Proletkult

The cultural and educational organizations of the proletariat appeared immediately after the February revolution . Their first conference, which marked the beginning of the All-Russian Proletkult, was convened on the initiative of A. V. Lunacharsky and on the decision of the conference of trade unions in September 1917 .

After the October Revolution, Proletkult quickly grew into a mass organization that had its organizations in a number of cities. By the summer of 1919, there were about 100 organizations in the field. According to the data of 1920, there were about 80 thousand people in the ranks of the organization, considerable layers of workers were covered, 20 magazines were published. At the First All-Russian Congress of Proletkults (October 3-12, 1920), the Bolshevik faction remained in the minority, and then by a resolution of the Central Committee of the RKP (b) “On Proletkults” of November 10, 1920 and by a letter of the Central Committee of December 1, 1920, Proletkult was organizationally subordinated to the People’s Commissariat of Education . Commissar of Education Lunacharsky supported Proletkult, but Trotsky denied the existence of “proletarian culture” as such. V.Lenin criticized Proletkult, and from 1922 his activity began to freeze. Instead of a single Proletcult, separate, independent associations of proletarian writers, artists, musicians, theater critics were created.

The most noticeable phenomenon is the First Working Theater of Proletkult, where S. M. Eisenstein , V. S. Smyshlyaev , I. A. Pyr'ev , M. M. Shtrauh , E. P. Garin , Yu. S. Glizer , G. V worked . Alexandrov et al.

Proletkult, as well as a number of other writers' organizations ( RAPP , VOAPP ), was disbanded by a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) "On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations" of April 23, 1932 .

The ideologists of Proletkult were A. A. Bogdanov , A. K. Gastev (founder of the Central Labor Institute in 1920 ), V. F. Pletnev , who proceeded from the definition of “class culture” formulated by Plekhanov . The purpose of the organization was declared the development of proletarian culture.

According to Bogdanov, any work of art reflects the interests and worldview of only one class (slave, landlord, bourgeois, peasant) and therefore unsuitable for another, since “proletarian experience is different from that of the old classes” ^[1] . By the definition of Bogdanov, proletarian culture is a dynamic system of elements of consciousness that governs social practice, and the proletariat as a class implements it. In some ways, art can more effectively “lead forward to a brighter future.” Art also systematizes experience, but not only in “abstract concepts”, but in “living images”. In this sense, art is "more democratic than science." Art does not merely reflect reality, but educates, gives “a system of thoughts” and directs the will. Therefore, for the final victory of the proletariat, its “cultural independence” is necessary.

Bogdanov believes that the view of art as a “source of subtle spiritual pleasures” is a “lordly view” of “parasitic classes”, which some Marxists uncritically borrow as Marx did not have time to touch and solve this issue. An example is the “revitalizing” effect of military music on soldiers. Bogdanov recalls that there is no utopianism in proletarian culture, since peasant art has existed for centuries. As a possible image of proletarian culture, he mentions the heroism of the class struggle, as well as the chanting of the “titanic forces of steel chaos ” and the “powerful sun of the great ideal ” ^[3] . The creative work of Bogdanov turns out to be “a type of work ” ^[4] , and culture is a “combination of organizational methods and collective forms” ^[5] .

Bogdanov insists on the organizing role of art. The war song rallies the warriors, the labor song - the artel, and “ dance serves as a means of bringing young people closer” ^[6] . He singled out "religious-feudal", "bourgeois" and "proletarian art." The first brings faith and humility, the second - individualism, and the third - collectivism and solidarity . For example, Faust is the work of Goethe's bourgeois aristocrat. Features of individualism Bogdanov sees in the epic of Ilya of Murom.

Proletkult paid particular attention to primitive art - the ideology of primitive communism. His organizing force was the myth - the synthetic unity of science and poetry. For example, myths about the dead contained hygienic knowledge about attitudes towards corpses. At the same time, Bogdanov warned against the mixing of the organizing role of art with agitation, since the latter was implicated on templates and the “falsehood of rose-colored glasses.” Ignoring the role of national culture, he insisted on the need for an international language. However, it should appear not artificially (like Esperanto ), but through competition between natural languages ​​(Bogdanov called such language simplified English ).

Gastev considered the proletariat as a class, the characteristics of whose worldview are dictated by the specifics of everyday mechanistic, standardized labor. New art should reveal these features through the search for the appropriate language of artistic expression. “We are closely approaching some truly new combined art, where purely human demonstrations, pathetic contemporary performance acts and chamber music will recede into the background. We are moving towards an unprecedentedly objective demonstration of things, mechanized crowds and tremendous open grandeur, not knowing anything intimate and lyrical, ”wrote Gastev in his work“ On the trends of proletarian culture ”(1919).

Proletkult did not refuse the culture of past eras, but called for its critical rethinking:

The ideology of Proletkult caused serious damage to the artistic development of the country, denying the cultural heritage ^[8] . Proletkult solved two problems - to destroy the old nobility culture and create a new proletarian culture. If the problem of destruction was solved, the second problem never went beyond the framework of unsuccessful experimentation.

Proletkult published about 20 periodicals, including the magazine “Proletarian Culture”, “ The Future ”, “The Horn” , “Hooters”. He published many collections of proletarian poetry and prose.

There were theaters:

• Moscow
• Leningrad
• Penza

During the II Congress of the Comintern in August 1920, the International Bureau of Proletkult was created, which issued the manifesto "To the Brothers to Proletarians of All Countries." The task was entrusted to him: “to spread the principles of proletarian culture, to create Proletkult organizations in all countries, and to prepare the World Congress of Proletkult”. The activities of the International Bureau of Proletkult not widely deployed, and it gradually disintegrated.

• Magazines Proletkult: "Proletarian culture", Moscow, 1918-1921; The Future, Petrograd, 1918-1921; "Hooters", Moscow, 1919; The Horn, 1918-1923.
• Bogdanov A. On the proletarian culture of 1904-1924. Digest of articles. - L. —M., 1924.
• Bugaenko P. A. A. V. Lunacharsky and the Literary Movement of the 1920s - Saratov, 1967.
• Gorbunov V. Lenin and socialist culture. - M., 1972.
• Gorbunov V.V. I. Lenin and Proletkult. - M., 1974.
• Kerzhentsev P. Creative Theater. - Petersburg, 1920.
• Kerzhentsev P. To a new culture. - Petersburg, 1921.
• Lenin VI. On proletarian culture // Coll. sots., ed. 3, t. XXV. - M. - L., 1931.
• Levchenko, MA. Industrial Pipe: Poetry of Proletkult 1917-1921. SPb., 2007.
• Lvov-Rogachevsky V. and Mandelstam R. Workers and Peasants Writers. Bibliographic index. - M. - L., 1926.
• Margolin S. The first working theater of Proletkult. - M., 1930.
• Pletnev V. Three points of view on proletarian culture. - M., 1926.
• Periods of literature and art during the years of the revolution of 1917-1932. Comp. KD Muratova, ed. S. D. Balukhaty. - L .: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1933.
• Letter of the Central Committee of the RCP (B.) On Proletkults // Bulletin of Artists, 1920, no. 2-3.
• Minutes of the First All-Russian Conference of Proletkults from September 15–20. 1918, ed. PI Lebedev-Polyansky. - M., 1918.
• Smirnov I. The Leninist Concept of the Cultural Revolution and the Criticism of Proletkult. // Historical science and some problems of our time. - M., 1969.
• Mally, Lynn. Culture of the future: Russia-Berkeley etc: Univ. of Calofornia, 1990. - 306 pp .: il .; 24 cm. - (Studies on the history of soc. A. Culture). - Bibliogr .: c. 259-294. Ind .: c. 295-306.
• Mally L. Proletkult's Cultural Heritage: One of the Ways to Socialist Realism? // Socialist canon. Collection. - SPb., 2000.

• The poetry of Proletkult: texts, research, criticism, archival materials
• 1935 Literary Encyclopedia
• Statement on the formation of the peasant section at the Moscow Proletkult