What does it mean to be the Socrates of Soviet philosophy, as Georgian-born philosopher Merab Mamardashvili has been called? More broadly, what does it mean to be a Socrates in Russia at all? Mamardashvili was known primarily as an orator and in the 1970s and 1980s, he appeared behind the podium at the most prestigious institutions in the Soviet Union, often lecturing to standing-room-only crowds. And yet, like many before him who were given the title of “Socrates,” Mamardashvili was unlike Socrates in at least as many ways as he was like him. This paper will trace the narrative of “Socrates in Russia” from Alexander Herzen to Mamardashvili, illuminating how both philosophers pinpoint the Socratic genesis of Russian intellectual history firmly within the legacy of Alexander Pushkin, and with what Mamardashvili calls “the Pushkinian concept of freedom.” I argue that the “Socratic” label, employed many times in the Russian-speaking historical context, serves as a mirror in which philosophical inquiry might see and reflect upon itself.

DeBlasio, Alyssa. Socrates as Symbol: Alexander Herzen, Merab Mamardashvili, and Alexander Pushkin. In Socrates in Russia, edited by Alyssa DeBlasio and Victoria Juharyan, 281–299. Leiden: Brill, 2022.

Alyssa DeBlasio is a professor of Russian at Dickinson College.

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