Maxim Gorki

Maxim Gorky (born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, 1868–1936) was a Russian and Soviet writer and political thinker. Rising from a difficult childhood, he worked a series of jobs and drew on these experiences in his early stories. He gained wide recognition with works such as the play *The Lower Depths* and the novel *Mother*, and became associated with social and political debate in late imperial Russia. After the 1917 Revolution he lived abroad for periods, later returning to the Soviet Union. Gorky also helped shape Soviet literary life, supporting institutions and writers while remaining a complex, sometimes critical public figure.