Towards a History of the Defeat and Rehabilitation of the "Philosophical Front" in the USSR

The article examines the case of eradication of the "Philosophical front" in the USSR as well as the attempts to rehabilitate it led by Academician Abram M. Deborin. Having miraculously survived during Stalin's repressions A. Deborin took up the struggle for his rehabilitation right after Josef Stalin's death and resumed it after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). He almost succeeded in persuading certain top officials of the party and government to reconsider the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee about the "Philosophical front". This notorious decree cited the major fault of the former "philosophical leadership", i.e. their propensity for idealism and disregard for the leading role of the CPSU in the field of philosophy. The resolution of 1931 entitled the party bureaucracy alone to judge what is right and wrong about the Marxist philosophical theory. A. Deborin was quite close to his dream: the full rehabilitation of himself and his colleagues-philosophers the majority of whom had fallen victims to the Great terror. However, his goal could not be realized even theoretically. As follows from the analysis of the situation in Soviet society and social sciences in the wake of the 20th CPSU Congress, repealing the 1931 resolution would equal the elimination of Article 6 of the USSR Constitution which states the leading and organizing role of the Communist party in Soviet society. No one wanted to remove "the cornerstone" out of the official building built by Stalin. The article quotes and analyses letters written by Academicians M.B. Mitin and P.V. Yudin, the main conduits of Stalin's will. These letters contribute to our knowledge about Stalin's terror against the philosophers and the psychological atmosphere in soviet society following Stalin's death.