New myth, new world

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The Nazis' appropriation of Nietzsche is well documented, with concepts like the Superman and the "will to power" featuring prominently in their propaganda. However, the Communist misuse of Nietzsche remains largely overlooked. Soviet propagandists labeled him the "philosopher of fascism," while subtly adopting his ideas. In this groundbreaking work, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal explores the Nietzschean ideas that emerged in late Imperial Russia, which intertwined with cultural elements to shape Bolshevism and Stalinism. Nietzsche's influence sparked a significant intellectual conflict regarding culture and politics at the turn of the century. His early Russian admirers—poets, philosophers, and activists—responded to societal changes by embracing new values and seeking a guiding faith, leading to movements like Symbolism and Nietzschean Marxism. The debates among these groups resonated throughout Russian culture and into Bolshevism, fueling ongoing polemics that persisted into the 1930s. During Stalin's era, unacknowledged Nietzschean concepts were employed to rally support for the Five-Year Plan and the Cultural Revolution, aimed at eradicating "bourgeois" values. Nietzsche's belief in the necessity of illusions influenced Socialist Realism, the Soviet aesthetic from 1934 onward. Following de-Stalinization, Nietzsche was framed as a symbol of "bourgeois" nihilism, prompting Soviet intellectuals to revisit the Nietzsche-influence