Sergey Alushkin - Ilyenkov’s legacy in Ukraine
There are two common myths regarding Evald Ilyenkov. The first one is that he was “a solitary misunderstood genius” and the second one is that his legacy and influence was spread across Russia and has just begun to spread worldwide. As for the latter myth, there are organizations like International Friends of Ilyenkov who help to spread his legacy to English-speaking countries and there are many prominent scientists admitting philosopher’s prominence in psychological and philosophical academical communities. But what is about Ukraine’s perception of Ilyenkov?
On the first glance, Ukraine as many other post-USSR has adopted a positivism fashion in philosophy and discarded Marxist philosophy, especially after 2014. However, in fact Ilyenkov was much more popular in Kyiv than in Moscow and his legacy has spread much farther than just an academic society. As a matter of fact, Kyiv hosted Ilyenkov’s readings in 2006 and 2010 and these conferences gathered hundreds of scientists, students and people interested in philosophy.
Ilyenkov was never alone. He had a friend Valery Bosenko (1927-2007), who was also a prominent Soviet and later Ukrainian philosopher. Bosenko came from Mariupol to Kyiv State University where he introduced a system of circles for students and young scientists. His proficiency as an organizer and deep knowledge in philosophy allowed him to maintain the dialectical tradition of philosophy in Ukrainian institutes. His correspondence and personal meetings with Ilyenkov helped him to develop his unique pedagogical approach and to write The general theory of development which is sometimes dubbed by readers as Hegel’s materialistic science of logic. Thanks to Bosenko and Pavel Kopnin (1922-1977) Ukraine has managed to fulfil Ilenkov’s dream about university courses of dialectical logic for students. Even now there are students who learn this course in the National Technical University of Ukraine.
There is also a figure of Anatoly Kanarsky (1936-1984) – another Ukrainian philosopher under Ilyenkov’s influence. Ilyenkov was an opponent for Kanarsky’s thesis dedicated to the dialectical theory of aesthetics. Kanarsky himself had a number of students and his understanding of art, feelings and sensuousness has become a basis for literature and aesthetic tradition in Kyiv’ circles.
Even during the war, Ukrainian philosophers aim to translate Ilyenkov to Ukrainian and develop his legacy. Academic cooperation with Russian and Polish textological circles bring these nations together and work against the imperialism dividing people.
Sergey Alushkin, received a PhD in philosophy from Kyiv, Ukraine. He studied philosophy in the circles of the National Technical University of Ukraine and graduated from the department of philosophy in 2020. Sergey defended his PhD dissertation “Desire as the origin of social activity of the subject of history” in 2021. His main scientific interests are dialectical logic, classical German philosophy, psychoanalysis and aesthetics.