In previous articles titled “The Origins of Transhumanism: The Red Past of Transhumanism” and “The Red Past of Transhumanism: A Re-evaluation” quite a few figures were spoken on such as Tsiolkovsky, Mao Zedong, Svyatogor, Bogdanov, and Stalin. Showing Russian Cosmism or Cosmism has had its influences, both directly and indirectly, on many figures with Marxist or Anarchist tendencies. Resulting in different careers and efforts with different outcomes. Some deadly, others historical, but all worthy of note within any look of politized Transhumanist or “Proto-Transhumanist” history.
Karl Marx
As one can imagine the line of Cosmism, given its apparent relationship with Left Wing thought, can be tied back to Karl Marx himself. Even though Marx did not directly discuss immortality, resurrection, or space expansion, his materialist philosophy set the stage for both Cosmism and a type of Left-wing Transhumanism. For example, in “Grundrisse” (1858), Marx argued that science increasingly becomes the main productive force, reducing human labor to a minor role, stating, “The whole process of production, however, does not appear as subsumed under the direct ability of the worker, but as technological application of science. Give to the production a scientific nature is, therefore, the tendency for capital, and work is reduced to a mere moment of that process. As it happens with the transformation of value into capital, in a more precise analysis of the capital can be seen on the one hand that this presupposes a certain development of the productive forces, historically given – and between these productive forces also science-, and on the other hand, driving it forward.”1. This vision of technology reshaping human life, be it in the ever-decreasing human labor process, parallels Cosmist beliefs in humanity’s conscious control over nature. Another example is not from Marx himself, but a type of overview of his theory in Andrew Collier’s book “Marx: A Beginner’s Guide” when he states “To look at people in capitalist society and conclude that human nature is egoism, is like looking at people in a factory where pollution is destroying their lungs and saying that it is human nature to cough” 2. Reflecting the fluidity of human nature in Marx’s view and Marxist theory.
Cosmists like Lunacharsky and Gorky, interpreted Marxism as compatible with projects like “God-Building”, the “New Soviet Man/Woman”, or other projects for immortality and collective human enhancement 34. Later, Cosmists/Transhumanists such as Haldane and Bernal extended Marxist materialism into explicit visions of genetic engineering, machine integration, and ethical implications of advanced science 5.
Marx’s emphasis on science and collective mastery of production helped lay some of the groundwork for both ‘Red’ Cosmism and Transhumanist thought. Enough to be seen as “blood relatives” in certain aspects and be used as the presumption behind the Stakhanovites or the idea of the New Soviet Man/Woman 6 7. It may have been why combining the two in the 20th century through a complex network of influences, both direct and indirect, was seen as “Pouring fuel on a fire” with spacefaring results that can be tied back to the likes of Tsiolkovsky, the father of spaceflight 8 9.
Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky, the writer and political activist, embraced elements of Russian Cosmism through his belief in the perfectibility of humanity. He was a proponent to the idea that science could conquer death and extend life, and he viewed literature and culture as vital tools in inspiring humanity toward higher achievements. In addition, Gorky popularized the idea of “God-Building”, that socialism should create a new, higher form of humanity 10.
By endorsing research into life extension and immortality, Gorky helped legitimize Cosmist projects within Soviet culture 11. His literary role meant that Cosmism was not just a scientific or philosophical current, but also a cultural one, shaping the Soviet imagination about what humanity could become.
His outlook resonates with the idea that human beings can actively re-create themselves through science and culture 12. Though he spoke in a Socialist and artistic register, his advocacy for immortality and radical transformation links him directly to today’s Transhumanist emphasis on overcoming biological limits.
Nikolai Rozhkov
“Nikolai Rozhkov, a Marxist historian and revolutionary who engaged with Cosmist ideas of progress and transformation. For example in his book entitled “The Meaning and Beauty of Life”, he advocates for immortality and the exploration of the cosmos: “In the distant future humanity will have the opportunity to achieve omnipotence in the literal sense of this word, including communication with other worlds, immortality, resurrection of bodies of those who lived earlier, and even the creation of new planets and planetary systems” 13. His historical materialism was flexible enough to allow the merging of a Marxist view with the Cosmist belief in science as a means to overcome natural limits. The optimism brought by the combination of Cosmism and Socialism fueled the notion of technological resurrection so much so that Lenin’s preserved body was viewed as a template for preparations for future technological resurrections 14. In addition to technological resurrection being viewed, by some at the time, as the motivation behind the “preparations” or embalming of Lenin after his death 15. In a novel titled “A Foundation Pit” (1929 - 1930) by Andrei Platonov. A dialogue between the specific characters, Zhachev and Prushevsky, directly speaks on the notion of bringing back Lenin, with Zhachev saying, “Marxism can do anything. Why do you think Lenin lies in Moscow perfectly intact? He is waiting for science, he wants to rise from the dead” 16.
Despite all this, he was not as prominent as Lunacharsky or Bogdanov. Nevertheless, Rozhkov’s work and efforts show how Cosmism, and its offshoots, like Transhumanism, can be integrated into broader Marxist theory.”
Vladimir Lenin
“The other co-founder of the Bolsheviks, Vladimir Lenin, believed in science as a revolutionary force. Creating the political conditions in which Cosmism flourished for his time. In Materialism and Empirio-criticism (1909), he defended materialism against idealism, arguing that science could uncover and harness the laws of nature 17. This near-scientific viewpoint showed itself again when Lenin put an emphasis on electrification, industrialization, and education, which meant that science became the foundation of Socialism 18. As well as his intent to create the social and economic conditions for a new Soviet man or woman. In “From the Destruction of the Old Social System: To the Creation of the New” Lenin states “…we can, and should, get right down to the problem of communist labour, or rather, it would be more correct to say, not communist, but socialist labour; for we are dealing not with the higher, but the lower, the primary stage of development of the new social system that is growing out of capitalism.
Communist labour in the narrower and stricter sense of the term is labour performed gratis for the benefit of society, labour performed not as a definite duty, not for the purpose of obtaining a right to certain products, not according to previously established and legally fixed quotas, but voluntary labour, irrespective of quotas; it is labour performed without expectation of reward, without reward as a condition, labour performed because it has become a habit to work for the common good, and because of a conscious realisation (that has become a habit) of the necessity of working for the common good—labour as the requirement of a healthy organism.
It must be clear to everybody that we, i.e., our society, our social system, are still a very long way from the application of this form of labour on a broad, really mass scale.
…To achieve big things we must start with little things.” 19
The kind of labor envisaged by the end of socialist construction is one who habitually works for the collective good of the people, who has been shaped by new social system to no longer see work as something coercive, where their wellbeing is conditional on doing the work 20.
For Cosmism or Transhumanism, Lenin’s role is indirect; by institutionalizing science as central to social transformation, he made it possible for Soviet Cosmism to flourish and inspire visions of space exploration, immortality, and human enhancement that continue to influence Transhumanist thought today.”
https://cosmos.art/timeline 1905 - 1909
ibid. 1928
ibid. p. 188
https://monoskop.org/images/1/17/Platonov_Andrey_The_Foundation_Pit_1975.pdf p. 120
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1908/mec/
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1920/apr/11.htm
https://www.youngpioneertours.com/new-soviet-man/