Maksim Gorky

Born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov in Nizhny Novgorod in 1868, he later took the pen name Maxim Gorky, a name that means “bitter.” His early life was harsh, and those experiences fed directly into the voice that made him famous: direct, compassionate, and intensely interested in people living on society’s edges.

Gorky first won readers with vivid stories and sketches of tramps, laborers, and other outsiders, then went on to write major works including The Lower Depths and Mother. He was also active in political life, supported revolutionary movements, and spent periods living abroad, including years in Capri.

By the time of his death in 1936, Gorky was one of the best-known Russian writers in the world and had been nominated multiple times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is often linked with the rise of socialist realism, but his best writing is valued just as much for its energy, sympathy, and deep feeling for ordinary lives.