Red Golem: Criticism of Industrial Civilization in Soviet Culture and Misticism During the Civil War

Abstract

This article describes an early Soviet version of the critique of the industrial culture, based on the works by Alexander Bogdanov and George Gurdjieff. Bogdanov's analysis of Taylorism is explored within the context of the development of the concept of `proletarian culture'. Terminological apparatus of George Gurdjieff's theory is described as a form of radical criticism of the early XXth-century culture. We also highlight the place of the `man-machine' metaphor within the intellectual life of the post-revolutionary Soviet Russia.