ABSTRACT
The rebuttal of idealism occupied most of A. Bogdanov's and Anatoly Lunacharsky's literary energies until the 1905 Revolution. Bogdanov singled out two particularly corrupting influences within Marxism in the preceding decade: Economism and idealism. In an article entitled "What is Idealism?" Bogdanov revealed to what extent he had himself reacted to Berdiaev's "crisis in Marxism" by leaning toward the direction of idealism. Bogdanov fully realized that he could not deny the idealists' concept of absolute ideal or spiritual reality and at the same time attempt to maintain the concept of absolute material reality. His strictly sceptical, positivist epistemology was an attempt to reject the concept of absolute objective reality in any sense and to focus instead upon the means by which human beings make sense out of external existence. Lunacharsky simply suggested ways in which his positivist esthetics might contribute to the objectivity and scientific nature of the Social-Democratic movement.
