Stefan Krivtsov
Historian and proletkult activist

Stefan Krivtsov

The basics
Quick facts
Intro
Historian and proletkult activist
Gender:
Male
Work field:
Birth:
1885
Death:
1944
The details
Biography

Praesidium of the national Proletkult organisation elected at the first national conference, September 1918. Sitting from left to right: Fedor Kalinin, Vladimir Faidysh, Pavel Lebedev-Polianskii, Aleksei Samobytnik-Mashirov I. I. Nikitin, Vasili Ignatov Standing from left to right: Stefan Krivtsov, Karl Ozol-Prednek, Anna Dodonova, N. M. Vasilevskii, Vladimir Kirillov

Stefan Savvich Krivtsov (1885—1943) was a Russian professor of history and cultural activist who played a part in the development of proletkult.

He graduated from the Faculty of History, Physics and Mathematics, Moscow State University.

He saw the role of Proletkult as being involved in life-building: "The Proletkult is striving to create a new proletarian culture, not just new songs, new music, new theatre, but rather a whole new mode of life. we must create an entirely new world from top to bottom". He wrote for Proletarskaia Kultura, often critically when the reality of the movement did not live up to his vision.

"In place of a club in Yaroslavl they have a cookhouse. The same goes for the club in Petrovsk. They named it after comrade Lenin and it should have the clearest and loftiest goals, such as the unification of the workers and the wakening of their interest in and love for art. Instead they have some sort of free love unions."

In 1928, following the death of Alexander Bogdanov, Krivtsov wrote an account of his memories of one of the founding figures of Proletkult for the Under the Banner of Marxism.

He died in 1943 and is buried in the Donskoy Cemetery, Moscow.