The Conception of History by Nikolai Boldyrev: Neo-Kantian Perspectives

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the conception of history formulated by the Russian philosopher Nikolai
Boldyrev at the beginning of the 1920s. The aim of the paper is the reconstruction of his ideas of history giving particular attention to the results of his reception of the Neo-Kantian theoretical models
and approaches. In order to clarify the conditions of this reception, the context of the philosophichistorical research in the Russian neo-Kantian movement is outlined and some earlier unknown facts
of Boldyrev’s scientific biography are shown. These facts confirm his profound professional interest
in the neo-Kantian philosophy. The author of the paper focuses her attention on the main philosophic-historical text of Boldyrev entitled “The Meaning of History and Progress” (1922) and shows that
in this text the key concepts of the neo-Kantian philosophy of history such as time and eternity, end
and ideal, Utopia and progress, man and mankind are comprehended systematically. As a result of
the comparative analysis of the basic terms and notions and the theoretical models from the texts
of German and Russian Neo-Kantians, the theoretical sources of Boldyrev’s conception of history
are identified. They are, firstly, the philosophical systems of the Marburg and South-Western NeoKantians – H. Cohen, E. Cassirer, and H. Rickert, and, secondly, the theoretical-methodological
approach to history as a science by the Russian historian and critical philosopher Aleksander LappoDanilevsky whose scientific conception in turn is based on the philosophical ideas of I. Kant and
German Neo-Kantians.