Maxim Gorky

Russian and Soviet writer (1868–1936)

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Lived 1868–1936, aged 68

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Wikipedia
115 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1868–1936
Aged 68
Known for
Mother
1926

Summary

Updated 2026-08-14

The man who chronicled Russia's underclass—tramps, thieves, factory workers—then watched the revolution he backed devour its own children. Nominated five times for the Nobel, Gorky spent his final days under house arrest in Stalin's USSR, officially hailed as socialism's literary father while quietly defending the writers marked for purging.

Biography

About

Born Alexei Peshkov in 1868, he drifted across the Russian Empire working odd jobs before turning those years into the raw material of his fiction. His 1890s stories and the play The Lower Depths (1902) made his name; his autobiographical trilogy and the novel Mother followed, though he later called the latter one of his biggest failures. He threw in with the Bolsheviks early, opposed the Tsar, stood with Lenin, then soured on the repressions during the Civil War and spent years in exile. Stalin summoned him back in 1928. He returned in 1932, was crowned founder of Socialist Realism, and set t…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky

said1934

Processing the human raw material is naturally more complicated than processing lumber.

— The I.V.Stalin White Sea - Baltic Sea Canal (1934)

Maxim Gorky

said1917

The good qualities in our soul are most successfully and forcefully awakened by the power of art. Just as science is the intellect of the world, art is its soul.

— Untimely Thoughts (1917-18) (original: Наиболее успешно и могуче будит в нашей душе ее добрые начала сила искусства. Как наука является

Maxim Gorky

said1914

One has to be able to count, if only so that at fifty one doesn't marry a girl of twenty.

— The Zykovs (1914)

Maxim Gorky

said1902

Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want respect for every man — who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?

— The Lower Depths (1902)

Maxim Gorky

said1902