Adventures of the Kingdom of Reason in the Land of Bolsheviks

The article aims to reveal the main features of the Bolshevik project to build the Kingdom of Reason in the USSR, associated with the radical reformatting of the relationship between the rational and irrational in the establishment of the socialist society. Theoretical sources include the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, linking the construction of a new communist society to the demystification of social relations and the elimination of alienation and reification; the writings of Vladimir Lenin and other prominent figures of the Soviet state, devoted to the organization of planned economy and the widespread implementation of rational management methods; and the works of the outstanding educator Anton Makarenko, aimed at developing and implementing the idea of educating a new Soviet person. The article posits Bolshevism (Leninism) as the Russian version of socialist transformation, inheriting its fundamental ideas from the French Enlightenment, including the concept of the Kingdom of Reason, manifested in the system of rationally organized planning, accounting, and control. However, in practice, the development of this system, taken to its extreme forms, gave rise to a number of utopian projects that became embodiments of irrational thinking. Thus, the original idea to build the Kingdom of Reason underwent a transformation into its opposite. Nevertheless, the authors of the article believe that the Soviet model of a rationally organized social structure can be considered, if not fully realized, then overall a fairly successful project of building the Kingdom of Reason in a socialist state and methodologically correct sociopedagogical system for shaping a new person.