Maxim Gorky

About Maxim Gorky

Maxim Gorky (born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov) stands as a monumental figure in Russian and Soviet literature, earning an HPI Rank of #793. As a celebrated writer and playwright, his significance is rooted in his role as a founder of the socialist realism literary method and his status as a fierce critic of Tsarist Russia, which often led to his political exile and arrest. Works like his autobiographical trilogy and the play *The Lower Depths* established him as a key voice articulating the struggles of the working class and advocating for revolutionary ideals during a transformative era in Russian history.

In the modern digital landscape of 2025, Gorky's cultural resonance appears somewhat muted relative to his historical importance. With 309K annualized Wikipedia pageviews, his online attention is approximately 1x what would be expected given his high global ranking. This level of interest places him notably behind contemporaries in the literary sphere, for example, only receiving about half the attention of George Bernard Shaw (#834 importance, 772K views), despite a similar HPI rank. The relatively stable year-over-year change of -0.2% suggests a consistent but not growing interest in his work among online users.

This data point highlights a subtle, ongoing challenge: while Gorky remains firmly ranked among the world's most historically important figures, the immediate curiosity and daily traffic directed toward his work on the internet do not fully reflect this established historical weight.