People of the Revolution and the USSR

Activity(set)
Any Political and party leadership 42 Government and administration 6 Legislature and state representation 3 Military command 16 Security, intelligence and policing 6 Diplomacy and international organization 14 Economy, finance and planning 15 Industry and production 4 Agriculture and land policy 2 Ideology and propaganda 4 Social movements and organizing 42 Scholarship and theory 7 Education 1 Literature and arts 5 Law and justice 11
Affiliation(set)

Most people

Any Soviet Unionstate 10 Hungarystate 3 Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 3 Albaniastate 1 Romaniastate 1 Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) 1 Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 1

All 7 affiliations

Albania

Albaniastate 1

East Germany

Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) 1

Hungary

Hungarystate 3

Romania

Romaniastate 1

Russia

Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) 1

Soviet Union

Soviet Communist Party and Bolsheviks 3 Soviet Unionstate 10
Position
Any Marxism and communism 1
Citizenship
Any Soviet Union 1
Background
Any Russia 1
Era
Any

People of the Soviet Union

The revolutionary generation1917–1940 1
Education Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) Clear all
GlossaryRussian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP)

Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky

Анатолий Васильевич Луначарский
Soviet Union Soviet communism Soviet Union Russia 1875–1933 ○ Natural causes

Russian revolutionary, first People's Commissar of Enlightenment, and literary critic

On 15 November 1917, eight days into his post, Lunacharsky resigned over reports that bombardment during the storming of the Kremlin was destroying St Basil's Cathedral. The next day he withdrew the resignation after the commissars judged it inappropriate, and stayed in office until 1929.

Born in 1875 in Poltava. His adoptive father Vasily Lunacharsky, from whom his surname and patronymic derive, is described as a nobleman of Polish origin, though no basis exists to assert Lunacharsky's own Polish ethnicity. He joined the RSDLP in 1895, adhered to the Bolsheviks in 1903, and after helping found the Vpered group in 1909 was expelled from the faction; he ran party schools on Capri and in Bologna. In 1917 he passed through the Mezhraiontsy and after the October Revolution became the first People's Commissar of Enlightenment, serving until 1929. Elected to the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1930, he died in 1933 at Menton, France, while preparing to take up the post of ambassador to Spain.

Career timeline
  • 1890s–1904Joined the RSDLP in 1895, studied under Avenarius at Zurich, and emerged as a literary critic
  • 1905–1914Adhered to the Bolsheviks and the Vpered debates; developed ideas on revolutionary culture and arts policy
  • 1908–1911Published the two-volume Religion and Socialism
  • 1914–1917Anti-war internationalist position; anti-war activities in exile
  • 1917.05Returned to Russia, briefly joined the Mezhraiontsy, which merged with the Bolsheviks in July–August
  • 1917.08VI Congress: Mezhraiontsy merge into the Bolshevik Party
  • 1917–1929People's Commissar for Enlightenment, overseeing schools, museums, theatres and publishing
  • 1918–1921Balances avant-garde patronage with preservation of cultural inheritance
  • 1923Published the portrait collection Revolutionary Silhouettes
  • 1929–1933Moved in autumn 1929 to chair the Academic Committee under the USSR Central Executive Committee, became an Academician in 1930, and died in 1933 after appointment as ambassador to Spain
  • 1930Elected to the USSR Academy of Sciences (1 February)