The participation of Russian philosophers in the Second Polish Philosophical Congress (1927)

Abstract

The 20s – 30s of the 20th century was the time of intensive contacts between Russian émigré thinkers and Polish intellectuals. The first decade of the last century brought about the idea of organizing the Congress of philosophers from Slavic Countries, but War World I shattered these plans. Only in 1927 a group of Russian philosophers (Nikolai Lossky, Nikolai Berdyaev, Semyon Frank, Boris Hessen, Ivan Lapshin, Sergei Karcevsky) was finally invited to participate in the Second Polish Philosophical Congress where they delivered several talks. Almost all papers delivered by Russian participants were published, sometimes as abstracts, in The Memorial Book of the Congress in Polish, which contributed to the dissemination of Russian Thought in Poland. The present article discusses the historical and philosophical context of the event and the main ideas the Russian philosophers expounded during it; it also traces down their influence on the development of philosophy in Poland and elsewhere. Particular attention is paid to the debates over the possibility of the existence of 'Slavic philosophy' taking place not only in Poland, but in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia as well; the role of Nikolai Lossky’s Polish student, Tomasz Parczewski, in making the participation of the Russian delegation in the Polish congress possible is also discussed in some detail. It is pointed out that the tradition of studies in Russian philosophy in Poland is still present.