Evald Ilyenkov

Evald Ilyenkov was a Soviet philosopher.

Haz identifies Ilyenkov as expressing the final horizon of Soviet Marxist-Leninist thought — a vision in which communism ultimately culminates in a metaphysical or even cosmic dissolution of reality itself, typified by Ilyenkov's speculative notion of a voluntary, socialist-induced "cosmic apocalypse" to counteract the head death of the universe. For Haz, this apocalyptic vision reflects the ideological impasse of late Soviet Marxism: the belief that communism remains forever deferred, an ideal beyond realization, because its full achievement would entail the abolition of material contradiction itself. Ilyenkov is contrasted with Deng Xiaoping.