Maxim Gorky signed his books “My Universities” and “A Confession” for the aspiring Kazan writer Semyon Adzhamov. The latter received those autographs at the age of 17 when he was an employee of the editorial office of the “Krasnaya Tataria” (Red Tatarstan) newspaper in Kazan. “My Universities” is Gorky’s autobiographical novel, which describes events happening in the writer’s life when he was about Adzhamov’s age, and “A Confession” encourages reflection on one’s spiritual quest.

Since childhood, Semyon Adzhamov was fond of poetry and began writing from an early age. He admired Maxim Gorky’s works and repeatedly sent him his own literary endeavors for review. Back then, Gorky lived in Italy and received so many packages, letters and parcels that the local postman had to hire a cabman to deliver everything. Although the envelopes often had only “To Gorky in Sorrento” written on them, all postmen already knew the way to a remote cliff where the writer’s villa was.

Every day, Maxim Gorky wrote letters in response. This brought him joy, and he considered it to be a leisure activity. Gorky spent a lot of time proof-reading and editing manuscripts, which were sent to him by young authors from all over the country. On March 15, 1928, Semyon Adzhamov received the long-awaited reply from Gorky, where the latter noted the influence that Sergey Yesenin’s poems had on the former, which, “of course, is not bad at all, for Yesenin is a good poet.”

Semyon Adzhamov heeded the writer’s advice: his book “Komsomol Steppe” was published only four years later. Maxim Gorky signed his own books and sent them to Adzhamov as a gift — they were carefully preserved in the family and entered the museum’s collection 30 years later.