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Philosophical research in the Soviet Union was officially confined to Marxist-Leninist thinking, which theoretically was the basis of objective and ultimate philosophical truth. Marxism-Leninism is a Communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency amongst the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language During the 1920s and 1930s, other tendencies of Russian thought were repressed (many philosophers emigrated, others were expelled). Stalin enacted a decree in 1931 identifying dialectical materialism with Marxism Leninism, making it the official philosophy which would be enforced in all Communist states and, through the Comintern, in most Communist parties. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party A decree is an order made by a Head of state or government and having the force of Law. Dialectical materialism, according to many followers of Karl Marx 's thinking is the philosophical basis of Marxism. Marxism-Leninism is a Communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency amongst the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted Communist state is a term used by many Political scientists to describe a Form of government in which the State operates under a one-party system The Comintern ( Com munist Intern ational also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organisation founded in Moscow A Political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of Communism through a communist form of Following the traditional use in the Second International, opponents would be labeled as "revisionists". The Second International (1889-1916 was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. The term "revisionism" is also used to refer to other concepts From the beginning of Bolshevik regime, the aim of official Soviet philosophy (which was taught as an obligatory subject for every course), was the theoretical justification of Communist ideas. The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists ( Большевик Большевист (singular, derived from bolshe, "more" were a faction The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 For this reason, "Sovietologists", whom the most famous were Józef Maria Bocheński and Gustav Wetter, have often claimed Soviet philosophy was close to nothing but dogma. Józef Maria Bocheński (born August 30 1902 in Czuszów, Congress Poland, Russian Empire - died February 8, 1995 Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas, Greek, plural) is the established Belief or However, since the 1917 October Revolution, it was marked by both philosophical and political struggles, which call into question any monolithic reading. The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution Evald Vasilevich Ilyenkov was one of the main philosophers of the 1960s, who revisited the 1920's debate between "mechanicists" and "dialecticians" in Leninist Dialectics & Metaphysics of Positivism (1979). Evald Vassilievich Ilyenkov ( 18 February 1924 &mdash 21 March 1979) was a Marxist Author and renowned Soviet philosopher During the 1960s and 1970s Western philosophies including analytical philosophy and logical empiricism began to make a mark in Soviet thought. Western philosophy is a term that refers to philosophical thinking in the Western or Occidental world, as distinct from Eastern or Oriental philosophies Analytic philosophy (sometimes analytical philosophy) is a generic term for a style of Philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century Logical positivism (later and more accurately called logical empiricism) is a school of philosophy that combines Empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is

Contents

Philosophical and political struggles in the Soviet Union

Further information: Dialectical materialism  and Marxist theory

Dialectical materialism was first elaborated by Lenin in Materialism and Empiriocriticism (1908) around three axes: the "materialist inversion" of Hegelian dialectics, the historicity of ethical principles ordered to class struggle and the convergence of "laws of evolution" in physics (Helmholz), biology (Darwin) and in political economics (Marx). Dialectical materialism, according to many followers of Karl Marx 's thinking is the philosophical basis of Marxism. See also Marxian economics, Marxism Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are terms which cover work in Philosophy In classical Philosophy, dialectic (διαλεκτική is controversy the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments respectively advocating Propositions Class struggle is the active expression of Class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective In the Creation-evolution controversy, those who accept the Scientific theory of biological Evolution by Natural selection or Genetic drift are Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life Lenin hence took position between a historicist Marxism (Labriola) and a determinist Marxism, close to what was later called "social Darwinism" (Kautsky). Historicism refers to philosophical theories that include one or both of two claims that there is an organic succession of developments a notion also Antonio Labriola ( July 2, 1843 - February 12, 1904) was an Italian Marxist theoretician Determinism is the philosophical Proposition that every event including human cognition and behaviour decision and action is causally determined Social Darwinism is a theory that competition among all individuals groups nations or ideas drives Social evolution in human societies Karl Kautsky ( October 16 1854 - October 17 1938) was a leading theoretician of Social democracy. Lenin's most important philosophical rival was Alexander Bogdanov (1873-1928), who tried to synthesize Marxism with the philosophies of Ernst Mach, Wilhelm Ostwald, and Richard Avenarius (which were violently criticized in Materialism and Empiriocriticism). Alexander Aleksandrovich Bogdanov Александр Александрович Богданов (born Alyaksandr Malinouski, Аляксандар Маліноўскі( Ernst Mach (max ( February 18, 1838 &ndash February 19, 1916) was an Austrian Physicist and Philosopher and Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald ( Latvian: Vilhelms Ostvalds; September 2, 1853 &ndash April 4, 1932) was a Baltic Richard Heinrich Ludwig Avenarius ( November 19, 1843 – August 18, 1896) was a German - Swiss Philosopher. Bodganov wrote a treatise on "tectology" and was one of the founders of Proletkult after the war. Tectology is a term coined by Alexander Bogdanov for a discipline that consisted of unifying all social biological and physical sciences by considering them as systems of relationships Proletkult is an Portmanteau of "proletarskaya kultura" (пролетарская культура Russian for "proletarian culture"

Following the 1917 October Revolution, Soviet philosophy divided itself between "dialecticians" (Deborin) and "mechanists" (Bukharin, who would detail Stalin's thesis upheld in 1924 concerning "socialism in one country"), was not a "mechanist" per se, but was seen as an ally. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The October Revolution (Октябрьская революция Oktyabrskaya revolyutsiya) also known as the Soviet Revolution Abram Moiseyevich Deborin (Joffe (Абрам Моисеевич Деборин (Иоффе( - March 8, 1963) was a Soviet Marxist Philosopher In Philosophy, mechanism is a Theory that all natural phenomena can be explained by physical causes Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин ( &ndash March 15, 1938) was a Bolshevik Socialism in One Country was a thesis developed by Nikolai Bukharin in 1925 and adopted as state policy by Joseph Stalin. The mechanists (A. K. Timartizev, Timianski, Axelrod, Stepanov. . . ), came mostly from scientific backgrounds, claimed that Marxist philosophy found its basis in a causal explanation of Nature. They upheld a positivist interpretation of Marxism which asserted that Marxist philosophy had to follow the natural sciences. Positivism is the Philosophy that the only authentic knowledge is knowledge that is based on actual sense experience Stepanov thus wrote an article flatly titled "The Dialectical Understanding of Nature is the Mechanistic Understanding". To the contrary, "dialecticians", whose background was Hegelian, insisted that dialectics could not be reduced to simple mechanism. Basing themselves mainly on Engels' Anti-Dühring and Dialectics of Nature, they maintained that the laws of dialectics could be found in nature. Friedrich Engels (28 November 1820 – 5 August 1895 was a German social scientist and philosopher, who Herrn Eugen Dührings Umwälzung der Wissenschaft, commonly known as Anti-Dühring, is a book written in German by Friedrich Engels, published Dialectics of Nature, by Friedrich Engels (1883 is an Unfinished work which applies Marxist ideas to science Taking support on the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, they responded that the mechanists' conception of nature was too restricted and narrow. This page is about the scientific concept of relativity for philosophical or sociological theories about relativity see Relativism. Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the Atomic scale such as Molecules Atoms Electrons Deborin, who had been a student of Plekhanov, the "father of Russian Marxism", also disagreed with the mechanicists concerning the place of Spinoza. Abram Moiseyevich Deborin (Joffe (Абрам Моисеевич Деборин (Иоффе( - March 8, 1963) was a Soviet Marxist Philosopher Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Георгий Валентинович Плеханов ( December 11, 1856 &ndash May 30, 1918; Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, The latter maintained that he was an idealist metaphysician, while Deborin, following Plekhanov, saw Spinoza as a materialist and a dialectician. Mechanism was finally condemned as undermining dialectical materialism and for vulgar evolutionism at the 1929 meeting of the Second All-Union Conference of Marxist-Leninist Scientific Institutions. In the Creation-evolution controversy, those who accept the Scientific theory of biological Evolution by Natural selection or Genetic drift are Two years later, Stalin settled by fiat the debate between the mechanist and the dialectician tendencies by issuing a decree which identified dialectical materialism as the philosophical basis of Marxism-Leninism. Henceforth, the possibilities for philosophical research independent of official dogmatics virtually vanished, while lysenkoism was enforced in the scientific fields (in 1948, genetics were declared a "bourgeois pseudoscience"). Research in the Soviet Union in Science and Humanities was placed from the very beginning under a strict ideological scrutiny Lysenkoism was a set of repressive political and social campaigns in science and Agriculture by the powerful Stalinist director of the Soviet Lenin All-Union Genetics (from Ancient Greek grc-Latn genetikos, “genitive” and that from grc-Latn genesis, “origin” a discipline of Biology, is Bourgeois Pseudoscience (Буржуазная лженаука was a term of condemnation in the Soviet Union for certain scientific disciplines that were However, this debate between "mechanists" and "dialecticians" would retain importance long after the 1920s.

Otherwise, David Riazanov was named director of the Marx-Engels Institute, which he had founded, in 1920. David Ryazanov (Дави́д Бори́сович Ряза́нов ( March 10 1870 &ndash 21 January 1938) was a Russian He then created the MEGA (Marx-Engels-Gesamt-Ausgabe), which was supposed to edit Marx and Engels' complete works. He also published authors authors, such as Diderot, Feuerbach or Hegel. Denis Diderot ( October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French Philosopher and writer Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach ( July 28, 1804 &ndash September 13, 1872) was a German Philosopher and Anthropologist Riazanov was however excluded from any political functions in 1921 for defending trade unions' autonomy. A trade union or labour union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages hours and working conditions forming

During the Fifth Comintern Congress, Grigory Zinoviev condemned for "revisionism" the works of Georg Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness (1923) and of Karl Korsch, Marxism and Philosophy. The Comintern ( Com munist Intern ational also known as the Third International) was an international Communist organisation founded in Moscow Gregory Yevseevich Zinoviev (Григо́рий Евс́еевич Зин́овьев alternative transliteration Grigorii Ovseyevish Zinoviev born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich György Lukács (pronounced in IPA dyɶrdyə ˈlukɑtʃ) ( April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungarian Karl Korsch ( August 15, 1886 - October 21, 1961) was a German Marxist theorist History and Class Consciousness was disavowed by its author, who made his self-criticism for political reasons (he thought that, for a revolutionary, being part of the party was the priority). Self-criticism (or auto-critique refers to the pointing out of things critical/important to one's own beliefs thoughts actions behaviour or results it can form part of private personal It became however a leading source of Western Marxism, starting with the Frankfurt School, and even influenced Heidegger's Sein und Zeit (1927). Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe (and more recently North The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist Critical theory, Social research, and Philosophy. Martin Heidegger ( September 26, 1889 &ndash May 26, 1976) (ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈhaɪ̯dɛgɐ was an influential German philosopher Being and Time ( German: Sein und Zeit, 1927) is a book by German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Lukacs then went to Moscow in the beginnings of the 1930s where he would continue his philosophical studies, and returned to Hungary after World War II. Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including He then took part to Imre Nagy's government in 1956, and was closely watched afterwards. Imre Nagy ( June 7, 1896 – June 16 1958) was a Hungarian politician appointed Prime Minister of Hungary on two occasions The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 ( Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom) was a spontaneous nationwide Revolt against the Stalinist government of

Lev Vygotsky's (1896-1934) studies in developmental psychology, which opposed themselves to Ivan Pavlov's works, would be expanded in the activity theory developed by Alexei Nikolaevich Leont'ev, Pyotr Zinchenko (a member of Kharkov School of Psychology), and Alexander Luria, a neuropsychologist who developed the first lie detector. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (Russian Лев Семёнович Выготский ( November 17 ( November 5 Old Style) 1896 – June 11, 1934 For other uses see Pavlov (disambiguation. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Иван Петрович Павлов September 14, 1849 &ndash February See also Social Constructivism (Learning Theory and Critical psychology. Alexei Nikolaevich Leont'ev (Алексей Николаевич Леонтьев (1903-1979 Soviet developmental psychologist, the founder of Activity theory Pyotr Ivanovich Zinchenko ( Пётр Иванович Зинченко) (1903-1969 was a Soviet developmental psychologist, a student of Lev Vygotsky Kharkov School of Psychology ( Харьковская психологическая школа) is a tradition of developmental psychological research conducted in the paradigm Alexander Romanovich Luria Александр Романович Лурия ( July 16, 1902 - August 14, 1977) was a famous Soviet Neuropsychology is the applied scientific discipline that studies the structure and function of the Brain related to specific psychological processes and overt behaviors Lie detection is the practice of determining whether someone is Lying.

Russian Formalism

Main article: Russian Formalism

Russian formalism was an influential school of literary criticism from the 1910s to the 1930s, who revolutionised literary criticism by establishing the specificity and autonomy of poetic language and literature. Russian formalism was an influential school of literary criticism in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. The 1910s decade ran from January 1 1910 through December 31 1919 The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression. A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter It includes the work of a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars (Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Boris Eichenbaum, Roman Jakobson, Grigory Vinokur) Russian formalism exerted a major influence on thinkers such as Mikhail Bakhtin and Juri Lotman, and on structuralism as a whole. Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (or Shklovskii Виктор Борисович Шкловский Saint Petersburg,; Moscow, 6 December 1984) Yury Nikolaevich (Nasonovich Tynyanov (יורי טיניאוב Ю́рий Никола́евич (Насонович Тыня́нов October 18, 1894 - Boris Michailovich Eichenbaum, or Boris Mikhailovich Eikhenbaum, Борис Михайлович Эйхенбаум Boris Michajlovič Ėjchenbaum (October Roman Osipovich Jakobson, (Russian Роман Осипович Якобсон) ( 11 October 1896 – 18 July 1982) was a Russian Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ( Russian: Михаил Михайлович Бахти́н mʲɪxʌˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪʨ bʌxˈtʲin ( November 17, 1895 Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman ( Russian: Юрий Михайлович Лотман Estonian: Juri Lotman ( 28 February 1922 in Petrograd For the use of structuralism in biology see Structuralism (biology Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze The movement's members are widely considered the founders of modern literary criticism. Under Stalin it became a pejorative term for elitist art.

Russian formalism was a diverse movement, producing no unified doctrine, and no consensus amongst its proponents on a central aim to their endeavours. In fact, "Russian formalism" describes two distinct movements: the OPOJAZ (Obscestvo izucenija POeticeskogo JAZyka - Society for the Study of Poetic Language) in St. Petersburg and the Linguistic Circle in Moscow. OPOJAZ (OПOЯЗ (Общество изучения Поэтического Языка O bščestvo izučenija PO ètičeskogo JAZ yka, "Society Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River The Moscow linguistic circle was a group of important thinkers in Semiotics, Literary theory, and Linguistics active in Moscow from 1915 to ca Moscow (Москва́ romanised: Moskvá, IPA: see also other names) is the Capital and the largest city of Therefore, it is more precise to refer to the "Russian Formalists", rather than to use the more encompassing and abstract term of "Formalism".

After the 20th Congress of the CPSU

Nevertheless, the conditions for creative philosophical work began to emerge in the mid-1950s, after the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956, albeit only on the 'outskirts' of philosophy: the philosophy of the natural science (B. The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during February 14 26 1956. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Kedrov, I. Frolov), theory of perception and gnoseology (P. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge Kopnin, V. Lektorsky, M. Mamardashvili, E. Ilyenkov), the history of philosophy (V. Asmus, A. Losev, I. Merab Mamardashvili ( Georgian მერაბ მამარდაშვილი; September 15 1930 — November 25 1990 was Evald Vassilievich Ilyenkov ( 18 February 1924 &mdash 21 March 1979) was a Marxist Author and renowned Soviet philosopher Valentin Asmus (1894-1975 was a Russian philosopher He was one of the small group who continued the classical European philosophical tradition through the early Soviet times Aleksei Fedorovich Losev (Алексе́й Фёдорович Ло́сев ( Novocherkassk &mdash May 24, 1988, Moscow) a Narski), ethics (O. Dobronitski), aesthetics (M. Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Kagan, L. Stolovitsh), logics (G. Leonid Naumovitsh Stolovich (Russian Леонид Наумович Столович Estonian Leonid Stolovitš (* July 22, 1929 Leningrad is a Russian Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Shtshedrovitski, A. Zinovyev) and semiotics and system theories (Y. Lotman, who set up the Sign Systems Studies journal, the oldest semiotics periodical; V. Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Zinovyev (Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Зино́вьев October 29 1922 &ndash May 10 2006 was a well-known Russian logician Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman ( Russian: Юрий Михайлович Лотман Estonian: Juri Lotman ( 28 February 1922 in Petrograd Sign Systems Studies is internationally the oldest Semiotics periodical initially published in Russian, since 1998 in English Sadovsky). The works of the young Marx, such as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, which had been first published in 1932 but suppressed under Stalin because of its incomplete break with German Idealism, also started being discussed. Economic & Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 (also referred to as The Paris Manuscripts) are a series of notes written between April and August 1844 German idealism was a philosophical movement in Germany in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries

Others

Vasily Nalimov (1910-1997) was interested mainly in the philosophy of probability and its biological, mathematical, and linguistic manifestations. Vasily Nalimov ( Василий Васильевич Налимов) born 1910 and died 1997 was a Russian Philosopher, humanist and wrote on He also studied the roles of gnosticism and mysticism in science. Gnosticism (γνώσις gnōsis, Knowledge) refers to a diverse Syncretistic Religious movement consisting of various Belief systems Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity Nalimov is usually credited with proposing the concept of citation index. A citation index is an index of Citations between publications allowing the user to easily establish which later documents cite which earlier documents

Publications and Propaganda

The USSR published voluminous materials to disseminate its philosophical ideals and justifications. These took the form of academic or professional journals or notes in the pattern of peer-reviewed material. For example the book below challenges the idea of a medical deontology, or ethics based on moral rules, versus ethics based on utilitarian rules decided on the best outcome for the greatest number of people. Deontological ethics or deontology (from Greek grc δέον deon, "obligation duty" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Utilitarianism is the idea that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall Utility, that is its contribution to happiness

References

See also

External links

Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (Андрей Николаевич Колмогоров ( April 25, 1903 - October 20, 1987) was a Soviet See also Social Constructivism (Learning Theory and Critical psychology. Dialectical materialism, according to many followers of Karl Marx 's thinking is the philosophical basis of Marxism. Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachov (Дми́трий Серге́евич Лихачёв also Dmitri Likhachev or Likhachyov;, St See also Marxian economics, Marxism Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are terms which cover work in Philosophy Maoism, variably and officially known as Mao Zedong Thought ( is a variant of Marxism derived from the teachings of the late Chinese leader Research in the Soviet Union in Science and Humanities was placed from the very beginning under a strict ideological scrutiny Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe (and more recently North
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