E. Ilyenkov and «Ilyenkov school»: pages of intellectual history

The article considers the historical circumstances and intellectual context in which E.V. Ilyenkov's position and the Ilyenkov tradition in Russian philosophy were formed. It is shown how Marxist thought of the mid twentieth century was influenced by the publication of K. Marx's "Economic Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844". The differences of Ilyenkov's philosophical position related to his "Hegelianism" from the official Soviet "diamat" are highlighted. Different schools and approaches in Soviet philosophy to the question of the essence of materialist dialectics, the solution of the question of the identity of thinking and being are described. Ilyenkov's understanding of the dialectics of the abstract and the concrete in relation to the method of "Capital" and scientific theoretical thinking in general is characterised. The differences between E.V.Ilyenkov and M.A. Lifshits as outstanding representatives of late Soviet "creative Marxism" in solving the problem of the ideal are analysed in more detail. The connection of Lifshitsian interpretation of the ideal with the contemplative materialism of the 18th century is substantiated. The criticism of the "Zagorsky experiment" after Ilyenkov's death is characterised. The stages of formation of the "Ilyenkov school" and the current state of the Ilyenkov tradition in Russia and abroad are specified.