M. Gorky Colony

an educational institution for juvenile delinquents. Organized in 1920 near Poltava by the Poltava Province Department of Public Education, in 1926 it was moved to the vicinity of Kharkov (Kuriazh). From 1920 to 1928 the colony was directed by A. S. Makarenko. It was named after Gorky in 1921.

In 1923 the M. Gorky Colony became a model experimental educational institution of the People’s Commissariat for Education of the Ukrainian SSR. Drawing on the colony’s experience, Makarenko created and substantiated the basic principles of organizing a children’s group. The history of the colony and the work of its teachers were vividly described in Makarenko’s book A Pedagogical Poem. In 1928, M. Gorky visited the colony, sharing his impressions in the article “Around the Union of Soviets” (Sobr. sock, vol. 17, 1952, pp. 113–232). The colony became part of the system of corrective-labor institutions in 1936.