Aleksandr Voronsky
Encyclopedia
Aleksandr Konstantinovich Voronsky ( – 13 August 1937) was a prominent humanist
Marxist critic and editor of the 1920s, disfavored and purged in the 1930s.
guberniya
; his father was the village priest, Konstantin Osipovich Voronsky, who died when Aleksandr was a few years old. After attending a Tambov religious school, in 1900 he enrolled in the Tambov Seminary, where he helped organize an illegal library for the seminary students. In 1904 he joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, and the following year he was expelled from the seminary for "political unreliability." He moved to St. Petersburg, where he carried out party assignments and met Lenin; in September 1906 he was arrested and sentenced to a year of solitary confinement. Soon after his release he was arrested again in Vladimir
and sentenced to two years of exile; on his way to Yarensk in Vologda
guberniya he met his future wife, Serafima Solomonovna Pesina, another young Bolshevik. After finishing his exile in 1910 he moved to Moscow
and then Saratov
, where he helped form a provincial group of Bolsheviks and organize a number of major strikes. In January 1912 he was one of 18 delegates to the Prague Party Conference
, at which he took the minutes of the conference and spoke strongly for a mass daily workers' newspaper. On his return to Russia he continued underground work and was rearrested on May 8; his exile ended in September 1914, when he returned to Tambov with his wife and newborn daughter, Galina, moving to Ekaterinoslav the following year.
came, he became a member of the Odessa
Executive Committee of the Council of Workers' Deputies and edited the local Bolshevik newspaper, Golos proletariya (Voice of the Proletariat). After the October Revolution
, he helped the Bolsheviks take power in Odessa and in early 1918 moved to Saratov
, Moscow, and then Ivanovo
, where he assisted his friend Mikhail Frunze
, edited the newspaper Rabochii krai (Workers' Land), and headed the provincial Party Committee.
to discuss plans for a new "thick journal" (the traditional Russian combination of literary magazine
and political journal), which was called Krasnaya nov' (Red Virgin Soil) when the first issue was published in June. In 1923 he organized a new publishing house, Krug (Circle). In the increasingly fractured cultural-political scene of the early 1920s, Voronsky aligned himself with Trotsky and Anatoly Lunacharsky and opposed the growing power of Stalin, which led to his downfall in 1927, when he was attacked by the Party and the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers
and in October relieved of his duties as editor of the journal. In February 1928 he was expelled from the Party, and in January 1929 his arrest was announced. However, he recanted his opposition and was readmitted to the Party and permitted to return to Moscow, where he continued to write and edit for Gosizdat but was no longer prominent as a critic.
describes Voronsky's increasingly untenable position in a chapter called "Voronsky's Fight For Truth" in his book Artists in Uniform. In 1935 he was again expelled from the Party, and on February 1, 1937, was arrested by the NKVD
. On August 13 he was sentenced to be shot and probably executed immediately after the sentence.
Although Voronsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist, he was far from the ideological rigidity that was enforced after Stalin took control. Victor Ehrlich called him "flexible and humane" and wrote:
, Konstantin Fedin
, Vsevolod Ivanov
, and Leonid Leonov
and was one of the few Party critics to recognize the gifts of Isaac Babel
: "No wonder Red Virgin Soil ... became one of the most vital and readable Russian periodicals in the 1920s."
He wrote Za zhivoi i mertvoi vodoi (Russian text) (1927, 1929; tr. as Waters of Life and Death, 1936), "two fine volumes of memoirs."
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
Marxist critic and editor of the 1920s, disfavored and purged in the 1930s.
Early life
Voronsky was born in the village of Khoroshavka in the TambovTambov
Tambov is a city and the administrative center of Tambov Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tsna and Studenets Rivers southeast of Moscow...
guberniya
Guberniya
A guberniya was a major administrative subdivision of the Russian Empire usually translated as government, governorate, or province. Such administrative division was preserved for sometime upon the collapse of the empire in 1917. A guberniya was ruled by a governor , a word borrowed from Latin ,...
; his father was the village priest, Konstantin Osipovich Voronsky, who died when Aleksandr was a few years old. After attending a Tambov religious school, in 1900 he enrolled in the Tambov Seminary, where he helped organize an illegal library for the seminary students. In 1904 he joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, and the following year he was expelled from the seminary for "political unreliability." He moved to St. Petersburg, where he carried out party assignments and met Lenin; in September 1906 he was arrested and sentenced to a year of solitary confinement. Soon after his release he was arrested again in Vladimir
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
and sentenced to two years of exile; on his way to Yarensk in Vologda
Vologda
Vologda is a city and the administrative, cultural, and scientific center of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located on the Vologda River. The city is a major transport knot of the Northwest of Russia. Vologda is among the Russian cities possessing an especially valuable historical heritage...
guberniya he met his future wife, Serafima Solomonovna Pesina, another young Bolshevik. After finishing his exile in 1910 he moved to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and then Saratov
Saratov
-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...
, where he helped form a provincial group of Bolsheviks and organize a number of major strikes. In January 1912 he was one of 18 delegates to the Prague Party Conference
Prague Party Conference
The Prague Party Conference was the sixth party conference of Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. It was in Prague January 5-17 1912, 18 Bolsheviks attended. Stalin and Sverdlov were in exile at the time and couldn't attend. Georgi Plekhanov claimed he...
, at which he took the minutes of the conference and spoke strongly for a mass daily workers' newspaper. On his return to Russia he continued underground work and was rearrested on May 8; his exile ended in September 1914, when he returned to Tambov with his wife and newborn daughter, Galina, moving to Ekaterinoslav the following year.
Participation in the Bolshevik Revolution
When the February RevolutionFebruary Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
came, he became a member of the Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
Executive Committee of the Council of Workers' Deputies and edited the local Bolshevik newspaper, Golos proletariya (Voice of the Proletariat). After the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, he helped the Bolsheviks take power in Odessa and in early 1918 moved to Saratov
Saratov
-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...
, Moscow, and then Ivanovo
Ivanovo
Ivanovo is a city and the administrative center of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. Population: Ivanovo has traditionally been called the textile capital of Russia. Since most textile workers are women, it has also been known as the "City of Brides"...
, where he assisted his friend Mikhail Frunze
Mikhail Frunze
Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze was a Bolshevik leader during and just prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917.-Life and Political Activity:Frunze was born in Bishkek, then a small Imperial Russian garrison town in the Kyrgyz part of Turkestan, to a Moldovan medical practitioner and his Russian wife...
, edited the newspaper Rabochii krai (Workers' Land), and headed the provincial Party Committee.
Literary and political career
In January 1921 Voronsky left for Moscow, where he met with Lenin and GorkyMaxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
to discuss plans for a new "thick journal" (the traditional Russian combination of literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...
and political journal), which was called Krasnaya nov' (Red Virgin Soil) when the first issue was published in June. In 1923 he organized a new publishing house, Krug (Circle). In the increasingly fractured cultural-political scene of the early 1920s, Voronsky aligned himself with Trotsky and Anatoly Lunacharsky and opposed the growing power of Stalin, which led to his downfall in 1927, when he was attacked by the Party and the Russian Association of Proletarian Writers
Russian Association of Proletarian Writers
The Russian Association of Proletarian Writers, also known under its transliterated abbreviation RAPP was an official creative union in the Soviet Union established in January 1925....
and in October relieved of his duties as editor of the journal. In February 1928 he was expelled from the Party, and in January 1929 his arrest was announced. However, he recanted his opposition and was readmitted to the Party and permitted to return to Moscow, where he continued to write and edit for Gosizdat but was no longer prominent as a critic.
Expulsion and death
In 1934, American Max EastmanMax Eastman
Max Forrester Eastman was an American writer on literature, philosophy and society, a poet, and a prominent political activist. For many years, Eastman was a supporter of socialism, a leading patron of the Harlem Renaissance and an activist for a number of liberal and radical causes...
describes Voronsky's increasingly untenable position in a chapter called "Voronsky's Fight For Truth" in his book Artists in Uniform. In 1935 he was again expelled from the Party, and on February 1, 1937, was arrested by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
. On August 13 he was sentenced to be shot and probably executed immediately after the sentence.
Although Voronsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist, he was far from the ideological rigidity that was enforced after Stalin took control. Victor Ehrlich called him "flexible and humane" and wrote:
He therefore supported such "ideologically confused" writers as Boris Pilnyak
He combined political orthodoxy with a strong personal commitment to literature, a commitment underpinned by an aesthetic which, though not incompatible with Marxism, could be easily construed within the Soviet Marxist framework as a "bourgeois-idealistic" heresy. To Voronskij art was not primarily a matter of mobilizing or manipulating group emotions on behalf of a class-determined world view. It was a distinctive form of cognition, a largely intuitive mode of apprehending reality ... a true artist, armed by intuition and creative integrity, cannot help seeing and embodying in his work certain truths that run counter to his conscious bias and to the interests of his class.
Boris Pilnyak
Boris Pilnyak was a Russian author. Born Boris Andreyevich Vogau in Mozhaysk, he was a major supporter of anti-urbanism and a critic of mechanized society. These views often brought him into disfavor with Communist critics...
, Konstantin Fedin
Konstantin Fedin
-Biography:Born in Saratov of humble origins, Fedin studied in Moscow and Germany and was interned there during World War I. After his release he worked as an interpreter in the first Soviet embassy in Berlin...
, Vsevolod Ivanov
Vsevolod Ivanov
Vsevolod Vyacheslavovich Ivanov was a notable Soviet writer praised for the colourful adventure tales set in the Asiatic part of Russia during the Civil War.-Biography:...
, and Leonid Leonov
Leonid Leonov
Leonid Maximovich Leonov was a Soviet novelist and playwright. He has been dubbed the 20th-century Dostoyevsky for the deep psychological torment of his prose.-Early life:...
and was one of the few Party critics to recognize the gifts of Isaac Babel
Isaac Babel
Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel was a Russian language journalist, playwright, literary translator, and short story writer. He is best known as the author of Red Cavalry, Story of My Dovecote, and Tales of Odessa, all of which are considered masterpieces of Russian literature...
: "No wonder Red Virgin Soil ... became one of the most vital and readable Russian periodicals in the 1920s."
He wrote Za zhivoi i mertvoi vodoi (Russian text) (1927, 1929; tr. as Waters of Life and Death, 1936), "two fine volumes of memoirs."
External links
- A. K. Voronsky website
- A. K. Voronsky Archive at Marxists.org