Bohdan (Fedir) Oleksandrovych Kistiakivskyi (; 16 November 1869 – 16 April 1920) was a Ukrainian philosopher, jurist, and sociologist. He reached prominence with his ''Gesellschaft und Einzelwesen'' (Society and Individuals) published in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1899. Philosophically he defended

transcendental idealism Transcendental idealism is a philosophical system founded by German philosopher Immanuel Kant in the 18th century. Kant's epistemological program is found throughout his '' Critique of Pure Reason'' (1781). By ''transcendental'' (a term that des ...

. In 1902 he contributed to '' Problems of Idealism'' (''Problemy Idealizma''), edited by Pavel Novgorodtsev. In 1909 he contributed the essay "In Defense of Law" to the anthology '' Vekhi'' (Landmarks).

Biography

Early life

Bohdan Kistiakivskyi was born in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Kyiv Governorate Kiev Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire (1796–1917), Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–18; 1918–1921), Ukrainian State (1918), and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–1925 ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

on 16 November 1869. His father, Oleksandr Kistiakivskyi, was a professor of criminal law at the

University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

and the president of the Legal Society of Kyiv. Kistiakivskyi later remarked that he felt he had always struggled for his Ukrainian national identity and that he had been 'Russianized'.

Education

Between 1888 and 1892, Kistiakivskyi was expelled from the history and philology departments of the

and the

University of Kharkiv The V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (), also known as Kharkiv National University or Karazin University, is a public university in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was founded in 1804 through the efforts of Vasily Karazin, becoming the second old ...

, as well as the law school of the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

due to his participation in underground Ukrainian nationalist groups. He was arrested in connection to nationalist groups in 1892, and when he was released in 1895, Kistiakivskyi decided to continue his studies abroad. He attended the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, the Sorbonne, and the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

. In 1898, he defended a philosophy doctoral dissertation entitled 'On Society and the Individual', which was published in Berlin the following year and received acclaim from German thinkers.

Family

Kistiakivskyi married Maria Kistiakivska (née Berenshtam) ( Ukrainian: Марiя Вільямівна Беренштам-Кістяківська), who taught at workers' schools in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

with

Nadezhda Krupskaya Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya ( rus, links=no, Надежда Константиновна Крупская, p=nɐˈdʲeʐdə kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvnə ˈkrupskəjə; – 27 February 1939) was a Russian revolutionary, politician and politic ...

. They had two sons: the American chemist

George Kistiakowsky George Bogdanovich Kistiakowsky (, ; – December 7, 1982) was a Ukrainian-American physical chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project and later served as President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Science Advisor. B ...

, and the Ukrainian ornithologist Oleksandr Kistiakivskyi.

Philosophy and law career

Upon return to Russia, Kistiakivskyi became a lecturer in state and administrative law at the Moscow Commercial Institute and later worked at the

University of Moscow Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

and in

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

. His writings were influenced by leading German thinkers, notably

neo-Kantian In late modern philosophy, neo-Kantianism () was a revival of the 18th-century philosophy of Immanuel Kant. The neo-Kantians sought to develop and clarify Kant's theories, particularly his concept of the thing-in-itself and his moral philosophy ...

philosophers and

Georg Jellinek Georg Jellinek (16 June 1851 – 12 January 1911) was a German public lawyer and was considered to be "''the'' exponent of public law in Austria“. Life Jellinek was born in Leipzig. His father, Adolf Jellinek, was an Austrian rabbi. From 186 ...

. He was a friend of

Max Weber Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German Sociology, sociologist, historian, jurist, and political economy, political economist who was one of the central figures in the development of sociology and the social sc ...

, whose views on the need for reform in Russian politics he shared. In 1902, he contributed an article to the ''Problems of Idealism (Problemy Idealizma)'' (Russian: Проблемы идеализма) on the revival of

natural law Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...

doctrine. The ideas expressed in the collection were critical of the core beliefs of the radical

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

, but they were expressed in a sufficiently academic way so as not to cause controversy. It included essays criticizing the historical theories of Marx and Engels and critiques of Comte and Mikhaylovsky. In 1905, Kistiakivskyi published an article in the first issue of the literary-social journal ''Voprosy zhizni'', which was edited by Nikolai Losskii. The article called for the recognition of the significance of the individual and their rights and argued that civil rights are absolute and inalienable. In 1909, Kistiakivskyi contributed an article entitled 'In Defense of Law: The Intelligentsia and Legal Consciousness' to '' Vekhi.'' The article argued that the intelligentsia have no interest in the law and no legal consciousness. He criticizes the intelligentsia for ignoring the idea of 'intuitive law' and viewing legal systems as only something external. He also directly connected the lack of legal consciousness to the intelligentsia's rejection of a constitutional system, which he argues is the only system of government that can guarantee freedom and individual rights.Kistiakovskii, Bogdan, ‘In Defence of Law: The Intelligentsia and Legal Consciousness’ in Marshall S. Shatz and Judith E. Zimmerman (trans. and eds.), ''Vekhi=Landmarks: A Collection of Articles about the Russian Intelligentsia'' (London, 1994) Through his writings, Kistiakivskyi became a leading advocate of

constitutionalism Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law". Political organizations are constitutional to ...

in Russia. His principal work, ''Social Science and Law'' (1916), attempted to establish a theory of law in the context of the social sciences, through a critical analysis of the principal schools of legal theory of his time. In 1917, he became a professor at the University of Kyiv and also was involved in organising the Ukrainian Federal Democratic Party. In 1919, he was elected a full member of the

National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; , ; ''NAN Ukrainy'') is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine that is the main center of development of Science and technology in Ukraine, science and technology by coordinatin ...

. Kistiakivskyi fell ill traveling in 1919 and died in

Yekaterinodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

in 1920.

References

Bibliography

* 1869 births 1920 deaths Ukrainian philosophers National University of Kharkiv alumni Academic staff of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv {{more cats, date=June 2021