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Maksim Gor'kii and the Sreda Circle: 1899-1905

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Mary Louise Loe
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Extract

In 1899 a number of young writers formed a literary circle to discuss and analyze their works in progress. They considered themselves to be realists interested in portraying the mood of the intelligentsia and of the lower classes. They called the circle Sreda (“The Wednesdays”) for the day of their weekly meeting in the home of Nikolai Teleshov. Soon after its formation Teleshov invited Maksim Gor'kii to join the circle. At the time Gor'kii was a controversial figure who violently attacked everything the Russian intelligentsia stood for. He insisted that intellectuals would never accomplish their major objective—the liberation of the Russian people from political and economic oppression—unless they first liberated themselves. They had to cease being ineffective and moralistic and had to become selfish and aggressive individualists. Only then could they provide the Russian people with the leadership it desperately needed. Young intellectuals seeking inspiration, excitement, and escape responded enthusiastically to Gor'kii's call for self-liberation and idolized him. Members of the older generation were not so uncritical; they feared him as a harbinger of barbarism, a champion of criminals and outcasts, and an enemy of the intelligentsia.

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Articles
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Slavic Review , Volume 44 , Issue 1 , Spring 1985 , pp. 49 - 66
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Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1985

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References

I would like to express my gratitude for funding of this project to the International Research and Exchanges Board, the American Council of Learned Societies, The W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union of Columbia University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and James Madison University.

1. While there are innumerable Soviet and Western studies on Gor'kii and the other writers in the Sreda circle, very few concentrate on the circle itself and none, besides this study and my dissertation on which it is based, “Maxim Gorky and the Sreda Circle, 1899–1905” (Ph.D. diss.,Columbia University, 1977) investigate the psychology and structure of the group. The most insightful analysis of the role of circles in the history of the Russian intelligentsia is Marc Raeff, “Russian Youth on the Eve of Romanticism: Andrei I. Turgenev and His Circle,” in Alexander, and Rabinowitch, Janet and Kristof, L. K. D., eds., Revolution and Politics in Russia (Bloomington, Ind., 1972),pp. 39–54.Google Scholar

2. The bosiaks who captured the attention of the public may be found in the following stories:Gor'kii, “Makar Chudra,” Sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh (hereafter 55) (Moscow, 1949–56),1:9–21; “Chelkash,” 55, 1:358–90; “Prokhodimets,” SS, 3:326–61; “Byvshie liudi,” 55, 3:177–240, “Konovalov,” 55, 3:5–54. For Gor'kii's portrayal of the peasant, see Gor'kii, “Chelkash,” 55, 1:358–90; “Mal'va,” 55, 3:241–90. For dialogues between bosiaks and intellectuals, see Gor'kii, “Konovalov, “55, 3:5–54; “Starukha Izergil',” 55, 1:337–57; “Makar Chudra,” 55, 1:9–21; “Prokhodimets, “55, 3:326–61.

3. See, for example, Mikhailovskii's reviews of Gor'kii's stories, in which he accuses him of rejecting traditional Western morality based on duty, obligation, and conscience and replacing it with a new Nietzschean morality based entirely on strength. Nikolai Mikhailovskii, “Literature i zhizn':O g. Mak. Gor'kom i ego geroiakh,” Russkoe bogatstvo, 9 (1898): 55–75; N. K. Mikhailovskii, “Literature i zhizn': Eshche o Maksim Gor'kom i ego geroiakh,” Russkoe bogatstvo, 10 (1898): 61–93.

4. See, for example, Vladimir Posse's review, in which he calls Gor'kii a “writer-proletarian “and a “v/riter-bosiak,” who expresses the “soul of the working mass,” “the soul of the Lumpenproletariat. “Vladimir Posse, “Pevets protestuiushchei toski,” in S. Grinberg, ed., Kriticheskie stat'i (St.Petersburg, 1901), pp. 1–16.

5. See descriptions of the mood at the turn of the century and Gor'kii's influence in Ivan Bunin, “Gor'kii, otryvki iz vospominanii,” Don, 3 (1968): 169–70, quoted in Ninov, Aleksandr, M. Gor'kii i Iv. Bunin (Leningrad, 1973), p. 44 Google Scholar; and Chekhov to Aleksandr Sumbatov-Iuzhin, February 26,1903, Gor'kii, and Chekhov, Anton, Sbornik materialov: Perepiska, stat'i, vyskazyvaniia (Moscow,1951), p. 202 Google Scholar.

6. Evgenii Liatskii, “Maksim Gor'kii i ego razskazy,” Vestnik evropy, 11 (1901): 282. For other contemporary reviews of Gor'kii, see Mikhail Protopopov, “Propadaiushchiie sily: M. Gor'kii—ocherki i rasskazy, 2 vols., 1898,” Russkaia mysl, 5 (1899): 146–62, 6 (1899): 187–204; M. A.Protopopov, “Belletristy noveishei formatsii: M. Gor'kii—ocherki i rasskazy, t. 3, 1899,” Russkaia mysl', 3 (1900): 30–42,4 (1900): 236–50; and the collection of reviews from 1898–1900 in Kriticheskie stat'i.

7. Posse, , Moi zhiznennyi put’ (Moscow, 1929), pp. 150–51Google Scholar. See Andreev's article on Gor'kii's popularity, “Vpechatleniia,” Kur'er, no. 317, November 15, 1900, in Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:472–74.

8. See Gor'kii, M., “Avtobiograficheskaia zametka 1897 goda,” in Vengerov, Semen, ed., Russkaia literatura XX veka, 1890–1910, 3 vols. (Moscow, 1914–1916), 1:190–92Google Scholar; Gor'kii, “Avtobiograficheskaia zametka iz zhurnala ‘Sem'ia,’ “ ibid., 1:192–94.

9. Gor'kii exaggerated the poverty of his family and inaccurately reported the age at which he left his grandparents’ home. He was at the ripe age of eleven, not eight! See Akademiia nauk SSSR,Letopis’ zhizni i tvorchestva A. M. Gor'kogo (Moscow, 1958), vyp. 1, 1868–1907, p. 24; Il'ia Gruzdev, ,Gor'kii i ego vremia, 3d ed. (Moscow, 1962), pp. 5–18 Google Scholar. For an interesting discussion of Gor'kii's literary treatment of his past, see Barry Scherr, “Gor'kij's Childhood: The Autobiography as Fiction, “Slavic and East European Journal, 3 (1979): 333–45.

10. Gor'kii to Chekhov, October 1–7, 1900, Gor'kii, 55, 28:135.

11. Gor'kii to Ekaterina Peshkova, October 18, 1899, Gor'kii, S5, 28:95–96.

12. Bunin, Ivan, “O Chekhove,” in Bunin, , Sobranie sochinenii v deviati tomakh (Moscow, 1967),9:241.Google Scholar

13. Ibid., p. 242.

14. Gor'kii, “Detstvo,” Gor'kii, SS, 13:29–30.

15. Stanislavskii, Konstantin, “A. P. Chekhov v Khudozhestvennom teatre,” in Chekhov v vospominaniiakh sovremennikov, 2d ed. (Moscow, 1954), p. 366.Google Scholar

16. The only record kept by the circle is the unpublished history by its secretary Iulii Bunin,n.d., “Doklady i kratkii otchet o deiatelnosti, tseliakh i zadachakh kruzhka ‘Sreda',” Tsentral'nyi gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva SSSR, Moscow, fond 1292, opis’ 2, delo 2, l. 15–17(hereafter “Sreda “). See also M. I. Shemelova, “Predystoriia literaturnogo kruzhka ‘Sreda',” Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta 1959, no. 14, vyp. 3, pp. 59–70; M. I. Shemelova, “Kruzhok pisateli realistov'Sreda’ (1899–1909),” Vestnik Leningradskogo Universiteta 1962, no. 20, vyp. 4, pp. 86–98.

17. Admission to the Sreda circle had to be approved by its members. Belousov, Ivan, Literaturnaia sreda. Vospominaniia, 1880–1928 (Moscow, 1938), p. 110 Google Scholar. Gor'kii, however, personally selected those admitted into his inner circle (see below).

18. Gor'kii to Chekhov, January 6–15, 1899, Gor'kii, SS, 28:56; Gor'kii to Ivan Bunin, April 1899, Akademiia nauk SSSR, Gor'kovskie chteniia, 1958–1959 (Moscow, 1961), p. 11.

19. Iulii Bunin, “Sreda,” pp. 12–15. Chekhov, Korolenko, Shaliapin, and Rakhmaninov were among the more notable guests who frequented Sreda.

20. Some of the major sources for my collective portrait of the writers are: the autobiographical sketches of the writers in S. A. Vengerov, ed., Russkaia literatura XX veka, 1890–1910, vols. 1–3; Brusianin, Vasilii, Leonid Andreev. Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo (Moscow, 1912)Google Scholar; Berkov, Pavel, Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (Moscow, 1956)Google Scholar; Muromtseva-Bunina, Vera, Zhizn’ Bunina 1870–1906 (Paris,1958)Google Scholar; Kuprina-Iordanskaia, Mariia, Cody molodosti (Moscow, 1966)Google Scholar; Veresaev, Vikentii (Smidovich, ). “Vospominaniia,” Veresaev, , Sobranie sochinenii i piati tomakh (Moscow, 1961), vol. 5 Google Scholar; Aleksandr Baboreko, /. A. Bunin, Materialy dlia biografii (Moscow, 1967); Bunin, Ivan, “Kuprin,” Bunin, ,Sobranie sochinenii v deviati tomakh (Moscow, 1965–1967), vol. 9 Google Scholar; Woodward, James, Leonid Andreyev(Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar; Kaun, Alexander, Leonid Andreyev (New York, 1970)Google Scholar.

21. Iulii Bunin, “Sreda,” pp. 5–6, 21–28. See N. Teleshov's description of the circle, Zapiski pisatelia (Moscow, 1953), pp. 37–57.

22. Veresaev, “Leonid Andreev,” in Veresaev, Sobranie sochinenii, 5:398.

23. Skitalets, (Petrov, S. G.), Povesti i rasskazy. Vospominaniia (Moscow, 1960), p. 353.Google Scholar

24. Ivan Bunin, “O Chekhove,” p. 242.

25. Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, November 19–24, 1901, Akademiia nauk SSSR, Arkhiv A. M.Gor'kogo, vol. 4, Pis'ma k K. P. Piatnitskomu (Moscow, 1954), p. 53.

26. Gor'kii to Ivan Bunin, before December 22, 1900, Gor'kovskie chteniia, 1958–59, p. 17.

27. Gor'kii to Veresaev, before December 22, 1899, Akademiia nauk SSSR, Arkhiv A. M.Gor'kogo, vol. 7, Pis'ma k pisateliam i I. P. Ladyzhnikovu (Moscow, 1959), p. 11; Gor'kii to Veresaev,September 13, 1900, ibid., p. 16.

28. See Ivan Bunin to Teleshov, July 16, 1900, Akademiia nauk SSSR, Literaturnoe nasledstvo,vol. 84 (2 books), Ivan Bunin (Moscow, 1973), vol. 84, bk. 1, p. 514; Arkadii Alekseevskii, “Vospominaniia, “in Akademiia nauk SSSR, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, vol. 72, Gor'kii i Leonid Andreev.Neizdannaia perepiska (Moscow, 1965), p. 560.

29. Kok (Nikolai Fideli), “Podmaksimoviki,” lskra 5 (1903), reproduced in Literaturnoe nasledstvo,72:199.

30. Re-mi (Nikolai Remizov), “Gor'kii i ego ten',” Strekoza 41 (1905), reproduced in ibid.,p. 211.

31. See, for example, Skitalets's description of the atmosphere at Gor'kii's Crimean dacha in 1902 in Skitalets, Povesti i rasskazy, Vospominaniia, p. 353.

32. Teleshov, Zapiski pisatelia, pp. 50–51. (Gor'kii's name was “Khitrovka” [Crooks’ End]—the name of the Moscow slum inhabited by thieves, prostitutes, and pimps.)

33. I. A. Belousov, “Vospominaniia,” Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:573.

34. Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, July 24–25, 1902, Arkhiv, 4:95; Gor'kii to Andreev, March 5–7, 1901,Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:85.

35. Andreev to Gor'kii, December 10–17, 1901, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:118; Andreev to Gor'kii, November 14–16, 1904, ibid., p. 242.

36. Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, July 24–25, 1902, Arkhiv, 4:95.

37. See Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, December 26–27, 1902, January 7–15, 1903, January 6–7, 1904.Arkhiv, 4:110, 113, 150.

38. M. Kuprina-Iordanskaia, Gody molodosti, p. 126.

39. See Andreev to Gor'kii, January 9–13, 1903, August 6, 1904, November 14–16, 1904, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:173–74, 218, 241–42; Kuprina-Iordanskaia, Gody molodosti, p. 230; Teleshov, Zapiski pisatelia, p. 115; Alekseevskii, A. P., “Vospominaniia,” Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:560 Google Scholar.Although Andreev gave Gor'kii (at his request) the honor of being godfather of his first son, Gor'kii did not reciprocate when his own (second) child was born. Rather, he gave the honor to Konstantin Piatnitskii, the coeditor of Znanie who was not a member of the group. See Gor'kii to Andreev,December 26–27, 1902, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:166; Andreev to Gor'kii, December 26–28,1902, ibid., p. 168; Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, May 31-June 1, 1901, Arkhiv, 4:22.

40. See Gor'kii's complaints to Piatnitskii, before February 12, 1903, September 18–19, 1904,Arkhiv, 4:118–19, 164.

41. At this time Gor'kii held many of his grandfather's views about male behavior and group loyalty, although I have found no indication that he ever explicitly acknowledged this influence.Nonetheless, Gor'kii's insistence that the writers be hostile toward all males outside their own group and loyal to those within definitely echoes his grandfather's advice to him throughout “Detstvo. “See, for example, Gor'kii, “Detstvo,” pp. 27–32.

42. Teleshov, Zapiski pisatelia, p. 92.

43. Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, January 7–11, 1902, Arkhiv, 4:66.

44. See Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, February 15, 1903, February 17–19, 1903, Arkhiv, 4:120–21:Andreev to Piatnitskii, May 1903, Literatumoe nasledstvo, 72:502; Andreev to Gor'kii,September 24–25, 1903, ibid., pp. 178–81; Gor'kii to Andreev, September 26–28, 1903, ibid.,pp. 181–82. See also Gor'kii on Skitalets's drinking, Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, July 24–25, 1902, Arkhiv,4:95.

45. According to Posse, who was responsible for the initial publication of Gor'kii's works,Gor'kii gained control of Znanie by seizing the shares Posse had given him as collateral for a loan.For Posse's interpretation, see V Posse, Moi zhiznennyi put', pp. 344–47. For Gor'kii's interpretation,Gor'kii to Piatnitskii, June 1901, Arkhiv, 4:23–24; Gor'kii to Posse, January 1903, Arkhiv,7:41–42.

46. See Vladimir Korolenko (Zhurnalist), “O sbornikakh tovarichestva ‘Znanie’ za 1903,” Russkoe bogatstvo, 8 (1904):129–49; Bialik, Boris, ed., Russkaia literatura kontsa XIX nachala XX v.,1901–1907 (Moscow, 1971), pp. 412–16Google Scholar. On the popularity and financial success of the Znanie sborniki, see Brooks, Jeffrey, “Readers and Reading at the end of the Tsarist Era,” in Todd, William Mills III, ed., Literature and Society in Imperial Russia, 1800–1914 (Stanford, 1978), p. 114.Google Scholar

47. Gor'kii to Valerii Briusov, February 4 or 5, 1901, Gor'kii, 55, 28:152–53.

48. Gor'kii to Andreev, December 2–4, 1901, Literatumoe nasledstvo, 72:113.

49. Andreev to Gor'kii, May 21. 1901, ibid., pp. 89–90.

50. See Gor'kii to Veresaev, end July-beginning August 1904, Gor'kii, 55, 28:316–17; Gor'kii to Andreev, September 21–22, 1904, Literoturnoe nasledstvo, 72:223–24.

51. See Kuprina-Iordanskaia, Gody molodosti, p. 230; Andreev to Gor'kii, May 20, 1902,June 1–7, 1902, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, pp. 148–49, 151–52; Gor'kii to Andreev, May 27–28, 1902,ibid., p. 150.

52. See Andreev to Gor'kii, February 1912, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:324–26; Gor'kii to Andreev, March 10–16. 1912, ibid., pp. 327–28.

53. Roerich, Nikolai, “Pamiati Leonida Andreeva.” Rodnaia zemlia (New York, 1921). 2:51 Google Scholar,quoted in Kaun, Alexander, Leonid Andreyev: A Critical Study (New York. 1970), pp. 163–64Google Scholar.

54. Contrast, for example, Gor'kii's description of the intellectual Teterev in his play Meshchanewith Andreev's description of the same character. Gor'kii to Stanislavskii, January 1902, Gor'kii.SS, 28:219–21; Andreev, “Melochi zhizni,” Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:475–80. For another striking example of the disagreements among the writers, see Gor'kii's interpretation of the disillusioned radical intellectual Tokarev of Veresaev's novel Na povorote, and Veresaev's response to his letter.Gor'kii to Veresaev, January 18 or 19, 1902, Gor'kii, SS, 28:232; Veresaev to Gor'kii, February 2,1902, quoted in “Primechaniia,” Veresaev, Sobranie, 2:431.

55. In Kuprin's Poedinok ( “The Duel “) and Andreev's MysV ( “Thought “), the writers portrayed their relationship to Gor'kii in barely disguised form. See Kuprina-Iordanskaia, Gody molodosti,p. 231; Kniga o Leonide Andreeve (Petrograd, 1922), p. 19. For an excellent analysis of Gor'kii's literary influences on the writers, see Lydia Weston Kesich, “Maxim Gorky and the Znanie Volumes, 1904–1913” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1967).

56. Kuprin to Chekhov, December 6, 1902, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, vol. 68, Chekhov (Moscow,1960), p. 387.

57. Andreev to Gor'kii, May 20, 1902, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:149.

58. See, for example, Dmitrii Filosofov's review of Dachniki, Filosofov, “Zavtrashnee meshchantstvo, “Novyiput', 11 (1904): 321–32.

59. See Gor'kii's letter to Andreev justifying his association with the Social Democrats. Gor'kii to Andreev, March 18, 1906. Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:265.

60. See Andreev's description of the impact of the war on the circle. Andreev to Piatnitskii,May 10–12, 1904. Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:508.

61. Skitalets, Povesti i rasskazy. Vospominaniia, p. 431. See also Iulii Bunin, ‘ “Sreda,” pp. 16–17, 35; Andreev to Veresaev (who was working as a military doctor in Manchuria), February 6,1905, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:512.

62. Gor'kii to E. P. Peshkova, January 9, 1905, Gor'kii, SS, 28:346–49.

63. For Gor'kii's involvement in the January events, see Gor'kii, , “Savva Morozov,” in Elizarov, S. S., ed., M. Gor'kii v epokhu revoliutsii 1905–07 godov (Moscow, 1957), pp. 26–37 Google Scholar; V la.Orlova, “M. Gor'kii-uchastnik pervoi russkoi revoliutsii,” in ibid., pp. 127–69; Tova Yedlin, “Maxim Gorky: His Early Revolutionary Activity and His Involvement in the Revolution of 1905,” Canadian Slavonic Papers, 17, no. 1 (1975): 76–105; Sablinsky, Walter, The Road to Bloody Sunday (Princeton,N.J., 1976), pp. 244 Google Scholar, 246, 268–69. For the involvement of the other writers, see lurii Pukhov, “L. Andreev i Skitalets v revoliutsii 1905–1907 godov (Po dokumentam Departmenta politsii),” in Revoliutsiia 1905 goda i russkaia literatura (Moscow, 1956), pp. 416–24; Sergei Kastorskii, “Pisateliznan'evtsyv epokhu pervoi russkoi revoliutsii,” ibid., pp. 64–111; Kuprina-Iordanskaia, Cody molodosti,pp. 208–14.

64. Andreev to Piatnitskii, February 1, 1905, “Pis'ma Leonida Andreeva,” Voprosy literatury,8(1971): 168.

65. See Gor'kii to Ivan Bunin, before July 10, 1905, Gor'kovskie chteniia 1958–1959, p. 37;Z. M. Karasik, “M. Gor'kii i satiricheskie zhurnaly ‘Zhupel’ i ‘Adskaia pochta,'” in Elizarov,M. Gor'kii v epokhu revoliutsii, pp. 357–87.

66. Gor'kii to E. P. Peshkova, October 24, 1905, Gor'kii, 55, 28:391–92; Teleshov, Zapiskipisatelia, pp. 108–109.

67. Andreev to Piatnitskii, October 24, 1905, “Pis'ma Leonida Andreeva,” p. 169.

68. Ivan Bunin, “Odesskii dnevnik,” Sobranie, 9:310–15; Bunin to M. P. Chekhova, June 7,1906, quoted in A. Baboreko, l. A. Bunin, p. 102; M. A. Bunina to Ivan and Iulii Bunin, n.d.,quoted in ibid., p. 103.

69. A. Kuprin, “Sobytiia v Sevastopole,” Kuprin, Sobranie sochinenii v deviati tomakh (Moscow,1964), 9:96–100, 559.

70. See Andreev to Veresaev, April 1906, in Veresaev, “Andreev,” pp. 407–408; Ivan Bunin, “Odesskii dnevnik,” pp. 310–15. Kuprin's wife wrote that although her husband was sympathetic to the revolutionary events he was opposed to force, and when Gor'kii tried to get him involved in the revolution, he broke away from him. Kuprina-Iordanskaia, Gody molodosti, p. 213.

71. Gor'kii, “Po povodu,” Gor'kii, 55, 23:368–69. See also Gor'kii, “Zametki o meshchantstve, “ “Po povodu moskovskikh sobytii,” Gor'kii, 55, 23:341–67, 373–76.

72. See discussion of Gor'kii's articles and the reactions of Berdiaev and others in Orlova, “M. Gor'kii—uchastnik pervoi russkoi revoliutsii,” pp. 127–69.

73. See Gor'kii's letter to Andreev in which he accuses him, Kuprin, and others of lowering the significance of literature, August 16-October 8, 1911, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:319; and Andreev's letters to Gor'kii, October 12, 1911, February 1912, ibid., pp. 322, 324–26. See Kesich on the disintegration of Znanie: Kesich, “Gorky and the Znanie volumes,” pp. 186–98, 212–15, 235–57.

74. Andreev to Veresaev, April 1906, Veresaev, “Andreev,” pp. 407–408.

75. Gor'kii to Andreev, March 10 to 16, 1912, Literaturnoe nasledstvo, 72:328.

76. Iulii Bunin, “Sreda,” p. 74.