[56] On soviet programs in Moscow and Petrograd see V. P. Lapshin, Khudozhestvennaia zhizn' Moskvy i Petrograda v 1917 godu (Moscow, 1983), pp. 127–35.
[57] See the discussion on education at the first national soviet in June 1917, Pervyi Vserossiiskii s"ezd sovetov rabochikh i soldatskikh deputatov (Moscow, 1930), vol. 2, pp. 277–97, esp. pp. 291–94.
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consciously concerned with his surroundings can be a convinced socialist and an active participant in the union movement."[58] He proposed that unions form a broad national apparatus, with its central committee in Petrograd, to coordinate workers' cultural-educational activities. This new structure would include representatives from unions, soviets, cooperatives, and Social Democratic parties.[59] But the union bureaucracy faced pressing political and economic problems that left it little time for education. Maiskii's entire presentation had a somewhat plaintive tone; he seemed to beg his colleagues to give more time to culture. Not surprisingly, union efforts brought few results.[60]
It was the most militant workers' organizations, the factory committees, that succeeded in founding a proletarian cultural network. These bodies, intended first as defensive mechanisms to insure jobs when the Russian economy began its long spiral downward, expanded rapidly after the February Revolution.[61] Many factory committees formed cultural commissions devoted to education, leisure activities, and agitational work at the factory site. These cultural circles were particularly active in Petrograd.[62] When the Petrograd factory com-
[58] Tret'ia Vserossiiskaia konferentsiia professional'nykh soiuzov, 3–11 iiulia (20–28 iiunia staryi stil') 1917 goda: Stenograficheskii otchet (Moscow, 1927), reprint, ed. Diane Koenker (Millwood, N.Y., 1982), p. 405.
[59] Ibid., pp. 407, 412–13, 464–65.
[60] Knizhnik, Karl Ozol'-Prednek, and A.M., "God bor'by za proletarskuiu kul'turu," Griadushchee , no. 8 (1918), pp. 13–14.
[61] There is a growing literature on factory committees. For works that focus on the pre-October period see Paul Avrich, "The Bolshevik Revolution and Workers' Control in Russian Industry," Slavic Review , vol. 22, no. 1 (1963), pp. 47–63; David Mandel, The Petrograd Workers and the Fall of the Old Regime: From the February Revolution to the July Days 1917 (New York, 1983); idem, The Petrograd Workers and the Soviet Seizure of Power: From the July Days 1917 to July 1918 (New York, 1984); and S. A. Smith, Red Petrograd: The Revolution in the Factories , 1917–1918 (Cambridge, Eng., 1983).
[62] See Smith, Red Petrograd , pp. 84–85, 94–98; I. A. Baklanova, Rabochie Petrograda v period mirnogo razvitiia revoliutsii (Leningrad, 1978), pp. 142–43; and I. I. Mints et al., eds., Fabrichno-zavodskie komitety Petrograda v 1917 godu: Protokoly (Moscow, 1982), pp. 60, 142, 145–47, 157.
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mittees gathered in a citywide meeting in August 1917, the delegates proposed to create a new body to unify and direct the proletariat's cultural work.
That factory committees succeeded in this endeavor was in large part because of the efforts of cultural activists from the Vpered circle. In 1917 they returned from exile and, except for Bogdanov, rejoined the Bolshevik Party. Lunacharskii, who followed Lenin from Switzerland in a second sealed train, was the most important figure.[63] It was he who united the theoretical positions of Vpered with the growing network of proletarian cultural groups and thus created the basis for the Proletkult.
When he arrived in Petrograd, Lunacharskii started work on Gorky's newspaper, New Life (Novaia zhizn' ), using this platform to popularize his views on cultural transformation.[64] He proclaimed that cultural organization should be the "fourth form" of the working-class movement alongside political parties, unions, and cooperatives.[65] The creation of a central structure for workers' cultural societies was more than an administrative convenience. It was a way to start a new proletarian movement that alone could insure that culture became a central focus of revolutionary change.
Lunacharskii made his points forcefully at the August 1917 gathering of factory committees. He argued against those who seemed to think that culture was some sort of dessert, a treat to be enjoyed when the political situation had stabilized. "Cultural-educational work is just as essential as the other forms of the workers' movement. In our understanding of it, this does not mean just adult education and literacy classes. It