After the
October Revolution of 1917, Lunacharsky was appointed head of the
People's Commissariat for Education (Narkompros) in the first Soviet government. On 15 November, after eight days in this post, he resigned in protest over a rumour that the Bolsheviks had bombarded
St Basil's Cathedral on
Red Square while they were storming the
Kremlin, but after two days he withdrew his resignation. After the creation of the
Soviet Union, he was People's Commissar for Enlightenment, which was a function devolved to the union republics, for the Russian Federation only. Lunacharsky opposed the decision in 1918 to transfer Russia's capital to Moscow and stayed for a year in
Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) and left the running of his commissariat to his deputy,
Mikhail Pokrovsky.
Education On 10 November 1917, Lunacharsky signed a decree making school education a state monopoly at local government level and said that his department would not claim central power over schools. In December, he ordered church schools to be brought under the jurisdiction of local Soviets. He faced determined opposition from the teachers' union. In February 1918, the fourth month of a teachers' strike, he ordered all teachers to report to their local soviets and to stand for re-election to their jobs. In March, he reluctantly disbanded the union and sequestered its funds. Largely because of the opposition from teachers, he had to abandon his scheme for local autonomy. He also believed in polytechnic schools, in which children could learn a range of basic skills, including manual skills, with specialist training beginning in late adolescence. All children were to have the same education and would automatically qualify for higher education, but opposition from Trotsky and others later compelled him to agree that specialist education would begin in secondary schools. In July 1918, he proposed that all university lecturers should be elected for seven-year terms, irrespective of their academic qualifications, that all courses would be free, and that institutions would be run by elected councils made of staff and students. His ideas were vigorously opposed by academics. In June 1919,
The New York Times decried Lunacharsky's efforts in education in an article entitled "Reds Are Ruining Children of Russia". It claimed that he was instilling a "system of calculated moral depravity [...] in one of the most diabolical of all measures conceived by the Bolshevik rulers of Russia".
Art Lunacharsky directed some of experiments in public arts after the Revolution, such as the
agit-trains and agit-boats that circulated over all Russia spreading Revolution and revolutionary arts. He also gave support to
constructivism's experiments and the initiatives such as the
ROSTA Windows, revolutionary posters designed and written by Mayakovsky,
Rodchenko and others. With his encouragement, 36 new art galleries were opened in 1918-21.
Cinema Mayakovsky stimulated his interest in cinema, then a new art form. Lunacharsky wrote an "agit-comedy", which was filmed in the streets of Petrograd for the first anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. Soon afterwards, he nationalised the film industry and founded the State Film School. In 1920, he told
George Lansbury: "So far, cinemas are not much use owing to shortage of materials. ... When these difficulties are removed ... the story of humanity will be told in pictures". He also wrote scrips for several
agitprop films, such as
Cohabitation (1918).
Theatre In the early 1920s, theatre appears to have been the art form to which Lunacharsky attached the greatest importance. In 1918, when most Bolsheviks despised experimental art, Lunacharsky praised Mayakovsky's play
Mystery-Bouffe, directed by Meyerhold, which he described as "original, powerful and beautiful". But his main interest was not experimental theatre. During the civil war, he wrote two symbolic dramas,
The Magi and
Ivan Goes to Heaven, and a historical drama
Oliver Cromwell. In July 1919, he took personal charge of the theatre administration from
Olga Kameneva, with the intention of reviving realism on stage. Lunacharsky was associated with the establishment of the
Bolshoi Drama Theater in 1919, working with Maxim Gorky,
Alexander Blok and
Maria Andreyeva. He also played a part in persuading the
Moscow Art Theatre (MAT) and its renowned directors
Konstantin Stanislavski and
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko to end their opposition to the regime and resume productions. In January 1922 he protested vigorously after Lenin had ordered that the
Bolshoi Ballet was to be closed, and succeeded in keeping it open. In 1923 he launched a
Back to Ostrovsky movement to mark the centenary of Russia's first great playwright. He was also personally involved in the decision to allow the MAT to stage
Mikhail Bulgakov's first play,
The Days of the Turbins (usually known by its original title,
The White Guard)
Literature Despite his belief in 'proletarian' literature, Lunacharsky also defended writers who were not experimental, nor even sympathetic to the Bolsheviks. He also helped
Boris Pasternak. In 1924, Pasternak's wife wrote to his cousin saying "so far, Lunacharsky has never refused to see Borya".
Music Lunacharsky was the first Bolshevik to recognise the value of the composer
Sergei Prokofiev, whom he met in April 1918, after the premiere of his
Classical Symphony. In 1926, he wrote "the freshness and rich imagination characteristic of Prokofiev attest to his exceptional talent". He arranged a passport that allowed Prokofiev to leave Russia, then in July 1925 he persuaded the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to invite Prokofiev,
Igor Stravinsky, and the pianist
Alexander Borovsky to return to Russia. Stravinsky and Borovsky rejected the offer, but Prokofiev was given permission to come and go freely while Lunacharsky was in office. In February 1927, he sat with Prokofiev during the first Russian performance of
The Love for Three Oranges, which he compared to "a glass of champagne, all sparkling and frothy". In 1929, Lunacharsky supported a change in the
Russian alphabet,
latinizing it from
Cyrillic to
Latin. == Personality ==