Gorky's early work belongs to the literary direction. Early work of A. M. Gorky. Romanticism and Nietzschean motifs in Gorky. Drama of Gorky. The main conflict of the play “At the Bottom. II. A dispute about truth is like a dispute about the meaning of life

1. Gorky's childhood and youth
2. The beginning of Gorky's work
3. Gorky’s works “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Girl and Death”, “Song of the Falcon”, etc.
4. Novel "Foma Gordeev". Summary
5. The play "At the Bottom". Analysis
6. Novel "Mother". Analysis
7. Cycle of stories “Across Rus'”
8. Gorky's attitude to the revolution
9. Gorky in exile
10. Return of Gorky to the USSR
11. Illness and death of Gorky

Maxim GORKY (1868-1936)

M. Gorky appears in our minds as the personification of the powerful creative forces of the nation, as the real embodiment of the bright talent, intelligence and hard work of the Russian people. The son of a craftsman, a self-taught writer who did not even finish primary school, with a tremendous effort of will and intellect, he escaped from the very bottom of life and in a short time made a rapid ascent to the heights of writing.

A lot is being written about Gorky now. Some unconditionally defend him, others overthrow him from his pedestal, blaming him for justifying Stalin’s methods of building a new society and even direct incitement to terror, violence, and repression. They are trying to push the writer to the margins of the history of Russian literature and social thought, to weaken or completely eliminate his influence on the literary process of the 20th century. But still, our literary criticism is difficult, but consistently making its way to the living, non-textbook Gorky, freeing itself from past legends and myths, and from excessive categoricalness in assessing his work.

Let us also try to understand the complex fate of the great man, remembering the words of his friend Fyodor Chaliapin: “I know for sure that this was the voice of love for Russia. Gorky spoke of a deep consciousness that we all belong to our country, our people, and that we must be with them not only morally, as I sometimes console myself, but also physically, with all the scars, all the hardening, all the humps.”

1. Gorky’s childhood and youth

Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov (Gorky) was born on March 16 (28), 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod, in the family of a cabinetmaker. After sudden death On June 8, 1871, the boy and his mother settled in his grandfather’s house. Alyosha was raised by his grandmother, who introduced him to a motley, colorful world folk tales, epics, songs, developed imagination, understanding of the beauty and power of the Russian word.

At the beginning of 1876, the boy entered the parish school, but after studying for a month, he left classes due to smallpox. A year later he was admitted to the second grade of primary school. However, having completed two classes, he was forced to leave school forever in 1878. By this time, my grandfather had gone bankrupt, and in the summer of 1879, my mother died of transient consumption.

At the suggestion of his grandfather, a 14-year-old teenager goes “into the people” - he begins a working life full of hardships, exhausting work, and homeless wandering. Whatever he was: a boy in a shoe store, a student in an icon painting shop, a nanny, a dishwasher on a ship, a builder-foreman, a loader at the pier, a baker, etc. He visited the Volga region and Ukraine, Bessarabia and Crimea, Kuban and the Caucasus.

“My walking around Rus' was not caused by the desire for vagrancy,” Gorky later explained, “but by the desire to see where I live, what kind of people are around me?” The wanderings enriched the future writer with a wide knowledge of folk life and people. This was also facilitated by the “passion for reading” that awoke in him early and continuous self-education. “I owe everything that’s best in me to books,” he would later remark.

2. The beginning of Gorky’s work

By the age of twenty, A. Peshkov had an excellent knowledge of domestic and world art classics, as well as the philosophical works of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud, V. Solovyov.

Life observations and impressions, a stock of knowledge required an outlet. The young man began to try himself in literature. His creative biography starts with poetry. It is believed that A. Peshkov’s first printed speech was “Poems on the grave of D. A. Latysheva”, published at the beginning of 1885 in the Kazan newspaper “Volzhsky Vestnik”. In 1888-1889, he created the poems “Only I got rid of troubles”, “You’re out of luck, Alyosha”, “It’s a shame to whine at my age”, “I’m swimming...”, “Don’t scold my muse...” etc. For all their imitation and rhetoric, they clearly convey the pathos of expectations for the future:

In this life, sick and unhappy,

I sing hymns to the future, -

This is how the poem “Do not scold my muse” ends.

From poetry, the aspiring writer gradually moved to prose: in 1892, his first story, “Makar Chudra,” signed under the pseudonym “Maxim Gorky,” was published in the Tiflis newspaper “Caucasus.”

V. Korolenko played a big role in Gorky’s fate, who helped him understand many of the secrets of literary mastery. On Korolenko's advice, Gorky moves to Samara and works as a journalist. His stories, essays, feuilletons are published in Samara Gazeta, Nizhegorodsky Listok, Odessa News, and then in the thick central magazines New Word, Russian Thought, etc. In 1898, Gorky published the two-volume Essays and stories" that made him famous.

Later, summing up his 25-year creative activity, M. Gorky wrote: “The meaning of my 25-year work, as I understand it, boils down to my passionate desire to arouse in people an effective attitude towards life”2. These words can be used as an epigraph to the entire work of the writer. To arouse in people an effective, active attitude towards life, to overcome their passivity, to activate the best, strong-willed, moral qualities of the individual - this was the task that Gorky solved from the first steps of his work.

This trait manifested itself very clearly in his early stories, in which he acted, according to V. Korolenko’s correct definition, at the same time as both a realist and a romantic. In the same year, 1892, the writer created the stories “Makar Chudra” and “Emelyan Pilyai”. The first of them is romantic in its method and style, while the second is dominated by the features of realistic writing.

In the fall of 1893, he published the romantic allegory “About Chizhe, who lied...” and the realistic story “The Beggar Woman,” a year later the realistic story “Poor Pavel” and the romantic works “Old Woman Izergil,” “Song of the Falcon” and “One Night” appeared. These parallels, which can easily be continued, indicate that Gorky did not have two special periods of creativity - romantic and realistic.

The division of early Gorky’s works into romantic and realistic, established in our literary criticism since the 40s, is somewhat arbitrary: the writer’s romantic works have a solid real basis, and realistic ones carry a charge of romanticism, representingthe embryo of a renewed realistic type of creativity - neorealism.

3. Gorky’s works “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Girl and Death”, “Song of the Falcon”

Gorky’s works “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “The Girl and Death”, “Song of the Falcon” and others, in which the romantic element predominates, are connected by a single problematic. They sound a hymn to the free and to a strong man. A distinctive feature of all heroes is proud disobedience to fate and daring love of freedom, integrity of nature and heroic character. This is the gypsy Radda, the heroine of the story."Makar Chudra".

Two strongest feelings control her: love and Thirst for freedom. Radda loves the handsome Loiko Zobar, but does not want to submit to him, because above all else she values ​​her freedom. The heroine rejects the age-old custom according to which a woman, having become a wife, becomes a slave of a man. The fate of a slave is worse than death for her. It is easier for her to die with the proud consciousness that her personal freedom is preserved than to submit herself to the power of another, even if this other is passionately loved by her.

In turn, Zobar also values ​​his independence and is ready to do anything to preserve it. He cannot subjugate Radda, but he never wants to submit to her, and he is not able to refuse her. In front of the entire camp, he kills his beloved, but he himself dies. The author’s words that complete the legend are significant: “The sea sang a gloomy and solemn hymn to the proud pair of handsome gypsies.”

The allegorical poem “The Girl and Death” (1892), not only in its fairy-tale character, but also in its main themes, is very indicative of Gorky’s entire early work. This work clearly conveys the idea of ​​the all-conquering power of human love, which is stronger than death. The girl, punished by the king for laughing when he returns from the battlefield after defeat in the war in deep sorrow, boldly looks death in the face. And she retreats, because she does not know what to oppose to the great power of love, the enormous feeling of love for life.

The theme of love for a person, rising to the point of sacrifice in the name of preserving people’s lives, reaches a broad social and moral resonance in Gorky’s story “The Old Woman Izergil.” The composition of this work itself is original, representing a kind of triptych: the legend of Larra, the life story of the narrator - the old gypsy Izergil and the legend of Danko. The plot and themes of the story are based on a clear contrast between heroism and altruism and individualism and selfishness.

Larra, the character of the first legend, the son of an eagle and a woman, is depicted by the author as a bearer of individualistic, inhumane ideas and principles. For him there are no moral laws of kindness and respect for people. He deals with the girl who rejected him cruelly and inhumanly. The writer strikes at the philosophy of extreme individualism, which claims that a strong personality is allowed to do everything, even any crime.

The moral laws of humanity, the author claims, are unshakable, they cannot be violated for the sake of an individual who opposes himself to the human community. And the personality itself cannot exist outside of people. Freedom, as the writer understands it, is the conscious need to respect moral norms, traditions and rules. IN otherwise it turns into destructive destructive force, directed not only against one’s neighbor, but also against the adherent of such “freedom” himself.

Larra, who is expelled from the tribe by the elders for the murder of a girl and is given immortality, should, it would seem, triumph, “Which, however, he does at first. But time passes, and life for Larra, who finds himself alone, turns into hopeless torment: “He has no life, and death does not smile on him. And there is no place for him among people... This is how a person was punished for his pride,” that is, for self-centeredness. This is how old woman Izergil ends her story about Larra.

The hero of the second legend is the young man Danko - the complete opposite of the arrogant selfish Larra. This is a humanist, ready to sacrifice himself in the name of saving people. Out of the darkness"impassable swampy forests he leads his people to the Light. But this path is difficult, distant and dangerous, and Danko, in order to save people, without hesitation, tore his heart out of his chest. Lighting the way with this “torch of love for people,” the young man led his people to the sun, to life, and died, without asking people for anything as a reward for himself.” In the image of Danko, the writer embodied his humanistic ideal - the ideal of selfless love for people, heroic self-sacrifice in the name of their life and happiness. Izergil’s realistic story about herself is, as it were, a connecting link between these two legends.

The individualistic killer Larra believed that happiness was in splendid isolation and permissiveness, for which he was punished with a terrible punishment. Izergil lived her life among people, a life that was bright and rich in its own way. She admires courageous, freedom-loving people with a strong will. Her rich life experience led her to a significant conclusion: “When a person loves feats, he always knows how to do them and will find where it is possible. In life... there is always room for exploits.” Izergil herself knew both passionate love and exploits. But she lived mainly for herself. Only Danko embodied the highest understanding of the spiritual beauty and greatness of man, giving his life for the lives of people. So in the very composition of the story its idea is revealed. Danko's altruistic feat takes on a sacred meaning. The Gospel of John says that Christ at the Last Supper addressed the apostles with the following words: “Greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” It is this kind of love that the writer poetizes with Danko’s feat.

Using the example of the destinies of his two antipodean characters, Gorky poses the problem of death and immortality. The proud individualist Larra turned out to be immortal, but only a dark shadow runs from him across the steppe, which is difficult to even see. And the memory of Danko’s feat is preserved in the hearts of people and is passed on from generation to generation. And this is his immortality.

The action of these and many other Gorky stories takes place in the south, where the sea and the steppe coexist - symbols of boundless and eternal cosmic life. The writer is drawn to the vast expanses, where a person especially strongly feels the power of nature and his closeness to it, where no one and nothing restricts the free expression of human feelings.

The writer’s bright, emotionally charged and lyrically soulful pictures of nature never turn into an end in themselves. They play an active role in the narrative, being one of the main elements of content. In “The Old Woman Izergil” he describes the Moldovans as follows: “They walked, sang, laughed, the men were bronze, with lush, black mustaches and thick shoulder-length curls. Women and girls are cheerful, flexible, with dark blue eyes, also bronze... They moved further and further from us, and night and fantasy dressed them in everything beautiful.” These Moldavian peasants are not much different in appearance from Loiko Zobar, Radda and Danko.

In the story “Makar Chudra” both the narrator himself and the real-life way of gypsy life are presented in a romantic light. Thus, in reality itself the same romantic features are emphasized. They are also revealed in Izergil’s biography. This was done by the author in order to highlight an important idea: the fabulous, romantic does not oppose life, but only expresses in a more vivid, emotionally sublime form what is present in reality to one degree or another.

The composition of many of Gorky's early stories contains two elements: a romantic plot and its realistic frame. They are a story within a story. The figure of the hero-storyteller (Chudra, Izergil) also gives the narration the character of reality and plausibility. The same features of reality are conveyed to the works by the image of the narrator - a young man named Maxim, who listens to the stories being told.

The themes of Gorky's early realistic stories are even more multifaceted. Particularly notable in this regard is the writer’s cycle of stories about tramps. Gorky's tramps are a reflection of spontaneous protest. These are not passive sufferers thrown out of life. Their withdrawal into tramping is one of the forms of unwillingness to come to terms with the lot of a slave. The writer emphasizes in his characters what elevates them above the inert middle-class environment. Such is the tramp and thief Chelkash from the story of the same name in 1895, contrasted with the farm laborer Gavrila.

The writer does not idealize his character at all. It is no coincidence that he often uses the epithet “predatory” to characterize Chelkash: Chelkash has a “predatory look”, “predatory nose”, etc. But contempt for the omnipotent power of money makes this lumpen and renegade more humane than Gavrila. And on the contrary, slavish dependence on the ruble turns the village boy Gavrila, essentially a good person, into a criminal. In the psychological drama that played out between them on a deserted seashore. Chelkash turns out to be more humane than Gavrila.

Among tramps, Gorky especially singles out people in whom the love of work and intense thought about the meaning of life and the purpose of man has not faded. This is how it is depicted Konovalov from the story of the same name (1897). Good man, a dreamer with a soft soul, Alexander Konovalov constantly feels dissatisfied with life and with himself. This pushes him onto the path of vagrancy and drunkenness. One of the valuable qualities of his nature was his love of work. Having found himself in a bakery after long wanderings, he experiences the joy of work, showing artistry in his work.

The writer emphasizes the aesthetic emotions of his hero, his subtle sense of nature, respect for women. Konovalov becomes infected with a passion for reading, he sincerely admires the audacity and courage of Stepan Razin, loves the heroes of Gogol’s “Taras Bulba” for their fearlessness and fortitude, and takes to heart the grave adversities of the men from F. Reshetnikov’s “Podlipovtsy.” The high humanity of this tramp and the presence of good moral inclinations in him are obvious.

However, everything in it is impermanent, everything is changeable and does not last long. The contagious passion for his favorite work disappeared, giving way to melancholy, he somehow suddenly lost interest in it and gave up everything, either indulging in binge drinking, or going on the “run”, on yet another vagrancy. He does not have a strong inner core, solid moral support, strong attachment, or constancy. Konovalov’s extraordinary, talented nature dies because he does not find the will to take action. The popular definition of “knight for an hour” is fully applicable to him.

However, almost all of Gorky’s tramps are like this: Malva from the story of the same name, Semaga (“How Semaga was Caught”), the carpenter (“In the Steppe”), Zazubrina and Vanka Mazin from the works of the same name, and others. Konovalov has the advantage over his fellow wanderers that he is not inclined to blame others for his failed life. To the question: “Who is to blame for us?” - he answers with conviction: “We ourselves are to blame... That’s why we have no desire for life and we have no feelings for ourselves.”

Gorky’s close attention to people at the “bottom of life” gave rise to a number of critics to declare him a singer of tramping, an adept of an individualistic personality of the Nietzschean kind. This is wrong. Of course, in comparison with the world of inert, spiritually limited philistines, Gorky’s tramps have that “zest” that the writer strives to depict as clearly as possible. The same Chelkash, in his contempt for money and in his love for the mighty and free element of the sea, in the breadth of his nature, looks nobler than Gavrila. But this nobility is very relative. For both he and Emelyan Pilyai and other tramps, having freed themselves from petty-bourgeois greed, also lost their working skills. Gorky's tramps like Chelkash are beautiful when they stand up to cowards and self-interested people. But their power is disgusting when it is aimed at harming people. The writer showed this superbly in the stories “Artem and Cain”, “My Companion”, “Former People”, “Rogue” and others. Selfish, predatory, filled with arrogance and contempt for everyone except themselves, the characters in these works are drawn in sharply negative tones. Anti-humanistic, cruel, immoral philosophy of this type " former people“Gorky later called it fraudulent, emphasizing that it is a manifestation of “a dangerous national disease, which can be called passive anarchism” or “anarchism of the vanquished.”

4. Novel “Foma Gordeev”. Summary.

The late 90s - early 900s were marked in Gorky's work by the appearance of works of great epic form - the novel "Foma Gordeev" (1899) and the story "Three" (1900).

Novel "Foma Gordeev" opens a series of Gorky’s works about the “masters of life.” It recreated art history formation and development of the Russian bourgeoisie, shows the ways and means of the initial accumulation of capital, as well as the process of “breaking out” a person from his class due to disagreement with his morals and standards of life.

The history of early accumulation is depicted by the writer as a chain of crimes, predation and deception. Almost all the merchants of the Volga city, where the action of “Foma Gordeev” takes place, made their millions “through robberies, murders... and the sale of counterfeit money.” Thus, commercial adviser Reznikov, who began his career by opening a brothel, quickly became rich after “strangling one of his guests, a rich Siberian.”

The large steamship owner Kononov was in the past brought to trial for arson, and increased his wealth at the expense of his mistress, whom he put in prison on false charges of theft. The merchant Gushchin, who once cleverly robbed his own nephews, is thriving. The rich Robists and Bobrovs are guilty of all sorts of crimes. A group portrait of the Volga merchants serves as an everyday and social background against which the detailed types of pioneers appear: Ananiy Shurov, Ignat Gordeev and Yakov Mayakin. Being clearly individualized, they embody the typical features of the Russian bourgeoisie of the period of primitive accumulation of capital.

The old, pre-reform merchant class is represented by the image of Anania Shurov. This merchant is wild, dark, straightforward and rude. He is in many ways related to the well-known figures of A. Ostrovsky, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, G. Uspensky. The basis of his wealth is a criminal offense. Formerly a serf, Shurov became rich after he sheltered a counterfeiter who had escaped from hard labor in his bathhouse, then killed him, and set the bathhouse on fire to conceal the crime.

Shurov became a major timber merchant, drove rafts along the Volga, built a huge sawmill and several barges. He is already old, but even now, as in his younger years, he looks at people “hardly, mercilessly.” According to Shurov, all his life “except for God, he was not afraid of anyone.” However, he builds his relationship with God on considerations of profit, sanctimoniously covering his dishonest actions with His name. Calling Shurov a “manufacturer of sins,” Yakov Mayakin notes, not without venom: “They have been crying about him for a long time both in hard labor and in hell - they are sad, they are waiting - they can’t wait.”

Another version of the “knight of primitive accumulation” is Ignat Gordeev. He is also a former peasant, then a barge hauler, who became a major Volga steamship owner. But he gained wealth not through criminal offenses, but through his own labor, energy, extraordinary perseverance and enterprise. “In his entire powerful figure,” the author notes, “there was a lot of Russian healthy and rough beauty.”

He is not pettyly stingy and not as servilely greedy as other merchants; he has Russian daring and breadth of soul. The pursuit of the ruble sometimes bored Ignat, and then he gave full rein to his passions, uncontrollably indulging in drunkenness and debauchery. But a period of riots and revelry passed, and he again became quiet and meek. In such sharp transitions from one mood to another is the originality of Ignat’s character, who was not without reason called “naughty.” These are personality traits. Ignat was then reflected in the individual appearance of his son Thomas.

The central figure of the merchants in the novel is Yakov Mayakin, the owner of a rope factory and trading shops, the godfather of Foma Gordeev. Mayakin is close in spirit to the patriarchal part of the merchant class. But at the same time, he is also drawn to the new, industrial bourgeoisie, which is confidently replacing the nobility. Mayakin is not just a representative of the economically growing bourgeoisie. He strives to find a historical and socio-philosophical justification for the activities of the merchants as one of the most important classes of Russian society. He confidently asserts that it was the trading people who “carried Russia on their shoulders for centuries”, with their diligence and labor “they laid the foundation of life - they laid themselves in the ground instead of bricks.”

Mayakin speaks confidently, enthusiastically and beautifully about the great historical mission and merits of his class, with pathetic eloquence. A talented lawyer for the merchant class, intelligent and energetic, Mayakin persistently returns to the idea that the weight and importance of the Russian merchant class is clearly underestimated, that this class is excluded from political life Russia. The time has come, in his opinion, to oust the nobles and allow them to take the helm state power merchants, bourgeoisie: “Give us room to work! Include us in the construction of this very life!”

The Russian bourgeoisie, which by the end of the century realized itself as a great economic force in the state and was dissatisfied with its removal from the leading role in the political life of the country, speaks through the mouth of Mayakin.

But Mayakin combines correct thoughts and views with cynicism and immorality towards people. In his opinion, one should achieve wealth and power by any means, without disdaining anything. Teaching the peasant Thomas the “politics of life,” Mayakin elevates hypocrisy and cruelty to an immutable law. “Life, brother, Thomas,” he teaches the young man, “is very simple: either gnaw everyone, or lie in the dirt... When approaching a person, hold honey in your left hand, and a knife in your right...”

Mayakin's reliable successor is his son Taras. During his student years, he was arrested and deported to Siberia. His father was ready to disown him. However, Taras turned out to be just like his father. After serving his exile, he entered the office of the manager of the gold mines, married his daughter and deftly beat his rich father-in-law. Soon Taras began managing a soda production plant. Returning home, he energetically enters into business and conducts it on a greater scale than his father. He does not have his father’s inclination to philosophize, he only talks about business, extremely briefly and dryly. He is a pragmatist, convinced that every person “must choose a job within his strength and do it as best as possible.” Looking at his son, even Yakov Mayakin, a very businesslike man himself, admiring his son’s efficiency, is somewhat puzzled by the callous coldness and pragmatism of the “children”: “Everything is good, everything is pleasant, only you, our heirs, are deprived of any living feeling!”

Afrikan Smolin is similar in many ways to the younger Mayakin. He more organically than Taras absorbed the way of acting of the European bourgeois, spending four years abroad. This is a Europeanized bourgeois businessman and industrialist, thinking broadly and acting cunningly and resourcefully. “Adriasha is a liberal,” the journalist Yezhov says about him, “a liberal merchant is a cross between a wolf and a pig...” From a historical perspective, this Gorky character, who well understands the benefits of technical knowledge and the importance of cultural progress, is perceived as an all-powerful bourgeois tycoon and politician, resourceful and dexterous.

But Gorky was interested not only in the problem of the formation and growth of the Russian bourgeoisie, but also in the process of its internal decay, the conflict of a morally healthy individual with the environment. This is the fate of the main character of the novel, Foma Gordeev. Compositionally and plot-wise, the novel is structured as a chronicle description of the life of a young man who rebelled against the morality and laws of bourgeois society and ultimately suffered the collapse of his ideals.

The novel traces in detail the history of the formation of Thomas's personality and character, the formation of his moral world. The starting point in this process was many natural inclinations and properties inherited by Thomas from his parents: spiritual kindness, a tendency towards isolation and solitude - from his mother, and dissatisfaction with the monotony of life, the desire to break the shackles of acquisitiveness that bind a person - from his father.

The fairy tales that Aunt Anfisa, who replaced his early deceased mother, introduced Thomas to as a child, painted his childhood imagination with vivid pictures of life, completely different from the monotonous, gray existence in his father’s house.

The father and godfather sought to instill in Thomas their understanding of the purpose and meaning of life, and an interest in the practical side of merchant activity. But these teachings were of no use to Thomas; they only increased the feeling of apathy and boredom in his soul. Having reached adulthood, Foma retained in his character and behavior “something childish, naive, which distinguished him from his peers.” He still showed no serious interest in the business in which his father had invested his entire life.

The sudden death of Ignat stunned Thomas. The only heir to a huge fortune, he was supposed to become the master. But, deprived of his father’s grasp, he turned out to be impractical and lacking initiative in everything. Foma feels neither happiness nor joy from owning millions. “...I feel sick! - he complains to his kept woman Sasha Savelyeva. “Just think - is it really possible to have a party so that all the veins ring?” He does just that: he periodically indulges in revelry, sometimes causing scandalous brawls.

Foma's drunken stupor gave way to oppressive melancholy. And more and more Thomas is inclined to think that life is arrangedit is unfair that people of his class enjoy undeserved benefits. More and more often he gets into quarrels with his godfather, who for Thomas is the personification of this unfair life. Wealth and the position of “master” become a heavy burden for him. All this results in a public revolt and denunciation of the merchants.

During the celebrations at Kononov's, Foma accuses the merchants of crimes against people, accusing them of not building life, but a prison, turning a common man into a forced slave. But his solitary, spontaneous rebellion is fruitless and doomed to defeat. Foma more than once remembers an episode from his childhood when he scared an owl in a ravine. Blinded by the sun, she rushed helplessly along the ravine. This episode is projected by the author onto the hero’s behavior. Thomas too, blind as an owl. Blind mentally, spiritually. He passionately protests against the laws and morality of a society that is based on injustice and selfishness, but at the heart of his protest there are no clearly conscious aspirations. The merchants easily deal with their renegade, imprisoning him in a madhouse and taking away his inheritance.

The novel “Foma Gordeev” evoked numerous reviews from readers and critics. The opinion of many readers was expressed by Jack London, who wrote in 1901: “You close the book with a feeling of aching melancholy, with disgust for a life full of “lies and depravity.” But this is a healing book. Social ills are shown in it with such fearlessness... that its purpose is beyond doubt - it affirms the good.” Since the beginning of the 20th century, Gorky, without giving up work on prose works, has been actively and successfully trying himself in drama. From 1900 to 1906, he created six plays that were included in the golden fund of the Russian theater: “The Bourgeois”, “At the Lower Depths”, “Summer Residents”, “Children of the Sun”, “Enemies”, “Barbarians”. Differing in theme and artistic level, they, in essence, also solve the main author’s ultimate task - “to arouse in people an effective attitude towards life.”

5. The play “At the Bottom”. Analysis.

One of the most significant plays of this unique dramatic cycle is undoubtedly the drama"At the bottom" (1902). The play was a stunning success. Following the production of the Moscow Art Theater in 1902, it toured many theaters in Russia and foreign countries. “At the Bottom” is a stunning picture of a kind of cemetery where extraordinary people are buried alive. We see the intelligence of Satin, the spiritual purity of Natasha, the hard work of Kleshch, the desire for an honest life in Ash, the honesty of the Tatar Asan, the unquenched thirst for pure, sublime love in the prostitute Nastya, etc.

The people living in the Kostylevs' wretched basement shelter are placed in extremely inhumane conditions: their honor, human dignity, the possibility of love, motherhood, honest, conscientious work are taken away from them. World drama has never known such a harsh truth about the life of the lower social classes.

But the social and everyday problems of the play are organically combined here with philosophical ones. Gorky’s work is a philosophical debate about the meaning and purpose of human life, about a person’s ability to “break the chain” of destructive circumstances, about the attitude towards a person. In the dialogues and remarks of the characters in the play, the word “truth” is heard most often. Of the characters who willingly use this word, Bubnov, Luka and Satin stand out.

At one pole of the debate about truth and man stands the former furrier Bubnov,” who, as he assures, always tells only the truth to everyone: “But I don’t know how to lie. For what? In my opinion, leave the whole truth as it is. Why be ashamed? But his “truth” is cynicism and indifference towards the people around him.

Let us remember how cruelly and indifferently cynically he comments on the main events of the play. When Anna asks not to make noise and let her die in peace, Bubnov declares: “Noise is not a hindrance to death.” Nastya wants to break out of the basement and declares: “I’m superfluous here.” Bubnov immediately sums up ruthlessly: “You are superfluous everywhere.” And he concludes: “And all the people on earth are superfluous.”

In the third act, the mechanic Kleshch pronounces a monologue about his own hopeless existence, about how a person who has “golden hands” and who is eager to work is doomed to hunger and deprivation. The monologue is deeply sincere. This is the cry of despair of a person whom society throws out of life as unnecessary slag. And Bubnov declares: “It’s a great start! Just like he acted it out in the theater.” A distrustful skeptic and cynic in relation to people, Bubnov is dead in soul and therefore brings to people disbelief in life and in a person’s ability to “break the chain” of unfavorable circumstances. The Baron, another “living corpse”, a man without faith, without hope, was not far away from him.

The antipode of Bubnov in his view of man is the wanderer Luke. For many years, critical spears have been crossed around this Gorky “character,” which was greatly facilitated by the contradictory assessments of the image of Luke on the part of the author himself. Some critics and literary scholars literally destroyed Luke, calling him... a liar, a preacher of harmful consolation and “even an unwitting accomplice to the masters of life. Others, while partially recognizing Luke’s kindness, nevertheless considered it harmful and even derived the character’s name from the word “evil.” Meanwhile, Gorky’s Luke bears the name of a Christian evangelist. And this says a lot, if we keep in mind the presence of “significant” names and surnames of characters in the writer’s works.

Luke means “light” in Latin. This semantic meaning of the character’s image also echoes Gorky’s idea at the time he created the play: “I really want to write well, I want to write with joy... to let the sun on the stage, the cheerful Russian sun, not very bright, but loving everything, embracing everything.” The wanderer Luke appears in the play as such a “sun.” It is called upon to dispel the darkness of hopelessness among the inhabitants of the shelter, to fill it with kindness, warmth and light.

“In the middle of the night you can’t see the road,” Luka sings meaningfully, clearly hinting at the night shelters’ loss of meaning and purpose in life. And he adds: “Ehe-he... gentlemen! And what will happen to you? Well, at least I’ll leave a litter here.”

Religion plays a significant role in Luke’s worldview and character. The image of Luke is a kenotic type of a wandering folk sage and philosopher. In his wandering way of life, in the fact that he sought the city of God, the “righteous land,” the eschatologism of the people’s soul, the hunger for the coming transformation, was deeply expressed. The Russian religious thinker of the Silver Age G. Fedotov, who thought a lot about the typology of Russian spirituality, wrote that in the type of wanderer “there lives a predominantly kenotic and Christocentric type of Russian religiosity, eternally opposed to everyday liturgical ritualism.” This is exactly what Gorky’s character is like.

A deep and integral nature, Luke fills Christian dogmas with living meaning. Religion for him is the embodiment of high morality, kindness and help to people. His practical advice is a kind of minimum program for the inhabitants of the shelter. He calms Anna down by talking about the blissful existence of the soul after death (as a Christian, he firmly believes in this). Ashes and Natasha - pictures of free and happy family life in Siberia. The actor strives to instill hope for recovery from alcohol. Luke is often accused of lying. But he never lied.

Indeed, at that time in Russia there were several hospitals for alcoholics (in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg), and in some of them the poor were treated for free. Siberia is the place where it was easiest for Ash to start a new life. Ash himself admits that he started stealing because no one called him anything other than “thief” and “son of a thief” since childhood. Siberia, where no one knows him and where hundreds of people were sent in accordance with Stolypin’s reforms, is an ideal place for Ash.

Luke calls the people of the “bottom” not to reconciliation with circumstances, but to action. He appeals to the internal, potential capabilities of a person, calling on people to overcome passivity and despair. Luke's compassion and attention to people is effective. He is driven by nothing more than a conscious desire to “arouse in people an effective attitude towards life.” “Whoever really wants it will find it,” says Luka with conviction. And it’s not his fault that things didn’t work out for Actor and Ashes the way he advised them.

The image of Satin, who also became the subject of conflicting opinions, is also ambiguous. The first, traditional point of view: Satin, unlike Luke, calls for an active struggle for man. The second, diametrically opposed to the first, claims that Satin is Satan, who “corrupts the night shelters, hinders their attempts to escape from the bottom of life”5. It is easy to see that both of these views on the personality and role of Satin in the play suffer from excessive categoricalness.

Satin and Luka are not opponents, but like-minded people in their views on man. It is no coincidence that after Luke leaves, Satin protects him from the Baron’s attacks. Satin defines Luke’s role on himself as follows: “He... acted on me like acid on an old and dirty coin.” Luke stirred Satin's soul and forced him to determine his position in relation to man.

Luka and Satin agree on the main thing: they are both confident that a person is able to break the chain of unfavorable circumstances if he strains his will and overcomes passivity. “A person can do anything, as long as he wants to,” assures Luka. “Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain,” Satin supports him. There are also differences between them in their views on man. _ Satin takes a maximalist approach to the problem of pity. “Pity humiliates a person,” he believes.

Christian Luke calls first of all to understand a person, and having managed to understand, one must have pity on him. “I’ll tell you,” says Luka, “it’s good to feel sorry for a person in time.” To regret in time means to save sometimes from death, from an irreparable step. Luke is more flexible and merciful than Satin in this matter. Saying that “we must have pity on people,” Luke appeals to the highest moral authority: “Christ had pity on everyone and commanded us to.”

Under the influence of Luke, some of the shelters softened and became kinder. First of all, this applies to Satin. In the fourth act, he jokes a lot and warns the inhabitants of the basement against rude behavior. He stops the Baron’s attempt to teach Nastya a lesson for her insolence with the advice: “Stop it! Don’t touch... don’t offend the person.” Satin also does not share the Baron’s proposal to have fun with the Tatar praying: “Leave me alone!” He’s a good guy, don’t bother him!” Remembering Luke and his views on man, Satin confidently declares: “The old man was right!” Both Luke’s kindness and pity are not passive, but effective - that’s what Satin understood. “Whoever has not done good to someone has done something bad,” says Luke. Through the lips of this character, the author affirms the idea of ​​active goodness, the position of active attention and helping people. This is the most important moral and philosophical result of Gorky’s play-dispute.

During the revolution of 1905, Gorky actively helped the Bolsheviks. He meets Lenin, contributes to the publication of the newspaper " New life».

6. Novel “Mother”. Analysis.

After the suppression of the December armed uprising, Gorky, fearing arrest, moved to Finland, and then, in order to raise money for the Bolshevik Party, to America. Here he writes a number of journalistic articles, the play “Enemies” and the novel"Mother" (1906), which requires a different understanding, not according to the canons of “the first work of socialist realism,” as we have been accustomed to doing for decades. Lenin’s assessment of this novel is widely known: “...The book is necessary, many workers participated in the revolutionary movement unconsciously, spontaneously, and now they will read “Mother” with great benefit for themselves. A very timely book."

This assessment significantly influenced the interpretation of the novel, which began to be viewed as a kind of manual for organizing a revolutionary movement. The writer himself was dissatisfied with this assessment of his work. “I, of course, thanked Lenin for such a compliment,” he said, “only, I confess, it became somewhat annoying... Reducing my work (...) to something like a committee proclamation is still not suitable. In my piece, I tried to approach several big, very big problems.”

Indeed, the novel “Mother” contains a large and important idea - the idea of ​​motherhood as a life-giving, creative force, although the plot of the work is directly attached to the events of the first Russian revolution, and the prototypes of the central characters are the Sormovo worker - revolutionary P. Zalomov and his mother.

The nature and results of the revolution struck Gorky with its cruelty on both sides. As a humanist writer, he could not help but see the certain rigidity of the Marxist doctrine, in which man was considered only as an object of social, class relations. Gorky, in his own way, tried to combine socialism with Christianity. This idea was used by the writer as the basis for the story “Confession” (1908), where his God-seeking sentiments were clearly manifested. The origins of these sentiments are already contained in the novel “Mother”, in which the writer seeks to overcome the confrontation between atheism and. Christianity, to give their synthesis, our own version of Christian socialism.

The scene at the beginning of the novel is symbolic: Pavel Vlasov brings home and hangs on the wall a painting depicting Christ going to Emmaus. The parallels here are obvious: the gospel story about Christ, who joins two travelers going to Jerusalem, was needed by the author to emphasize the resurrection of Paul to a new life, his way of the cross for the sake of the happiness of people.

The novel “Mother,” like the play “At the Lower Depths,” is a two-level work. Its first level is social and everyday, revealing the process of growth of the revolutionary consciousness of the young worker Pavel Vlasov and his friends. The second is parable, representing a modification gospel history about the Mother of God blessing her Son on the cross for the sake of saving people. This is clearly demonstrated by the ending of the first part of the novel, when Nilovna, addressing the people during the May Day demonstration, speaks of the way of the cross for children in the name of holy truth: “Children are walking in the world, our blood, they are following the truth... for everyone! And for all of you, for your babies, they condemned themselves to the way of the cross... Our Lord Jesus Christ would not have existed if people had not died for his glory...” And the crowd “excitedly and deafly” responds to her: “God speaks! God, good people! Listen!" Christ, dooming himself to suffering in the name of people, is associated in Nilovna’s mind with the path of his son.

The mother, who saw the truth of Christ’s son in the case, became for Gorky a measure of moral height, he placed her image at the center of the story, connecting through the mother’s feelings and actions the political definition of “socialism” with moral and ethical concepts: “soul”, “faith”, "Love".

The evolution of the image of Pelageya Nilovna, rising to the symbol of the Mother of God, reveals the author’s thought about the spiritual insight and sacrifice of the people, who give their most precious thing - their children - to achieve a great goal.

In the chapter that opens the 2nd part of the novel, the author describes Nilovna’s dream, in which the impressions of the past day - the May Day demonstration and the arrest of her son - are intertwined with religious symbolism. Against the blue sky, she sees her son singing the revolutionary anthem “Rise, rise, working people.” And, merging with this hymn, the chant “Christ is risen from the dead” solemnly sounds. And in a dream, Nilovna sees herself in the guise of a Mother with babies in her arms and in her womb - a symbol of motherhood. After waking up and talking with Nikolai Ivanovich, Nilovna “wanted to go somewhere along the roads, past forests and villages, with a knapsack over her shoulders, a stick in her hand.” This impulse combined a real desire to fulfill the instructions of Paul’s friends related to revolutionary propaganda in the village, and. at the same time the desire to repeat the difficult path of the Mother of God’s walk in the footsteps of the Son.

So the real social and everyday plan of the story is translated by the author into a religious-symbolic, evangelical one. The ending of the work is also noteworthy in this regard, when the mother, captured by the gendarmes, transforms her son’s revolutionary confidence (“We, the workers, will win”) into a gospel prophecy about the inevitable triumph of Christ’s truth: “They will not kill the resurrected soul.”

The humanistic nature of Gorky’s talent was also reflected in his depiction of three types of revolutionaries who played an active role in the political life of Russia. The first of them is Pavel Vlasov. The novel shows in detail his evolution, the transformation of a simple working guy into a conscious revolutionary, leader of the masses. Deep devotion to the common cause, courage and unbending will become distinctive features Paul's character and behavior. At the same time, Pavel Vlasov is stern and ascetic. He is convinced that “only reason will free man.”

His behavior lacks the harmony of thoughts and feelings, reason and emotions necessary for a true leader of the masses. Wise with extensive life experience, Rybin explains to Pavel his failure in the matter of the “swamp penny” in the following way: “You speak well, but - not to the heart - lo! You need to throw a spark into your heart, into the very depths.”

It is no coincidence that Pavel’s friend Andrei Nakhodka calls him “the iron man.” In many cases, Pavel Vlasov’s asceticism prevents his spiritual beauty and even thoughts from revealing themselves; it is no coincidence that the mother feels her son is “closed.” Let us remember how harshly he cuts off Nilovna on the eve of the demonstration, whose maternal heart feels the misfortune looming over her son: “When will there be mothers who will send their children to death with joy?” Paul's selfishness and arrogance are even more clearly visible in his sharp attack against maternal love. “There is love that prevents a person from living...” His relationship with Sasha is also very ambiguous. Pavel loves a girl and is loved by her. His plans do not include marrying her, since family happiness, in his opinion, will interfere with his participation in the revolutionary struggle.

In the image of Pavel Vlasov, Gorky embodied the character and behavior of a fairly large category of revolutionaries. These are strong-willed, purposeful people, completely devoted to their idea. But they lack a broad outlook on life, a combination of unbending integrity with attention to people, harmony of thoughts and feelings.

Andrey Nakhodka is more flexible and richer in this regard. Natasha, kind and sweet Yegor Ivanovich. It is with them, and not with Pavel, that Nilovna feels more confident, opens her soul safely, knowing that these sensitive people will not offend her heartfelt impulses with a rude, careless word or deed. The third type of revolutionary is Nikolai Vesovshchikov. This is a revolutionary maximalist. “Having barely gone through the basics of the revolutionary struggle, he demands weapons in order to immediately settle accounts with the “class enemies.” The answer given to Vesovshchikov by Andrei Nakhodka is typical: “First, you see, you need to arm your head, and then your hands...” Nakhodka is right: emotions that are not based on a solid foundation of knowledge are no less dangerous than dryly rationalistic decisions that do not take into account the accumulated debts of experience and centuries-tested moral commandments.

The image of Nikolai Vesovshchikov contains a great author’s generalization and warning. The same Nakhodka tells Pavel about Vesovshchikov: “When people like Nikolai feel their resentment and break out of patience, what will it happen? The sky will be splattered with blood. And the earth in it will foam like soap...” Life confirmed this forecast. When such people seized power in October 1917, they flooded the earth and sky with Russian blood. The prophetic warnings of the “Gospel of Maxim,” as critic G. Mitin called the novel “Mother,” were, alas, not heeded.

Since the beginning of the 1910s, Gorky’s work has been developing, as before, in two main directions: exposing petty-bourgeois philosophy and psychology as an inert, spiritually wretched force and affirming the inexhaustibility of the spiritual and creative powers of the people.

A broad, generalizing canvas of the life of district Russia was painted by Gorky in his stories"Okurov Town" (1909) and “The Life of Matvey Kozhemyakin” (1911), where there are “humiliated and insulted”, victims of petty-bourgeois savagery (Sima Devushkin), where various kinds of militant hooligans and anarchists feel at ease (Va-vila Burmistrov), and also there are their philosophers and lovers of truth, intelligent observers of life (Tiunov, Kozhemyakin), convinced that “our body is broken, but our soul is strong. Spiritually, we are all still teenagers, and we have a lot of life ahead of us. Rus' will rise, just believe in it.”

7. Cycle of stories “Across Rus'”.

The writer expressed this faith in Russia, in the Russian people, in a series of stories"Across Rus'" (1912-1917). The author, according to him, turned here to depicting the past in order to illuminate the paths to the future. The cycle is built in the travel genre. Together with the narrator - the “passer”, we seem to be traveling around the country. We see central Russia, the freedom of the southern steppes, Cossack villages, we are present at the spring awakening of nature, we sail along leisurely rivers, we admire the nature of the northern Caucasus, we breathe in the salty wind of the Caspian Sea. And everywhere we meet a mass of diverse people. Based on extensive life material

Gorky shows how the gifted nature of the Russian person makes its way through the centuries-old layers of lack of culture, inertia and poverty of existence.

The cycle opens with the story “The Birth of a Man,” which tells about the birth of a child along the way to a random companion of the author-narrator. Its action takes place against the backdrop of beautiful Caucasian nature. Thanks to this, the described event acquires a sublimely symbolic meaning under the writer’s pen: a new person was born, who, perhaps, is destined to live in a happier time. Hence, the words of the “passing one”, full of optimism, illuminating the appearance of a new person on earth: “Make some noise, Orlovsky, establish yourself, brother, stronger...” The very image of the child’s mother, a young Oryol peasant woman, rises to the heights of a symbol of motherhood. The story sets the major tone for the entire cycle. “It is an excellent position to be a human being on earth,” these words of the narrator resound with Gorky’s optimistic faith in the triumph of the bright beginnings of life.

Many features of Russian national character embodied by the writer in the image of the head of the carpentry artel Osipe from the story “Ice drift”. Sedate, somewhat melancholy, even lazy Osip, in moments of danger, fills with energy, burns with youthful enthusiasm, becomes a true leader of the workers who risked crossing the ice floes to the other side of the Volga during the onset of the flood. In the image of Osip, Gorky affirms the active, strong-willed principle of the Russian national character, expresses confidence in the creative forces of the people, which have not yet truly come into motion.

The picture of folk life and especially folk types depicted by Gorky appears complex, sometimes contradictory, and motley. In the complexity and diversity of the national character, the writer saw the originality of the Russian people, determined by its history. In 1912, in a letter to the writer O. Runova, he noted: “ Natural state man - diversity. Russians are especially colorful, which is why they differ significantly from other nations.” Showing the inconsistency of popular consciousness, resolutely opposing passivity, Gorky created an impressive gallery of types and characters.

Here is the story "Woman". For his heroine Tatyana, the search for personal happiness is combined with the search for happiness for all people, with the desire to see them kinder and better. “Look, you go to a person with kindness, you are ready to give him your freedom, your strength, but he doesn’t understand this, and how can you blame him? Who showed him good?” - she thinks.

People abused the young prostitute Tanya from the story “Light Gray and Blue” and “consoled”, as if with alms, simple wisdom: “Will you punish everyone who is guilty?” But they did not kill her kindness and bright outlook on the world.

The telegraph operator Yudin, who was prone to pessimism (the story “The Book”), somewhere in the depths of his soul, had a longing for better life and “tender compassion for people.” Even in a lost person, such as the drunken milkweed Mashka, the instinct of maternal love awakens a feeling of kindness and self-sacrifice (“Passion-face”).

The story “The Light Man” is very important, if not fundamental, for the entire book - about a 19-year-old typesetter Sashka, passionately in love with life. “Eh, brother Maksimych,” he admits to the narrator, “my heart is growing and growing endlessly, as if all of me is just one heart.” This young man is drawn to books, to knowledge, and tries to write poetry.

All the stories in the cycle are united by the image of the author-narrator, who is not just an observer of events, but a participant in them. He deeply believes in the renewal of life, in the spiritual potential and creative powers of the Russian person.

The positive, life-affirming principle in Gorky’s work of this period was embodied in “Tales of Italy” - twenty-seven romanticized artistic essays about Italian life, which are preceded by an epigraph from Andersen: “There are no fairy tales better than those that life itself creates,” testifying to reality, and not at all about the fabulousness of what is being described. They wax poetic about “ small man“- a man of broad soul and active creative action, whose work transforms reality. The author’s view of such a “little great man” is expressed through the lips of one of the builders of the Simplon Tunnel: “Oh, sir, a little man, when he wants to work, is an invincible force. And believe me: in the end this little man will do whatever he wants.”

In the last pre-revolutionary years, Gorky worked hard on autobiographical stories"Childhood" (1913-1914) and "In People" (1916). In 1923, he completed these memoirs with the book My Universities.

Starting from the rich traditions of Russian autobiographical prose, Gorky supplemented this genre with a depiction of the simplicity of a man from the people, showing the process of his spiritual formation. There are many dark scenes and paintings in the works. But the writer is not limited to depicting only the “leaden abominations of life.” He shows how, through “a layer of all sorts of bestial rubbish... the bright, healthy and creative... victoriously grows, arousing an indestructible hope for our rebirth to a bright, human life.”

This conviction, meetings with numerous people strengthen the strength and shape the character of Alyosha Peshkov, his active attitude to the surrounding reality. At the end of the story “In People,” a meaningful image of a “half-asleep land” appears, which Alyosha passionately wants to wake up, to give “a kick to it and to himself,” so that everything “spun in a joyful whirlwind, a festive dance of people in love with each other, in this life, started for the sake of a different life - beautiful, cheerful, honest ... "

8. Gorky’s attitude to the revolution.

Gorky's attitude to the events of the February and especially the October revolutions was complex. Unconditionally condemning the old system, Gorky associated with the revolution hopes for genuine social and spiritual emancipation of the individual, for the construction of a new culture. However, all this turned out to be an illusion, which forced him to come out with a series of protesting and warning articles, which he called “Untimely Thoughts.” They were published by Gorky from April 1917 to June 1918 in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, which he published. They reflected both Gorky’s love for Russia and his pain for it. And the writer himself appears here as a tragic figure.

These sentiments especially intensified in Gorky after the victory October revolution, for, as L. Spiridonova, the author of a detailed and deep monograph on Gorky, based on the richest archival documents, rightly writes, the writer was “for democracy, but against extreme forms of manifestation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for socialism as an idea, but against violent measures for its implementation associated with violation of human rights and freedom of conscience.”

The rampant red terror and the indifference of the revolutionary authorities to the fate of people caused Gorky to desperately protest against murders, arrests, lynchings, pogroms and robberies, against the very idea that hundreds of thousands of people could be destroyed in order for justice to prevail. “The great happiness of freedom should not be overshadowed by crimes against the individual, otherwise we will kill freedom with our own hands,” the writer warned.

He wrote with indignation that “class hatred overwhelmed the mind, and the conscience died.” Gorky watched with alarm as people, far from the true ideals of freedom, happiness and justice, crawled to the surface of Russian life and gained power, clinging to the revolution. The writer defends the people from this kind of “unscrupulous adventurers” - the inter-Bolsheviks, who, in his conviction, look at Russia as an experimental field, as “material for social experiments.” One of them, G. Zinoviev, was portrayed by Gorky in the play “The Hard Worker of Slovotekov.”

Gorky was the first to ring the bells, seeing that the plunder of national cultural treasures had begun and their sale abroad. He opposed the call to “Rob the loot,” because this led to the impoverishment of the country’s economic and cultural treasures. Gorky protested especially vehemently against the disdainful attitude towards figures of science and culture, towards the Russian intelligentsia, the “brain of the nation”, seeing in all this a threat to culture and civilization.

The consequences of this position were not long in coming. By order of Zinoviev, a search was carried out at the writer’s apartment, articles began to appear in the newspapers “Pravda” and “Petrogradskaya Pravda” accusing Gorky of having “sold out to the imperialists, landowners and bankers” in the newspaper he published.

In response to this, Gorky wrote on June 3, 1918 in Novaya Zhizn: “Nothing else from the government, which is afraid of light and glasnost, cowardly and anti-democratic, trampling on elementary civil rights persecuting workers, sending punitive expeditions to the peasants - one could not even expect it.” A month after this publication, the newspaper “New Life” was closed.

9. Gorky in exile.

At the urgent suggestion of Lenin, Gorky left his homeland in October 1921. For the first three years of forced emigration he lived in Berlin, then in Sorrento.

Abroad, Gorky, as if making up for lost time, begins to write greedily and feverishly. He creates the story “My Universities”, a cycle of autobiographical stories, several memoir essays, the novel “The Artamonov Case”, begins work on the epic “The Life of Klim Samgin” - a monumental artistic study of the spiritual life of Russia at the turn of the century, where against a grandiose backdrop historical events the writer depicts “the story of an empty soul”, “an intellectual average cost» Klim Samgin, whose twilight consciousness, type of split soul, echoes Dostoevsky’s “underground” characters.

10. Return of Gorky to the USSR

In 1928, the writer returned to his homeland. He returned with the firm conviction to take an active part in the construction of a new, as it seemed to him, life that was returning to normal after the revolutionary cataclysms. It was precisely this, and not material considerations, as some modern publicists are trying to assure us, that dictated his return. One of the proofs of this is the memoirs of F. Chaliapin: “Gorky sympathized with me, he himself said: “Here brother, there is no place for you.” When we met this time in 1928 in Rome... he told me sternly: “And now you, Fedor, need to go to Russia...”.

However, despite the obvious sympathy for Gorky of Stalin and his inner circle, despite the intense literary, organizational and creative activity writer, life was not easy for him in the 30s. Ryabushinsky's mansion on M. Nikitskaya, where the writer was settled with a whole staff of staff, rather looked like a prison: a high fence, security. Since 1933, the head of the NKVD G. Yagoda was invisibly present here, introducing his agent P. Kryuchkov to Gorky as his secretary.

All the writer’s correspondence was carefully reviewed, suspicious letters were confiscated, Yagoda watched his every move. “I’m very tired... How many times have I wanted to visit the village, even live like in the old days... I can’t. It’s as if they were surrounded by a fence - you can’t step over it,” he complains to his close friend I. Shkape.

In May 1934, the writer’s son, Maxim, an excellent athlete and promising physicist, suddenly died. There is evidence that Yagoda poisoned him. A few months later, on December 1, the murder of S. M. Kirov, whom Gorky knew well and deeply respected, was committed. The “ninth wave” of repressions that began in the country literally shocked Gorky.

R. Rolland, who visited Moscow in 1935, after meeting Gorky, sensitively noticed that the “secrets of Gorky’s consciousness” were “full of pain and pessimism”12. French journalist Pierre Herbar, who worked in Moscow in 1935-1936 as editor of the magazine “La literature internationale,” writes in his memoirs, published in Paris in 1980, that Gorky “bombarded Stalin with sharp protests” and that “his patience was exhausted.” There is evidence that Gorky wanted to tell the intelligentsia of Western Europe about everything, to draw their attention to the Russian tragedy. He urges his French friends and colleagues L. Aragon and A. Gide to come to Moscow. They came. But the writer was no longer able to meet them: on June 1, 1936, he fell ill with the flu, which then turned into pneumonia.

11. Illness and death of Gorky.

From June 6, the central press begins to publish daily official bulletins on the state of his health.

On June 8, the writer was visited by Stalin, Molotov, and Voroshilov. This visit was tantamount to a final farewell. Two days before his death, the writer felt some relief. There was a deceptive hope that this time his body would cope with the disease. Gorky said to the doctors gathered for the next consultation: “Apparently, I’ll jump out.” This, alas, did not happen. On June 18, 1936 at 11:10 a.m. Gorky died. His last words were: “The end of the novel - the end of the hero - the end of the author.”

According to the official version of those years, Gorky was deliberately killed by his treating doctors L. Levin and D. Pletnev, who were repressed for this. Later, materials were published that refuted the violent death of the writer. IN Lately Disputes once again flared up about whether Gorky was killed or died as a result of illness. And if killed, then by whom and how. A special chapter of Spiridonova’s already mentioned monograph, as well as V. Baranov’s book “Gorky, without makeup,” is devoted to a detailed consideration of this issue.

It is unlikely that we will fully know the secret of Gorky’s death: the history of his illness was destroyed. One thing is certain: Gorky prevented the deployment of mass terror against the creative intelligentsia. With his death this obstacle was removed. R. Rolland wrote in his diary: “Terror in the USSR began not with the murder of Kirov, but with the death of Gorky” and explained: “...The mere presence of his blue eyes served as a rein and protection. Eyes closed."

Gorky's tragedy recent years his life is further evidence that he was neither a court writer nor a thoughtless apologist for socialist realism. M. Gorky's creative path was different - filled with the eternal dream of happiness and beauty of human life and soul. This path is the main one for Russian classical literature.

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Bykova N. G

Bykova N. G

The pathos of the early romantic works of M. Gorky

(ideas and style of Gorky’s romantic works)

I. “The time has come for the need for the heroic” (Gorky). The reasons for Gorky’s turn to romantic poetics during the heyday of realism.

II. Faith in man and the contrast of his heroic impulse to a “languorously poor life.”

1. The pathos of freedom in the early stories.

2. Don’t suffer, but act!

3. Opposition to individualistic self-affirmation of feat in the name of people.

4. Stories about tramps. “Not so much rejected as rejected.”

5. “Man – that sounds proud!” Elements of romantic pathos in a realistic play.

III. A combination of revolutionary romanticism and realism.

2. Conciseness, expressiveness, fabulousness of the plot.

3. Dramatic tension of the conflict.

4. Techniques of romantic portrait and landscape.

5. Romantic narrative structure.

IV. “Everyone is his own destiny” (Gorky).

The search for truth and the meaning of life in M. Gorky’s play “At the Depths”

I. What truth about man did Gorky dream of creating? Hatred of vulgarity, the boredom of life and aversion to patience and suffering.

II. A dispute about truth is like a dispute about the meaning of life.

1. The fate of the night shelters is an indictment of an inhumane society.

2. Naked truth Bubnova.

3. Luke's comforting philosophy. What did Luke know about people and life? The discrepancy between Luke's good desires and the results of his advice.

4. The Actor’s monologue and Satin’s monologue as two ways out of the dead end of life, two ideas of being.

5. What did Satin understand in Luke’s consolations, why does he protect him, and what does he oppose to the old man’s comforting kindness?

III. How Gorky's contemporaries perceived the play. Gorky's solution to the problem of humanism in a general social sense.

The play "At the Bottom"

In all the plays of M. Gorky it sounded loudly important motive– passive humanism, addressed only to such feelings as pity and compassion, and contrasting it with active humanism, which arouses in people the desire for protest, resistance, and struggle. This motive formed the main content of the play, created by Gorky in 1902 and which immediately caused heated discussions, and then gave birth in a few decades to such a huge critical literature that few dramatic masterpieces have generated in several centuries. We are talking about the philosophical drama “At the Bottom”.

Gorky's plays are social dramas in which the problems are common and the characters are unusual. The author does not have main or secondary characters. In the plot of the plays, the main thing is not the clash of people in some life situations, but the clash of life positions and views of these people. These are social and philosophical dramas. Everything in the play is subordinated to a philosophical conflict, a clash of different life positions. And that is why intense dialogue, often argument, is the main thing in the playwright’s work. Monologues in the play are rare and are the completion of a certain stage of the characters’ argument, a conclusion, even an author’s declaration (for example, Satin’s monologue). The disputing parties strive to convince each other - and the speech of each of the heroes is bright and rich in aphorisms.

The development of the action of the play “At the Bottom” flows along several parallel channels, almost independent of each other. The relationship between the owner of the flophouse Kostylev, his wife Vasilisa, her sister Natasha and the thief Ash is tied into a special plot knot - on this life material one could create a separate social drama. Separately developed story line, connected with the relationship between the locksmith Kleshch, who lost his job and sank to the bottom, and his dying wife Anna. Separate plot nodes are formed from the relationships of Baron and Nastya, Medvedev and Kvashnya, from the destinies of Actor, Bubnov, Alyoshka and others. It may seem that Gorky gave only the sum of examples from the life of the inhabitants of the “bottom” and that, essentially, nothing would have changed if there had been more or fewer of these examples.

It even seems that he deliberately sought to separate the action, dividing the stage every now and then into several sections, each of which is inhabited by its own characters and lives its own special life. In this case, an interesting polyphonic dialogue arises: the lines sounding on one part of the stage, as if by chance, echo the lines sounding on another, acquiring an unexpected effect. In one corner of the stage, Ash assures Natasha that she is not afraid of anyone or anything, and in the other, Bubnov, who is patching his cap, says drawlingly: “But the threads are rotten...” And this sounds like evil irony addressed to Ash. In one corner, a drunken Actor tries and fails to recite his favorite poem, and in the other, Bubnov, playing checkers with the policeman Medvedev, gloatingly tells him: “Your queen is missing...” And again, it seems that this is addressed not only to Medvedev, but and to the Actor that we are talking not only about the fate of a game of checkers, but also about the fate of a person.

Such cross-cutting action is complex in this play. To understand it, you need to understand what role Luke plays here. This wandering preacher consoles everyone, promises everyone deliverance from suffering, says to everyone: “You hope!”, “You believe!” Luka is an extraordinary person: smart, he has enormous experience and a keen interest in people. Luke's entire philosophy is condensed into one saying: "What you believe is what you believe." He is sure that truth will never cure any soul, and nothing can cure it, but you can only soften the pain with a comforting lie. At the same time, he sincerely feels sorry for people and sincerely wants to help them.

It is from collisions of this kind that the through-action of the play is formed. For his sake, Gorky needed the parallel developing destinies of different people. These are people of different vitality, different resistance, different ability to believe in a person. The fact that Luke's sermon, its real value, is “tested” on so many different people makes this test especially convincing.

Luke says to the dying Anna, who knew no peace during her life: “You die with joy, without anxiety...” And in Anna, on the contrary, the desire to live intensifies: “... a little more... I wish I could live... a little more! If there is no flour there... here we can be patient... we can!” This is Luke's first defeat. He tells Natasha a parable about the “righteous land” in order to convince her of the destructiveness of the truth and the saving power of deception. And Natasha makes a completely different, directly opposite conclusion about the hero of this parable, who committed suicide: “I couldn’t stand the deception.” And these words throw light on the tragedy of the Actor, who believed Luke’s consolations and was unable to endure bitter disappointment.

Brief dialogues between the old man and his “wards,” intertwining with each other, impart intense internal movement to the play: the illusory hopes of the unfortunate people grow. And when the collapse of illusions begins, Luka quietly disappears.

Luke suffers the biggest defeat from Satin. In the last act, when Luka is no longer in the shelter and everyone is arguing about who he is and what he is actually trying to achieve, the tramps’ anxiety intensifies: how, how to live? The Baron expresses the general state. Having admitted that he had “never understood anything” before and lived “as if in a dream,” he thoughtfully notes: “... after all, for some reason I was born...” People begin to listen to each other. Satin first defends Luka, denying that he is a conscious deceiver, a charlatan. But this defense quickly turns into an attack—an attack on Luke's false philosophy. Satin says: “He lied... but it was out of pity for you... There is a comforting lie, a reconciling lie... I know the lie! Those who are weak at heart... and those who live on other people's juices need a lie... Some people are supported by it, others hide behind it... And who is their own master... who is independent and does not eat someone else's things - why does he need a lie? Lies are the religion of slaves and masters... Truth is the god of a free man!” Lies as the “religion of the owners” are embodied by the owner of the shelter, Kostylev. Luke embodies lies as the “religion of slaves,” expressing their weakness and oppression, their inability to fight, their inclination toward patience and reconciliation.

Satin concludes: “Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain.” And although for Satin his roommates were and will remain “dumb as bricks,” and he himself will not go further than these words, for the first time in the shelter a serious speech is heard, pain is felt because of the lost life. Bubnov's arrival reinforces this impression. “Where are the people?” - he exclaims and suggests “singing... all night”, crying out for his inglorious fate. That is why Satin responds to the news of the Actor’s suicide with harsh words: “Eh... ruined the song... fool!” This remark also has a different emphasis. The passing of an Actor is again the step of a man who could not stand the truth.

Each of the last three acts of “At the Bottom” ends with someone’s death. In the finale of Act II, Satin shouts: “Dead men don’t hear!” The movement of the drama is associated with the awakening of “living corpses,” their hearing, and emotions. This is where the main humane, moral meaning of the play lies, although it ends tragically.

The problem of humanism is complex in that it cannot be solved once and for all. Each new era and each shift in history forces us to pose and solve it anew. This is why disputes about the “softness” of Luke and the rudeness of Satin can arise again and again.

The ambiguity of Gorky's play led to different theatrical productions. The most striking was the first stage embodiment of the drama (1902) by the Art Theater, directed by K. S. Stanislavsky, V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, with the direct participation of M. Gorky. Stanislavsky later wrote that everyone was captivated by “a kind of romanticism, on the one hand bordering on theatricality, and on the other – on preaching.”

In the 60s, Sovremennik, under the leadership of O. Efremov, seemed to enter into polemics with the classical interpretation of “At the Depths.” The figure of Luke was brought to the fore. His consoling speeches were presented as an expression of concern for a person, and Satin was reprimanded for being “rude.” The spiritual impulses of the heroes turned out to be dampened, and the atmosphere of the action was mundane.

Disputes about the play are caused by different perceptions of Gorky's dramaturgy. In the play “At the Bottom” there is no subject of dispute or clashes. There is also no direct mutual assessment of the characters: their relationship developed a long time ago, before the start of the play. Therefore, the true meaning of Luke’s behavior is not immediately revealed. Next to the embittered remarks of the inhabitants of the shelter, his “good” speeches sound contrasting and humane. This is where the desire to “humanize” this image comes from.

M. Gorky psychologically expressively embodied the promising concept of man. The writer revealed in unconventional material the acute philosophical and moral conflicts of his time and their progressive development. It was important for him to awaken the personality, its ability to think and comprehend the essence.

M. Gorky entered literature on the verge of two historical eras, he seemed to combine these two eras. The time of moral turmoil and disappointment, general discontent, mental fatigue - on the one hand, and the maturation of future events that have not yet been openly manifested - on the other, found its bright and passionate artist in early Gorky.

At the age of twenty, Gorky saw the world in such terrifying diversity that his bright faith in man, in his spiritual nobility, in his strength and capabilities seems incredible. But the young writer was inherent in the desire for the ideal, for the beautiful - here he was a worthy successor to the best traditions of Russian literature of the past.

In the story “Chelkash” (1894), the romantic image of a tramp and thief who broke with his environment (his father was one of the richest people in the village) is not at all idealized by the writer. Although in comparison with the spiritually wretched, greedy and pitiful Gavrila, Chelkash turns out to be the winner. But the opposition goes along the line of relation to property, to the essence that enslaves it. Gavrila's dream turns out to be a dream leading to slavery. “The power of darkness”, the power of money Chelkash denies. “Chelkash listened to his joyful cries, looked at his shining face, distorted by the delight of greed, and felt that he - a thief, a reveler, cut off from everything dear to him - would never be like that!”

For his stories, Gorky took earthly and real people, with all their contradictions and shortcomings.

A measure of value human personality he considered activity, the ability to act in the name of man. This motif can already be heard in the writer’s first story, “Makar Chudra” (1892). The story of the amazing, proud love of Loiko Zobar and Radda is a hymn to freedom. “Well, falcon,” says Makar, “do you want me to tell you a true story? And you remember it and, as you remember it, you will be a free bird throughout your life.”

Gorky's romanticism is no stranger to drama. He assumes it. The fates of the heroes of his first stories are always dramatic. But this is dramatic, giving rise to a protest against the slave position in society. Makar Chudra says at the beginning of the story to the author-narrator: “They are funny, those people of yours. They huddled together and crushed each other, and there is so much space on earth... Well, he was born then, perhaps, to dig up the earth, and to die... Does he know his will? Is the expanse of the steppe clear? Does the sound of the sea wave make his heart happy? He is a slave - as soon as he was born, he is a slave all his life, and that’s it!”

This is what worries the artist, what becomes the central idea of ​​many of his stories of the early period. Everything was unusual in this story: the fate of the characters, their speech, their appearance, and the author’s speech. “I didn’t want to sleep. I looked into the darkness of the steppe, and the royally beautiful and proud figure of Radda floated in the air before my eyes. She pressed her hand with a lock of black hair to the wound on her chest, and through her dark, thin fingers blood oozed drop by drop, falling to the ground in fiery red stars...”

Already here the opposition between free and slave existence is outlined, which will be present in different versions in all the early romantic stories of the writer. It will change and deepen. Already - Falcon, Siskin - Woodpecker, Girl - Death, Larra - Danko.

The fairy tale in verse “The Girl and Death” (published in 1917) is also imbued with faith in the power of man, in the power of action, in the power of love. The all-conquering hymn of “the joy of love and the happiness of life” - love without fear and doubt - is a vivid manifestation of that peculiarity of Gorky’s talent and his position in life, which characterizes the writer’s creative path.

In the works of young Gorky with new strength“unsolvable” questions began to arise: how to live? what to do? what is happiness? Questions that are eternal, if only because not a single generation has yet managed to avoid them.

In the fairy tale “About the Siskin Who Lied, and About the Woodpecker – Lover of Truth,” in which the writer tells a “very true story” about how “among the songbirds of that grove,” where pessimistic songs were sung and crows were considered “very wise birds” , suddenly other, “free, bold songs” began to sound, reminiscent of a hymn to reason:

… Let us ignite our hearts with the fire of our minds,

And light will reign everywhere!..

...Who honestly accepted death in battle,

Has he fallen and been defeated?

...Follow me, who dares! Let the darkness disappear!

For the writer, the important idea here is that a “spark” can be planted, faith and hope can be awakened. In this tale, the artist noted the awakening of consciousness only for a moment. In “Song of the Falcon” (1895), the death of a proud and brave bird already confirms the victory of that view of life, the bearer of which was the beautiful Falcon. "Earthly" Already defeated by that, that he does not understand what flying into the sky is, freedom, he is sure that “there is only empty space there.” His “real” view of life excludes the spirituality of human existence on earth.

The idea of ​​self-sacrifice arises naturally in “Song of the Falcon” and becomes a hymn to action in the name of freedom and light. “The madness of the brave is the wisdom of life!” - does not contain only a statement of self-awareness, although this is also important for the writer. One would think so if not for the words: “... and drops of your hot blood, like sparks, will flare up in the darkness of life and many brave hearts will be ignited with an insane thirst for freedom and light!”

The story “The Old Woman Izergil” (1894) can be called programmatic for the young Gorky. All the favorite and dear themes and thoughts of the young writer converge here. Everything here is fundamentally important for him.

The composition of the story is strictly subordinated to the idea - affirmation of the correctness of the feat in the name of life. Three independent episodes are united by the images of the author and the old woman Izergil. The image of Izergil is contradictory. It is realistic at its core. In Izergil’s life, unusual and bright, there was a lot that can be assessed ambiguously. Good and evil - everything is mixed up here, just like in life. And yet there is something that seems to unite her with Danko. “There is always a place for exploits in life” - this is the main idea, although the events in the life of the old gypsy cannot be regarded only as heroic, she often acted in the name of personal freedom.

Danko's spiritual beauty is contrasted with the wretchedness of Larra's existence. Individualism, contempt for people, egocentrism of Larra, who is confident that freedom is independence from people, from responsibilities to society, are debunked by the artist with such strength and energy that it seems that Larra’s shadow, “restless and unforgiven,” still wanders around the world. “... And he keeps searching, walking, walking... and death does not smile at him. And there is no place for him among people..."

Punishment by loneliness is a theme in many modern and, I think, future works. Two different “I”, opposed with such force, Danko and Larra, are two radically opposite relationships to life, who live and fight now. It is precisely because of the latter that Danko is interesting today. “What will I do for people?!” – Danko shouted louder than thunder.” The death of Danko, who illuminates the path of his tired and faithless people with the torch of his heart, is his immortality. This question was the main one for Danko, because without asking yourself such a question, you cannot live meaningfully, you cannot believe in anything and act consciously in life.

That is why today the early work of the writer is so interesting, who openly declared at the end of the last century about his faith in man, in his mind, in his creative, transformative capabilities.

1. Themes of the writer’s early work.
2. Romantic hero.
3. Feat in the name of people.

They call me a household worker. Even a naturalist. But what kind of household worker am I? I am romantic.
M. Gorky

Considering the early work of M. Gorky, critics disagreed - some argued that Gorky's creative method was realism, since he adhered to naturalism in detail, others called his method romanticism. There was even a compromise name - “romantic realism” or “neorealism”. Nowadays it is customary to call characteristic feature Gorky's early work is a synthesis of romanticism and realism. Gorky himself considered himself a romantic. He transferred romantic traditions from the 19th to the 20th centuries so that in the literature of his time a hero would appear that people would follow. The writer was always worried about eternal questions - about driving forces history, the purpose of man and the meaning of life, the relationship between the individual and the collective, faith and religion, freedom and necessity, humanism and cruelty. To eradicate anger and violence from the world - that was Gorky’s goal. The revival of romanticism at this time occurred not only in Russian, but also in foreign literature. The books of that time reflected a premonition of global changes. This pushed writers to search for a romantic ideal. Gorky sang of Man with a capital M: “I don’t know anything better, more complicated, more interesting than a person. He is everything. He even created God... I am sure that man is capable of endless improvement, and all his activities will also develop with him, with him from century to century. I believe in the infinity of life, and I understand life as a movement towards the improvement of the spirit.” According to Gorky, reason and will can change a lot in life.

The early period of Gorky’s work is usually called romantic, when “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel” were written. These works were distinguished by a wide variety of genres - Gorky wrote stories, legends, fairy tales, and poems. All these works are united by characteristic characters. These are not people of our time - Gorky resorts to the form of legends, traditions, songs to designate the ideal of a person who still lives in the memory of people. Active fighters for justice, beautiful externally and spiritually, his freedom-loving heroes thirst for a storm, a feat, they are ready to selflessly devote their entire lives to people or give it up for the sake of a happy future for other generations.

In the story “Makar Chudra,” the writer turns to the very embodiment of freedom - the gypsies, depicts a proud romantic hero, free from everything, incapable of compromise with self-esteem. Loiko Zobar resembles a fairy-tale good fellow - handsome, daring, wise, brave. His character traits- desire for freedom, will, pride. Makar Chudra, who tells the legend, also considers the free gypsy life to be his ideal. Therefore, Loiko ultimately prefers death to life and love without freedom. Beautiful, brave and strong heroes are led to death by the conflict between the feeling of love and the desire for freedom. The death of heroes in the mouth of Makar Chudra is perceived as a triumph of life and will. The author shows that his hero had the beginnings of a fighter capable of accomplishing a feat in the name of people, but pride interferes with him.

The hero of the story “Old Woman Izergil,” the arrogant and proud Larra, the son of a woman and an eagle, finds punishment in himself: “Let him go, let him be free. This is his punishment!” Eternal loneliness is what pride leads to. The second person the old woman Izergil talks about is Danko. Like Larra, he can be called a superman, but if Larra commits a crime in the human world, then Danko, on the contrary, is a feat. He is able to lead those around him, instill in them hope and faith. This romantic hero longs to devote himself to people to such an extent that he rips his heart out of his chest to light the way for them and dies. And the heart continues to shine.

A feat in the name of people is what a romantic hero must accomplish, overcoming even their disbelief. Danko loves his fellow tribesmen, and that’s why he leads them out of darkness into the light, but they treat the hero differently, ranging from disbelief to the fact that one “cautious person” puts out his warm heart with his foot. Old woman Izergil believes that “in life there is always a place for exploits.” She herself risked her life more than once for someone. She didn't become a heroine, but every person should strive to become a better person.

In “The Song of the Falcon” the heroic personality - Falcon - encounters the world of everyday life, with the everyman Uzh. In the work we recognize the same freedom-loving romantic hero-fighter as in the stories. The falcon speaks of the happiness of battle with the enemy, of feat. He already embodies the bourgeois views on life: “Well, what about heaven? - an empty place... How can I crawl there? I feel great here... warm and damp! So Already answered the free bird and chuckled in his heart at her for these nonsense. And so I thought: “Fly or crawl, the end is known: everyone will fall into the ground, everything will be dust.”

Gorky praises the “madness of the brave,” in which there is the “wisdom of life,” says that the death of the Falcon is not in vain: “But there will be time - and drops of your hot blood, like sparks, will flare up in the darkness of life and many brave hearts will ignite the madness thirst for freedom, light!

"Song of the Petrel" glorifies the coming revolution. The author calls the petrel a “prophet of victory,” a brave one, in whose cry “the thirst for the storm, the power of anger, the flame of passion and confidence in victory” were mixed. Black lightning, arrow, black storm demon - here it is new hero revolution. Gorky became the creator of a new direction in Russian literature - socialist realism, which he called “socialist romanticism”, and its origins are in the early works of the writer.

Famous Russian philosopher of the 20th century N.A. Berdyaev spoke about the beginning of M. Gorky’s creative career in the following way: “Gorky appeared in literature with his refreshing words and in his first stories he was strong, original and talented. It was necessary to tell the world about the tramps and their rebellion. This new power of tramping had a dazzling effect on modern society and was successful in the most bourgeois circles... Everyone recognized that Gorky’s tramps are a rebellious and revolutionary force” (“Revolution and Culture”).
Early creativity Gorky (nineties of the 19th century) represent two streams, creative and realistic principles, merging into a single artistic whole. The writer strives to escape from the gray, everyday life into a dream and a fairy tale. He was sure that “the time has come for the need for the heroic: everyone wants something exciting, bright... that is not similar to life, but is higher than it, better, more beautiful. It is imperative that modern literature begins to embellish life a little, and as soon as it begins to do so, life will become more beautiful, that is, people will begin to live faster, brighter” (From a letter to Chekhov, 1900).
This attitude leads to the creation of a whole cycle of romantic works: “Makar Chudra”, “The Girl and Death”, “About the Little Fairy and the Young Shepherd”, “Khan and His Son”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”.
The most important feature of Gorky’s romantic creativity is the researcher V.V. Mikhailovsky considered the image of the “beautiful world”, whose representatives are exclusively integral, bright, strong, bold natures, outlined sharply, without halftones: Loiko Zobar, Radda, the old Khan, Danko, Sokol... The writer openly admires them, it is no coincidence that the emphasis their outer beauty. Here, for example, is how the young gypsy Loiko Zobar introduces himself: “The mustache lay on his shoulders and mixed with his curls, his eyes glow like clear stars, and his smile is the whole sun, by God! It was as if he had been forged from one piece of iron along with the horse. He stands covered in blood, in the fire of a fire, and his teeth sparkle, laughing! I’ll be damned if I didn’t already love him as myself, before he said a word to me or simply noticed that I, too, live in this world.”
And here is the description of the gypsy Radda: “Do you know my Nonka? Queen-girl! Well, Radda cannot be compared with her - a lot of honor to Nonke! You can’t say anything about her, this Radda, in words. Maybe its beauty could be played on a violin, and even then to someone who knows this violin like his own soul” (“Makar Chudra”),
And here is a general portrait of Moldovans, young grape pickers: “They walked, sang and laughed; men - bronze, with lush, black mustaches and thick shoulder-length curls, in short jackets and wide trousers; the women are cheerful, flexible, with dark blue eyes, also bronze. Their hair, silky and black, was loose, the wind, warm and light, played with it, and tinkled the coins woven into it. The wind flowed in a wide, even wave, but sometimes it seemed to jump over something invisible and, giving rise to a strong gust, blew the women’s hair into fantastic manes that billowed around their heads. This made women strange and fabulous. They moved further and further from us, and night and fantasy dressed them more and more beautifully” (“Old Woman Izergil”).
The main thing in the heroes of Gorky's early romantic works is an active attitude towards life, the ability to fight for their moral ideals and defend them even at the cost of their lives. And it’s not even about the death of the hero, although the motive for death in such situations is stable (Radda and Zobar die, Danko dies, Sokol dies), but about the ideas that they defend. Loiko Zobar cannot lose his honor and humiliate himself even in front of his beloved girl; dying, the Falcon dreams only of once again rising into the free space of the sky and finally fighting the enemy; At the cost of his life, Danko, tearing out a flaming heart from his chest and illuminating the way with it, leads people out of the ruined forest. But the memory of them does not die. The beautiful love story of Zobar and Radda lives in the stories of Makar Chudra; the sea composes a solemn song about the death of the proud Falcon and, roaring and hitting the coastal rocks with waves, sings it; sparks from Danko's burning heart with love for people still appear in the steppe before a thunderstorm...
The writer finds the origins of romantic art in the international folklore of the peoples of the Volga region, Crimea, Caucasus, Gypsies, Moldavians...
Nature is an indispensable part of the “beautiful world”. Nature appears as a character in a number of stories: “Makar Chudra”, “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”... And the story itself usually sounds in the open, merging with the freedom of the elements of the sea, steppe, wind, sky.
Here, for example, is how the story “Makar Chudra” opens: “A damp, cold wind blew from the sea, carrying across the steppe the pensive melody of the splash of a wave running onto the shore and the rustling of coastal bushes. Occasionally his gusts brought with them wrinkled, yellow leaves and threw them into the fire, fanning the flames; the darkness of the autumn night that surrounded us trembled and timidly moved away, revealing for a moment to the left - a limitless degree, to the right - an endless sea and directly opposite me - the figure of Makar Chudra, an old gypsy ... "
And the legend about Danko ends with the following description: “And so the forest parted before them, parted and remained behind, dense and silent, and Danko and all those people immediately plunged into a sea of ​​sunlight and clean air, washed by rain. The thunderstorm was there, behind them, above the forest, and here the sun was shining, the steppe was sighing, the grass was shining in the diamonds of the rain and the river was sparkling golden... It was evening, and from the rays of the sunset the river seemed red, like the blood that flowed in a hot stream from Danko's torn chest..."
And many similar examples can be given.
A.V. Lunacharsky noted that no one before Gorky had created such a background; he “almost cannot walk to a person, begin a story or chapter of a novel without looking at the sky, without seeing what the sun, moon and stars and the whole untold palette of the heavenly are doing.” vault with the changing magic of the clouds."

Features of the creativity of M. M. Gorky.

It was as if two people lived in Gorky: an artist and a publicist. And if the publicist called on his brothers to write about Stalin’s camps and did not notice the tragedy of what was happening, then the artist wrote about the fate of the individual in the terrible reality of the twentieth century, which deprives a person of his natural social and creative freedom.

The problem of human freedom or unfreedom - central theme of Gorky's entire work. In the writer’s first stories, it sounded like a hymn to the romantically interpreted complete freedom of the individual from all the shackles of the external social world, but even then it contained doubts about the value of such freedom for a person. Gorky's last work - "The Life of Klim Samgin" - leads the reader to the conclusion about the impossibility of gaining personal freedom in the tragic conditions of Russian reality of the twentieth century.

The question of freedom is a philosophical question, and each era, including literary times, interprets it in its own way, based on the prevailing philosophical principles.

In the new type of realism, the emergence of which is associated with the name of Gorky, a new concept of personality is being formed - a person not simply reacting to the life around him, but creating, realizing himself not in the sphere of private intrigue, but in the public arena. In addition, in a new type of realism, historical time is established as typical circumstances affecting personality, and man, the hero of new literature, is entrusted with being the father of history.

The writer outlines two possible types of relationships between the individual and historical time: contact with it and alienation from it. A person alienated and not alienated from historical time are two poles, two giant differently charged magnets, between which Gorky’s concept of the human personality is formed.

By placing private human destiny in the context of historical time, insisting on the indispensability of this connection, the writer changed the entire system of values ​​​​proposed by the romantic tradition of the last century. The most important, the most valuable is no longer the individual, not his right to inner life and secret freedom, as Pushkin insisted, but social life, and the value of the individual is placed in direct dependence on participation in this life.

The traditional proportions of the relationship between man and time in Gorky's works are shifted. Now a person is no longer confined to the narrow confines of his environment, but comes face to face with his era, whether he wants it or not.

Gorky interpreted the relationship between character and history as fatal and saw in it the beginning that elevates a person capable of contact with the leading historical pattern. He perceived a person’s reluctance or inability to make such contact as negative and denied such a hero the right to sympathy and respect.

Thus, in Gorky’s epic there are two objects of depiction: objective reality and the consciousness of the hero, who perceives this reality. The interaction of these two objects forms the conflict between reality and its perception and, ultimately, the problematic of the work.

Romantic stories of Gorky

In his early works, Gorky appears to the reader as a romantic writer. For the romantic consciousness, the correlation of character with circumstances is unthinkable - hence the main feature of the romantic artistic world - dual worlds. The confrontation between romance and reality, romance and the surrounding world is the main feature of this literary movement.

This is exactly how the heroes of Gorky’s early romantic stories are presented. Their consciousness and characters, with sometimes mysterious contradictions, become the main subject of the image. An insoluble contradiction between two principles in a romantic character - love and pride

- is thought of as completely natural, and it can only be resolved by death.

The composition of the narrative in romantic stories is subordinated to one goal - to most fully show the image of the main character, and a romantic legend is the most important means for creating his image. With its help, the author presents a system of values, shows which personality traits, from the point of view of his heroes, are worthy of respect or contempt. In other words, the heroes thus seem to set a coordinate system, based on which they themselves can be judged.

A very important compositional feature of Gorky’s early romantic stories is the presence of the image of the narrator, who is an autobiographical hero.

It is the close, interested gaze of the autobiographical hero that snatches from the meetings given to him by fate the most interesting and ambiguous characters, which turn out to be the main subject of depiction and research. In them the author sees a manifestation of the folk character of the turn of the century and tries to explore its strengths and weaknesses. Autobiographical view. The hero is realistic, he can understand the limitations of a purely romantic worldview.