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Abstract:

Using documents from the A.M. Gorky Archive, this article briefly traces the history of the relationship between the two writers before and after M. Artsybashev’s emigration. The study also draws on documents removed from “special storage” in 1991. Specifically, it analyzes Gorky’s marginalia in Artsybashev’s collection “Notes of a Writer” (Issue 1. Published by the “Za Svobodu” book warehouse, 1925), which includes 11 articles by Artsybashev and 42 notes by Gorky. For a 100-page brochure, this is quite a lot. An envelope containing clippings from émigré and Soviet newspapers, including M. Artsybashev’s article “Chameleon” from the “Notes of a Writer” series (published in the newspaper “Za Svobodu” on March 16, 1926) with marginalia by Gorky was also discovered in the Archive. This made it possible for the first time to discuss the late period of their distant relationship. The Archive materials clearly demonstrate that Gorky and Artsybashev felt a full measure of responsibility for what was happening in Russia. This is evidenced by both Gorky’s position in “Untimely Thoughts” and Artsybashev’s accusatory pathos in “Notes of a Writer.” In their homeland, however, they were long separated by the political gulf that opened between the “creator” of the socialist realist method, who sided with the Soviet regime, and his ideological opponent, Mikhail Artsybashev.

Keywords: M. Artsybashev, A.M. Gorky, “Untimely Thoughts”, “Notes of a Writer”, Gorky’s marginalia, journalism, polemics.