ABSTRACT
The Russian social-democrat party found able leaders in Plekhanov and later in Lenin, whose personal integrity was itself a powerful propaganda for the socialist creed. But at the same time, the self-indulgent individualism of the eighties bore its fruits in decadent currents, which deliberately ignored the social element in literature and gave themselves to the cult of aestheticism and of the ego. The most outstanding young author of that decade, Maxim Gorky, was himself one of those self-made intellectuals from below. This explains not only his meteoric rise to fame, but also the part he was destined to play in the history of Russian culture during its most critical years. The real name of Maxim Gorky was Alexey Maximovitch Peshkov. He made his debut in 1892 with Makar Chudra. Gorky is prone to simplify not only ideas, but also psychology. Gorky can be regarded as a symbol of the transition period between the old and the new Russia.
