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The prohibited Nietzsche: anti-Nitzscheanism in Soviet Russia

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Abstract

This article discusses the reception of Nietzsche’s philosophy within the USSR. It covers the four phases of Soviet Nietzscheanism between 1920 and 1980, paying specific attention to the Soviet Nietzsche studies of the Stalin epoch. By making use of publications and archive materials, this article reconstructs the historical and logical formation of Nietzsche’s negative image in post-revolutionary Russia that characterized him as an ideologist of imperialism and National Socialism. In addition to this, this article examines the facts impeding the process of Nietzsche’s de-nazification in Russia.

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Notes

  1. The Russian edition of Nietzsche’s Works (Nietzsche 2005–2014) is published by Kul’turnaya Revoliutsiya Publishing House under the aegis of the Institute of Philosophy, RAS. It is based on the German critical edition prepared by Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. See Nietzsche (1975–2004).

  2. The first world edition of Nietzsche’s works was undertaken in Russia in the early years of the twentieth century. The beginning of the World War I interrupted the publication process, and only four volumes were brought to completion. In addition to Nietzsche’s own works, numerous scholarly publications (books and journal articles) devoted to the philosopher’s legacy came out during this period. For more details on publications of that period, see: Sineokaya (2001, pp. 971–1007).

  3. Stepan F. Oduev, whose career peaked during the 1950s and early 1960s, was the only Soviet historian of philosophy who the authorities allowed to engage in scholarly work on Nietzsche, and who was permitted to publish results of his research in official Soviet venues, such as academic publishing houses, encyclopedias, and censored professional journals.

  4. Six out of ten dissertations during the entire Soviet period were defended in the decade between 1979 and 1988. See, for example Siluyanova (1979), Mochkin (1981), Lavrova (1985), Kambar (1986), Yaroslavtseva (1988), Šhapovalov 1988.

  5. In the 1920s, the only officially allowed aspect of Nietzsche studies which remained, if only for a short while, was the philosophy of culture, most notably, of the ancient Greek. This theme appeared in the works of Vyacheslav Ivanov, Faddei Zelensky, Vikentiy Veresayev, Aleksei Losev.

  6. Moris Gavrilovich Leyteyzen was an officer of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and a member of the Soviet Diplomatic Mission in Switzerland and Sweden. Together with F.A. Tsander and other scholars, he worked on a project for rocket engines and spaceships and corresponded with K.E. Tsiolkovsky.

  7. Faina Mesin is a pseudonym of Faina Abramovna Kogsan-Bernstein, a well-known translator of Renaissance philosophical classics.

  8. The vulgarization of Marxism was called the “Shuljatikov swamp,” after Shuljatikov (1872–1912), who was a literary critic, party, and trade union leader, as well as the author of the book, Opravdanie kapitalizma v zapadnoevropejskoj filosofii (ot Dekarta do E. Macha) (Moscow, 1908). In this book, he claimed that bourgeois philosophy defended the interests of ruling classes and was looking for the theoretical acquittal of mercenary expediencies during its entire historical development. Thus, the genesis of spiritual phenomena was grotesquely oversimplified. Lenin wrote in the margin of this work: “an example of extreme vulgarization of Marxism” (Lenin 1969, p. 474). For more details see Michaylova and Shuljatikov, (1990, pp. 419–422).

    .

  9. In 1944, the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) issued an order declaring German classical philosophy to be an aristocratic reaction to the French revolution and a forerunner to Nazi ideology.

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  1. Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, 12/1 Goncharnaya Str., Moscow, Russian Federation, 109240

    Yulia V. Sineokaya

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Sineokaya, Y.V. The prohibited Nietzsche: anti-Nitzscheanism in Soviet Russia. Stud East Eur Thought 70, 273–288 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-018-9315-3

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