Tsiolkovsky considered himself not a technician, but a philosopher. He was one of the first humanist socialists in Russia, and he relied on the experience of Germany and the United States. His ideas of rebuilding society, based on the ranking of society, direct democracy, the power of judges and eugenics, are interesting. Moreover, men and women in such a society would have their own governments.
Writer (and former SR-militant) Viktor Shklovsky, who met Tsiolkovsky several times and came to Kaluga especially for this, in 1928 recorded the following conversation with him:
Evening. Tsiolkovsky asked me:
- Do you talk to angels?
- No, - I answered quietly into the ear tube.
- By the structure of the head they could talk.
- And you? I asked.
- I am constantly talking.
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I was not scared when I realized that the angel is inspiration."
Tsiolkovsky considered angels to be just the highest rational beings, more perfect than people. According to his concept, people in the future and as a result of cosmoanthropogenic evolution should just turn into angels. “Man, too, will be transformed,” he wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, “and the old, sinful man, a flayer and a murderer, will no longer be on earth. His descendant will be a perfect angelic one”.
Tsiolkovsky, in a conversation with Chizhevsky, explained his idea:
“Many people think that I am anxious about the rocket and worried about its fate because of the rocket itself. This would be a gross mistake. Rockets for me are only a method, only a method of penetrating into the depths of the Cosmos, but by no means an end in itself. People who have not grown to such an understanding of things talk about things that do not really exist, which makes me some kind of one-sided technician, not a thinker."
In the overwhelming majority of biographies, Tsiolkovsky is presented precisely as a “one-sided technician,” and not a world-class thinker, whom he recognized himself from the earliest times.
In Tsiolkovsky's worldview, dreams of an ideal person are inseparable from dreams of an ideal social order. Getting acquainted with the philosophical heritage of the cosmist thinker, it is not difficult to make sure that reflections and works devoted to the improvement of society occupy a significant place in his work. He began to deal with this problem especially intensively after the February and October revolutions, when he became convinced with his own eyes that the surrounding reality was more than far from perfect. Already in April 1917, he wrote a programmatic article "The Ideal System of Life", where he formulated his credo, which was subsequently repeated more than once. Instead of inevitable violence and grief, a path of enlightenment was proposed, based on compliance, mercy and forgiveness.
Tsiolkovsky proposes a model of the reconstruction of society based on the principles of collectivism and mutual assistance. Long before the beginning of socialist construction in Russia, he did not hide his adherence to the principle of a "higher commune" and illustrated its possibilities using the example of the lower cell of social organization:
“Every cell will have a people's rule. Society elects, for a definite or indefinite time, a judge, executors, a teacher of children and adults, a technician, a doctor, a preacher of morality and a marriage license. The latter position can be combined with the position of a judge. Also, the position of a teacher can be combined with the position of a scientist and a technician. So, in a primitive society, you can limit yourself to: a judge - he is a preacher of morality, a resolver of marriages and any controversial issues; teacher - he is a scientist and technician; a doctor, also a scientist and technician; performers, that is, representatives of strength, health, good nature, obedience. The teacher and the doctor can be replaced by one person. In total, for a primitive cell, you will need two other than performers. There can be two or more judges. They govern in turn - either living in their own cell, or passing into a higher one. This is the main person in society. His decisions are not violated as long as he is a judge. But he can be deprived of this title at any time."
Such a lower cell is only the first step in the predicted ideal social structure.
The next step is the social cell of the second class, or the world of the elite. It is made up of men and women who have proven their commitment to the ideals of goodness and justice and who have been elected by voting. At the same time, men choose men, women - women. The age of voters and elect is not limited: children vote and are elected on an equal basis with adults. Further, the hierarchy is built according to the same principle: from a cell of the second order (or category), the next cell is selected - the third and further - the fourth order. As a result, high society will be made up of the best people.
“The essence of the proposed transformation of society is to establish a democratic republic like the American one that exists in the United States of America and is accessible to people even now according to their properties. But this is at the bottom. At the same time, societies more and more close to communism stand out from them. The lower societies, little by little, perhaps over the course of centuries, are passing to another system, communist, introduced deliberately and voluntarily."
He described and regulated in the smallest detail the life of the virtual society of the future. Here's how, for example, in the spring of 1917, the laws and methods of electing representative power were presented to him:
“Everyone of both sexes is elected from a certain society of a conscious age, well, at least from 15-20 years. The electorate must be well aware of the purpose of the election and the desirable qualities of the elected. Every voter can be elected. To clarify the essence of the elections, the primary elections of the most intelligent people with oratorical inclinations can be appointed. But such a talent is not yet an indicator of the suitability of the chosen one as a member of high society. This should also be clarified by the electorate.
It is very important to simplify the method of elections in terms of speed, accuracy and truthfulness. In a lower society, they should be secret, since the mutual dependence of the modern world prevents them from being open to everyone. You need to select all adult members in turn, for example, alphabetically.
Each one holds in his hand a black or white ball, which no one knows. He goes to the box and puts, under cover, a ball in the hole. The ball hits the bell and rings. It takes a hundred people 2 minutes to put the balls. By the weight of the balls, you can check whether someone has put two or more at a time, although this can also be seen by the sound of the bell. Suppose Ivanov got the white balls more than all the others. Then he was chosen.
In society, there may be a law according to which only one who received more than 1/3 of all balls, or votes, is considered elected. Then another society may be left without bosses and senior staff. In this case, he is given a select few from other societies where there is an excess. It chooses from it. It will take about 600 minutes, or 10 hours, to determine the worthiness or worthiness of all about a hundred members.
The chosen one cannot be expelled from high society except for a crime, that is, for violation of fundamental laws or private laws of society. And then he is subjected to the judgment of the elect. The ejected one is excluded for a certain time and can be re-elected by the lower society for the higher. The latter can blame him again, and the lower can justify or elect. Only the lowest can temporarily exclude from their society for a cut, and in the case of serious misconduct, deprive them of freedom for a while.
This law of exclusion applies to all societies, that is, each society can return for the misdeeds of its member to the next lower society. This, having considered the act of its former member, can keep it with itself, and maybe even lower it. But he may not find the corpus delicti, that is, re-elect the expelled into the same high society, and it cannot but accept him. In the lowest society they do the same - up to imprisonment. But there can be no control here, since there are no lower societies. Otrubniki are sometimes talented and influential, but they do not have official voting rights.
This is a terribly important law. Neglecting them can serve as a reason for the introduction of despotism. It is necessary to make all the elect dependent on all of humanity. If the law is violated, this dependence will not exist: the higher societies will depend only on themselves and therefore can exclude members who disagree with them and become corrupted.
Children of the elect who have reached the age of majority are placed in mainstream societies. There, by their merits and qualities, they can rise and move to higher societies, as far as strength and talent are enough. Sometimes they reach their parents again, and sometimes they rise above them.
Marriages are only possible between members of societies of the same class, for example, a 3rd class woman cannot marry a 2nd class man. The goal is to improve breeds based on the phenomena of heredity."
One of the most interesting futurological ideas of Tsiolkovsky is the requirement for the separate existence of power on the basis of gender. Men choose men, women choose women. Accordingly, they govern themselves: men have their own government, women have their own.
Tsiolkovsky paid special attention to the preservation of the best biotic, physiological and mental properties of man and mankind. This problem is posed in many of his works. The reasoning is as follows. So far, we can eliminate suffering and prevent it only on Earth. What is needed for this? First of all, all beings must be conscious, that is, understand that suffering is unacceptable, and strive for perfection. There should not be imperfect people who are not able to understand this. It is impossible to kill them, destroying the body or destroying it by hunger or cold, as this plunges the world into evil. This means that we must take care of them as of ourselves. You just need to prevent them from multiplying. Then, over time, they will imperceptibly and quickly disappear from the face of the earth. Leaving imperfect freedom to reproduce, we do evil, because we fill the world with unhappy,who will curse their parents for their torment.
Reproduction, and quite fast, is extremely important. Only then will a person be the master of the Earth and he will settle down well when the population increases by a thousand times. At first, ordinary love marriages are simply encouraged in every possible way. To do this, parents are given a sufficient amount or food to support their children. Mothers with many children should be rewarded. Then you need to conduct experiments to improve the breed of people. Selected male producers, in agreement with the grooms and their brides, fertilize the latter. Having become pregnant, a woman can live with the groom until the birth of the child and the new conception (the producer), after which the husband again enters into an alliance with the same wife. One good breeder can thus fertilize thousands of women in his lifetime.
Tsiolkovsky was not afraid to declare the "right of the first night", but not from a despotic point of view, but with the aim of improving the family, and moreover without any violence. Those who do not want to fulfill the proposed - and do not need. There should be no violence. Moreover, all women will be precious, even the bad ones, because their children can be improved. The first generation is already much more advanced. The second will be even better (since the quality of mothers will increase from good producers), etc., "until all people turn into fertile handsome men, healthy and smart." Artificial insemination is also possible to overcome feelings of jealousy, envy or false humiliation of husbands.
Tsiolkovsky really shared and developed eugenic ideas. But during his lifetime, they were considered completely scientific and were promoted by many prominent scientists - until they were taken into service, politicized and discredited by the German Nazis. The specific proposals of Tsiolkovsky for the "improvement of the human race" were guided by their non-violent and voluntary implementation.
Tsiolkovsky was one of the first humanist socialists in Russia, and he relied on the experience of Germany and the United States (he saw the first as the best welfare state of the time, America as an example of the best political system and local self-government). This in many ways distinguished him from the Russian populists, who also proposed many utopias, but focused on the "Russian spirit."
