Losev Aleksey

Losev Aleksey (1893–1988) – philologer, specialist in classical studies, religious philosopher.

In 1911, after finishing a classical gymnasium in Novocherkassk with a golden medal, he enrolled to two departments of the Moscow University: Philosophy and Classical Philology (his Diploma composition was ‘The Worldview of Aeschylus’). In 1915, graduating from the University, he stayed there to prepare for the Professor degree. In 1914, he traveled to Berlin for educative purposes, but he had to return soon because of the war outbreak.

Since 1911, he visited the Religious and philosophical Society of Vladimir Soloviev; whe the society was closed, he went to the Free Academy of Spiritual Culture, founded by N. A. Berdyaev and closed in 1922. He was close to the Imiaslavie (Onomatodoxy).

Since 1919, he was Professor of Classical Philology of the University of Nizhny Novgorod; since 1922, he was Professor of Aesthetics at the Moscow Conservatoire, and Head of the Department of Aesthetics at the Academy of Fine Arts.

He served in the church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross at Vosdvizhenka as reader, bell-ringer, singer and regent. In 1929, together with his wife Valentina Mikhailoivna Sokolova, they secretly took monastic vows.

In 1930, L. and his wife were arrested in the frames of the ‘Affair of Ecclesiastic-Christian Monarchic Organization ‘True Orthodox Church’. He was sentenced to ten years, worked as a prisoner at the construction of the Belomoro-Baltic Channel (concentration camps of Kem’, Svir’story, Medvezhiya Gora). In 1933, when the channel has been built, he got freedom ahead of time because of his invalid state and ‘for his ‘good work’, and returned to Moscow.

In 1938-1941, he made lectures in the history of classical literature at the teachers-training institutes of Kuibyshev, Cheboksary, Poltava, and translated classical and renaissance authors. In 1942-1944, he taught logics at the Philosophical Faculty of the Moscow State University, was Professor of the Chair of the History of Philosophy. Doctor in Philosophy (1943). He was fired out with the accusation in Idealism.

In 1944-1988, he was Professor of the Chair of Classical Philology, then – of the Chair of General Linguistic at the Moscow State Teachers-Training Institute.

The Order of the Labour Red Banner (1983). The State Award of the U.S.S.R. (1986).

Compositions

The Philosophy of Name. Moscow, 1927. (in Rus.)
Essays on Classical Symbolism and Mythology. Vol. 1 [the 2nd vol. Was not created]. 1st publ., Moscow, 1930. (in Rus.)
The Dialectics of Myth. Moscow, 1930. (in Rus.)
Olympic Mythology in Its Social and Historical Evolution. 1st publ. // Uchenye zapiski of the Moscow Lenin State Teachers-Training Institute. Vol. 72, iss. 3, Moscow, 1953. (in Rus.)
Introduction into the Classical Mythology. 1st publ. // Uchenye zapiski of the Stalinabad State Teachers-Training Institute. Philological Series. Stalinabad, 1954, iss. 5, pp. 193-306. (in Rus.)
The Classical Mythology in Its Historical Evolution. 1st publ., Moscow, 1957. (in Rus.)
Homer. 1st publ., Moscow, 1960. (in Rus.)
The Classical Musical Aesthetics. 1st publ., Moscow, Muzgiz Publishing House, 1960. (in Rus.)
The History of Classical Aesthetics: Sophist. Socrates. Plato. 1st publ., Moscow, Iskusstvo Publishing House, 1968. (in Rus.)
The History of Classical Aesthetics: High Classic. 1st publ., Moscow, Iskusstvo Publishing House, 1974. (in Rus.)
The History of Classical Aesthetics: Aristotle and Late Classic. 1st publ., Moscow, Iskusstvo Publishing House, 1975. (in Rus.)
The Problem of Symbol and Realistic Art. Moscow, 1976. (in Rus.)
The Classical Philosophy of History. 1st publ., Moscow, Nauka Publishing House, 1977. (in Rus.)
The Aesthetics of the Renaissance. 1-е изд.: Moscow State University, 1978. (in Rus.)
The History of Classical Aesthetics: Early Hellenism. 1st publ., Moscow, Iskusstvo Publishing House, 1979. (in Rus.)
The Hellenistic and Roman Aesthetics. 1st publ., Moscow Изд-во МГУ, 1979. (in Rus.)
The History of Classical Aesthetics: Late Hellenism. 1st publ., Moscow, Iskusstvo Publishing House, 1980. (in Rus.)
Diogenes Laërtius — Historian of Classical Philosophy. 1st publ., Moscow, Nauka Publishing House, 1981. (in Rus.)
The History of Classical Aesthetics: Late Centuries. 1st publ., Moscow, Iskusstvo Publishing House, 1988. (in Rus.)
The Mythology of Greeks and Romans. Moscow, Mysl’ Publishing House, 1996. (in Rus.)

Bibliography

Aleksey Fedorovich Losev: Bibliographic Index. By the 115th Anniversary / Library of History of Russian Philosophy and Culture ‘House of A. F. Losev’; comp. G. М. Mukhamedjanov, Т. V. Chepurenko; edit. V. V. Ilyin. Moscow, FAIR, 2008. (in Rus.)

About him

Aleksey Fedorovich Losev / Edit. А. А. Takho-Godi, Е. А. Takho-Godi; Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Ac. of Sc., Noncommercial Research Foundation ‘Institute of Evolution named after G. P. Shchedrovitsky’. Moscow, ROSSPEN, 2009. (in Rus.)
Bibikhin V. V. Aleksey Fedorovich Losev. Sergey Sergeevich Averintsev. Moscow, Institute of Philosophy, Theology and History of St. Thomas, 2004. (in Rus.)

D. B.