Alexander Bogdanov

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From the wiki page:


Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Богда́нов; born Alyaksandr Malinovsky, Belarusian: Алякса́ндр Алякса́ндравіч Маліно́ўскі) (22 August 1873 [O.S. 10 August] –7 April 1928) was a Russian physician, philosopher, science fiction writer, and revolutionary of Belarusian ethnicity.

He was a key figure in the early history of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, being one of its cofounders and a rival to Vladimir Lenin until being expelled in 1909. In the first decade of the Soviet Union, he was an influential opponent of the government from a Marxist perspective. The polymath Bogdanov received training in medicine and psychiatry. His scientific interests ranged from the universal systems theory to the possibility of human rejuvenation through blood transfusion. He invented an original philosophy called “tectology,” now regarded as a forerunner of systems theory. He was also an economist, culture theorist, science fiction writer, and political activist.

Well I think it's interesting that he was a scientist and a polymath, but I'm not really able to form an opinion because I don't know much about him. But since I don't hear anything about him on this site, what do you guys think?

[PhoenixAsh]

He was an illegalist arguing against the work in allowed organizations. Otzovism I believe it is called. But don't pin me down on it. Lenin wrote some philosophical polemic against him in order to gain power. Most Bolsheviks did not support Lenin at that time. All pretty interesting stuff. The MIA should have some of his writings and it most definitely has Lenin's polemic against him. He also wrote brilliant theoretical stuff btw about the theory of value.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

His novel Red Star is a fantastic read. I may not necessarily agree with everything in it, but its a great insight into how the Bolsheviks viewed what a communist society would look like (and also some of the problems that a post-capitalist society might encounter).

[Luís Henrique]

From the wiki page:


Russian physician [...] of Belarusian ethnicity

Oh Wikipedia. :rolleyes:

Luís Henrique

[Brutus]

He was part of the anti-Duma faction, that against participation of Bolshevik candidates in the Duma. He helped found the Bolshevik faction with lenin, and was one of his closest allies until the whole left-Bolshevism "forward" group.

Here's a section from Lunacharsky's "revolutionary silhouette" on Lenin regarding Bogdanov
In short, we were somewhat in the dark. I should add that the comrades in Russia who supported Lenin were also rather vague about what was happening. If we are to mention personalities, it was undoubtedly A. A. Bogdanov [18], who gave him the most powerful support. It was here that Bogdanov’s adherence to Lenin was, I think, of decisive significance. If he had not sided with Lenin things would probably have progressed a great deal more slowly.

But why did Bogdanov associate himself with Lenin ? He saw the quarrel which had broken out at the Congress as primarily a question of discipline: once a majority (even if only of one) had voted for Lenin’s formulae, the minority should have acquiesced; secondly he saw it as a clash between the Russian section of the Party and the émigrés. Even though Lenin did not have a single big name on his side he did have, practically to a man, all the delegates who had come from Russia, whereas as soon as Plekhanov crossed the floor all the big émigré names were gathered in the Menshevik camp.

Bogdanov recalled the scene, although not quite accurately, as follows: the émigré aristocrats of the Party had refused to realize that we were now a real party and that what counted above all was the collective will of those who were doing the practical work in Russia. There is no doubt that this line, which gave rise, inter alia, to the slogan: ‘A single Party centre – and in Russia’, had a flattering and encouraging effect on many Party committees in Russia, which were by then spread in a fairly wide network throughout the country.

It soon became clear what sort of people were drawn to each of the two factions: the Mensheviks attracted the majority of the Marxist intellectuals in the capitals; they also had an undoubted success among the more skilled working men; the chief adherents of the Bolsheviks were in fact the committee members, i.e. the provincial Party workers, revolutionary professionals. These were largely made up of intellectuals of an obviously different type – not academic Marxist professors and students but people who had committed themselves irrevocably to their profession – revolution. It was largely this element to which Lenin attached such enormous significance and which he called ‘the bacteria of revolution’; it was this section which was consolidated by Bogdanov, with the active support of the young Kamenev [19] and others, into the famous Organizational Bureau of Committees of the Majority and which was to supply Lenin with his army.

Bogdanov by then had served his term of exile and was spending some time abroad. I was absolutely convinced that he must have made a reasonably correct assessment of the problems and therefore, partly out of confidence in him, I also took up a pro-Bolshevik position.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

His novel Red Star is a fantastic read. I may not necessarily agree with everything in it, but its a great insight into how the Bolsheviks viewed what a communist society would look like (and also some of the problems that a post-capitalist society might encounter).

I'm not sure I would agree on its literary merits - the later parts of the plot and the conclusion in particular are subpar. As for the statement that the Bolshevik majority viewed the communist society in the same way as Bogdanov and Luncharsky, keep in mind Lenin was scathing when it came to Bogdanov's sociological assumptions, not just in "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" but in his comments to Bukharin, who was somewhat influenced by Bogdanov as well. I have an edition of Bukharin's "Economics of the Transitional Period" which includes Lenin's comments on the margins; roughly every fifth comment is "Bogdanovist idiocy".


Oh Wikipedia. :rolleyes:

He was a Belarusian who lived and worked in Russia; the description "Russian physician [but why 'physician'?] of Belarusian ethnicity" seems quite appropriate to me.

Anyway, Lenin deals with Bogdanov in several of his articles, primarily "Materialism and Empirio-criticism". Bogdanov was an idealist, as well as one of the first ultraleftists of the Russian party, and while his otzovism might have been an honest tactical miscalculation, his conduct concerning the Party school in Capri and so on was less than honest.

[Hrafn]

Fun fact: Arkady Bogdanov, a fictional descendant of Aleksander, is a mechanical engineer in the fantastic hard sci-fi book Red Mars by Stanley Robinson. An anarchist-leaning firebrand, whose followers on the moon of Phobos become called "Bogdanovists", he is killed in the eventual Martian Revolution of 2061, where he rose up against the transnational corporations running interplanetary space.