Maxim Gorky
1868 – 1936 Russian Writer and founder of Socialist Realism
The great proletarian writer and uneasy conscience of the Bolshevik revolution.
- Religion
- Russian Orthodox background; an atheist who once promoted the semi-religious idea of 'God-building' within Marxism.
- Affiliations
- Close to the Bolsheviks; the leading Soviet writer and a founder of the Socialist Realist doctrine.
Gorky was Russia's most famous writer and a friend and financial backer of the Bolsheviks, though he sharply criticized their violence in 1917 and 1918. He went abroad, then returned to become the honored elder of Soviet literature and a founder of Socialist Realism. His death in 1936 was later alleged, without firm proof, to have been arranged by the secret police.
Connections
- associate of Joseph Stalin — Returned to serve as the figurehead of Soviet literature under him.
- associate of Vladimir Lenin — A friend and supporter who still attacked his repression.