Yuly Isayevich Aykhenvald, Aikhenvald, or Eichenwald (russian: Ю́лий Иса́евич Айхенва́льд; 24 January 1872 – 17 December 1928) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

literary critic who developed a native brand of

Aestheticism Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be pro ...

. Russian-American author

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

called Aykhenvald "a Russian version of

Walter Pater Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, art critic and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, ''Studies in the History of the Re ...

Life

Aykhenvald was born in Balta,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

into a

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

's family and attended the New Russia University in Odessa, where he developed a lasting interest in

Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work '' The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the pr ...

's ideas. After moving to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

in 1895, he employed a number of pen-names, including ''Yu. Ald'' () and ''B. Kamenetsky'' (). Aykhenvald followed Schopenhauer in that art is irrational and that the essence of it can be reached only by dint of

intuition Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; ...

. He panned most Russian literary critics for applying social and utilitarian criteria to literature and for producing political journalism in the guise of artistic criticism. Following the Russian Revolution, and the publication of his essay 'Revolution: the leaders and the led' (Revoljucija: ee vozhdi i vedomye'), where he attacked

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

personally, Aykhenvald was briefly arrested and then, in 1922, exiled to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

where he involved himself in several high-profile émigré publications, including the newspaper Rulj. His life was cut short by a tram accident in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He is buried in the

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

cemetery in

Tegel Tegel () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') in the Berlin borough of Reinickendorf on the shore of Lake Tegel. The Tegel locality, the second largest in area (after Köpenick) of the 96 Berlin districts, also includes the neighbourhood of ''Saatwinkel ...

, Berlin.

Family

* Lev Aikhenvald (1873–1954), his brother, psychiatrist, author of works on forensic psychiatric examination and organization of psychiatric care. * Alexander Aikhenvald (1904–1941), his son, an economist and member of Bukharin's school * Boris Aikhenvald (1902-1938), his son, a translator and philosopher * Tatiana Aikhenvald (1900-1963), his daughter, a well-known teacher of mathematics * Yury Aikhenvald (1928–1993), his grandson, a poet, a writer and a dissident *

Alexandra Aikhenvald Alexandra Yurievna "Sasha" Aikhenvald (''Eichenwald'') is a Russian Australian linguist specialising in linguistic typology and the Arawak language family (including Tariana) of the Brazilian Amazon basin. She is a professor at the James Cook ...

(born 1957), his great-granddaughter, a linguist * Natalia Shvedova (1916–2009), his natural daughter, a lexicographer and an expert on Russian syntax

Books

*In his best-known book ''Silhouettes of Russian Writers'' (1909) Aykhenvald offers a series of memorable

impressionistic Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

sketches of major Russian authors and their works. His argument that

Ivan Turgenev Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...

was a second-rate writer caused an outcry in the conservative literary circles.

Quotes

*"There are no literary movements, only writers. There is no society, only individuals".Львов-Рогачевский. История литературы и методы ее изучения // Словарь литературных терминов. Т. 1. — 1925
at feb-web.ru

Online resources

Русское зарубежье (Золотая книга эмиграции) Первая треть XX века. Энциклопедический биографический словарь. М., 1997. 748 с.
at apologetika.com

at www.rulex.ru

at www.krugosvet.ru

at www.hrono.ru *

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aykhenvald Yuly 1872 births 1928 deaths People from Balta, Ukraine Ukrainian Jews Russian literary critics Jewish Ukrainian writers Railway accident deaths in Germany Ukrainian literary critics Jewish Russian writers