LAUSR

Of all the past efforts to reconcile Marxism and religiosity, the “god-building” episode within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) is especially fascinating. Situating god building in its historical context, amidst the reaction that followed the revolutionary defeat of 1905, this essay reconstructs the intellectual drama which subsequently ensued. Maksim Gorkii and Anatolii Lunacharskii emerge as the progenitors and main protagonists of the god-building current, in debate with more orthodox Marxists like Plekhanov and Lenin. God building was articulated in a number of different literary forms, from poems and letters to novels, articles, and even philosophical treatises. Ultimately, the objections raised by Lenin and others are found to be more in line with the views of Marx and Engels, though god building does pose important questions about the redeemable content of religious belief.