Anti Communist, Russian nationalist, enemy of Hitler: Who was ‘Putin’s favorite philosopher?’How Ivan Ilyin, a thinker falsely accused by some in the West – seeking to promote a certain narrative – of being a ‘supporter of fascism’, became so influential...
By Maxim Semenov
He was a staunch supporter of the anti-Bolshevik White Movement during the Russian Civil War and a monarchist who was close to far-right Russian émigré circles. He was also a thinker who was accused of supporting fascism, but was persecuted by Nazi Germany as soon as Hitler came to power. Despite his an ardent anti-communism, he strongly supported the Soviet state in its confrontation with the Third Reich. All these facts describe one person – the renowned Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin.