Art without Death

Emerged in Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution and developed during the 1920s and 1930s principally by philosopher Nikolai Fedorov, Russian Cosmism concerned itself with transforming lives by proposing a radically new worldview. One that sees obligations toward humanity extending beyond curing the sick and protecting the weak, to promoting free movement in cosmic space, resuscitating the dead, and putting an end to mortality through science and technology. This book by MIT press recollects some of the key texts on cosmism which outlined the movement’s main ideas and influenced the works of filmmakers, visual artists, poets, theater directors and novelists (including Dostoevsky and Tolstoy), some of which are translated to English for the first time.