Thursday in Residence with Nikolay Kononov
Evald Ilyenkov, the Great Neo-Marxist Pedagogical Experiment

Every first Thursday of each month, from 7 to 8 pm, a writer in residence opens a window on his or her work, universe and motives, in a free form of intervention. An hour of carte blanche to share, followed by a drink.

Nikolay Kononov has recently been working on a literary exploration of the life of Evald Ilyenkov, mainly through the prism of an educational experiment he conducted in the 1970s in Zagorsk, in the former Soviet Union. The neo-Marxist philosopher developed specific teaching methods for deaf and blind children, aiming to allow them greater autonomy in their academic, professional and personal lives.

As an advocate of a theory of personality in which relationships are central, Ilyenkov supported the idea that socialisation practices that promoted interactions rather than individualism enabled greater participation in society. At odds with the political ideologies of the Communist Party ruling at the time, the thinker was banned from teaching at the Moscow State University, and his main works were ostracised. Yet his vision of communism and his theories on dialectical materialism are still widely regarded today.

In this Thursday in Residence, Nikolay Kononov will explore the life of Ilyenkov, a man whose dreams of a Hegelian society were shattered by the dictatorial political reality of the former USSR, and whose story resonates with Zagorsk’s innovative educational venture.