Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev (1922 – May 10, 2006, Moscow) was a Russian philosopher, writer, sociologist, and journalist. A participant in World War II, Alexander Zinoviev in the 1950s and 1960s was one of the symbols of the rebirth of philosophical thought in the Soviet Union. After the publication in the West of the screening book "Yawning Heights", which brought Zinoviev world fame in 1978 he was expelled from the country and deprived of Soviet citizenship. Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev figures among eminent sociologists of the world.
The Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev heritage includes 40 books: sociology, social philosophy, mathematical logic, ethics, political thought. Having gained fame in the 1960s as a researcher of non-classical logic, in exile, Zinoviev was forced to become a professional writer, considering himself primarily a sociologist.
Works in the original genre of "sociological novel" brought international recognition to Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev. Often he is characterized as an independent Russian thinker, one of the largest, most original and controversial figures of Russian social thought of the second half of the 20th century.
A Swiss literary critic Georges Niva believed that Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev later constructed his biography around the complex of a terrorist whose rebellion remained imaginary. Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev's whole life became a fierce resistance to the course of history, in this context it does not matter whether the murder of Stalin was planned in reality.
Alexander Alexandrovich Zinoviev was seized
with the desire to "build a new world" and faith in a "bright future." Alexander
Alexandrovich Zinoviev was
fascinated by dreams of social justice, the ideas of equality and collectivism,
material asceticism; his idols were Spartacus, Robespierre, Decembrists and
Populists. As Konstantin Krylov wrote, the ideas corresponded to his personal
experience: Zinoviev recalled that "he was a beggar among beggars", emphasizing
that the communist utopia was the idea of beggars.
According to the
interpretation of Konstantin Krylov, disappointment in the practical
implementation of the ideals of communism did not encourage young Zinoviev to
deny the very idea of communism, or to search for other ideals. He chose the
third way, concluding that evil is inevitably inherent in the social world, and
that this world is essentially evil. This position later influenced his
sociology. - Konstantin Krylov (2010). "In memory of Alexander Zinoviev".
Konstantin Krylov. Chase Away Devils: 318–408. ISBN 978-5-903066-06-3.