The article attempts to read, in a new way, two works of M. Gorky that are little known to a wide audience – “The Conductor&8j1; and “The Mother of the Kemskys&8j1;, published in 1925 under the general title “Notes from a diary&8j1; in the Russian magazine “Molodaya Gvardiya” (“Young Guard&8j1;). The symbolic, parable nature of these miniatures, painted with the help of artistic techniques of symbolism and expressionism, is shown. It is suggested that the symbolic subtext of the “Guide&8j1;, written in the year of Lenin's death, could reflect the writer’s intense reflections on the character of the leader of the Russian Revolution. In both works, Gorky tried to solve the question that was tormenting him at that time: why did the revolution in Russia, which he had dreamed of all his life, has taken such inhuman, brutal forms? And he suggested that the slavish psyche of a Russian person crippled by centuries of cruel oppression is to blame for this.