Curated playlist
20th-century Russian philosophers
- Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy spent his last hours on a train, preaching non-violence to strangers.
- Ayn RandWhen Ayn Rand died in New York City on the 6th of March 1982, her funeral included a six-foot floral arrangement shaped like a dollar sign. The tribute suited a woman who had turned self-interest into a moral code. She was born Alisa…
- Vladimir LeninLenin's name came from no person, and the N in N. Lenin stood for nothing. One theory points to the Lena River.
- Nicholas RoerichPainter Nicholas Roerich was held in Tibet for five months while the world thought he was lost.
- Mikhail BakhtinMikhail Bakhtin once tore up his own book prospectus to roll cigarettes.
- Peter KropotkinAnarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin refused a cabinet seat in Russia's Provisional Government.
- Nikolay LosskyIn 1922, philosopher Nikolay Lossky was exiled from the Soviet Union on the Philosophers' Ship.
- Nikolai BerdyaevNikolai Berdyaev told the Soviet secret police chief what was wrong with Bolshevism, and was freed.
- Vasily RozanovVasily Rozanov, a Russian philosopher, died of starvation in a monastery after the Revolution.
- Semyon FrankOn the 29th of September 1922, some 160 prominent Russian intellectuals and their families boarded a ship at Petrograd. Among them was the philosopher Semyon Frank. The Soviet authorities called it an expulsion, and they made the…
- Anatoly KhazanovAnatoly Khazanov argued under Soviet censorship that nomads were never self-sufficient.
- Lev ShestovLev Shestov's dissertation was rejected, which blocked him from becoming a doctor of law.
- Alexander ZinovievSoviet writer Alexander Zinoviev was expelled from his country, then returned by choice 21 years later.
- Pavel FlorenskyA paper on relativity helped send priest Pavel Florensky to a Soviet labor camp.