Lunacharsky, Anatoly

Lunacharsky, Anatoly (Vasilyevich)

(born Nov. 23, 1875, Poltava, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died Dec. 26, 1933, Menton, France) Russian politician and writer. Deported in 1898 for his revolutionary activities, he joined the Bolsheviks in 1904 and disseminated propaganda to Russian students and political refugees in foreign countries. He joined Vladimir Ilich Lenin in Russia in 1917 and was appointed commissar for education, a role in which he did much to ensure the preservation of works of art during the Russian Civil War. He encouraged innovation in the theatre and in education, and he published plays of his own.