Michail Ryklin

(1948) is a member of the Institute of Philosophy of the Moscow Academy of Sciences. His book Mit dem Recht des Stärkeren. Die russische Kultur in Zeiten der “gelenkten Demokratie” (Suhrkamp Verlag 2006), in which he gives an account of the trial of artists who took part in the exhibition “Beware, religion!” at the Sacharov Centre, Moscow, in 2003, earned him the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding in 2007.

Articles

Was die Europäer gern vergessen

Als Flüchtling kam der Philosoph Michail Ryklin 2005 aus Russland nach Deutschland. Im Interview erklärt er, was er an Europa schätzt, wie politische Repressionsapparate funktionieren – und warum auch der müde Europäer gut daran tut, seine gesellschaftlichen Freiheiten aktiver zu verteidigen.

On the trail of the red pilgrims

Russian philosopher Michail Ryklin’s new book “Communism as Religion” explores how the militant atheism of the Bolsheviks, far from rendering religion obsolete, created a new faith. Here he talks to “New Humanist” editor Caspar Melville about the religiosity inherent in western European intellectuals’ admiration for the Soviet Union, including Russell, Koestler, Benjamin, and Brecht.

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