The Lessons of Alexander Zinoviev’s Attempt to Dissolve the Russian Essence in the Communist One

Abstract

The article is devoted o the analysis of the works of Alexander Zinoviev, the Russian thinker who, on the one hand, regarded the attempts to build communist society in our country as the supreme mission of Russian people and on the other hand, severely exposed the vices of the Soviet system. According to the author of the article, Zinoviev had anti-Soviet ideas and at the same time was spiritually attached to the communist values, to the world without property and money. The author, who himself shares “Vekhi” principles, sees the explanation of this paradox in the “Russian arbitrariness” phenomenon which the “Vekhi” followers interpreted as the aspiration for accentuating the peculiarity and sovereignty of their personality. Through the prism of this characteristic of Zinoviev’s personality, the author explains the integrity on Zinoviev’s seemingly contradictory position regarding the Soviet system and communism that was differently set forth in the thinker’s books