Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical

by Sciabarra, Chris

). As McConnell (2012, 49) puts it, “visiting foreign scientists who had complained about the purge” put pressure on Soviet authorities, who “let the purged students in their last year complete their degrees.” Among the documents in the current dossier is one that confirms the decision of the Board of Petrograd State University, dated 13 December 1923, discharging Rosenbaum for “not fulfilling academic activity.” Also of interest is a document that provides evidence of university tuition policies under the Soviets: because Alissa’s mother, Anna Borisovna Rosenbaum, was a teacher, tuition payment requirements were dropped, allowing the young Rand to receive a free university education. The petition to the Payments Commission of Leningrad State University is dated 7 February 1923.

  5. For a discussion of the problems I encountered in trying to secure the original Rosenbaum student records from the Ayn Rand Institute, see Sciabarra 1999b. It should be noted too that the problem of legibility is not distinctive to this transcript or even this period. Historian Michael David-Fox explains that “signatures with initials or scribbled flourishes are very typical of Russian signatures today, as well,” so illegibility is true not only for this transcript or transcripts in general, but “the way a lot of people sign all the time.” Personal correspondence, 15 June 2005.

  6. As Peter Konecny mentions (personal correspondence, 15 June 2005), many of these “young communist ‘careerists’” among both students and teachers were rising in their professions in the late twenties, only to find “themselves victims of Stalinist witch-hunts in the mid–late 30s.” On this point, see Konecny 1999. On Borichevsky, in particular, David-Fox informs me that “WorldCat shows an Ivan Abramovich Borichesvsk[y], born in 1892, as the author of a book called Introduction to the Philosophy of Science: Science and Metaphysics, published by the Petrograd branch of the state publishing house in 1922” (personal correspondence, 16 June 2005). Konecny mentions further (personal correspondence, 16 June 2005) a footnote in an article by L. D Shirokorad entitled “N. D. Kondrat’ev v Sankt Peterburgskom (Petrogradskom) Universitete” (“N. D. Kondratev at St. Petersburg (Petrograd) University,” online at http://gallery.economicus.ru/cgi-ise/gallery/frame_rightn.pl?type=ruhttp://gallery.economicus.ru/cgi-ise/gallery/frame_rightn.pl?type=ru&links=./ru/kondratiev/biogr/kondratiev_b2.txt&img=brief.gif&name=kondratiev). Konecny translates the relevant note from Russian into English: “In 1921, Borichevsky became a professor at Petrograd University. From the 1920s he became an active member of the Scientific Association of Marxists.”

  7. In We the Living, the last name of the villainous character “Comrade Sonia” was “Presniakova,” which McConnell (2012, 60) believes is an instance of a name Rand created for “symbolic” or “comical” effect. “Comrade Sonia’s last name,” writes McConnell, “means ‘bland.’” However, “Presniakova” is also the feminine of Presniakov; I had identified previously Aleksandr Evgen’evich Presniakov as Rand’s most likely teacher for Course #13, “History of Socialism.” So there might be a possible parallel here. (On Rand’s use of real people as inspirations for her characters in We the Living, see pp. <388–90> in this essay, and note 12 below.) David-Fox remarks that “Pres niakov was a very illustrious historian in the Petersburg School, a non-party historian who was influenced by Marxism in an unconventional (i.e., nonorthodox) manner in the 1920s.” Personal correspondence, 15 June 2005.

  8. In a report dated 26 May 2005, the researchers of Blitz Information Services confirm that “[i]n 1921, the Pedagogical Institute, where the pro-rector was L. P. Karsavin, was liquidated.” (And, confirming my points above at pp. <75–76, 86>, the researchers note that Karsavin—who may have taught Course #12—was among the university professors exiled on the ship Prussia on 15 November 1922, along with N. O. Lossky, I. I. Lapshin, A. A. Bogolepov, B. N. Odintsov, D. F. Selivanov, and P. A. Sorokin. See also Finkel 2001; thanks to David-Fox for bringing that work to my attention.) In Fall 1921, the researchers continue, “178 students who had been enlisted in the Department of Russian Language and Literature were transferred to the Ethnology-Linguistic Division of the Faculty of the Social Sciences of the University. In addition, 83 persons were transferred to the Social-Pedagogical Division of the same Department. [The] Chairman of the first Presidium of the Association of Marxist Scholars (located at #11, Universitetskaia embankment) was Professor E. A. Engel. Then the association was headed by Professor M. V. Serebriakov (1879–1959). He became the rector of the University in 1927.” As noted on p. <387> in the current essay, Serebriakov’s name appears among the signatures in the Rosenbaum dossier.

  A cross-comparison with the surnames of university professors in the 1920s and 1930s as listed in a variety of publications turned up very little. Such lists do not provide information about the specific departmental and programmatic connections of the professors or about the exact years in which they worked at the university. Among the names listed: L. P. Karsavin, P. A. Pletnev, I. I. Sreznevski, A. N. Veselovski, L. V. Shcherba (a philologist who was arrested in 1919), I. Yu. Krachkovski, V. F. Shishmarev, I. I. Tolstoy, B. A. Larin, V. V. Struve, G. A. Bialyi, V. A. Manuilov, G. P. Makogonenko, L. R. Zinder, F. A. Abramov, G. A. Gukovski, V. I. Sreznevski, I. P. Borodin, S. P. Glazenap, N. N. Glubokoski, S. A. Zhebelev, V. V. Latyshev, Yu. P. Novitski, V. E. Tishchenko, V. M. Shimkevich, A. E. Favorski, S. I. Kovalev, I. I. Meshchaninov, and E. V. Tarle (who is mentioned above at pp. <75–76> and “The Rand Transcript,” <375–77>). The Blitz researchers derived this information from a publication by Yu. A. Endoltsev, Dvorets Petra II. Universitetskaia naberezhnaia, 11. Sobytiia I liudi (Peter II Palace. #11, University Embankment. “Events and People,” Saint-Petersburg, 2002), which also includes photos of professors.

  9. See above, pp. <65–69>; “The Rand Transcript,” <367–69>. I had uncovered the fact of Rand’s attendance in the Stoiunin gymnasium when I was doing research for Sciabarra 1995a. I characterized that conclusion as a reasonable speculation, which was confirmed further by the memories of Helene Sikorski, sister of the writer Vladimir Nabokov, and Olga Vladimirovna Nabokov, a childhood friend of Rand’s. See “The Rand Transcript,” <367–68>. Rand’s attendance at the Stoiunin gymnasium has now been c onfirmed by Blitz Information Services. A collection of documents for the Stoiunin gymnasium is kept in the Central Historic Archive of St. Petersburg (Fond 148). Blitz emphasizes that “the personal files of schoolgirls were not preserved. After looking through the files, we found only one mention of Alissa Rosenbaum. She is mentioned in the list of schoolgirls of the second year for the 1915–1916 academic year (Fond 148, Inventory #1, file 420, pp. 1–2). 39 girls in total are listed in her class for the 1915–1916 academic year there, according to alphabetic order. Alissa is under number 27: ‘Rosenbaum Alissa. Address: #120, Nevski Avenue, Apt. 1. Parents: Anna Borisovna and Zinovy Zakharovich.’” See Britting 2004, 10 for a photo of the Stoiunin gymnasium building.

  10. Bernice Rosenthal reminds me (phone conversation, 6 June 2005) that a genuinely pre-Bolshevik Russian professor would not have meant “individualism” in the same way that a Western philosopher would use the term. For most Russian thinkers, individualism consists of developing one’s individuality within a community. This relates to the doctrine of sobornost’. See above, pp. <23, 26–27, 30>, passim.

  11. In a phone conversation on 10 May 2005, Alexis Lossky mentioned that he only possessed black-and-white photos of his grandfather, but his own father, the late Andrew Lossky, had blue eyes, and he believes his grandfather had them as well. Nicolas, Vladimir Lossky’s son, also confirms that his grandfather had blue eyes (phone conversation between Alexis and Nicolas Lossky, 16 June 2005). I was saddened to learn that my old friend Boris Lossky (another of N. O. Lossky’s sons)—who assisted me immeasurably in my previous transcript analyses—passed away in 2002. None of the famed professor’s sons survives.

  12. McConnell (2012) discusses a number of “parallel lives” in We the Living, that is, parallels between characters and real people: the main character Kira Argounova and Rand hers
elf; Leo Kovalensky and Rand’s first love, Lev Bekkerman; Vasili Dunaev and Rand’s father; Galina Argounova and Rand’s mother; and Irina Dunaeva and Rand’s sister Nora.

  APPENDIX III: A CHALLENGE TO RUSSIANRADICAL—AND AYN RAND

  1. Heller uncovers additional information on Rand’s education in her superb biography, Ayn Rand and the World She Made. See especially Heller 2009, chaps. 1 and 2. My own work in “The Rand Transcript, Revisited” benefitted greatly from Heller’s generous sharing of her original research.

  2. Impact, the newsletter of the Ayn Rand Institute (1994), announced in “A Look at the Future,” in its April 1994 General News column, that Ayn Rand in Her Own Words: The Authorized Biography was “being prepared for publication in 1996.” It was to be “edited by Richard E. Ralston (ARI Academic Affairs Officer and former book/newspaper publisher).” The text was to consist of “Ayn Rand’s own story of her life compiled from various sources, including her journals, correspondence, and interviews[,] … supplemented by interviews with Leonard Peikoff, Mary Ann Sures, and others.” The plan was abandoned, but the title was later used for a 2011 documentary on Rand’s life (see my preface herein, 401 n. 3).

  More than a decade later, in June 2004, it was announced by Impact (Journo 2004a, 1) that Shoshana Milgram was “working on an in-depth biography of Ayn Rand,” for which the author herself projected completion “at the latest by 2008” (in Journo 2004b, 4). ARI currently identifies “the authorized biography of Ayn Rand by Shoshana Milgram” as “in preparation.” See http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_archives_projects, accessed 11 February 2013.

  Given the politics that governs so much of Rand scholarship, it should be noted that, aside from a dismissive piece written by John Ridpath (1996), Milgram’s is the first by any ARI-affiliated scholar to refer to my work in any scholarly capacity; the Mayhew volume also lists the three relevant Sciabarra references in its “Select Bibliography,” though it misidentifies “The Rand Transcript, Revisited” as a 2006—rather than a 2005—publication (Mayhew 2012, 408).

  3. I owe Irfan Khawaja a debt of gratitude for making me aware of the newest Milgram contribution, “The Education of Kira Argounova and Leo Kovalensky,” to the second edition of Mayhew 2012.

  4. Milgram (2012, 106 n. 3) reports that she consulted specifically the Ayn Rand Special Collections (Box 2 and Box 3) and biographical interviews conducted by Barbara Branden and Nathaniel Branden in 1960 and 1961 (especially Interviews nos. 5, 6, and 7, dated 30 December 1960, 2 January 1961, and 15 January 1961, respectively). To my knowledge, the material in these Archives relevant to Rand’s early education has not been assessed by any independent scholar. For more on this issue, see note 7 below.

  5. Milgram transliterates all surnames ending in-sky as-skii. In keeping with my usage throughout Russian Radical, I have standardized the-sky form throughout.

  6. Milgram takes issue with my use of Peter Konecny’s dissertation, “Conflict and Community at Leningrad State University, 1917–1941,” as a source of information with regard to the “pass-fail” grading system. I checked and rechecked that information with several scholars, including Konecny himself, who personally reviewed both of my post–Russian Radical essays prior to their publication. He stated that I provided “a balanced assessment” of what was happening in the university curriculum (personal correspondence, 8 January 1999) and that he could not “see anything wrong” with my discussion of university policies; he wrote that he did not “have anything to add … in the way of details” to that discussion (personal correspondence, 15 June 2005).

  7. The official policy of the Ayn Rand Archives remains highly restrictive. The Archives are administered under the auspices of the Ayn Rand Institute. In volume 2 of Archives Annual, archivist Jeff Britting (1999) tells us, “The Ayn Rand Archives is committed to creating public awareness and access to its holdings on a worldwide scale” (4). In volume 3 of Archives Annual, Britting (2000) reiterates that it is the mission of the Archives “to acquire, preserve, inventory, and make available Ayn Rand’s remaining papers and related documents to serious scholars and general writers” (3). Practically speaking, Britting tells us, access would not be regulated by any given researcher’s agreement or disagreement with Objectivism. But access would be denied “to individuals who, in the Ayn Rand Institute’s sole discretion, would use the Archives’ resources to legitimize theories that pose as Objectivist but which, in fact, contradict Objectivism’s fundamentals—thus contradicting the Intellectual Charter and the Archives’ institutional mandate.” Clearly, that proviso is one that can legitimize the Institute’s use of a litmus test for archival access to exclude those who are persona non grata with its trustees and affiliates. Nothing that Britting says in the Archives Annual has, therefore, changed the official access policy as defined on the current website of the Ayn Rand Archives. Access to Rand’s personal papers remains limited to ARI “staff and affiliates” (About the Ayn Rand Archives, Ayn Rand Institute website, online at http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_archives_about [accessed 4 January 2003 and 4 February 2013]), though a few non-affiliated scholars have been accommodated. One of these scholars, Jennifer Burns, who conducted research at the Archives for her own book, Goddess of the Market, confirmed my serious reservations (Sciabarra 1998b) about how Rand’s papers were being edited (or, in some instances, butchered) for publication (Burns 2009, 291–93). Burns 2012b describes a less-than-ideal atmosphere for independent scholarly work.

  For one detailed study of how material in the Ayn Rand Archives has been edited—indeed, rewritten—for publication, see Campbell 2011.

  I have never petitioned the Archives for formal study of anything other than the Rand university transcript, when it was publicized in the May 1997 issue of Impact that the Archives had secured “a copy of Ayn Rand’s university diploma and transcript from St. Petersburg” (Ayn Rand Institute 1997, 2). Representatives of the Ayn Rand Institute would have sent me a copy of the transcript only on the condition of my agreeing never to write on the subject, even after my research results were to be shared with them for the purposes of any planned authorized Rand biography. As I explained in an “Investigative Report” (Sciabarra 1999b), I refused to sign such an agreement, and secured my first copy of a version of the transcript independently of the Ayn Rand Institute through a global network of scholars. But as I state in that article, the delay in securing this transcript had high costs. I lost the capacity to tap into the knowledge of many of Rand’s contemporaries who had either passed away or were incapacitated by age-related illnesses.

  I should point out, however, that in 1992, in preparation for Russian Radical, I had formally approached the Estate of Ayn Rand for information on the Lossky case, given some of the discrepancies I was uncovering in my research. I received a letter from the legal heir to the estate, Leonard Peikoff (27 May 1992), which stated that the estate was compiling information on Rand’s life. He assured me that if anything relevant to the issues became apparent, he would so advise me.

  8. Rand, “A statement of policy, part I,” in Objectivist, 471.

  9. Milgram (2012, 107 n. 21) relates the story of Lossky’s rocky relationship with Vvedensky, who served as Lossky’s master’s thesis advisor.

  10. The first documentation of Rand’s attendance at the Stoiunin gymnasium can be found in Russian Radical (65–67), and again, with additional evidence, in “The Rand Transcript” (<367–69>) and “The Rand Transcript, Revisited” (388, 465 n. 9, in this edition), the latter benefitting from research pursued by Anne C. Heller. See especially Heller 2009, 17–21 and 424. No mention by Milgram is made of the material in my work or in Heller’s biography, which definitively places Rand in attendance at that gymnasium.

  11. The only other issue that Milgram raises in connection with my work is a brief comment on the potential connection between Professor Lossky and a character that appeared in early drafts of We the Living and was removed prior to the novel
’s publication: Professor Leskov (see “The Rand Transcript, Revisited,” 389–90, in this edition). Milgram (2012) tells us that she “had considered [the] possibility” of a Lossky-Leskov connection but ultimately rejected it (110 n. 32). She dismisses any possible physical or even ideological resemblance since “any fictional character Ayn Rand would have created for this context would have been serious and opposed to Soviet teachings; no particular professor would have been needed to serve as model.” Furthermore, she rejects any close parallel between their names or physical descriptions and ultimately considered it “unlikely that Lossk[y] is a model for Leskov.” Since my own consideration of this connection is ultimately posed with a question, and not a conclusion—“[C]ould Rand have used Lossky as a model for Leskov?”—I have nothing else to add to this particular issue.

  REFERENCES

  BOOKS AND ARTICLES

  Adorno, Theodor W. 1950. The Authoritarian Personality. New York: Harper.

  ———. [1966] 1983. Negative Dialectics. Translated by E. B. Ashton. New York: Continuum.

  Agursky, Mikhail. 1994. Nietzschean roots of Stalinist culture. In Rosenthal 1994, 256–86.

  Alekseev, P. V., ed. 1995. Filosofy Rossii XIX–XX Stoletii: Biografii, Idei, Trudy [Russian Philosophers of the 19th and 20th Centuries: Biographies, Ideas, Works]. Rev., enlarged 2d ed. Moscow: Kniga i Biznes.

  Almedingen, E. M. 1941. Tomorrow Will Come. Boston: Little, Brown.

  Aristotle. 1941. The Basic Works of Aristotle. Edited by Richard McKeon. New York: Random House.

  Ayn Rand Institute. 1994. General news: A look at the future. ARI Impact: News from the Ayn Rand Institute (April): 1.

  ———. 1997. From the archives: Something in a name. Impact: Newsletter of the Ayn Rand Institute 3 (May): 1–2.