Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogdanov
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogdanov, born on August 10, 1873, in Sokolka, Grodno Province, was a notable Russian physician, philosopher, and political figure. Initially pursuing natural sciences at Moscow University, he became involved in the radical populist movement before shifting his focus to Marxism, ultimately leading to multiple arrests and exiles due to his political activities. After earning a degree in medicine with a specialization in psychiatry from Kharkov University, Bogdanov began writing on economic theory and became known for his complex theoretical works, which later influenced Soviet science fiction writers.
Despite an early alliance with Vladimir Lenin, Bogdanov's evolving ideas led to a significant rift, resulting in his expulsion from the Bolshevik Center. After returning to Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution, he distanced himself from literary circles and turned his attention back to medicine, particularly blood transfusions, which he mistakenly believed could cure various ailments. Tragically, his experiments led to his death on April 7, 1928, due to a transfusion from a malaria patient. Bogdanov's life reflects the tumultuous interplay between science, politics, and ideology in early 20th-century Russia.
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Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogdanov
Philosopher
- Born: August 10, 1873
- Birthplace: Sokolka, Grodno, Russia
- Died: April 7, 1928
- Place of death: Moscow, Russia
Biography
Bogdanov was born on August 10, 1873, as Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogdanov Malinovsky in Sokolka, Grodno Province. His father was a school inspector, and shortly after Aleksandr’s birth the family moved to Tula, where he grew up. In 1891, he went to Moscow University with the intent of studying the natural sciences. However, like many intelligent young people of his time, he soon became swept up in the political ferment around him.
The populist movement was at its height in Russia at the time, calling for intellectuals to go out into the countryside and teach the peasants. However, neither the peasants nor the authorities were interested in the changes the movement sought to bring about, and he was arrested in December, 1894. His sentence was exile, but he was permitted to serve it in Tula with his family rather than in some distant town where he would be a stranger. However, he was strictly barred from living in any of Russia’s major cities for the next three years, a measure intended to insulate such internal exiles from contact with other radical thinkers.
Thus barred from the most prestigious universities, he enrolled in medicine at Kharkov University in 1895, and decided to specialize in psychiatry. Five years later, he received his degree. By this time he had shifted political allegiance from the populists, whom he had come to find disorganized and muddled in their thinking, to the Marxists, whom he found more clearly organized. However, he had no more than received his diploma when he was arrested again, this time to be exiled in Vologda Province, where he served for a time as an intern in one of the local hospitals.
By this time he had begun to write articles on economic theory under the pseudonym Bogdanov, with the intention of avoiding the attentions of the czarist police. Although Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin originally welcomed Bogdanov as an ally in the struggle against the Mensheviks, they soon disagreed, and by 1909 they were thoroughly at odds. Lenin expelled him from the Bolshevik Center, and he subsequently allied himself with Maxim Gorky and other writers and intellectuals in exile in Italy.
Most of Bogdanov’s theoretical works grew steadily more opaque and accessible only to specialists, although his experiments in science fiction do appear to have influenced early Soviet science fiction, particularly Yevegeny Zamyatin, who rejected his ideals by showing the ultimate dehumanizing effects of them. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Bogdanov returned to Russia, but by the 1920’s he found such organizations as Proletkult (proletarian culture) stultifying and as a result turned away from literature to devote his energies to medicine once again. He was experimenting with blood transfusions, which he belived to be a perfect cure-all. His enthusiasm for this brave new world of medical technology proved his ultimate undoing, as he died on April 7, 1928, as the result of a mutual transfusion with a malaria patient.