Maxim Gorky with a group of Soviet schoolchildren, early 1930s -- Daily LIFT #780.
From a History of the Soviet Union, 1968: "Maxim Gorky had a very difficult youth in tsarist Russia. He began working at the age of eleven, first as a messenger boy, then as a stevedore, gardener and baker. His great talent and thirst for knowledge helped him to become a writer. Gorky was a great friend of all Soviet children. At his suggestion a Children's Publishing House was established in the Soviet Union. It has printed millions of children's books."