Yuly Isayevich Aykhenvald, Aikhenvald, or Eichenwald (24 January 1872 – 17 December 1928) was a Russian Jewish literary critic who developed a native brand of Aestheticism. Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov called Aykhenvald "a Russian version of Walter Pater".

Life

Aykhenvald was born in Balta, Russian Empire into a rabbi's family and attended the New Russia University in Odessa, where he developed a lasting interest in Schopenhauer's ideas. After moving to Moscow in 1895, he employed a number of pen-names, including ''Yu. Ald (Ю. Альд) and B. Kamenetsky'' (Б. Каменецкий). Aykhenvald followed Schopenhauer in that art is irrational and that the essence of it can be reached only by dint of intuition. 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 personally, Aykhenvald was briefly arrested and then, in 1922, exiled to Germany 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. He is buried in the Russian Orthodox cemetery in Tegel, Berlin.

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