Maxim Gorky

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Republic

13.01.18

What will the New Year bring? Everything that we are capable of doing. But, in order to become responsible people, we have got to believe that these crazed, dirt and blood-smeared days are the great days of the genesis of new Russia.

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Republic

04.01.18

Having destroyed the old courts in the name of the proletariat, the People’s Commissars have thereby strengthened in the consciousness of the “street” its right to “mob trials” – a brutish right indeed. See more

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Republic

19.12.17

The former minister Konovalov, a scrupulously honest man, set up a Community Hall in his factory in Vichuga which is a model building of this type. Konovalov is now in prison. The romantic-minded but impractical Lunacharksy is now trying to foist the poet Yasinsky, a writer with a vile reputation, on the working classes. To do this is to soil the banner of the working class and corrupt the proletariat. See more

, and others

1 Like

Comment

Bertrand Russell

London, United Kingdom

18.12.17

Although the Government favours art as much as it can, the atmosphere is one in which art cannot flourish, because art is anarchic and resistant to organization. Gorky has done all that one man could to preserve the intellectual and artistic life of Russia.

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky Ekaterina Peshkova

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Republic

12.12.17

I’m not sick as such, but I am a little out of sorts. My lungs are playing up a bit – it’s nothing, though: I’ve already been treated twice and I'm feeling better. But as for my nerves, they are utterly shot. Utterly. I’m not sleeping, and my mood is so heavy! I’m trying not to let it show to my nearest and dearest, but, really, how can you keep it hidden?

All is not well with Russia – very much not well!

, and others

1 Like

1 Comment

Zinaida Gippius

Sergievskaya 83, Petrograd, Russian Republic

09.12.17

The newspaper “Den’” (‘Day’) turned into “Noch’” (‘Night’) after the first closure; into “Dark Night” after the second; “Midnight” emerged after the third. After the fourth it became “Into the deep night”, and then the door was slammed completely shut. See more

, and others

1 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky

64 Nevsky prospekt, Petrograd, Russian Republic

31.10.17

It seems apposite to ask: could there really be adventurers who, observing a waning of the revolutionary energies of the thinking part of the proletariat, hope to kindle these energies by means of a profuse blood-letting? See more

, and others

1 Like

Comment

Ivan Pavlov Alexey Petrovsky

4, Vvedenskaya street, Petrograd, Russian Republic

29.10.17

I am addressing you with a request to terminate my membership in the “Free association for the development and spreading of positive sciences”The "Free Association for the Development and Dissemination of Positive Sciences", organized in May-June 1917, brought together leading representatives of Russian science. The association was created to raise money for research and education.. See more

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

12.09.17

I am a total stranger to nationalism, patriotism—all those deficiencies of spiritual vision. Nonetheless, I see that the Russian people are exceptionally, fantastically talented and idiosyncratic. Even fools in Russia are stupid in their own original way, and our lazy folk are positively brilliant. See more

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

09.09.17

The gardener is pacing up and down the alley, a ladder on his shoulders, scissors in hand, trimming trees. He’s lost weight, shrunk a little, his clothes hang loose on him like a sail on a mast on a windless day. His scissors cut branches with loud angry clicks. I was watching him and thinking that nothing - not an earthquake, not even the Deluge could stop this man from doing his job.

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Maximilian Voloshin with Boris Savinkov

Voloshin's house, 43, Marine street, Koktebel, Crimea

30.08.17

According to Gorky, who had just arrived in Koktebel, the issue of the death penalty emerged, with Savinkov calling for its introduction in the rear and Kerensky expressing a desire to abolish executions once again. But, given that the introduction of the death penalty is essentially the abolition of lynch law (i.e., the selfsame death penalty, meted out for what are essentially insignificant instances of misconduct), it will undoubtedly be introduced sooner or later; the most terrible thing about revolutions is sensitivity: it always ends up yielding the bloodiest fruits. See more

, and others

Comment

Ekaterina Peshkova Maxim Gorky

Foros, Crimea, Russian Empire

29.08.17

It’s nice here. It is so beautiful that you feel ashamed when thinking about what life must be like with you all now.

, and others

1 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky Ekaterina Peshkova

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

12.08.17

I know you are crazily busy, but I beg you: I have heard on good authority that if our son applies for a medical degree he will be freed from the draft, so please try to sort this out. I’m still stuck in St Petersburg, my sojourn in part extended by the wonderful tropical weather. See more

, and others

Comment

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

10.08.17

People have been sending me nooses, images of axes, chopping blocks and hundreds of expletives—and this is in the year of my fiftieth birthday. I have served Russian culture for 25 years! Does this kill me, does it depress me? Well, no, not really, but I will not hide, I’m afraid, that it irritates me. I’d rather they didn’t.

, and others

4 Like

Comment

Maxim Gorky

23, Kronversky ave., Petrograd, Russian Empire

01.08.17

Three years of merciless, senseless war; three years of daily bloodshed among the finest peoples of the earth; the priceless spirit of the cultural nations of Europe is being exterminated. The most villainous sort of these nations accuse those of their compatriots with the audacity to believe in global brotherhood of being dangerous madmen and heartless utopians with no love of country. See more

, and others

2 Like

Comment

Age: 49

Lives in: Petrograd, Russian Empire

Occupation: writer, publicist Interests: art, science Views: social democrat Job: "Letopis" magazine, "Luch" newspaper, publishing house "Parus"

Married to

Ekaterina Peshkova

Friends

Alexandre Benois

Ivan Bunin

Alexandra Kollontai

Leonid Andreyev

Sergey Prokofiev

Vladimir Korolenko

Feodor Chaliapin

Lilya Brik

Herbert George Wells