The radical Russian philosopher, politician, utopian novelist and social scientist Aleksandr Bogdanov (1873—1928) is a controversial figure: for some, the "rival of Lenin" and founder of an alternative current in Bolshevism, which might have turned the course of history if he had succeeded: for others, an utopist with "wild" ideas in social sciences, culture as well as medicine: some, finally, see in Bogdanov a precursor of cybernetics and scientific management of society. All these aspects of the many-faceted person of Bogdanov are discussed in this volume, which contains the materials of an international symposium held at the Aleksanteri Institute in 2006, with some later additions. The contributions of scholars from Russia, Germany, Italy, France and Finland give an overall picture and open some unexpected new views on the literary and scientific work of a Russian scholar, whose work was neglected for a long time in his native country.