Episode 12: Towards a New Communist Civilization

The Rise of Communism from Marx to Lenin

Dr Vejas Gabriel Liulevius (2019)

Film Review

This final lecture concerns initial efforts to create a “proletarian” culture in the years prior to Lenin’s death in 1924. There was considerable debate among Bolshevik intellectuals whether the Soviet Union should adopt traditional “bourgeois” art and thought or discard it and start over. Lenin himself denounced the notion of proletarian culture. He thought is was adequate for the Russian proletariat to adopt European culture. Trotsky also officially pronounced that there there was no such thing as proletarian culture and never would be.

Many Soviet intellectuals were extremely disillusioned with the Bolsheviks’ violent suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. The latter were among the strongest supporters of the October revolution.

Despite Lenin’s and Trotsky’s condemnation of “proletarian” culture, the Bolsheviks permitted a Proletkult association to be formed to “unleash the creative forces” of “ordinary people.” It funded workshops and clubs focused on art and literature, as well as studios, theaters and 23 journals. By 1920 it had a half a million members. Despite its continual demands for more more state funding and more autonomy, Lenin insisted it remain subordinate to the Bolshevik government.

Meanwhile the Bolsheviks adopted the Western calendar and spelling reforms as well as adult literacy programs to increase political awareness. All school were nationalized.

They also initiated programs supporting the languages and cultures for the ethnic minorities who made up 50% of the Soviet Union’s population. In 1922, Stalin, a Georgian, the general secretary for minorities. This enabled him to use patronage to establish a substantial power base.

The status of women improved after the Bolsheviks granted them full equal rights, as well as improved access to divorce and abortions. The Bolsheviks also set up collective kitchens and daycare to facilitate women’s entry into employment. In addition to nationalizing all housing, the Bolsheviks also built communal apartments with shared Kitchens and toilets. Yet Bolshevik leadership remained overwhelmingly male.

During the civil war, the government ordered propaganda trains to put on plays and movies across the country to ensure support for the Bolsheviks. They also built support by alternating between mass party drives and purges of dissidents. Although Lenin banned all Communist part factions in 1921, there were still waves of dissent.

Despite his personal belief that religion would “fade away,” Lenin allowed the Cheka to arrest clergy and deport religious intellectuals.

Suppression of dissident thought is reflected in Russian literature from the period. In 1920 former Bolshevik Yegeng Zamyatin wrote dystopian science fiction about the controlled future of a collective state (which inspired 1984).

Boris Pasternak wrote Dr Zhivago. Former Bolshevik Activist Angelica Balabanov wrote My Life as a Rebel. Poet Vladimir Mayakovsky shot himself.

Lenin never fully recovered after being shot. In 1922 he suffered the first of several strokes that cost him his ability to speak. Although he was totally incapacitated the last year of his life, his wife helped him put together Notes for a Last Testament, which was full of misgivings about the direction the Bolshevik revolution had taken. He despised Stalin, who he described as rude, crude and unfit for office.

After his death on January 21, 1924, the Bolsheviks mummified his body to place on permanent display in a mausoleum they built in his honor.* Stalin used the body, which is still re-embalmed every other year, to enhance his own power by establishing a cult of personality around the former Bolshevik leader. In many homes, portraits of Lenin replace the religious Icons previously found pre-revolution Russian homes.

*The bodies of other great communist leaders were also mummified, including Mao, Ho Chi Minh, the North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Bulgarian and Czech communist leaders.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/11239598/11239624