On that day, the Department of Russian language and Philology of the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences elected Alexey Peshkov (pen name Maxim Gorky) an honorary academician. The news was published in Pravitelstvenny Vestnik (Government’s Herald). One of the readers marked this occasion by writing in the margins of newspaper: “More than peculiar!” As the reader’s name was Nikolay Romanov, consequences followed. Grand Price Konstantin Romanov, a poet publishing his poems under the pen name of K.R. and president of the Academy of Sciences, was called to account. Two weeks later, the same newspaper dispassionately reported: “Due to the circumstances that the meeting did not know about… the election to honorary academicians of Alexei Peshkov subject to investigation under article 1035 of the Regulations of Criminal Proceedings is declared invalid.” This news did not go unnoticed either. In an act of protest, Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko withdrew from the Academy. The greatest writers turned to be the most decent people.
