Collected Works of V. I. Lenin - Vol. 16 - From Marx to Mao

NOTES451God-builders, god-building—a religious-philosophical trend hostileto Marxism which arose in the period of the Stolypin reactionamong a section of the Party literary writers who withdrewfrom Marxism after the defeat of the 1905-07 Revolution. The“god-builders” (Lunacharsky, Bazarov and others) advocated thecreation of a new, “socialist” religion, and tried to reconcileMarxism and religion.The meeting of the enlarged editorial board of Proletary inJune 1909 adopted a resolution which sharply condemned otzovismand ultimatumism, and also god-building. The resolution pointedout that Marxism had nothing in common with these anti-Marxisttrends and it called on the Bolsheviks to wage a resolute struggleagainst them. p. 1811Osip—a character in N. V. Gogol’s comedy Inspector-General. p. 211213Empirio-criticism—a subjective idealist trend in bourgeois philosophywhich arose at the end of the last century and is linkedwith the names of the German philosopher Avenarius and the Austrianphilosopher Mach. Empirio-criticism denies the objectiveexistence of the material world and its laws, and regards things ascomplexes of sensations. Underlying the philosophical views ofthe empirio-critics is an idealist conception of experience, whichthey interpret as a totality of human feelings and sensations independentof the external world. In his work Materialism and Empirio-criticism,Lenin made an annihilating criticism of empirio-criticismand its Russian followers, Bogdanov, Bazarov and others(present edition, Vol. 14, pp. 17-361). p. 21On the Open Letter of the Executive Committee of the Moscow RegionalCommittee of the R.S.D.L.P. (dated August 17 [30], 1909)was written in connection with the discovery of the anti-Partyand factional nature of the Capri school.In the “Letter” the Executive Committee reminds those attendingthe school that it is their duty to keep in close contact withthe Moscow Regional Committee and it calls for a full report onthe school’s activities. The “Letter” was published in ProletaryNo. 47-48, of September 5 (18), 1909, together with Lenin’s comment“From the Editorial Board”.The Capri school—a factional centre of the otzovists, ultimatumistsand god-builders, who joined forces against Bolshevism.It was established on the Italian island of Capri in 1909 by A.Bogdanov (Maximov), Alexinsky and Lunacharsky with the participationof Maxim Gorky. Under cover of being pro-Party, theBogdanovists succeeded in having 13 students sent to attend theschool from some local Social-Democratic organisations. The schoolwas in existence for about four months (August to December).In November a split occurred among the students: part of them,headed by N. Y. Vilonov, definitely dissociated themselves fromthe Bogdanovists. The Leninist students sent a letter to the editorsof Proletary protesting against the anti-Party behaviour of the lec-