The Vexing Case of Igor Shafarevich, a Russian Political Thinker

547 Pages·2012·3.544 MB·English

by  Krista Berglund (auth.)

.
Krista Berglund
The Vexing Case of
Igor Shafarevich,
a Russian Political Thinker
KristaBerglund
FacultyofTheology
UniversityofHelsinki
Finland
ISBN978-3-0348-0214-7 e-ISBN978-3-0348-0215-4
DOI10.1007/978-3-0348-0215-4
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011942748
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Acknowledgements
IthanktheFoundationsoftheUniversityofHelsinki,TheFinnishCulturalFoun-
dation, the Finnish Graduate School of Political Science and International
Relations, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Finnish Graduate School for Russian
and East European Studies, Oskar O¨flund Foundation, the Network of European
StudiesoftheUniversityofHelsinkiandtheKoneFoundationforhavingfinanced
this study, for having been patient with me and for having given me time to
think. This is a big luxury nowadays and I am very grateful. I am also grateful to
the bilateral exchange programme of the University of Helsinki with Moscow
UniversityaswellasthelibrariesofMemorialandRusskoezarubezheinMoscow,
Open Society Archives in Budapest and, most of all, the Slavonic Library of the
Finnish National Library with its unique staff. Finally I owe gratitude both to the
DepartmentofPoliticsandEconomyandtheCatherineInstituteoftheUniversity
ofHelsinkiwhereithasalwaysbeenajoyworking.
There are many friends and colleagues whom I owe much for their friendship,
help,supportandadvice.ThefirstofthemisMarjaanaHakala.Ialsowanttothank
Kaarina Aitamurto, Milla Bergstro¨m, Andrei Borisov, Jovan C´ulibrk, Dragana
Cvetanovic´, Ulla Hakanen, Martti Haltia, Milla Hannula, Meri Herrala, Anne-
Maria Holli, Elina Ihama¨ki, Susan Ikonen, Elina Kahla, Johanna Kantola, Pekka
Kauppala,MarjaKera¨nen,MilenaKoroleva,ViktorKott,ElinaandJanneKyllia¨i-
nen, Maija Ko¨no¨nen, Teuvo Laitila, Tuija Lattunen, Simo Leisti, Harri Liuksiala,
IraiidaLukka-deGroot,AnitaMartinez,AnnaNikolaeva,JuhaniNuorluoto,Vesa
Oittinen,LarisaOrfinskaia,OiliPulkkinen,KatjaRuutu,AnuRa¨ma¨,Pa¨iviSalmes-
vuori, Aleksandra Skopets, Edda and Satu Sundstro¨m, Vasileios Syros, Ivanka
Tasic´,MaijaTurunen,MarinaVitukhnovskaia-Kauppala,HenriVogt,RistoWallin
and Hanna Wass. Sergei Smetanin and the other regular members of the now-
defunct Solzhenitsyn forum in Yandex offered extremely stimulating discussions
ofthehighestexpertiseandgreatestinsight.
HelmutKochandTimoVihavainenaswellasAndrewBlane,WalterDietrich,
IgorDolgachev,EdwardE.EricsonJr.,JarmoEronen,VilhoHarle,AlexisKlimoff,
DanielJ.Mahoney,HannuNiemi,Jean-PierreSerreandDanUngurianuhavebeen
v
vi Acknowledgements
very kind and supportive in many ways. I am also thankful to Philip Boobbyer,
Robert Hickson, Edward Kline, Larry Shepp, Iurii Tabak and Andrei Znamenskii
for having kindly answered my questions. The help from Miles Reid who let me
explore his Shafarevich files and from Sergei Demushkin who saw to it that I
receivedalong-lostarticlebyShafarevichwasinvaluable.
I am very grateful to Anna Ma¨tzener of Birkha¨user, my kind editor, and the
similarlykindClemensHeine,myfirstcontactatSpringer.
Itisajoyandanhonourtodedicatethisstudyto,astheRussianswouldsayso
beautifully, the luminous memory of Timo Veijola, the late professor of Old
TestamentstudiesoftheUniversityofHelsinki.
Finally I want to thank Igor Shafarevich for being such an exciting and chal-
lengingresearchsubject.
A Note on Transliteration
In this study Russian names and words are transliterated according to the Library
ofCongressSystem(omittingtheapostrophesforьandъaswellasdiacritics).
Except for the names of Russian emperors or saints, which are written in their
English forms according to general practice, I transliterate all names which were
originallywritteninCyrillic(suchasGenrikhNeigauzorNadezhdaMandelshtam),
thus doing sowiththenames ofall emigrantsaswell.Thisis certainlysomewhat
problematic (but I hope, not offensive) because some emigrants transliterate their
names according to some other system (such as Ludmilla Alexeyeva, Joseph
Brodsky, Alexander Yanov or Yuri Slezkine, whose names will be transliterated
hereasLiudmilaAlekseeva,IosifBrodskii,AleksandrIanovandIuriiSlezkin).My
rationaleforthispracticeisthatagreatnumberoftheemigrantswhofigureinthis
study are mentioned both when referring to their activities in the Soviet Union
beforetheiremigrationorasauthorsofRussian-languagetextsandwhenreferring
to them as authors of texts in English or other languages using Latin alphabet
after emigration. Many of them have additionally used several spellings of their
names when writing in languages using the Latin alphabet. However, whenever
mentioningapersonforthefirsttime,thealternativeform(s)ofhisnameis(/are)
giveninsquarebrackets.
NamesofRussian(orSlavic)origin,whichweregiventothepersoninquestion
in the Latinised form (among them Noam Chomsky, Alexis Klimoff or Catharine
TheimerNepomnyashchy)havenotbeenaltered.
WhenquotinganEnglish-languagesource,theoriginal’stransliterationhasnot
beenaltered.Thus,whileIwritethenameoftheformerRussianPresidentasEltsin,
occasionally it may appear in such forms as Yeltsin or El’tsin as well. Further
variationinthefootnotesisduetobibliographicalreferencesbecause,forinstance,
IwritebothaboutIuriiSlezkin’sideasandrefertoSlezkine2004.
vii
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Contents
1 IgorShafarevich,aLightningRodforControversy .................... 1
WhatHasBeenSaidAboutShafarevich? .................................. 1
WhyIsItImportanttoGetShafarevichRight? ............................. 8
TheGuidelinesoftheResearchofHistoryofIdeas ....................... 10
RespectingtheContextandRespectingtheText ...................... 11
MotiveandIntentionandWhyTheyMatter ........................... 13
Influence:No-oneWritesinaVacuumorJustRecyclesOthers’
OldIdeas .............................................................. 14
IdeasandTheirLimits ................................................. 15
SourcesandLiteratureandHowtoApproachThem ...................... 15
Articles,Interviews,Lectures,Films ................................... 15
Professorsvs.Professorsvs.LiteraryNotables ........................ 17
TheStructureofThisWork ............................................ 18
2 Shafarevich’sEarlyYearsintheYoungSovietState .................. 21
“AbsolutelyNoRoomforAnythingTranscendental,Higher” ............ 21
TheLivingWellofLiteraryTreasures .................................... 26
MathematicsandMusic–TwoIslandsofBeautyintheSovietUnion ... 29
TheJoyfulDiscoveryoftheMathematicians’International
Brotherhood ............................................................... 35
ReminiscencesAboutGreatandControversialMathematicians .......... 38
3 Shafarevich,theHumanRightsActivist ................................ 45
Paradoxesof“theThaw” ................................................... 45
DissidentsUnitedbytheDefenceofRights ............................... 48
ShafarevichintheMoscowDissidents’HumanRightsCommittee ....... 50
Religion,aNeglectedIssue ............................................ 53
TheCommitteeWithersAway ......................................... 57
Shafarevich’sCompanionshipswithSakharovandSolzhenitsyn ......... 59
ThePriceofDissent:DifficultiesforShafarevich ......................... 62
ix