In his article, Kytöneva tackles Ivan Ilyin – “Putin’s philosopher” – as a source of inspiration for the contemporary Russian Orthodox Church’s (ROC) interpretations on the moral justification of killing in war. The article demonstrates that readings of Ilyin’s work from 2005 to 2023 are reflective of deepening church-military relations in Russia: his ideas offer utility in the context of public Orthodox discourse, where militant ideas have gained prominence.
Yet, as Kytöneva argues, Ilyin’s contemporary reception reveals a fundamental paradox in his philosophy: war and soldiering are presented as a virtue while violence remains conceived morally unjust. Indeed, it appears that the ROC has also been unable to create a conceptually consistent and coherent framework for the justification of war.
In contrast, Bourgeot’s article examines the conflict-free image of the “Great Philosophers of Russia” reproduced and widely celebrated around the country on the centennial of the mythical Philosophers’ Ship in 2022. Just months into the full-scale war, the memory of those deported by Lenin was presented as a part of a nationalistic narrative: with Russian culture being “cancelled” by the “West”, it was now up to Russians to preserve and uphold their exceptional tradition.
In her article, Bourgeot scrutinizes the popularization of the philosophical Silver Age tradition in post-Soviet Russia. She suggests that the Philosophers’ Ship became a symbol for an aspiration to return to an authentically Russian philosophical tradition. Through a juxtaposition of two Silver Age thinkers, Gustav Shpet and Nikolai Berdyaev, Bourgeot argues that there was in fact no unified – or especially “Russian” – intellectual tradition to go back to.
Kytöneva, S. (2025): "Ivan Ilyin’s views on war and violence and their use among Russian religious and military audiences, 2005–2023", Studies in East European Thought: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-025-09714-0
Bourgeot, L. (2025): "Shpet, the ships and the Silver Age: on demythologising Russian philosophy", Studies in East European Thought: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-025-09704-2