Writer and playwright Maxim Gorky illustrated in the Presidential Library’s collections

March 28, 2019 marks the 151th anniversary of the birth of Maxim Gorky, after the birth of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov (1868–1936) - an outstanding Russian prose writer and playwright; one of the most famous Russian writers and thinkers in the world — an enormous number of translations of his works into many languages ​​of the world and a fivefold nomination for the Nobel Prize in literature testifies to this. The extensive electronic collection of the Presidential Library dedicated to the writer includes literary works, correspondence, his memoirs about his contemporaries, photographs of M. Gorky and much more.

Maxim Gorky was born in the family of cabinetmaker Maxim Peshkov and petty bourgeois Varvara Peshkova (nee Kashirina). Early orphaned and suffering from loneliness (the writer will later portray the house of Kashirin’s grandfather in the story “The Childhood”, the trilogy will be continued by the books “In People” and “My Universities”), the teenager learns about the “lead abominations of life” on the one hand, and the other - about the healing power of kindness.

Kashirin was in poverty, he could not cope with his grandson, who had grown up early, and found nothing better than to give him, according to a textbook expression, "to the people". The grandfather sent Alexei to the street master for training in shoemaking “in the dark shoe trade, where he carried with mustiness, leather and wax. Young Peshkov fled from the shoemaker and entered the disciples to the draftsman, a stupid and rude man, with whom he also did not get along. And in the workshop of the icon painter did not last long. Then he managed to get himself a nourishing place as a cook on a steamer”, - we read in the translated publication “M. Gorky Abroad. Book 1. (M. Gorky, a critical etude)" (1902).

Reading became a passion, and later pushed for writing. A separate section of the Presidential Library’s collections is devoted to the creative oeuvre of the prose writer. Here are collected electronic copies of his works, including rare lifetime editions, periodicals of the late XIX - early XX century, where Gorky was published. In addition, here are his articles and editorial work, correspondence.

The memoirs of Maxim Gorky himself deserve special attention. They draw live portraits of many of his famous contemporaries, including A. P. Chekhov, L. N. Andreev, V. I. Lenin, L. N. Tolstoy.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the writer decides to try himself in dramatic art. He creates plays “At the Bottom”, “Egor Bulychev and Others”, “Summer Residents”, “Vassa Zheleznova” - they are successfully performed not only in Russia, but also in Europe. Alexei Maksimovich is embarking on the “Life of Klim Samgin” plan, work on the novel has been going on for 11 years.