Ivan Ilyin
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Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin (Russian: Иван Александрович Ильин) (March 28, 1883 - December 21, 1954) was a Russian religious and political philosopher, and émigré anti-communist publicist associated with the White movement.
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[edit] Young years
Ivan Ilyin was born in Moscow in an aristocratic family of Rurikid descent. His father Alexander Ivanovich Ilyin was born and spent his childhood in the Grand Kremlin Palace since Ilyin's grandfather served as the commandant of the Palace. Alexander Ilyin's godfather was tsar Alexander II. Ilyin was born and brought up also in the centre of Moscow not far from Kremlin in Naryshkin Lane. In 1901 he entered the Law faculty of the Moscow State University. Ilyin generally disapproved of the Russian Revolution of 1905 and did not participate actively in student riots. While a student Ilyin became interested in philosophy under influence of Professor Pavel Novgorodtsev. In 1906 he graduated with a law degree and began working there as a scholar from 1909 on.
[edit] Before the revolution
In 1911 Ilyin moved for a year to Western Europe in order to work on his thesis "Crisis of rationalistic philosophy in Germany in the XIXth century". After his return he returned to work in the University. He delivered a series of lectures called "Introduction to the Philosophy of Law". Later on Novgorodtsev offered Ilyin to lecture on theory of general law at Moscow Commerce Institute. In total, he lectured at various schools for 17 hours a week. At that time Ilyin studied the philosophy of Hegel, namely Hegel's philosophy of state and law. He regarded this work not only as a study of Hegel, but also as preparation for his own work on theory of law. His thesis on Hegel was finished in 1916 and published in 1918.
In 1914 after the breakout of the World War I Professor Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy arranged a series of public lectures devoted to the "ideology of the war". Ilyin contributed to this with several lectures, the first of which was called "The Spiritual Sense of the War". He was an utter opponent of any war in general, but believed that since Russia had already been involved in the war the duty of every Russian was to support his country. Ilyin's position was different from that of many Russian jurists, who equally disliked Germany and Tsarist Russia.
[edit] Revolution and exile
At first Ilyin perceived the February Revolution as the liberation of the people. Along with many other intellectuals he generally approved of it. However, with the October revolution complete disappointment followed. On the Second Moscow Conference of Public Figures he said that "The revolution turned into self-interested plundering of the state". Later he assessed the revolution as the most terrible catastrophe in the history of Russia, the collapse of the whole state. However, unlike many adherents of the old regime Ilyin did not emigrate. In 1918 Ilyin became a professor of law in the Moscow University, his scholarly thesis on Hegel was published.
After April 1918 Ilyin was imprisoned several times for alleged anti-communist activity. His teacher Novgorodtsev was also briefly imprisoned. In 1922, he was sentenced to death but was eventually expelled among some 160 prominent intellectuals, on the so-called "philosophers' ship" the same year.
[edit] Emigration
Between 1923 and 1934 Ilyin worked as a professor of the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin. He was offered the professorship in the Russian faculty of law in Prague under his teacher Novgorodtsev but he refused. He became the main ideologue of the Russian White movement in emigration and between 1927 and 1930 was a publisher and editor of "Russian Kolokol (Bell)" journal. He lectured in Germany and other European countries. In 1934 the German Nazis fired Ilyin and put him under police surveillance. In 1938 with financial help from Sergei Rachmaninoff he was able to leave Germany and continue his work in Geneva, Switzerland. He died in Zollikon near Zürich on December 21, 1953.
[edit] Doctrine
[edit] Ilyin's works about Russia
Ivan Ilyin was a conservative Russian monarchist in the Slavophile tradition. Starting from his 1918 thesis on Hegel's philosophy, he authored many books on political, social and spiritual topics pertaining to the historical mission of Russia. One of the problems he worked on was the question: what has eventually led Russia to the tragedy of the revolution? He answered that the reason was "the weak, damaged self-respect" of Russians. As a result, mutual distrust and suspicion between the state and the people emerged. The authorities and nobility constantly misused their power, subverting the unity of the people. Ilyin thought that any state must be established as a corporation in which a citizen is a member with certain rights and certain duties. Therefore Ilyin recognized inequality of people as a necessary state of affairs in any country. But that meant that educated upper classes had a special duty of spiritual guidance towards uneducated lower classes. This did not happen in Russia.
The other point was the wrong attitude towards private property among common people in Russia. Ilyin wrote that many Russians believed that private property and large estates are gained not through hard labour but through power and maladministration of officials. Therefore property becomes associated with dishonest behaviour.
[edit] The concept of conscience of law
The two above mentioned factors led to striving for egalitarism and to the revolution. The alternative way of Russia according to Ilyin was to develop due conscience of law (правосознание) of an individual based on morality and religiousness. Ilyin developed his concept of the conscience of law for more that twenty years until his death. He understood it as a proper understanding of law by an individual and ensuing obedience to the law. During his life he refused to publish his major work About the Essence of Conscience of Law (О сущности правосознания) and continued to rewrite it. He considered the conscience of law essential for the very existence of law. Without proper understanding of law and justice the law would not be able to exist.
[edit] Attitude towards monarchy
Another Ilyin's major work "On Monarchy" was not finished. He planned to write book concerning the essence of monarchy in the modern world and its differences from the republic consisting of twelve chapters but he died having written introduction and seven chapters. Ilyin argued that the main difference lay not in legal matters but in the conscience of law of common people. According to Ilyin the main distinctions were the following:
- in monarchy the conscience of law tends to unite the people within the state while in republic the conscience of law tends to disregard the role of the state for the society;
- monarchical conscience of law tends to perceive the state as a family and the monarch as a pater familias while the republican conscience of law denies this notion. Since the republican conscience of law praises individual freedom in the republican state people do not recognize the people of the state as a family;
- monarchical conscience of law is very conservative and prone to keeping traditions while republican conscience of law is always eager to rapid changes
As is said before Ilyin was a monarchist. He believed that monarchical conscience of law corresponds to such values as religious piety and family. His ideal was the monarch who would serve for the good of the country, would not belong to any party and would embody the union of all people whatever they beliefs are. However he was critical about the monarchy in Russia. He believed that Nicholas II was to a large degree the one responsible for collapse of Imperial Russia in 1917. His abdication and abdication of his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich were a crucial mistake which led to the abolition of monarchy and consequent troubles. He was also critical of many figures of the emigration including the Grand Prince Cyril Vladimirovich who had proclaimed himself the new tsar in exile.
[edit] Attitude towards fascism
A number of Ilyin's works[1][2] (including those written after Nazi Germany crash in 1945) are devoted to advocacy of fascism. They have tendency to rehabilitate allegedly slandered fascist parties and leaders, such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and emphasize their alleged great merits and right.
[edit] Influence
Ilyin's views influenced other 20th century Russian authors such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as well as many Russian nationalists. As of 2005, 23 volumes of Ilyin's collected works have been republished in Russia.
The Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov, in particular, was instrumental in propagating Ilyin's ideas in post-Soviet Russia. He authored several articles about Ilyin and came up with the idea of transferring his remains from Switzerland to the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow, where the philosopher had dreamed to find his last retreat. The ceremony of reburial was held in October 2005.
Following the death of Ilyin's wife in 1963, Ilyin scholar Nikolai Poltoratzky had Ilyin's manuscripts and papers brought from Zurich to Michigan State University, where he was a professor of Russian. In May 2006, MSU transferred Ilyin's papers to the Russian Culture Fund, affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Culture.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ I. Ilyin, National-Socialism: The New Spirit. 1933 (Национал-социализм. Новый дух)
- ^ I. Ilyin, On Fascism, 1948 (О фашизме)
- ^ Michigan State University returning papers of late dissident Russian philosopher Ivan Il’in
[edit] Major works
- Resistance to Evil By Force (О сопротивлениии злу силою, 1925)
- The Way of Spiritual Revival (1935)
- Foundations of Struggle for the National Russia (1938)
- The Basis of Christian Culture (Основы христианской культуры, 1938)
- About the Future Russia (1948)
- On the Essence of Conscience of Law (О сущности правосознания, 1956)
- The Way to Insight (Путь к очевидности, 1957)
- Axioms of Religious Experience (Аксиомы религиозного опыта, 2 volumes, 1953)
- On Monarchy and Republic (О монархии и республики, 1978)
