Viacheslav Ivanov and the ‘Jewish question’: The limits of the ‘universal man’

This essay analyses Ivanov’s treatment of the ‘Jewish question’ as a tool to assessing the limitations of his ‘universal’ worldview. What factors determined his approach to Judaism and Jews? How did he deal with diversity and ‘otherness’? The opening section explores the way he constructed his understanding of the Jews in his essays and verse. Among his various sources, how did he reconcile the pro-Jewish stance of Vladimir Solov’ev with the ambivalence of Nietzsche and open anti-Semitism of Dostoevskii? The second section examines hisresponsesto historical manifestations of anti-Semitism in Russia and Europe. The third section demonstrates how his ideological position affected his interactions with Jews in real life, focusing on the contrasting cases of Moisei Al’tman and Martin Buber. The final section presents unpublished archival evidence of his limited study of biblical Hebrew. The materials reviewed suggest that Ivanov preferred to reshape the ‘other’ in the light of his syncretic worldview, rather than engaging with difference and diversity on its own terms