Maxim Peshkov: biography and the tragic fate of the only son of Maxim Gorky

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

Maxim Peshkov is the only natural son of the famous Russian writer Maxim Gorky. Possessing talents in various fields of art, he, however, could not put them into practice, leading an idle lifestyle. This article provides a biography of Maxim Peshkov. What prevented him from achieving personal success and why did the writer's son die young?

Childhood and youth

Maxim Alekseevich Peshkov was born on July 21, 1897 in the Poltava province, in the family of the famous writer Maxim Gorky (real name Alexei Peshkov) and Ekaterina Peshkova, his first wife. Gorky always liked the name of his father - Maxim, so he took this name as a pseudonym, and then christened his son with the same name. In the photo below, little Maxim Peshkov with his father.

From the age of 9 to 16, Maxim lived abroad with his mother - by that time she remained Gorky's wife only officially, they had not lived together since 1906. Maxim's childhood passedmainly in Paris, but for seven years he managed to live in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. At this time, Maxim studied different sports.

Despite the big gap in communication with his father, Maxim knew perfectly well that he was the son of a famous person, and existed mainly on his father's money, which had a negative impact on his character: the young man grew up a spoiled sybarite.

Private life

In 1922, together with his future wife Nadezhda Vvedenskaya, 25-year-old Maxim Peshkov moved to Italy to live with his father. Soon Maxim and Nadezhda got married, their wedding took place in Berlin. A few days before the wedding, Nadia, being in awe of the European fashion for short haircuts, cut off her hair, for which she received the nickname "Timosha" from Gorky, which stuck with her until the end of her life. Maxim Peshkov's wife is pictured below.

Soon the couple had two daughters: in 1925, Marfa Peshkova was born in Sorrento, and two years later, in Naples, her sister, Daria.

For ten years from the date of the move, Peshkov and his family lived in Europe, keeping as close as possible to his father and his common-law wife. Gorky was pleased, because he loved his son, and he simply adored his granddaughters, and therefore he fully provided materially for both his son and his family. The then environment remembered Maxim as a surprisingly infantile young man, not adapted to adult life.

In 1932, Maxim Peshkov, together with his entire family, including his father, moved to Moscow.

Work and creativity

Contemporaries remembered Maxim asa multi-talented, but very lazy man, who had no aspirations at all, except for entertainment and satisfying his needs, of course, with his father's money. From his youth, Peshkov was fond of drawing, he was good at sketching and caricature in ink, but he was never able to finish a single full-fledged picture. In addition, he sometimes wrote short stories - one of them, called Ilyich's Light Bulb, Maxim even sent for publication, but the editors mistakenly published it under Gorky's name. Since then, Maxim Peshkov has not been engaged in literature anymore.

During his life in Europe, Peshkov became interested in photography - his father paid Maxim for an expensive camera and a whole darkroom, but the hobby quickly passed again. Having the opportunity to follow the world's latest films, Maxim Peshkov became interested in cinema for a while - he spent whole days in cinemas, buying packs of postcards with actors and magazines about cinema. Suddenly, he felt acting abilities in himself, but he never came to any screen tests. Never feeling the need, Maxim did not even think about finding some kind of permanent profession, and therefore most of his life he simply lounged around.

Maxim Peshkov's official work includes serving in the Cheka for food supply to the capitals from 1918 to 1919, and serving as a military commissar at Vsevobuch from 1920 to 1922. He proved to be a good organizer, taking care of the premises and food, as well as making thoughtful and interesting lesson plans, teaching future Red Army soldiers.all the sports he played in his youth.

Death

Gorky's son Maxim Peshkov died on May 11, 1934 at the age of 36. The cause of death was a conspiracy by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Genrikh Yagoda and Gorky's personal secretary Pyotr Kryuchkov. Yagoda was seriously carried away by "Timosha", and therefore, without thinking twice, he decided to get rid of her husband. At that time, in addition to the lack of work, Maxim Peshkov began to drink a lot. Yagoda arranged with Kryuchkov to give Maxim a good drink and then send him home unaccompanied. On May 2, 1934, after such a drinking bout, Peshkov, who was freezing unconscious on a park bench, was discovered by the nanny of his children. After that, Maxim fell ill with serious pneumonia, and died 9 days later.

Out of respect for Gorky, the First Congress of Writers of the USSR, scheduled for that time, was postponed for several months. In 1938, Yagoda and Kryuchkov were sentenced to death and shot, confessing to the crime against Maxim Peshkov.