In his late
teens he attempted suicide. The bullet pierced his lung, rendering him
susceptible to Tuberculosis for the rest of his life.
Between 1899 and 1906 Gorky lived in St. Petersburg and participated
in the activities of the Social Democratic Party. When it split in
1903, he, indeed, supported the Bolsheviks financially - though he
never joined them formally. He was a strong critic of Lenin. Partly to
avoid his wrath, he exiled himself to Capri, Italy in 1906.
Moreover, though he upheld the Bolsheviks' anti-war stance, he opposed
the 1917 October Revolution (the Bolshevik coup against the
post-Tsarist Social Democratic government). So damaging was his
criticism of Lenin's dictatorial ways and the illegitimacy of the
Bolshevik regime that his work was censored from July 1918 onwards.
Gorky left Russia in 1921 and lived in Sorrento, Italy until 1928 when
he was lured back by a lavish celebration of his 60th birthday. The
year after, he relocated permanently to Russia. In 1938, certain
senior Soviet figures - like Nikolai Bukharin and Genrikh Yagoda -
were accused of murdering him in 1936, while under medical treatment.
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