The Immortality of Man and Bodily Transformations in the Creative Work of Anarchobiocosmists
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2019.1.373Keywords:
philosophy of anarchism; biocosmism; Russian avant-garde literature; A. Svyatogor; A. Yaroslavsky; P. IvanitskyAbstract
In the early 20th century, the concepts of “historical anarchism” provided by W. Godwin, P.-J. Proudhon, M. Bakunin, and P. Kropotkin were replaced by a variety of post-classical utopian anarchist projects. Among all the heterogeneous and diverse forms of anarchist doctrine, the most unusual was the movement of anarchists and biocosmists (involving A. Svyatogor, A. Yaroslavsky, P. Ivanitsky, I. Yakovlev, G. Butorin, etc). On the one hand, they postulated the idea of liberation from statehood both on the Earth and on other planets, the total conquest of cosmos, and the establishment of interplanetary communications (“interplanetarism”). On the other, they preached overcoming the localism of human life and the expansion of the “principle of personality” before the recognition and implementation of individual immortality (“immortalism”). Denying Fedorov’s philosophy of cosmism (called the “doctrine of fathers” by Svyatogor), which was mainly based on the idea of “resurrection”, biocosmists proposed to solve the problem of biological immortality by means of bodily metamorphoses and deviations, first of all “bestialism” and anabiosis. This representation of bodily deviations was directed, from the point of view of biocosmism, at preserving life and acquiring biological, rather than symbolic, immortality, giving the person the maximum freedom and the maximum individual rights. This was reflected not only in manifestos, but also in poetry and in science fiction, partially published in 1918 in the Anarkhiya newspaper, and then in 1921 and 1922 in Biocosmism, the Moscow journal Biokosmist, the Petrograd journal Bessmertiye (1922), and some other publications. Thus, the article focuses on the representation of bodily deviations (“bestialism”, “anabiosis”, and other forms of the new body norm) as a “modus of immortality” and “biological infinity”, echoing the motif of abandoning the fixed localisation of man in space and time and the idea of establishing a new epoch of nomadism in the “biocosmic community” in the artistic and philosophical practices of anarchists and biocosmists.
References
Belyaev, A. (1939). O moikh rabotakh [About My Works]. In Detskaya literatura. No. 5, pp. 23–25.
Burenina-Petrova, O. (2018). Anarchism and the Russian Artistic Avant-garde. In Tupitsyn, M. (Ed.). Russian Dada 1914–1924. Cambridge, The MIT Press, pp. 226–255.
Butorin, G. (1922). Pupovina chelovechestva: (Po puti evolyutsii vselennoi) [The Umbilical Cord of Mankind. On the Path of Evolution of the Universe] / preface by A. Yaroslavskii. Moscow, Supradiny. 14 p.
Fedorov, N. (1982). Muzei, ego smysl i naznachenie [The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission] / ed. by A. V. Gulyg. Moscow, Mysl’. 711 p.
Fedorov, N. (1995). Sobranie sochinenii v 4 t. [Collected Works. 4 Vols.]. Moscow, Progress. Vol. 2. 544 p.
Gan, A. (1918). Bibliografiya. Petukh revolyutsii. A. Svyatogor. 2-e izd. Moscow, 1917 g. 40 kop. [Bibliography. The Rooster of the Revolution. A. Svyatogor. 2 Ed. Moscow, 1917. 40 kopecks]. In Anarkhiya. No. 20. 17 March, p. 4.
Groys, B. (2015). Russkii kosmizm. Antologiya [Russian Cosmism. Anthology]. Moscow, Ad Marginem Press. 335 p.
Günther, H. (2004). Filosofiya pamyati N. Fedorova [The Philosophy of Memory of N. Fedorov]. In Ichin, K. (Ed.). Filosofiya kosmizma i russkaya kul’tura. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii “Kosmizm i russkaya literatura. K 100-letiyu so dnya smerti Nikolaya Fedorova”, 23‒25 oktyabrya 2003 g. Belgrad, Izdatel’stvo filologicheskogo fakul’teta v Belgrade, pp. 165–175.
Ivanitskii, P. (1921). Bibliografiya: (NN. O proletarskoi etike. Izdatel’stvo V. Ts. I. K. Str. 45. Moscow) [Bibliography. NN. On Proletarian Ethics. V.Ts.I.K. Publishing House. Building 45, Moscow] In Universal. Organ Vserossiiskoi sektsii anarkhistov-universalistov. No. 5‒6 (November‒December), p. 8.
Ivanitskii, P. (1922). Ob iskusstvennom vyzyvanii dozhdya : (Zametka) [On the Artificial Induction of Rain (Note)]. In Biokosmist. No. 2. April, pp. 5–6.
Ivanitskii, P. (1925). Iskusstvennoe vyzyvanie dozhdya i upravlenie pogodoi posredstvom regulyatsii atmosfernogo i zemnogo elektrichestva: materialy [Artificial Induction of Rain and Weather Control through Regulation of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Electricity: Materials]. Moscow, Novaya derevnya. 72 p.
Lachmann, R. (1993). Kultursemiotisches Projekt. In Haverkamp, A., Lachmann, R., Herzog, R. (Hrsg.). Memoria : Vergessen und Erinnern. München, Wilhelm Fink, pp. 17–27.
Murav‘ev, V. (1924). Ovladenie vremenem kak osnovnaya zadacha organizatsii truda [The Mastery of Time as the Main Task of Labour Organisation]. Moscow, Author’s Edition. 127 p.
NN. (1918). O proletarskoi etike: (Proletarskoe tvorchestvo s tochki zreniya realisticheskoi filosofii) [Proletarian Ethics. Proletarian Creativity from the Point of View of Realist Philosophy]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Vserossiiskogo Tsentral’nogo Ispolnitel’nogo Komiteta Sovetov rabochikh, soldatskikh, krest’yanskikh i kazatskikh deputatov. 45 p.
Svyatogor A. (1921). Bessmert’ya komitety: (Iz knigi “Ushaty bessmertiya”. Programmnaya) [Committees of Immortality: (From the Book Buckets of Immortality. Programme)]. In Universal. Organ Vserossiiskoi sektsii anarkhistov-universalistov. No. 3‒4 (April‒May), pp. 15–16.
Svyatogor A. (1921). Biokosmicheskaya poetika [Biocosmic Poetics]. In Universal. Organ Vserossiiskoi sektsii anarkhistov-universalistov. No. 5‒6 (November‒December), pp. 6–8.
Svyatogor A. (1921). Sovremennaya poeziya i biokosmizm [Modern Poetry and Biocosmism]. In Universal. Organ Vseros. sektsii anarkhistov-universalistov. No. 3‒4 (April‒May), pp. 13–15.
Svyatogor, A. (1914). Stikhety o vertikali [Vertical Verses]. Moscow, Tipografiya I. N. Kuznetsova. 32 p.
Svyatogor, A. (1917). Petukh Revolyutsii [The Rooster of the Revolution]. Moscow, S. n. 16 p.
Svyatogor, A. (1922a). Radost’ igrayushchego zverya [The Joy of a Playing Beast]. In Biokosmist. No. 2. April, pp. 1–2.
Svyatogor, A. (1922b). Dva (Biokosmizm, materialy № 2) [Two (Biocosmism, Papers No. 2)]. Moscow, Kreatorii biokosmistov. 30 p.
Svyatogor, A., Ivanitskii, P. (1921). Biokosmizm: [materialy]. № 1. Biokosmicheskaya poetika (Aleksandr Svyatogor). Proletarskaya etika (Pavel Ivanitskii) [Biocosmism. [Materials]. No. 1. Biocosmic Poetics (Aleksandr Svyatogor). Proletarian Ethics (Pavel Ivanitskii)]. Moscow, Kreatorii biokosmistov, pp. 3–11.
Vzmakhi: Organ molodykh [Waving: The Organ of the Young.]. (1909). Iss. 1. Moscow, Tipografiya S. A. Kinelovskogo. 35 p.
Yakovlev, I. (1923). Bryzgi bestializma: stikhi [Splashes of Bestialism. Poems] / Preface by A. Yaroslavsky. Borovichi, Antitaksidermisty. 32 p.
Yaroslavsky, A. (1918). Zvezdnyi manifest: stikhotvoreniya [Star Manifesto. Poems]. Vladivostok, S. n. 15 p.
Yaroslavsky, A. (1919a). Krov’ i radost’ [Blood and Joy]. Irkutsk, Izdanie kul’turnoprosvetitel’skogo otdela pri otryade Kalandarishvili. 16 p.
Yaroslavsky, A. (1919b). Gryadushchii potop: poema [The Flood is Coming. Poem]. Vladivostok, Tipografiya “Kommercheskaya”. 20 p.
Yaroslavsky, A. (1922a). Svyataya bestial’: stikhi [Holy Beastiality. Poems]. Petrograd, Komitet poezii biokosmistov-immortalistov (Severnaya gruppa). 15 p.
Yaroslavsky, A. (1922b). Poema anabioza [The Poem of Anabiosis]. Petrograd, Komitet poezii Biokosmistov-Immortalistov (Severnaya gruppa). 14 p.
Yaroslavsky, A. (1926). Argonavty Vselennoi: roman-utopiya [Argonauts of the Universe. A Utopia]. Moscow, Leningrad, Biokosmisty. 173 p.
Zen’kovsky, V. V. (1989). Istoriya russkoi filosofii v 2 t. [The History of Russian Philosophy. 2 Vols.]. 2 Ed. Paris, YMCA-Press. Vol. 2. 477 p.
