Introduction
The great 20th century philosopher and literary critic Isaiah Berlin once asserted that “scarcely one single political and social idea to be found in Russia in the nineteenth century was born on native soil.”[1] Berlin’s idea itself was not original. He had been preceded more than a century earlier by the Russian thinker Pyotr Chaadaev, who famously noted in his Philosophical Letters that Russians had not introduced not one idea into the mass of human ideas, had not assisted the progress of human reason in anyway, and all the progress humankind had attained Russians had distorted. Berlin thought, echoing Pushkin and Dostoevskii, that rather than generating new ideas, Russians “had an unheard-of capacity for absorbing ideas.”[2] Although the latter appears to be true or at least a legitimate interpretation and has been expressed by many others, the former claim seems to be quite wrong.
This rare Berlinian oversight was not the consequence of any denigration or lack of appreciation for his object of study. He noted the “gifted Russian society” of the 19th century and placed Russian literature and thought of that period in the pantheon of monuments of world civilization.[3] Berlin’s error seems to lie in his almost exclusive focus on Russian literature rather than on Russian thought more broadly and Russian philosophy in particular. ……..
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About the Author –
Gordon M. Hahn, Ph.D., is an Expert Analyst at Corr Analytics, www.canalyt.com. Websites: Russian and Eurasian Politics, gordonhahn.com and gordonhahn.academia.edu
Dr. Hahn is the author of the new book: Russian Tselostnost’: Wholeness in Russian Thought, Culture, History, and Politics (Europe Books, 2022). He has authored five previous, well-received books: The Russian Dilemma: Security, Vigilance, and Relations with the West from Ivan III to Putin (McFarland, 2021); Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West, and the “New Cold War” (McFarland, 2018); The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond (McFarland, 2014), Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), and Russia’s Revolution From Above: Reform, Transition and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime, 1985-2000 (Transaction, 2002). He also has published numerous think tank reports, academic articles, analyses, and commentaries in both English and Russian language media.
Dr. Hahn taught at Boston, American, Stanford, San Jose State, and San Francisco State Universities and as a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia and was a senior associate and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group.