Grigory Pomerants
Grigori Solomonovich Pomeranz (Russian Григорий Соломонович Померанц; well Grigory S. Pomeranc, born March 13, 1918 in Vilnius, Lithuania, † February 16, 2013 in Moscow, Russia) was a Russian philosopher and cultural theorist.
Life
After the war, Pomeranz was excluded because of " antiparteiischer statements " from the Communist Party and sentenced in 1949 for " anti- Soviet agitation" to five years in prison. After the death of Joseph Stalin, he was released as part of a general amnesty. In the next few years worked as a village teacher in the Donets Basin and on his return to Moscow as a bibliographer at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
After the Hungarian national uprising and the events from Boris Pasternak, he was a dissident. As a dissident, he was easily assigned to any specific dissident group. He stood close to the democratic flow of Soviet dissidents. In 1965 he held the Moscow Institute of Philosophy lecture by publicly speaking out against Stalinism and warned of a return to him. The lecture was one of the earliest documents of the samizdat. He put his signature under several human rights views, and he was not allowed to defend his doctoral thesis on Zen Buddhism at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy.
Between 1976 and 1987 there was a publication ban on Pomeranz in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, he has written numerous essays and philosophical works, she published in samizdat and Tamisdat and had an impact on the liberal intelligentsia of the 1960s and 1970s. The writings dealt with Orient studies and cultural studies as well as with religious history and philosophical topics such as the origins of the religions of India, Chinese philosophy and Meister Eckhart.
After perestroika Pomeranz held irregularly seminars and guest lectures at universities such as the University of Moscow. In his last year he went blind, suffered from skin cancer and was limited in his mobility.
He was married to the Russian poetess Zinaida Mirkina.
Philosophical positions
Pomeranz was one of the first authors who took up the work of art and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin.
A recurring theme in Pomeranz ' cultural studies writings is the question of the possibility and necessity of dialogue between cultures. Condition of a fruitful cultural dialogue is Pomeranz the formation of so-called Subökumenen, a concept that is based on the concepts of " culture circles" by Oswald Spengler, "civilizations " of Arnold J. Toynbee and " coalition of civilizations" by Claude Lévi- Strauss, However, with a stronger emphasis on the role of mutual interference. A Subökumene exceeds nationally or ethnically identifiable cultural features and is defined by a common symbolic organization ( language, literature, philosophy or religion ) and a similar social structure ( family, politics or economics). As such Subökumenen Pomeranz identified the Mediterranean, India and China. Several Subökumenen may be further connected by cultural characteristics that exceed ethnic or national characteristics, such as the Byzantine culture, the Slavic and Caucasian peoples einbegreift. A theory of Subökumene considered accordingly the process of knowledge production and transmission between such formations. Postmodernism Pomeranz interpreted as a general crisis of Subökumenen.
Pomeranz led over several years a dispute with Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He criticized its his opinion dogmatic Christian nationalism and positioned himself in the liberal camp of the Russian intelligentsia. Solzhenitsyn 's idea of an irrevocable, global and associated with communism " evil" presented Pomeranz against Eastern traditions of thought that do not have such a category an ontological evil.
Work
Pomeranz took in 1970 in unofficial seminars at the home of Valentin Turchin cybernetician. Here he met Andrei Sakharov and impressed with this " his erudition, his wide horizon, and his" academicism " in the best sense of the word. " His essays were at that time the most popular works of the samizdat.
Director Andrei Tarkovsky and composer Eduard Artemyev studied Pomeranz 's lectures and his undefended PhD on Zen Buddhism during their work on Stalker.
After perestroika Pomeranz expressed rarely daily politics, if they do, with sharp criticism. Also from people who do not share his political views, he still enjoyed watching. The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta described him as the last moral authority of Russia. Outside Russia, Pomeranz has received in contrast to other dissidents during his lifetime little attention, even though he was highly esteemed among them.
Prices
- Bjørnson Prize of the Norwegian Academy of Literature and Freedom of Speech at Pomeranz and Mirkina "for their extensive contributions to strengthen the freedom of speech in Russia."
Works
Abroad, published:
- Unpublished ( Неопубликованное ), Munich 1972.
- Dreams of the Earth ( Сны земли ), Paris 1984.
- Openness towards the abyss. Experiments on Dostoevsky ( Открытость бездне. Этюды о Достоевском ), New York 1989.
- The spiritual movement from the West. An Essay and Two Talks. Caux Books, Caux 2004, ISBN 2-88037-600-9.
In Russia appeared:
- Openness towards the abyss. Encounters with Dostoevsky ( Открытость бездне. Встречи с Достоевским. ) Советский писатель, Moscow, 1990, ISBN 5-265-01527-2.
- Lectures on the Philosophy of History ( Лекции по философии истории ), 1993.
- Self collect ( Собирание себя ) ЛИА " ДОК ", 1993, ISBN 5-87710-008-4.
- With Zinaida Mirkina: The world's major religions ( Великие религии мира. ) Рипол, Moscow 1995, ISBN 5-87907-016-6.
- Output from the trance ( Выход из транса. ) Российская политическая энциклопедия, (1995 ) 2010, ISBN 978-5-8243-1319-2.
- Notes of an ugly duckling ( Записки гадкого утенка. ) Московский рабочий, Moscow ( 1995), 2003, ISBN 5-8243-0430-0.
- Ways of the Spirit and the zigzag course of the story ( Дороги духа и зигзаги истории ), Российская политическая энциклопедия, 2008, ISBN 978-5-8243-0961-4.
- In the shadow of the Tower of Babel ( В тени Вавилонской башни ) Центр гуманитарных инициатив, 2012, ISBN 978-5-98712-090-3.