On March 28, the 150th anniversary of the birth of the classic of Russian and Soviet literature, the main proletarian writer and the “Petrel of the Revolution” by Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, better known under the pseudonym, Maxim Gorky, turned out. Few people know that Gorky was a major publisher and a rather wealthy person. Not only after the revolution, but also long before it, he lived on a wide foot and could afford long foreign trips.
To illustrate Gorky’s traction to the wanderings, we must remember that in his young years he went through the whole Russian south: the Volga region, Don, Ukraine, Crimea, the Caucasus … The impressions of these travels formed the basis of the series of stories in Rus’.
Photo: young Maxim Gorky / Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky. Yalta, 1902 / © RIA Novosti
But abroad Gorky first turned out to be, already being a world -famous writer and part -time member of the RSDLP. In January 1906, shortly after the defeat of the First Russian Revolution, Gorky, on behalf of Lenin, went through Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland and France to America to raise funds for the party box office. He was accompanied by a civil wife – actress Maria Andreeva and bodyguard Nikolai Burenin. Gorky sailed from France to America on Frederick Wilhelm the Great, where he had a luxury cabin with a huge desk, a living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a shower. Having visited New York, Boston and Philadelphia, where he participated in rallies organized by Americans sympathizing with Russian socialists, Gorky raised $ 1,200, a considerable amount at that time.
Photo: Gorky with Maria Andreeva at dinner in his honor in Boston, 1906 / © RIA Novosti
And then he settled on the island of Staten Island at the mouth of the Hudson, on the estate of American philanthropists, spouses Martin, where he began to write his most famous novel “Mother”. However, soon a scandal rose in the American press: Gorky was called a two -wire (he was really not divorced with his first wife),
And he had to leave the United States.
Photo: Maxim Gorky and Mark Twain at a dinner at the Writers Club / Coutesy Image
In September 1906, Gorky briefly returned to Russia, and already in October he was serving a long emigration to Italy. On the pier in Naples Gorky, crowds of people met. Today it is difficult to believe that at the beginning of the 20th century the glory of the writer could be akin to the current glory of the movie star, but this is a fact. For Italians, Gorky was a martyr of the revolution in the spirit of Garibaldi, who miraculously escaped from the bloody paws of tsarism and is now forced to hide abroad. And although it was not entirely true, the Italians were ready to carry Gorky in their arms.
After spending some time in Naples, Gorky moved to a small island of Capri. A few days later he wrote to Leonid Andreev: “Capri is a tiny piece, but tasty. In general, here immediately, one day, you see so much beautiful that you are drunk, bastard and you can’t do anything … ”
At first Gorky and Andreev settled in the Hotel “Ku dependent” (Quisisana). Today, this hotel is called Grand Hotel Quisisana 5* and is part of the Association of The LEADING HOTELS of the World. Ernest Hemingway, Jean Paul Sartre, Tom Cruise, Sting and other famous people, stayed here.
Many believed that Gorky had their own villa in Capri, but this was not so. For seven years on the island, Gorky replaced three places of residence. In November 1906, Gorky and Andreeva removed the Villa Blazus (Villa Blaesus),
belonging to the settani family. She was in one of the most picturesque places in Capri. Today, the Villa Kryop Hotel is located here, from the terrace of which Marina Piccla’s sea view opens at sea and bay. Lenin came here to Gorky to visit, who at that time was also in exile, but in France.
Photo: V. Lenin away at M. Gorky plays chess with A. Bogdanov / Y. Zhelyabuzhsky / “Proletarian Revolution”, 1926, No. 1.
In the spring of 1909, Gorky moved to the Villa Spinola, built by the Nobel laureate in the field of medicine Emile Bering. Today it is called – Villa Bering. It is located at the end of Longano Street. It is quite easy to recognize it, because it has a bright burgundy color from the rest of the houses. Here Gorky lived for two years, until February 1911.
Gorky’s life on Capri was not the life of a hermit. Some people constantly crowded in his house. For some time, a party school even acted on Capri, where Russian workers and students studied the basics of a revolutionary struggle.
The Italian journalist Mario Bakcardo in the article “On the island of Siren” in “Ile Jornal d’Italia” wrote: “There were many Russian, but not noble gentlemen, but employees, students from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vilna, Kyiv. They manage to make a trip thanks to the long savings of funds … They come to Capri because Maxim Gorky lives here. They gather here and live as one family, help a friend, learn from general books. ”
Gorky visited many guests from Russia: Bunin, Chaliapin, Novikov-Priba, Leonid Andreev, Lunacharsky, Dzerzhinsky and many others. Gorky was a very hospitable owner: “Come,” he wrote to the artist Vasily Kachalov, “we will swim in the Blue Sea, catch sharks, drink white and red Capri and generally live … You will have excellent rest …”.
Photo: Maxim Gorky and Fedor Chaliapin / © RIA Novosti
And, finally, the third place of Gorky’s residence in Capri is the Villa “Surfin” (now renamed Pierrin’s villa). Here he lived from the spring of 1911 to the end of 1913. In a letter to his adoptive son Zinovy Peshkov, he wrote about Capri: “It is surprisingly beautiful here, some kind of fairy tale is endlessly unfolding in front of you. Beautifully the sea, island, its rocks, and people do not spoil this impression of careless, cheerful, colorful beauty. What are the musicians if you heard! .. They have a lot of natural cheerfulness, naivety, thirst for beautiful and there is nothing that would remind you of the Italians of America … Democracy, which here – especially after America, is very striking. ”
Photo: House on Capri, in which Gorky lived for many years / A. N.
Gorky also did not sit at the island of Gorky either. He visited Florence, Rome, Genoa … In 1907, he visited London as a delegate to the V Congress of the RSDLP, and in 1912 in Paris, where he once again met with Lenin. Of course, Gorky, recalling youth, walked around and all Capri. He even climbed his highest Mount Monte Solaro.
And, of course, Gorky wrote. The story “Childhood” and “Confession”, the play “Vassa Zheleznov”, 27 small stories that made up the cycle “Tales of Italy” – all this was written in Capri.
In 1913, in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov house, an amnesty was declared political emigrants, and Gorky returned to Russia. However, seven years later, the writer again went abroad. He lived in Helsingfors, Berlin, Prague, and then moved back to his beloved Italy. Officially – for the treatment of old consumption, but in fact he was simply shocked by the cruelty of the revolution, which he so called in his works.
Photo: in Berlin, 1921 / in Finland, 1904 – 1905 / © RIA Novosti
In the spring of 1924, Gorky, with his new passion, Maria Budberg and many households settled in Sorrento. “I was not and not going to Capri,” he wrote in one of the letters to his homeland. – There, they say, it became very noisy, fashionable and expensive. In the tailor, posilipo, Pozuoli, in Baya – they found nothing for themselves. I am in a hurry to work and sit down at the table immediately, as soon as we move to Sorrento, and the youth will take up the search for a home. ”
The dwelling was found at the Vill “Il Sirit”, located on the rocky Cape Capo Di Sorrento. The view from the balconies of the villa, as always, was amazing: Vesuvius, the Neapolitan Bay and the picturesque town of Castellamar.
In May 1928, losing to the persistent requests of Stalin, Gorky arrived in the USSR, but until 1932 (when he finally returned to the Soviet Union) every fall and winter spent in Sorrento.
Photo: Maxim Gorky holds a niece in her arms. Sorrento, 1928 / © Bettmann / Corbis
As a result, Gorky lived in a total of more than 18 years abroad, of which 15 years in Italy. It is interesting that during this time he did not master any foreign language, having learned in Italian only one phrase-“Buona Sera” (“Good evening”).
The author of the text: Dmitry Rzhannikov
Photo for the preview: © RIA Novosti
Convenient site for finding hotels – Onetwotrip.
