On the Anniversary of Boris Pasternak. Report by Alexey Kara-Murza at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences

On February 11, 2020, at the Institute of Philosophy, the report “Russia as the North: Problems of Civilizational Identity in Boris Pasternak’s Philosophy (on the 130th Birth Anniversary)” was delivered by Alexey Kara-Murza, a chief research fellow of the International Laboratory for the Study of Russian and European Intellectual Dialogue

In his report, the author set forth the concept of “Russian North”. According to A. A. Kara-Murza, the dilemma of Westernism and Slavophilism, traditional for Russian historiosophy, which divides the spiritual, cultural and political views of Russian authors along the "West" - "East" axis, should be complemented by the "North-South" identification concept. In this context, Boris Pasternak turns out to be a "winter" poet, a singer of the North. This conclusion follows from Pasternak's constant appeal to winter imagery in key, existentially and metaphysically loaded works related to the dramatic milestones of the fate of the poet and writer.

The Video recording of the report.