Maxim Gorky (1868-1936), the father of Soviet literature, was the founder of the doctrine of social realism, whaich was characterized by its strict adherence to Communist Party doctrine and which mandated a generally optimistc picture of the development of the Bolshevik revolution. His work revealed a strong poetic strain and an eternal passion for justice, and by the example of his work and life and by his literary criticism, he exerted a profound influence on Soviet thought.
Gorky was raised in the primitive environment of Czarist Russia where Jews – who were viewed through the traditional Russian prism of superstition and legend – appeared as one-dimensional objects of contempt and mockery. However, in marked contrast with other backers of Bolshevism and supporters the Soviet regime, Gorky saw Jews as a noble people with “heroic idealism” and a “tireless pursuit of the truth” who were “the greatest revolutionaries in history.”
Upon witnessing a pogrom in Nizhny Novgorod (1887), he was deeply shaken by what he saw and became a staunch opponent of anti-Semitism, helping to establish the Russian Society for the Study of the Life of the Jews, an organization dedicated to protesting anti-Jewish persecution.
Gorky openly, frequently, and vociferously criticized his government’s malevolent oppression of the Jewish community. For example, he argued that “Whatever nonsense the anti-Semites may talk, they dislike the Jew only because he is obviously better, more adroit, and more capable of work than they are.” And in an interview published in the popular Yiddish daily newspaper Today (1912),he declared:
Russia belongs to all nationalities and all peoples, and every people has a right to its existence, to the full development of its national idiosyncrasies, to an autonomous life of its own . . . The most important thing right now is to have an effect on stopping the spread of this poison that is anti-Semitism, that has lately caught on among some Russian intellectuals, and could spread to the young people of Russia. I don’t forget about this. I am always warning our progressive and better readers.
Gorky also often manifested his philo-Semitism through his writing, which he employed as a means to reverse centuries of systemic Russian anti-Semitism. For example, Pogrom (1918) was inspired by the Kishinev pogroms of 1903 and he co-edited Shchit (1916), a compilation of pro-Jewish works of Russian literature in which he essentially characterized the lack of Jewish rights as the paradigm of injustice under Czarist rule.
It is both fascinating and telling that most of Gorky’s fervent condemnations of anti-Semitism were somehow omitted from the thirty-volume Soviet edition of his works (1949-1955), including articles on Chaim Nachman Bialik; a piece on the Kishinev pogrom; and an appeal to save the Habimah Theater (which had not yet been moved to Eretz Yisrael).
Moreover, though Jews were conspicuous in their absence as characters in ninteenth century Russian literature, Gorky encouraged them to write about Jewish subjects. He was very knowledgeable about Jewish literature and Jewish writers, particularly Sholem Aleichem, whom he met and personally admired; Mendele Mocher Sforim, whom he characterized as “the grandfather of Yiddish literature;” Bialik, whom he characterized as “a majestic poet;” and I. L. Peretz, whose work he is known to have read in Russian.
When he learned that Yiddish dailies had a daily readership of 100,000, an impressed Gorky commented that Jews are “a people of culture whom others may envy.” Gorky organized a volume of works by Jewish authors translated into Russian, but he was arrested and exiled by the Russian authorities. Although the volume was never published, his interest in Jewish literature never waned.
In the rare and unusual association item exhibited with this column, Gorky has signed a pamphlet for a 1915 literary-musical evening benefiting the Moscow Jewish Society, adding “for relief of war victims.”
Gorky held great Jewish philosphers and thinkers in great esteem, particularly the ancient Jewish sage Hillel, who he said deeply influenced his life:
In my early youth I read . . . the words of . . . Hillel, if I remember rightly: ‘If thou art not for thyself, who will be for thee? But if thou art for thyself alone, wherefore art thou’? The inner meaning of these words impressed me with its profound wisdom . . . The thought ate its way deep into my soul, and I say now with conviction: Hillel’s wisdom served as a strong staff on my road, which was neither even nor easy. I believe that Jewish wisdom is more all-human and universal than any other; and this not only because of its immemorial age . . . but because of the powerful humaneness that saturates it, because of its high estimate of man.
Gorky was also sympathetic to Jewish aspirations for a homeland in Eretz Yisrael, as was his wife, Ekaterina Peshkova (1876-1965). As chairman of the Political Red Cross after the October Revolution, Peshkova was a protector of political prisoners in the USSR, which included many Jews. She was much beloved by Jews, particularly Zionists, for whom she sometimes was able to secure exit visas to emigrate to Eretz Yisrael.
