Bogdanov, Aleksander Aleksandrovich (1873–1928)

Russian philosopher, sociologist, economist, and politician. He became a Bolshevik in 1903 and was leader of the Bolshevik faction 1904–09, after which he became leader of the Left Bolshevik ‘Vpered’ (Forward) group. After 1917 he was outside the Bolshevik party but exercised strong influence as a theorist of ‘proletarian culture’.

His philosophy, known as ‘Bogdanovism’, was a ‘modernist’ trend in Bolshevism which existed until the early 1930s and was aimed at sustaining Marxism by supplementing it with modern ideas. The trend was influential among Russian communists until suppressed by Stalin.