Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia
(Soviet History, Politics, Society, and
Thought) by Alexander Bogdanov
Snapshot In Time
A communist society on Mars, the Russian revolution, and class struggle
on two planets are the subjects of two arresting science fiction novels 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. Included are the 1908 edition of the novel Red Star,
the novel Engineer Menni (1913), and a poem, A Martian Stranded on
Earth (1927). Essays by Richard Stites and Loren R. Graham provide the
political, social, and cultural context for these classic works of Russian
science fiction.

Personal Review: Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia (Soviet
History, Politics, Society, and Thought) by Alexander Bogdanov
As the subtitle of this book points out, Alexander's Bogdanov's "Red Star"
was "The First Bolshevik Utopia." Bogdanov was a major prophet of the
Bolshevik movement and while the red star of his title is the planet Mars,
he is clearly envisioning the kind of society that could emerge on Earth
after the victory of not only the scientific-technical revolution, a belief that
can be traced in utopian literature back to Francis Bacon's "The New
Atlantis," but also the social revolution dictated by Marxism. The future of
"Red Star" is the radiant future of socialism that Bogdanov believed would
eventually triumphant everyone on earth. At one point in the novel the
hero, a Bolsehvik activist named Leonid, declares: "Blood is being shed for
the sake of a better future. But in order to wage the struggle we must
KNOW that future." Of course, Bogdanov believes that he does indeed
know the future, thanks to the writings of Marx and Engels.From a
historical perspective the key thing to keep in mind is that Bogdanov is
writing well over a decade before the Russian Revolution. In fact, he is
writing in reaction to the 1905 revolution that compelled Tsar Nicholas II to
issue a constitution and create a parliament. This came after the 1903
split of the Russian Marxists into the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. Like the
hero of "Red Star," Bogdanov went with the former and Lenin, and was
one of the original "twenty-two" who met in Switzerland to form a group
dedicated to disciplined revolutionary action. As part of this effort,
Bogdanov wrote "Red Star."What is most interesting is that the "tectology"
that Bogdanov envisions in constructing his utopia on Mars does not
ignore the dangers of collectivisim and high technology (which were at the
heart of many of the anti-utopian fantasies of the late tsarist period). He
even has a sense of humor: the vegetation on Mars is red, and Leonid
calls it "socialist vegetation." On Bogdanov's Mars you will find clothes
made out of synthetic material, three-dimension movies, and a death ray,
but no political state. Citizens engage in both voluntary labor as well as
leisure and culture. The conflict in the story comes when someone tries to
change the Martian utopia. Ultimately, you can make the claim that "Red
Star" is more science fiction than propaganda, since Bogdanov creates a
perfect world where the "labor question" has been made moot by the
industrialization of farming. There is no peasant class on Mars for Russian
readers to relate too, provided, of course, they were inclined to reading a
science fiction utopian novel. "Red Star" was extremely popular during
and after the Russian Revolution and is a fascinating example of utopian
literature in that it deals with the problems faced by industrial nations,
whether socialist or capitalist, such as atomic energy, the environment,
biomedical ethics, and shortages of food and natural resources. The
illustrations for "Red Star" are taken from the 1923 Moscow edition. This
volume includes Charles Rougle's translations of the complete texts of not
only "Red Star," but also Bogdanov's 1913 novel "Engineer Menni" and a
1927 poem "A Martian Stranded on Earth." These latter two works appear
in English for the first time in this collection. "Engineer Menni" takes the
then current beliefs about the natural history of Mars and uses it to tell a

story about the construction of the canals as a parable of class struggle.
The heroes of the story, as the title indicates, are the engineers, who
would indeed do great work in transforming the Soviet Union in the 20th
century. "Red Star" is an important example of utopian literature that
should be back in print.
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