Monument to Maxim Gorky (Strukovsky Garden)

The Monument to Maxim Gorky stands in the Strukovsky Garden (Strukovsky Sad), the oldest park in Samara, near the entrance at the corner of Krasnoarmeyskaya Street and Frunze Street. It was unveiled in 1978 to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of the writer, who lived and worked in Samara in the mid-1890s. So whose monument is it in the Strukovsky Garden? It honours Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, known by his pen name Maxim Gorky.

What to see

The Gorky monument in Samara is made of granite. The composition resembles a large pale stone with a bust of the writer set in its upper left corner. It was created by the sculptor Igor Fyodorov and the architect Alexei Morgun. The monument stands among the greenery of the garden and is easy to see from the alley leading from the entrance into the park.

History of the Strukovsky Garden and the monument

The Strukovsky Garden is more than two hundred years old: it was Samara's first public park, laid out on the high bank of the Volga. In Soviet times it bore Gorky's name and was called the Maxim Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure. It was then, in 1978, that the monument to the writer appeared in the park. In 1993 the garden got its historical name back, while the monument stayed where it was and now recalls the park's former name.

Gorky in Samara

Gorky arrived in Samara on 22 February 1895. At first he disliked the city and in one of his pieces called it "a city given over to anathema", but his attitude changed over time. He worked for the Samarskaya Gazeta newspaper, publishing stories and satirical columns, some of them under the pen name Yehudiel Khlamida. The writer himself said that it was in Samara that he was "born as a writer". It was also here that he met his future wife, Ekaterina Volzhina.

The monument is not the only reminder of Gorky in Samara: the Samara Academic Drama Theatre also bears his name.

Getting there

The Strukovsky Garden is in the historic centre of Samara, at 2 Krasnoarmeyskaya Street, at the corner of Frunze Street. The monument is close to the entrance from this intersection. City transport routes run along Frunze Street and Krasnoarmeyskaya Street, and from the garden you can walk down to the Volga embankment.