Maxim Gorky
Russian Writer
(1868–1936)
Maxim Gorky was a Soviet/Russian author who was born Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov.  Gorky became an orphan when he was only eleven and was raised by his grandmother, who had a huge impact on his early years.  After her death, he attempted to commit suicide and later he traveled across the Russian Empire on foot for five years, which is when he developed many of the ideas he later used in his writings.  In the West, Maxim Gorky’s name is mostly associated with Gorky Park, a novel by Martin Cruz Smith, which was later made into a popular movie.

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