In this blog post, we will examine the significance of Maxim Gorky’s literary world by exploring his life, literature, historical context, and major works.

A Writer Bridging Russian Literature and the 20th Century

Maksim Gorky, the founder of Russian Socialist Realism, was born Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov.
As the last writer of the 19th century and the first to usher in the 20th, Gorky serves as a bridge connecting 19th-century Russian literature and 20th-century Soviet literature, following in the footsteps of Chekhov.
His works begin at the point where Russian classical literature ends. He was the first writer and thinker to consciously link literature and revolution through a Marxist worldview, and he was also a great historian.
Gorky is often referred to as the “father of Soviet literature” or the “founder of Socialist Realism,” but the immense influence his great works have had on the establishment and development of world literature and art—particularly working-class literature—makes it impossible to assess him adequately with such limited rhetoric.
Maxim Gorky is a great writer in the sense that he was a classic master of realism, and he is also a truly great historian in the sense that he recorded Russian society before and after the revolution with sincerity and realism.
Gorky’s role and standing in the history of literature and art from the late 19th to the early 20th century are immeasurably important. Throughout this tumultuous period, Gorky was a central figure in Russian literature; it is therefore only natural to refer to this era as the “Age of Gorky.”
It is impossible to discuss the development of working-class literature or world literature and art at that time without mentioning Gorky, and this assessment remains unchanged to this day.
Gorky’s life, spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was inextricably intertwined with the social realities of Russia at the time and faithfully reflected the patterns of Russian life during that turbulent and chaotic period of transformation.
Russia, a feudal empire that lagged behind modern Western societies by about a century, witnessed by the late 19th century the abolition of the class system through the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861, the emergence of revolutionary forces such as the Narodniks (Populists, a group that carried out the socialist revolutionary movement in late 19th-century Russia), the rise of revolutionary forces such as the Russian Social Democrats, and the growth of capitalism—all of which placed the country in a crisis of severe internal and external social contradictions and the collapse of the existing system.
Amid this turbulent period of upheaval, various democratic forces in Russia—including workers and peasants—established a new social order through a bitter struggle against the tsarist autocratic regime. This struggle unfolded through the development of the poor workers’ movement, the “Bloody Sunday” incident of 1906 and the First Revolution, the introduction of a deceptive parliamentary system, and the February and October Revolutions of 1917.
It was precisely within this turbulent historical context that Gorky’s life and literature became closely intertwined with the currents of transformation of his time.
During this period, Gorky was the writer who garnered the greatest public attention in Russia. Since publishing his first short story, “Makar Chudra,” in 1892, he actively championed the plight of the people suffering from structural social contradictions through his works, led Russian literature after the revolution, and established Socialist Realism.

Gorky’s Emergence as a Pioneer of New Literature

Around the 1880s, the Russian literary world was experiencing a tide of change as profound as the social chaos of the time.
The genius masters who had ushered in the golden age of literature in the 1870s—Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and others—had already passed away, while Tolstoy, having passed the zenith of his glory, had turned his back on literature and immersed himself in the religious world.
Furthermore, Chekhov was singing a nostalgic elegy for the vanishing aristocratic society. A mood of nihilism and disillusionment had spread throughout the literary and artistic world. The so-called literary tradition of the 19th century was in decline.
In this sense, the 1880s are sometimes referred to as the “Gray Chekhov Era.”
However, this literary dilemma did not last long. As the mid-1890s approached, the long-simmering desire for transformation in Russian society began to intensify, and in tandem with this, a vigorous movement emerged to overcome the literary stagnation and create a new literature.
Thus, the approximately 30 years from 1890 to 1917 were a period during which the literary traditions of the old era underwent a general process of dissolution, and a strong movement emerged toward the horizons of a new literature for a new era.
Amid these social and literary conditions, Gorky introduced vibrant characters to Russians who had grown weary of Chekhov, boldly advocating an escape from reality and presenting a new literary direction.
His works not only seriously reflect reality but also accurately point to the direction of its development, embodying a practical will to act in order to realize ideals about life in the real world.
His literature is a constant yearning for the transformation of reality and a pursuit of a new ideal of humanity to lead that transformation.
Scathing satire and derision directed at the forces of exploitation and oppression that stifle reality, affection and advocacy for the common people, and praise for their strength are the primary motifs of Gorky’s literature.

Gorky’s Literary World Examined Through Three Periods

Gorky’s life as a writer can be broadly divided into three periods. The early period spans from ‘Makar Chudra’ (1892) to the social novel ‘Poma Gorjeyev’ (1899); the middle period extends from then until ‘Mother’ (1907); and the late period covers the time thereafter.
Most of the major works published during the early period were short stories, such as “Chelkash,” “The Old Woman of Izergili,” and “Twenty-Six Men and One Girl.” These works, based primarily on the author’s own experiences, express a longing for romantic and primal freedom.
However, even in these early works, the key characteristics of Gorky’s literature—a healthy and revolutionary human ideal, an optimistic worldview, and human-centered values—are already clearly evident.
While his early works were primarily one-act plays based on personal experiences, his mid-period works can be described as full-length plays dealing with broader social relationships.
In the novella ‘Gorjeyev’, he depicts the rise and fall of the capitalist merchant class and their philistinism, while ‘The Three’ foreshadows the revolutionary worker archetype he would later portray by depicting workers’ daily lives and factory conditions.
However, the work that marked the greatest turning point in Gorky’s creative career during this period was ‘Mother’.
Based on a more firm social consciousness and faith in humanity, Gorky depicted Russian reality amidst the process of revolutionary change, revealing in great depth the power of the people driving that change.
From this point on, he garnered worldwide attention as a leading figure in proletarian literature and socialist realism, and as a proud standard-bearer of Russian social transformation.
In particular, in his later works—which were closely tied to politics—he sought to capture the holistic interconnections of society by focusing on the historical contradictions within Russian society, the transformations of human character types, and the relationships between the various classes within that context.
Major works from this period include the play ‘The Enemy’, the novel ‘Artamonov’s Enterprise’, and the unfinished masterpiece ‘The Life of Klimshamkin’.

Literature Born from the Lives of the People

Gorky was, as his name implies (an adjective meaning “bitter” or “miserable”), a son of the people.
Coming from the lower classes, he experienced firsthand all the hardships of a downtrodden life and the hellish, unfree labor of the poor. Naturally, his works are based on his own and his neighbors’ profound experiences of this wretched existence.
Therefore, Gorky’s works are imbued with humanity’s noble dreams and love for life.
This ‘Selection of Gorky’s Short Stories’ features six stories chosen from his vast collection.
“Chelkash,” published in 1895, is the work that earned Gorky high praise from critics and marked the beginning of his success in the Russian literary world.
Set in a port city, the story depicts a chance encounter between a seasoned thief and a transient vagrant, vividly portraying the revolutionary romanticism that is perhaps the most distinctive feature of Gorky’s early short stories.
Since Gorky himself came from a background as a lower-class vagrant, he realistically depicted the miserable lives of Russia’s lower classes. Until then, vagrants, the lower classes, and thieves had appeared in literary works only as supporting characters or villains, but from this point on, the miserable lives of Russia’s lower classes began to be portrayed realistically.
“Twenty-Six Men and a Young Lady,” published in 1899, is considered the masterpiece among his many short stories.
It tells the story of twenty-six innocent bakers working in a bakery under harsh conditions and a young woman.
Other works include “The Old Woman of Izergili,” which features an old woman’s life memories and folk tales; “My Companion,” in which a young woman devotes herself to the son of a duke whom she meets by chance at a port, travels to his hometown after many twists and turns, but is ultimately abandoned; “A Pastime,” in which a woman is driven to suicide by a boredom-induced prank at a rural train station; and “The Incident with the Button,” which tells the story of a group of vagrants who gather to work at someone else’s house and find themselves embroiled in a conflict over a button used to decorate a Bible.
I believe all six stories offer valuable insights into Gorky’s literary spirit and his literary world.