Collective (Sobornal) Creation in Early 20th-Century Russian Modernism | A Talk with Dmitry Biriukov

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

2:00 pm

Kaplan Hall Room #305 (third floor)

In person

Advance Registration required by Monday, April 13, 2026.

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About the Talk

The concept of sobornost, as it emerged in theological language in nineteenth-century Russia, developed within two basic contexts. One context was associated with an anti-hierarchical and egalitarian intention, emphasizing the equality of all members of the Church in relation to the knowledge of truth, regardless of their formal position within the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The other context was connected with a collectivist intention, in which the collective (originally the Church) was understood as a kind of collective subject. Almost immediately after the concept of sobornost was formulated within the Slavophile circle, in the works of Aleksei Khomiakov and Yuri Samarin, it began to be applied not only to the Church but also to the Slavic people, thereby acquiring nativist connotations. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the concept of sobornost, largely through the influence of Vyacheslav Ivanov, expanded from the religious sphere into the domain of art, giving rise to the notion of sobornal creation (sobornoe tvorchestvo). In my analysis, I will consider both authors in whose works the concept of sobornal creation appears in one form or another (such as Vyacheslav Ivanov, Velimir Khlebnikov, Boris Eikhenbaum etc.) and those who polemicized against this concept.

About the Speaker

Dmitry Biriukov is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles. He previously served as a research fellow at HSE University (2016–2022) and at Freie Universität Berlin (2023–2025). As a scholar of both Byzantine and Russian thought, he has held visiting research fellowships at the University of Notre Dame, Durham University, the Collège de France, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Radboud University, Ruhr University Bochum, among others. His research interests are divided between Byzantine studies, focusing on theology, philosophy, and science, and Russian intellectual history, encompassing philosophy, religion, literature, and politics.