An appeal for solidarity in the midst of barbarism, by Maxim Gorky while in the Adirondacks as he visited the United States in 1906 on a fund-raising and agitational tour for the R.S.D.L.P. as Russia’s revolutionary wave receded into an orgy of state-sponsored executions and pogroms.

‘To the People of America’ by Maxim Gorky from The Worker (New York). Vol. 16 No. 18. August 4, 1906.

The Great Russian Author and Revolutionist Issues a Stirring Manifesto and Appeal.

“Hangmen and Thieves Surrounding the Russian Throne and Supporting It with Blood-Stained Hands”–“The World Is My House”–“The Earth For All, and Everybody Has a Right to Its Joys”–“Are there in This Country Living Men, and Will They Hear Me?”

The Tsar has dispersed the Duma. This small man, trembling on his throne for his life and power like an aspen leaf, has with one stroke of the pen, with a convulsive movement of his hand, destroyed all semblance of law in Russia, and called into life a new series of murders, robberies, and outrages.

The Russian government will now inaugurate a policy of brutal and bestial reprisals.

The hangmen and thieves surrounding the throne and supporting it with blood stained hands have of late heard many bitter and insulting truths from the lips of courageous and honest men.

They will avenge themselves for if and their vengeance will be severe. Embittered, accustomed to shed blood, and encouraged by the reign of lawlessness they will once more appall the world by their deeds.

They will commence to annihilate and destroy the leaders of the people, and having destroyed the leaders they will again declare war on the people, the unarmed and defenseless people who are dreaming of peace and civilization, and who had been so impatiently hoping for the triumph of justice.

The black, blood soaked wings of death will flutter over the country for months. The exhausted earth will swallow thousands of corpses of men whose only crime was the desire to live a human life.

Many women and children will perish from bullets, swords and clubs. Many crying outrages will be perpetrated.

The world will be seized with horror and indignation.

Here and there public meetings will be held at which the speakers will eloquently denounce the Tzar and his band of savages.

The speakers will be rewarded by applause and the public will leave the meetings in the proud conviction that they have responded to the call of the unfortunate people of a foreign land and thus discharged their duty to humanity.

At the same time the blood of the Russians will flow in wide streams. Are we civilized people or are we not?

I think we are not. We only pretend to love life and mankind, to respect the law and to abhor criminals. If my neighbors assault and torture human beings in their house, and I hear the groans of the victims, and tho I pity them, I do not run to their aid–am I a civilized person?

If I live in a town where countless murders, robberies and outrages occur every day, and I am familiar with those occurrences but do nothing to prevent the robberies and to stamp out the crimes–am I a civilized person?

If on the earth on which I live and rear my children such deeds of horror and lawlessness are enacted, as in Russia and Turkey, and I, while condemning these acts, console myself with the thought that in my country life is easier, safer and better, and thus consoled live satisfied in my hole–am I truly a civilized person?

People whose hearts are devoid of the consciousness of the brotherhood of nations are not civilized, they are still savages.

People who live quietly when everything around them is soaked in blood, strangled in violence–are not civilized, they are simply satiated animals.

People who have children and allow them to grow up amidst wild anarchy and lawlessness and to poison their hearts with the sight of all the corruption which deforms the world. No, such people are not civilized.

The world is for all, and everybody has a right to its joys.

Whoever realizes that will not suffer himself to remain a passive witness to the torture of his fellowmen.

Men are brothers. Whoever feels that will not remain an indifferent spectator at the murder of his brother; be the latter Anglo Saxon, Jew or Russian.

More love and consideration for mankind!

This is what makes a person truly civilized:

The endeavor, to increase in life tho number of conscious, wise and honest People, people believing in the good of their kind, this is the most important feature of true civilization.

All truly civilized persons must help the suffering, martyred people of Russia.

This is their duty, this should be their pleasure.

For to help a human being to live a human life, in this help men must find for themselves the consciousness of their own significance in the world, the proud justification of their own lives.

The life of the animal is senseless, the life of the beast is abhorrent–and ignoble and disgusting is the life of the beaver, and other animals who live in the warm darkness of their underground holes.

Men should take life in a wider and deeper sense.

The world is my house, and nothing that happens in it should pass by me without touching my heart. And if such crying horrors occur as those which we now witness in Russia, true men and women cannot remain quiet at their sight.

To help the people of Russia to conquer their freedom is humane and is noble.

To help the people of Russia is necessary for everybody who considers himself a civilized person and truly desires to be such.

Help the people of Russia to free its body from the parasites which suck its life blood.

The duty of mankind is to help mankind. Are there in this country living men, and will they hear me?

MAXIM GORKY. Hurricane, N.Y., July 28.

The Worker, and its predecessor The People, emerged from the 1899 split in the Socialist Labor Party of America led by Henry Slobodin and Morris Hillquit, who published their own edition of the SLP’s paper in Springfield, Massachusetts. Their ‘The People’ had the same banner, format, and numbering as their rival De Leon’s. The new group emerged as the Social Democratic Party and with a Chicago group of the same name these two Social Democratic Parties would become the Socialist Party of America at a 1901 conference. That same year the paper’s name was changed from The People to The Worker with publishing moved to New York City. The Worker continued as a weekly until December 1908 when it was folded into the socialist daily, The New York Call.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-people-the-worker/060804-worker-v16n18.pdf