Which jobs did Maxim Gorky do as a child and young man?

Maxim Gorky, born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, experienced a difficult childhood and youth that forced him into the workforce at the age of eight. His early life in Nizhny Novgorod and later years in Kazan involved a variety of grueling jobs, which exposed him to the harsh realities of the Russian working class.1

His employment included:

• Childhood jobs: Assistant in a shoemaker’s shop, errand boy for an icon painter, and dishwasher on a Volga steamer.1
• Young adulthood jobs: Baker, docker, and night watchman in Kazan.1

Following these experiences, he spent time as a tramp, performing various odd jobs while traveling through southern Russia. These formative years of hardship and labor deeply influenced his writing and led him to adopt the pseudonym Gorky, meaning "bitter".1