The Phoenix of Philosophy: Russian Thought of the Late Soviet Period (1953–1991)
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Overview
This groundbreaking work by one of the world's foremost theoreticians of Russian literature, culture, and thought gives for the first time an extensive and detailed examination of the development of Russian thought during the late Soviet period. Countering the traditional view of an intellectual wilderness under the Soviet regime, Mikhail Epstein offers a systematic account of Russian thought in the second half of the 20th century. In doing so, he provides new insights into previously ignored areas such as Russian liberalism, personalism, structuralism, neo–rationalism, and culturology.
Epstein shows how Russian philosophy and culture has long been trapped in an intellectual prison of its own making as it sought to create its own utopia. However, he demonstrates that it is time to reappraise Russian philosophical thought and cultural theory, now freed from the bonds of totalitarianism. We are left with not only a new and exciting interpretation of Russian thought, but also an opportunity to rethink our own intellectual heritage.
An expansive survey and study of the major trends in Russian literature and thought from the end of Stalin's epoch to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A major new study of Russian literature and culture in the late Soviet period from an eminent scholar in the field
Offers alternative and context-rich readings of writers and critics who are familiar to Western scholarship (e.g. Platonov, Bakhtin, Losev)
Provides an original contextualization of Russian nationalism within the traditions of Russian literature
Offers new perspectives into Russian politics, literature and culture
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Vicissitudes of Soviet Marxism
Part 2. Neo-rationalism. Structuralism. General methodology
Part 3. The philosophy of personality and of freedom
Part 4. Culturology, or, the philosophy of culture
Conclusion
Works cited
Appendix: Original Russian and other foreign-language titles
Name index
Subject index
Few books could be a better, more incisive and captivating guide to the intellectual richness of an important historical period than Mikhail Epstein's history of Russian thought in the late Soviet period ... a treasure-trove of discovery, opening up a vault of riches that is vast and multi-leveled.
The Phoenix of Philosophy benefits from its author's encyclopaedic knowledge of the many philosophical tendencies and the individual philosophers he describes. He is brilliant at summarising their ideas ... Epstein's work is a great achievement
Both a provocative analytical study and a philosophical dictionary of sorts, the book is absorbing and extremely valuable and should hopefully reach a large-and not just Slavic-audience.
[T]his is a very helpful and stimulating work.
Bold, comprehensive, and beautifully written, this book retrieves one of the best-forgotten parts of global intellectual history. While the lives of leading Soviet thinkers were tragic, Mikhail Epstein presents their philosophy as liberating: a sublime lesson of hope and resistance for our time.
An impressive work of synthesis, this book offers a fascinating panorama of Soviet intellectual life in the second half of the 20th century. Epstein writes with clarity and conviction that stem from his knowledge and immediate experience of the times he revisits in these often riveting pages.
This beautifully written book by one of our most eminent scholars of Russian culture confirms that even in the most inhospitable circumstances, such as Soviet ideocracy, Russian thought flourishes and liberates. It is a brilliant testimony to the power of ideas and of the human spirit.
- Title: The Phoenix of Philosophy: Russian Thought of the Late Soviet Period (1953–1991)
- Author: Mikhail Epstein
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 312
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781501316425, 9781501376245, 1501376241, 1501316427
- Resource ID: LLS:9781501316425
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T15:00:45Z
Mikhail Epstein is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature at Emory University, USA, and former Professor of Russian and Cultural Theory at Durham University, UK. He has authored 30 books (in English and Russian), including The Transformative Humanities (Bloomsbury, 2012), and approximately 600 essays and articles, translated into 16 languages. Professor Epstein has won national and international awards, including The Andrei Bely Prize (S.-Petersburg, 1991) and the Liberty Prize, awarded annually for "the outstanding contribution to the development of Russian - U.S. cultural relations" (New York, 2000).