The article explores Andrei Tikhonovich Pavlov, Russian émigré philosopher based in interwar Czechoslovakia. There is, as yet, no scientific study dedicated to Pavlov. The available biographical data give an impression of Pavlov as a secondary philosopher, in the shadow of his more renowned colleagues. This paper, based on accessible sources, focuses on Pavlov’s career that equivocated largely between Russian émigré pedagogy and philosophy. It also explores Pavlov’s contribution to philosophy. The most extensive part of his work in this field is dedicated to philosophy of T. G. Masaryk. The paper focuses on Pavlov’s key theses and places them within the context of other studies reflecting Masaryk’s work by the Russian philosophers in exile. Thanks to research made, Pavlov does not seem as “philosopher in a shadow” anymore, but he becomes the one of the most intriguing and, at the same time, most controversial interpreter of Masaryk’s works.
In relation to Russian aid action provided to the Czechoslovak government there was also a large number of philosophers active in our country among the Russian scientists in exile. Several summarising papers were published on this topic, which endeavour to define the research field of Russian exile philosophy in the Czechoslovak Republic. A great number of figures from Russian life in exile were previously classified as philosophers. This paper critically evaluates their links to philosophy and determines the criteria according to which individual figures are or are not considered Russian philosophers in the author’s opinion. He comes to the conclusion that only approximately a third of the mentioned figures can be considered philosophers, while most of them are classified in other fields of human activities. The activities of some are linked to philosophy, while others can be considered interested in philosophy. Regardless of this critical reduction, the number of Russian philosophers in inter-war Czechoslovakia remains substantial, however, it is not possible to identify any common movement that originated within the terms of this discourse in our country.
Russian intelligentsia was a socially engaged group with a clearly specified attitude to the Czarist regime. As such, it fought for a radical change in the social order ideologically and often even with concrete steps. Russian philosophers were an integral part of the Russian intelligentsia and shared its group, mainly pro-revolution setting. At the same time, their conviction went through major transformations crowned in emigration from the beginning of the 20th century. With the philosophers, these metamorphoses are associated also with the overall change of the philosophical-religious beliefs. The paper deals with the relation to the Russian Revolution of 1917, as it is reflected in the memorial texts of three famous Russian philosophers, Sergei N. Bulgakov, Nikolai A. Berdyaev and N. O. Lossky. Whereas Bulgakov presents a series of memoir essays, three of which concern the revolutionary period, Berdyaev and Lossky are the authors of complete memoirs, where special chapters are reserved for 1917. The changes of the attitudes of the individual thinkers towards the Russian Revolution are mainly analysed in the article.
This article discusses the historiography of Russian philosophy in the Czech environment after. After a brief characterization of its beginnings, associated with the name of T. G. Masaryk, and the developments during the interwar and postwar eras in Czechoslovakia, the analysis then moves into the situation after 1990. It distinguishes two phases: the 1990s, which are primarily associated with the introduction of new authors, and the phase that began after 2000, when studies and monographs begin to appear to a greater extent in the historiography. What has been distinctive in Czech research is the preponderance of non-philosophers among the researchers. The most significant trends in the research are considered to be the literary-historical, historical, and theological. The article acquaints readers with the main personalities who engage with Russian philosophy in the Czech Republic and briefly introduces their areas of research and main works. It also touches upon the institutions and publishing houses that focus on Russian thought. At the conclusion it pauses to contemplate the outlook for the future of this field through probes into the student theses defended at Charles University.
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