The Russian idea of ​​Berdyaev briefly. Nikolai Berdyaev - Russian Idea

Nikolai Berdyaev

Russian idea

Historical introduction. Definition of the Russian national type. East and West. Opposites of the Russian soul. Discontinuity of Russian history. Russian religiosity. Moscow - Third Rome. The split of the 17th century Peter's reform. Freemasonry. The era of Alexander I. Decembrists. Pushkin. Russian intelligentsia. Radishchev. Intelligence and Reality. The tragic fate of philosophy. Influence of German idealism.

There is a very great difficulty in determining the national type, national individuality. It is impossible to give a strictly scientific definition. The secret of any individuality is known only by love, and in it there is always something incomprehensible to the end, to the last depth. I will be interested not so much in the question of what Russia was empirically, but in the question of what the Creator intended about Russia, the intelligible image of the Russian people, his idea. Tyutchev said: “You cannot understand Russia with the mind, you cannot measure it with a common yardstick, it has a special become, you can only believe in Russia.” To comprehend Russia, one must apply the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Empirically, there is so much repulsion in Russian history. This is so strongly expressed in the poem of the believing Slavophil Khomyakov about the sins of Russia. Russian people are in the highest degree a polarized people, it is a combination of opposites. He can be fascinated and disappointed, you can always expect surprises from him, he is highly capable of inspiring strong love and intense hatred. This is the people that cause anxiety among the peoples of the West. Every national individuality, like the individuality of a person, is a microcosm and therefore contains contradictions, but this happens to varying degrees. In terms of polarization and inconsistency, the Russian people can only be compared with the Jewish people. And it is no coincidence that these peoples have a strong messianic consciousness. The inconsistency and complexity of the Russian soul, perhaps, is due to the fact that in Russia two streams of world history collide and come into interaction - East and West. The Russian people are not a purely European and not a purely Asian people. Russia is a whole part of the world, a huge East-West, it connects two worlds. And always in the Russian soul fought two principles, eastern and western.

There is a correspondence between the immensity, boundlessness, infinity of the Russian land and the Russian soul, between the geography of the physical and the geography of the soul. In the soul of the Russian people there is the same immensity, boundlessness, aspiration to infinity, as in the Russian plain. Therefore, it was difficult for the Russian people to take possession of these vast spaces and formalize them. The Russian people had an enormous power of the elements and a comparative weakness of form. The Russian people were not predominantly a people of culture, like the peoples of Western Europe, they were more of a people of revelations and inspirations, they knew no limits and easily fell into extremes. Among the peoples of Western Europe, everything is much more determined and formalized, everything is divided into categories and of course. Not so with the Russian people, as less determined, as more turned to infinity and not wanting to know the distribution by categories. In Russia there were no sharp social lines, no distinct classes. Russia has never been an aristocratic country in the Western sense, just as it has not become bourgeois. Two opposite principles formed the basis of the formation of the Russian soul: the natural, pagan Dionysian element and ascetic-monastic Orthodoxy. One can discover opposite properties in the Russian people: despotism, hypertrophy of the state and anarchism, liberty; cruelty, propensity to violence and kindness, humanity, gentleness; ritual belief and the search for truth; individualism, heightened consciousness of the individual and impersonal collectivism; nationalism, self-praise and universalism, all-humanity; eschatological-messianic religiosity and outward piety; the search for God and militant atheism; humility and arrogance; slavery and rebellion. But the Russian kingdom has never been bourgeois. In determining the character of the Russian people and their vocation, it is necessary to make a choice, which I will call an eschatological choice in terms of the ultimate goal. Therefore, the choice of the century is also inevitable, as the most characterizing the Russian idea and Russian vocation. I will regard the 19th century as such a century, a century of thought and word, and at the same time a century of sharp split, so characteristic of Russia as internal liberation and intense spiritual and social quests.

Discontinuity is characteristic of Russian history. In contrast to the opinion of the Slavophiles, it is the least organic. There are already five periods in Russian history that give different images. There is Kievan Russia, Russia during the Tatar yoke, Moscow Russia, Petrine Russia and Soviet Russia. And perhaps there will be more new Russia. Russia's development was catastrophic. The Muscovite period was the worst period in Russian history, the most stuffy, the most Asiatic-Tatar in its type, and by misunderstanding it was idealized by the freedom-loving Slavophiles. The Kyiv period and the period of the Tatar yoke were better, especially for the church, and, of course, the dualistic, schismatic St. Petersburg period was better and more significant, in which the creative genius of the Russian people was most revealed. Kievan Russia was not closed off from the West; it was more receptive and freer than the Muscovite kingdom, in whose suffocating atmosphere even holiness died out (there were least of all saints during this period). The special significance of the XIX century. determined by the fact that, after a long thoughtlessness, the Russian people finally expressed themselves in word and thought, and did so in a very difficult atmosphere of lack of freedom. I'm talking about external freedom, because we had great internal freedom. How to explain this long absence of enlightenment in Russia, among the people who are very gifted and capable of perceiving the highest culture, how to explain this cultural backwardness and even illiteracy, this absence of organic ties with the great cultures of the past? The idea was expressed that the translation of Holy Scripture into Slavonic by Cyril and Methodius was unfavorable for the development of Russian mental culture, because there was a break with the Greek and Latin languages. Church Slavonic became the only language of the clergy, that is, the only intelligentsia of that time; Greek and Latin were not needed. I do not think that this could explain the backwardness of Russian enlightenment, the thoughtlessness and silence of pre-Petrine Russia. Gotta admit characteristic property Russian history, what's in it for a long time the forces of the Russian people remained, as it were, in a potential, non-actualized state. The Russian people were overwhelmed by the enormous expenditure of forces demanded by the size of the Russian state. The state was getting stronger, the people were getting sicker, says Klyuchevsky. It was necessary to take possession of the Russian spaces and protect them. Russian thinkers of the 19th century, reflecting on the fate and vocation of Russia, constantly pointed out that this potentiality, lack of expression, non-actualization of the forces of the Russian people is the key to its great future. They believed that the Russian people would finally say their word to the world and reveal themselves. It is generally accepted that the Tatar yoke had a fatal influence on Russian history and threw the Russian people back. Byzantine influence internally suppressed Russian thought and made it traditionally conservative. The extraordinary, explosive dynamism of the Russian people was revealed in its cultural layer only from contact with the West and after the reform of Peter. Herzen said that the Russian people responded to Peter's reform with the appearance of Pushkin. We will add: not only Pushkin, but also the Slavophiles themselves, but also Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy, but also seekers of truth, but also the emergence of original Russian thought.

The history of the Russian people is one of the most painful stories: the struggle against Tatar invasions and the Tatar yoke, the constant hypertrophy of the state, the totalitarian regime of the Moscow kingdom, the troubled era, the split, the violent nature of the Peter the Great reform, serfdom, which was the most terrible ulcer of Russian life, the persecution of the intelligentsia, the execution of the Decembrists, the terrible regime of the Prussian Junker Nicholas I, the illiteracy of the masses, which was kept in the dark out of fear, the inevitability of the revolution to resolve conflicts and contradictions and its violent and bloody character, and finally the worst war in world history. Epics and bogatyrs are connected with Kievan Russia, with St. Vladimir. But chivalry did not develop on the spiritual soil of Orthodoxy. In the martyrdom of St. Boris and St. Gleb has no heroism, the idea of ​​sacrifice prevails. The feat of non-resistance is a Russian feat. Simplification and humiliation are Russian traits. Also characteristic of Russian religiosity is foolishness - the acceptance of reproach from people, ridicule of the world, challenge to the world. Characteristic is the disappearance of the holy princes after the transfer of sinful power to the great princes of Moscow. And it is no coincidence that there was a general impoverishment of holiness in the Muscovite kingdom. Self-immolation, as a religious feat, is a Russian national phenomenon, almost unknown to other peoples. What we called dual faith, that is, the combination of the Orthodox faith with pagan mythology and folk poetry , explains many contradictions in the Russian people. The Russian element has always retained and still retains the Dionysian, ecstatic element. One Pole told me at the height of the Russian revolution: Dionysos walked across Russian soil. The enormous power of Russian choral song and dance is connected with this. Russian people are prone to orgies with round dances. We see the same thing in popular mystical sects, for example, in Khlystism. The propensity of the Russian people to revelry and anarchy with the loss of discipline is known. The Russian people were not only subjugated to the authorities, which received religious consecration, but they also gave birth to Stenka Razin, sung in folk songs, and Pugachev from their depths. Russians are runners and robbers. And the Russians are wanderers seeking God's truth. The Wanderers refuse to obey the authorities. The earthly path was presented to the Russian people as a way of flight and wandering. Russia has always been full of mystical and prophetic sects. And they always had a thirst for the transformation of life. It was in the eerie, Dionysian Whip sect as well. There was a high appreciation of beggary and poverty in the spiritual verses. Their favorite theme is innocent suffering. There is a very strong sense of social unrighteousness in the spiritual verses. There is a struggle between truth and falsehood. But they feel popular pessimism. In the popular understanding of salvation, almsgiving is of paramount importance. The religion of the earth is very strong in the Russian people, it is embedded in a very deep layer of the Russian soul. The earth is the last intercessor. The main category is motherhood. The Mother of God goes ahead of the Trinity and is almost identified with the Trinity. The people felt the closeness of the Mother of God-Intercessor more than Christ. Christ is the King of Heaven, His earthly image is little expressed. Only mother earth receives personal incarnation. The Spirit is often mentioned. St. G. Fedotov emphasizes that in spiritual verses there is a lack of faith in Christ the Redeemer, Christ remains the judge, that is, the people, as it were, do not see the kenosis of Christ. The people themselves accept suffering, but seem to have little faith in the mercy of Christ. G. Fedotov explains this by the fatal influence of Josephism, which distorted the image of Christ among the Russian people. And the Russian people want to hide from the terrible God Joseph Volotsky behind mother earth, behind the Mother of God. The image of Christ, the image of God was suppressed by the image of earthly power and was presented by analogy with it. At the same time, the eschatological element has always been strong in Russian religiosity. If, on the one hand, Russian folk religiosity connected the divine and natural worlds, then, on the other hand, the apocrypha, books that had a huge impact, spoke of the coming coming of the Messiah. These different beginnings of Russian religiosity will also be reflected in the thought of the 20th century.

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N.A.BERDYAEV

"RUSSIAN IDEA"

Novosibirsk 2005
Content

The Russian idea again excites the minds of Russians. This is understandable: Russia is facing yet another historic choice. The socio-political self-determination of the country determines the demarcation not only of the politically active population, but, I think, of its overwhelming majority.

Disputes about the national idea will be topical until our fatherland finds a path that will support the majority of its citizens and which will unite them. The nationwide unifying idea of ​​a country like Russia undoubtedly has a world-historical significance. Its meaning and methods of implementation cannot be indifferent to the world community.

Russian idea in general view- this is the way of the country's movement, the way of its existence in the present and future, this is the main objective its development. As proof of this, we can quote his words: “The Russian people, according to their eternal idea, do not like the structure of this earthly city and are striving for the Future City, for New Jerusalem, but New Jerusalem is not torn off from the vast Russian land, it is connected with it, and it will enter it.” It is nationwide in scope. And as such, it is an ideal for all the peoples inhabiting Russia, their age-old dream of prosperity, justice, goodness and beauty.

The Russian idea, as a great national idea (goal, dream, ideal) is born in the depths of the people, depends on the generic features of the national character - the mentality, as they say now - the specifics of its historical development and religious faith.

The Russian national idea in the exact sense took shape during the period of the emergence Russian nation and Russian statehood. Appearance national idea, understandable, accessible to most people, shared by them, testified to the powerful national self-consciousness of the peoples that make up the nation, i.e. about understanding and acceptance of the principles of social life, state structure, spiritual life, as well as the goals and paths of the historical movement of the nation.

The collapse of the communist dictatorship in our country determined the explosion of Russian interest in the question of the national idea. Much is written about her and even more is said. The largest works devoted to understanding this problem have been published. But the question of the Russian idea was developed most deeply in the works of classical Russian philosophy, starting with V. Solovyov and ending with A. Losev, i.e. in the works of thinkers who lived at a turning point for the fate of Russia historic moment.

The Russian idea does not reject the ideas of other peoples, but calls for cooperation among the peoples of the world. N.A. Berdyaev wrote in this regard that the Russian idea is “the idea of ​​communitarianism and brotherhood of people and peoples”. Each national idea has its own advantages, but the main advantage of the Russian idea is its universality, which is why it takes the form of striving for universal salvation.

N. A. Berdyaev - Russian philosopher

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev was one of the brightest and most influential Russian thinkers of the first half of the 20th century, who wrote hundreds of works on various philosophical, sociological, political, art and moral issues.

He was born in 1874 in Kyiv. Berdyaev passed the exams for the gymnasium at the age of twenty. In his youth he was fond of Marxism, but became famous as religious philosopher, one of the editors and authors of the famous collection "Milestones" (1909).

Berdyaev was perhaps the only popular Russian philosopher. He expressed his ideas emotionally and intelligibly. Some of his formulations have become aphorisms. His fellow philosophers looked down on him: they did not like his publicity.

Berdyaev, who remained in Russia after 1917, was arrested twice. The first time was in 1920 and the second time in 1922. Having seen enough of the horrors of the Soviet regime, in exile Berdyaev professed the problems of existence and existence. A person, he believed, should not sacrifice himself or subordinate his will to any structure, be it church, state or family.

Possessing amazing insight, Berdyaev wrote that "The Russian people are the people of the future." And that was 12 years before Hiroshima and 53 years before Chernobyl...

In the West, Nikolai Alexandrovich was considered the most characteristic philosopher in the Russian Orthodox tradition, the philosophical exponent of Orthodoxy. Berdyaev denied this interpretation, considered it a misunderstanding. Indeed, one of the most characteristic features of the philosophy of this amazing person, it is stronger to say, the initial philosophical intuition takes him far beyond the Russian framework. To a certain extent, it would be true to say that he is generally not a very Russian thinker. Or let's put it this way: he introduced a deafeningly new note into Russian thought. This is his personalism. Berdyaev himself, projecting himself onto the Russian tradition, saw Dostoevsky as his predecessor, he found in him what he himself called an anthropological revelation, a revelation about man.

Nikolai Berdyaev died on March 24, 1948, at the age of 75. Death found him at work, that is, he lived until the last second the most intense spiritual life.

According to him, for him, as a philosopher, there were too many events: he was in prison four times, twice in the old regime and twice in the new one, was exiled to the north for three years, had a process that threatened him with eternal settlement in Siberia, was expelled from his homeland and assumed that he would end his life in exile.

And so it happened. In the city of Clamoret near Paris, the house where he lived now houses a museum.

The Russian idea in the philosophy of N. A. Berdyaev

National features of the Russian soul

Man enters humanity through national individuality, as a national man, and not as an abstract man, as a Russian, a Frenchman, a German, or an Englishman. A person cannot jump over a whole step of being, because of this he would become impoverished and empty. A national person is more, not less, than just a person; he has the generic features of a person in general and there are individual national features.

A nation can be compared to a kind of constantly changing course of a river, the origins of which lie in the mysterious depths of life. Nationality is a positive enrichment of being, and it must be fought for as a value. National unity is deeper than the unity of classes, parties and all other transient historical formations in the life of peoples. Departure from national life, wandering - a purely Russian phenomenon, captured by the Russian national spirit. Neither race, nor territory, nor language, nor religion are features that determine nationality, although they all play one role or another in its definition. Nationality is a complex historical formation, it is formed as a result of blood mixing of races and tribes, many redistributions of lands with which it connects its fate, and a spiritual and cultural process that creates its unique spiritual face. And as a result of all historical and psychological research, an indecomposable and elusive remnant remains, in which lies the whole secret of national individuality. Nationality is mysterious, mystical, irrational, like any individual being.

According to Berdyaev, the formation of the national characteristics of the Russian soul, the Russian national type, was based on two opposite principles: 1) natural, pagan elements; 2) ascetically oriented Orthodoxy.

The natural principle is associated with the immensity, non-differentiation of Russia. The Russian soul is overwhelmed by the immense Russian fields and the immense Russian snows, it drowns and dissolves in this immensity. The formation of one's soul and the formation of one's creativity was difficult for a Russian person. State possession of the vast Russian spaces was accompanied by terrible centralization, the subordination of all life to the state interest and the suppression of free personal and social forces. The consciousness of personal rights among Russians has always been weak, and the independent activity of classes and groups has not been developed. The Russian man, the man of the earth, feels himself helpless to master these spaces and organize them. He is too accustomed to entrusting this organization to the central government. And in his own soul he feels an immensity with which it is difficult for him to cope. Slavic chaos rages in it. The vastness of Russian spaces did not contribute to the development of self-discipline and self-activity in Russian man - he blurred in space. Russian laziness, carelessness, lack of initiative, a poorly developed sense of responsibility are connected with this. The expanse of the Russian land and the expanse of the Russian soul crushed Russian energy, opening up the possibility of moving towards extensiveness. This expanse did not require intense energy and intensive culture. From the Russian soul, the vast Russian spaces demanded humility and sacrifice, but they also protected the Russian person and gave him a sense of security.

The Russian people are Eastern people in their spiritual structure. “The Russian people were not predominantly a people of culture, like the peoples of Western Europe, they were more of a people of revelations and inspirations, they did not know the measure and easily fell into extremes.” Russia is the Christian East, which for two centuries was strongly influenced by the West and in its upper cultural layer combined all Western ideas. The historical fate of the Russian people was unhappy and suffering, and it developed at a catastrophic pace, through discontinuity and a change in the type of civilization.

The inconsistency of the Russian soul was determined by the complexity of Russian historical destiny, the clash and confrontation in it of the Eastern and Western elements. The soul of the Russian people was formed Orthodox Church, she received a purely religious purpose. And this religious purpose has survived to our time, to the Russian nihilists and communists. But a strong natural element remained in the soul of the Russian people, connected with the immensity of the Russian land, with the boundlessness of the Russian plain. Russians have nature, elemental force is stronger than Western people, especially people of the most formalized Latin culture. The natural-pagan element also entered into Russian Christianity. In the type of a Russian person, two elements always collide - primitive, natural paganism, the spontaneity of the endless Russian land, and Orthodox, received from Byzantium, asceticism, aspiration to the other world.

Russian communism and revolution

Russian communism is difficult to understand because of its dual character. On the one hand, it is a world and international phenomenon, on the other hand, it is a Russian and national phenomenon. It is especially important for Western people to understand the national roots of Russian communism, its definiteness in Russian history.

The Russian revolution is universal in its principles, like any great revolution, it was carried out under the symbolism of the international, but it is also deeply national and is becoming more and more nationalized in its results. The difficulty of judgments about communism is determined precisely by its dual character, Russian and international. Only in Russia could a communist revolution take place. Russian communism must appear to the people of the West as Asian communism. And it is unlikely that this kind of communist revolution is possible in the countries of Western Europe, where, of course, everything will be different. The very internationalism of the Russian communist revolution is purely Russian, national. N. A. Berdyaev wrote that even the active participation of Jews in Russian communism is very characteristic of Russia and the Russian people.

Revolutions in Christian history have always been a judgment on historical Christianity, on Christians, on their betrayal of Christian precepts, on their distortion of Christianity. It is for Christians that the revolution makes sense and they most of all need to comprehend it, it is a challenge and a reminder to Christians of the truth that they have not realized. The acceptance of history is also the acceptance of revolution, the acceptance of its meaning as a catastrophic discontinuity in the destinies of the sinful world. The rejection of any meaning of the revolution must inevitably lead to the rejection of history. But the revolution is terrible and violent. Such is the curse of the sinful world. And on the Russian revolution, perhaps more than on any other, lies the reflection of the Apocalypse. Ridiculous and pitiful are judgments about it from the point of view of normative religion and morality, normative understanding of law and economy. The bitterness of the leaders of the revolution cannot but repel, but it cannot be judged solely from the point of view of individual morality.

Undoubtedly, in the Russian revolution there is a generic feature of every revolution. But there is also a single, once accomplished, original revolution, it is generated by the originality of the Russian historical process and the uniqueness of the Russian intelligentsia. Nowhere else will there be such a revolution. For the people's consciousness, Bolshevism was a Russian people's revolution, an outpouring of a violent, popular element, while communism came from foreigners, it is Western, not Russian, and it imposed the yoke of a despotic organization on the revolutionary people's element.

The masses of the people were disciplined and organized in the elements of the Russian revolution through the communist idea, through the communist symbolism. This is the indisputable merit of communism before the Russian state. Russia was threatened total anarchy, anarchic decay, it was stopped by the communist dictatorship, which found slogans that the people agreed to obey. Berdyaev described that time as follows: “For the old populist intelligentsia, the revolution was a religion, the attitude towards the revolution was totalitarian, all mental and cultural life was subordinated to the liberation of the people, the overthrow of the autocratic monarchy.” The church lost its leading role in the life of the people. The subordinate position of the church in relation to the monarchical state, the loss of the conciliar spirit, low cultural level clergy - all this was fatal. There was no organizing, spiritual force. Christianity in Russia was in deep crisis. In communism there is a healthy, true and completely consistent with Christianity understanding of the life of every person, as a service in excess of a personal goal, as a service not to oneself, but to the great whole. But this true idea is distorted by the denial of the independent value and dignity of each human personality, her spiritual freedom. Communism also has the correct idea that man, in conjunction with other men, is called upon to regulate and organize social and cosmic life. But in Russian communism this idea, which found its most radical expression in the Christian thinker N. Fedorov, has assumed almost manic forms and turns man into an instrument and a means of revolution.

The movement towards socialism - towards socialism understood in the broadest sense - is a world phenomenon. This global turning point towards a new society, the image of which is not yet clear, is being accomplished through transitional stages. Such a transitional stage is what is called bound, regulated, state capitalism. This is a difficult process, accompanied by the absolutization of the state. In Soviet Russia this stage, which is not yet socialism, is greatly favored by the old traditions of the absolute state. In what is happening in Soviet Russia, there is a lot of elementary, elementary civilization of the worker and peasant masses emerging from a state of illiteracy. But the process of civilization is accomplished through the replacement for the masses of religious-Christian symbols with Marxist-Communist symbols. It is abnormal and painful that the introduction of the masses to civilization takes place with the complete defeat of the old Russian intelligentsia. The revolution, which the intelligentsia has always dreamed of, turned out to be the end for it, the author confirms this with the words: “The Russian idea is eschatological, facing the end.” This was determined by the ancient split in Russian history, the age-old split of the intelligentsia and the people, as well as the shameless demagogy through which the Russian communists won. But this led to the fact that there was a terrible lack of intellectual forces. Russian communism, if you look at it more deeply, in the light of Russian historical destiny, is a deformation of the Russian idea, the Russian search for the kingdom of truth, the Russian idea, which has taken on ugly forms in the atmosphere of war and decay.

Russia is a tangle of contradictions

Russian empire contains a very complex National composition, it brings together many peoples. But it cannot be regarded as a mixture of nationalities - it is Russian in its basis and task in the world. The basis of the Russian idea was the creation of the Russian man as an all-man. And if Russian imperialism is not the expression of this Russian folk spirit, then it will begin to decompose and lead to the disintegration of Russia.

Russia's main trouble is the weakness of the Russian will, the lack of social self-education and self-discipline. Russian society lacks character, the ability to determine itself from within. A Russian person is too easily seized by the surrounding society, and he is too susceptible to emotional reactions to everything external.

Our Orthodox ideology of autocracy is the same phenomenon without a state spirit, the refusal of the people and society to create public life. The Russian soul wants a sacred community, a God-chosen power. The nature of the Russian people is recognized as renouncing earthly affairs and earthly blessings. The Russian people do not want to be a courageous builder, their nature is defined as feminine, passive and submissive in state affairs, they are always waiting for a husband, a ruler. Russia is a submissive, feminine land. Passive femininity in relation to state power is so characteristic of the Russian people and of Russian history. This is fully confirmed by the Russian revolution, in which the people remain spiritually passive and submissive to the new revolutionary tyranny, but in a state of evil obsession. The Russian people have always loved to live in the warmth of the team, in some kind of dissolution in the elements of the earth, in the bosom of the mother. The personality was crushed by the enormous size of the state, which made unbearable demands and suffered suffering. “Suffering is not only deeply inherent in man, but it is the only reason for the emergence of consciousness. Suffering redeems evil,” Nikolai Alexandrovich wrote, analyzing the work of his, as he considered, predecessor F.M. Dostoevsky.

This secret is associated with a special ratio of the feminine and masculine principles in the Russian folk character. The same antinomy runs through all of Russian existence. Russia is the most non-chauvinistic country in the world. Russians are almost ashamed of the fact that they are Russians, it is alien to them national pride and sometimes national dignity. The Russian people are not at all characterized by aggressive nationalism, inclinations of forcible Russification. The Russian does not advance, does not exhibit, does not despise others. In the Russian element there truly is some kind of national disinterestedness, self-sacrifice.

Such is one thesis about Russia that could rightly be expressed. But there is also an antithesis, which is no less justified. Russia is the most nationalist country in the world, a country of unprecedented excesses of nationalism, oppression of subject nationalities by Russification, a country in which everything is nationalized up to the universal Church of Christ, a country that considers itself the only one called and rejects all of Europe as rottenness and a fiend of the devil, doomed to death . reverse side Russian humility is an extraordinary Russian conceit. The most humble is the greatest, the most powerful, the only one called. Russian is just, good, true, divine. Church nationalism is a characteristic Russian phenomenon. They are thoroughly saturated with our Old Believers. But the same nationalism reigns in the mainstream church. The same nationalism penetrates into the Slavophile ideology, which has always replaced the universal with the Russian.

How to understand this enigmatic inconsistency of Russia, this identical fidelity of mutually exclusive theses about it? And here, as elsewhere, in the question of the freedom and slavery of the soul of Russia, of its strangeness and its immobility, we are confronted with the secret relationship between the masculine and the feminine. The root of these deep contradictions lies in the unconnectedness of the masculine and the feminine in the Russian spirit and Russian character. Unlimited freedom turns into boundless slavery, eternal wandering into eternal stagnation, because courageous freedom does not take possession of the feminine national element in Russia from the inside. Hence the eternal dependence on a foreigner. This means that Russia always feels the masculine principle to itself as passive, inactive, and not active, coming from outside.

The Slavophils wanted to leave to the Russian people freedom of religious conscience, freedom of thought, freedom of spirit, and give the rest of their lives to the power of a force that unlimitedly governs the Russian people. Here we approach the main contradictions of Russia from a new angle. This is all the same disunity of the masculine and feminine principles in the bowels of the Russian element and the Russian spirit. The Russian spirit, striving for the absolute in everything, does not seize the masculine sphere of the relative and the middle, it surrenders itself to power. external forces.

The lack of courageous character and that temper of personality, which in the West was developed by chivalry, is the most dangerous shortcoming of the Russians, and the Russian people and the Russian intelligentsia. The very love of a Russian person for native land took a form that impeded the development of a courageous personal spirit. In the name of this love, in the name of falling into the mother's womb, the chivalrous principle was rejected in Russia. The Russian spirit was shrouded in a dense veil of the national mother; it was drowning in warm and moist flesh. Russian soulfulness, so well known to everyone, is associated with this warmth, it still has a lot of flesh and a lack of spirit. But flesh and blood do not inherit eternity, and only the Russia of the spirit can be eternal. The Russia of the spirit can be revealed through a courageous sacrifice of life. The rebirth of Russia to a new life can be connected only with the courageous, active and creative paths of the spirit, with the revelation of Christ within man and people, and not with the naturalistic ancestral element, eternally attracting and enslaving. This is the victory of the fire of the spirit over the moisture and warmth of the spiritual flesh.

Russian dislike for ideas and indifference to ideas often turn into indifference to truth. A Russian person is not really looking for truth, he is looking for the truth, which he thinks either religiously, or morally, or socially, he is looking for salvation. The Russian people are perhaps the most spiritual people in the world. But his spirituality floats in some kind of elemental sincerity, even in physicality. And this means that the spirit has not mastered the soul. On this soil, distrust, indifference and a hostile attitude towards thought, towards ideas are born. On the same soil, the long-known weakness of the Russian will, the Russian character, is born.

Nikolai Alexandrovich wrote: “I had to live in a catastrophic era both for my homeland and for the whole world. Entire worlds collapsed before my eyes and new ones arose. I could observe the extraordinary vicissitudes of human destinies.” In the last years of his life, Russia appeared to him as the liberator of the world from Hitler's fascism. similarity of two totalitarian regimes forgotten. Faith lived, based on nothing, in intimacy big changes in the internal politics of the Bolshevik Party. It was then that Berdyaev wrote a book, one of his last books, The Russian Idea, in which he expressed his unexpected Slavophile faith in Russia's special religious and historical vocation. “The Russian people belong to a religious type”… “The ethical ideas of a Russian person are very different from the ethical ideas of Western nations and these are more Christian ideas.” And the Russian idea is more “communal” than the Western one. That is why for the "new Jerusalem" "the way is being prepared in Russia." The social revolution in Russia is a stage along this path.

Many of Berdyaev's friends and students were deeply and deeply affected by this last deviation of the teacher. It was especially strange that Berdyaev, who all his life went against the currents prevailing around him, turned out to be echoing the crowd and the rulers of the current day. However, the further events unfolded, the more disappointed Berdyaev was in his expectations from the Soviet Union. Already he raised his voice in defense of freedom of speech, trampled in Russia. Friends report that in the end, nothing remained of his initial enthusiasm ...

Conclusion

The Russian idea has never remained static. It was constantly refined by the spiritual warriors of the nation, developed by them, absorbing the aspirations and hopes ordinary people.

A radical revision of the national idea, its cardinal rethinking, generally speaking, is impossible within the framework of a given nation. Replacing the national idea is impossible because for this the composition of the nation, its history, must change. A change in the socio-political system does not change the deep meaning and content of the national idea, because, as history shows, this kind historical transformation in the vast majority of countries it occurs in an evolutionary way, gradually, over a long historical period, during which the necessary amendments and additions are made to it. Changing the socio-political order by revolutionary or violent means leads, of necessity, to violence against the national idea, to its grossest distortion and trampling.

Moreover, before ideological and spiritual contamination occurs, certain political forces seek to carry out violence against many representatives of the nation, i.e. trying in a historically short time to “re-create” a person, to form “ new identity”, which and impose a “new”, artificially fabricated ideology. With the help of the latter, they violate the age-old idea of ​​the nation. As the recent history of Russia has shown, such risky exercises with the people and their idea do not end well: they throw the nation and its spiritual life far back. And then the question arises again about the essence of the national idea and the ways of its implementation.

The most burning questions were raised in the philosophical heritage of N. A. Berdyaev Russian thought and life. That is why the work of this prominent Russian thinker, whose writings were hushed up in his homeland for more than seventy years, arouses such a lively and growing interest.

Literature

N. A. Berdyaev. Russian idea: Main problems of Russian philosophical thought of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. About Russia and Russian Philosophical Culture. M., 1990.361 S.

1 N.A. Berdyaev. Russian idea. - M.: FILO, 2000. - S. 242.

ON THE. Berdyaev. Russian idea. - M.: FILO, 2000. - S. 241.

ON THE. Berdyaev. Russian idea. - M.: FILO, 2000. - S. 70.

ON THE. Berdyaev. Russian idea. – M.: FILO, 2000. – P. 8.

ON THE. Berdyaev. Russian idea. - M.: FILO, 2000. - S. 212.

ON THE. Berdyaev. Russian idea. - M.: FILO, 2000. - S. 240.

ON THE. Berdyaev. Russian idea. - M.: FILO, 2000. - S. 193.

look at essays similar to "The Russian Idea of ​​Berdyaev"

Introduction 3
Russian idea. 5
1. Main features. 5
2. Cause of causes. eight
3. The meaning of the Russian idea. eleven
Conclusion. fifteen
Literature. 17

Introduction

The mind of Russia cannot be understood

Do not measure with a common yardstick:

She has a special become -

One can only believe in Russia.

Tyutchev F.I.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev is one of the most famous Russian philosophers of the 20th century. His philosophy absorbed a wide variety of sources. At various periods, he was inspired by Kant, Marx,
Boehme, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche. Of the Russian thinkers, Mikhailovsky, Khomyakov, Dostoevsky, Solovyov, Nesmeloye, Rozanov and others had a noticeable influence on him.

N. A. Berdyaev is still considered one of the rulers of the thoughts of the 20th century. To what exactly does this philosopher owe his fame? He is not an analyst, not a researcher. He, of course, is the author of original concepts: about the god-like possibilities of a human creator, about “nothing” as the sub-foundation of the world that is not within the divine competence, etc. But, I think, this is not the point. And the fact that Berdyaev is a thinker who never tired of proclaiming the precious human personality and prophesying about its fate.

Responsible, concerned about the state of the world, Berdyaev's view was formulated in response to the challenge of the time. Most of his prophecies, born as if from collisions with spiritual realities and, like lightning, illuminating the future, still remain in force.

One of the main problems worrying Berdyaev was the “Russian idea”.
Berdyaev's judgments about Russia, the Russian people, the Russian soul are unique, free and broad. In his “Russian idea” there is no strict sequence and terminological accuracy, but there are vivid imagery and allegorism, an abundance of aphorisms and historical parallels, contrasts and paradoxes. The Russian soul, he writes, is a combination of heterogeneous essential principles: "an innumerable number of theses and antitheses" - freedom and enslavement, revolutionism and conservatism, innovation and inertia, enterprise and laziness.

The main goal of this essay is to understand what is the “Russian idea” in the understanding of N. A. Berdyaev. For this, the following tasks are set:

1) consider the main features of the Russian idea;

2) determine the cause of causes;

3) understand the meaning of the Russian idea.

Russian idea.

1. Main features.

“The World War sharply raises the question of Russian national self-consciousness. Russian national thought feels the need to unravel the riddle of Russia, to understand the idea of ​​Russia, to determine its place in the world. Everyone feels on this world day that Russia is facing great world tasks. But this deep feeling is accompanied by a consciousness of the uncertainty, almost the indefinability of these tasks. Since ancient times, there has been a premonition that Russia is destined for something great, that Russia is a special country, unlike any other country in the world. Russian national thought was nourished by the feeling of God's chosenness and God-bearingness of Russia. It goes from the old idea of ​​Moscow as the Third Rome, through Slavophilism - to
Dostoevsky, Solovyov and modern neo-Slavophiles. A lot of falsehood and lies stuck to the ideas of this order, but they also reflected something truly folk, truly Russian. A person cannot feel all his life some special and great calling and be acutely aware of it during periods of the greatest spiritual upsurge, if this person is not called to anything significant and is not destined. This is biologically impossible. This is not possible in the life of an entire nation.

Russia has not yet played a decisive role in world life; it has not yet truly entered the life of European humanity. Great Russia still remained a secluded province in the life of the world and Europe, its spiritual life was isolated and closed. Russia still does not know the world, perceives its image in a distorted way and judges it falsely and superficially. spiritual powers
Russia has not yet become immanent cultural life European humanity.
For Western cultural humanity Russia still remains some kind of alien East, sometimes attracting with its mystery, sometimes repulsive with its barbarity. Even Tolstoy and Dostoevsky attract Western cultured people like exotic food, unusually spicy for him. Many on
The West is attracted by the mysterious depth of the Russian East. Only a select few individuals have seen the light from the East. The Russian state has long been recognized as a great power, with which all states of the world must reckon, and which plays a prominent role in international politics. But the spiritual culture of Russia, that core of life, in relation to which the state itself is only a superficial shell and tool, does not yet occupy a great position in the world. The spirit of Russia cannot yet dictate to the peoples the conditions that Russian diplomacy can dictate. The Slavic race has not yet occupied in the world the position that the Latin or German race has occupied. This is what must change radically after the present great war, which is an absolutely unprecedented historical interweaving of Eastern and Western humanity. The creative spirit of Russia will finally occupy a great-power position in the spiritual world concert. What happened in the depths of the Russian spirit will no longer be provincial, separate and closed, it will become global and universal, not only Eastern, but not Western either. For this, the potential spiritual forces of Russia have long matured.

But the fulfillment of Russia's world tasks cannot be left to the arbitrariness of the elemental forces of history. Creative efforts of the national mind and national will are needed. And if the peoples of the West are finally forced to see the only face of Russia and recognize her vocation, then it still remains unclear whether we ourselves are aware of what Russia is and what it is called to? For us, Russia remains an unsolved mystery. Russia is contradictory, antinomic. The soul of Russia is not covered by any doctrines. Tyutchev said about his Russia:

The mind of Russia cannot be understood

Do not measure with a common yardstick:

She has a special become -

One can only believe in Russia.

And truly it can be said that Russia is incomprehensible to the mind and immeasurable by any yardstick of doctrines and teachings...

Russia is the most stateless, the most anarchic country in the world. And the Russian people are the most apolitical people, never able to organize their land. All truly Russian national writers, thinkers, publicists - all were stateless, a kind of anarchists.
Anarchism is a phenomenon of the Russian spirit; it was inherent in different ways both in our extreme left and in our extreme right. And the Russian liberals were more humanists than statesmen. Nobody wanted power, everyone was afraid of power, like uncleanness. The Russian soul wants sacred power, God-chosen power.
The nature of the Russian people is recognized as ascetic, renouncing earthly affairs and earthly blessings...

At the heart of Russian history lies a significant legend about the calling of the Varangians-foreigners to manage the Russian land, since "our land is great and plentiful, but there is no order in it." How characteristic is this for the fatal inability and unwillingness of the Russian people to arrange order in their own land! The Russian people seem to want not so much a free state, freedom in the state, as freedom from the state, freedom from worries about the earthly order. The Russian people do not want to be a courageous builder, their nature is defined as feminine, passive and submissive in state affairs, they are always waiting for a groom, a husband, a ruler. Russia is a submissive, feminine land. Passive, receptive femininity in relation to state power is so characteristic of the Russian people and of Russian history. There are no limits to the humble patience of the long-suffering Russian people. State power has always been an external, and not an internal principle for the stateless Russian people; she was not created from him, but came, as it were, from outside, as the groom comes to the bride. And that is why so often the authorities gave the impression of a foreign, some kind of German domination. Russian radicals and Russian conservatives alike thought that the state was "they" and not "we". It is very characteristic that in Russian history there was no chivalry, this courageous beginning. This is connected with the insufficient development of the personal principle in Russian life. The Russian people have always loved to live in the warmth of the team, in some kind of dissolution in the elements of the earth, in the bosom of the mother. Chivalry forges a sense of personal dignity and honor, creates a temper of the personality. Russian history did not create this personal temper. In a Russian person there is softness, in a Russian face there is no carved and chiselled profile.

The Russian people created the most powerful state in the world, the greatest empire. From Ivan Kalita, Russia consistently and stubbornly gathered and reached dimensions that stagger the imagination of all the peoples of the world. The forces of the people, about whom, not without reason, they think that it is striving for an inner spiritual life, are given over to the colossus of statehood, which turns everything into its instrument.
The interests of creating, maintaining and protecting a huge state occupy a completely exclusive and overwhelming place in Russian history. The Russian people had almost no strength left for a free creative life, all the blood went to strengthening and protecting the state. Classes and estates were poorly developed and did not play the role that they played in the history of Western countries.
The personality was crushed by the enormous size of the state, which made unbearable demands. The bureaucracy has developed to monstrous proportions.
Russian statehood occupied a guard and defensive position.
It was forged in the fight against the Tatars, in a troubled era, in foreign invasions. And it turned into a self-sufficient abstract principle; it lives its own life, according to its own law, does not want to be a subordinate function of the people's life. This feature of Russian history has left the seal of joylessness and oppression on Russian life. The free play of man's creative forces was impossible. The power of the bureaucracy in Russian life was an internal invasion of the Germans. Nemetchina somehow organically entered the Russian statehood and owned the feminine and passive Russian element. The Russian land took the wrong one for her betrothed, made a mistake in the groom. The Russian people suffered great sacrifices for the creation of the Russian state, they shed a lot of blood, but they themselves remained powerless in their vast state. Imperialism in the Western and bourgeois sense of the word is alien to the Russian people, but they meekly gave their strength to the creation of imperialism, in which their heart was not interested. The secret of Russian history and the Russian soul is hidden here. No philosophy of history, Slavophile or Western, has yet figured out why the most stateless people created such a huge and powerful statehood, why the most anarchist people are so submissive to the bureaucracy, why the free-spirited people seem to not want to free life? This secret is associated with a special ratio of the feminine and masculine principles in the Russian folk character...” 1

2. Cause of causes.

According to the thinker, the Russian people are a highly polarized people. It combines seemingly the most irreconcilable opposites.

Two principles struggle in the Russian soul: the eastern and the western.
“The inconsistency and complexity of the Russian soul may be due to the fact that in
Russia collide and come into interaction two streams of world history
- East and West. It is the great and integral East-West by design
God's and it is a failed and mixed East-West in its actual state, in its empirical state”2. Source of diseases
He sees Russia in a false ratio of masculine and feminine principles in it. At a known level national development among the peoples of the West,
France, England and Germany, "the courageous spirit awakened and organically shaped the people's element from within." There was no such process in Russia, and even Orthodox religiosity did not give the discipline of the soul that was created in the West by Catholicism with its firm, clear outlines.
“The Russian soul remained in the vastness, it did not feel the edge and blurred”; it demands all or nothing, is apocalyptic or nihilistic, and therefore incapable of building a "middle realm of culture."
Accordingly national qualities also Russian thought, according to
Berdyaev, is addressed primarily “to the eschatological problem of the end, colored apocalypti cally” and imbued with a catastrophic worldview. In his work “The Russian Idea” (by the way, this phrase appears here for the first time), Berdyaev writes: “The Russian people are not a purely European and not a purely Asian people. Russia is a whole part of the world, a vast East
West, it connects two worlds. And always in the Russian soul fought two principles, eastern and western.

The formation of the Russian soul was based on two opposite principles:
"natural pagan Dionysian element and ascetic monastic Orthodoxy". Accordingly, these principles were the cause of the appearance of completely opposite properties in the Russian people, such as “cruelty, a tendency to violence and kindness, humanity, gentleness; ritual belief and the search for truth; individualism, heightened consciousness of the individual and impersonal collectivism, nationalism, self-praise and universalism; the search for God and militant atheism; humility and arrogance; slavery and rebellion."

In relation to the state in the Russian people, one can discover both the desire for anarchism, the rejection of the state (“the Russian people are known for revelry and anarchy when discipline is lost”), and the desire for hypertrophy of the state, for the suppression of freedom.

Following Montesquieu, Berdyaev notes the fact that the geographical environment could also influence the formation of the “spirit of the people” and emphasizes that
“There is a correspondence between the immensity, boundlessness, infinity of the Russian land and the Russian soul, between the geography of the physical and the geography of the soul. In the soul of the Russian people there is the same immensity, boundlessness, aspiration to infinity, as in the Russian plain. Therefore, it was difficult for the Russian people to take possession of these vast spaces and formalize them. The Russian people had an enormous power of the elements and a comparative weakness of form.
The Russian people were not predominantly a people of culture, like the peoples of Western
Europe, he was more a people of revelations and inspirations, he did not know the measure and easily fell into extremes. Among the peoples of Western Europe, everything is much more determined and formalized, everything is divided into categories and of course. Not so with the Russian people, as less determined, as more turned to infinity and not wanting to know the distribution by categories. There were no sharp social boundaries in Russia, there were no pronounced classes (for example, the absence of a slave-owning system, where the gap between the class of slave owners and the class of slaves was insurmountable), Russia has never been an aristocratic country in the Western sense, no matter how it became bourgeois.”

“How to understand this enigmatic inconsistency of Russia, this identical fidelity of mutually exclusive theses about it? And here, as elsewhere, in the question of the freedom and slavery of the soul of Russia, of its wandering and its immobility, we are confronted with the secret relationship between the masculine and the feminine. The root of these deep contradictions lies in the unconnectedness of the masculine and feminine in the Russian spirit and Russian character. Boundless freedom turns into boundless slavery, eternal wandering into eternal stagnation, because courageous freedom does not take possession of the feminine national element in
Russia from within, from the depths. A courageous beginning is always expected from the outside, a personal beginning is not revealed in the Russian people themselves ... Russia is getting married, waiting for a groom who should come from some height, but an unmarried German official comes and owns it. In the life of the spirit they own it: now Marx, then
Kant, then Steiner, then some foreign husband...

Russia did not learn from Europe, what is necessary and good, did not join European culture, which is salutary for it, but slavishly submitted to the West or smashed the West in a wild nationalist reaction, denied culture.
The god Apollo, the god of a masculine form, still did not descend into Dionysian Russia.
Russian Dionysism is barbaric, not Hellenic. And in other countries you can find all the opposites, but only in Russia the thesis turns into an antithesis, bureaucratic statehood is born from anarchism, slavery is born from freedom, extreme nationalism from supernationalism. There is only one way out of this hopeless circle: the disclosure within the
Russia, and in its spiritual depths of a courageous, personal, formative beginning, the mastery of one's own national element, the immanent awakening of a courageous, luminous consciousness.”

3. The meaning of the Russian idea.

Considering the history of Russian statehood, Berdyaev criticizes the point of view of the Slavophiles, according to which statehood developed organically. On the contrary, Berdyaev believes, Russian history is characterized primarily by discontinuity. Five periods are distinguished: Russia of Kyiv, Russia of the times of the Tatar yoke, Russia of Moscow, Russia of Petrovskaya and Soviet Russia.

In addition, the thinker also hopes that “a new
Russia". Now we see that the thinker's hopes have come true and this new Russia has appeared, but how much it corresponds to the ideal of Berdyaev and whether the “Russian idea” continues to be implemented in it is a big question.

Russia's development was catastrophic. In contrast to the Slavophiles,
Berdyaev believes that the worst, “most Asiatic-Tatar” period was the period of the Moscow Tsardom. The Kyiv period and the period of the Tatar yoke were better, there was no isolation in them, there was more freedom.

Agreeing with the expression of Klyuchevsky, that in Russia “the State was growing stronger, the people were sick”, Berdyaev notes that for a long time the forces of the Russian people were mainly aimed at maintaining the huge Russian state. "The Russian people were crushed by the expenditure of forces, which was demanded by the size of the state." “An infinitely difficult task faced the Russian people - the task of organizing and organizing their vast land”

The Russian idea was developed over the course of several centuries, and it was precisely the contradictory nature of the Russian soul that played a decisive role in its formation. We will not specifically dwell on the stages of the formation of the Russian idea, we will only note that such people as the monk Philotheus contributed to its formation, with their idea of ​​​​Moscow as the third Rome,
Chaadaev, the Slavophiles Kireevsky, Aksakov, Khomyakov (his idea of ​​catholicity is especially valuable), the great Russian writers Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy,
Dostoevsky, philosophers Leontiev, Rozanov, Solovyov, and others. Bakunin, Chernyshevsky, Pisarev and others also played a big role, although according to Berdyaev, rather in the denial of untruth than in creation. The most important thing, according to Berdyaev, is that this idea is truly popular and was formulated by the best representatives of the people and corresponds to the deepest desires and aspirations of the people.

Berdyaev comes to the conclusion that “Russian thought, Russian searches of the 19th and early 20th centuries (while also emphasizing the importance of previous thinkers) testify to the existence of a Russian idea that corresponds to the character and vocation of the Russian people.” The formation of the Russian idea is associated primarily with the fact that “Russian people from the popular, working class, even when they left Orthodoxy, continued to seek the truth, seek God and God's truth, the meaning of life.” And although the search sometimes led to the most opposite results, from the assertion of the principles of anarchism to Russian communism, deep down, the vast majority of thinkers and ordinary Russian people still carried certain elements of this idea. The Russian idea, according to Berdyaev, is the idea
“community and brotherhood of people and peoples”. The Russian people, according to their spiritual type, are most disposed towards the construction of “personalist socialism”. “Russians do not have such divisions, classifications, groupings in different areas, as Western people have, there is a great integrity.”

In connection with all the above arguments, Berdyaev believes that the Russian idea is a messianic idea, the Russians are called upon to play a worthy role in the history of the world in establishing the principles of communarity. However, the thinker clearly distinguishes between the national and nationalist idea and fights against all manifestations of nationalism. He even believes that it is necessary to find common ground with peoples whose idea is opposite to the Russian one:
“The German idea and the Russian idea are opposites. The German idea is the idea of ​​domination, the Russian idea is the idea of ​​brotherhood. However, fraternal relations with the German people should be desired, provided they renounce the will to power. The same can be attributed to any other people. Moreover, such an assessment by Berdyaev of relations with the German people did not change even after the war. He believed that the Russian idea defeated the German idea in the Second World War, but since it is the idea of ​​brotherhood, it is necessary to build relations with Germany on its (ideas) principles.

In contrast to many philosophers of the Russian emigration, Berdyaev believes that the Russian idea did not disappear with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks.
Russian communism (by which the thinker understands the system that has developed in Soviet Russia) is a perversion of the Russian idea. However, Berdyaev sees not only lies, but also the truth of the revolution and Russian communism. What happened to our country is a natural phenomenon, the revolution in Russia could only be socialist, and in an extreme form (due to the inclination of Russians to totalitarian and extreme teachings, the rejection of bourgeois institutions and other reasons determined by Russian national character and Russian history).
Communism, Berdyaev believes, is "a great lesson for Christians", a reminder to them of an unfulfilled duty. The idea of ​​the “Third Rome” has been transformed into the idea of ​​the “Third International”, but this is the same idea of ​​brotherhood, only misunderstood and, as it were, turned upside down.

“The spirit of communism, the religion of communism, the philosophy of communism are both anti-Christian and anti-humanistic, but in social system Communism is a great truth, which can be fully reconciled with Christianity, in any case, more so than the capitalist system, which is the most anti-Christian.”

What are the ways to get rid of the untruth of communism? Berdyaev believes that communism should not be destroyed, it should be overcome in the souls of people.

The philosopher is sure that this will happen and expresses cautious optimism about further way Russia after overcoming communism. However
Berdyaev believes that “improvements and changes in Russia can only come from internal processes in the Russian people. So I thought 25 years ago and was very at odds with most of the emigration.” No expansion from outside, according to Berdyaev, can destroy Russian communism, it must be overcome in the souls of people and the Russian people, a new Russian state, when such an overcoming takes place, it will absorb all the best from communism (in the spirit of Hegel's synthesis), and on the basis of Christian values ​​will implement the ideas of personalism, communitarianism and brotherhood, and will still play its own positive role in the world. In any case, Berdyaev hoped so...

“I am turned to the centuries to come, when elementary and inevitable social processes will end,” Berdyaev wrote in one of his recent works in 1947. He very much regretted that “the spiritual movement that existed both in Russia and in Europe at the end of the 19th and at the beginning
XX century pushed aside”. The world plunged into spiritual crisis. However, until the end of his days, Berdyaev continued to hope for the revival of the world, in which Russia would play a big role.

Conclusion.

The historical mission of Russia over the centuries was realized in various events of world significance: the fight against the Tatar-Mongol yoke, which stopped the expansion of the Tatar-Mongols to the west and actually saved the West from disaster; Patriotic War with the French in 1812, which did not allow
Napoleon to carry out his plans for world domination and, finally, the Great
The Patriotic War of 1941-1945, as a result of which humanity was saved from the plague of fascism. In all these (and many others, perhaps not so large-scale) events, the efforts and sacrifices of Russia were of decisive importance.

In the field of the spirit, for many centuries the Russian idea was expressed in the fact that unchanging moral ideas organized the life of the Russian nation, indicated spiritual guidelines for the Russian person, despite all the invasions and internal turmoil. The same feeling of unity with people, the same concepts of measure, harmony. Every time they were filled with a living meaning - in the asceticism of Sergius, Nile, Seraphim, in the work of Rublev, Pushkin. On the scale of historical time, Pushkin and Ilya Muromets represent an equally perfect embodiment of the Russian spirit, Russianness. The Russian idea surprised the world, manifesting itself in such a wonderful, rather dazzling phenomenon as Russian literature of the 19th century. Here are just a few names: A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P.
Chekhov...

The main conclusion: the Russian idea is the idea of ​​community and brotherhood of people and peoples. The Russian idea is a messianic idea, Russians are called upon to play a worthy role in the history of the world, in establishing the principles of communarity.

Although the philosopher would hardly have approved of the way in which the development of
Russia in recent years, a number of positive processes can still be noted in Russian society and the state. And it can be assumed that the country will nevertheless emerge from the crisis, both economic and spiritual (and this is the most important thing, since “Russian communism” seems to have been “overcome in the souls of people”, although of course not all, but it was not overcome at all , as Berdyaev would like). And we have the right to hope that the very “Russian idea” about which
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev wrote so much, and in the formation of which his philosophy, political and legal views have played and, we hope, will play a far from last role.

Let's finish with the words of Pavel Florensky: “... I believe and hope that, having exhausted itself, nihilism will prove its insignificance, everyone will get bored, cause hatred for itself, and then, after the collapse of all this abomination, hearts and minds will not be as sluggish and with looking back, and hungry, they will turn to the Russian idea, to the idea of ​​Russia, to holy Russia ... I believe that the crisis will purify the Russian atmosphere, even the global atmosphere.”

Let's believe and hope.

Literature.

1. Berdyaev N.A. "Russian idea". - M.: "Svarog and K", 1997 - 324 p.

2. Berdyaev N.A. "The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism". - M.: "Svarog and K", 1997 - 295s.

3. Berdyaev N.A. The fate of Russia. Experiments on the psychology of wars and nationality. - M.: "Thought", 1990 - 212p.

4. Berdyaev N.A. Self-knowledge. - M.: "Book", 1991. - 353 p.

5. Losev A.F. "Russian Philosophy". - M.: "Higher School", 1991. -

6. Sokolov I.I., Ivanchenko M.V. Philosophy N.A. Berdyaev. - URL: http://www.philosophy.ru/library/berd/02/00.html
-----------------------
1 N.A. Berdyaev "Russian idea".
2 Ibid.
ON THE. Berdyaev "Russian idea".
There.
ON THE. Berdyaev "Russian idea".
ON THE. Berdyaev "Russian idea".
There.
ON THE. Berdyaev, The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism.
ON THE. Berdyaev "Russian idea".
There.
There.
There.
ON THE. Berdyaev, The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism.
There.
ON THE. Berdyaev "Self-Knowledge".
There.

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Nikolai Berdyaev

RUSSIAN IDEA

Pages are indicated according to the edition: Berdyaev N. Russian idea. St. Petersburg: Azbuka-klassika, 2008.

In Inventory A No. 2152.

CHAPTER I. Historical introduction. Definition of the Russian national type. East and West. -Opposites of the Russian soul. Discontinuity of Russian history. Russian religiosity. Moscow - Third Rome. The schism of the 17th century Peter's reform. Freemasonry. The era of Alexander I. Decembrists. Pushkin. Russian intelligentsia. Radishchev. Intelligence and Reality. The tragic fate of philosophy. Influence of German idealism.

CHAPTER II. The problem of the philosophy of history. Russia and Europe. Slavophiles and Westernizers. The question of the fate of Russia. Forties. Chaadaev. Pecherin. Slavophiles. Kireevsky. Aksakov. Khomyakov. Letter to Fr. Baader. Westerners. Idealists of the forties. Granovsky. Belinsky. Herzen. Further development Slavophilism. Danilevsky. Leontiev. Dostoevsky.

CHAPTER III. The problem of the collision of personality and world harmony. attitude towards reality. The Significance of Hegel in the History of Russian Thought. Belinsky's rebellion. Anticipation of Dostoevsky. The problem of theodicy. Underground Man. Gogol and Belinsky. Belinsky's individualistic socialism. Religious drama by Gogol. Belinsky's letter to Gogol. Messianism of Russian poetry: Tyutchev, Lermontov.

CHAPTER IV. The problem of humanism. Humanism and humanitarianism. Dostoevsky and the dialectics of humanism. Human-Deity and God-Manhood. Christian humanism Vl. Solovyov. Bukharev. Tolstoy. Rozanov. Leontiev. The transition of atheistic humanism into anti-humanism. Christian humanism.

CHAPTER V social theme. Social coloring of Russian thought. Three periods of socialist thought. The initial influence of Saint-Simon and Fourier. Development of Russian socialism. Russian populism and faith in the special ways of Russia. Socialism Belinsky. Herzen's individualistic socialism. Exposing the philistinism of the West. Chernyshevsky and "What is to be done?". Pisarev. Mikhailovsky and the "struggle for individuality". Nechaev and "Catechism of a Revolutionary". Tkachev as Lenin's predecessor. The search for social truth. Tolstoy. Dostoevsky. Solovyov. Leontiev. Preparation of Marxism: Zhelyabov. Plekhanov.

CHAPTER VI. justification of culture. The difference between culture and civilization. End culture. Russian nihilism: Dobrolyubov, Pisarev. Ascetic, eschatological and moralistic elements in nihilism. Cult natural sciences. The contradiction between the principle of personality and materialism. The opposition of perfect culture and perfect life. L. Tolstoy. Simplification of Tolstoy and Rousseau. K. Leontiev and his attitude to culture.

CHAPTER VII. The topic is about power. Anarchism. Russian attitude to power. Russian freemen. Split. Sectarianism. The attitude of the intelligentsia to power: among the liberals, among the Slavophiles. Anarchism. Bakunin. The passion for destruction is a creative passion. Kropotkin. Religious anarchism: L. Tolstoy's religious anarchism. The doctrine of non-resistance. Anarchy and anarchism. The Anarchist Element in Dostoevsky. Legend of the Grand Inquisitor

CHAPTER VIII. Religious theme. The religious character of Russian philosophy. The difference between theology and religious philosophy. Criticism of Western Rationalism. Philosophical ideas Kireevsky and Khomyakov. The idea of ​​conciliarity. Vladimir Solovyov. Erotica. Unity intuition. Being and existence. The idea of ​​God-manhood. Teaching about Sophia. "The Meaning of Love" Religious philosophy of Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy. Russian religious thought in theological academies. Archbishop Innokenty. Timid. Tareev.

CHAPTER IX. Waiting for a new age of the Holy Spirit. Eschatological and prophetic character of Russian thought. Rejection of bourgeois virtues. Wandering. People's seekers of the Kingdom of God. Eschatological mood among the intelligentsia. Perverted eschatology among the revolutionary intelligentsia. Wandering L. Tolstoy. Eschatologism and messianism in Dostoevsky. Disruption at Leontiev and Solovyov. Fedorov's brilliant idea about the conditionality of apocalyptic prophecies. Cheshkovsky's insight. The problem of birth and death in Vl. Solovyov, Fedorov and Rozanov.

CHAPTER X. XX century: cultural renaissance and communism. Sources of the cultural renaissance. Awakening Religious Unrest in Literature. Critical Marxism and Idealism. Religious quest among Marxists. Merezhkovsky. Rozanov. Appeal to the values ​​of spiritual culture. Religious-philosophical meetings, The heyday of poetry. Symbolism. Solovyov's influence. Block. White. Vyach. Ivanov. Shestov. The Rise of Russian Religious Philosophy. Religious-Philosophical Society. Florensky, Bulgakov. Berdyaev v. Trubetskoy. Erie. Losskd. Franc. The gap between the higher cultural forces and the revolution. Attempts at rapprochement: the journal "Questions of Life". Communism as a pervert of the Russian messianic idea. Results of Russian thought of the 19th century: Russian idea.

Historical introduction. Definition of the Russian national type. East and West. Opposites of the Russian soul. Discontinuity of Russian history. Russian religiosity. Moscow - Third Rome. The schism of the 17th century Peter's reform. Freemasonry. The era of Alexander I. Decembrists. Pushkin. Russian intelligentsia. Radishchev. Intelligence and Reality. The tragic fate of philosophy. Influence of German idealism.

There is a very great difficulty in determining the national type, national individuality. It is impossible to give a strictly scientific definition. The secret of any individuality is known only by love, and in it there is always something incomprehensible to the end, to the last depth. I will be interested not so much in the question of what Russia was empirically, but in the question of what the Creator intended about Russia, the intelligible image of the Russian people, his idea. Tyutchev said: "You cannot understand Russia with the mind, you cannot measure it with a common yardstick, it has a special position, you can only believe in Russia." To reach Russia it is necessary to apply the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Empirically, there is so much repulsion in Russian history. This is so strongly expressed in the poem of the believing Slavophil Khomyakov about the sins of Russia. The Russian people are an extremely polarized people, they are a combination of opposites. He can be fascinated and disappointed, you can always expect surprises from him, he is highly capable of inspiring strong love and strong hatred. It's on-

a species that causes anxiety among the peoples of the West. Every national individuality, like the individuality of a person, is a microcosm and therefore contains contradictions, but this happens to varying degrees. In terms of polarization and inconsistency, the Russian people can only be compared with the Jewish people. And it is no coincidence that these peoples have a strong messianic consciousness. The inconsistency and complexity of the Russian soul, perhaps, is due to the fact that in Russia two streams of world history collide and come into interaction - East and West. The Russian people are not a purely European and not a purely Asian people. Russia is a whole part of the world, a huge East-West, it connects two worlds. And always in the Russian soul fought two principles, eastern and western.

There is a correspondence between the immensity, boundlessness, infinity of the Russian land and the Russian soul, between the geography of the physical and the geography of the soul. In the soul of the Russian people there is the same immensity, boundlessness, aspiration to infinity as in the Russian plain. Therefore, it was difficult for the Russian people to take possession of these vast spaces and formalize them. The Russian people had an enormous power of the elements and a comparative weakness of form. The Russian people were not predominantly a people of culture, like the peoples of Western Europe, they were more a people of revelations and inspirations, they were. did not know the measure and easily fell into extremes. Among the peoples of Western Europe, everything is much more determined and formalized, everything is divided into categories and of course. Not so with the Russian people, as less determined, as more turned to infinity and not wanting to know the distribution by categories. In Russia there were no sharp social lines, no distinct classes. Russia has never been an aristocratic country in the Western sense, just as it has not become bourgeois. Two opposite principles formed the basis of the formations of the Russian soul: the natural, pagan Dionysian element and the ascetic-monastic

In the work "Russian Idea", presented to the attention of readers in this edition, the philosopher explores "Russianness", the mysterious substance of the "Russian soul". Berdyaev's reflections cover historical events from the Baptism of Russia to October revolution, inextricably linked with the activities of Avvakum, Peter I, Chaadaev, Dostoevsky, Solovyov, Lenin.

Nikolai Berdyaev
Russian idea

Chapter I

Historical introduction. Definition of the Russian national type. East and West. Opposites of the Russian soul. Discontinuity of Russian history. Russian religiosity. Moscow - Third Rome. The split of the 17th century Peter's reform. Freemasonry. The era of Alexander I. Decembrists. Pushkin. Russian intelligentsia. Radishchev. Intelligence and Reality. The tragic fate of philosophy. Influence of German idealism.

1

There is a very great difficulty in determining the national type, national individuality. It is impossible to give a strictly scientific definition. The secret of any individuality is known only by love, and in it there is always something incomprehensible to the end, to the last depth. I will be interested not so much in the question of what Russia was empirically, but in the question of what the Creator intended about Russia, the intelligible image of the Russian people, his idea. Tyutchev said: "You cannot understand Russia with the mind, you cannot measure it with a common yardstick, it has a special position, you can only believe in Russia." To comprehend Russia, one must apply the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Empirically, there is so much repulsion in Russian history. This is so strongly expressed in the poem of the believing Slavophil Khomyakov about the sins of Russia. The Russian people are an extremely polarized people, they are a combination of opposites. He can be fascinated and disappointed, you can always expect surprises from him, he is highly capable of inspiring strong love and strong hatred. This is the people that cause anxiety among the peoples of the West. Every national individuality, like the individuality of a person, is a microcosm and therefore contains contradictions, but this happens to varying degrees. In terms of polarization and inconsistency, the Russian people can only be compared with the Jewish people. And it is no coincidence that these peoples have a strong messianic consciousness. The inconsistency and complexity of the Russian soul, perhaps, is due to the fact that in Russia two streams of world history collide and come into interaction - East and West. The Russian people are not a purely European and not a purely Asian people. Russia is a whole part of the world, a huge East-West, it connects two worlds. And always in the Russian soul fought two principles, eastern and western.

There is a correspondence between the immensity, boundlessness, infinity of the Russian land and the Russian soul, between the geography of the physical and the geography of the soul. In the soul of the Russian people there is the same immensity, boundlessness, aspiration to infinity, as in the Russian plain. Therefore, it was difficult for the Russian people to take possession of these vast spaces and formalize them. The Russian people had an enormous power of the elements and a comparative weakness of form. The Russian people were not predominantly a people of culture, like the peoples of Western Europe, they were more of a people of revelations and inspirations, they knew no limits and easily fell into extremes. Among the peoples of Western Europe, everything is much more determined and formalized, everything is divided into categories and of course. Not so with the Russian people, as less determined, as more turned to infinity and not wanting to know the distribution by categories. In Russia there were no sharp social lines, no distinct classes. Russia has never been an aristocratic country in the Western sense, just as it has not become bourgeois. Two opposite principles formed the basis of the formation of the Russian soul: the natural, pagan Dionysian element and ascetic-monastic Orthodoxy. One can discover opposite properties in the Russian people: despotism, hypertrophy of the state and anarchism, liberty; cruelty, propensity to violence and kindness, humanity, gentleness; ritual belief and the search for truth; individualism, heightened consciousness of the individual and impersonal collectivism; nationalism, self-praise and universalism, all-humanity; eschatological-messianic religiosity and outward piety; the search for God and militant atheism; humility and arrogance; slavery and rebellion. But the Russian kingdom has never been bourgeois. In determining the character of the Russian people and their vocation, it is necessary to make a choice, which I will call an eschatological choice in terms of the ultimate goal. Therefore, the choice of the century is also inevitable, as the most characterizing the Russian idea and Russian vocation. I will regard the 19th century as such a century, a century of thought and word, and at the same time a century of sharp split, so characteristic of Russia as internal liberation and intense spiritual and social quests.

Discontinuity is characteristic of Russian history. In contrast to the opinion of the Slavophiles, it is the least organic. There are already five periods in Russian history that give different images. There is Kievan Russia, Russia during the Tatar yoke, Moscow Russia, Petrine Russia and Soviet Russia. And it is possible that there will be another new Russia. Russia's development was catastrophic. The Muscovite period was the worst period in Russian history, the most stuffy, the most Asiatic-Tatar in its type, and by misunderstanding it was idealized by the freedom-loving Slavophiles. The Kyiv period and the period of the Tatar yoke were better, especially for the church, and, of course, the dualistic, schismatic St. Petersburg period was better and more significant, in which the creative genius of the Russian people was most revealed. Kievan Russia was not closed off from the West; it was more receptive and freer than the Muscovite kingdom, in whose suffocating atmosphere even holiness died out (there were least of all saints during this period). The special significance of the XIX century. determined by the fact that, after a long thoughtlessness, the Russian people finally expressed themselves in word and thought, and did so in a very difficult atmosphere of lack of freedom. I'm talking about external freedom, because we had great internal freedom. How to explain this long absence of enlightenment in Russia, among the people who are very gifted and capable of perceiving the highest culture, how to explain this cultural backwardness and even illiteracy, this absence of organic ties with the great cultures of the past? The idea was expressed that the translation of Holy Scripture into Slavonic by Cyril and Methodius was unfavorable for the development of Russian mental culture, because there was a break with the Greek and Latin languages. Church Slavonic became the only language of the clergy, that is, the only intelligentsia of that time; Greek and Latin were not needed. I do not think that this could explain the backwardness of Russian enlightenment, the thoughtlessness and silence of pre-Petrine Russia. It must be recognized as a characteristic property of Russian history that in it for a long time the forces of the Russian people remained, as it were, in a potential, not actualized state. The Russian people were overwhelmed by the enormous expenditure of forces demanded by the size of the Russian state. The state was getting stronger, the people were getting sicker, says Klyuchevsky. It was necessary to take possession of the Russian spaces and protect them. Russian thinkers of the 19th century, reflecting on the fate and vocation of Russia, constantly pointed out that this potentiality, lack of expression, non-actualization of the forces of the Russian people is the key to its great future. They believed that the Russian people would finally say their word to the world and reveal themselves. It is generally accepted that the Tatar yoke had a fatal influence on Russian history and threw the Russian people back. Byzantine influence internally suppressed Russian thought and made it traditionally conservative. The extraordinary, explosive dynamism of the Russian people was revealed in its cultural layer only from contact with the West and after the reform of Peter. Herzen said that the Russian people responded to Peter's reform with the appearance of Pushkin. We will add: not only Pushkin, but also the Slavophiles themselves, but also Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy, but also seekers of truth, but also the emergence of original Russian thought.