SOVIET HEGEL

SOVIET HEGEL
AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE HEGEL RECEPTION IN THE USSR
AT THE ALEKSANTERI INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI
JUNE 5.—6. 2015
The symposium, a pendant to the “Soviet Spinoza” symposium in 2013, will focus on the versatile
interpretations of Hegel’s philosophy in the Soviet Union. Initially in the 1920s, Hegel was hailed as one of the
most important predecessors of Marxism and the forefather of the Diamat, to be in the 1930s abruptly
condemned by Stalin as a representant of an “aristocratic reaction to the French Revolution”. In the 1950s and
60s Hegel came again en vogue to the extent that one might speak of a kind of “Soviet Hegelianism” . Despite of
the centrality of Hegel and his dialectical method for the Soviet philosophy, there has hitherto be no
comprehensive overviews of Hegel’s influence and the reception of his thought in the USSR. The symposium,
which is open for all, attempts at charting the main lines of the picture of Hegel’s heritage in the Soviet Union in
the fields of philosophy proper, aesthetics and politics.
PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME
Friday, 5th of June
MARKKU KIVINEN (Prof., Director of the Aleksanteri Institute) – Opening words
DANIELA STEILA (Prof., University of Turin) – Hegel and Plekhanov
MAYA SOBOLEVA (Prof., University of Klagenfurt) – t. b. a. (Hegel and Bogdanov ?)
MARINA BYKOVA (prof., University of North Carolina) – t. b. a.
ELENA MAREEVA (Prof., MIRBIS, Moscow) – Two Interpretations of Hegelian Dialectics in the Works of
Lenin
Saturday, 6th of June
NIKOLAI PLOTNIKOV (Prof., Universität Bochum) – Discussions on Hegel’s Aesthetics in the 1920’s
VESA OITTINEN (Research Chief, Aleksanteri Institute) – “Not a Master of Dialectics”: Nikolai Bukharin and
Hegel
SERGEI MAREEV (Prof., Sovremennaia Gumanitarnaia Akademia, Moscow) – The Problem of Historicism:
Hegel and Ilyenkov
ANDREY MAIDANSKY (Prof., University of Belgorod) – t. b. a.
EVERT VAN DER ZWEERDE (Prof., Radboud University of Nijmegen) – t. b. a.
Two lunchs will be served and in Saturday evening we are going to have a concluding dinner