Untimely Thoughts

'An important book of as much interest now as at the time it was written.'--Walter Laqueur One of the most renowned Soviet writers of the twentieth century, Maxim Gorky was an early supporter of the Bolsheviks. He became disillusioned with the turn of events after the 1917 revolution, however, and wrote a series of critical articles for the magazine New Life that eventually caused the new communist government to close down the publication.Untimely Thoughts is a collection of these articles. It is at once a brilliant analysis of the Russian national character, a condemnation of the Bolshevik methods of government, and a vision of a future in which respect for individual accomplishment replaces the tyranny of the tsars and the brutality of Russian peasant existence. A controversial book, it was not translated into English until 1968 and was not published in the Soviet Union until 1989. The English edition of Untimely Thoughts is now back in print with a new introduction, chronology, and notes.'Untimely Thoughts is now timely. Gorky`s journalistic pieces are immensely interesting as a commentary on a period of revolution, turmoil, and violence and on the play of forces trying to seize control of the country in a situation close to anarchy--that is, a situation very much like that of Russia today.'--Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was the author of many stories, novels, and plays, including Foma Gordeyev, Three of Them, The Petty Bourgeois, and The Lower Depths and Other Plays. Mark D. Steinberg is an associate professor of history at Yale University. Russian Literature and ThoughtGary Saul Morson, series editor Also available:The Lower Depths and Other PlaysMaxim Gorky