Maxim Gorky (Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, 1868-1936)

Cancelling the contract for a collaborative publishing project. n.d.
Autograph manuscript draft (unsigned), n.p., n.d.

In Russian. One page, 275 x 218mm, on squared paper.

Gorky cancels the contract for a projected publishing project.

The fact of the appearance in the pages of some European newspapers of incorrect and slanderous information about the publication of the book planned by us has caused a negative attitude among my comrades towards this project.

But even if such an attitude had not been engendered, all the same, I have become convinced that the manuscript of the book could not have been delivered to you by the time agreed upon by the formal contract: there is no time to write the articles for it.

Considering that the contract has been breached, I am returning to you your cheque for the amount of 2,500 d. [?dollars] and 500 d. financing the translation of the manuscript.

If on the other hand you do not mind postponing the publication until the autumn, I am willing to try to convince my comrades of the need for the publication, and if it pleases you, we may again resume negotiations with you. By October of the current year, we will take stock of the entire work period up to 15 years and this will make the book much more solid and more convincing.

Gorky is known to have undertaken at least two collective books with fellow Soviet authors, the best-known of which is the ill-fated monograph The I.V. Stalin White Sea – Baltic Sea Canal (1934), the entire print-run of which had to be destroyed within three years because so many of the participants had been eliminated in the Great Purges. It is tempting to connect the present letter with this, and if the reference in the final paragraph is to the 15th anniversary of the October revolution in 1932 this would strengthen the connection; however, the letter clearly relates to a commission from an overseas publisher.

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