Which Russian author wrote the novel 'The Life of a Useless Man'?

The Russian author who wrote “The Life of a Useless Man” was Maxim Gorky.

Gorky completed the novel in 1907, and it was published in 1908. Its Russian title can also be translated as “The Life of a Superfluous Man,” while some English editions use the title “The Spy: The Story of a Superfluous Man.” The story follows Yevsey Klimkov, an orphan drawn into the Tsarist secret-police system.

Klimkov becomes an informer after the bookseller who employs him is murdered. Although he feels sympathy for revolutionaries, fear and coercion turn him into an agent provocateur who helps entrap them. The novel therefore examines surveillance, moral compromise, and the dehumanizing machinery of the late Russian Empire.

The book faced severe censorship. Its attacks on the police and imperial government prevented normal publication in Russia, so an early edition appeared in Berlin. A later Russian edition was heavily cut, with much of the section depicting the secret police removed. The work’s political focus distinguishes it from Gorky’s better-known autobiographical writings.