God-Building Ideology as the Basis of the Cult of A. S. Pushkin of in the USSR
The article examines the role of Gorky and the ideology of God-building in the formation of the cult of Pushkin in the USSR, as well as the struggles of the «battle for culture» that ensued between the Radicals (LeF, Mayakovsky, Trotsky) in the first years of the Soviet power, demanding the abolishment of all pre-revolutionary culture - and «God-builders» (Lunacharsky, Gorky, Bogdanov) who believe that the new culture must grow from the depths of the old. Two events, Lenin’s passing, and Pushkin’s anniversary of 1924 turned into a magnificent event by Lunacharsky became a turning point in relation to the culture in the USSR. The final affirmation of the role of pre-revolutionary Russian culture in the USSR took place at the First Congress of Soviet Writers (1934). In the same year, the National Pushkin Committee was established under the leadership of Gorky, and a course was taken to glorify Pushkin as the «grandfather of a new Russian literature». In 1937, the year of the 100th anniversary of the poet's death, Pushkin was elevated to unprecedented highs acquiring the indisputable status of a cultural leader and world genius. According to the God-building ideology the mankind in its development should overcome the atomized nature and turn into uniform super mankind. In the center of socialist transformations God-builders put creation of a new culture and a new person, considering that the new culture should grow ripe in old subsoil, and responsibility for its creation is on shoulders of cultural leaders.The author claims that metaphysics of the God-building became the basis of the Soviet culture development and making of the «overman» cult of Lenin and Pushkin.