Letter from Vladimir V. Mironov to Aleksandr V. Mikhailovsky

My dear Aleksandr! I have finally found some quiet time for a slow and attentive read of your article “The Beginning of the Black Notebooks.” I very much liked the article, especially for your truly independent position on Heidegger’s difficult-tounderstand philosophy. Given your previous article on the features of Russian reception of Heidegger’s philosophy, I would like to start by providing a few explanations here, particularly of our own position. We have repeatedly highlighted the very point that comes up in your latest article, that Heidegger does not simply address the future, but does so in a deliberately enigmatic fashion, such that “the intended audience will understand.” In our second article (which I promised to give you a hard copy of), we once again draw attention to this and note that his position is more honest and consistent than that of many of those in postwar Germany who began engaging in “ideological selfpurification.” The case with Jaspers is likewise not so simple, as he is no “crystal-clear” figure in this regard. At some point we more or less suggested that he played a kind of trickster role in the Heidegger situation before stepping aside. But this is a separate issue. At the same time, we have repeatedly stipulated that we are not interested in Heidegger’s position as such but in assessing situations where philosophers find themselves aligning with the power structure. And this has clearly remained a relevant issue for our own time. The example of Heidegger is highly instructive here, since it shows that even the greatest of thinkers, however much he may sequester himself inside his own philosophical reflections, can still be used as a means. And, naturally, this has no effect on the greatness of his philosophical thought nor the ideas he developed. Another issue is that, given the way the world works, no matter how much we may distance ourselves from superficial readers, they will always exist and can pick and choose whichever of our arguments suits them. The Black