Lunacharsky A.V. (1875-1933), revolutionary, statesman

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LUNACHARSKY Anatoly Vasilievich (1875-1933), Soviet statesman and party figure, playwright, literary critic, Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1930). In 1892, he graduated from the First Kiev Gymnasium; in 1892-94, studied at Zurich University. In Switzerland, he became associated with G. V. Plekhanov and the Group for Labour Liberation. In 1898, he returned to Russia. For his revolutionary activities, Lunacharsky was arrested and exiled more than once. In 1905, he became a member of the editorial staff of the newspaper Novaya Zhizn; in December 1905, he was arrested and held in the Kresty (Crosses) Prison; in 1906, he was released, and shortly afterwards he emigrated. In May 1917, he returned to Petersburg, joined the Mezhraiontsy Party (a small Russian Social Democratic Labour Party group), and together with them was admitted to the Bolshevik Party at the Sixth Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Bolsheviks (July 1917). He was a member of the City Duma, and a Deputy Mayor. During July 1917, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Kresty, released shortly afterwards. In 1917-29, he was the People's Commissar for Education. Despite the relocation of the Soviet Government to Moscow (February 1918), he remained in Petrograd. In 1919, he was a founding member of the Bolshoy Drama Theatre. In 1921, he advocated for the Petrograd Philharmonic Orchestra; and, with Lunacharsky's help, the Petrograd Philharmonic Society was formed on the basis of the Petrograd Philharmonic Orchestra. He was involved in returning the Hermitage collections to Petrograd (1920) following their evacuation to Moscow, in the resumption of the Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky Theatres, and made the theatres into state funded establishments. He supported men of science and cultural workers (A. F. Koni, V. I. Zasulich). Authored works on philosophy, the history of public opinion, and history of culture, as well as literary critiques. His plays Faust and the City, Chancellor and Mechanic and others were staged in the Alexandrinsky Theatre in the 1920s. He was the scriptwriter of the first Soviet feature film, Integration (the first viewing took place at 12 Karavannaya Street in 1918, memorial plaque installed; now, the House of Cinema). From 1931, he was Director of the Russian Literature Institute (Pushkin House). In 1933, he was appointed Plenipotentiary to Spain, but died on his way to Madrid. In 1970, an Avenue in the Vyborgsky District was named after Lunacharsky.

References: Самойлова Н. А. А. В. Луначарский - борец за советское искусство. М., 1961; Павловский О. А. Луначарский. М., 1980.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Koni Anatoly Fedorovich
Lunacharsky Anatoly Vasilievich
Plekhanov Georgy Valentinovich
Zasulich Vera Ivanovna
Karavannaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 12
Lunacharsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Russian Academy of Sciences
Novaya Zhizn (New Life), newspaper (1917-1918)
Kresty Prison.
City Duma
Philharmonic named after D.D. Shostakovich
Mariinsky Theatre
Alexandrinsky Theatre
Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of