About the book: 1949 / First published in the Nizhny Novgorod newspaper "Volgar" in 1894 in twenty-five issues of the newspaper: from number 80 - April 8 to number 152 - 6 July. In a letter to A.M. Gorky dated January 7, 1910, Dr. V.N. Zolotnitsky reported that among Gorky’s Nizhny Novgorod acquaintances the idea arose of publishing a collection of his early works for a charitable purpose. Zolotnitsky also mentioned the story “Poor Pavel.” Asking for permission to publish, Zolotnitsky indicated that the early stories would be collected and sent to Gorky for viewing. In a letter (undated) from the island of Capri, Gorky replied that he would be very grateful if V.N. Zolotnitsky and other persons interested in publishing his stories would help collect them. Gorky indicated that it might be more suitable for this purpose: turns out to be “Poor Pavel,” asked to get a set of “Volgar” and retype the story on a typewriter. The request, apparently, was fulfilled - a typescript with the text of the story, which is a reprint of a newspaper publication, was preserved in the A.M. Gorky Archive. The typewritten text has the author's corrections. On the first four sheets, the edits are very significant, the further text up to the twenty-second sheet contains replacements and deletions of individual words. The text corrected by A.M. Gorky should be considered the beginning of the second, unfinished edition of the story. In a letter dated August 18, 1930 to the director of the Literary Museum named after A. A. M. Gorky in Nizhny Novgorod A. I. Eliseev A. M. Gorky reported that the story “Poor Pavel” before publication in “Volgar” “was spoiled by two hands: the editor of “Volgar” A. A. Drobysh-Drobyshevsky, a man dry, narcissistic and stubborn, crossed out from the story the figure of the cook, who was present from the beginning of the story to the end, and then the censor” (the letter was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda, 1939, June 21). The story was not included in the collected works. Since the new edition the story had just begun, - in this edition “Poor Pavel” is printed according to the text of the newspaper “Volgar”».