[Xmca-l] Review: From the History of Soviet Philosophy:Lukács - Vygotsky - Ilyenkov

[Annalisa Aguilar]

Hi Esteemed Xmcars,


I spied this in my notifications on Academia.edu and thought you might want to take a gander. It's by Alex Levant.


https://www.academia.edu/1454708/From_the_History_of_Soviet_Philosophy_Lukacs-Vygotsky-Ilyenkov_2011_?


Here is the Abstract:


This review-essay explores the subterranean tradition of 'creative Soviet Marxism' through a recent book by the Russian philosopher Sergey Mareev, From the History of Soviet Philosophy:Lukács - Vygotsky - Ilyenkov  (2008). It provides a brief overview of the history of Soviet philosophy so as to orient the reader to a set of debates that continue to be largely unexplored in the Western-Marxist tradition. Mareev o?ers a new account of the development of Soviet philosophy that not only explodes the myth that Soviet philosophy was simply state-sanctioned dogma, butalso reinterprets the relationship between the key creative theorists so as to o?er a new way of understanding its development that challenges several key-aspects of the dominant Westernscholarship on this subject. He argues that alongside o?cial Marxist philosophy in the SovietUnion - the crude materialism of Diamat and Istmat - there existed another line, whichcounterposed the central rôle of social activity in the development of human consciousness. Hetraces this line of anti-positivist theory from V.I. Lenin through Georg Lukács and Lev Vygotsky to Evald Ilyenkov - a pivotal ?gure in the 'Marxian renaissance' of the 1960s, but who 'has tothis day remained a Soviet phenomenon without much international in?uence'. Speci?cally,Mareev disputes the rôle of A.M. Deborin as a precursor of the Ilyenkov school, and insteadintroduces Georg Lukács - a ?gure primarily recognised in the West as one of the founders of  Western Marxism - into the line of development of creative Soviet Marxism. Furthermore, hereconsiders the rôle of V.I. Lenin and G.V. Plekhanov - the so-called father of Russian socialdemocracy - in the development of Soviet philosophy. In the process, the author provides adetailed history of the emergence of  Diamat and Istmat, and shines a spotlight on a ?gure widely recognised as the most important Soviet philosopher in the post-Stalin period - E.V. Ilyenkov.

Kind regards,

Annalisa