Notes from the “Yellow House”. The Case of A. A. Zinoviev

Abstract

The outstanding thinker Alexander Zinoviev encountered in his life the unique experience of fi rst losing all his academic degrees and ranks and then their reinstatement. In both cases it was he initiative of the Institute of Philosophy at the Soviet Academy of Sciences (in 1976 and 1990), where Alexander Zinoviev also worked until 1976. The documentary history of those events re-constructed on the basis of the archival materials, allows to add substantial facts to the scientifi c biography of the thinker. This also demonstrates the moral and psychological atmosphere and specifi cs of the scientifi c discussions and decisions in the institute of philosophy in various historical periods. The institute is of interest as a representational organization of academic science, as well as colorful social and cultural phenomenon of the Soviet and post-Soviet society.