V. I. Lenin

On Proletarian Culture [1]

We see from Izvestia of October 8 that, in his address to the Proletcult Congress, Comrade Lunacharsky said
things that were diametrically opposite to what he and I
had agreed upon yesterday. [2]

It is necessary that a draft resolution (of the Proletcult
Congress) should be drawn up with the utmost urgency, and that it
should be endorsed by the Central Committee, in time to have it
put to the vote at this very session of the
Proletcult. On behalf of the Central Committee it should be
submitted not later than today, for endorsement both by the
Collegium of the People’s Commissariat of Education and by
the Proletcult Congress, because the Congress is closing
today.

Draft Resolution

1) All educational work in the Soviet Republic of workers and
peasants, in the field of political education in general and in
the field of art in particular, should be imbued with the spirit
of the class struggle being waged by the proletariat for the
successful achievement of the aims of its dictatorship, i.e., the
overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the abolition of classes, and the
elimination of all forms of exploitation of man by man.

2) Hence, the proletariat, both through its vanguardthe
Communist Party-and through the many types of proletarian
organisations in general, should display the utmost activity and
play the leading part in all the work of public education.

3) All the experience of modern history and, particularly, the
more than half-century-old revolutionary struggle of the
proletariat of all countries since the appearance of the
Communist Manifesto has unquestionably demonstrated that
the Marxist world outlook is the only true expression of the
interests, the viewpoint, and the culture of the revolutionary
proletariat.

4) Marxism has won its historic significance as the ideology of
the revolutionary proletariat because, far from rejecting the most
valuable achievements of the bourgeois epoch, it has, on the
contrary, assimilated and refashioned everything of value in the
more than two thousand years of the development of human thought
and culture. Only further work on this basis and in this
direction, inspired by the practical experience of the proletarian
dictatorship as the final stage in the struggle against every form
of exploitation, can be recognised as the development of a genuine
proletarian culture.

5) Adhering unswervingly to this stand of principle, the
All-Russia Proletcult Congress rejects in the most resolute
manner, as theoretically unsound and practically harmful, all
attempts to invent one’s own particular brand of culture, to
remain isolated in self-contained organisations, to draw a line
dividing the field of work of the People’s Commissariat of
Education and the Proletcult, or to set up a Proletcult "autonomy"
within establishments under the People’s Commissariat of
Education and so forth. On the contrary, the Congress enjoins all
Proletcult organisations to fully consider themselves in duty
bound to act as auxiliary bodies of the network of establishments
under the People’s Commissariat of Education, and to accomplish their tasks under the general guidance of the Soviet
authorities (specifically, of the People’s Commissariat of
Education) and of the Russian Communist Party, as part of the
tasks of the proletarian dictatorship.

Comrade Lunacharsky says that his words have been distorted. In
that case this resolution is needed all the more urgently.

Endnotes

[1]
99	Lenin drew up this draft resolution for the First All-Russia
Congress of Pioletcult, which met in Moscow from October 5 to
October 12, 1920. When the Political Bureau of the Central
Committee of the Party discussed the question of Proletcult on
October 9 and 11, it proceeded from Lenin's draft resolution. It
was proposed to the Communist group of the Congress that it pass a
resolution putting central and local Proletcult organisations
under the control of the People's Commissariat of Education. The
resolution was in keeping with Lenin's ideas and was unanimously
approved by the Congress. However, after the Congress, some
Proletcult leaders began to voice disagreement with the resolution
and misinterpreted it to the rank and file, alleging that the
Central Committee of the Communist Party was hamstringing the
workers in the sphere of the arts and aiming at dissolving
Proletcult. The Central Committee of the Party refuted these
demagogical insinuations in its letter "On Proletcult
Organisations" which gave a detailed analysis of Proletcult
mistakes. The letter was published in Pravda No. 270 on December
1, 1920.

[2]
On October 8, 1920, Izvestia reported Lunacharsky as saying in his
speech at the Proletcult Congress that Proletcult must be assured
a special status and complete autonomy. Recalling this episode,
Lunacharsky wrote in his reminiscences: “At the time oh the
Proletcult Congress in October 1920, Vladimir Ilyich instructed me
to attend it and pointed out quite definitely that Proletcult
should be subordinated to the People's Commissariat of Education,
should regard itself as one of its institutions, and so on. In
short, he wanted us to bring Proletcult closer to the state. At
the same time, he took steps to bring it closer to the Party. I
spoke at the Congress in a rather non-committal and conciliatory
way, and the version sent to Vladimir Ilyich was even milder. He
summoned me and gave me a good talking-to.”