Anatoly Wassiljewitsch Lunacharsky

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Anatoly Lunacharsky (1925)

Anatoly Lunacharsky ( Russian Анатолий Васильевич Луначарский , scientific. Transliteration Anatoly Vasil'evič Lunacarskij ; born 11 jul. / 23. November  1875 greg. In Poltava , Russian Empire , now Ukraine ; †  28 December 1933 in Menton , France ) was from his appointment by Lenin in 1917 until his dismissal by Josef Stalin in 1929 People's Commissar for Education of the RSFSR . He is considered one of the most important Marxist cultural politicians.

Life

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Lunacharsky, son of a senior civil servant in Poltava, attended high school in Kiev , where he first came into contact with revolutionary ideas. As a result, he was denied admission to Moscow University because of “political unreliability” . That is why he emigrated to Switzerland after completing high school , where he studied philosophy and natural sciences at the University of Zurich in 1895 . During this time, Lunacharsky became familiar with the philosophical system of the machist Richard Avenarius , professor at the University of Zurich. The influence of this bourgeois philosopher and the friendship with the macho social democrat Alexander Bogdanov had an impact on Lunacharsky's views for a long time.

After two years of emigration, Lunacharsky returned to Russia. He resumed illegal revolutionary work as a propagandist, agitator and organizer. His further work was often interrupted by arrest, imprisonment and exile.

Since 1904, again in emigration, he worked in Geneva in the editorial department of the magazines Vorwärts ( Вперед ) and Proletarians ( Пролетарий ). In 1905 he returned to Saint Petersburg, was arrested again and fled to Stockholm . In 1908 he attracted attention with a script that tried to establish a connection between religion and Marxism. In 1910/11 he organized a school in Italy based on the Montessori principle, and later he worked again as a journalist in Paris.

Lunacharsky had been a member of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party since 1897 . He was very open to the arts, literature, theater and music. Through his stays in emigration from 1906 to 1917, where he had belonged to Lenin's inner circle during the First World War , he had profound knowledge of the Western European art scene and took a more liberal stance on art issues. Lenin, on the other hand, was decidedly conservative on art issues. Lunacharsky was from November 1917 to July 1929 People's Commissar for Education. He was removed from office after protesting the demolition of the Kremlin monasteries in April 1929. Lunacharsky ensured that even with the “ New Economic Policy ”, which came into force in Russia from 1921, the avant-garde still had a certain amount of freedom. He was an extremely skilful tactician who accepted that his statements contradicted each other. Ultimately, Lunacharsky saw himself as a political revolutionary in whom the needs of the masses of workers and peasants had priority. He could not prevent the decline of avant-garde art, which ended in the doctrine of socialist realism .

Anatoly Lunacharsky died in 1933 at the age of 58. His urn was buried at the necropolis on the Kremlin wall in Moscow . The main inner belt asteroid (2446) Lunacharsky was named after him.

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Art politics

The change in Russian art policy can be clearly seen in three of Lunacharsky's publications. They are quoted below:

  • 1918; from an article for the "Art of the Commune":
I have declared a dozen times that the Commissariat for Public Enlightenment should be impartial in its attitude towards the various directions in art life. As far as questions of form are concerned, the taste of the People's Commissar and all representatives of state authority must not be taken into account. Free development is to be granted to all persons and groups in the field of art! Neither direction should be allowed to displace the other, be it with acquired traditional fame or with fashion success!
  • 1920 (October); At a meeting of the art sector of his commissioner and the communist faction of the Central Committee of the Union of Artists, Lunacharsky presented the theses he understood as guidelines on art policy:
1. Preservation of the real art values ​​of the past.
2. Critical appropriation of these artistic values ​​by the proletarian masses.
3. Any possible support for the creation of experimental forms of revolutionary art.
4. Use of all kinds of art for propaganda and the realization of the ideas of communism, in addition to promoting the influence of communist ideas on the masses of artists.
5. Objective attitude to all artistic trends.
6. Democratization of all artistic institutions, which must be made accessible to the masses in every possible way.
  • 1921; Article for Das Rote Neuland (the empty subject matter was primarily meant for Suprematism ):
Today art itself is divided into different camps and a dividing line is immediately noticeable: the so-called realistic art, by which one now commonly understands all of past art, and the so-called futuristic. Personally, I believe that the path from past art to proletarian, socialist art does not pass through futurism, and if it is fertilized by this or that achievement of futurism, even if it is only of a technical nature, it is probably not very much to be taken seriously (this does not apply to the arts and crafts): But that is my personal opinion, which probably shares a large part of other communists ... For me there is no doubt that the proletariat and the peasantry are given considerably more of the lively epochs of the past, as of an art that declares from the outset that it is empty in terms of content, that it is purely formal, and which ultimately results in an absolutely empty subject matter. ... Without granting privileges to the so-called new art, one should neither throw a kettle drift against it, which would ruin the sympathy of hundreds of young artists, nor turn them into martyrs in the name of their ideas, which they stand behind. That would be completely in vain, without any need or benefit.

Philosophical position

Lunacharsky's philosophical position was mainly influenced by Karl Marx , Friedrich Nietzsche , Lenin and Avenarius.

During his school days, Lunacharsky became familiar with the ideas of Marx, of which he was convinced until his death. Lunacharsky was a staunch Marxist and even during his high school years he took part in student groups that were under Marxist influence.

During his studies in Switzerland, Lunacharsky was under the strong influence of Richard Avenarius, professor at the University of Zurich. Avenarius tried with a critical empiricism to give a theory of reality independent of dogmatic metaphysics (positivism).

Since Lunatscharsky was receptive to everything strong in form and artistically emotional, he was fascinated by Nietzsche , as were many other philosophers of his time. Marxist criticism only dealt with the teachings of Nietzsche late, as did Lunacharsky.

Lenin's first meeting with Lunacharsky was when he asked Lunacharsky to work with him and other Marxists for the newspaper Vperyod . Lenin saw Lunacharsky as a valuable member of the party and wanted to free him from Avenarius' "false teachings". Lenin saw in the philosophy of Avenarius a subjectivist idealism and opposed its strong effect on Russian philosophy. The fierce criticism of Lenin in his work Materialism and Empirio-Criticism was directed at the Russian Machists, but especially Lunacharsky. Lenin and Lunacharsky were often severely criticized each other later on. However, this could never seriously endanger their cooperation.

aesthetics

Lunatscharski's theory of aesthetics is influenced by Richard Avenarius and Herbert Spencer , but also by Arthur Schopenhauer and Charles Darwin . He developed it in Fundamentals of a Positive Aesthetic (1904).

The question “What is life?” Is the starting point of his aesthetic considerations. For Lunacharsky, biomechanical and psychological considerations represent the necessary foundation for “positive aesthetics”, since aesthetics is the science of valuation, and in part also of the creative activity that arises from valuation.

Art, but also science, religion and philosophy, therefore develop within a certain society. This development is consequently linked to the structure of society and its economic basis. Art should only give joy and freedom. However, this is only possible if the "original needs" are at least temporarily satisfied.

Plays

Lunacharsky was also active as a writer, he wrote, among other things plays Faust and the City ( Russian Фауст и город ) and Liberated Don Quixote ( Russian Освобожденный Дон-Кихот ), which in the December 1, 1925 Volksbühne Berlin premiered (directed : Fritz Holl , with Friedrich Kayssler in the leading role) and in 1945 also at the Vienna Volkstheater (director: Günther Haenel , with Max Paulsen in the title role). The Soviet doll animation film Oswoboschdenny Don Kichot by Vadim Kurtschewski (1987) is based on this work.

The Moscow State Institute for Theater Arts was named Государственный институт театрального искусства имени А.В.Луначарского from 1934 to 1991 in honor of Lunacharsky.

Works

  • The revolution and the art. Essays, speeches, notes. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1962 ( Fundus series 6)
  • The Heritage. Essays, speeches, notes. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1965 ( Fundus series 14)
  • Philosophy, art, literature. Selected Writings 1904–1933. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1986 ( Fundus series 103/104/105)
  • Highlights: Experiences and shapes on my way. Verlag Dietz 1986. ISBN 3-320-00620-7
  • Anatolij V. Lunačarskij: Šaljapin in> Don Quixote <. In: W. Jacobsen: GW Pabst, Berlin: Argon 1997. ISBN 3-87024-364-3

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Anatoli Wassiljewitsch Lunacharsky  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Anatoly Lunacharsky  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lunatscharskiy / (Lunacarskij) Anatole (= Anatoli Vasil'evic). In: Matriculation edition of the University of Zurich. Retrieved October 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Catherine Merridale: The Kremlin: A New History of Russia . Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-10-048451-2 .
  3. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Anatoli Lunatscharski
  4. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp.  186 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on August 12, 2019] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “1971 TS 2 . Discovered 1971 Oct. 14 by LI Chernykh at Nauchnyj. "
personal data
SURNAME Lunacharsky, Anatoly Wassiljewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lunacharsky, Anatoly Vasilyevich; Луначарский, Анатолий Васильевич
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian People's Commissar for Education (NARKOMPROS)
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Poltava
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1933
Place of death Menton , France