The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-05-08
BY WILLIAM TooLEY.

lenged the whole bourgeois world to a
death fight. Those eight epic years
are the pride and inspiration of every
bold worker from the Thames and the
Hudson to the Hoogli, the Niger and
the HoangHo.
Where was Gorky? He spent year
or two in the Soviet Republic Nbleat-
ing, now and then, that he did not ap-
prove: he really did not approve OF
the rough stuff that the Whites were
getting. Then he left. The hardships
Of the blockaded Republic were not
zoo severe for foreign liberals such
as Clare Sheridan, Anna Louise
Strong, Louise Bryant, Isadore Dun
can-these were inspired by the new
life; but the devoted revolutionary
Gorky fled to the Mediterranean para
disc of Capri, to shelter under the
bloody wing of Mussolini.
This manikin surely would not be
worth discussing-if he did not in
dulge, every few weeks, in an attack
on the Red Republic. His latest in
the current "Liberty'-the weekly
magazine published by the owners Of
the Chicago Tribune-is two columns
of drivel linking Lenin with Mussolini.
Gorky says: History is determined
by national psychology. Russians are
very gloomy-this led to Bolsheyism.
land Gorky once claimed to be
Marxist, tho poor oneD To quote
directly, Gorky diagnoses" Bolshe-
vism thus: Russia is country of
pessimism. There has not been
writer yet who dared to speak in the
tones of happines and who dared to be
optimistic. If such a man were to
come, everyone would follow him.
"And he came. This was Lenin.
There appeared a man who had the
courage to laugh. He actually did not
laugh. but he embodied in himself
hope; in the reign of curses, he spoke
Of Afe. He had an optimist's philoso-
ply. But he himself never
laughed"
Ut is false to say that Lenin never
laughed-as we shall see later. Gorky
alone gave him many hearty chuckles.
Gorky goes on to tell why he dis
approves of Lenin: Eve became en-
emies. We always had differences of
opinion. Now, that he is dead, I can
say that never before nor ever in the
future, will l love and respect a man
90 deeply as l did him. But never
did fight anyone as fought him.
Lenln turned the rens Of power into
the hands of the people. This ! did
not want. Emphasis mine-W. I'd
II knew that Russian peasant is il
Ifterate, brutal, uncultured and cannot
rule. Lenin took away the reins OF
power from tie hands of the intelli-
gentsia and the educated industrial
class and turned 1t over to those who
are only now awakening from bru-
tai state, to those who did not partici-
pate in the slightest way in the crea-
ton of new Russia, and to those who
were and still remain uncultured."
Think of it! Gorky, the friend of
the oppressed" Gorky, the tender
hearted, whose soul according to his
own accounts) was torn by the suffer
ings of workers and peasants-this
Gorky did not want" power to be
turned Into the hands Of the people"
30 that they might at last do away
with this oppression and these suf-
ferings.
FORTUNATELY, Gorky's attack
need not go unanswered. Altho
Lenin is dead, we know what he thOt
Of Maxim Gorl1y. Months before the
Russian proletarian revolution, Lenin
pierced the cloak of Gorky's senti-
mental words and saw the essential
insincerity and muddle-headedness OF
the man. Every rebel-even such a
dilettante as Gorky-knew what the
war was about-markets and colonies.
In 1917, after the March revolution,
Gorly issued this statement: the Rus
sian government should conclude
peace "this must not be peace at
any price. It must be peace
that will enable Russia to live with
honor among the other peoples of the