Pyotr Nikolayevich Fedoseyev (

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 ...

: Пётр Николаевич Федосеев; August 22, 1908 – October 18, 1990) was a Soviet philosopher, sociologist, politician and public figure.

Biography

Fedoseyev was born into a peasant family. In 1930 he graduated from the Gorky Pedagogical Institute and in the same year, from among the students of the socio-economic department of the pedagogical faculty, he was approved as a nominee for preparation for teaching philosophy. In 1936 he completed his postgraduate studies at the , having defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Philosophical Sciences on the topic "Formation of Philosophical Views of F. Engels". From 1936 to 1941, he was a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. He received his Doctorate of Philosophical Sciences in 1940 with the dissertation "Marxism-Leninism on religion and its overcoming". From 1941 to 1955, he worked in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and was the editor-in-chief of the magazine ''Bolshevik'' (later '' Kommunist''). He was head of the department of dialectical materialism of the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU. From 1955 to 1962, he was director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences. From 1959 to 1967, he was Academician-Secretary of the Department of Philosophy and Law (Department of Economic, Philosophical and Legal Sciences) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1962–1967 and in 1971–1988, he was vice-president of the Academy of Sciences. From 1967 to 1973, he was director of the

Institute of Marxism–Leninism An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

under the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was one of the academicians of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, who in 1973 signed a letter from scientists to the Pravda newspaper condemning "the behavior of Academician Andrey Sakharov". He was elected a member of the Central Committee of the Party at the CPSU. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union of the 6th and 9 convocations. Fedoseyev was Chairman of the Commission for Public Education, Science and Culture of the Council of Nationalities of 8-9 convocations. He was chairman of the Board of the Soviet-Hungarian Friendship Society. He was an honorary member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

, foreign member of the

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (abbreviated BAS; , ''Bŭlgarska akademiya na naukite'', abbreviated БАН) is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy, with headquarters in Sofia, is autonomous and consists of a S ...

, Academy of Sciences of East Germany and the

Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...

. After a fire in the Library of the Academy of Sciences on February 15, 1988, he resigned from the post of vice-president of the academy. Pyotr Nikolaevich Fedoseyev died on October 18, 1990, and was buried at the

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

Scientific activity

Fedoseyev's main works are devoted to the subjects of

historical materialism Historical materialism is Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx located historical change in the rise of Class society, class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. Karl Marx stated that Productive forces, techno ...

, scientific communism, scientific atheism as well as criticism of bourgeois philosophy and sociology. His works has been translated in many different languages, specifically in the former Eastern Bloc.

Awards

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

Hero of Socialist Labor The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievements in Soviet ...

* Four

Orders of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

* Order of the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War () is a Soviet Union, Soviet military Order (decoration), decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to Partisan (military), partisans for heroic deeds in the Easte ...

, 1st class * Four Orders of the Red Banner of Labor * Mongolian Order of Sukhbaatar * K. Marx Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR

References