The author examines the American premiere of M. Gorky's play «Dostigaev and the others,» which was produced by the Jewish workers' art theatre ARTEF. It was created by Gorky's fellow countryman and Eugene Vakhtangov's disciple - Benno Schneider, - this performance became one of the first attempts to import Vakhtangov's theatrical ideas into US stage practice. The theatrical history of Gorky's work in America is viewed in a wide political and cultural Soviet-American macro-context of the interwar period. The author focuses on the reception of Gorky's play and its production in the USA on the basis of previously unknown materials (first of all, reviews in American newspapers) from the collections of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as well as documents from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (Moscow). The work is aimed at expanding the understanding of the Russian writer's work as well as the familiarization of Eugene Vakhtangov's ideas abroad.