ABSTRACT
The Bolshevik utopia exercised an extraordinary influence over socialist thinking. V. I. Lenin and L. Trotsky provide the authoritative views of the Bolshevik utopia. Anatoly Lunacharsky has aptly been christened Bolshevik Commissar of Enlightenment. He was the self-styled philosopher-poet of the Revolution. Before the Revolution his reputation had more to do with religion than with Enlightenment. Aleksandr Bogdanov was one of those thinkers for whom knowledge must be invented afresh, a natural candidate for the genre of utopia. Lunacharsky’s commitment to a new philosophy brought with it an enthusiasm for a new proletarian culture, another view associated with Bogdanov which Lenin and Trotsky were to reject. The utopia of State and Revolution is one of direct democracy. The political system, such as it is, is reminiscent of Marx’s comments in The Civil War in France.
