Georgi Bakalov and Maxim Gorky

No one in Bulgaria has contributed as much to the affirmation of the true image of the artist Maxim Gorky, to the correct interpretation of his revolutionary work, as well as to its translation and dissemination, as Georgi Bakalov. From 1901, when he translated and published in Varna the first booklet with Gorky's story "The Pitiful Turk and the Woodpecker", until his death in 1939, he remained a tireless researcher and popularizer of Gorky, and did this with the greatest awareness, breadth and insight. His activity in this field is a true feat. It is enough to recall the case of the translation and dissemination of the novel "Mother" and the translation of almost all of Gorky's plays. I think that in his own development as a Marxist critic and theorist of new literature, his articles on Gorky, along with those on Smirnensky, stand out as the most creative, the most free from vulgar-sociological impurities and sectarian extremes. In both cases, G. Bakalov maintains the creative line, advocates the broad Leninist view and fights against primitive dogmatic concepts. Gorky, as well as Smirnensky, was one of the springs from which Bakalov drew life-giving water for his method, for his critical activity. They helped him to break away from rectilinear ideas and be more artistic, to rely on his critical sense and taste, on his direct contact with art. In addition, Gorky's aesthetic views - his numerous statements about the Russian classics, the cultural heritage and the new Soviet literature - helped Bakalov to free himself from some narrow and sectarian stratifications, from the Plekhanovian mechanistic view and to perceive literary creativity, the historical-literary process with all their dialectical complexity, diversity and specificity. The importance of constant contact with Gorky for the evolution that Bakalov underwent in the 1930s, after overcoming sectarianism, especially for his new attitude towards heritage is undeniable. It is no coincidence that in his famous program article in the second half of the 1930s "Depict the Heroic", most vividly reflecting his new thinking and the decisive urge to break the sectarian shackles, he referred to Gorky, to his call for the creation of heroic art and to examples from his work.