[47] See M. Gor'kii, "Predislovie k 'Sbornik proletarskikh pisatelei,' "in Sobranie sochinenii v tridtsati tomakh , by M. Gor'kii (Moscow, 1953), vol. 24, p. 170.
[48] V. F. Pletnev [V. Valerianov, pseud.], "K voprosu o proletarskoi kul'ture," Nasha zaria , no. 10/11 (1913), pp. 35–41.
[49] A. V. Lunacharskii, "Chto takoe proletarskaia literatura i vozmozhna li ona?" Bor'ba , no. 1 (1914), reprinted in Sobranie sochinenii v vos'mi tomakh , by A. V. Lunacharskii, ed. I. I. Anisimov (Moscow, 1967), vol. 7, pp. 167–73.
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backs on culture for politics, they should discover how to use art as a weapon in the struggle for socialism.
The links between culture and politics were illustrated very graphically when the revolutionary movement began to regain its momentum in the turbulent years from 1912–1914. Workers' clubs and educational societies became increasingly politicized, as many participants moved from the more cautious Menshevism to Bolshevism.[50] Because unions were under close surveillance, clubs became centers for underground organization. The St. Petersburg educational society "Science and Life," dominated by Bolsheviks, was a planning center for the strike activity that swept the city in July 1914.[51]
The outbreak of the First World War abruptly halted the expansion of workers' cultural groups. Fear of worker unrest led the government to repress independent workers' organizations. However, people's universities and people's houses did not suffer the same fate. Associated mainly with the liberal intelligentsia, the government did not view them as a substantial threat. The network of people's houses even expanded during the war as its two main sponsors, cooperatives and the zemstva, increased their power and responsibilities. Enterprising workers intent on continuing illegal activities learned to conduct their propaganda within this moderately neutral setting.[52] This avenue for workers' cultural activities survived even during the repressive war years.
Workers' circles offered no consensus on the meaning of proletarian culture. United by their distrust of the old intelligentsia, the collaborators in this network had a complicated