Fyodor Avgustovich Stepun (; February 18, 1884 – February 23, 1965) (also known as Friedrich Steppuhn) was a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

writer, philosopher, historian and sociologist.

Biography

Fyodor Avgustovich Stepun was born in Russia on 18 February 1884, in Moscow. After attending secondary school in Moscow he went as a student to Heidelberg, and there in 1910 he obtained his doctorate for a thesis on Vladimir Solovyov's philosophy of history. Between 1910 and 1914 Stepun edited the international philosophical journal, ''Logos'', and travelled across Russia lecturing on philosophy, literature and culture. During the first World War he was an officer in a Siberian regiment, and after the Russian revolution was an army commissar under the

Russian Provisional Government The Russian Provisional Government was a provisional government of the Russian Empire and Russian Republic, announced two days before and established immediately after the abdication of Nicholas II on 2 March, O.S. New_Style.html" ;"title="5 ...

. From 1920 to 1922 he directed the state experimental theatre; but in 1922 he was deported from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. He settled in Germany, working first 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 ...

, and afterwards as a professor of sociology in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

(1926–1937). During this period he published in Russian his books on 'Life and creation' (1923) and 'Letters of an Artillery Ensign' (1925), as well as ''Wie war es möglich?'' (1929), ''Das Antlitz Russlands und das Gesicht der Revolution'' (1934) and ''The Russian Soul and Revolution'' (1936). In 1937 he was expelled from his teaching-post by the Nazi authorities. From 1946 he worked as a professor of Russian cultural studies at

Munich University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, and published several works: ''Vergangenes und Unvergängliches'' (1947; Russian version, ''Byvshee i Nesbyvsheesya'', 1956), ''Theater und Film'' (1953), ''Der Bolschewismus und die Christliche Existenz'' (1959), and in Russian 'Encounters' (1962). Stepun was a fierce opponent of

Bolshevism Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined p ...

, as well as

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

. His philosophical doctrine has been described as neo-Kantist

transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of ...

linked with religious

metaphysic Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

s, close to the ideas of Vladimir Solovyov and

Nikolai Berdyaev Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; ; – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Empire, Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialism, Christian existentialist who emphasized the existentialism, existential spiritual significance of Pe ...

. Stepun died on 23 February 1965.

References

External links

* Fedor Stepun Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stepun, Fyodor 1884 births 1965 deaths Russian people of German descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany Writers from Moscow 20th-century Russian philosophers Metaphysicians German male writers 20th-century German philosophers Russian military personnel of World War I