International Conference on Roman Catholicism in the History of Russian Philosophy and Culture

On October 15-21, the second Italy-Russia cultural exchange meeting took place at Amalfi. Devoted to art and spirituality, the event drew the participation of staff members from the HSE Faculty of Humanities. During the meeting a book on the Russian footprint in Amalfi’s history was presented.

The interdisciplinary symposium was organized by the Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana (The Centre of Culture and History of Amalfi), the RAS Institute of Philosophy and the Higher School of Economics. The meeting was held with the support of the municipal administration of Amalfi and the Archdiocese of Amalfi – Cava de’ Tirreni in collaboration with the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.

An international conference on Roman Catholicism in the history of Russian philosophy and culture (Cattolicesimo romano nella storia della filosofia e cultura russa) took place as part of the meeting’s research programme.

Alexey Rutkevich, Co-Chair of the conference and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, presented a report entitled the ‘The ‘Latin Empire’ in the Philosophy of History by Alexander Kozhev’. Dmitry Nosov, First Deputy Dean of the faculty, spoke on the history of confession and its influence on ethical self-consciousness in Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Anastasiya Yastrebtseva, Associate Professor at the School of Philosophy, and Olga Zhukova, Professor at the School of Philosophy, also presented reports.

On October 15, a presentation of the book ‘Russi ad Amalfi. Suggestioni mediterranee e storie di vita’ was held in the hall of the Amalfi municipal library. The authors of the book are Olga Zhukova, HSE Professor; Alexey Kara-Murza, Director of the IPhRAS Branch for the Social and Political Philosophy; and Mikhail Talalay, Representative of the RAS Institute of World History in Italy. Experts on Russian and Italian culture shared their thoughts on staying in the old southern Italian town of Amalfi, where the relics of Andrew the Apostle, Russian travellers, writers, philosophers, and artists have been preserved for more than 800 years.

The presentation was organized by the Centre of Culture and History of Amalfi in cooperation with the RAS Institute of Philosophy and HSE.

During the book presentation an exhibition dedicated to the Amalfi coast in the vision of Russians was officially opened. The exhibition’s philosophical and cultural concept is based on study by Olga Zhukova on Russian landscape painters of the 19th century through the 1930s who depicted the beauty of the Amalfi coast on their canvases.