Platon Kerzhentsev

Platon Mikhailovich Kerzhentsev (Russian Платон Михайлович Керженцев; actually Лебедев, ( Lebedev ), born August 16, 1881 in Moscow, † June 2, 1940 ) was a Russian- Soviet politician, historian and art theorist.

Kerzhentsev was a Bolshevik since 1904 and from 1912 to 1917 in exile. In the Soviet Union, he held high positions in the party and state. In 1919, he led the Telegraph Agency ROSTA. In 1920 he was a negotiator in the peace of Dorpat, later ambassador to Sweden and Italy.

Kerzhentsev was a leader of the cult of the proletariat and theorists of mass theater. 1923 to 1924 he worked on the scientific organization of work, founded the " League wremeni " ( League of time) and edited the journal " Vremya " ( Time ).

Beginning of the 1930s, he was managing director of the Council of People's Commissars, 1936-1938 Chairman of the Committee on Arts and editor of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

His translated into German Works The creative theater (published in 1922 in Hamburg) and The Life of Lenin (1937 in Basel) were placed by the Nazis in 1938 on the " list of harmful and undesirable writings ".