theories of socialist realism.

Maxim Gorky is an outstanding Russian writer, thinker, playwright and prose writer. He was also considered the founder of Soviet literature. Born March 28, 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod in a carpenter's family. Quite early on, he was left without parents and was raised by a grandfather who was tyrannical by nature. The boy's education lasted only two years, after which he had to quit his studies and go to work. Thanks to his ability for self-education and brilliant memory, he nevertheless managed to acquire knowledge in various fields.

In 1884, the future writer unsuccessfully tried to enter Kazan University. Here he met a Marxist circle and became interested in propaganda literature. A few years later he was arrested for his connection with the circle, and then sent as a watchman to railway. He would later write an autobiographical story “The Watchman” about life during this period.

At the beginning of the 20th century, he became acquainted with Chekhov and Tolstoy, and the novel “Three” was published. During the same period, Gorky became interested in drama. The plays “Bourgeois” and “At the Lower Depths” were published. In 1902 he was elected to honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Along with literary activity until 1913 he worked at the publishing house "Knowledge". In 1906, Gorky traveled abroad, where he created satirical essays about the French and American bourgeoisie. The writer spent 7 years on the Italian island of Capri to treat developed tuberculosis. During this period he wrote “Confession”, “Life unnecessary person", "Tales of Italy".

The second departure abroad occurred in 1921. It was associated with the resumption of the disease and with the aggravation of disagreements with new government. For three years, Gorky lived in Germany, the Czech Republic and Finland. In 1924 he moved to Italy, where he published his memoirs about Lenin. In 1928, at the invitation of Stalin, the writer visited his homeland. In 1932 he finally returned to the USSR. During the same period, he was working on the novel “The Life of Klim Samgin,” which was never completed. In May 1934, the writer’s son, Maxim Peshkov, unexpectedly died. Gorky himself outlived his son by only two years. He died on June 18, 1936 in Gorki. The writer's ashes were placed in the Kremlin wall.

Sources: all-biography.ru, citaty.su, homeworkapple.ucoz.org, www.sdamna5.ru, vsesochineniya.ru

Unusual life and creative destiny Maxim Gorky (Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov). He was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod in the family of a cabinetmaker. Having lost his parents early, M. Gorky spent his childhood in the bourgeois family of his grandfather Kashirin, experienced hard life“in people”, traveled a lot around Rus'. He learned the life of tramps, the unemployed, the hard work of workers and the hopeless poverty that has greater strength revealed to the future writer the contradictions of life. To earn a living, he had to be a loader, a gardener, a baker, and a choir member. All this gave him such knowledge of the life of the lower classes, which no writer possessed at that time. He later embodied the impressions of these years in the trilogy “Childhood”, “In People”, “My Universities”.

In 1892, Gorky’s first story, “Makar Chudra,” revealed a new writer to Russian readers. A two-volume collection of essays and stories, published in 1898, brought him wide fame. There was something surprising in the speed with which his name spread to all corners of Russia.

The young writer, in a dark blouse, belted with a thin strap, with an angular face on which unyieldingly burning eyes stood out, appeared in literature as a herald of a new world. Even if at first he himself was not clearly aware of what kind of world it would be, but every line of his stories called for a fight against “ leaden abominations life."

The extraordinary popularity of the aspiring writer in Russia and far beyond its borders is explained mainly by the fact that in the works of early Gorky, new hero- hero-fighter, hero-rebel.

The work of young Gorky is characterized by a persistent search for the heroic in life: “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel”, the poem “Man”. Boundless and proud faith in a person capable of supreme self-sacrifice constitutes one of the most important properties writer's humanism.

“In life... there is always room for exploits. And those who do not find them for themselves are simply lazy or cowards, or do not understand life...” wrote Gorky (“Old Woman Izergil”). The progressive youth of Russia enthusiastically greeted these proud Gorky words. This is what the worker Pyotr Zalomov, the prototype of Pavel Vlasov in Maxim Gorky’s novel “Mother,” says about the enormous power of the revolutionary impact of Gorky’s romantic images: “The Song of the Falcon” was more valuable to us than dozens of proclamations... Unless a dead or immeasurably low, cowardly slave I might not have woken up from it, not been inflamed with anger and a thirst for fight.”

During these same years, the writer, drawing people from the people, revealed their dissatisfaction with life and their unconscious desire to change it (stories “Chelkash”, “The Orlov Spouses”, “Malva”, “Emelyan Pilyai”, “Konovalov”).

In 1902, Gorky wrote the play “At the Lower Depths”. It is imbued with protest against the social order of capitalist society and a passionate call for a fair and free life.

“Freedom at all costs! - this is her spiritual essence.” This is how K. S. Stanislavsky defined the idea of ​​the play, who staged it on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater. The gloomy life of the Kostylevo doss house is depicted by Gorky as the embodiment of social evil. The fate of the inhabitants of the “bottom” is a formidable indictment against the capitalist system. The people living in this cave-like basement are victims of an ugly and cruel order in which a person ceases to be human and is doomed to drag out a miserable existence.

The inhabitants of the “bottom” are thrown out of life due to the wolf laws that reign in society. Man is left to his own devices. If he stumbles, loses track, he is threatened with “the bottom”, inevitable moral, and often physical death. Anna died, the Actor commits suicide, and the rest are broken and disfigured by life. But under the dark and gloomy arches of the lodging house, among the pitiful and crippled, unfortunate and homeless vagabonds, words about Man, about his calling, about his strength and beauty sound like a solemn hymn. “Man – this is the truth! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! It's great! That sounds... proud!” If a person is beautiful in his essence and only the bourgeois system reduces him to such a state, then, therefore, everything must be done to destroy this system in a revolutionary way and create conditions under which a person will become truly free and beautiful.

In the play "The Bourgeois" (1901) main character worker Neil, when he first appears on stage, immediately attracts the attention of the audience. He is stronger, smarter and kinder than other characters introduced in "The Philistines". According to Chekhov, Neil is the most interesting figure in the play. Gorky emphasized in his hero the purposeful strength, the firm conviction that “rights are not given” - “rights are taken”, Neil’s belief that a person has the power to make life beautiful.

Gorky understood that only the proletariat and only through revolutionary struggle could realize Nile’s dream.

Therefore, the writer subordinated both his creativity and social activities serving the revolution. He wrote proclamations and published Marxist literature. For his participation in the 1905 revolution, Gorky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

And then angry letters flew from all over the world in defense of the writer. “Enlightened people, people of science in Russia, Germany, Italy, France, let us unite. Gorky's cause is our common cause. A talent like Gorky belongs to the whole world. The whole world is interested in his release,” wrote the leading French writer Anatole France in his protest. The Tsarist government had to release Gorky.

According to the writer Leonid Andreev, Gorky in his works not only predicted the coming storm, he “called the storm behind him.” This was his feat in literature.

The story of Pavel Vlasov (“Mother”, 1906) shows the conscious entry of a young worker into the revolutionary struggle. In the fight against autocracy, Paul’s character matures, consciousness, willpower, and perseverance become stronger. Gorky was the first in literature to portray the revolutionary worker as a heroic person whose life is an example to follow.

No less remarkable life path Pavel's mother. From a timid, poverty-stricken woman who humbly believed in God, Nilovna turned into a conscious participant in the revolutionary movement, free from superstitions and prejudices, aware of her human dignity.

“Gather, people, your forces into a single force!” - Nilovna addresses these words to the people during the arrest, calling on new fighters under the banner of the revolution.

Focus on the future and poeticization of the heroic personality are combined in the novel “Mother” with real events and real fighters for a bright future.

In the first years after the revolution, M. Gorky published a series literary portraits their contemporaries, memories, stories “about great people and noble hearts.”

It’s as if a gallery of Russian writers comes to life before us: L. Tolstoy, “the most Difficult person XIX century,” Korolenko, Chekhov, Leonid Andreev, Kotsyubinsky... Talking about them, Gorky finds precise, picturesque, unique colors, reveals both the originality of the writing talent and the character of each of these outstanding people.

Gorky, who was greedily drawn to knowledge and people, always had many devoted friends and sincere admirers. They were attracted by Gorky's personal charm and the versatility of his talented nature.

V. I. Lenin highly valued the writer, who for Gorky was the embodiment of a human fighter, rebuilding the world in the interests of all humanity. Vladimir Ilyich came to Gorky’s aid when he doubted and was mistaken, supported him, and worried about his health.

At the end of 1921, Alexei Maksimovich’s long-standing tuberculosis process worsened. At the insistence of V.I. Lenin, Gorky leaves for treatment abroad, on the island of Capri. And although communication with the Motherland is difficult, Gorky still maintains extensive correspondence, edits numerous publications, carefully reads the manuscripts of young writers, and helps everyone find their creative personality. It is difficult to say which of the writers of that time managed without Gorky’s support and friendly advice. From the “wide Gorky sleeve,” as L. Leonov once noted, came K. Fedin, Vs. Ivanov, V. Kaverin and many other Soviet writers.

Gorky's creative rise during these years is striking. He writes the famous memoirs about V.I. Lenin, finishes autobiographical trilogy, publishes novels “The Artamonov Case”, “The Life of Klim Samgin”, plays, stories, articles, pamphlets. In them, he continues the story about Russia, about the Russian people, boldly rebuilding the world.

In 1925, Gorky published the novel “The Artamonov Case,” where he revealed the complete doom of the possessive world. He showed how the true creators of the “cause” - the workers who committed in October 1917 - become the masters of life. great revolution. The theme of the people and their labor has always remained leading in Gorky’s work.

The epic chronicle of M. Gorky “The Life of Klim Samgin” (1926–1936), dedicated to the fate of the Russian people, the Russian intelligentsia, covers a significant period of Russian life - from the 80s of the 19th century. until 1918 Lunacharsky called this work “a moving panorama of decades.” The writer reveals the personal fates of the heroes in connection with historical events. At the center of the story is Klim Samgin, a bourgeois intellectual masquerading as a revolutionary. The very movement of history exposes him, exposes the individualism and insignificance of this man, an “empty soul,” a “reluctant revolutionary.”

Gorky convincingly showed that isolation from the people, especially in the era of great revolutionary storms and upheavals, leads to spiritual impoverishment human personality.

Life individuals and families in Gorky’s works are assessed in comparison with historical destinies and the struggle of the people (“The Life of Klim Samgin”, dramas “Yegor Bulychov and others”, “Dostigaev and others”, “Somov and others”).

Very complex social and psychological conflict in the drama “Yegor Bulychev and Others” (1931). The anxiety and uncertainty that have gripped the masters of life force the merchant Yegor Bulychev to persistently reflect on the meaning of human existence. And his furious cry: “I live on the wrong street! I ended up with strangers, for about thirty years all with strangers... My father drove rafts. And here I am..." - sounds like a curse to that dying world in which the ruble - " master thief", where the interests of the pure enslaved and mutilated a person. And it is no coincidence that the daughter of the merchant Bulychev Shura rushes with such hope to where the revolutionary anthem is played.

Returning to his homeland in 1928, Gorky became one of the organizers of the Union Soviet writers. And in 1934, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers, he made a report in which he unfolded the broadest picture historical development humanity and showed that everything cultural values created by the hands and minds of the people.

During these years, Gorky traveled a lot around the country and created essays “Around the Union of Soviets.” He talks excitedly about the great changes in Soviet country, speaks with political articles, pamphlets, as literary critic. With pen and word, the writer fights for high level mastery of writers, for the brightness and purity of the language of literature.

He created many stories for children (“Grandfather Arkhip and Lenka”, “Sparrow”, “The Case of Yevseyka”, etc.). Even before the revolution, he conceived the idea of ​​publishing the series “Life wonderful people" But only after the revolution did Gorky’s dream of creating a large, real literature for children - “heirs of all the grandiose work of humanity.”