Information about the author:
Abstract:
The monograph is the result of many years of working of the author in the Department for the Study and Publication of the Work of M. Gorky at IWL RAS. Based on new archival materials and modern research, the author shows Gorky’s originality as an original Russian thinker, talented artist and outstanding person. The monograph debunks the ideological stamps of the Soviet period that firmly stuck to the writer: “true Marxist”, “the first proletarian writer”, “founder of socialist realism”, “loyal friend and like-minded of V. Lenin and I. Stalin”. Only in 21st century complex and contradictory figure of Gorky receives an objective assessment as a classic of world literature of the late 19th – first half of the 20th century, a key figure in the literary process in Russia and the USSR. The writer’s work is considered in the context of Silver Age literature and on the broad background of the world process. The conclusions of the monograph strongly indicate the creation of a new concept of life and creativity of M. Gorky, corresponding to scientific truth. The book can be used for the preparation of the second and third series of the complete works of M. Gorky, as a textbook in higher and secondary schools and as a manual for students of humanities.