Main publications

Aristova E. P. Ambrose of Milan and Aurelius Augustine about soul. Moscow: Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences Publ., 2019. 216 p.

ISBN 978-5-9540-0349-9

In the book the concept of immaterial intellectual soul is analyzed in connection with its Greek philosophical roots (Plato’s and Plotinus concepts) and Christian thought of Latin Church Fathers – Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo. These two figures, often described as the teacher and the disciple, were bright examples of Patristics thought of 4–5th centuries A.D., interested in Bible allegorical interpretation and partly inspired by Neoplatonism. In the well-known French scientific tradition of the second part of the 20th century, started by publications of P. Hadot and P. Courcelle, the connection between the Church fathers and Neoplatonism was often discussed. Large citations of Plotinus were marked in their traits, so their though was even sometimes characterized as “Christian Neoplatonism”. The book “Ambrose of Milan and Aurelius Augustine about soul” analyzes from the point of view of history of philosophy if “Christian Neoplatonism” is possible. Not only the parallels, but also the controversies between Neoplatonism and Christianity are shown. The main topics for comparison are soul and body combination, description of matter, interpretation of the mystical connection between human’s soul and the God or the Good, the “fall” of a man’s soul. The large part of the research is the philosophical analyze of the Latin terms, describing soul as the complex of vital, sensual and cognitive abilities. Among these terms there are anima, animus, ratio, irrationalis, mens, voluntas, sensus, passio, affectus, intentio. Understanding of this vocabulary shows the process of immaterial soul concept formation and the connection of this concept with material body necessity, believed by Christians.

Voronina O. A. Gender culture in Russia: traditions and innovations. Moscow: Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences Publ., 2018. 111 p.

ISBN 978-5-9540-0344-4

The book describes and analyzes the processes of formation of gender culture in Russia at three stages of its history: tsarism, Soviet and post-Soviet period. The work based on interdisciplinary methodology and used concepts of social history, philosophy and fiction.

The main ideas of the author are as follows. The archaic symbolism of Mother Earth, coming from Russian folklore, has been preserved in Russian culture for centuries. The mythologeme of Mother Russia links several symbolic phenomena: sacred/Holy, feminine/motherhood, earth/nature as a source of life and Homeland as a space of national existence. At the end of the XIX century the myth was given a new metaphysical justification and became part of the “Russian idea”. Russian messianism appealed to the qualities and values that are considered to be not rational (i.e. not male) in the system of binary symbolism. The antinomy of Western rational masculinity (embodied in the concepts of state and law) and Russian national sincerity (embodied in the mythology of Mother Russia) became an integral part of the concept of the Russian idea. This has long defined the Russian national identity. Soviet modernization did not affect, but only transformed patriarchal norms. The conservative turn in state policy in the post-Soviet period is accompanied by the rejection of the culture of gender equality under the pretext of the need to return to national traditions. However, in modern society the prescription of tradition is not a priori basis for the recognition of its value, since many traditional values do not meet the needs of the individual and society in development. The world community has put forward a single criterion for determining the positive and negative content of traditions. These are universally recognized human rights enshrined in international instruments. Our country should join this practice.

ISBN 978-5-91932-016-6

Collection of conference materials devoted to the study of the life and work of I.S. Turgenev as a philosophizing writer and political philosopher, consists of three sections. The first deals with the most common issues of the stated topic. The second consists of works in which individual philosophical problems are analyzed, which are revealed in different periods of Turgenev's work. And finally, the third is devoted to finding answers to the literary and cultural questions that exist in his works, as well as a critical examination of their scenic and screen life.

The publication is addressed to philosophers, cultural scientists, philologists, art historians, historians, political scientists, sociologists.

ISBN 978-5-9903075-8-2

Doctor of Philosophy Simush P.I. - a well-known developer of the problems of Russian philosophical studies. This book is dedicated to the life of Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva. The writer is the greatest genius of our time. In the 33rd scenes of plots there is a spiritual power gained through undergoing (in the words of Joseph Brodsky). M.I. Tsvetaeva opens up convergent knowledge of Russia, the central area of culture.

Nikolsky S. A. Empire and culture. The philosophical and literary understanding of October. Moscow: IPh RAS Publ., 2017. 126 p.

ISBN 978-5-9540-0321-5

The theme of "Empire and culture" is developed through the analysis of phenomena and processes associated with the revolution of October 1917. As a research subject are elected by philosophical and artistic works of a number of major Russian writers and poets, and time limits are moved apart by several decades. Special emphasis on the philosophical and the literary imaginations of writers – contemporaries of October about the future of Communist Russia and socialism, the victorious on a world scale. Discussion of pre-October, October and post-October events is undertaken on a material of some works of Anton Chekhov, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Boris Pilnyak, Alexander Blok, Alexander Bogdanov, Andrey Platonov, Osip Mandelstam, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Anna Akhmatova, Varlam Shalamov. 

Simush P. I. The Challenge to Russia's cluckety - 1917-and-classics. Moscow: MOOO "ASMO-synthesis" Publ., 2017. 224 p.

The book presents the original version of the all-Russian humanistic revolution of 1917. 

Koznova Irina E. The Stalinist era in the memory of the Russian peasantry. Moscow: Political encyclopedia Publ., 2016. (History of Stalinism). 464 pages.  Published with financial support of Russian Foundation for Humanities /

ISBN 978-5-843-2031-2


The Stalinist era most strongly expresses the socio-cultural, ideological fracture, experienced by a Russian village in the XX century. The New Economic Policy and rejection of it, collectivization and dispossession, strengthening of collective farms and the peasantry, repression, war, and repeated famines -  each of these events and processes, one way or another imprinted in the memory of the peasant, is based on a figurative series. The book deals with the peculiarities of peasant perceptions of the past, explores the characteristics and the contents of the memory of the peasants about Stalinism.

Nikolsky Sergey A. Horizons of meanings. Philosophical interpretations of Russian literature of the XIX and XX centuries. Moscow: Golos Publishers, 2015. Published with financial support of Russian Foundation for Humanities 

Simush Petr I. The Beneficial legacy of Lermontov for the research Russian studies. Moscow: MOOO "ASMO-Synthesis", 2015.

In the book of the famous philosopher Peter I. Simush, doctor of philosophical Sciences, Professor, academician of the UNESCO International Informatization Academy, author of several works on Russian studies and classical Philology, there is explored the phenomenon of Michail Lermontov. World of Lermontov is the required middle of the world. Its holder possessed the knowledge of the Universe, representing a small universe.
The author  proposes the study of a  Lermontov as a thinker - elect of the Providence, the prophet and a poet. One can somehow relate to the religious philosophy of Lermontov, to accept or reject it, but no one can deny its powerful metaphysical content. Book of Petr Simush reveals the striking originality of Lermontov's personality in integral Russian studies. He gives an unusual interpretation of the terms "sanctity",  "dumb Russia" (instead of "unwashed").

Kuzmina Tamara A. Existential philosophy. Moscow: "Canon+ ROOI "Rehabilitation", 2014. 352 P.  ISBN 978-5-88373-291-0

The monograph explores the nature of existential experience and existential philosophy. The latter does not coincide neither on the content nor the amount of existentialism, considered only as a particular school or trend in contemporary philosophy. Existential experience, which lies at the basis of philosophy, makes common the thinkers, traditionally attributed to different schools (in particular, Immanuel Kant, and N. Berdyaev). On the basis of units of existential philosophy the author deals with the problems of morality and culture.

Simush Petr I. Codes of the Silver age: what solves Yesenin? Moscow: MOOO "ASMO-synthesis", 2014. - 224 P. ISBN 978-5-9903075-4-4

In the book of the famous philosopher Peter I. Simush, doctor of philosophical Sciences, Professor, academician of the UNESCO International Informatization Academy, author of several works on Russian studies and classical Philology, there is  examined "the prophet Sergey Yesenin ", which was "terra incognito" of the Russian thought of the XX century. The novelty of integrative consciousness in "Yesenin theme" is already in demand according to  the growth of intellectualization of the Russian society in the XXI century. Yesenin is the owner of an amazing quality of convergence, the relevance of which becomes clear in the domestic Modernity.

In framework of the research dialogue between Professor and students, there is presented a new approach to the  integral worldview clarified by the poets - thinkers of the Silver age. In the search of the  answer to the questions how to think creatively and to act in the current situation, the new youth are drawn to the intellectual experience of previous generations. The philosophical poetics of the Silver age are especially attractive to young people, it is consonant to the beginning of the XXI century. Students discuss the problem: have the "Russian Russians" kept the Russian soul, what "codes" Russia should decode, how to "call to the future that has passed."

In the current book the author presents a vision of the complex problems that characterized the agrarian economy and the rural community of Russia in the early twentieth century and are continuing to this day. The author examines the questions of individual and collective production, interference or non-interference of the state in economic processes, as well as the regional peculiarities of the rural economy, land ownership and social awareness of producers, the role of national and cultural traditions and many others. The present publication includes articles published by the author in a number of Central and regional Newspapers and magazines in 1994-1999 years. The book is recommended to specialists in the field of agrarian economy and agriculture.

Nikolsky Sergey A. Russian worldview. Volume III. "New people" as an idea and phenomenon: the experience of understanding in the national philosophy and classical literature of 40-ies – 60-ies of the XIX century. Moscow: Progress-Tradition, 2012. ISBN: 978-5-89826-364-5.  

One of the reactions of Russian philosophical-humanitarian thought on expected and held under Alexander II liberal reforms became the phenomenon of the "new man." Its invention was due to the fact that the development of capitalism in the country was just beginning. "New people", who most often were in the images of the commoners of urban residents that have no "roots" (deep ties with the native history and culture), were inhabited in the artistic and philosophical texts of many writers, from Chernyshevsky to Dostoevsky. However, in the literature there have been  successfully analyzed the meanings and values imparted by the "new old" Russian types represented in narratives of Herzen, Leskov, Sukhovo-Kobylin, Saltykov-Shchedrin. The analysis of how the imaginary and the real consciousness  of "new people"  done by philosophizing writers, has significantly enriched the picture of the Russian world, created by domestic classics.

Nikolsky Sergey A. Russian worldview. Volume II. How a positive case is possible in Russia: the search for the answer in the national philosophy and classical literature of the 40-60-ies of the XIX century. Moscow: Progress-Tradition, 2009. 543 p. (In co-authorship with V. P. Filimonov). Published with financial support of Russian Foundation for Humanities 

Nikolsky Sergey A. Russian worldview. Volume I. Meanings and values of Russian life in Russian literature and philosophy in XVIII - mid XIX centuries. Moscow: Progress-Tradition, 2008. 415 p. (co-authored with V. P. Filimonov). Published with financial support of Russian Foundation for Humanities 

Simush Petr I. Why do the  classics prophesy? Moscow: ASMO-synthesis, 2012. 255 p.  ISBN 978-5-9903075-2-0.

The prophetic tradition of the Russian classics (from Gavriil Derzhavin to Boris Pasternak) retains its relevance and carries the creativity. Classic is much superior to modern literature, possesses undoubted intellectual capacity and omniscience.

Simush Petr I. Russia and Chekhov: the acquisition of truth. Moscow: ASMO-Synthesis, 2011. 240 p. ISBN 978-5-9903075-1-3.

The contribution of Chekhov in the integral worldview is presented as the synthesis of science with philosophy, religion and literary works. Chekhov is isomorphic to Russia, he is imbued with the spirit of Russian classics, the spirit of historicism and eternity. His understanding of the world contributes to the scientific philosophy of the idea of "moral law", a combination of forms of worldview into the field between the extremes of theology and atheism, about the proper legal way of Russia.

Mezhuev Vadim M. The Idea of culture. Essays on the philosophy of culture. Moscow: Progress-Tradition, 2006. 408 p.

The issue of culture as an object of philosophical knowledge, the main stages in the development of the philosophy of culture (classical and post-classical), philosophy of culture in the system of sciences about culture and a range of subjects relevant to the modern Russian philosophy (culture as an activity, the concept of national culture, civilisation and cultural identity of Russia) - that is the content of the monograph of the famous Russian philosopher Vadim M. Mezhuev.

Nikolsky Sergey A. Agrarian policy of Russia (the outlook of reformers and the practice of agrarian reforms in the socio-historical, economic and philosophical contexts). Moscow: Colossus, 2003. 376 p. Published with financial support of Russian Foundation for Humanities (project No. 02-03-16123).

The author examines the history and philosophical bases of agrarian theory and practice of transformations in Russian agriculture during the period from the late seventeenth to the early twenty-first centuries. Special attention is paid to the history of the twentieth century, including regional models of agricultural reform of  1990-ies in the Oryol, Belgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar and Moscow regions. Also there is a separate transformation programme in the Republic of Crimea. For researchers, specialists of the agribusiness management bodies of all levels.

Nikolsky Sergey A. The Power and the Land. The chronicle of the approval of the bureaucracy in the village after October 1917. Moscow: Agropromizdat, 1990. 238 p.