[18] V. I. Lenin, "Uspekhi i trudnosti sovetskoi vlasti," 1919, in Polnoe sobranie sochinenii , by V. I. Lenin, 5th ed. (Moscow, 1969), vol. 38, p. 54.
[19] V. I. Lenin, "Ob obmane naroda lozungami svobody i ravenstva," in V. I. Lenin o literature i iskusstve , 7th ed., ed. N. Krutikov (Moscow, 1986), p. 289.
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ture would be effective organization to supply the devastated country with coal and bread.
Narkompros's critique of the Proletkult centered on Proletkult practice. Krupskaia, in particular, pointed to the rudimentary and unexceptional nature of much Proletkult work and used this contention as the justification to call for its subordination. Lenin, by contrast, was offended by Proletkult theory, even though it often had little to do with Proletkult practice. He opposed his own pragmatic thoughts on culture to the "harebrained" conceptions of Proletkultists. As soon as Lenin entered the fray, the organization was threatened both for what it was and for what it wanted to be.
Bogdanov's continued commitment to proletarian culture worried Lenin as well. In the early years of Soviet power Bogdanov published widely, and his writings clearly influenced some prominent party leaders, including Bukharin.[20] When Lenin discovered that Bogdanov had issued a new edition of his book Empiriomonism , which had been so important in their prerevolutionary altercations, he promptly planned a new edition of his own critique. Published in the fall of 1920, Lenin's Materialism and Empiriocriticism had a new preface by V. I. Nevskii, who had already attacked Bogdanov in the controversy over the Proletkult's proletarian university in Moscow. Although Nevskii did not mention the Proletkult explicitly, he sharply criticized Bogdanov's recent writings, including articles that had appeared in Proletarian Culture .[21]
However, it was not until Lenin discovered disturbing evidence about the Proletkult movement's size and grandiose ambitions that he moved to force its subordination. During the Second Comintern Congress in August 1920 Proletkultists founded an international branch of their organization with Lunacharskii at its head. Its stated aspiration was to spread
[20] This point is made convincingly by John Biggart, "Bukharin and the Origins of the Proletarian Culture Debate," Soviet Studies , vol. 34, no. 2 (1987), pp. 229–46, esp. pp. 231–32.
[21] V.I. Nevskii, "Dialekticheskii materializm i filosofiia mertvoi reaktsii," in Soehineniia , by V. I. Lenin, 3d ed. (Moscow, 1931), vol. 13, pp. 317–24.
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proletarian culture around the world.[22] Apparently alarmed by the Proletkult's pretensions, Lenin wrote Mikhail Pokrovskii, second in command of Narkompros, with some urgent questions.[23] What was the legal status of the Proletkult? Who were its leaders? Where did it get its funding? What had it accomplished? Pokrovskii replied that the Proletkult was an independent organization under Narkompros control. Lenin also received reports about its leaders, finances, and cultural programs from the central Proletkultists Vladimir Faidysh and Vasilii Ignatov. They did not, however, pass on widespread doubts about the cohesiveness of the organization or the mixed social composition of its membership. Instead they wrote that the Proletkult united some four hundred thousand proletarians.[24]
Faced with news of an autonomous organization that claimed such a significant working-class following, Lenin quickly took steps to end its independence. The Proletkult national congress, scheduled to meet in Moscow from October 5 to October 12, 1920, provided him with an opportunity. He charged Lunacharskii to inform delegates that their organization would now be absorbed by Narkompros. But Lunacharskil, who had long defended Proletkult interests, went back on the agreement; his speech to the Proletkult congress contained no mention of a pending change in the organization's status.[25] Lenin reacted immediately, calling a series of Polit-