Russian Intellectual Tradition Research Articles

Пассивное противостояние диамату на пути к онтологии и феноменологии: Имяславие и критическое неогумбольдтианство (русские религиозные философы и Густав Шпет)

The article discusses the alternative order of “language criticism” as developed by the main representatives of Russian “religious” hesychast philosophy on the one hand and phenomenological “Neo-Humboldtianism” on the other. The article draws on the works written in the early and late twenties by Aleksei Losev, Sergii Bulgakov, Pavel Florenskii and Gustav Shpet and demonstrates their substantial alterity with regard to Stalin's philosophical ideology applied to language studies and general humanities. The main object of our study is the descriptive analysis of Russian “imiaslavie” together with Russian linguistic phenomenology debated through the perspective of European semiotics (Ferdinand de Saussure). The article strives to demonstrate the distinctiveness of these Russian intellectual traditions and their possible idiosyncrasy within the semiotic scientific paradigm.

Russian conservatism and its critics: a study in political culture

Russian Conservatism and Its Critics provides the first account of Russia's immemorial commitment to the theory and practice of autocracy, the most formative and powerful idea in Russia's political history. Richard Pipes considers why Russian thinkers, statesmen, and publicists have historically always argued that Russia could prosper only under an autocratic regime. Beginning with an insightful study of the origins of Russian statehood in the Middle Ages, when the state grew out of the princely domain but was not distinguished from it, Russian Conservatism and Its Critics includes a masterful survey of Russia's major conservative thinkers and demonstrates how conservatism is the dominant intellectual legacy of Russia. Pipes examines the geographical, historical, political, military, and social realities of the Russian empire--fundamentally unchanged by the Revolution of 1917--that have traditionally convinced its rulers and opinion leaders that decentralizing political authority would inevitably result in the country's disintegration. Pipes has written a brilliant thesis and analysis of a hitherto overlooked aspect of the Russian intellectual tradition that continues to have significance to this day.

ORIENTALISM, NATIONALISM, AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

Questioning Edward Said's controversial perception of European Oriental studies as a facilitator of imperialism, this article analyses the views and policies promoted in late imperial Russia by academics specializing in Oriental studies, as they debated how best to integrate ethnic minorities in the country's eastern borderlands. The article argues that, themselves influenced by the pervasive impact of nationalism on European scholarship, between the 1870s and the 1917 Revolution these academics proposed policies which are best understood as aimed at nation-building (i.e. fostering a sense of community and unity among the population of a state) rather than at imperial domination of the minorities by the Russians. Identifying the origins of the academics' support for cultural and linguistic pluralism as fully compatible with pan-Russian nationalism, the article demonstrates that the Bolshevik nationalities policies of the 1920s were strongly influenced by the views of academic Orientalists and the pre-revolutionary Russian intellectual tradition to which the latter belonged.

Russian, Stalinist and Soviet Re-Readings of Kierkegaard: Lev Shestov and Piama Gaidenko

This is a comparative analysis of the Russian re-readings of Seren Kierkegaard. The paper demonstrates a profound interdependence between the text and cultural context. Special attention is given to Lev Shestov’s presentation of Kierkegaard as “Dostoevsky’s Double” and Piama Gaidenko’s modernist depiction of Kierkegaard as a “master of paradox and irony.” The former was written in France at the beginning of the twentieth century, while the latter was realized during the “thaw” of the 1970s. This study of the Russian reception of Kierkegaard complements and links the existing European and North American interpretations of his philosophical system to the Russian intellectual tradition. The paper concludes that Gaidenko fruitfully joined the discourse on Being and Existence, even though she had no access to the mainstream postmodern debates, but she did so on the basis of Europe’s shared cultural tradition.

The Early Intellectual Careers of Bakhtin and Herzen: Towards a Philosophy of the Act

The article explores common ground shared by Alexander Herzen's `Dilettantism in Science' (1843) and Mikhail Bakhtin's `Towards a Philosophy of the Act' (1919) in the context of the Russian intellectual tradition as a whole. The primary aim is to explore in many ways, perhaps, unlikely affinities between two very different writers in the early stage of their careers. The secondary aim is to explore identifiably `Russian' motifs which may be said to call into question conventional typologies of Russian thought based on the progressive/conservative divide.

Dual models, totalizing ideology and Soviet ethnography

Vladimir Plotkin, Dual models, totalizing ideology and Soviet ethnography. Conceptual differences between Western and Soviet social sciences go far deeper than disagreement on any formal social theory. They arc rooted in two separate intellectual traditions. From the medieval times, Russian culture has been marked by the persistence of totalizing and monistic forms of ideology, and a strong polarity of values (dualism). The paper explores the impact of this ideology on Russian/Soviet Marxism, as well as on the character of social theory in Soviet ethnography. It suggests that the current debate between the fundamentalists and the innovators will remain inconclusive without the critical reevaluation of the Russian intellectual tradition.

The Rule of Law in the Russian Intellectual Tradition

The Rule of Law in the Russian Intellectual Tradition