Alexander Bogdanov

A photo of Bogdanov believed to have been taken in 1904 while a member of the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP. It was around this time that Bogdanov first met Lenin in Geneva, Switzerland.

Alexander Bogdanov, born Alexander Malinovsky, (22 August 1873 - 7 April 1928) was a Russian Marxist and Old Bolshevik. A physician by training, Bogdanov was active in the Marxist movement and also wrote works of economics, philosophy, and science fiction. Bogdanov was active in revolutionary groups during the early 1890s and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1898 - the year it was founded.

Biography

Alexander Bogdanov was born in Tula, the son of a schoolteacher. He first joined revolutionary groups in the early 1890s and had already written the popular Marxist work Short Course of Economic Science in 1897. The work received praise from none other than future Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, who wrote a review of the work calling it "remarkable" and claiming it had "outstanding merits." Bogdanov was arrested for political activities in 1894, again in 1899, and once again in 1905 at which point he was exiled abroad. Bogdanov completed his medical training at the University of Kharkov in 1899. Bogdanov initially sided with Lenin during the Bolshevik-Menshevik split but later left the party due to Lenin's increasing disagreements with Bogdanov on the subject of politics and philosophy. Even after the Russian Revolution, Bogdanov never rejoined the party and focused on scientific and cultural work. He died in 1928 when he exchanged blood with a young student from Moscow University who suffered from an inactive form of tuberculosis. Within hours, both began to suffer from an adverse reaction but the student recovered while Bogdanov's condition worsened and he died two weeks later from renal and liver failure.

Scientific work

Red Star - a science fiction novel.