The Confession -- Maxim Gorky

<p>A Confession is a 1908 short novel by Maxim Gorky. It first appeared in the Znaniye compilation (book 23, Saint Petersburg) and almost simultaneously came out as a separate edition via the Ladyzhnikov Publishers in Berlin.</p><p> </p><p>The tale of Matvey, a pilgrim, was based upon the real-life story of a religious sectarian in Nizhny Novgorod, and an article on him by Bogdan-Stepanets, a tutor at the local seminary. Later, in a sketch called "On the Edge of the World", Gorky mentioned another source, the manuscript by a Levonty Pomorets, which the writer's friend S.G. Somov brought with him from his Siberian exile.</p><p> </p><p>The novel, written in the times when Gorky became keenly interested in the new quasi-religious God-Building movement, horrified Vladimir Lenin who on several occasions criticized the attempts to unite Socialism and Christianity, mentioning A Confession.</p><p> </p><p>Gorky explained: "I am an atheist. In A Confession the idea was to show the means by which man could progress from individualism to the collectivist understanding of the world. The main character sees 'God-building' as an attempt to reconstruct social life according to the spirit of collectivism, the spirit of uniting the people on their way to one common goal: liberating man from slavery, within and without." (wikipedia.org)</p><br><br><b>Author:</b> Maxim Gorky<br><b>Publisher:</b> Bibliotech Press<br><b>Published:</b> 01/07/2023<br><b>Pages:</b> 172<br><b>Binding Type:</b> Hardco