In 1899 a number of young writers formed a literary circle to discuss and analyze their works in progress. They considered themselves to be realists interested in portraying the mood of the intelligentsia and of the lower classes. They called the circle Sreda (“The Wednesdays”) for the day of their weekly meeting in the home of Nikolai Teleshov. Soon after its formation Teleshov invited Maksim Gor'kii to join the circle. At the time Gor'kii was a controversial figure who violently attacked everything the Russian intelligentsia stood for. He insisted that intellectuals would never accomplish their major objective—the liberation of the Russian people from political and economic oppression—unless they first liberated themselves. They had to cease being ineffective and moralistic and had to become selfish and aggressive individualists. Only then could they provide the Russian people with the leadership it desperately needed. Young intellectuals seeking inspiration, excitement, and escape responded enthusiastically to Gor'kii's call for self-liberation and idolized him. Members of the older generation were not so uncritical; they feared him as a harbinger of barbarism, a champion of criminals and outcasts, and an enemy of the intelligentsia.