Cultural policy, Stalinism and the Communist International

Abstract

This article considers the intellectual and political career of Georg Lukács as it falls within distinct periods of activity. It focuses on him as a communist, on his changing role within the Communist Party and the part he played in developing a cultural policy in the context of the Communist International tactic of Popular Front following the Seventh Congress of the Communist International in 1935. The circumstances of his ambiguous accommodation with Stalinism and Lukács’ career on his return to Hungary in 1945 are also considered, together with an assessment of his intellectual and political legacy.

KEYWORDS:

• communism
• Communist International
• cultural policy
• Lukács
• Stalinism

Notes

1. His nominal superior was Zsigmond Kunfi, a member of the Socialist Party and an authority on education.

2. Originally published in Leipzig in 1923.

3. A number of editions of the Notebooks are now available.

4. Graziadei was an Italian count and so, like Lukács, had an aristocratic title.

5. Later a victim of Stalinism.

6. He continued to sign literary articles with his own name.