Spring School "Archive of the Epoch: Philosophical Meanings"

In modern humanities such thing as an archive (personal, institutional, epoch (Foucault)) gains special importance. Archive becomes a strategic resource for understanding and solving the intellectual and cultural problems that we face today in various spheres of life. Modern philosopher especially needs archives, because in communication with his/her  "interlocutors" (authors from different epochs) his/her arguments acquire historical foundation, and new ideas become meaningful. To paraphrase the formula of Giambattista Vico, we can say that "Philosophy without an archive is empty, and an archive without philosophy is blind." The methodology of archival research, as well as ways to update and problematize archival data, is particularly difficult for modern philosophers. The most important component of such an archive methodology is hermeneutics.
On the first day of the Annual Spring School of the Archivist Philosopher "Archive of the Epoch: Philosophical Meanings", Vladimir K. Kantor, Tatyana G. Shchedrina, Boris I. Pruzhinin, Elena V. Serdyukova and Irina O. Shchedrina made introductory speeches. This spring school could have been called a touch of real history. The archive makes you return to the living history, feel and communicate with the authors of a bygone era. This spring school was a kind of co-existence, co-knowledge. Tatyana G. Shchedrina, a Professor at the Moscow State Pedagogical University, gave the lecture "The Archive of the Epoch as a strategic resource for understanding modernity", in which, through the prism of the works of Gustav Shpet and Michel Foucault, she spoke about archives as an opportunity to look at works in the dynamics of preparation and immersion in real time of the movement of thought, and presented the archive as a sign-semiotic system, as a place of memory and as a system in which there are many influences, points of contact, discourses.
Elena V. Serdyukova, Director of the Institute of Philosophy and Socio-Political Sciences of the Southern Federal University, gave the lecture "Current problems of preserving and studying the cultural heritage of the Russian Abroad (using the example of the archive of N. O. Lossky)". The researcher spoke about her experience of working with the Lossky archive in France, as well as about problematic issues of archives of Russian emigration, such as the dispersion of archives at both the country and organization levels, the issue of multilingualism of archives and attribution of texts, and the equally important issue of copyright.
Boris I. Pruzhinin, a HSE Professor, editor-in-chief of the journal "Voprosy Filosofii", spoke about the formation and development of the journal, the editorial board and publication of various authors, the future of the journal and development plans, the distinction between philosophy, theology and ideology, the return to philosophy in Soviet times, and also gave advice to young researchers and authors. After the lectures, an informal event was held.
On the second day of the school, Vladimir K. Kantor, a HSE Professor, head of the International Laboratory for the studies of Russian and European Dialogue, gave the lecture "Intellectual Archive of Russian Philosophy: centers, funds, personalities (using the example of the F. A. Stepun archive)", in which he spoke about his work in the archives of the USA, Germany and England, the biography of Fyodor Stepun.
Alexander V. Tkachenko, head of the sector of the Department of Restoration and Conservation of Museum objects at the State Museum of the History of Russian Literature named after V. I. Dal, held the workshop "Fundamentals of restoration and binding of philosophical books". He talked about the intricacies of restoration skills, book structure, bookbinding, tools needed for home book restoration. Under the guidance of Alexander Tkachenko, the participants of the school restored the damaged page of a book.
Alexandra von Stahl-Hahn, an archivist researcher and curator of family archives from Stockholm, conducted the master class "Family Archive as a philosophical and historical source", talking about the nuances and prospects of storing family archives. The most important thing in the work was to have respect for the archive, to know the purpose and formalize it.
Vladimir V. Sidorin, Head of the Department of the History of Russian Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, gave the lecture "Archives of Philosophical Institutions: ways of meanings transmission". Using the example of the term "sobornost", he noted that some concepts from the history of Russian philosophy proposed by archivists only obscured the meaning. Therefore it is important to consider philosophical knowledge in its dynamics, in its production and reproduction in the context of the epoch. 
In addition, on the second day the participants of the school deciphered Bulgakov's archival letter to Berdyaev.
On the third day of the school, a field seminar and a workshop were held on the difficulties of archival research. After walking through the courtyard of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences with a sightseeing tour, the participants of the school visited the Memorial Museum-office of Academician P. L. Kapitsa. The director of the Museum, Tatyana I. Balakhovskaya, conducted a tour of the mansion on the territory of the Institute of Physical Problems. The former library contains instruments and fragments of scientific installations with which Kapitsa worked for more than half a century, preserved machines on which he loved to work with his own hands, as well as a large handwritten and photo archive. After the tour, Tatyana Balakhovskaya told about the peculiarities of collecting the family archive of her relative — philosopher Lev I. Shestov.
After returning to the Voronovo Training Center, the participants attended the master class "Problems and strategies of archival research (on the example of Russian Neo-Kantianism)"  by Nina A. Dmitrieva, Professor of the Department of Philosophy at the Moscow Pedagogical State University, scientific director of the Kantiana Academy of the Baltic Federal University and a foreign corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. The reconstruction of the history of Russian neo-Kantianism is carried out with the help of published archival sources, reference books, university archives (including registers of lectures and personal files of students), family archives, foundations of organizations, collections of books from personal libraries and oral history (interviews with witnesses: children, archivists and executors).
On the fourth day, a new field seminar and a master class on decoding archival records took place. The school participants visited the Solzhenitsyn Centre of Russian Emigré Studies, where they were given a tour of the main expositions. The participants were told about the main stages of Russian history, about the three waves of Russian emigration, and showed the main faces of Russian emigration — philosophers, historians, artists and many others who found themselves abroad. In addition, the participants visited the library of the Centre, where they were told about the archives and periodicals that are there. After returning to the Voronovo Training Center, they attended the master class by Irina O. Shchedrina, a junior research fellow of the Laboratory, a senior teacher at State Academic University for the Humanities, "Work in the archive: from inventory to digitization". Irina Shchedrina told how to get into the archive, what documents you need to get for this, how to navigate there and how to publish subsequent results. The second part of the workshop was dedicated to the continuation of the decoding of Bulgakov's letter to Berdyaev under the guidance of Irina Shchedrina and Tatyana Shchedrina, Professor, editor of the archives of the series "Philosophy of Russia of the first half of the XX century". This letter will be published in the collection with thanks to the participants of the school.
On the final fifth day of the spring school, its solemn closing took place at the Losev House. The participants of the school visited the Library of A. F. Losev, where they were given a tour of the courtyard, museum and reading rooms of the library, told about the main biographical and creative milestones in the life of the famous philosopher. In the concert hall of the Losev House, Tatyana G. Shchedrina held the master class "Archive of the Philosopher in the digital Age". She spoke about her experience working with Gustav Shpet's manuscripts, the role of the Internet in the process of this work and the insufficiency of working with scanned documents. After the master class, the closing ceremony of the Spring School took place. The participants were awarded certificates confirming their participation in the Spring School and memorable gifts — books dedicated to modern methods of research of archives and the history of Russian philosophy.
The spring school gave students and postgraduates the opportunity to get to know and get closer to each other, establish interuniversity research ties, acquire basic skills in working with archives and learn a lot of new and interesting things! Spring School is planned to be held regularly. We look forward to seeing new participants!