Alexander Bogdanov: Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia (1908–) [FR, EN, DE]
Filed under fiction | Tags: · communism, marxism, proletariat, science fiction, utopia
A communist society on Mars, the Russian revolution, and class struggle on two planets is the subject of this arresting science fiction novel by Alexander Bogdanov (1873–1928), one of the early organizers and prophets of the Russian Bolshevik party. The red star is Mars, but it is also the dream set to paper of the society that could emerge on earth after the dual victory of the socialist and scientific-technical revolutions. While portraying a harmonious and rational socialist society, Bogdanov sketches out the problems that will face industrialized nations, whether socialist or capitalist.
The book also includes Engineer Menni, a historical novel about the social revolution on Mars, first published in 1913, and the poem A Martian Stranded on Earth, first published as a supplement to the second edition of Red Star in 1924, about a Martian who has reached Earth but is unable to return to his native planet. where mankind has attained a superior level of communist civilization.
Edited by Loren R. Graham and Richard Stites
Translated by Charles Rougle
Publisher Indiana University Press, 1984
ISBN 0253173507, 9780253173508
257 pages
Reviews: Andy Cunningham (Socialist Review), Paul Josephson (Technology and Culture).
L’Étoile rouge (French, 1913-14, HTML, added on 2014-3-27)
Red Star (English, trans. Charles Rougle, 1984)
Der rote Planet (German, undated, HTML, added on 2014-3-27)
See Monoskop wiki for further writings of Bogdanov.
Comments (6)6 Responses to “Alexander Bogdanov: Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia (1908–) [FR, EN, DE]”
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many thanks. readers may find Sochor’s volume on the Lenin-Bogdanov controversy(-ies) of interest; available on arg.
Very interested in Bogdanov-Lenin controversy – could you let me have some more info on the website you mention [arg.] where Sochor’s study is available.
Thanks
Wow, what a great day!
I did a full search on Bogdanov’s works a few months ago and could find none, I repeated the search today and found more than I was expecting! Many thanks to this site for sharing these invaluable writings.
To John Jackson: The “Revolution and Culture: The Bogdanov-Lenin Controversy (Studies in Soviet History and of the Harriman Institute” by Zenovia A. Sochor is available online for sale though I got one from my local library.
On this note, also check the book titled “A Martian Stranded on Earth: Alexander Bogdanov, Blood Transfusions, and Proletarian Science” by Nikolai Krementsov.
Hello everyone, there is a newly compiled bibliography on Bogdanov with more scans (including Sochor’s study) available here: http://monoskop.org/Alexander_Bogdanov#Bibliography . Enjoy and feel free to contribute
Thanks Dusan.
The new compiled page is now added as a link to the Bogdanov’s page on marxists.org (thanks to the admins of marxists.org):
http://www.marxists.org/archive/bogdanov/index.htm
Hope more people get informed about this forgotten great man!
[…] Jadi toh Bung, selidik punya selidik, segelintir dari tetangga saya ini rupanya adalah da’i-da’i komunis asal Rusia tahun 1917. Tapi meskipun kitaorang sama-sama komunis, mereka susah guyub, susah bergaul sama kanan-kiri sebelah rumah. Saya tidak tahu manusia macam apa yang kurang ajar dan begitu kejamnya mengirim orang-orang suci ini ke jaman jahiliyah kita—kemungkinan besar Alexander Bogdanov. […]