Romanov Riches: Russian Writers and Artists Under the Tsars

Chekhov’s letter to the academy was characteristic of the new situation, when public reputation and independence were more important to a writer, artist, or actor than the government’s approval. In his letter, Chekhov recalled that he was the first to congratulate Gorky on his honorary title: “I congratulated him sincerely, and now for me to recognize the election as invalid—that contradiction does not fit in my mind and my conscience.”²⁶

All the leading papers wrote about the scandal, fueling Gorky’s popularity. Here it was, a clear sign of crisis of power: the tsar tried to punish a writer, but instead only increased his appeal.

In the final analysis, Nicholas II lost this small skirmish with Gorky. But, naturally, he did not even notice his defeat—it was about some “despicable tramp.” The revolution of 1917 was fifteen years away.

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On Stalin’s order, the legend about the great friendship between Lenin and Gorky was created in the Soviet Union, based on several cleverly cropped quotes from Lenin’s writings on and to Gorky. But a close reading of the texts reveals a much more complex picture. It was not a friendship of equals. Lenin, who was two years younger, nevertheless behaved like a strict, demanding teacher dealing with his talented but errant student.

Lenin never stopped lecturing and chastising Gorky. In one letter, we find: “Why are you behaving so badly, chum? You’re overworked, tired, nerves on edge. This is unacceptable … No one to supervise you and you’ve let yourself go?” In another, “What are you doing? It’s terrible, really!”²⁷ And so on.

In one of his articles, Lenin quotes Gorky as telling him, with an “inimitably sweet smile” in private conversation, “I know I’m a bad Marxist. We artists are all slightly irresponsible.” Lenin comments sarcastically, “It’s hard to argue with that … but then why does Gorky take on politics?”²⁸

Lenin scolded Gorky before the Bolshevik revolution for his “ideological vacillation” and propaganda of “incorrect” (from Lenin’s point of view) philosophical theories; after the revolution, when Lenin was leader of Russia, he was irritated by Gorky’s endless attempts to save intellectuals who had offended the Bolsheviks and were threatened with prison or execution. He learned that Gorky divulged Lenin’s confidential views, expressed in private conversations with the writer, to the “counterrevolutionaries.”²⁹ That was too much.

Their relationship ended with the Bolshevik leader pushing Gorky out of Russia in 1921, writing, “Leave, get treatment. Don’t be stubborn, I’m asking you.” As one of his Party comrades said of Lenin, “Ilyich loved anyone the party needed. Tomorrow, if that comrade should take the wrong position, Ilyich would drop all relations with him, and he would be ruthless toward him.”³⁰

Lenin never really praised Gorky by using the lofty words he found for Leo Tolstoy or even Chernyshevsky. Gorky reluctantly admitted that. In his memoirs, quoting Lenin’s reaction to his political novel The Mother (“A very timely book”), he added, “That was the only, but extremely valued, compliment from him.”³¹

Lenin wrote, “Literary work should become part of the whole proletarian movement, ‘a cog and wheel’ of the one and only, great social-democratic machine.” For Lenin, culture was a political instrument. “Writers must certainly join party organizations. Publishing houses and warehouses, stores and reading rooms, libraries and various book dealers—all that must belong to the party.”

Lenin formed this politicized utilitarian view of culture early and retained it throughout his life. Gorky tried many a time to persuade him that this was a mistake. He was the only major writer Lenin knew well, and Lenin valued the opportunity to talk with him, but he never yielded on any point.

Gorky took his revenge for Nicholas II’s persecution with his pamphlet Russian Tsar (1906), where he described the tsar this way: “A miserable soul, a despicable soul, inebriated by the blood of the hungry people, sick with fear, a small, greedy soul.”

Gorky settled his accounts with Lenin, too, but in a different way, writing a seemingly loving essay after his death; in fact, it was a polemic against Lenin. It is Gorky’s masterpiece, on which he worked for almost ten years.

For Gorky, Lenin was a politician par excellence (“while I have an organic revulsion for politics,” noted Gorky). Earlier, when Lenin was alive, Gorky spoke even more frankly about him in the press: “A talented man, he has all the qualities of a leader as well as the requisite absence of morality and ruthless attitude toward the life of the masses.”

In his memoirs, Gorky analyzes Lenin in a more nuanced way. His Lenin admits, “I know little of Russia.” Nevertheless, he believes that he has a very good understanding of the Russian people: “The Russian masses have to be shown something very simple, very accessible. Soviets and communism are simple.”