[15] L. B-a, "K gubernskomu s" ezdu Proletkul'tov," Griadushchaia kul'tura , no. 2 (1918), pp. 15–16.
[16] Izvestiia VTsIK , September 26, 1918; Griadushchee , no. 12/13 (1920), p. 22; and "Neobkhodimoe ob "iasnenie," Tsentral'nyi Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Literatury i Iskusstva [henceforth cited as TsGALI] f. 1230 (Proletkul't), op. 1, d. 51, 1.6.
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Dodonova and Fedor Blagonravov, who had helped to instigate the revolution in Moscow, and the union activist Vladimir Kossior, whose brother would later join Stalin's central committee.[17] Some participants, such as Karl Ozol-Prednek, a leader in both the Petrograd and the national organizations, even asserted that only party members should be allowed to join the movement.[18]
The Proletkult's first serious clashes over its autonomous status were with representatives of the state's cultural bureaucracy, not with the Communist Party. In fact, in these early altercations Lebedev-Polianskii suggested that the Proletkult would more willingly accept subordination to the party than to Narkompros.[19] Only as the distinction between party and state power became increasingly blurred was the Proletkult's opposition to state control increasingly interpreted as opposition to the Soviet system itself.[20]
Conflicts between the Proletkult and Narkompros began soon after the organization started operation. Already early in 1918 leaders of the Petrograd Proletkult refused to cooperate with efforts to create a citywide theater consortium, insisting that they would not align themselves with nonproletarian groups.[21] At the founding conference for the Moscow Proletkult in February 1918 delegates laid claim to vast areas of competence that extended far beyond any narrowly defined
[17] For more on the background of Proletkult leaders see Chapter 4.
[18] Protokoly pervoi Vserossiiskoi konferentsii proletarskikh kul'turno-prosvetitel'nykh organizatsii, 15–20 sentiabria, 1918 g. , ed. P. I. Lebedev-Polianskii (Moscow, 1918), p. 24.
[19] The protocols from the April 8, 1918, meeting of the government educational commission are reprinted in I. S. Smirnov, comp., "K istorii Proletkul'ta," Voprosy literatury , no. 1 (1968), p. 121.
[20] See Chapter 7.
[21] Fitzpatrick, Commissariat , pp. 92–93. For similar struggles in Moscow see "Proletarskaia kul'tura," Izvestiia VTsIK , August 13, 1918, and "Ot redaktsii," Proletarskaia kul'tura , no. 3 (1918), pp. 35–36.
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cultural sphere. Speakers considered ways to improve workers' hygiene and expand the city's cafeteria system. Lecturers on educational issues endorsed measures to start labor schools, technical education courses, and to create a proletarian university for the city's workers. They also proposed plans to direct the education of all proletarian children.[22] The broad range of topics raised a host of organizational questions. Just where would the Proletkult's responsibilities end and the government's begin? Did it intend to satisfy all of the proletariat's cultural and educational needs? What would the role of Narkompros be?
State cultural workers were clearly alarmed by the Proletkult's ambitions. In the spring of 1918 Lunacharskii called a series of meetings to discuss relations between the government and the Proletkult.[23] State representatives argued that Proletkultists did not understand how the revolution had changed the political landscape. The new state was the expression of proletarian rule, even if it did have to consider the needs of other classes. Krupskaia worried that the Proletkult would detract workers from the important task of state construction and, because of its autonomy, turn into a haven for anti-Soviet forces. Dora Elkina was convinced that an independent Proletkult would duplicate the Adult Education Division's work. Even the sympathetic Lunacharskii wondered whether the Proletkult was really the proper organ to create a proletarian culture, as it had already attracted nonproletarians to its ranks.[24]
In these discussions the Proletkult was represented by Fedor Kalinin, head of the government's Division of Proletar-
[22] For conference delegates see Pervaia Moskovskaia obshchegorodskaia konferentsiia proletarskikh kul'turno-prosvetitel'nykh organizatsii, 23–28 fevralia 1918 goda: Tezisy, rezoliutsii (Moscow, 1918), p. 1. For the full range of speeches see pp. 62–63.
[23] Minutes of the March and April 1918 meetings of the Government Commission of Education, Tsentral'nyi Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv RSFSR [henceforth cited as TsGA RSFSR] f. 2306 (Narkompros), op. 1, d. 35, ll. 14–79. The protocols for the April 8 and April 13 meetings are reprinted in Smirnov, "K istorii Proletkul'ta."