Andrzej Walicki i jego triada: Rosja – Polska – marksizm

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the memory of Professor Andrzej Walicki, who died in August 2020 – an outstanding Polish historian of ideas and Russian scholar. It is an attempt to summarize the enormous scientific achievements of a representative of the Warsaw school of the history of ideas. His scientific activity has gained wide recognition in the West, being an prominent Polish contribution to world Russian studies. The subject of the scientist’s research were Russia, Poland and Marxism. Andrzej Walicki explained to a wide audience in the West, Poland and Russia issues related to the formation of Russian ideas and philosophy, the development of various ideologies in Russia: imperialism, Marxism, liberalism, or the shaping of the platform and the main problematic network of intellectual relations between Poland and Russia. He also researched Polish thought in response to the Russian question, and tried to participate in debates on Polish-Russian relations after the fall of communism and the collapse of the USSR. He devoted much attention to the reception of Marxism in Russia – to what extent it was an ideological import from the West, and to what extent it was based on the native ideological and religious tradition. In the context of Russia’s strong utopian predispositions, Andrzej Walicki showed Marxism as a utopia that transformed Russia into its tragic testing ground and whose goals turned out to be unattainable. As a result, his led to the collapse of the moral legitimacy of the communist system and became the fundamental premise for the disintegration of the Soviet empire.