Not so long ago, events around the Russian State University for the Humanities, where Ivan Ilyin’s name was given to the Higher School of Politics, began to be discussed in Russia. Ivan Ilyin was a far-right figure who actively opposed the socialist transformations in the USSR and advocated a war of aggression against it, justifying the ideas of national superiority and authoritarian anti-democratic rule.
For us, as leftists connected with both the post-Soviet space and Germany, such an event is categorically unacceptable. We are extremely happy to hear that Russian students have organized themselves to fight against the whitewashing of fascism in Russia and support this initiative (https://t.me/rsuh_stopfa), believing that far-right tendencies in Russia must be countered. We do not want authoritarian tendencies to turn Russia into an analog of the state that Ilyin actively supported during his German exile.
Given that we also have in our ranks students and graduate students from German universities as well as academics, we stand in international solidarity with students from various universities in Russia who are trying to give a strong rebuff to the transformation of the Russian academy into a product of the actions of the nationalist lobby.
No to fascists of all stripes, from back alleys to the authorities!
