Chelkash

"Chelkash" () is a short story by Maxim Gorky, written in August 1894 and first published by Russkoye Bogatstvo in June 1895. The first of the numerous Gorky stories to appear in this magazine, it made the author well known in Russia and was included in all editions of the Complete Works by Maxim Gorky.

==Background and publication== The story was written in August 1894 in Nizhny Novgorod, after Vladimir Korolenko's request to "do something substational for the journal." "''I came home, sat down and started at once to write the story related to me by this bosyak from Odessa, whom I found myself in a hospital ward with, in Nikolayev... In two days' time it was finished and I sent the rough copy to V.G.", Gorky remembered later. In his 1926 memoirs Gorky described the prototype as "... a tramp from Odessa, a former soldier, an army grenadier." "[I] was surprised by the good, whimsical humor of this Odessa tramp as he was telling me about the incident which became the foundation for my story, Chelkash... I remember so well his smile, baring his fine white teeth, the smile with which he concluded his tale about the treacherous young man he'd hired for work.''" Gorky wrote in another piece.Korolenko, who rated the story very high, later tried to play down his own role in Gorky's professional progress. "''Many think that it was due to my patronage that he became a writer. That's a myth. He did that thanks to his huge talent. I only read his early stories and gave him my frank opinions" he wrote. Gorky, in his later essay on Korolenko, quoted the latter: "In the rough copy [of Chelkash] there are places where you clash with grammar to great disadvantage for the latter, so I corrected these. Apart from that I changed nothing". In another piece of memoirs Gorky noted: "I think Kor[olenko] edited nothing in Chelkash, he just advised me to get rid of one scene, when Chelkash watches the street children playing, which I did''."