Tolstoy. Chekhov. Lenin

“The thought that, noticeably more often than any other, sharpens his heart— the thought of God”—this is the key idea in the most famous and remarkable of Gorky’s literary portraits: memoirs about Leo Tolstoy. But what in his conversations with the great writer made the author reach a different—and quite unexpected—conclusion: “With God, he has a very uncertain relationship, but sometimes it reminds me of the relationship ‘between two bears in one den’.” Gorky, in whom literary talent always went hand in hand with the keen observation of a born journalist, tried to look beyond the masks of the public image of a genius Russian writer.

The collection also includes recollections about Chekhov, Lenin, and other famous contemporaries who left a vivid mark on Russian history and culture.