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Abstract:

The paper mainly involves materials stored in the Archives of M.N. Elizarova (1908–1994). For many years, being the permanent director of the Kazan Museum of A.M. Gorky, she was on friendly terms with E.P. Peshkova, often met with her, kept up correspondence. The subject matter of several dozen letters is very diverse. Subsequently, Elizarova wrote essays about Peshkova. Her idea of writing a novel appeared during lifetime of Ekaterina Pavlovna, as evidenced by memories of the years lived, recorded by Elizarova at her meetings with Ekaterina Pavlovna, the selection of additional materials. Elizarova has worked on the text of the novel Ekaterina Volzhina in different years. There are some unpublished Kazan speeches by E.P. Peshkova (including those about the last days of the writer) in the Archive of Typewriting, photo documents about her stay in this city. Also of interest is her correspondence with a contemporary of A.M. Gorky, A.S. Derenkov, about the Kazan period of his life, as well as with historian, the first Kazan Gorky scholar N.F. Kalinin. The latter left diary records of their conversation in Moscow in 1941, containing interesting information about Gorky’s friend F.I. Shalyapin, his life in Kazan. The listed documents are important sources in studying the life and work of E.P. Peshkova, the person very close to A.M. Gorky, the person who has done a lot in perpetuating his memory.

Keywords: A.M. Gorky, E.P. Peshkova, F.I. Shalyapin, M.N. Elizarova, A.S. Derenkov, N.F. Kalinin, correspondence, appearances, memories.