The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-11-18
Gorky>> The 10th Anniversary
of His Literary Activities
Soviet Masses Honor Great Proletardn Writer "Tak OF
John Reed Clubs to Pob,4larize His Work in U.S.A'

his personality. On the occasion of
Gorky's literary anniversary a
whole body of Gorky criticism has
grown up almost overnight. When
published in book form some of
the leading essays on Gorky will
constitute a great contribution to
the study of proletarian literature
IN gerenal and OF Gorky in ~
ticuiar. You take at random al
article In Pravda, organ of the
Communist Party of the Soviet
Union, and your attention is ar
rested on passage like this:
"Gorky's stories (of the earlier
period) are grave indictments
against the bourgeois order which
turns the majority of mankind
into warped and crushed human
beings. His is not the sadness
of ChekhOv, it is the rebelli0us
and wrathfuI art of the new
class that has turned his atten-
ton upon the contradictions of
society and seeks a revolutionary
solution. of these contradictions.
The art Of the young Gorky was
portent0us art; it commanded
the attention of the entire world,
1t conquered East and West with
the tremendous power of Gorky's
talent and gathered around itself
millions of new readers, who for
the first time learned of the ex-
istence of an art of the OPP
pressed class. The exceptional
success Of even the earlier stories
of Gorky is the historical success
of the proletariat which for the
first time spoke out with such
powerful voice in the realm of
art. In GOrky's person the work
ing class gained creative writer
whom even the bourgeois society
could not ignore. Gorky alarmed
the bourgeois critics and the bour-
geois reader, he went forth
against them with the theology of
prOletarian writer who mer-
cilessly exposed the capitalist
system, emphasizing its inevitable
doom and the growing power of
the proIetariat." Is. DinamOv,
"The Struggle of the Menscheviks
Against GOrky,' Prayda, Sept. 25.)
EVEN now some Of the bourgeois
- and social-fascist critics would
like to see in Gorky a great "hu-
manitarian" writer gone wrong
But as early as 1914 Maxim Gorky
emphatically rejected the Menshe-
visit (and Trotskyite) theory that
the prcletariat cannot create its
own culture and must rely upon
the intelligentsia for its spiritual
food. Writing about collection
of stories of proletarian writer's
published in 1914, Gorky stated:
'In time this little volume
will be referred to as one of the
first steps of the Russian prole-
bdlldt tOhd tu Vic CiCdtAOI ItS
own literature. Some will say
skeptically that this is an idle
dream, that such literature
never existed anywhere. am
firmly convinced that the prole-
tariat can create its own itera-
ture, just as it has created with
great effort and at great ,sacri-
flee its own press"
Gorky himself contributed in nc
small measure toward the creation
of such a literature. Not only
have his works served as an in
spiration to the younger genera
ton of proletarian writer's, but his
tireleSs efforts on behalf of prole-
tartan culture, his constant en-
couragement of creative effort on
the part of the workers and peas
ants, his profound faith in the DOR
mant creative forces of the masses
waiting Ito be released and given
expresSion--all this has made
Gorky not merely a proletarian
writer but a veritable builder Of
proletarian culture. 1t is this
Gorky that was honored by the
masses, 1t is Gorky the builder, the
inspiring and inspired revolutionist
that has become the trusted FRIEND
Of millions of workers at home ano
abroad.
LEADER OF
PROLETARFhN LITERATURE
The American workers, too, Should
know and appreciate their Gorky
for he is theirs as much as he i.
Russian. He is q leader In prole.
tartan literature, he is a tireles
fighter against capitalism With 81