Mikhail Lifshitz

Mikhail Alexandrovich Lifschitz (Russian: Михаил Александрович Лифшиц; * Julijul 10 / 23 July 1905greg in Melitopol, Russian Empire, .. † 28 September 1983 in Moscow) was a Soviet Marxist literary critic and philosopher of art. In the 1930s, he was a close friend and collaborator of György Lukács, and had in 1975 a leading position in the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Lifshitz was born in Melitopol and began studying at the School of Art Vkhutemas in Moscow. After arguments with his teachers, he moved in 1929, however, to the Moscow Marx- Engels Institute, where he met Georg Lukacs in 1930 and drew his attention to the aesthetic ideas of Marx. He was secretary of the editorial board of the journals Letopisi marksizma and Archives Marksa i Engel'sa, where many first editions of Marx- Engels published manuscripts. When, in March 1931, all employees of the Marx - Engels Institute were examined for their remaining or her dismissal, the "Central Revision Commission of the Workers 'and Peasants' Inspection " decided to " leave ". From 1932 he was next employed at the Communist Academy. In the thirties the series " Classics of aesthetics " with works of Winckelmann, Lessing, Goethe, Schiller and Vico was published under his editorship. In addition, Lifshitz wrote many essays, reviews and polemics in literary journals such as the 1940 Prohibited Literaturnyj criticism and the known literature Gazeta.

At the outbreak of the German - Soviet war he volunteered for the Red Army. In the late 1950s led Lifschitz ' writings on socialism and the development of Soviet society clashes with leading Soviet intellectuals, and to his expulsion from the CPSU. At the same time, the Khrushchev thaw, a collaboration between Lifschitz and Soviet philosophers Ewald Ilyenkov revealed. Despite his criticism of the Soviet system Lifschitz remained a representative of Marxism- Leninism and was inducted into the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1975. At the request of the writer Alexander Twardowski Lifshitz wrote in 1961 a review of Solzhenitsyn's first book A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, published in the journal Novy Mir. In his art theoretical writings he sat particularly critical look at modern art.

The majority of his work is available only in Russian. In German translation appeared Karl Marx and the aesthetic, the collection of the thirties. Selected writings, which also contains a revised version of Karl Marx and the aesthetic, and the crisis of the ugly. From Cubism to Pop Art, a critique of modern art in the fundus series of VEB Verlag der Art Dresden. In 1948 was the anthology edited by him Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels. About art and literature. A collection of her writings published in German. In 1938 was published The Philosophy of Art of Karl Marx in English translation.

Works

• The philosophy of art of Karl Marx. Ed. by Angel Flores. Transl. from Russian by Ralph B. Winn. Critics Group, New York, 1938.

In German translation:

• Karl Marx and the aesthetic. Publisher of Art, Dresden, 1960 ( 2nd edition 1967) ( fundus Volume 3 ).
• Crisis of the ugly. From Cubism to Pop Art Publishing House of the Arts, Dresden 1971 ( fundus Volume 26 ).
• The thirties. Selected writings. Publisher of Art, Dresden 1988 ( fundus volumes 113-115 ).

As the editor in German translation:

• Marx / Engels. About art and literature. A collection of her writings. Henschel Verlag, Berlin, 1948 ( 6th edition 1953).