Political Philosophy for a New Russia – New Wine in Old Bottles?

Abstract

Did Russia restore its Soviet past? Arguably it did in terms of political oppression and exclusion of serious opposition, but certainly not in socio-economic terms. Covering roughly the first two decades of the 20th C, this chapter shows how the Russian Federation has, seemingly inescapably, moved in the direction of an authoritarian, but not totalitarian regime. New grand historiosophical schemes concerning Russia’s place and role in the world have emerged, but also less grand, but philosophically more interesting critical voices that, sometimes, base themselves on the same philosophical positions, such as Heidegger. New forms of protest culture, partly reaching back to late Medieval iurodstvo [chapter 1], partly aiming to outsmart the powers that be, have emerged. Most relevant, in the long term, is the fact that during thirty years of academic and press freedom, a highly diverse political-philosophical landscape has developed that includes most of the new disciplines that emerged in global academia, such as gender studies, philosophy of environment and animal world, and decolonial theory. Even if the label “political philosophy” remains rare, Russian philosophers have again become part of a globalising philosophical culture.