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abandoned it, just as Engels had criticized the similar religious term–
inology of Feuerbach. But Engels had been careful to expound the
real content of Feuerbach's views, and "had not dreamed of con–
founding those views with actual historical religions, or 'fideism'....
Lenin uses a diametrically opposite method with Lunacharsky, obscur–
ing and hiding from the reader the true content of the views of his
opponent, to give the reader the idea that Lunacharsky speaks of
religion in the usual traditional sense.... "
Lenin's authoritarian attitude toward the founders of scientific
socialism, Bogdanov continues, caused him to treat similar aberrations
in Dietzgen, and profounder ones in Feuerbach, with gentle respect,
for had not "the masters themselves" pronounced Dietzgen a "prole–
tarian philosopher" and had not "they themselves" acknowledged
Feuerbach as a precursor and teacher? "Rudeness and high-handed–
ness toward people whom one holds lower than one's self in position;
respectfulness toward those whom one acknowledges as higher than
one's self-is a common feature of
authoritarian
psychology in pres–
ent day society ... ," concluded Bogdanov (italics in the original).
Lenin might be thus rude with Lunacharsky in public, but pri–
vately he confided to Krupskaya concerning the target of this attack:
He will return to the party. He is less of an individualist than
the other two. He has a highly gifted nature such as is rarely
mP~
with. I have a weakness for him. What stupid words-to
have
"
weakness!
I am really very fond of him, you know, he is a splendid
comrade! There is something of French brilliance about him.
lib
levity is the result of his aestheticism... .
At the end of 1908, Vladimir Ilyich's sister, Anna, found a
publisher for
Materialism and Empiriocriticism,
by
Vladimir Ilyin,
a pen name already known to us- and to the police.
From what you tell me [he wrote to Anna] everything is ar–
ranged. Splendid! I am agreed to the tone of my remarks being
softened so far as Bazarov and Bogdanov are concerned. As to
Yushkevich and Valentinov, it is not worth altering what I have
said....
Strange notion, this, that he could keep a comradely tone toward
Bolshevik "Machists" and a less comradely one toward Menshevik
"Machists"! But on March 19, 1909, as the showdown in the faction
nears, he writes: 'Please do not tone down the passages against Bog–
danov and Lunacharsky. Our relations with them are completely
ruptured. It
is
not worthwhile to modify the passages.... "
Such statements give us the intimate psychobiography of Lenin's
