Despite its key role in the intellectual shaping of state socialism, Communist ideas are often dismissed as mere propaganda or as a rhetorical exercise aimed at advancing socialist intellectuals on their way to power. By drawing attention to unknown and unexplored areas, trends and ways of thinking under socialism, the volume examines Eastern Europe and Russian histories of intellectual movements inspired - negatively as well as positively - by Communist arguments and dogmas. Through an interdisciplinary dialogue, the collection demonstrates how various bodies of theoretical knowledge (philosophical, social, political, aesthetic, even theological) were used not only to justify dominant political views, but also to frame oppositional and nonofficial discourses and practices. The examination of the underlying structures of Communism as an intellectual project provides convincing evidence for questioning a dominant approach that routinely frames the post-Communist intellectual development as a "revival" or, at least, as a "return" of the repressed intellectual traditions. As the book shows, the logic of a radical break, suggested by this approach, is in contradiction with historical evidence: a significant number of philosophical, theoretical and ideological debates in post-Communist world are in fact the logical continuation of intellectual conversations and confrontations initiated long before 1989.
Chapter 1 Introduction Part 2 I. The Sickle, the Hammer and the Typewriter Chapter 3 1) Ideas against Ideocracy: The Platonic Drama of Russian Thought Chapter 4 2) Asking for More: Finding Utopia in the Critical Sociology of the Budapest School and the Praxis Movement Chapter 5 3) Aesthetics: a Modus Vivendi in East Central Europe? Chapter 6 4) Changing Perceptions of Pavel Florensky in Russian and Soviet Scholarship Part 7 II. Heretics Chapter 8 5) The Totalitarian Languages of Utopia and Dystopia: Fidelius and Havel Chapter 9 6) Martyrdom and Philosophy. The Case of Jan Patocka Chapter 10 7) Anti-Communist Orientalism: Shifting Boundaries of Europe in Dissident Writing Part 11 III. In Search of a (New) Mission Chapter 12 8) Vitality Rediscovered: Theorizing Post-Soviet Ethnicity in Russia Chapter 13 9) Balkanism and postcolonilaism or on the Beauty of the Airplane View Chapter 14 10) Anxious Intellectuals: Framing the Nation as a class in Belarus Part 15 IV. Reinventing Hope Chapter 16 11) The Demise of Leninism and the Future of Liberal Values Chapter 17 12) "Politics of Authenticity" and/or Civil Society Chapter 18 13) Mihai Sora: A Philosopher of Dialogue and Hope
