Bystander Author:Maksim Gorky (1930) Maxim Gorky, pseudonym of Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, Soviet novelist, playwright and essayist, who was a founder of social realism. Although known principally as a writer, he was closely associated with the tumultuous revolutionary period of his own country. The Bystander is a separate volume of one of Gorky's longer works, The Life of K... more »lim Samgin, an unfinished cycle of novels. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.« less