Interview with Yuri Ivanovich Semenov

Abstract

An interview with the outstanding Russian historian, ethnologist and philosopher Yuri Ivanovich Semenov (September 5, 1929 — April 26, 2023) was taken in 2019 on the eve of the scholar’s 90th birthday. The most diverse aspects of his scientific biography and work are touched upon, including the problems of developing the theory of anthropo-­socio-genesis, the formation of economic relations, the institution of marriage and the family, the theory of politarism («the Asian mode of production»), the socio-­economic history of Russia, the philosophy of history and the theory of knowledge. The conversation reveals interesting details of the development of both the ideas themselves and the social context in which they arose, relations and atmosphere in the scientific community. The interview gives an integral idea of the scale of the personality of the scholar, the depth of his ideas, the breadth of research problems, the features of the Soviet and post-­Soviet periods of his work.