Дьяволина Горького

Dli͡a svoego romana Shpiro vybral prevoskhodnyĭ material i ne menee blesti͡ashchui͡u i originalʹnui͡u formu ego podachi. Tekst predstavli͡aet soboĭ vospominanii͡a vymyshlennoĭ zhenshchiny, kotorai͡a byla ri͡adom s Maksimom Gorʹkim v samye dramatichnye periody ego zhizni i stala posledneĭ vozli͡ublennoĭ proslavlennogo pisateli͡a. Stilʹ psevdodokumentalʹnogo povestvovanii͡a vyderzhan velikolepno, otdelitʹ istoricheskiĭ fakt ot literaturnoĭ fantazii tak zhe trudno, kak razobratʹsi͡a v samoĭ ėpokhe, v kotoroĭ mif i realʹnostʹ okazalisʹ slity voedino. Mozhno li radi obshchechelovecheskikh t͡sennosteĭ zaigryvatʹ s beschelovechnoĭ sistemoĭ? Gde konchaetsi͡a pisatelʹ - tvoret͡s ėpokhi i nachinaetsi͡a pisatelʹ - ee zhertva? Kak sootnositsi͡a kumir, "arkhitektor chelovecheskikh dush", s realʹnym chelovekom iz ploti i krovi? Vse ėti voprosy Shpiro blistatelʹno issleduet na primere slozhnoĭ sudʹby odnogo iz samykh neodnoznachnykh klassikov sovetskoĭ literatury. Maksim Gorʹkiĭ, nachinavshiĭ kak rʹi͡anyĭ zashchitnik unizhennykh i oskorblennykh, a zakonchivshiĭ tem, chto dokazyval Gerbertu Uėllsu, budto by v SSSR net i ne mozhet bytʹ politicheskikh prot͡sessov, odno iz samykh nagli͡adnykh olit͡setvoreniĭ strany, rodivsheĭsi͡a iz mechty o vseobshchem edinstve i schastʹe, no ochenʹ bystro pereshedsheĭ k lageri͡am i rasstrelam.

For his novel, Spiro chose an excellent material and no less brilliant and original form of its presentation. The text represents the memories of a fictional woman who was next to Maxim Gorky in the most dramatic periods of his life and became the last beloved of the famous writer. The style of pseudo-documentary narration is maintained perfectly, it is as difficult to separate the historical fact from the literary imagination as to understand the era in which the myth and reality were merged together. Is it possible to flirt with an inhuman system for the sake of universal values? Where does the writer – Creator of the era end and the writer – its victim begin? How does the idol, the "architect of human souls", relate to a real man of flesh and blood? All these questions Spiro brilliantly explores the example of the complex fate of one of the most controversial classics of Soviet literature. Maxim Gorky, who began as a zealous defender of the humiliated and insulted, and ended up proving to Herbert wells that the USSR does not and cannot have political processes, one of the most obvious personifications of the country, born of the dream of universal unity and happiness, but very quickly passed to the camps and executions.