Thinking under Ideology: �A Case Study of Philosophical Practice in Latvia under Soviet Rule
PhD Andris Hiršs
Conversions and ruptures: epistemic strategies in Latvian philosophy during the Soviet period (1944-1991)
The research examines the relationship between philosophy and power, focusing on events in the intellectual sphere of Latvia during the Soviet occupation from 1944 to 1991. Our approach corresponds with the theoretical framework of studies of discontinuities in historiography, which emphasizes ruptures rather than continuity in historical narrative. We utilize the concept of “epistemic strategies”, which describe the ways intellectuals adapted, or resisted to ideological requirements of the Soviet totalitarian state.
Thinking under Ideology
Foto: Sintija Zandersone/LETA
Demolition machinery was used to remove the 79-meter World War II memorial, which has become a rallying point for Kremlin supporters in Latvia
On February 21, 2024, the Riga City Council adopted a decision to change the street names of Maskavas, Lomonosova, Puškina, Gogoļa, Ļermontova, Turgeņeva, and Tipogrāfijas streets, all of which except Tipogrāfijas (Typography) were reminiscent of the Soviet occupation or the Russian Empire.
Thinking under Ideology: Philosophy in Postwar Stalinist Latvia
Pauls Dāle (1889 –1968)
In 1923, he attended Edmund Husserl’s seminars at the University of Freiburg. He studied problems of psychology and aesthetics under Professor Jonas Cohn. He was a professor of philosophy and psychology at the University of Latvia.
Milda Paleviča-Bite (1889–1972)
In 1925, she received a doctorate in philosophy from the Sorbonne for her study of the critical and scientific trends in modern German aesthetics. She was a pioneer of academic aesthetics in Latvia, an art historian, and a feminist. She was also a prominent populariser of the philosophy of Henri Bergson.
Jūlijs Aleksandrs Students (1898–1964)
From 1929 to 1931, he studied at the University of Jena, where he attended lectures by the psychologist Wilhelm Peters. He lectured on psychology and pedagogy at the Latvian Conservatory.
Thinking under Ideology: Philosophy in Postwar Stalinist Latvia
Soviet government and Communist Party official Andrey Aleksandrovich Zhdanov:
“Attempts to minimise opposition among philosophical schools and to seek common ground were characteristic of reactionary philosophy professors. The Soviet intelligentsia is expected to embody a militant and attacking spirit rather than a conciliatory one.”
(Zhdanov, A. A. (1951) Vystuplenie na diskussii po knige G. F. Aleksandrova “Istoriia zapadnoevropeiskoi filosofii” 24 iiunia 1947 goda (Moskva, Gospolitizdat).
Lecturer in the Department of Marxism–Leninism at the University of Latvia Kārlis Blūzmanis:
“Dāle’s self-critical report was formal and devoid of any joy.”
Thinking under Ideology: Philosophical Practice in Late Socialism
Alexei Yurchak
«In the late Soviet context, when authoritative discourse became hypernormalized, its
performative dimension grew in importance and its constative dimension became
unanchored from concrete core meanings and increasingly open to new interpretation»
(Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 316)
Thinking under Ideology: Philosophical Practice in Late Socialism
«Researchers of Western philosophy during the Soviet period were able to talk about modern trends much more than to criticize them. The usual tribute in the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s was a quotation from the Marxist classics in an article, which made up no more than one percent of the entire work»
(Maija Kūle, 2023. Filosofe profesore Dr.habil.phil. Latvijas Zinātņu akadēmijas akadēmiķe Maija Kūle: biobibliogrāfija II. Rīga: Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the University of Latvia)
Thinking under Ideology: Philosophical Practice in Late Socialism
Boriss Gusev, head of the Republican and Regional Publishing Department of the USSR State Committee for Publishing:
“In Andris Rubenis’s works, the focus is on an objective examination of theories. It is difficult and in some places even impossible
to understand whether Husserl is right or wrong, whether his views are erroneous or true. But that is a mistake. We must
strengthen ideological awareness”
(“Literatura kontrpropagandy.” Politicheskoe samoobrazovanie: ezhemesiachnyi zhurnal TsK KPSS 9: 144)
Valerians Brokāns, head of a department in the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Special Education:
“It appears that students in the Philosophy Department lack sufficient interest in current political events and modern society. A
large number of students have become detached from real life, are snobbish, and need to be reoriented towards more practical
disciplines.”
Andris Rubenis:
“I stayed and was able to do what no one else could afford to do, because the majority of artists were on my side”
(Rubenis, Andris. 2021. Memoralijas. Rīga: Al Ssecco)
Thinking under Ideology: A Case Study of Philosophical Practice in Latvia under Soviet Rule
Many Latvian philosophers under Soviet rule were neither dissidents nor ideologues.
Philosophical practice often operated through negotiated forms of conformity, camouflage, and reinterpretation.
Post-Soviet rejection has produced new “white spots” in the history of philosophy in Latvia.
Thank you
Andris Hiršs
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Latvian Academy of Culture
Thinking under Ideology: A Case Study of Philosophical Practice in Latvia under Soviet Rule
ORCID 0009-0004-6379-2823