Who carried the coffin of bitter. Mental illness maxim gorky

A day is a small life, and you need to live it as if you should die now, and you were unexpectedly given another day.

The patient's despondency is the most active ally of the disease.

How can you not trust a person? Even if you see - he is lying, believe him, that is, listen and try to understand why he is lying?

A.M. Gorky with his son
Maksim Gorky (Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov) was born on March 29, 1868. His father was a cabinet-maker (according to another version - the manager of the Astrakhan office of the shipping company I.S. At the age of nine he became an orphan, and his grandmother had a decisive influence on him,

“Due to the extremely difficult living conditions, disagreements and complex contradictions in views of reality with the populists, who took possession of Derenkov's bakery, the death of his grandmother, the arrest and death of people close to him, Gorky experiences mental depression, which he later described in the story“ A Case from the Life of Makar ". On December 12, 1887, in Kazan, Gorky tried to commit suicide.

Having bought an old revolver at the market, Maksim Gorky at eight o'clock in the evening on the banks of the Kazanka River near the Fedorov Monastery, he shot himself in the chest. " “The bullet passed the heart, only slightly hitting the lung. The wounded man was brought first to the police unit, and then to the zemstvo hospital. "
From December 12 to December 21, Gorky was in this hospital. In March 1888, at the suggestion of Romas, he left Kazan ... ". January 2 1888 years after the failed assassination attempt suicide discharged from the zemstvo hospital.

In a small essay "On the dangers of philosophy" Gorky artistically, colorfully, but apparently quite truthfully describes mental illness which he suffered in 1889—1890 years. However, it is unlikely that Gorky himself believed that philosophy made him insane, although cosmogonic delusional ideas or representations play big role in Gorky's delirium.

A friend of Gorky, who lectured him on philosophy, loved bread sprinkled with a thick layer of quinine, he repeatedly poisoned himself until he was finally poisoned with indigo in 1901. After two lectures, Gorky fell ill. And maybe even earlier! Already at the second lecture of Vasiliev, Gorky „

I saw something indescribable terrible: inside a huge, bottomless bowl, overturned on its side, ears, eyes, palms of hands with spread fingers are worn, heads without faces are rolling, human legs are walking, each separately from the other, something clumsy and hairy is jumping, reminiscent of a bear, the roots of trees move like huge spiders, and the branches and leaves live separately from them; multi-colored wings fly, eyeless muzzles of huge bulls gaze mutely at me, and their round eyes jump in fear above them; here the winged leg of a camel runs, and after it the horned head of an owl rushes swiftly — the entire inside of the bowl I see is filled with a whirlwind movement of individual members, parts of pieces, sometimes connected to each other in an ironically ugly manner.

In this chaos of gloomy disunity, in a silent whirlwind of torn bodies, Hate and Love move majestically, opposing each other, Hate and Love, indistinguishable from one another, a ghostly, bluish radiance pours out from them, recalling the winter sky on a sunny day, and illuminates everything moving with a deathly monotonous light ".

„after a few days I felt that my brain melts and boils giving birth to strange thoughts, fantastic visions and pictures. A feeling of longing, sucking life, seized me, and I began to fear insanity. But I was brave, made up my mind to go to the end of my fear, and this is probably what saved me.".

A whole series of fantasies follows, which Gorky experienced partly in a hallucinatory way, and of which the most interesting, since it contains a "description" "of eternity, is the following:

„

From the mountain on which I was sitting, big black people with copper heads could come out. Here they walk in a close crowd through the air and fill the world with a deafening sound; from it, trees, bell towers are falling, as if cut off by an invisible saw, houses are being destroyed, and now — everything on the earth has turned into a column of greenish burning dust, there is only a round, smooth desert, and in the middle of me, one for four eternity. Exactly —by four, I saw these eternity: huge dark gray circles of fog or smoke, they slowly revolve in impenetrable darkness, almost indistinguishable from it in their ghostly color ...

“... Beyond the river, on a dark plane, a human ear grows almost to heaven, an ordinary ear, with thick hair in a shell, grows and —listens to whatever I think. "

“With the long two-handed sword of a medieval executioner, flexible as a scourge, I killed countless people; they walked towards me on the right and left, men and women, all naked, walking in silence, bowing their heads, obediently stretching their necks. Behind me stood an unknown creature, and it was by his will I killed, and it breathed into my brain with cold needles. "

“A naked woman approached me on bird paws instead of feet, golden rays emanated from her breasts. So she poured handfuls of burning oil on my head, and, bursting into flames like a clump of cotton wool, I disappeared. "

In addition to hallucinations of vision, at this time Gorka had clearly expressed hallucinations of hearing, which were so intense that they caused him to make noisy speeches:

„

And at home two mice were waiting for me, tamed by me. They lived behind a timber-clad wall; in it, at the table level, they gnawed a crack and crawled out right on the table when I began to make noise with the plates of the dinner left for me by the landlady. "

And so I saw: funny animals turned into little gray devils and, sitting on a box of tobacco, dangled their shaggy legs, looking at me importantly, while a boring voice, no one knows whose, whispered, reminiscent of the quiet noise of the rain:

— common goal all devils — to help people in search of misfortune.

- It's a lie! I shouted angrily. -No one is looking for misfortune ...

Then someone appeared. I heard him rattle the latch of the gate, open the door of the porch, the hallway, and — here he is in my room. It is round like soap bubble, without hands, instead of a face, he has a clock dial, and the hands are made of carrots, for which I have had idiosyncrasy since childhood. I know that this is the husband of the woman I love, he just changed his clothes so that I don’t recognize him. Here it turns into real person, plump with a light brown beard, soft look of kind eyes; smiling, he tells me all that evil and unflattering that I think of his wife and that no one but me can know.

“Get out!” I shout at him.

Then behind my wall there is a knock on the wall — this is the knocking of the landlady, sweet and clever Filitsata Tikhomirova. Her knocking brings me back to the world of reality, I pour my eyes cold water and through the window, so as not to slam doors, not to disturb the sleeping people, I crawl out into the garden, there I sit until morning.

In the morning, at tea, the hostess says:

And you shouted again at night ...

I am unspeakably ashamed, I despise myself. "

A very important symptom that complements the picture of Gorky's illness, which we are trying to reproduce here from excerpts from "On the Dangers of Philosophy", is sharp dreamy stunnedness, leading to the fact that Gorky, while working, suddenly forgets himself and the environment and unconsciously introduces into the work elements completely alien to her, which are not in direct or indirect connection with her, as happens in a dream, where the most impossible contradictory facts are connected in one unit. Here is what Gorky says:

„

At that time, I worked as a clerk for the attorney at law A.I. Lapin, wonderful person to whom I owe a lot. Once, when I came to him, he met me, madly waving some papers, shouting:

- Are you crazy with

went? What did you, my friend, write in the appeal? Please rewrite immediately — the deadline for submission is due today. Marvelous! If this is a joke, then it’s a bad one, I’ll tell you!

I took the complaint from his hands and read a clearly written quatrain in the text:

- The night lasts endlessly ...

My torment is beyond measure.

If I knew how to pray.

If I knew the happiness of faith.

For me, these poems struck the same surprise as for the patron, I looked at them and almost did not believe that it was written by me. "

And fantasies and visions more and more take possession of Gorky:

“From these visions and nocturnal conversations with by different persons, who, unknown how, appeared before me and subtly disappeared, as soon as the consciousness of reality returned to me, from this too interesting life on the border of madness, it was necessary to get rid of. I had already reached such a state that even in the daytime in the light of the sun I was tensely awaiting miraculous events. "

“I probably would not be very surprised if any house in the city suddenly jumped over me. Nothing, in my opinion, prevented the cabman's horse, standing on its hind legs, to proclaim in a deep bass:

- "Anathema".

To these extravagant antics of unbridled fantasy, to dreamy stupefaction, hallucinations, at times obsessions, actions and deeds are added:

“There is a woman in a straw hat and yellow gloves sitting on a bench in the boulevard, near the Kremlin wall. If I go to her and say:

- There is no god.

She will exclaim in surprise, offended:

- How? And — I? —Will immediately turn into a winged creature and fly away, after which the whole earth will immediately grow into thick trees without leaves, greasy, blue mucus will drip from their branches and trunks, and I, as a criminal, will be sentenced to be a toad for 23 years and so that I all the time, day and night, he was ringing the big echoing bell of the Ascension Church.

Since I really, intolerably want to tell the lady that there is no God, but I see well what the consequences of my sincerity will be, I leave as soon as possible, sideways, almost at a run. "

Reality, the world of real phenomena, at times ceases to exist completely for Gorky:

"Everything is possible. And it is possible that there is nothing, so I need to touch fences, walls, trees with my hand. This is somewhat reassuring. Especially if you beat a hard one with your fist for a long time, you are convinced that it exists.

“The earth is very insidious, you walk on it as confidently as all people, but suddenly its density disappears under your feet, the earth becomes as permeable as air, remaining dark, and the soul falls headlong into this darkness for an infinitely long time, it lasts seconds ".

"The sky is also unreliable; it can at any time change the shape of the dome to the shape of a pyramid, top down; the tip of the top will rest against my skull and I will have to stand motionless on one point, until the iron stars that fasten the sky will not rust, then it will crumble into red dust and bury me.

Everything is possible. Only it is impossible to live in a world of such opportunities.

My soul was in great pain. And if two years ago I had not been convinced personal experience how humiliating the stupidity of suicide is, I would probably use this method of treating a sick soul " .

(Delirium febrile ). This diagnosis is supported by that characteristic combination of symptoms (fantasies, illusions, hallucinations, the affect of fear), which we have already indicated, illustrating them with excerpts from Gorky's description of his illness, dreamy deafness and fever. Kraepelin characterizes briefly febrile delirium as delirium, "Accompanied by a more or less harsh dreamlike stupor, unclear, often perverted assimilation of the environment and fantastic experiences, sometimes also quite strong anxiety with a fearful or cheerful mood."

Gorky was undoubtedly suffering from feverish delirium, who, thanks to Gorky's fascination with cosmogonic fantasies, received especially rich food and flourished, perhaps longer than it would have been under other, less favorable conditions.

Gorky turned to a psychiatrist for advice and tells how his psychiatrist treated him, thus giving us the opportunity to judge the psychiatric science of that time in its application in practice.

„.

..A small, black, hunchbacked psychiatrist, a lonely man, clever and skeptic, asked for two hours how I live, then, slapping me on the knee with a terribly white hand, said:

- You, my friend, first of all need to throw books to hell, and in general all the rubbish that you live. By your build, you are a healthy person — and you are ashamed to dissolve yourself so much. You need physical labor. How about women? Well! That won't do either. Leave abstinence to others, and get yourself a woman who is greedier in the game of love — this will be useful.

He gave me some more advice, equally unpleasant and unacceptable to me, wrote two recipes, then said a few phrases that are very memorable to me:

“I heard something about you and — I apologize if you don’t like it.” You seem to me a man, so to speak, primitive. And in primitive people, fantasy always prevails over logical thinking. Everything that you read, saw, aroused in you only a fantasy, and it is completely irreconcilable with reality, which, although also fantastic, but in its own way. Then: one ancient wise guy said: whoever willingly contradicts is incapable of learning anything practical. It is said well: first, study, then contradict, so it is necessary.

As he accompanied me, he repeated with a smile of a merry devil:

- And the butterfly is very useful for you. " .

I am deliberately quoting the entire passage where Gorky draws a psychiatrist because of the historical value of this passage. Oddly enough, but long before the emergence and spread of Freudian psychoanalysis (the book "Studien uber Hystherie", which Freud wrote together with Joseph Breuer and which served as the basis and starting point of psychoanalysis, was published only in 1895), attributing to the sexual sphere, in fact psychosexual disorders the main role in the development of mental illness, there was a view among Russian psychiatrists that sex life takes an active part in the formation of a healthy and sick psyche of a person, and the psychiatrist, who gave Gorky advice, insists (!) "The woman who is greedy for the love game", assuring him that it will be good for him!

Gorky mentions many times that his sexual desire in his youth was poorly developed, explaining this partly by hard physical labor, partly by passion for literature and science. Dr. I. B. Galant (Moscow)psychiatry. ru ›book _ show. php ...

In 1918, Maxim Gorky publishes an article in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn condemning the consequences of the Bolshevik coup in the country: that Lenin had grabbed onto the petty-bourgeois hair of Milyukov, and Milyukov would have ruffled Lenin's lush curls ... But it is not pans, but slaves who are fighting. people and, as if scoffing at themselves, shout: "Long live the world!"

Maxim Gorky died on June 18, 1936 in the town of Gorki, near Moscow. He was buried on June 20, 1936 in Moscow on Red Square near the Kremlin wall. Gorky's brain was sent for study to the Brain Institute in Moscow. There is still a lot of unclear around his death, as well as the death of his son Maxim. It is interesting that, among other accusations against Genrikh Yagoda at the so-called Third Moscow Trial in 1938, there was an accusation of poisoning Gorky's son. According to Yagoda's interrogations, Maxim Gorky was killed on the orders of Trotsky, and the murder of Gorky's son, Maxim Peshkov, was his personal initiative.

Some publications blame Stalin for Gorky's death. An important precedent for the medical side of the charges in the "Doctors' Case" was the Third Moscow Trial (1938), where among the defendants were three doctors (Kazakov, Levin and Pletnev), accused of the murders of Gorky and others.

Not every writer gets honor and glory during his lifetime the way they came to Maxim Gorky. The date of birth and death of this extraordinary person is of interest to many compatriots. After all, he himself witnessed its renaming hometown, Nizhny Novgorod, in his honor. Then a street in Moscow was named after him, two largest theaters, plane, cruiser, motor ship. In the Soviet years, the popularity of Gorky's work was at its peak. Today there are not even small streets of his name left.

Many do not know at all the date of Maxim Gorky's death and its reasons. Well, let's go through the main pages of the biography of the writer. Let's try to understand the reasons for Gorky's death. His death was very mysterious, and his work evokes mixed feelings among readers. And now about everything in order.

Childhood and adolescence

Dates of Gorky's life and death: March 16, 1868 - June 18, 1936 Russian and Soviet writer, public figure, the founder of the style socialist realism, Maxim Gorky happened to be born in the glorious Nizhny Novgorod. The real name and surname of Maxim Alekseevich is Alexey Peshkov. His family was poor, his father died when the boy was three years old, and 8 years later his mother died. The boy's fate was "bitter", perhaps that is why he later took on such a pseudonym. Little Alyosha was brought up by his maternal grandfather - Kashirin, who owns a dye shop.

In the family of a stingy grandfather, the boy did not live easily, very early he "went to the people", began to get a job on different jobs... He had to master the profession of a dishwasher, baker, assistant shop assistant. He was later able to display all his childhood ordeals in the first part autobiographical work"Childhood". Alexei's grandmother, unlike his grandfather, showed kindness, care, told him interesting stories... When she died, the young man even tried to commit suicide. He shot himself and the bullet damaged a lung, causing further health problems.

In 1884, Alexei had an unsuccessful attempt to enter Kazan University. The young man began to attend N. Fedoseev's Marxist circle, for which he was arrested for a short time. Wandering around Russia became a favorite pastime of the young man. Working as a loader, a night watchman, Alexey was engaged in self-education. At the age of 24, he tried himself as a journalist in some small publications. Then he took the pseudonym Yehudiel Chlamyda, but then changed it to Maxim Gorky, hinting at the difficult Russian life.

Literary beginnings and first political steps

The year 1892 was marked by the appearance of Gorky's first story - "Makar Chudra". Then "Chelkash" and "Old Woman Izergil" appeared. They were followed by "Song of the Falcon" and " Former people". Not so much artistic features how much exaggerated, pompous pathos, inspired by new political trends in the country. Marxism was gaining more and more popularity in radical circles. In Gorky's stories, the main characters were tramps-lumpen, which was very welcomed by society.

In 1898 Alexey Maksimovich published his first collection "Essays and Stories". This served to take off his social and creative career. The writer greatly exaggerated the life of the poor, their difficulties, defended the interests of the working class. His works were endowed with a feigned pathos of "humanity", which was praised by intellectuals and "class-conscious workers." Despite the ambiguous attitude towards his work, Tolstoy and Chekhov made a friendly acquaintance with him. After that, he wrote the novel "Three".

Gorky defended the interests of the Marxist Social Democracy, hostile to tsarism. Soon his famous revolutionary "Petrel Song" came out. The writer was suspected of calling for the overthrow of the autocracy, was arrested and forced to leave his hometown.

He soon made friends with many revolutionaries, including Lenin. In 1902, the government annulled the election of Gorky as a member of the Imperial Academy in the category of fine literature. Chekhov and Korolenko also resigned in solidarity with the writer.

Beginning in 1905, his works became more optimistic. Gorky wrote several plays on social topics. The play "At the Bottom" was very popular not only in Russia, but also in the USA and Europe. The writer was close to the political views of the opposition. For the publication of the play "Children of the Sun" and participation in the 1905 revolution, he was imprisoned in the St. Petersburg Peter and Paul Fortress... Gorky's beloved in those years was former actress

Having freed himself, Alexey Maksimovich continued his writing career, became rich, began to financially support the Russian Social Democratic Party. "Bloody Sunday" in 1905 made the writer even more radical. On most issues, he shared the opinion of the Bolsheviks and Lenin.

Escaping arrest, Gorky hid in Finland and then in the United States. There he raised funds to support the Bolsheviks. This trip prompted him to write the novel "Mother". It was first published in London on English language... Among the acquaintances of Alexei Maksimovich were Theodore Roosevelt himself and Mark Twain. The writer did not quite like America's "bourgeois spirit" either; he condemned it.

Gorky's stay in Capri

Fearing arrest for participating in the Moscow uprising, Maxim Gorky, after America, went to the Italian island of Capri. He continued to support the Russian Bolsheviks with his novels and essays. With two more emigrants, Lunacharsky and Bogdanov, he formed a philosophical system called "God-building".

It was intended to develop new moral values to get rid of evil, suffering and poverty. Lenin rejected these philosophical quest a writer. But Gorky believed that spiritual values ​​are nevertheless very important for revolutionary success. He put them above political and economic measures. The novel "Confession", written in 1907, is dedicated to spiritual values.

Return to Russia

In 1913, under an amnesty, Gorky returned to Russia and became an active public and literary figure... He was engaged in the training of young writers from the people. In 1915 the writer became a member of the publication of the journalistic collection "Shield". His goal was to protect oppressed Jews in Russia. The Bolsheviks often gathered in Gorky's apartment, but just before the 1917 revolution, the writer changed his attitude towards them. He foresaw that Lenin would conduct a cruel experiment on the Russian people, doomed to failure. After that, the Bolsheviks began to persecute Gorky's newspaper Novaya Zhizn with censorship. Now in the Bolsheviks he saw chatterboxes and idlers.

In 1918, a series of critical notes on the Leninist government "Untimely Thoughts" was published. These notes in Russia became familiar only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. There he criticized Lenin for his repression of freedom of thought.

Over the years, the Bolshevik regime became stronger and stronger, and Gorky criticized less. Alexey Maksimovich was very worried when he learned about it in 1918. When he recovered, Gorky even visited him and realized his mistakes. He joined the society of Bolshevik writers in the publishing house " World literature". The best classical works, but only on a small scale. Here Alexey Maksimovich met and became friends with Maria Benckendorff.

Emigration to Italy

In 1921, a friend of the writer, the poet Nikolai Gumilyov (husband of Anna Akhmatova), was shot by the Chekists. Gorky personally asked Lenin in writing not to do this. This event prompted Alexei Maksimovich to leave Bolshevik Russia. While living in German resorts, M. Gorky finished writing his autobiography "My Universities". In 1924, the writer moved to Italy to treat tuberculosis. He lived for nine years in Italian city Sorrento, visited several times Soviet Union... In 1932, Stalin personally suggested that Alexei Maksimovich move to his homeland. The writer still had sympathy for the Bolsheviks, and he decided to return.

Mature views of a writer

Communist propaganda made extensive use of the writer's departure from fascist Italy... Now more like the eulogies of the Soviet system. In the style of Leninist-Stalinist propaganda, he wrote the article "With whom are you, masters of culture?" In it, he called on artists, actors, writers to serve the communist movement with their creativity. Alexei Maksimovich was awarded the Order of Lenin for this and was allowed to dominate the Union of Soviet Writers.

Maxim Gorky was provided with a luxurious mansion in Moscow and a dacha nearby. All the festive demonstrations did not go without going to the podium of the Gorky mausoleum together with Stalin. The writer's work fully supported the Stalinist propaganda. In his writings, there were convictions that Soviet correctional camps were successfully "forging" the enemies of the proletariat. Only for this lie did Alexey Maksimovich pay with considerable mental anguish. Stalin knew about the writer's hesitation. In 1934, after the murder of Kirov, Alexei Maksimovich was placed under house arrest. The Stalinist "Great Terror" began. In 1934, a 36-year-old son of Gorky dies in an incomprehensible situation. The writer then had 2 more years to live.

Gorky's disease is a subject of speculation and controversy

The death of Gorky Maxim was unexpected. It all started in May 1936 when he fell ill. He had a high fever, shortness of breath, and an uneven pulse. Doctors recognized pneumonia, but did not tell the writer about it. The condition was aggravated by hiccups, restless hand movements. One by one, doctors and relatives and friends came into his bedroom. He almost did not recognize anyone. The doctors announced that they were powerless.

One day Stalin phoned and said that he would come with Molotov and Voroshilov to visit Alexei Maksimovich. This simply revived the writer, for a meeting with the leader he was injected with a large dose of camphor. The encouraged writer was even able to keep up a conversation during the meeting. On that day, he even sipped a little wine and said that he still had a lot to do.

After improvement, new seizures began. Oxygen pillows were put on him. The death of M. Gorky overtook in the spring, as he wrote to one of his friends. On his last day, he whispered barely audibly: "Let me go."

Suspicion of the murder of a writer

The year of Gorky's death is 1936. In recent days, the writer could not even lie down, they lifted him up. Coming to his senses, he said that in his delirium he argued with God. Pulmonary edema soon began. There was no time to bring the bags of oxygen to the writer's house by truck. Soon, Alexei Maksimovich began to suffer agony. The date of Gorky's death is June 18, 1936 at 11 a.m.

The doctors immediately began doing an autopsy. It showed that the lungs were in a terrible state. Thus, suspicion was removed from them. But still they were accused of incompetence, and then of malicious murder. Most of the witnesses were of the opinion that pneumonia was nevertheless the cause of Gorky's death. This could have been prevented. Therefore, suspicions arose about his poisoning.

Here are some facts about the possibility of poisoning:

• The GPU GG Yagoda often appeared in the writer's house.
• Physically, Gorky was a hardy person and could cope with pneumonia.
• After the death of the writer, the doctors and Yagoda were shot, possibly, they got rid of unnecessary witnesses.
• Immediately after his death, the doctors "gutted" Gorky's body. The relatives were convinced that if the writer had not been treated, he would have survived.
• The government decided to cremate Gorky. Yagoda did not allow to give relatives even a piece of ash for burial.
• During the trial, it was revealed that Yagoda, who was arrested in 1937, had a whole cabinet of poisons, which was developed by a special laboratory.

Conclusions on the causes of death of Maxim Gorky

So, Yagoda, two Soviet ministers and four Kremlin doctors were in the dock. Trotsky was in charge of the investigation. It was he who put forward the version of the murder. Trotsky accused Yagoda of having poisoned Gorky on his orders. Why did Stalin need to get rid of the "petrel of the proletariat"?

Trotsky saw in Gorky a defender for the offended, a sentimental Protestant. Almost everyone protested against the famine of the first and second five-year plans. And Alexei Maksimovich had connections with European writers, he formed public opinion in Russia. It was impossible to force him to be silent, just as it was impossible to shoot him. The writer tried to escape abroad, Stalin refused to issue him a passport. Therefore, Gorky was liquidated without shedding blood. But this is just speculation.

Stalin together with Molotov at the funeral carried the coffin of the writer. Then Stalin himself announced that Gorky had been poisoned by "the enemies of the people." Former chapter OGPU and NKVD Heinrich Yagoda was convicted and accused of collusion with Trotsky.

Assessment of the writer's creative searches

Maxim Gorky had different relationship with the Bolshevik leaders in different years his life. It was beneficial for the Kremlin to see in him a major Russian writer of his time, a native of the people, true friend the Communist Party and the father of "socialist realism". Portraits, statues and monuments to Gorky spread throughout the country.

In Europe, however, there were fluctuations in the views of the writer on the Soviet system and his criticism of the Bolshevik regime. Maxim Gorky in his works not only expressed himself artistically and aesthetically, but also had the goal of morally changing the world. From the literary side, his works are not strong enough, but they give a very realistic picture of Russian life late XIX century. Such, in brief, are the life and death of Gorky.

Alexey Peshkov, better known as the writer Maxim Gorky, for the Russian and Soviet literature a cult figure. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize five times, was the most published Soviet author throughout the entire existence of the USSR and was considered on a par with Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and the main creator of Russian literary art.

Alexey Peshkov - the 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 last years Life ran a steamship office. Vasilievna's mother died of consumption, so Alyosha Peshkova's parents were replaced by Akulina Ivanovna's grandmother. From the age of 11, the boy was forced to start working: Maxim Gorky was a messenger at a store, a barman on a steamer, an assistant to a 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 being arrested due to his connection with a Marxist circle future writer became a watchman on railroad... And at the age of 23, a young man goes to wander around the country and managed to get to the Caucasus on foot. It was during this journey that Maxim Gorky briefly wrote down his thoughts, which would later become the basis for his future works. By the way, the first stories of Maxim Gorky also began to be published around that time.

Alexey Peshkov, who took the pseudonym Gorky | Nostalgia

Having already become a 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 for all his Marxist views, Peshkov was rather skeptical about the October Revolution. After the Civil War, Maxim Gorky, who had some disagreements with the new government, went abroad again, but in 1932 he finally returned home.

Writer

The first of the published stories by Maxim Gorky was the famous "Makar Chudra", which came out in 1892. The two-volume "Essays and Stories" brought fame to the writer. It is interesting that the circulation of these volumes was almost three times higher than usually accepted in those years. Of the most popular works of that period, it is worth noting the stories "The Old Woman Izergil", "Former People", "Chelkash", "Twenty Six and One", as well as the poem "Song of the Falcon". Another poem "The Song of the Petrel" has become 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 in the Soviet Union children's magazine and organized parties for children from poor families.

Legendary Soviet writer | Kiev Jewish community

The plays by Maxim Gorky "At the bottom", "Bourgeois" and "Yegor Bulychov and others", in which he reveals the talent of a playwright and shows how he sees the life around him, are very important for comprehending the work of the writer. Big cultural significance for Russian literature they have the stories "Childhood" and "In People", social romances"Mother" and "The Artamonovs Case". The last work Gorky is considered an 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 manage to finish it.

Personal life

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

With his first wife Yekaterina Volzhina | Livejournal

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

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 previous relationships, the actress left a daughter, Catherine, 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 came to an end.

With third wife Maria Budberg and writer HG Wells | Livejournal

Gorky himself put a point, saying 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. The last wife of Maxim 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 de facto husband. There is a great chance that Maria Budberg, who had a reputation as an adventurer and unambiguously collaborated with the NKVD, could be a double agent and also work for British intelligence.

Death

After his final return to his homeland in 1932, Maxim Gorky works in publishing houses of newspapers and magazines, creates a series of books "History of Factories and Plants", "Library of the Poet", "History of the Civil War", organizes and conducts the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers. After unexpected death son of pneumonia, the writer wilted. At 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 his life | Digital library

Later, the question was raised several times that legendary writer and his son could have been poisoned. In this case, people's commissar Genrikh Yagoda, who was the lover of Maxim Peshkov's wife. Also suspected of involvement and even. During the repressions and the consideration of the famous "Doctors' Case", three doctors were accused of including the death of Maxim Gorky.

Books by Maxim Gorky

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

"Medicine is innocent here ..." This is exactly what doctors Levin and Pletnev, who treated the writer in last months his life, and later involved as defendants in the trial of the "Trotskyist bloc".

Soon, however, they "admitted" the deliberately inappropriate treatment ...
... and even "showed" that their accomplices were nurses, giving the patient up to 40 injections of camphor per day. But as it really was, there is no consensus.
The historian L. Fleischlan directly writes: "The fact of the murder of Gorky can be considered irrevocably established." V. Khodasevich, on the contrary, believes in the natural cause of death of the proletarian writer.

On the night when Maxim Gorky was dying, a terrible thunderstorm broke out at the state dacha in Gorki-10.
The autopsy was carried out right here, in the bedroom, on the table. The doctors were in a hurry. “When he died,” recalled Gorky’s secretary Pyotr Kryuchkov, “the attitude of the doctors towards him changed. He became just a corpse for them ... They treated him terribly. The orderly began to change his clothes and turned him from side to side, like a log. The autopsy began ... Then they began to wash the insides. We sewed up the cut somehow with a simple twine. They put the brain in a bucket ... "
This bucket, intended for the Institute of the Brain, was personally carried by Kryuchkov into the car. In the memoirs of Kryuchkov there is a strange entry: "Alexei Maksimovich died on the 8th." But Gorky died on June 18 ...
The widow of the writer Ekaterina Peshkova recalls:
“June 8, 6 pm. Alexey Maksimovich's condition deteriorated so much that the doctors, who had lost hope, warned us that the near end was inevitable ... Alexey Maksimovich - in a chair with closed eyes, with his head bowed, leaning now on one or the other hand, pressed to his temple and resting his elbow on the arm of the chair.
The pulse was barely noticeable, uneven, breathing weakened, the face and ears and limbs of the hands turned blue. After a while, as we entered, hiccups began, restless movements of his hands, with which he seemed to push something aside or take something off ... "

“We” are the closest members of the family: Ekaterina Peshkova, Maria Budberg, Nadezhda Peshkova (Gorky's daughter-in-law), Chertkova's nurse, Pyotr Kryuchkov, Ivan Rakitsky - an artist who lived in Gorky's house. For all those present, there is no doubt that the head of the family is dying.
When Ekaterina Pavlovna approached the dying man and asked: "Do you need something?" - everyone looked at her with disapproval. It seemed to everyone that this silence should not be broken. After a pause, Gorky opened his eyes, looked around at those around him: "I was so far away, it is so difficult to return from there."
And suddenly the mise-en-scene changes ... New faces appear. They were waiting in the living room. Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov walk in briskly to the resurrected Gorky. They had already been informed that Gorky was dying. They came to say goodbye. Behind the scene - the head of the NKVD Genrikh Yagoda. He arrived before Stalin. The leader did not like this.
“Why is this guy hanging out here? So that he is not here. "
Stalin behaves like a householder in the house. Shuganul Henry, frightened Kryuchkov. “Why are there so many people? Who is responsible for this? Do you know what we can do with you? " The "owner" has arrived ... The leading party is his! All relatives and friends become only a corps de ballet.
When Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov entered the bedroom, Gorky recovered so much that they began to talk about literature. Gorky began to praise women writers, mentioned Karavaeva - and how many of them, how many more will appear, and everyone must be supported ... Stalin jokingly besieged Gorky: “We will talk about the matter when you get better. If you thought of getting sick, get well soon. Or maybe there is wine in the house, we would drink a glass to your health. "
The wine was brought ... Everyone drank ... As they left, at the door, Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov waved their hands. When they left, Gorky seemed to say: “What good guys! How much power they have ... "


But how much can you believe these memories of Peshkova? In 1964, when asked by the American journalist Isaac Levin about the death of Gorky, she answered: “Don't ask me about it! I won't be able to sleep for three days ... "
The second time Stalin and his comrades came to the terminally ill Gorky on June 10 at two in the morning. But why? Gorky was asleep. No matter how afraid the doctors were, Stalin was not allowed in. Stalin's third visit took place on June 12. Gorky did not sleep. The doctors gave me ten minutes to talk. What were they talking about? On the peasant uprising of Bolotnikov ... We moved on to the position of the French peasantry.
It turns out that on June 8, the main concern of the secretary general and Gorky, who returned from the other world, was the writers, and on the 12th, the French peasants became. All this is somehow very strange.
The arrival of the leader seemed to magically revive Gorky. He did not seem to dare die without Stalin's permission. It is unbelievable, but Budberg will say it bluntly: "He died, in fact, on the 8th, and if it had not been for Stalin's visit, he would hardly have returned to life."
Stalin was not a member of the Gorky family. Hence, the attempt at night invasion was caused by necessity. On the 8th, 10th, and 12th, Stalin needed or straight Talk with Gorky, or the steel confidence that such a frank conversation will not take place with someone else. For example, with Louis Aragon, who was traveling from France. What would Gorky say, what statement could he make?
After the death of Gorky, Kryuchkov was accused of having killed Maxim Peshkov, the son of Gorky, on the instructions of Yagoda, with doctors Levin and Pletnev. But why?
If you follow the testimony of other defendants, the "customers" - Bukharin, Rykov and Zinoviev had a political calculation. In this way, they allegedly wanted to hasten the death of Gorky himself, fulfilling the assignment of their "leader" Trotsky. Nevertheless, even during this trial, there was no question of the direct murder of Gorky. This version would be too incredible, because the patient was surrounded by 17 (!) Doctors.


One of the first to speak about the poisoning of Gorky was the revolutionary-emigrant B.I. Nikolaevsky. Allegedly, Gorky was presented with a bonbonniere with poisoned sweets. But the candy version doesn't hold water.
Gorky did not like sweets, but he adored treating guests, orderlies and, finally, his beloved granddaughters with them. Thus, it was possible to poison with sweets anyone around Gorky, except himself. Only an idiot could have planned such a murder. Neither Stalin nor Yagoda were idiots.
There is no evidence of the murder of Gorky and his son Maxim. Meanwhile, tyrants also have the right to the benefit of the doubt. Stalin committed enough crimes to hang one more on him - unproven.
The reality is this: on June 18, 1936, the great Russian writer Maxim Gorky died. His body, contrary to the will to bury him next to his son in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent, was cremated by the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, an urn with ashes was placed in the Kremlin wall.
In the request of the widow E.P. Peshkova refused to give her part of the ashes for burial in her son's grave by a collective decision of the Politburo ...

DEATH OF MAXIM GORKY

(Material by M. Ershov)

"Medicine is innocent here ..." This is exactly what doctors Levin and Pletnev said at first, who treated the writer in the last months of his life, and later were prosecuted in the trial of the "Trotskyist bloc". Soon, however, they "admitted" 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 really was, there is no consensus. The historian L. Fleischlan directly writes: "The fact of the murder of Gorky can be considered irrevocably established." V. Khodasevich, on the contrary, believes in the natural cause of death of the proletarian writer.

As is known, Foster-son Gorky, Zinovy ​​Peshkov, made a brilliant military and diplomatic career in France, which could have an extremely adverse 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 conveyed them on an opportunity - through the journalist Mikhail Koltsov or through close friends whom he completely trusted. In these messages from Gorky, one could feel the "fear of death", - we read in the memoirs of Louis Aragon, now kept in the archival fund "Triolet - Aragon" in Paris. However, there are no originals of Gorky's letters and telegrams in this archive! No traces of their presence have been found in other writers' archives either. Some researchers believe that Gorky wanted to send to friends in France and his The Diary... However, this diary disappeared without a trace, repeating the fate of many of his letters.

In his letters to Aragon and Triolet, the writer repeatedly rushed them to come to Moscow, persistently called them to the USSR for the necessary and urgent conversation. Which one? This could not be trusted to the 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 Brick. The delay of the guests in Leningrad looked strange, because at that time Aleksey 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 of Gorky's death! 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, June 15!

It was officially reported that on June 1, Gorky caught an elementary flu, which gave serious complications. Bulletins about the writer's state of health were published on the front pages of Pravda and Izvestia - an unprecedented fact 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 visit to Gorky on June 8 by Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov. As the magazine "Kolkhoznik" wrote in those days, "Gorky literally rose from his 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 to wallow! I have to work, answer letters! " He shaved, tidied 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 am he died ...

In 1938, the aforementioned trial of the “Pravotrotskyist bloc” took place, in which the doctor Pletnev appeared among other “enemies of the people”. For "deliberately incorrect treatment" of the great proletarian writer, Pletnev received a substantial sentence and was sent to the Vorkuta camps. There, in 1948, he met with the German communist, who was serving time, B. Hermand. They often held conversations in which they touched upon the circumstances of Gorky's death. After her release, B. Germand told about these conversations in her memoirs. It followed from them that sharp deterioration Gorky's health condition on June 17 was due to the fact that he tasted ... sweets given to him by Stalin! As you know, Yagoda had a special laboratory that made various poisons ... By the way, the protocol on the autopsy of Gorky's body does not mention "testing for poisoning." The testimony of a certain A. Novikov has survived, 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 the autopsy was supposed to detect poisoning, if poisons were used, Novikov just waved his hand:“ You don't understand anything! The autopsy report was drawn up before death Gorky! ””.

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 years, of which 7 years - 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. Moore 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, abstracts and stories about herself. But none of these pieces of paper brought the researchers closer to solving the mystery of Gorky's death, for Mura destroyed her entire personal archive in advance ...

If we accept the version of the premeditated murder of Gorky by order of Stalin, 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 the biography of Stalin, although he was given such a "party assignment" and provided everything for this. necessary materials... The writer disobeyed the leader, and this was not forgiven to anyone! In addition, Gorky was busy with the publication of "Demons" by F.M. Dostoevsky and defended the repressed writers and scientists.

The consequences of such disobedience were the refusal of a passport for a trip to Italy for treatment, the establishment of censorship on correspondence with Romain Rolland, the reproduction of correspondence addressed to the writer ... “Surrounded ... This is unusual! " - such a desperate confession escaped from Gorky in one of his letters. The assassination of Kirov was an event that put an end to hopes of reconciling the authorities with the intelligentsia and the Bolshevik opposition. Mass shootings, exile, the liquidation of the Society of Old Bolsheviks and the Society of Political Prisoners, the trials of Zinoviev and Kamenev, apparently, could not but lay a heavy burden on the writer's heart ...

Romain Rolland noted in his diary that the reason for 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 active political activities otherwise than to stop his life!"

After the death of M. Gorky, persecution and repression began against his collaborators and closest associates. And a certain G. Stetsky, who kept the correspondence between Gorky and Romain Rolland under personal control, was appointed chairman of the commission on the writer's literary heritage. This fact is sometimes referred to by literary critics to this day as the "second death" of the great writer ...

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