The initial stage of the Beletsky 'case'

(archival publication)

Abstract

In the recent years there has been a growing interest among the historians of philosophy in the famous letter written to Stalin by Zinovy Beletsky, Professor of Moscow State University. It served as pretext for the replacement, in 1944, of the administration of the Institute of Philosophy of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, of the Faculty of philosophy of Moscow University and of the journal Under the Banner of Marxism. Third volume of the History of Philosophy was deprived of the Stalin prize. To this day anyone who wrote on Beletsky inevitably started with that same letter. The purpose of the present article is to exhibit the background of the appearance of that document and Beletsky's reasons for writing it. Transcript of the discussion of Beletsky's views held at the Institute of Philosophy in 1943 is published here for the first time. Following this discussion Beletsky, who had been Secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the Institute for ten years, was dismissed on the ground of poor performance. He then joined the Faculty of philosophy of Moscow University and sent his letter to Stalin, which had far-reaching consequences. One of the questions discussed during the 1943-44 debates at the Institute of Philosophy was the appraisal of of the role of German classical philosophy: whether to consider it one of the theoretical sources of Marxism or a forerunner of Nazi ideology. On Beletsky's initiative and with Stalin's sanction a misleading and distorted interpretation of it became official and mandatory, which lead to destructive administrative measures and greatly hampered the progress of history of philosophy in the Soviet Union.