Maxim bitter years of death. The mysterious life and death of Maxim Gorky

29.06.2019

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Eighty years ago, the great Russian writer and social and political figure Maxim Gorky died. The circumstances of his death are still in doubt.

Text: Pavel Basinsky
Photo from the site aif.ru

Did he die due to illness, old age (but Gorky was not yet old - 68 years old), or was he killed by Stalin?

Before going to the government dacha in Gorki on May 28, 1936, he demanded to wrap up at the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. He has not yet seen the monument by Vera Mukhina to her son Maxim, who died of pneumonia two years ago. Having examined the grave of his son, he also wished to look at the monument to Stalin's wife, Alliluyeva, who committed suicide.
In the memoirs of secretary Kryuchkov, a strange entry: “ Died A.M. - 8th". But Gorky died on June 18!

The widow Ekaterina Peshkova recalls: “ 8 / VI 6 o'clock in the evening ... A. M. - in a chair with his eyes closed, with his head bowed, leaning 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 a large family to Gorky: Ekaterina Peshkova, Maria Budberg, Nadezhda Peshkova (Gorky's daughter-in-law), nurse Lipa Chertkova, Pyotr Kryuchkov, Ivan Rakitsky (an artist who has lived in a “family” since the revolution).

Budberg: " His hands and ears were blackened. He was dying. And dying, he weakly moved his hand, as one says goodbye at parting».
But suddenly… " After a long pause, AM opened his eyes, whose expression was absent and distant, slowly looked around everyone, stopping him for a long time on each of us, and with difficulty, dull, but separate, in some strange strange voice, said: “I was so far away, it is so difficult to return from there “».

He was returned from the other world by Chertkova, who persuaded the doctors to allow him to inject twenty cubes of camphor. After the first injection, there was a second. Gorky did not immediately agree. Peshkova: “A. M. shook his head negatively and said very firmly: 'Don't, you have to finish.' Kryuchkov recalled that Gorky "did not complain," but sometimes asked him to "let go," "pointed to the ceiling and doors, as if wishing to escape from the room."

But new faces have appeared. Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov came to Gorky. They had already been informed that Gorky was dying. Budberg: " Members of the Politburo, who were informed that Gorky was dying, entered the room and waited to find the dying man, were surprised by his cheerful appearance».
Why was he given the second injection of camphor? Stalin is coming! Budberg: " At that time, PP Kryuchkov, who was leaving before, came in and said: “They just called on the phone - Stalin is asking if it is possible for him and Molotov to come to you? A smile flashed on AM's face, he replied: “Let them go, if they still have time.” Then AD Speransky (one of the doctors who treated Gorky - PB) came in with the words: “Well, AM, Stalin and Molotov have already left, and it seems that Voroshilov is with them. Now I already insist on an injection of camphor, because without this you will not have enough strength to talk with them "».

Peshkova: " When they entered, A.M. had already recovered so much that he immediately started talking about literature. He spoke about new French literature, about the literature of nationalities. He began to praise our women writers, he mentioned Anna Karavaeva - and how many of them, how many more of them we will have, and we all need to be supported ... The wine was brought ... Everyone drank ... Voroshilov kissed Al. M. arm or shoulder. Al. M. smiled happily, looked at them with love. They quickly left. As they left, they waved their hands at the door. When they left, AM said: “What good guys! How much power they have ... "»

This was recorded in 1936. In 1964, when asked by journalist Isaac Don Levin about the circumstances of Gorky's death, Peshkova said something else: “ Don't ask me about it! I won't be able to sleep for three days if I talk to you about this».

Stalin came for the second time on June 10 at two o'clock in the morning. Gorky was asleep. Stalin was not allowed in. A two o'clock visit to a terminally ill person is difficult for a normal person to understand. The third - and last - visit took place on 12 June. Gorky did not sleep. However, the doctors, no matter how they were in awe of Stalin, gave ten minutes to talk. What were they talking about? About the peasant uprising of Bolotnikov. Then they moved on to the position of the French peasantry.

Stalin undoubtedly guarded the dying Gorky. And he buttoned up all the buttons. Gorky lived in a "golden cage". L. A. Spiridonova published a secret list of economic expenses of the 2nd branch of the AHU NKVD "along the line" of the Gorky family:

“The approximate consumption for 9 months of 1936 is as follows:
a) food rub. 560,000
b) repair costs and park costs RUB. 210,000
c) the maintenance of the state rub. 180,000
d) different households. expenses rub. 60,000 Total: rub. 1,010,000 ".

An ordinary doctor received about 300 rubles a month at that time. Writer for a book - 3000 rubles. Gorky's "family" cost the state about 130,000 rubles a month.

He understood the falsity of his position. There is evidence that he suffered in recent years. Read The Moscow Diary by Romain Rolland and the memoirs of the writer Ilya Shkapa. But Gorky was dying stoically, like a very strong man.

And let's not forget that his sins are not our sins. Gorky sinned a lot, because he did a lot. Behind him not only his literature, but also the political struggle, and newspapers and magazines, and entire publishing houses (before the revolution and Soviet), scientific institutions, institutes, the Writers' Union. And yes! - Solovki and Belomorkanal. Behind him not only his writer's biography, but also the biography of all pre-revolutionary Russia and the first twenty years of Soviet power.

Mighty, huge man! Let's remember him.

Mosaic at the Moscow metro station "Park Kultury", opened on May 15, 1935, i.e. a year before the death of Maxim Gorky

"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 inappropriate treatment ...

and even "showed" that their accomplices were nurses who gave the patient up to 40 injections of camphor a 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 badly. 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. The brain was put 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."

The writer's widow Ekaterina Peshkova recalls: “June 8, 6 pm. on one, then on the other hand, pressed to the 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.

"And why is this one 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 came to his senses so much that they started talking 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 well. there is wine, we would drink a glass to your health. "

The wine was brought ... Everyone drank ... As they left, at the doorway, Stalin, Molotov and Voroshilov waved their hands. When they left, Gorky allegedly said: "What good guys! How much strength they have ..."

But how much can you believe these memories of Peshkova? In 1964, when asked by American journalist Isaac Levin about Gorky's death, she replied: "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 o'clock 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 incredible, 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 either a frank conversation with Gorky, or a steel confidence that such a frank conversation would 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 killing Maxim Peshkov, the son of Gorky, with doctors Levin and Pletnev, on Yagoda's instructions with "wrecking methods of treatment." But why?

If you follow the testimony of other defendants, the "customers" - Bukharin, Rykov and Zinoviev had political calculations. 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 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 be presumed innocent. Stalin committed enough crimes to hang one more unproven one on him.

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 ...

http://www.softmixer.com/2011/06/blog-post_18.html

Researchers of the life and work of Maxim Gorky today are divided into two camps: some believe that the writer died of pneumonia, others believe that they "helped" him to die. Who could have taken part in the death of the world famous writer, how was he not saved by 17 doctors who were on duty at the patient's bedside, why was Gorky injected with an extremely painful preparation of camphor, and why did Stalin come to the dying man twice?

These intriguing questions will be answered in his lecture by writer Pavel Basinsky, author of bestselling biographical books about Gorky and Tolstoy. 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 mystery. It is known that Gorky warmly accepted the February Revolution, welcomed it, but did not accept the October Revolution and argued with Lenin quite fiercely on the pages of the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, which was soon 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 ends up in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Under pressure from both the Russian and the world cultural community, many famous writers, including those abroad, stand up for it. He is expelled, that is, released from the country, but he must not return.

Gorky leaves for Europe. This departure is also associated with changes in his personal fate: he leaves Ekaterina Peshkova, his only, by the way, legal wife. The Moscow Art Theater actress Maria Andreeva becomes his common-law wife. First they go to Europe, and Gorky finds himself abroad for the first time. Europe fascinates him in many ways, on the other hand, he travels as an emissary. One of his backside when he comes to France is to convince the French government not to lend to the tsarist government. Because the revolutionaries understand that this loan will go to raise the country's economy, and they do not need it at all. But the loan was given anyway. Gorky leaves France terribly irritated, writes an evil essay "My Fair France".

Gorky is sailing to America, this is already 1906, and it should be noted that all Russian writers wanted to see America. Gorky travels to the United States 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 realized this when he and Maria Andreeva tried to settle in a hotel, in the same room. And one day, they came and saw that their things were on the street, because at that time in the United States, a man and a woman who were not married could not live in the same hotel room. America was a puritanical religious country. This upset Gorky to the core. They moved to the 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 offensive for him, the mission failed.

After America, he sailed to Naples and there he was given a grandiose meeting. 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 was coughing. 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, one of his most interesting periods of life begins, which takes 7 years. 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 each other and communicate with each other 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 is a separate story. Plus, Gorky gave his money for the revolution.

In 1914, Gorky returned to Russia and until 1921 he settled in Petrograd, in an apartment on Kronverksky Avenue, where he met revolutions and civil war. A difficult period of life begins, because many of his illusions have been dispelled. In his view, the revolution 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 arrests and starvation. He organizes the publishing house “World Literature”, the first books are translated, he attracts poet, writers and translators to this. At the same time, for this, he knocks them out rations, firewood, clothes, living space. 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 emigration. But already in 1923, the first offers to Gorky to return to Russia appeared.

Gorky did not like it in Europe now, 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 one of them. 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 Capri. However, they are allowed to settle in Sorrento - in the mainland of the country. But this is already fascist Italy, it is true, it is not yet clear what fascism is, but things are moving towards the fact that Europe will become fascist, and you can feel it.

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. One by one young Soviet writers come to him in Sorrento, and they talk about their lives. Gorky begins to visit the USSR every year. A huge role in the fact that the writer returned was played by the fact that he did not receive the Nobel Prize, it was received by Bunin. Gorky needed funds and in 1933 he finally returned to the USSR.

As Khodasevich writes, he, of course, sold out, but not for money, but for a dream - to embody his illusions. This is evident in the correspondence between Gorky and Stalin; they discuss the creation of a writers 'club, a literary institute, and a writers' town. Gorky is given complete carte blanche and funding for all of his projects.

In 1934, Gorky's son Maxim dies, as it is believed, under mysterious circumstances. Then, at the 1938 trial, where the so-called “Gorky's killers” were convicted and subsequently executed, they were also accused of the murder of Maxim, that this was their first act of murdering Gorky himself.

Genrikh Yagoda entered the writer's house, they were on the "you" with him. In reality, this is what happened. In May 1936, Gorky returned from Crimea to Moscow and fell ill with the flu, which turns into pneumonia. Doctors said that after the autopsy, his lungs poured 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 survived to old age.

Gorky scholars today are divided into two groups, there are those who believe that it was Stalin who helped Gorky die. 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 dies, there is one moment that is very difficult to explain. In the notebook of the writer's secretary Kryuchkov it is written that Gorky died on June 8. But the official date of Gorky's death is June 18.

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

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After the 1917 revolution “... Gorky fiercely interceded for the persecuted poets and writers Green, and Gumilyov). He will not let either Green or Blok, he will get medicines and rations, give work in his publishing house "World Literature". His abandoned wife, with the knowledge of her husband, will become an active activist of the Political Red Cross. He will save whoever he can (of the intelligentsia) from the clutches of the Cheka. He would have saved and Gumilyov if he agreed to recant, lie. Let all this be reckoned to him Where all our sins and good deeds are weighed.

In 1934, Gorky was the wedding chairman of the I All-Union Congress of Sovpisov. And that's all - the Bolsheviks and Stalin squeezed him dry ... In May 1934, the NKVD will remove Maxim (probably said something unnecessary or wanted to run away). And on June 18, 1936, Maxim Gorky died in Gorki. He was also poisoned, he was not supposed to live to see the Great Processes of 1937-1938.

He called for a storm, and this storm deprived his son, honor, good name and talent (since 1928 he has not written anything). And then she finished it off. Well! Loons, penguins, seagulls, snakes and other sane inhabitants of the earth, sea and nearby skies warned him of the consequences. "

V.I. Novodvorskaya , Poets and Tsars, M., "Ast", 2010, p. 277-279.

... and even "showed" that their accomplices were nurses who gave the patient up to 40 injections of camphor a 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 doctors' attitude towards him changed. .. Then they began to wash the insides. Sewed up the incision somehow with a simple twine. The brain was put 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 doctors, who had lost hope, warned us that an imminent end was inevitable ... Alexey Maksimovich - in a chair with his eyes closed, with his head bowed, leaning on one or the other hand pressed to the temple and resting with an elbow on the arm of the chair.

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 why is this one 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.

After the death of Gorky, Kryuchkov was accused of killing Maxim Peshkov, the son of Gorky, with doctors Levin and Pletnev, on Yagoda's instructions with "wrecking methods of treatment." But why?

There is no evidence of the murder of Gorky and his son Maxim. Meanwhile, tyrants also have the right to be presumed innocent. Stalin committed enough crimes to hang one more unproven one on him.

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 ...