When this volume was first published, Maxim Gorky was 34 years old. His plays "The Lower Depths" and "Night Asylum" had just been released, establishing him as a new star in the Russian literary scene. With particular attention to the social and political changes in Russia and the currents in Russian literature during the turn of the last century, the writer and cultural historian Hans Ostwald describes how Gorky managed to rise from a simple worker to one of the most celebrated literati in Russia. In recent years, Russian literature has gained a new, noteworthy tone alongside its familiar sounds. It felt like a refreshing wave that permeated everything. The writer who shouted this new tone with all his soul was not overlooked. He was celebrated, loved, and revered.