Konstantinov, Fedor Vasilevich

Born Feb. 8 (21), 1901, in the village of Novoselki, in present-day Arzamas Raion, Gorky Oblast. Soviet philosopher. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1964; corresponding member, 1953). Member of the CPSU since 1918.

Konstantinov graduated from the Institute of the Red Professoriat in 1932. He has taught and carried on scholarly and party work. From 1945 to 1951 he worked at the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and from 1952 to 1954 he was editor in chief of the journal Voprosy filosqfii (Problems of Philosophy). From 1954 to 1955 he was the rector of the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU. He was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1956 to 1961. From 1955 to 1958, Konstantinov was head of the Department of Agitation and Propaganda for the Union Republics of the Central Committee of the CPSU. From 1958 to 1962 he was editor in chief of the journal Kommunist. From 1962 to 1967, Konstantinov served as director of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Since 1967 he has been academician-secretary of the Department of Philosophy and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He is the editor in chief of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy (vols. 1–5, 1960–70). Since 1971 he has been president of the Philosophical Society of the USSR.

Konstantinov works on theoretical problems of social development, including the subject matter of historical materialism, the general and specific laws of socioeconomic formations, the role of the individual and the masses in history, the role of progressive ideas in the development of society, and the moving forces behind development in socialist society. He also works on problems in philosophy and politics, sociology and politics, and on critiques of bourgeois ideology and revisionism. He is a co-author and the leader of the group of authors responsible for the books Historical Materialism (1954), Principles of Marxist Philosophy (2nd ed., 1962), and Principles of Marxist-Leninist Philosophy (1971). Konstantinov has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, four other orders, and a number of medals.