The New Europe/Volume 6/Number 74/Maxim Gorki on Lenin
Maxim Gorki on Lenin
Maxim Gorki, whose whole life has been a struggle for the Russian Revolution, finds himself disillusioned at the tyranny of the Bolševik chiefs. Early in February his quarrel with Lenin reached a head, as the result of an article containing the following home truths:— “Lenin,” he wrote, seeks to introduce in Russia the Socialist régime à la Nećaiev” [the famous Nihilist conspirator of the seventies]—” in other words, to let the train run at full steam through the marshes. Fancying themselves to be veritable Napoleons, the Lenins, great and small, are going mad and completing the process of the destruction of Russia. Certainly Lenin is a man of extraordinary force. For 25 years on end he has kept in the front ranks of those struggling for the triumph of the Socialist idea. He is a man of genius, possessing all the qualities of a leader, and he does not know the meaning of morality. Certainly, like a real grand seigneur, Lenin despises the complicated life of the masses, of which he knows nothing at all. He has never lived in close contact with the people; and through books he has not succeeded in understanding the masses. But it is just this fact that makes him capable of rousing into fury the lowest instincts of the working classes. I believe it to be absolutely impossible, with present conditions and the material which we have, to create a Socialist State. But why not try? What does the grand seigneur Lenin risk, by forcing the people to make this experiment? The risk only exists for these masses whom Lenin despises. . . .”
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This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1918, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929. The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 87 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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| Translation: |
This work was published in 1918 and is anonymous or pseudonymous due to unknown authorship. It is in the public domain in the United States as well as countries and areas where the copyright terms of anonymous or pseudonymous works are 105 years or less since publication.
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