Anatoliy Vasilievich Lunacharsky
Encyclopedia
Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky ' onMouseout='HidePop("45828")' href="/topics/Poltava">Poltava
, Ukraine
– December 26, 1933, Menton
, France
) was a Russia
n Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissar of Enlightenment responsible for culture and education. He was active as an art critic and journalist throughout his career.
, Ukraine
, Russian Empire
. He was an illegitimate
child of Alexander Antonov and Alexandra Lunacharskaya, née Rostovtseva. His mother was at the time married with statesman Vasily Lunacharsky, hence Anatoly's surname and patronym. Alexandra later divorced Lunacharsky and married Antonov, but Anatoly kept his old name.
Lunacharsky became a Marxist at the age of fifteen. He studied at the University of Zurich
for two years without taking a degree. While in Zürich
, he met European socialists including Rosa Luxemburg
and Leo Jogiches
and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
.
In 1903 the party split into Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin
and Mensheviks led by Julius Martov
and Lunacharsky sided with the Bolsheviks. When the Bolsheviks, in turn, split into Lenin's supporters and Alexander Bogdanov
's followers in 1908, Lunacharsky supported Bogdanov, his brother-in-law. Like many contemporary socialists (including Bogdanov), Lunacharsky was influenced by the empirio-criticist philosophy of Ernst Mach
and Richard Avenarius
. Lenin opposed Machism as a form of subjective idealism and strongly criticised its proponents in his book Marxism and Empirio-Criticism (1908). In 1909, Lunacharsky joined Bogdanov and Maxim Gorky
at the latter's villa on the island of Capri
, where they started a school for Russian socialist workers. In 1910, Bogdanov, Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky and their supporters moved the school to Bologna
, where they continued teaching classes through 1911.
In 1913, Lunacharsky moved to Paris, where he started his own "Circle of Proletarian Culture". After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Lunacharsky adopted an internationalist
anti-war position, which put him on a course of convergence with Lenin and Leon Trotsky
. In 1915, Lunacharsky and Pavel Lebedev-Poliansky restarted the social democratic newspaper Vpered
with an emphasis on "proletarian culture". After the February Revolution
of 1917, Lunacharsky returned to Russia and, like other internationalist social democrats returning from abroad, briefly joined the Mezhraiontsy
before they merged with the Bolsheviks in July–August 1917.
After the October Revolution
of 1917, Lunacharsky was appointed Commissar of Enlightenment (Narkompros) in the first Soviet government and remained in that position, which put him in charge of education, among other things, until 1929. Lunacharsky was associated with the establishment of the Bolshoi Drama Theater
in 1919, working with Maxim Gorky
, Alexander Blok
and Maria Andreeva
. During this period he was also in charge of the Soviet state's first censorship
system. Lunacharsky helped his former colleague, Alexander Bogdanov, found a semi-independent proletarian art movement, Proletkult
. Lunacharsky oversaw massive improvements in Russia's literacy rate. He invited Harriet G. Eddy, a California county library organizer for the California State Library
, to Moscow in 1927 to: 1) observe their library work; 2) explain the California County Free Library Plan; and 3) offer suggestions for its application to Russian library work. She returned again in 1930. He argued for the protection of historic buildings against elements in the Bolshevik Party who wanted to destroy them by arguing for their architectural importance.
When Joseph Stalin
consolidated his power in the late 1920s, Lunacharsky lost all of his important positions in the government. In 1930 he represented the Soviet Union
at the League of Nations
and in 1933 he was appointed ambassador to Spain
. He died in Menton
, France
, en route to Spain.
Lunacharsky's remains were returned to Moscow where his urn was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
, a rare privilege during the Soviet era. During the Great terror
of 1936-1938 Lunacharsky's name was erased from the Communist Party history and his memoirs were banned. A revival came in the late 1950s and 1960s, with a surge of memoirs about Lunacharsky and many streets and organizations named or renamed in his honor. During that era, Lunacharsky was viewed by the Soviet intelligentsia
as an educated, refined, and tolerant Soviet politician.
Some Soviet built orchestral harp
s also bear the name of Lunacharsky, presumably in his honor. These concert pedal harps were produced in Leningrad, (now, Saint Petersburg
) Russia.
Lunacharsky was also a prolific writer. He wrote literary essays on the works of several writers, including Alexander Pushkin, George Bernard Shaw
and Marcel Proust
. His most notable work, however, is his memoirs, "Revolutionary Silhouettes", which describe anecdotes and Lunacharsky's general impressions of Lenin, Trotsky and 8 other revolutionaries. Trotsky reacted to some of Lunacharsky's opinions in his own autobiography, "My Life."
). He could read six modern languages and two dead ones. Lunacharsky corresponded with such significant figures of world culture as H. G. Wells
, Bernard Shaw
, and Romain Rolland
.
Poltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
– December 26, 1933, Menton
Menton
Menton is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.Situated on the French Riviera, along the Franco-Italian border, it is nicknamed la perle de la France ....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissar of Enlightenment responsible for culture and education. He was active as an art critic and journalist throughout his career.
Life and career
Lunacharsky was born in PoltavaPoltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. He was an illegitimate
Legitimacy (law)
At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another; and of a child who is born shortly after the parents' divorce. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have been considered legitimate children...
child of Alexander Antonov and Alexandra Lunacharskaya, née Rostovtseva. His mother was at the time married with statesman Vasily Lunacharsky, hence Anatoly's surname and patronym. Alexandra later divorced Lunacharsky and married Antonov, but Anatoly kept his old name.
Lunacharsky became a Marxist at the age of fifteen. He studied at the University of Zurich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
for two years without taking a degree. While in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, he met European socialists including Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
and Leo Jogiches
Leo Jogiches
Leo Jogiches , also known by his party name of Leon Tyszka was a Marxist revolutionary active in Lithuania, Poland, and Germany....
and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
Russian Social Democratic Labour Party
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , also known as Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party or Russian Social Democratic Party, was a revolutionary socialist Russian political party formed in 1898 in Minsk to unite the various revolutionary organizations into one party...
.
In 1903 the party split into Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and Mensheviks led by Julius Martov
Julius Martov
Julius Martov or L. Martov was born in Constantinople in 1873...
and Lunacharsky sided with the Bolsheviks. When the Bolsheviks, in turn, split into Lenin's supporters and Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Bogdanov
Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov –7 April 1928, Moscow) was a Russian physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and revolutionary of Belarusian ethnicity....
's followers in 1908, Lunacharsky supported Bogdanov, his brother-in-law. Like many contemporary socialists (including Bogdanov), Lunacharsky was influenced by the empirio-criticist philosophy of Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach
Ernst Mach was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves...
and Richard Avenarius
Richard Avenarius
Richard Heinrich Ludwig Avenarius was a German-Swiss philosopher. He formulated the radical positivist doctrine of "empirical criticism" or empirio-criticism....
. Lenin opposed Machism as a form of subjective idealism and strongly criticised its proponents in his book Marxism and Empirio-Criticism (1908). In 1909, Lunacharsky joined Bogdanov and Maxim Gorky
Maxim 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:...
at the latter's villa on the island of Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
, where they started a school for Russian socialist workers. In 1910, Bogdanov, Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky and their supporters moved the school to Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, where they continued teaching classes through 1911.
In 1913, Lunacharsky moved to Paris, where he started his own "Circle of Proletarian Culture". After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Lunacharsky adopted an internationalist
Internationalist/Defencist Schism
The terms 'Internationalist' and 'Defencist' were commonly used to describe the broad opposing camps in the international socialist movement during and shortly after the First World War. Prior to 1914, anti-militarism had been an article of faith among most European socialist parties...
anti-war position, which put him on a course of convergence with Lenin and Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
. In 1915, Lunacharsky and Pavel Lebedev-Poliansky restarted the social democratic newspaper Vpered
Vpered
Vpered was an organisation within Russian Social Democracy set up by Alexander Bogdanov in December 1909. Alongside Bogdanov Anatoly Lunacharsky, Mikhail Pokrovsky, Grigory Aleksinsky, Stanislav Volski and Martyn Liadov, were involved in the breakaway group.-Rupture with Bolshevism:The group...
with an emphasis on "proletarian culture". After the February Revolution
February 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...
of 1917, Lunacharsky returned to Russia and, like other internationalist social democrats returning from abroad, briefly joined the Mezhraiontsy
Mezhraiontsy
Mezhraiontsy or Mezhraionka , usually translated as the interdistrictites , officially RSDRP , was a small Petrograd-based group within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, which existed between 1913 and 1917...
before they merged with the Bolsheviks in July–August 1917.
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...
of 1917, Lunacharsky was appointed Commissar of Enlightenment (Narkompros) in the first Soviet government and remained in that position, which put him in charge of education, among other things, until 1929. Lunacharsky was associated with the establishment of the Bolshoi Drama Theater
Tovstonogov Theater
Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater , formerly known as Gorky Bolshoi Drama Theater , often referred to as the Bolshoi Drama Theater and by the acronym BDT , is a theater in Saint Petersburg, that is considered one of the best Russian theaters...
in 1919, working with Maxim Gorky
Maxim 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:...
, Alexander Blok
Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...
and Maria Andreeva
Maria Andreeva
Maria Fyodorovna Andreyeva was the stage name of Maria Fyodorovna Yurkovskaya , a Russian/Soviet actress and Bolshevik administrator....
. During this period he was also in charge of the Soviet state's first censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
system. Lunacharsky helped his former colleague, Alexander Bogdanov, found a semi-independent proletarian art movement, Proletkult
Proletkult
Proletkult was movement which arose in the Russian revolution and was active from 1917 to 1925 which aspired to provide the foundations for what was intended to be a truly proletarian art devoid of bourgeois influence.The name is a portmanteau of "proletarskaya kultura" , which are better-known as...
. Lunacharsky oversaw massive improvements in Russia's literacy rate. He invited Harriet G. Eddy, a California county library organizer for the California State Library
California State Library
The California State Library collects, preserves, generates and disseminates a wide array of information. It was founded in 1850 by the California State Legislature. Today, it is the central reference and research library for state government and the Legislature. The California State Library...
, to Moscow in 1927 to: 1) observe their library work; 2) explain the California County Free Library Plan; and 3) offer suggestions for its application to Russian library work. She returned again in 1930. He argued for the protection of historic buildings against elements in the Bolshevik Party who wanted to destroy them by arguing for their architectural importance.
When Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
consolidated his power in the late 1920s, Lunacharsky lost all of his important positions in the government. In 1930 he represented the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
at the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
and in 1933 he was appointed ambassador to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. He died in Menton
Menton
Menton is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.Situated on the French Riviera, along the Franco-Italian border, it is nicknamed la perle de la France ....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, en route to Spain.
Lunacharsky's remains were returned to Moscow where his urn was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves on Red Square. It is centered on both sides of Lenin's Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930...
, a rare privilege during the Soviet era. During the Great terror
Great Terror
Great Terror may refer to:* Reign of Terror , a period of extreme violence during the French Revolution, last weeks of which are sometimes referred to as the Red Terror or Great Terror...
of 1936-1938 Lunacharsky's name was erased from the Communist Party history and his memoirs were banned. A revival came in the late 1950s and 1960s, with a surge of memoirs about Lunacharsky and many streets and organizations named or renamed in his honor. During that era, Lunacharsky was viewed by the Soviet intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
as an educated, refined, and tolerant Soviet politician.
Some Soviet built orchestral harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
s also bear the name of Lunacharsky, presumably in his honor. These concert pedal harps were produced in Leningrad, (now, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
) Russia.
Lunacharsky was also a prolific writer. He wrote literary essays on the works of several writers, including Alexander Pushkin, George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental À la recherche du temps perdu...
. His most notable work, however, is his memoirs, "Revolutionary Silhouettes", which describe anecdotes and Lunacharsky's general impressions of Lenin, Trotsky and 8 other revolutionaries. Trotsky reacted to some of Lunacharsky's opinions in his own autobiography, "My Life."
Personal characteristics
Lunacharsky was known as an art connoisseur and a shrewd critic. He was interested in philosophy (not only Marxist dialectics) since he was a student (for instance, he was fond of the ideas of Fichte, Nietzsche, AvenariusAvenarius
Avenarius may refer to:* Ferdinand Avenarius , a German poet* Georgy Alexandrovich Avenarius , one of the founders of Soviet film criticism* Johannes Avenarius, or Johann Habermann , a theologian...
). He could read six modern languages and two dead ones. Lunacharsky corresponded with such significant figures of world culture as H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, and Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.-Biography:...
.
Further reading
- Works by Lunacharsky at Marxist internet archive
- Robert C Williams, 'From Positivism to Collectivism: Lunarcharsky and Proletarian Culture', in Williams, Artists in Revolution, Indiana University Press, 1977
- Vasilisa the Wise (A play by Lunacharsky- in English)