Gorky, Maxim (1868-1936) Also known as: Peshkov, Alexei Maximovich

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Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, August 28, 1906

Jane Addams to Sarah Alice Addams Haldeman, December 18, 1907

Jane Addams to Brand Whitlock, February 8, 1909

Scolds the Pacifists; Women Are Indignant, October 17, 1915

Jane Addams to Paul Underwood Kellogg, August 25, 1922

Emily Greene Balch to Nina E. Almond, January 23, 1928

Maxim Gorky to Jane Addams, August 1922

Liber Amicorum Romain Rolland, ca. August 1925

Marx, Karl (1818-1883)

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Birth Date

1868-03-28

Death Date

1936-06-18

Birthplace

Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Biographical Text

Maxim Gorky was born in Russia as Alexei Maximovich Peshkov. After the death of his father, he lived with his grandparents when his mother remarried. His grandfather treated him harshly and sent him to work when he was eight years old. When he was twelve, Gorky ran away from home, and in 1887, attempted suicide. However, after this attempt failed, he traveled on foot throughout Russia for five years, having numerous jobs and experiences that later factored into his writing. By the 1890s he was working as a journalist under the name Jehudiel Khlamida, and in 1892 he wrote under the pseudonym Gorky, the Russian word for bitter. In 1898 he wrote his first book, a collection of essays and stories; it was so successful that Gorky began his career as a writer. Gorky was a Marxist; he was arrested numerous times for opposing the Tsarist regime. He befriended Vladimir Lenin and exposed how the government controlled the press. In 1903 he was elected an honorary Academician of Literature, but this act was annulled due to his revolutionary actions. After the Revolution of 1905, Gorky began writing political plays, having written Children of the Sun while in prison. In 1906 he traveled to the United States with Ivan Norodny on a fundraising trip for the Bolsheviks. In 1913 he was allowed to return to Russia. His apartment became a Bolshevik headquarters during World War I, but eventually, Gorky began to criticize the Bolsheviks in his writings, calling Lenin a tyrant and an anarchist. In 1932, Joseph Stalin invited Gorky to return to Russia, and he was given a mansion and the award of the Order of Lenin. In 1934 he was placed under house arrest,

Gorky never officially married but had long term partners. He traveled through America and Italy with Maria Fyodorovna Andreyeva. Later he made his secretary, Moura Budberg, his unofficial wife. He had one son, Maxim Peshkov. Gorky died in 1936.