Maxim Gorky’s last publishing project: The History of the Village in the context of the writer’s other projects of the 1930s

Abstract

Maxim Gorky’s unrealized publishing project History of the Village was the last in a series of the writer’s ideas, such as the History of the Civil War, the History of Factories and Plants, the History of Cities, etc. The idea of the History of the Village took shape in February 1935, when work was already underway on other projects. Gorky’s first ideas related in one way or another to the History of the Village appeared in the early 1930s: the history of agriculture, the history of the peasant. In the 1930s, the idea of writing the history of collective farms and state farms by analogy with the History of Factories and Plants came not only to Gorky: such initiatives came from a variety of sources. At the beginning of 1934, the idea of a peasant project was discussed in the Gorky House. During 1934, the Kolkhoznik magazine was created, and the Biblioteka Kolkhoznika (Library of the Collective Farmer) book series was conceived, which later became part of the History of the Village. Gorky’s article “History of the Village”, published in the central newspapers at the end of February 1935, should be considered the beginning of the work on the project. It took a month and a half to develop a detailed project plan and structure, and to select key employees. A special feature of the structure of the History of the Village was the combination of two types of book series: actual historical and literary-artistic. In terms of content, there is a connection between the History of the Village and the projects History of the Civil War, History of Factories and Plants, History of Cities. The editorial board of the History of the Village decided to start working on books on the history of the village Platovskaya (the birthplace of S.M. Budyonny), the village Gulyai-pole (the birthplace of N.I. Makhno), the Bessarabian commune named after G.I. Kotovsky. They also decided to start developing the history of 50 to 60 collective and state farms. However, Gorky was much more interested in the history of settlements and villages. He thought of the History of the Village by analogy with his other project, the History of Cities. The idea to create such a series appeared at the end of 1931. Active work on it began in 1933 in the Academia publishing house, which was headed by L.B. Kamenev. Speaking of the History of Cities, Gorky necessarily includes the peasant theme in the course of his thoughts. Gorky selected the same sources to work on projects. The plan of the History of the Village contained an item “history of the city (for the village)”. Initially, the History of Cities was called the History of Cities as the History of Russian life”. The second part of this title is the semantic core that unites both projects. Gorky understood life broadly - as culture, a complex of everyday life that forms a certain type of a person. We can say that the History of the Village was to continue and supplement the History of Cities project. Moreover, after the murder of S.M. Kirov on December 1, 1934, and the arrest of L.B. Kamenev, accused of involvement in this political crime, trouble was in the air for the Academia publishing house, and the History of Cities was called into question. Gorky’s plan was not realized, just like most of the writer’s other publishing projects of the 1930s. The author declares no conflicts of interests.