Maxim Gorky was born in 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. After a grim childhood and some years of wandering he began to write stories and by his thirties had become world-famous both for fiction and plays. He became involved in revolutionary activity against the tsarist regime in Russia and had a confused, difficult relationship with the Soviet dictatorship, partly living abroad and yet becoming the USSR's most feted and widely read author. He died in 1936 under suspicious circumstances and Stalin and Molotov were among the bearers of his coffin.

‘Maxim Gorky’s Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev, now published in an elegant new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, unites three sketches penned by the most prominent and influential writer of the early Soviet Union…. All three are vivid and compassionate, providing a record not only of the writers but of their historical moment.’— Sophie Pinkman, New Statesman

Maxim Gorky was born in 1868 in Nizhny Novgorod. After a grim childhood and some years of wandering he began to write stories and by his thirties had become world-famous both for fiction and plays. He became involved in revolutionary activity against the tsarist regime in Russia and had a confused, difficult relationship with the Soviet dictatorship, partly living abroad and yet becoming the USSR's most feted and widely read author. He died in 1936 under suspicious circumstances and Stalin and Molotov were among the bearers of his coffin.

‘Maxim Gorky’s Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev, now published in an elegant new translation by Bryan Karetnyk, unites three sketches penned by the most prominent and influential writer of the early Soviet Union…. All three are vivid and compassionate, providing a record not only of the writers but of their historical moment.’— Sophie Pinkman, New Statesman