Ivan Ilyin
Portrait of Ivan Ilyin by Mikhail Nesterov
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ivan IlyinIvan Alexandrovich Ilyin (Russian:
Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Ильи́н) (March 28, 1883 -
December 21, 1954) was a Russian religious and
political philosopher, and White emigre
publicist and an ideologue of the Russian
All-Military Union.
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 III. 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 the Russian-language
journal Kolokol (Bell). 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.
Doctrine
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.
The concept of conscience of law
The two above mentioned factors led to
striving for egalitarianism and to 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.
Attitude towards monarchy
Another major work of Ilyin, "On Monarchy",
was not finished. He planned to write a 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 the 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 a
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 the collapse of Imperial
Russia in 1917. His abdication and the
subsequent 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.
Attitude towards fascism
A number of Ilyin's works (including those
written after the German defeat in 1945) treated
the subject of fascism. However, Ilyin was
staunchly opposed to Nazism in his writings,
particularly its xenophobic character.
Antisemitism
Although Ilyin was related by marriage to
several notable Jewish families he was accused
of antisemitism by Roman Gul, a fellow émigré
writer. According to a letter by Gul to Ilyin
the former expressed extreme umbrage at Ilyin's
suspicions that all those who disagreed with him
were Jews.
