Remembering Professor M.A. Maslin

Abstract

This collection of memoirs about Mikhail Aleksandrovich Maslin (1947–2025), Head of the Department of the History of Russian Philosophy at the Philosophy Faculty of Moscow State University. Professor, Doctor of Philosophy, is comprised of alumni of the department, currently research fellows at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences: A.I. Vakulinskaya, N.I. Gerasimov, O.I. Kusenko, and M.V. Shpakovsky. Mikhail Aleksandrovich’s students reminisce about the beginning of their academic careers under the sensitive and skillful guidance of M.A. Maslin, their first encounter with their teacher and guide into the world of Russian Philosophy. They share memorable moments and events associated with Professor Maslin, note the role their academic mentor played in their academic destinies and careers, and evaluate his contribution to the study of Russian thought. All the authors note Mikhail Aleksandrovich’s personal and professional qualities – sensitivity and attentiveness, tolerance and tact, experience and erudition, and kindness. They agree that for M.A. Maslin, Russian philosophy was fundamentally “diverse”, representing “unity in diversity” and encompassing religious philosophy, populism, positivism, Marxism, and anarchism. Therefore, the range of topics explored in the Department of the History of Russian Philosophy was quite broad. Under his guidance, it was possible to study and write about everything, and his graduate students were able to defend their dissertations on a wide variety of topics – including the works of I.A. Ilyin, P.A. Kropotkin, Italian historiography of Russian philosophy, Old Russian thought, and others.