MAXIM GORKY and the RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS a Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate Scho
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THE PROPHET DISILLUSIONED: MAXIM GORKY AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In History By Anita A. Kondoyanidi, Ph.D. Washington, DC December 7, 2019 Copyright 2019 by Anita Kondoyanidi All Rights Reserved ii THE PROPHET DISILLUSIONED: MAXIM GORKY AND THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS Anita Kondoyanidi, Ph.D. Thesis Advisor: Michael David-Fox, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This study investigates Maxim Gorky’s public and literary life based on new materials from Italian and Russian archives (Archivio Centrale Dello Stato and the Archives of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), which bring to light Gorky’s reasons for returning to the Soviet Union in 1928 and to travel back and forth to Italy until 1933, when he decided to remain in the Soviet Union. The period under examination, the years of Gorky’s life (1868-1936), witnessed the Revolution of 1905, World War I, the February and October Revolutions, the Civil War, NEP, and a cultural revolution of which Gorky became a zealous architect. This study argues that Gorky’s personal experiences with violence at the hands of the Russian petit bourgeoisie and peasantry generated his strong and tenacious desire to recast Man and heal Russia and Russians from their innate pessimism and laziness. Once Gorky accepted selective use of violence in building an ideal Soviet society and offered Russia a utopian project – the creation of a new, improved human being—he contributed to the horrifying reality of the 1930s, making himself an unintentional accomplice in the Soviet revolutionary and repressive experiment. The dissertation also analyzes Gorky both as a public servant and a writer with a unique interpretation of late imperial politics and the Russian literary scene. The first chapter focuses on Gorky’s childhood memories and how they shaped his vision as a public servant. The second chapter explores Gorky’s conceptual affinity and differences with the Bolsheviks and demonstrates his view of the Revolution of 1905 and World War I. It also analyzes Gorky’s experiment with God-building on Capri and its ultimate failure. The third iii chapter examines Gorky’s criticism of Lenin’s fanaticism, Marxist ideology, and the October Revolution. It also explores why Gorky decided to begin collaborating with the Bolsheviks. The fourth chapter demonstrates that Gorky became disillusioned with European politics, criticized Nazism and Fascism, and became more drawn to Soviet reality. Gorky made a pact with the Soviet government based on his grand delusion in order to continue writing his works for a Russian-speaking audience, preserve Russian and European cultures at a time when Fascism spread in Europe, and, most importantly, construct a new, creative, hardworking, and educated common people. He was continuing his crusade to recast “Man.” Finally, the fifth chapter explores Gorky’s role in building the Soviet cultural system. His preservation projects saved Russian culture, but not the millions of people who perished in Stalin’s labor camps. However, Gorky’s literary legacy, particularly his plays, where the human being occupies the center, still teach us to appreciate the humane, beautiful, and sublime without venerating money. Gorky’s belief in the human imagination and man’s abilities to create a good and purposeful life for oneself remains a matter of admiration and inspiration. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Any intellectual project is a personal and lonely journey but with numerous people helping on its way. I am profoundly grateful to my mentor, Dr. Michael David-Fox, for his belief in me, for his incredible patience, for reading every word, and for his deep thoughtfulness and understanding. Dr. Catherine Evtuhov not only taught me how to become a historian, but also inspired me endlessly. It was in her beautiful apartment with a view of St. Petersburg roofs that I found my way back to my inquiring self and my writing voice. Dr. David Goldfrank has always been thoughtful and considerate of me and one of the most attentive readers I could possibly have. I am thankful to him for all his comments on my dissertation. Every intellectual is a product of an intellectual milieu that is a precondition for his or her future development. The History Department and CERES at Georgetown University are two places that I consider my intellectual homes and I could not have been happier or luckier to spend 10 years there from 2005 until 2015. I am very grateful to Dr. Angela Stent for opening many doors for me and for letting me always be myself. For this, and much more, I am very thankful. Anton Fedyashin not only read every word of this dissertation, but also was and is an exceptional father to our daughter, Anna. For this and much more I am endlessly grateful to him. I am tremendously thankful to my cousins, Elena Maslieva, Elena Kondoyanidi, and Larisa Kondoyanidze, and my brother-in-law, Cliff Lamb, for their unwavering support of me over the years. My dear friends, Natalia, Sasha, Oleg, and Tanya Rozhavskie helped me in ways that I never expected. In their St. Petersburg apartment on Professor Popova Street I wrote my entire dissertation and I am endlessly grateful to them for their kindness. The Liberty Fund in Indianapolis always appeared in my life during the most challenging times. I am immensely grateful to Peter Mentzel, Doug Den Uyl, Nathan Feltman, Terry Anker, Emilio Pacheco, and Patrick Lynch for their unwavering support and belief in me. The late Richard Stites taught me Russian history, helped me to choose my dissertation topic, but passed away before my comprehensive exams. I have missed him ever since and I am grateful to Richard for his gift of friendship. I am thankful to everyone who helped me on the way to finishing this colossal project, but there are two people to whom I am dedicating this work. To my mother who taught me what unconditional love is and to my daughter, Anna, who believed in me even when I did not. v To my mother, Elena, for teaching me what unconditional love is, and my daughter, Anna, who believed in me even when I did not. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Grand Delusion or Great Dreams? .............................................................................1 Chapter 1. The Petit Bourgeois and the Muzhiki in Gorky’s Work ...............................................20 Chapter 2. “My Weapon Is My Thought”: Bloody Sunday, the Capri School, and the Great War .......................................................................................................................................74 Chapter 3. Timely Thoughts on an Untimely Revolution............................................................128 Chapter 4. The Search for Hope: European Exile and Soviet Courtship .....................................185 Chapter 5. The Tragic Years: Shepherding a Prophet and Building Soviet Culture ...................212 Conclusion: Grand Delusion or a Heroic Life? ...........................................................................253 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................258 vii Introduction Grand Delusion or Great Dreams? “My Lord, we know each other’s faces, but for our hearts, he knows no more of mine, than I of yours.” “Richard III” William Shakespeare1 “Gorky is on the crossroads his entire life.” Kornei Chukovskii2 “Hell is paved with good intentions” Samuel Johnson3 While it was prestigious and advantageous to analyze Gorky’s literary works in the Soviet Union under Communist Party’s gaze, in the 1990s the “Gorky” studies fell into oblivion. Today one finds the Communist Party attention to Gorky improbable, but there is no exaggeration in the assumption that Gorky’s status as a leading “proletarian” writer and founder of socialist realism influenced Soviet scholars’ well-being, career, and social status. In the USSR, all Ph.D. candidates who focused on Gorky had to be approved by the Politburo committee -- their notes were thoroughly checked after hours spent in the Gorky archive -- but as the Soviet Union began to fall apart, the Russian intellectuals started to treat the “proletarian writer” with contempt, skepticism, and suspicion.4 Russian Gorky’s scholars began to reevaluate his writings produced during the revolutionary times and openly debate new interpretations in Russian major journals.5 In the twenty-first century, Gorky’s scholars have neither such 1 William Shakespeare, “Richard III,” in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, ed. by David Bevington (New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1991), p. 657. 2 Kornei Chukovskii, Dve Dushi M. Gor’kogo (Moscow: Russkii put’, 2010), p. 83. 3 Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (New York: Penguin Classics, 2008), p. 49. 4 See Pavel Basinskii, “Logika gumanizma: Ob istokakh tragedii Maksima Gor’kogo,” Voprosy Literatury 2 (1991): 129-151; Liudmila Saraskina, “Strana dlia eksperimenta,” Oktiabr’ (3) (1990): 131-135. 5 See the first debate and proposal of a new evaluation of Gor’kii’s stance during the revolution by F.F. Kuznetsova, “Gor’kii vo vremia revoliutsii,” in Sovetskaia kul’tura, March 31, 1988; K. Muratova, “Gor’kii,” Sovetskaia kul’tura, April 1 1989; A. Ovcharenko, “Burevestnik revoliutsii,” Oktiabr’ 3 (1990): 59. 1 promising incentives as in the USSR nor a derisive attitude towards a “proletarian writer” as in the 1990s.6 Now