Anatoly Lunacharsky

Anatoly Lunacharsky was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and the first Soviet People's Commissar of Education responsible for culture and education. He was active as an art critic and journalist throughout his career. Lunacharsky was born in 1875 in Poltava, Ukraine, as the illegitimate child of Alexander Antonov and Alexandra Lunacharskaya. He adopted the surname of his mother's first husband, Vasily Lunacharsky, a nobleman of Polish origin. He became a Marxist at the age of 15 and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1894. He studied at the University of Zurich under Richard Avenarius for two years, where he met European socialists, including Rosa Luxemburg and Leo Jogiches. In 1899, Lunacharsky returned to Russia, where he revived the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP with Vladimir Lenin's sister, until they were arrested and exiled. He spent his exile in various places, including Kyiv, Kaluga, Vologda, and Capri, where he joined Maxim Gorky and Alexander Bogdanov in running a school for Russian workers. He also wrote several books and articles on philosophy, religion, literature, and art, developing his own version of Marxism, known as Lunacharskism or God-building. In 1917, Lunacharsky returned to Russia after the February Revolution and joined Lenin and Trotsky in leading the October Revolution, which overthrew the Provisional Government and established the Soviet power. He was appointed as the first People's Commissar of Education, a position he held until 1929. He was in charge of the Soviet educational system, which aimed to provide free and universal education for all, as well as the development of the new Soviet art and culture, which promoted socialist realism and proletarian culture. He supported the preservation of the cultural heritage of the past and encouraged the experimentation and innovation of the avant-garde artists. He also founded the Commissariat of Enlightenment, which oversaw the propaganda and cultural activities of the Soviet state. In 1929, Lunacharsky was removed from his post as the People's Commissar of Education and sent to various diplomatic missions abroad. He served as the Soviet ambassador to Spain, Germany, France, and Switzerland. He died in 1933 in Menton, France, of heart failure, while on his way to a sanatorium. He was buried in Cannes, where his tombstone bears the inscription: "The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love."