Literay Fact Literay Fact 2541-8297 2542-2421 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2025-38-123-146 Research Article Articles The Unknown Correspondent of Maxim Gorky Ivan Naumov, the First Director of the Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature: A Source Study Plotnikova Anastasia G. editor@litfact.ru 2026 Ivan Naumov Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature Evening Workers’ Literary University Writers’ Union archive Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 This paper attempts to reconstruct the biography of Ivan Fedorovich Naumov (1898–1936), the first director of the Maxim Gorky Institute of Literature. The study examines a wide range of archival materials, including personal files, autobiographies, shorthand notes, documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, and the Manuscript Department of the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as rare periodical publications. Naumov’s life path is traced from his peasant childhood in the Ryazan province to key administrative and literary positions in the 1920s–1930s. Special attention is given to his contribution to the establishment of the Evening Workers’ Literary University, including tailoring the curriculum and arranging students’ living conditions. Another focal point is his literary work, including the plays “In the Wilderness” (“V glushi”) and “The Time of Troubles” (“Smuta”) (1934 and 1935, respectively). The reconstruction of Naumov’s biography is valuable not only as a case of restoring a little-known figure to cultural memory, but also as a methodologically significant example of source study, which helps expand the historical and literary context, illuminate the mechanisms of cultural policy in the 1920s–1930s, and refine the practice of scholarly archival research. 1. 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