LITERAR Y GAZETTE IN THE FORMATION OF THE GORKY CULT IN LITERATURE

Abstract

The article examines the history of the Literary Gazette newspaper during the Soviet period and its role in shaping the cult of Maxim Gorky as an ideological symbol. Using archival publications, editorials, reader letters, and visual materials, the author demonstrates how the newspaper transformed from a forum for debate into a tool for socialist construction. Particular attention is paid to Gorky’s participation in the language debates of the 1930s, where literary polemics escalated into political rhetoric. It is shown that the deification of Gorky, initiated by Stalin, was systematically supported by the newspaper through panegyrics, imperative mood, and coverage of the First Congress of Soviet Writers. It is argued that the Literary Gazette became a key instrument in constructing the Soviet literary myth of the unity of writers and the people, offering a framework for rethinking the mechanisms of cultural production in an authoritarian state.