I. the BEGINNINGS of MILLENARIAN MARXISM Bogdanov and Bazarov A
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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION Volume 9 MILLENARIAN BOLSHEVISM, 1900 TO 1920 MILLENARIAN BOLSHEVISM, 1900 TO 1920 Empiriomonism, God-Building, Proletarian Culture DAVID G. ROWLEY First published in 1987 by Garland Publishers, Inc. This edition first published in 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1987 David G. Rowley All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-138-21999-1 (Set) ISBN: 978-1-315-31269-9 (Set) (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-138-22854-2 (Volume 9) (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-38762-8 (Volume 9) (ebk) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace. MODERN EUROPEAN HISTORY Millenarian Bolshevism, 1900 to 1920 David G. Rowley Garland Publishing, Inc. New York and London 1987 Copyright © 1987 David G. Rowley All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rowley, David G., 1949– Millenarian bolshevism, 1900 to 1920. (Modern European history) Thesis (Ph.D.)—University of Michigan, 1982. Bibliography: p. l. Communism—Soviet Union—History—20th century. 2. Philosophy, Marxist—Soviet Union—History—20th century. 3. Communism and religion—History—20th century. 4. Millennialism—Soviet Union—History —20th century. I. Title. II. Series. HX313.R59 1987 335.43’0947 87-25808 ISBN 0-8240-8061-0 (alk. paper) MILLENARIAN BOLSHEVISM: EMPIRIOMONISM, GOD-BUILDING, PROLETARIAN CULTURE by David Graeme Rowley A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in The University of Michigan 1982 Doctoral Committee: Professor Arthur P. Mendel, Chairman Professor William G. Rosenberg Assistant Professor Mark E. Suino Professor Stephen J. Tonsor ABSTRACT MILLENARIAN BOLSHEVISM: EMPIRIOMONISM, GOD-BUILDING, PROLETARIAN CULTURE by David Graeme Rowley Chairman: Arthur P. Mendel There existed within the Russian Social- Democratic Labor Party during the first two decades of the twentieth century a group of philosophically oriented revolutionaries who conceived of socialist revolution in religious and millenarian terms. Constituting a left wing of the Bolshevik faction, these radical philosophers believed that the socialist movement embodied the most sacred ideals of humankind, that the proletariat possessed all the attributes of God, that the evil world of capitalism must be destroyed, and that an ideal socialist paradise would spontaneously arise after that apocalypse. A. Bogdanov was the seminal thinker who elaborated the philosophy upon which millenarian Bolshevism was based. In attempting to support Marx’s sociology upon positivist epistemology, Bogdanov ultimately created a voluntarist, idealist philosophy which held that collective humankind could master the elemental universe. This work follows the development of millenarian Bolshevism by studying the careers of A. Bogdanov and A. V. Lunacharsky and analyzing their relations with V. I. Lenin, A. M. Gorky, and various left Bolsheviks. Millenarian Bolshevism had its origins in a debate between positivist and idealist Marxists (principally Bogdanov versus N. Berdiaev) at the turn of the century. The first full statement of the millenarians’ world-view appeared in the God-building works of Gorky and Lunacharsky. These left Bolsheviks’ millenialism was ultimately manifested in early Soviet society through the nationwide organization of the Proletkult. It is the thesis of this work that the millenarian Bolsheviks were not religious deviants on the radical fringe of the Social-Democratic movement but were rather at its intellectual center. They differed from other Bolsheviks only by being more introspective and philosophically fearless. In examining their relationship with Lenin, it is seen that the millenarian Bolsheviks gave explicit expression to the voluntarist, idealist, and chiliastic spirit that was inherent in the program and organization of Bolshevism and that provided the philosophy of Soviet socialist idealism. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNINGS OF MILLENARIAN MARXISM Bogdanov and Bazarov A. V. Lunacharsky Encounter with Berdiaev and Idealism II. THE INITIAL SYNTHESIS OF MARXISM, POSITIVISM, AND IDEALISM Bogdanov’s Positivist Epistemology Lunacharsky’s Positivist Esthetics III. BOLSHEVISM AND IDEALISM Lenin’s Politics: Idealism in Organizational Form The Politics of Idealism IV. GOD-BUILDING: IDEALISM BECOMES MILLENIALISM Maksim Gorky among the Bolshevik God-builders Lunacharsky’s Religion and Socialism Bogdanov’s Utopian Novels S. Volsky and Socialist Ethics God-building Polemics against Orthodox Marxism and Fashionable Religion V. THE SCHISM IN THE BOLSHEVIK FACTION VI. THE TRANSITION FROM POLITICAL TO CULTURAL REVOLUTION: THE PARTY SCHOOLS AND THE VPERED GROUP VII. BOGDANOV AND THE IDEA OF “PROLETARIAN CULTURE” VIII. PROLETARIAN CULTURE AND EARLY SOVIET SOCIETY Proletarian Culture on the Eve of the October Revolution Rebirth of God-building in the Program of the Proletkult Suppression of the Proletkult AFTERWORD: LENIN’S MILLENIALISM REFERENCES INTRODUCTION It is not a new idea to consider Russian Marxism in religious terms. The parallels between Marxism and religion are obvious. Like a religion Marxism claims absolute, universal validity. Like a religion Marxism offers explanations of the origins, history, and future of human life and explains the causes of evil and misery. And like a religion Marxism promises the ultimate realization of a peaceful and joyous existence for all humankind. Furthermore, the Marxian vision of revolution is patently analagous to religious millenarianism: the transition from an evil world to a perfect paradise will be an immediate, total transformation; all evil will be destroyed in a universal cataclysm, and goodness will spontaneously arise. Neither Marxism nor religious chiliasm offer a blueprint for the construction of the future perfect world. That world will arise from non-human forces--either divine power or the logic of history. There is, however, a completely understandable dearth of Marxist revolutionaries who are willing to explicitly admit that they are committed to revolution because of religious motivations. According to Marx, religion and morality are no more than by-products of economic relations; they are instruments of class domination. Furthermore, the Marxist understands revolution to be an inevitable event: the idea of “good” or “evil” is alien to historical materialism. Thus the entire edifice of Marxism rests upon a foundation of materialism and determinism that explicitly denies the objective validity of any mystical sense of holiness, transcendent moral idealism, or divine purpose. In the very process of understanding and accepting Marxism, the revolutionary must logically deny that moral or religious commitment could have played a role in his acceptance. A search for religious elements in Russian Marxism is further discouraged by an historiographical emphasis upon the appeal of Marxism’s “inevitability” to Russia’s disillusioned populists. The populists supposedly embraced Marxism because it gave them new hope for social betterment; Marx proved to them that the socialist revolution was historically inevitable. However, it seems obvious that a literal interpretation of this Marxian “inevitability” would tend to produce passive social observers rather than impatient revolutionary activists. After all, there is nothing in Marxism that logically entails the active participation of Marxists in the making of the proletarian revolution. Whether any one particular individual views the revolution from an armchair or from the barricades is irrelevant to the inexorable progress of history. Indeed, those Russians who were most attracted by the purely scientific, determinist elements of Marxism were also the first to renounce it. Struve, Kistiakovsky, and Tugan-Baranovsky, for example, followed their scholarly preoccupation with economic and social theory from orthodox Marxism to revisionism and finally to economic liberalism. The motivation to act--to actively promote the socialist revolution--is a motivation that must have its source outside Marxism. The individual chooses to participate in the revolutionary movement not because of the principles he preaches but because of the subjective feelings that impel him to do the preaching. Those Russians who were active in the Social-Democratic movement did not become revolutionaries because they had read Marx. Rather, they welcomed Marxism because they already had revolutionary inclinations. Consequently, it is in this commitment to social activity that the idealistic, religious nature