Il "machismo" russo: il caso di A. V. Lunacharskij

The thought of Ernst Mach and Richard Avenarius had a greatest impact in Russia at the end of XIX - beginning XX centuries: their works were translated and widely discussed, and the question whether their 'empirio-critricism' could be combined or not with Marxism gave rise to very important disputes within the Russian Social-Democratic Party. A.V. Lunacharsky was deeply influenced by Avenarius, whose classes and seminars he attended in Zurich. He found in Avenarius' philosophy the chance to overcome the opposition of subject and object, and to combine evaluations and emotions with objective knowledge. Lunacharsky therefore maintained a sort of 'religious' Marxism, full of hope and enthusiasm in the final human conquest of nature. These views, developed before the revolution of 1917, were held by him in Soviet times as well.