Authors

Aleksandra Bessonova¹;  ¹ Cambridge University, UK

Discussion

The intellectual history of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s demonstrates the turbulent and rapidly changing ideas and policies across all spheres of life and knowledge production in the new state. Although the 1917 Revolution marked many ruptures, it is important to acknowledge the continuities that have often remained understudied. In my research, I attempt to trace an intellectual history of intuition, and I argue that its significance for Soviet culture should not be overlooked.
Generally understood as a non-rational mode of knowledge, the idea of intuition (intuitsiia) can be traced back to the pre-revolutionary period, when it appears to have preoccupied a range of Russian thinkers, from philosophers to writers and psychologists. For example, the French philosopher Henri Bergson’s theories about intuition prompted discussions among Russian philosophers. With the 1917 revolution, intuition as a legitimate mode of understanding reality and human nature was to become obsolete, given that all the groups for whom it had been important were marginalised, including idealist philosophers and proponents of esoteric doctrines. By the early 1930s, the term intuitsiia had become loosely associated with fascism and reactionary politics, and accusations of intuitivism could accompany the errors of those charged with Trotskyism. Nevertheless, the concept of the intuitive continued to exert influence in the Soviet period. The term appeared in several important debates in literary theory and criticism during this period, with both advocates and opponents formulating their arguments and attaching ideological significance to the concept. Just as there were projects aimed at revolutionising human senses in the 1920s (Emma Widdis, Irina Sirotkina), my question is whether the ‘sixth sense’ could also be reconsidered and included into the Marxist framework successfully.
In this paper, I focus on the work of the literary critic Viacheslav Polonskii (1886–1932), the Moscow-based editor of the literary journal Novyi mir. A former student at the Bekhterev Psychoneurological Institute in Saint Petersburg, Polonskii remained interested in psychology and physiology throughout his literary career. By the early 1930s, he sought to develop a dialectical-materialist theory of consciousness and intuition. Since it appeared that there was a notion of a sudden, intuitive knowledge that had been embedded in both literary discourse and everyday language, Polonskii sought to grasp this phenomenon within a Marxist framework. In the absence of clear guidance from the classics of Marxism, he proposed his own vision. This paper draws on Polonskii’s published works, as well as archival sources that include his autobiographies, meeting transcripts, drafts, working notes, correspondence and his second wife’s memoirs.