Valerian Pletnev

Valerian Fyodorovich Pletnyov (; 15 September 1886 – January 1942) was a Russian revolutionary who after many years as a joiner became a playwright and ideologue in the Proletkult, following the Russian Revolution.

He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1904. He worked as a carpenter, primarily in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, until 1917. He had two periods of exile, from 1911 to 1914 and then from 1915 to 1917. After the revolution he developed as a playwright and was very active in Proletkult, very much influenced by Alexander Bogdanov. He was chairman of the Central Committee of the Proletkult. His wife, Anna Dodonova, was also on the national presidium.

1922 articles in Pravda In 1922 his article "On the Ideological Front" ("Na ideologicheskom fronte") was published in Pravda in September 1922. Here he defended Proletkult which was facing marginalization at that time. He rejected class compromise and the use of experts. He was against the participation of the peasantry, the bourgeoisie, and the intelligentsia in Proletkult. Proletarian culture was to be developed by the workers themselves and would provide a necessary antidote to the problems affecting post-revolutionary Soviet society.