Ivan Ilyin

Ivan Ilyin

Ivan Alexandrovich Ilyin (Russian: Ильин Иван Александрович ) (March 28, 1883 - December 21, 1954) was a Russian religious and political philosopher, and émigré anti-communist publicist associated with the White movement.

Ivan Ilyin was born in Moscow in an aristocratic family of Rurikid descent. In 1906 he graduated from Moscow State University with a law degree and continued to work there after. In 1918 Ilyin became a professor of law in his university. In 1922, the new Bolshevik government expelled some 160 prominent intellectuals, Ilyin among them, on the so-called "philosophers' ship" for alleged anti-communist activity.

Between 1923 and 1934 Ilyin worked as a professor of the Russian Scientific Institute in Berlin. 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. In 1934 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.

Ivan Ilyin was a conservative Russian monarchist in the Slavophile tradition. Starting from his 1918 scholarly thesis on Hegel's philosophy, he authored many books on political, social and spiritual topics pertaining to the historical mission of Russia. His 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 partuclar, 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.

Major Works

• Resistance to Evil By Force (1925)
• The Way of Spiritual Revival (1935)
• Foundations of Struggle for the National Russia (1938)
• About the Future Russia (1948)
• Axioms of Religious Experience (1953)

External links

• Ilyin's online shrine
• New York Times on Ilyin's reburial