Gorky literary memorial museum is on 10, Gorky St. The expositions on the ground floor of the museum devoted to the life and work of A. M. Gorky. On the first floor of the museum you can see the exposition devoted to the work of the famous Russian musician F. Shalyapin. In both expositions there are photos related to the friendship of Gorky and Shalyapin.
The museum devoted to Gorky was opened in Kazan in 1940. The exposition is called «Writer-epoch-hero. Life and creative career of М. Gorky». Maksim Gorky was born as Alexei Maximovich Peshkov in Nizhny Novgorod in 1868.
In 1884 Gorky entered the Kazan University and the following 4 years he lived in Kazan. Gorky used to say: «Physically, I was born in Nizhny Novgorod. But spiritually, I was born in Kazan. Kazan is one of my most favorite «universities». It was there that his worldview had been shaped under the influence of Marxist groups and it was there that he was arrested for his contacts with the group of Nikolai Fedoseyev in 1888. In Kazan Gorky wrote over 20 fiction and publicistic works.
The museum exposition has many photos and manuscripts of his books, including the rare lifetime edition of the famous story «My Universities» (1923), which make it possible to know Gorky as an outstanding writer of the Soviet Russia. In several rooms of the museum you can trace the creative career of the writer beginning from the short story «Makar Chudra» (1892) published in the Tbilisi newspaper «Caucasus» to the unfinished novel series «Life of Klim Samgin»
