Abstract

Alexandre Kojève, née Kojevnikov, was born in pre‐revolutionary Russia; his uncle was the painter Kandinsky, and Kojève planned originally to study art history. He was traveling in Italy when the Russian Revolution occurred, an event that caused him to change his plans and to devote himself to philosophy. He spent some years in Germany before emigrating to France, and was able to pursue the life of an independent scholar until the worldwide economic depression led to the loss of his family income. Upon the invitation of Alexandre Koyré, Kojève began a series of lectures on Hegel in 1933 at the Ecole des Hautes Études. These lectures lasted until 1939; ostensibly devoted to Hegel's philosophy of religion, they in fact provided an exhaustive commentary on the Phenomenology of Spirit.