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Abstract:

Gorky’s novel “Mother” became, perhaps, one of the most discussed by literary criticism writer’s works. Since the first publication till the present, reviews on it are polar opposite. Some critics have seen and continue to view “Mother” only as an “encyclopedia of the revolutionary struggle”, they considered and consider it a complete failure and decline of Gorky-artist, they call the story “the first product of socialist realism”, devoid of any artistic appeal, which carries exclusively political and revolutionary orientation. The reason for this long discussion was given by V.I. Lenin, calling the novel “a necessary and very timely book”. Others, on the contrary, see Gorky’s innovation in the story, which is that he gives the idea of seeking God in Russian literature a different coloring and finds a different solution: he sees the “New God” renewing life and giving a person a revival in socialism that has become his «new religion». This group of critics and researchers believes that the period of “God-building” in Gorky’s creation began with the novel “Mother”.

Keywords: Gorky, novella “Mother”, literary criticism, God-building.