Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - A matsayin marubuci mai cin nasara, edita, kuma marubucin wasan kwaikwayo, Gorky ya ba da tallafin kuɗi ga Jam'iyyar Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP), tare da tallafawa kira na 'yanci ga gwamnati don' yancin ɗan adam da gyaran zamantakewa. Kashewa ta zalunci na ma'aikata da ke tafiya zuwa Tsar tare da takarda don gyara a ranar 9 ga Janairu 1905 (wanda aka sani da "Bloody Sunday"
), wanda ya fara juyin juya halin 1905, da alama ya tura Gorky da ƙarfi zuwa mafita mai mahimmanci. Ya kasance yana da kusanci da Vladimir Lenin da Alexander Bogdanov's Bolshevik reshe na jam'iyyar, tare da Bogdanov yana ɗaukar alhakin canja wurin kuɗi daga Gorky zuwa Vpered. Ba a bayyana ko ya taɓa shiga cikin hukuma ba, kuma dangantakarsa da Lenin da Bolsheviks koyaushe za ta kasance mai ƙarfi. Abubuwan da ya fi tasiri a cikin waɗannan shekarun sune jerin wasannin siyasa, mafi shahararrun "The Lower Depths" (1902). Yayin da aka tsare shi a cikin Peter da Paul Fortress a lokacin juyin juya halin Rasha na 1905, Gorky ya rubuta wasan kwaikwayon "Children of the Sun", wanda aka kafa a lokacin cutar kwalara ta 1862, amma an fahimci cewa yana da alaƙa da abubuwan da ke faruwa a yau. An sake shi daga kurkuku bayan kamfen na Turai, wanda Marie Curie, Auguste Rodin da Anatole France, da sauransu suka goyi bayan su.