To Maxim Gorky

Lenin’s Letter to Gorky, revealing the essence of “God-Creating”. It was written on November 13-14, 1913 and published in Pravda issue No. 51 on March 2, 1924. The Chinese translation is included in Vol. 46 of the second revised edition of Complete Works of Lenin.

After the failure of Russia’s first bourgeois democratic revolution led by the proletariat during 1905-1907, Russia entered the Stolypin Reaction period. The Russian bourgeoisie revived and supported religions for counter-revolutionary purposes. Due to the loss of confidence in the future of the revolution, a religious and philosophical “creationists” trend of thought emerged among some Bolshevik intellectuals. They claimed that religion was the only organizing force of socialism and advocated the creation of a “godless” “socialist” religion. They attempted to reconcile Marxism and religion this way, which echoed the sentiments of the Russian bourgeoisie. Gorky, a proletarian writer, was once about to become a “creationist”. The last paragraph of Gorky’s article “On the Karamazov Attitude” published in New Workers Newspaper issue No. 69 on November 11, 1913, advocated the viewpoint of God-creating, saying “Without sowing, you can’t reap... Gods are not sought, they are created”.

In order to expose the reactionary nature of God creating, Lenin wrote this letter to Gorky to criticize his mistakes on this issue. Lenin clearly pointed out in the letter: You opposed “God-seeking” only to replace it with “God-creating”. Look, isn’t it too bad that you should write such a thing? Lenin argued that there is no fundamental difference between “God-seeking” and “God-creating” or “God-making”. If you look at this issue from a social point of view rather than a personal point of view, you will find all “God-creating” theories are the self-reflection of silly and vulnerable ordinary people. They are the “pessimistic and tired” ordinary people and petty bourgeoisies who insult themselves in the worst way in their fantasies. In the so-called liberal countries such as the United States and Switzerland, the democratic bourgeoisies were particularly keen to paralyze people with the concept of a created God. Any religious or God concepts or any flattery to God were the most abominable “infectious diseases” among the masses. This was because the masses could easily see through hundreds of crimes, atrocities and infectious diseases of the body, but could hardly see through the spiritual God concept which was exquisitely dressed with the most beautiful coat. Lenin disagreed with Gorky on the last paragraph. Lenin pointed out that it was incorrect no matter it was a slip of the pen or a general democratic view. Gorky did not see the difference between ordinary citizens and proletarians. He confused the readers with some general and vague slogans and covered them with a democratic gauze, which to some degree catered to the prejudice of the shallow people. Lenin argued that, unlike ordinary citizens who are vulnerable, pessimistic and God-believing, proletarians were people who are spiritual-lifting and were good at distinguishing bourgeoisies’ “science and public opinion” and democracy from their own ones. He politely hoped Gorky could do more such things in favor of the proletariat.

Lenin’s letter was of warning significance to Gorky’s recognition of the reactionary nature of “God-creating” and to preventing bourgeois reactionaries from using religious propaganda to induce the masses to break away from revolutionary struggle and socialism in Russia.