SOURCE: A foreword to Soviet River, translated by Ivor Montagu and Sergei Nolbandov, 1932. Reprint by Hyperion Press, 1973, pp. v-vi.

One of the former Soviet Union's most popular authors, Gorky is considered one of the framers and foremost exponents of Socialist Realism. In the following essay, which was originally published in 1932, Gorky remarks on Leonov's artistic development.

I am not a critic and I do not feel inclined to 'explain' an artist; I well remember that when critics undertook to 'explain' me, they attributed to me intentions of which I was innocent and deeds I had never done. All that is said below is just a note by an old writer on his young comrade-inarms—though of another generation. It is neither censure, nor is it praise, it is merely an attempt to tell how I see Leonid Leonov.

He is one of the most prominent of the group...