Ilyin about the Russian idea. Russian idea in the works of I.A.

If our generation has had the lot to live in the most difficult and dangerous era of Russian history, then this cannot and should not shake our understanding, our will and our service to Russia. The struggle of the Russian people for a free and dignified life on earth continues. And now, more than ever, it is fitting for us to believe in Russia, to see its spiritual strength and originality, and to speak out for it, on its behalf and for its future generations, its creative idea.

this is what we must protect and cultivate in ourselves, educate in our children and in future generations, and bring to real purity and fullness of being - in everything, in our culture and in our way of life, in our souls and in our faith, in our institutions and laws. The Russian idea is something living, simple and creative. Russia lived it in all its inspired hours, in all its good days, in all its great people. We can say about this idea: it was so, and when it happened, the beautiful was realized; and so it will be, and the more fully and powerfully this is implemented, the better it will be...

What is the essence of this idea?

The Russian idea is the idea of the heart. The idea of the contemplative heart.

A heart that contemplates freely and objectively; and transmitting his vision to the will for action, and thought for awareness and speech. This is the main source of Russian faith and Russian culture. This is the main strength of Russia and Russian identity. This is the path of our revival and renewal. This is what other peoples vaguely sense in the Russian spirit, and when they truly recognize this, they bow down and begin to love and honor Russia. In the meantime, they don’t know how or don’t want to find out, they turn away, judge Russia down and speak words of untruth, envy and hostility about it.

1. - So, the Russian idea is the idea of the heart.

Russian Orthodoxy perceives God with love, sends him a prayer of love and turns with love to the world and to people.

And all this is not an idealization or a myth, but the living force of the Russian soul and Russian history. Ancient sources, both Byzantine and Arab, unanimously testify to the kindness, affection and hospitality, as well as the love of freedom of the Russian Slavs. Russian folk tales are all imbued with melodious good nature. Russian song is a direct outpouring of heartfelt feeling in all its modifications. Russian dance is improvisation arising from an overflowing feeling. The first historical Russian princes are heroes of the heart and conscience (Vladimir, Yaroslav, Monomakh). The first Russian saint (Feodosia) is a manifestation of real kindness. Russian chronicles and edifying works are imbued with the spirit of heartfelt and conscientious contemplation. This spirit lives in Russian poetry and literature, in Russian painting and in Russian music. The history of Russian legal consciousness testifies to its gradual penetration by this spirit, the spirit of fraternal sympathy and individualizing justice. And the Russian medical school is its direct offspring (diagnostic intuitions of a living suffering personality).

So, love is the main spiritual and creative force of the Russian soul. Without love, a Russian person is a failed creature. Civilizing surrogates of love (duty, discipline, formal loyalty, hypnosis of external law-abidingness) - in themselves, are of little use to him. Without love, he either vegetates lazily or is inclined towards permissiveness. Believing in nothing, Russian people become an empty being, without an ideal and without a goal. The mind and will of the Russian person are brought into spiritual and creative movement precisely by love and faith.

2. - And with all this, the first manifestation of Russian love and Russian faith is living contemplation.

Contemplation was taught to us, first of all, by our flat space, our nature, with its distances and clouds, with its rivers, forests, thunderstorms and blizzards. Hence our insatiable gaze, our dreaminess, our contemplating “laziness” (Pushkin), behind which lies the power of creative imagination. Russian contemplation was given beauty that captivated the heart, and this beauty was introduced into everything - from fabric and lace to housing and fortifications. From this, souls became more tender, more refined and deeper; contemplation was also introduced into internal culture - into faith, prayer, art, science and philosophy. Russian people have an inherent need to see what they love live and in reality, and then express what they saw - with an action, a song, a drawing or a word. That is why the basis of all Russian culture is the living evidence of the heart, and Russian art has always been a sensual depiction of insensibly perceived conditions. It is this living evidence of the heart that lies at the basis of Russian historical monarchism. Russia grew and grew in the form of a monarchy not because the Russian people gravitated towards dependence or political slavery, as many in the West think, but because the state, in his understanding, should be artistically and religiously embodied in a single person - living, contemplative, selflessly loved and publicly “created” and strengthened by this universal love.

The human spirit is a personal, organic and self-active being: it loves and creates itself, according to its inner needs.

Freedom is inherent in Russian people, as if by nature. It is expressed in that organic naturalness and simplicity, in that improvisational lightness and ease that distinguishes the Eastern Slav from Western peoples in general and even from some Western Slavs. This inner freedom is felt in everything: in the slow fluency and melodiousness of Russian speech, in Russian gait and gestures, in Russian clothing and dancing, in Russian food and in Russian life. The Russian world lived and grew in spatial open spaces and itself gravitated towards spacious unconstrainedness. The natural temperament of the soul attracted the Russian person to straightforwardness and openness (Svyatoslavovo “I’m coming to you”...), transformed his passion into sincerity and elevated this sincerity to confession and martyrdom...

Even during the first invasion of the Tatars, the Russian people preferred death to slavery and knew how to fight to the last. It remained this way throughout its history. And it is no coincidence that during the war of 1914-1917, out of 1,400,000 Russian prisoners in Germany, 260,000 people (18.5 percent) tried to escape from captivity. “No nation has given such a percentage of attempts” ( N.N. Golovin). And if we, taking into account this organic love of freedom of the Russian people, take a mental look at their history with its endless warriors and long-term enslavement, then we should not be indignant at the relatively rare (albeit cruel) Russian riots, but bow before that power of state instinct, spiritual loyalty and Christian patience, which the Russian people have demonstrated throughout their history.

So, the Russian idea is the idea of a freely contemplating heart. However, this contemplation is intended to be not only free, but also objective. For freedom, fundamentally speaking, is given to a person not for self-restraint, but for organically creative self-formation, not for objectless wandering and arbitrariness, but for independently finding an object and staying in it. This is the only way that spiritual culture arises and matures. This is exactly what it consists of.

The entire life of the Russian people could be expressed and depicted like this: a freely contemplating heart sought and found its true and worthy Object. In its own way the heart of a holy fool found him, in its own way - the heart of a wanderer and pilgrim; Russian hermitage and eldership devoted themselves to religious objects in their own way; in its own way, the Russian Old Believers clung to the sacred traditions of Orthodoxy; in its own way, in a completely special way, the Russian army nurtured its glorious traditions; in their own way, the Russian peasantry carried out the tax service and in its own way, the Russian boyars nurtured the traditions of Russian Orthodox statehood; in their own way, those Russian righteous people who held the Russian land and whose appearances were artistically shown N.S.Leskov. The entire history of Russian wars is the history of selfless objective service to God, the Tsar and the Fatherland; and, for example, the Russian Cossacks first sought freedom, and then learned objective state patriotism. Russia has always been built by the spirit of freedom and objectivity, and has always staggered and disintegrated as soon as this spirit weakened - as soon as freedom was perverted into arbitrariness and encroachment, into tyranny and violence, as soon as the contemplative heart of the Russian person clung to pointless or anti-objective contents...

This is the Russian idea: freely and objectively contemplating love and life and culture determined by this. Where the Russian man lived and created from this act, he spiritually realized his national identity and produced his best creations - in everything: in law and in the state, in solitary prayer and in social organization, in art and science, in the economy and in family life, in the church altar and on the royal throne. God's gifts - history and nature - made Russian people exactly like this. This is not his merit, but this determines his precious originality among the host of other peoples. This determines the task of the Russian people: to be like this with all possible fullness and creative power, to guard their spiritual nature, not to be seduced by other people’s ways of life, not to distort their spiritual face with artificially transplanted features, and to create their life and culture precisely by this spiritual act.

Based on the Russian way of life, we should remember one thing and take care of one thing: how can we fill the free and loving contemplation given to us with real objective content; how can we truly perceive and express the Divine - in our own way; how can we sing God’s songs and grow God’s flowers in our fields... We are called not to borrow from other peoples, but to create our own in our own way; but in such a way that this is ours and in our own way, created in reality, true and beautiful, i.e. Subject-wise.

So, we are not called to borrow spiritual culture from other peoples or imitate them. We are called to create our own and in our own way: - Russian, in Russian.

Since ancient times, other peoples had a different character and a different creative way of life: the Jews had their own special, the Greeks had their own, the Romans had their own, the Germans had another, the Gauls had another, the English had another. They have a different faith, different “blood in their veins,” different heredity, different nature, different history. They have their own advantages and disadvantages. Which of us would want to borrow their shortcomings? - Nobody. And the virtues are given to us and given our own. And when we are able to overcome our national shortcomings - through conscience, prayer, work and education - then our virtues will blossom so that none of us will even want to think about strangers.

So, for example, all attempts to borrow their strong-willed and mental culture from Catholics would be hopeless for us. Their culture grew historically from the predominance of the will over the heart, analysis over contemplation, reason in all its practical sobriety over conscience, power and coercion over freedom. How could we borrow this culture from them if in our country the relationship of these forces is the opposite? After all, we would have to extinguish in ourselves the powers of the heart, contemplation, conscience and freedom, or, in any case, give up their predominance. And are there really naive people who imagine that we could achieve this by drowning out the Slavs in ourselves, eradicating the eternal influence of our nature and history, suppressing our organic love of freedom, throwing out of ourselves the natural Orthodoxy of the soul and the immediate sincerity of the spirit? And for what? In order to artificially instill in ourselves the alien spirit of Judaism, which permeates Catholic culture, and further - the spirit of Roman law, the spirit of mental and volitional formalism and, finally, the spirit of world power, so characteristic of Catholics?.. And in essence, for this , in order to abandon our own historically and religiously given culture of spirit, will and mind: for in the future we will not have to remain exclusively in the life of the heart, contemplation and freedom, and do without will, without thought, without life form, without discipline and without organizations. On the contrary, we have to grow from free heartfelt contemplation our own, special, new, Russian culture of will, thought and organization. Russia is not an empty container into which you can mechanically, arbitrarily, put anything you want, regardless of the laws of its spiritual organism. Russia is a living spiritual system, with its own historical gifts and tasks. Moreover, behind it stands a certain divine historical plan, which we do not dare to renounce and which we would not be able to renounce even if we even wanted to... And all this is expressed by the Russian idea.

This Russian idea of contemplative love and free objectivity does not in itself promise or condemn foreign cultures. She just doesn’t prefer them and doesn’t make them her law. Each nation does what it can, based on what it is given. But the bad people are those who do not see what is given to them, and therefore go begging under other people’s windows. Russia has its own spiritual and historical gifts and is called upon to create its own special spiritual culture: - a culture of the heart, contemplation, freedom and objectivity. There is no single universally binding “Western culture”, before which everything else is “darkness” or “barbarism”. The West is not a decree or a prison for us. His culture is not an ideal of perfection. The structure of his spiritual act (or rather, his spiritual acts) may correspond to his abilities and his needs, but it does not correspond to and does not satisfy our strengths, our tasks, our historical calling and spiritual structure. And we have no need to chase after him and make a model out of him. The West has its own errors, illnesses, weaknesses and dangers. There is no salvation for us in Westernism. We have our own paths and our own tasks. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

However, this is not pride or self-aggrandizement. For, wishing to follow our own paths, we do not at all claim that we have gone very far along these paths or that we are ahead of everyone. Similarly, we do not at all claim that everything that happens and is created in Russia is perfect, that the Russian character does not have its shortcomings, that our culture is free from delusions, dangers, illnesses and temptations. In reality, we affirm something different: we are good at this moment in our history or flesh, we are called and obliged to follow our own path - to purify our hearts, strengthen our contemplation, exercise our freedom and educate ourselves towards objectivity. No matter how great our historical misfortunes and downfalls may be, we are called to be ourselves, and not to crawl in front of others; create, not borrow; turn to God, and not imitate your neighbors; to look for Russian vision, Russian content and Russian form, and not to go in pieces, collecting for imaginary poverty. We are neither students nor teachers of the West. We are students of God and teachers of ourselves. The task before us is to create a unique Russian spiritual culture - from the Russian heart, with Russian contemplation, in Russian freedom, revealing Russian objectivity. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

We must understand this national task correctly, without distorting it or exaggerating it. We must care not about our originality, but about the objectivity of our soul and our culture; originality “will come on its own, blossoming unintentionally and directly. The point is not at all to be like no one; the demand “be like no one” is incorrect, absurd and not feasible. To grow and blossom, you don’t need to look askance at others, trying not to imitate them in anything and not to learn anything from them. We must not push ourselves away from other peoples, but go into our own depths and ascend from it to God: we must not be original, but strive for God’s truth; we must not indulge in East Slavic delusions of grandeur, but to seek with the Russian soul objective service.And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

This is why it is so important to imagine our national calling as vividly and concretely as possible. If Russian spiritual culture comes from the heart, contemplation, freedom and conscience, this does not mean that it “denies” will, thought, form and organization. The identity of the Russian people does not at all lie in being in lack of will and thoughtlessness, enjoying formlessness and vegetating in chaos; but in growing the secondary forces of Russian culture (will, thought, form and organization) from its primary forces (from the heart, from contemplation, from freedom and conscience). The originality of the Russian soul and Russian culture is expressed precisely in this distribution of its forces into primary and secondary: primary forces determine and lead, and secondary ones grow out of them and receive their law from them. This has already happened in the history of Russia. And it was true and wonderful. It should continue to be this way, but even better, more complete and more perfect.

1. - According to this, Russian religiosity must continue to be based on heartfelt contemplation and freedom, and always observe its act of conscience. Russian Orthodoxy must honor and protect the freedom of faith - both its own and that of others. It must create, on the basis of heartfelt contemplation, its own special Orthodox theology, free from the rational, formal, deathly, skeptically blind reasoning of Western theologians; it must not adopt moral casuistry and moral pedantry from the West, it must proceed from a living and creative Christian conscience (“you are called to freedom, brethren,” Gal. 5.13), and on these foundations it must develop the Eastern Orthodox discipline of will and organization .

2. - Russian art is called upon to preserve and develop that spirit of loving contemplation and objective freedom that has hitherto guided it. We should not be embarrassed at all by the fact that the West does not know Russian folk songs at all, is barely beginning to appreciate Russian music, and has not yet found access to our marvelous Russian painting. It is not the business of Russian artists (of all arts and all directions) to worry about success on the international stage and on the international market - and to adapt to their tastes and needs;

It is not appropriate for them to “learn” from the West - neither its decadent modernism, nor its aesthetic winglessness, nor its artistic pointlessness and snobbery. Russian art has its own covenants and traditions, its own national creative act:

there is no Russian art without a burning heart; there is no Russian art without heartfelt contemplation; there is no one without free inspiration; it does not exist and will not exist without responsible, substantive and conscientious service. And if this is all, then there will continue to be artistic art in Russia, with its own living and deep content, form and rhythm.

Russian science cannot and should not be a dead craft, a burden of information, indifferent material for arbitrary combinations, a technical workshop, a school of unscrupulous skill.

The Russian scientist is called upon to saturate his observation and his thought with living contemplation - in natural science, and in higher mathematics, and in history, and in law, and in economics, and in philology, and in medicine. Rational science, which knows nothing except sensory observation and experiment and analysis is a spiritually blind science: it does not see the object, but observes only its shells; her touch kills the living content of the object; she is stuck in parts and pieces, and is powerless to rise to the contemplation of the whole. The Russian scientist is called upon to contemplate the life of a natural organism; see a mathematical subject; to discern in every detail of Russian history the spirit and destiny of one’s people; grow and strengthen your legal intuition; see the integral economic organism of your country; contemplate the holistic life of the language he is learning; to comprehend the suffering of your patient with a medical eye.

This must be accompanied by creative freedom in research. The scientific method is not a dead system of techniques, schemes and combinations. Every real, creative researcher always develops his own, new method. For the method is a living, searching movement towards an object, a creative adaptation to it, “research”, “invention”, getting used to, feeling into the object, often improvisation, sometimes transformation. The Russian scientist, by his entire nature, is called upon to be not a craftsman or an accountant of phenomena, but an artist in research; a responsible improviser, a free pioneer of knowledge. Far from falling into comic pretentiousness or the amateurish swagger of self-taught people, the Russian scientist must stand on his own two feet. His science should become a science of creative contemplation - not by abolishing logic, but by filling it with living objectivity; not in trampling on fact and law, but in seeing the integral object hidden behind them.

4. - Russian law and jurisprudence must protect themselves from Western formalism, from self-sufficient legal dogma, from legal unprincipledness, from relativism and servility. Russia needs a new legal consciousness, national in its roots, Christian-Orthodox in its spirit and creative and meaningful in its purpose. In order to create such a sense of justice, the Russian heart must see spiritual freedom as the objective goal of law and the state, and be convinced that a free personality with a worthy character and objective will must be raised in the Russian person. Russia needs a new political system, in which freedom would open up hardened and weary hearts, so that hearts would cling to the homeland in a new way and turn to the national government in a new way with respect and trust. This would open the way for us to seek and find new justice and true Russian brotherhood. But all this can be realized only through heartfelt and conscientious contemplation, through legal freedom and substantive legal awareness.

Wherever we look, no matter what side of life we turn to - to education or to school, to the family or to the army, to the economy or to our multi-tribalism - we see the same thing everywhere: Russia can and will be renewed renewed in its Russian national structure precisely by this spirit - the spirit of heartfelt contemplation and objective freedom. What is Russian education without a heart and without an intuitive perception of a child’s personality? How is it possible in Russia for a heartless school that does not educate children for subject freedom? Is a Russian family possible without love and conscientious contemplation? Where will the new rational economic doctrinaire, communistically blind and unnatural, lead us? How will we solve the problem of our multi-tribal composition, if not with our hearts and not with freedom? And the Russian army will never forget the Suvorov tradition, which asserted that a soldier is a person, a living center of faith and patriotism, spiritual freedom and immortality...

This is the main meaning of the Russian idea I formulated. She is not made up by me. Her age is the age of Russia itself. And if we turn to its religious source, we will see that this is the idea of Orthodox Christianity. Russia received its national mission a thousand years ago from Christianity: to realize its national earthly culture, imbued with the Christian spirit of love and contemplation, freedom and objectivity. The future Russia will also be true to this idea.

Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin (1883-1954), a great national thinker, religious philosopher and publicist of the last century, occupies a special place among the figures of the Russian religious and philosophical renaissance. He lived and worked in an era of tragic upheavals that befell our state. Having steadfastly accepted the revolution in Russia, I.A. Ilyin always remained true to his ideas, was always convinced of his spiritual rightness. For this, in 1922, the Bolsheviks expelled him from Russia and he was unable to return to his homeland until the end of his days. However, I.A. Ilyin, like no one else, was faithful to his duty all his life, which he saw in selfless service to Russia and the cause of the national revival of the Russian people. While in exile, he wrote and published dozens of works, among which the most significant were “On Resistance to Evil by Force” (1925), “Axioms of Religious Experience” (1953), “The Path of Nomadism” (1954), “Our Tasks” (1948-1954). ) and etc.
Philosophy I.A. Ilyin’s character, sources and method are qualitatively different from the philosophical concepts of the Russian revival of the early 20th century. Ilyin never indulged in philosophy for the sake of philosophy; he thought and wrote primarily about how the Russian public lived. His ideas are based not on abstract theorizing or intellectualism, but on the direct spiritual experience of life. Ilyin believed that true philosophy should not be built from a rational systematization of speculative philosophical concepts, a method that was adopted by Russian thinkers from German philosophy. On the contrary, he based his reasoning on the experience of living religiosity and spirituality, noting more than once that his philosophy is simple, quiet, accessible to everyone, born of the main organ of Orthodox Christianity, the contemplative heart.
It is from the height of such a gaze that Ivan Aleksandrovich considers the meaning of the Russian idea. This concept, however, is not his innovation. For the first time, F.M. spoke about the Russian idea. Dostoevsky, highlighting it as a national idea, but at the same time universal and objectively valuable for all peoples. Subsequently, major Russian philosophers B.C. made a certain contribution to the development of the Russian idea. Soloviev, N.F. Fedorov, N.A. Berdyaev, S.L. Frank, A.F. Losev and others. The result of their work was the understanding of the Russian idea as an integral part of the universal Christian idea, which has deep national characteristics and is expressed in terms of dialectical philosophy. Essentially all of Russian philosophy became the theoretical formulation of various aspects of the Russian idea. This is exactly how one can evaluate the creative heritage of I.A. Ilyina. The Russian idea was for him, first of all, a creative idea, an idea that the Russian people already possessed, which constituted its strength and identity among all other peoples. At the same time, it reflected the calling of the Russian people, its high historical task and spiritual path. Russian idea in philosophy I.A. Ilyina was never an empty speculative definition, but served as the main guideline on the path to the liberation of the Russian people from godless totalitarianism and the revival of its traditional spiritual values.
The Russian idea is defined by I.A. Ilyin as the idea of “a heart that contemplates freely and objectively, and transmits its vision to the will for action and thought for awareness and speech.” The concept of “heart” appears here as a philosophical concept of the human soul and its innermost world. The Russian idea, therefore, is the “idea of the heart,” which asserts that the main thing in life is love, on the basis of which all life together on earth and the “culture of the spirit” are built. The Russian soul was initially predisposed to feeling, and this feature was historically developed in our country by Orthodoxy. Russia has always been characterized by faith “not by will and mind, but by the fire of the heart,” and this, as Ivan Ilyin believed, determined the root of the Russian idea, which was expressed in the desire for perfect quality, for an objective ideal. The desire to see true perfection manifested itself in the spirit of Russian life, Russian art, Russian science. Ilyin is convinced that without this aspiration, without faith and without love, Russian people become an empty being, without an ideal and without a goal.
The main manifestation of love and faith in Russian life is “living contemplation.” This term is directly related to religiosity and is central to Ilyin’s philosophy. Life in “heartfelt contemplation” means, first of all, being in spirituality, which fills the human soul and underlies all human existence. “Heart contemplation” is a special state, a kind of internal “vision” aimed at perfection and revealing spiritual objects to a person. This is a characteristic Russian trait, which is expressed in the need “to see what you love alive and in reality and then express what you saw with an action, a song, a drawing or a word. That is why the basis of all Russian culture is the living evidence of the heart, and Russian art has always been a sensual depiction of insensibly perceived conditions.” This is the manifestation of the Russian idea in people's life. Nurtured by the endless breadth and beauty of Russian nature, “heartfelt contemplation” was embodied in the spiritual and creative power of the people, and in the well-known Russian mentality and “contemplating laziness.”
However, heartfelt love and contemplation inevitably disappear in the absence of freedom. In Ilyin’s philosophy, two types of freedom can be distinguished: internal and external. The latter is only a necessary condition for the development of the former, which in turn is embodied in the heartfelt desire for perfection. According to I.A. Ilyin, the desire for freedom, both external and internal, is a primordially Russian phenomenon, to which the Orthodox concept of Christianity corresponded: not formal, not legalistic, not moralizing, but liberating a person to living love and to living conscience. Freedom has always been the most important component of the Russian idea, historically reflected in the “organic love of freedom” that the Russian people showed in the era of foreign enslavement and serfdom. Nevertheless, the possession of freedom should not turn into self-will and self-liberation, therefore contemplation should not only be free, but also objective. Objectivity in human life, according to I.A. Ilyin, is a “beautiful and sacred” spiritual goal of life, significant both objectively and subjectively, for the sake of which it is worth “living, fighting and dying.” Objectivity instills in a person a sense of joyful service, spiritual dignity and supreme responsibility. In Russia, service to the Subject was reflected in many spheres of public life, from religious traditions to the idea of righteous patriotism in the Russian army.
Thus, the Russian national idea appears in the works of I.A. Ilyin as the idea of contemplative love and free objectivity, delving into which we can ascend to God. In this regard, Ilyin divides all human states into “primary forces” (heart, contemplation, freedom, conscience) and “secondary forces” (will, thought, form, organization). From this position, the meaning of the Russian idea can be expressed differently as the subordination and formation of secondary forces on the basis of primary ones, i.e. creation of spiritual culture. This also determined the character of Russian religiosity, based on contemplation, freedom and conscience, which were manifested in Orthodox discipline and organization; and in Russian art, where deep ideological content is expressed in external form; and in Russian science, which reveals the subject in its entirety thanks to free creative research.
In the sphere of socio-political organization of the state, according to I.A. Ilyin, the most acceptable form of government for Russia is Monarchy. “Russia grew and grew in the form of a Monarchy not because Russian people gravitated toward dependence or political slavery,” the thinker wrote, “but because the state, in his understanding, should be artistically and religiously embodied in a single person, selflessly loved and strengthened by universal love.” . The power of the Monarch in Russia has always played the role of a consolidating force, a symbol of the power and independence of the Russian state. Like many other philosophers of the Russian Renaissance, Ivan Ilyin believed that the Monarchy in Russia has purely existential foundations, which were expressed, first of all, in the “living evidence of the heart.” This was a reflection of the essence of the Russian idea in the sphere of the historically established socio-political system of Russia. According to the fair observation of many researchers, in the works of I.A. Ilyin, along with the works of I.L. Solonevich, M.V. Nazarov and L.V. Tikhomirov, the theory of monarchical government was most fully reflected.
The historically established originality of the spiritual culture of the Russian people is our integral calling and historical task. I.A. Ilyin defined its meaning as the need for the Russian people “to be like this with all possible completeness and creative power, to guard their spiritual nature and not be tempted by other people’s ways.” Everything that is given to Russia as a national identity, be it a feature of the state structure, prayer, everyday life, art or science - all this is a gift from God and our calling. Ivan Aleksandrovich was convinced that the borrowing of Western culture was ruining Russia, that “we are neither students nor teachers of the West. We are students of God and teachers of ourselves,” and in this he saw the meaning of the Russian idea.
Without a doubt, I.A. Ilyin left a deep mark on the history of Russian religious philosophy. A.V. Gulyga noted in this regard that “in the 20th century in Russia there was no more sober and profound political thinker than Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin.” In his work, the features of Russian spiritual and political originality not only received clear design and comprehension, but, above all, were designated as the path of national revival of Russia. This idea does not lose its relevance in our time, a time when the Russian people have lost the continuity of their true culture and mentality, when we especially need national spiritual renewal. And in this regard, the creative heritage of I.A. Ilyin and his ideas are a fundamental guideline for us on the path to the revival of Russia.

Russian thinker, philosopher, publicist and public figure. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, where in 1918 he became a professor. At the end of 1922 he was expelled from Russia. Lived in Berlin, where he taught at the Russian Scientific Institute. In 1927-30, he published the “magazine of strong-willed ideas” - “Russian Bell”. After Hitler came to power, he was forced to leave Germany and settle in Switzerland, where he lived until the end of his days.

* * * * * * * * *

EDITOR'S NOTE

Ilyin Ivan Alexandrovich (16/28.03.1882 - 21.12.1954)

At the beginning of the 21st century, the threat of destruction hung over the grave of Ivan Alexandrovich and his wife . It is unclear who promoted the idea of reburial, because V this is stated very vaguely. The reburial ceremony of the ashes of the philosopher Ivan Ilyin and his wife took place on October 3, 2005 in the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow.

With the return of Ivan Aleksandrovich’s intellectual heritage, the situation is as follows.

The archive was deposited at Michigan State University in 1965 from Zurich after the death of Ivan Ilyin in 1954. “Ivan Aleksandrovich bequeathed to keep his archive abroad until the Bolshevik regime ends in Russia,” Professor Yuri Lisitsa, an expert at the Russian Cultural Foundation, explained to the newspaper. The keeper of the archive, professor at the University of Michigan and student of Ivan Ilyin, Nikolai Poltoratsky, was in no hurry to transfer the archive to Russia even after the collapse of the USSR. With the coming to power of Vladimir Putin, the Poltoratsky family’s attitude towards Russia changed, however, by this time the professor himself was no longer alive, and the rights to the archive were transferred to his widow Tamara Mikhailovna. The return of Ilyin’s archive took place within the framework of the presidential program “For Reconciliation and Harmony” (the program is designed to overcome the historical division in society that occurred in 1917. Within its framework, Anton Denikin and Ivan Ilyin were reburied in 2005), supervised by the Plenipotentiary Envoy of the President of the Russian Federation Georgy Poltavchenko and carried out with the active participation of the Russian Cultural Foundation and government agencies. The return of the archive cost $60 thousand. For financial assistance, government officials turned to the famous businessman Viktor Vekselberg, who provided it through the Link of Times foundation.

1. Russian people! In 2002, the Rossiya TV channel showed the film “Russian Exodus” by Alexei Dinisov. In this film, its author says that in 2005 the grave of the Russian thinker Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin, which is located in the Zollikon cemetery near Zurich, will be destroyed, because the land in the cemetery is paid, and contributions stopped with the death of prof. Poltoratskogo. The author of the film believes that the most reliable way to preserve Ilyin’s ashes is to transport him to Russia, but there is no money for this. When I watched this film and heard these words, I could not believe my ears: are there really no people in Russia who love the Russian national thinker and the Russian patriot, who was Ivan Aleksandrovich Ilyin, who value his enormous legacy and who are ready to sacrifice part of their money, to save the ashes of the thinker from destruction and what kind of Russian patriotism can we talk about if Russian people are able to calmly observe the destruction of the grave of the real son of Russia Ilyin, without trying to do anything to prevent this terrible event, not wanting to part with at least a small part of their savings and, perhaps, the situation has already changed, and someone is paying contributions. But if this is not so, then I turn to you, Russian people! It is necessary to clarify the situation, and if Ilyin’s grave is still in danger of destruction, then organize a collection of donations and transport the ashes of the Russian philosopher to his native land. There are many Russian people in Russia who sincerely love their Motherland, and I am sure that we will be able to perform this God-pleasing act and save Ilyin’s ashes, fulfilling our duty as a Russian person and giving strength to the people’s memory. 12/12/04 Russian House Forum

* * * * * * * * *

Article provided by:"Im Werden Verlag". Non-commercial electronic publication
Article published:

For the article “On the Russian Idea” in the old orography, see Im Werden Verlag

I. A. Ilyin

About the Russian idea

If our generation has had the lot to live in the most difficult and dangerous era of Russian history, then this cannot and should not shake our understanding, our will and our service to Russia. The struggle of the Russian people for freedom and a decent life on earth continues. And now, more than ever, it is fitting for us to believe in Russia, to see its spiritual strength and originality, and to speak out for it, on its behalf and for its future generations, its creative idea.

We have no one and nothing to borrow this creative idea from: it can only be Russian, national. It must express Russian historical originality and at the same time Russian historical vocation. This idea formulates what is already inherent in the Russian people, what constitutes its good strength, in what it is right in the face of God and is unique among all other peoples. And at the same time, this idea shows us our historical task and our spiritual path; this is what we must protect and cultivate in ourselves, educate in our children and in future generations and bring to real purity and fullness of being in everything: in our culture and in our way of life, in our souls and in our faith, in our institutions and laws. The Russian idea is something living, simple and creative. Russia lived it in all its inspired hours, in all its good days, in all its great people. We can say about this idea: it was so, and when it happened, the beautiful was realized; and so it will be, and the more fully and powerfully this is implemented, the better it will be...

What is the essence of this idea?

The Russian idea is the idea of the heart. the idea of a contemplative heart. A heart that contemplates freely and objectively and transmits its vision to the will for action and thought for awareness and speech. This is the main source of Russian faith and Russian culture. This is the main strength of Russia and Russian identity. This is the path of our revival and renewal. This is what other peoples vaguely sense in the Russian spirit, and when they truly recognize this, they bow down and begin to love and honor Russia. In the meantime, they don’t know how or don’t want to find out, they turn away, judge Russia down and speak words of untruth, envy and hostility about it.

1. So, the Russian idea is the idea of the heart.

She claims that the main thing in life is love, and that it is through love that life together on earth is built, for from love will be born faith and the entire culture of the spirit. The Russian-Slavic soul, from ancient times and organically predisposed to feeling, sympathy and kindness, historically accepted this idea from Christianity: it responded with its heart to God’s gospel, to the main commandment of God, and believed that “God is Love.” Russian Orthodoxy is Christianity not so much from Paul as from John, James and Peter. It perceives God not with the imagination, which needs fears and miracles in order to be afraid and bow before the “power” (primitive religions); not by a greedy and imperious earthly will, which at best dogmatically accepts a moral rule, obeys the law and itself demands obedience from others (Judaism and Catholicism), not by a thought that seeks understanding and interpretation and then tends to reject what seems incomprehensible to it (Protestantism ). Russian Orthodoxy perceives God with love, sends Him a prayer of love and turns with love to the world and to people. This spirit determined the act of Orthodox faith, Orthodox worship, our church hymns and church architecture. The Russian people accepted Christianity not by the sword, not by calculation, not by fear or mentality, but by feeling, kindness, conscience and heartfelt contemplation. When a Russian person believes, he believes not by will or mind, but by the fire of his heart. When faith contemplates it, it does not indulge in seductive hallucinations, but strives to see true perfection. When faith desires it, it does not desire power over the universe (under the pretext of its orthodoxy), but perfect quality. This is the root of the Russian idea. This is her creative power for centuries.

And all this is not an idealization or a myth, but the living force of the Russian soul and Russian history. Ancient sources - both Byzantine and Arab - unanimously testify to the kindness, affection and hospitality, as well as the love of freedom of the Russian Slavs. Russian folk tales are all imbued with melodious good nature. Russian song is a direct outpouring of heartfelt feeling in all its modifications. Russian dance is improvisation stemming from an overflowing feeling. The first historical Russian princes are heroes of the heart and conscience (Vladimir, Yaroslav, Monomakh). The first Russian saint (Theodosius) is a manifestation of real kindness. Russian chronicles and instructive works are imbued with the spirit of heartfelt and conscientious contemplation. This spirit lives in Russian poetry and literature, in Russian painting and in Russian music. The history of Russian legal consciousness testifies to its gradual penetration by this spirit, the spirit of brotherly sympathy and individualizing justice. And the Russian medical school is its direct product (diagnostic intuition of a living suffering personality).

So, love is the main spiritual and creative force of the Russian soul. Without love, a Russian person is a failed creature. Civilizing surrogates of love (duty, discipline, formal loyalty, hypnosis of external law-abidingness) - in themselves, are of little use to him. Without love, he either vegetates lazily or is inclined towards permissiveness. Believing in nothing, a Russian person becomes an empty being without an ideal and without a goal. The mind and will of the Russian person are brought into spiritual and creative movement precisely by love and faith.

2. And with all this, the first manifestation of Russian love and Russian faith is living contemplation.

First of all, our flat space, our nature with its distances and clouds, with its rivers, forests, thunderstorms and blizzards, taught us contemplation. Hence our insatiable gaze, our dreaminess, our “contemplating laziness” (Pushkin), behind which lies the power of creative imagination. Russian contemplation was given beauty that captivated the heart, and this beauty was introduced into everything - from fabric and lace to housing and fortifications. From this, souls became more tender, more refined and deeper; contemplation was also introduced into internal culture - into faith, prayer, art, science and philosophy. Russian people have an inherent need to see what they love live and in reality and then express what they saw - with an action, a song, a drawing or a word. That is why the basis of all Russian culture is the living evidence of the heart, and Russian art has always been a sensual depiction of insensibly perceived circumstances. It is this living evidence of the heart that lies at the basis of Russian historical monarchism. Russia grew and grew in the form of a monarchy not because the Russian people gravitated towards dependence or political slavery, as many in the West think, but because the State, in his understanding, should be artistically and religiously embodied in a single person - living, contemplated, selflessly loved and publicly “created” and strengthened by this universal love.

3. But the heart and contemplation breathe freely. They demand freedom, and their creativity fades away without it. The heart cannot be commanded to love, it can only be ignited with love. Contemplation cannot be prescribed what it should see and what it should create. The human spirit is a personal, organic and spontaneous being: it loves and creates itself, according to its inner needs. This corresponded to the original Slavic love of freedom and the Russian-Slavic commitment to national-religious identity. The Orthodox concept of Christianity corresponded to this: not formal, not legalistic, not moralizing, but liberating a person to living love and to living conscience. Corresponding to this was the ancient Russian (both church and state) tolerance of all other faiths and all other tribes, which opened Russia the way to an imperial (not “imperialist”) understanding of its tasks (see the wonderful article by Prof. Rozov: “Christian Freedom and Ancient Rus' "in No. 10 of the yearbook "Day of Russian Glory", 1940, Belgrade).

Freedom is inherent in Russian people, as if by nature. It is expressed in that organic naturalness and simplicity, in that improvisational lightness and ease that distinguishes the Eastern Slav from Western peoples in general and even from some Western Slavs. This inner freedom is felt in everything: in the slow fluency and melodiousness of Russian speech, in Russian gait and gestures, in Russian clothing and dancing, in Russian food and in Russian life. The Russian world lived and grew in spatial open spaces and itself gravitated towards spacious unconstrainedness. The natural temperament of the soul attracted the Russian man to straightforwardness and openness (Svyatoslav’s “I’m coming to you”...), transformed his passion into sincerity and elevated this sincerity to confession and martyrdom...

Even during the first invasion of the Tatars, the Russian people preferred death to slavery and knew how to fight to the last. It remained this way throughout its history. And it is no coincidence that during the war of 1914-1917. of the 1,400,000 Russian prisoners in Germany, 260,000 people (18.5%) tried to escape from captivity. “No other nation has given such a percentage of attempts.” (N.N. Golovin). And if we, taking into account this organic love of freedom of the Russian people, take a mental look at their history with its endless wars and long-term enslavement, then we should not be indignant at the relatively rare (albeit cruel) Russian riots, but bow before the power of the state instinct, spiritual loyalty and Christian patience, which the Russian people have demonstrated throughout their history.

The entire life of the Russian people could be expressed and depicted like this: a freely contemplating heart sought and found its true and worthy Object. In its own way the heart of a holy fool found him, in its own way - the heart of a wanderer and pilgrim; Russian hermitage and eldership devoted themselves to religious objects in their own way; in its own way, the Russian Old Believers clung to the sacred traditions of Orthodoxy; in its own way, in a completely special way, the Russian army nurtured its glorious traditions; in their own way, the Russian peasantry carried out the tax service and in its own way, the Russian boyars nurtured the traditions of Russian Orthodox statehood; in their own way, those Russian righteous people who held the Russian land, and whose appearance was artistically shown by N. S. Leskov, affirmed their objective vision. The entire history of Russian wars is the history of selfless objective service to God, the Tsar and the Fatherland; and, for example, the Russian Cossacks first sought freedom, and then learned objective state patriotism. Russia has always been built by the spirit of freedom and objectivity and has always staggered and disintegrated as soon as this spirit weakened - as soon as freedom was perverted into arbitrariness and encroachment, into tyranny and violence, as soon as the contemplative heart of the Russian person clung to non-objective or anti-objective contents...

This is the Russian idea: freely and objectively contemplating love and life and culture determined by this. Where the Russian man lived and created from this act, he spiritually realized his national identity and produced his best creations in everything: in law and in the state, in solitary prayer, in social organization, in art and science, in economy and in family life, in the church altar and on the royal throne. God's gifts - history and nature - made Russian people exactly like this. this is not his merit, but this determines his precious originality among the host of other peoples. This determines the task of the Russian people: to be like this with all possible completeness and creative power; guard your spiritual nature, do not be seduced by other people's ways, do not distort your spiritual face with artificially transplanted features, and create your life and culture precisely by this spiritual act.

Based on the Russian way of life, we should remember one thing and take care of one thing: how can we fill the free and loving contemplation given to us with real objective content; how can we truly perceive and express the Divine - in our own way; how could we sing God’s songs and grow God’s flowers in our fields... We are called not to borrow from other peoples, but to create our own in our own way; but in such a way that this, created by us and in our own way, is actually true and beautiful, that is, objective.

So, we are not called to borrow spiritual culture from other peoples or imitate them. We are called to create our own in our own way: Russian in Russian.

Since ancient times, other peoples had a different character and a different creative way of life: the Jews had their own special, the Greeks had their own, the Romans had their own, the Germans had another, the Gauls had another, the English had another. They have a different faith, different “blood in their veins,” different heredity, different nature, different history. They have their own advantages and disadvantages. Which of us would want to borrow their shortcomings? Nobody. And the virtues are given to us and given to us by our own. And when we are able to overcome our national shortcomings - through conscience, prayer, work and education - then our virtues will blossom so that none of us will even want to think about strangers...

So, for example, all attempts to borrow their strong-willed and mental culture from Catholics would be hopeless for us. Their culture grew historically from the predominance of the will over the heart, analysis over contemplation, reason in all its practical sobriety over conscience, power and coercion over freedom. How could we borrow this culture from them if in our country the relationship of these forces is the opposite? After all, we would have to extinguish within ourselves the powers of the heart, contemplation, conscience and freedom, or, in any case, give up their predominance. And are there really naive people who imagine that we could achieve this by drowning out the Slavs in ourselves, eradicating the eternal influence of our nature and history, suppressing our organic love of freedom, throwing out of ourselves the natural Orthodoxy of the soul and the immediate sincerity of the spirit? And for what? In order to artificially instill in ourselves the spirit of Judaism, alien to us, permeating Catholic culture, and then - the spirit of Roman law, the spirit of mental and volitional formalism and, finally, the spirit of world power, so characteristic of Catholics?.. But in essence, in order to to abandon our own historically and religiously given culture of spirit, will and mind: for in the future we will not have to live exclusively in the life of the heart, contemplation and freedom and do without will, without thought, without life form, without discipline and without organization. On the contrary, we have to grow from free contemplation of the heart our own special, new Russian culture of will, thought and organization. Russia is not an empty container into which you can mechanically, arbitrarily, put anything you want, regardless of the laws of its spiritual organism. Russia is a living spiritual system with its own historical gifts and tasks. Moreover, behind it stands a certain divine historical plan, which we do not dare to renounce and which we would not be able to renounce even if we even wanted to... And all this is expressed by the Russian idea.

This Russian idea of contemplative love and free objectivity does not in itself judge or condemn foreign cultures. She just doesn’t prefer them and doesn’t make them her law. Each nation does what it can, based on what it is given. But the bad people are those who do not see what is given to them, and therefore go begging under other people’s windows. Russia has its own spiritual and historical gifts and is called upon to create its own special spiritual culture: a culture of the heart, contemplation, freedom and objectivity: there is no single universally binding “Western culture”, before which everything else is “darkness” or “barbarism”. The West is not a decree or a prison for us. His culture is not an ideal of perfection. The structure of his spiritual act (or, more precisely, his spiritual acts), perhaps, corresponds to his abilities and his needs, but it does not correspond to and does not satisfy our strengths, our tasks, our historical calling and spiritual structure. And we have no need to chase after him and make a model out of him. The West has its own errors, illnesses, weaknesses and dangers. there is no salvation for us in Westernism. We have our own paths and our own tasks. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

However, this is not pride or self-aggrandizement. For, wanting to go our own ways, we do not at all claim that we have gone very far along these paths or that we are ahead of everyone. Similarly, we do not at all claim that everything that happens and is created in Russia is perfect, that the Russian character does not have its shortcomings, that our culture is free from delusions, dangers, illnesses and temptations. In reality, we affirm something else: whether we are good or bad at a given moment in our history, we are called and obliged to go our own way - to purify our hearts, strengthen our contemplation, exercise our freedom and educate ourselves towards objectivity. No matter how great our historical misfortunes and downfalls may be, we are called to be ourselves, and not to crawl in front of others; create, not borrow; turn to God, and not imitate your neighbors; to look for the Russian vision, Russian content and Russian form, and not go “in pieces”, collecting for imaginary poverty. We are neither students nor teachers of the West. We are students of God and teachers of ourselves. The task before us is to create a unique Russian spiritual culture - from the Russian heart, with Russian contemplation, in Russian freedom, revealing Russian objectivity. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

We must understand this national task correctly, without distorting it or exaggerating it. We should not care about our originality, but about the objectivity of our soul and our culture; originality will “apply” itself, blossoming unintentionally and directly. The point is not to be like anyone else; the requirement “be like no one else” is incorrect, absurd and unfeasible. To grow and blossom, you don’t have to look askance at others, trying not to imitate them in anything and not learn anything from them. We need not to push away from other peoples, but to go into our own depths and ascend from it to God; we must not be original, but strive for God’s truth; one must not indulge in East Slavic delusions of grandeur, but seek with the Russian soul objective service. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

That is why it is so important to imagine our national calling with all possible vividness and concreteness. If Russian spiritual culture comes from the heart, contemplation, freedom and conscience, this does not mean that it “denies” will, thought, form and organization. The identity of the Russian people does not at all lie in being in lack of will and thoughtlessness, enjoying formlessness and vegetating in chaos; but in growing the secondary forces of Russian culture (will, thought, form and organization) from its primary forces (from the heart, from contemplation, from freedom and conscience). The originality of the Russian soul and Russian culture is expressed precisely in this distribution of its forces into primary and secondary: primary forces determine and lead, and secondary ones grow from them and accept their law from them. This has already happened in the history of Russia. And it was true and wonderful. It should continue to be this way, but even better, more complete and more perfect.

1. According to this, Russian religiosity must continue to be based on heartfelt contemplation and freedom and always observe its act of conscience. Russian Orthodoxy must honor and protect the freedom of faith - both its own and that of others. It must create, on the basis of heartfelt contemplation, its own special Orthodox theology, free from the rational, formal, dead, skeptically blind reasoning of Western theologians; it must not adopt moral casuistry and moral pedantry from the West, it must proceed from a living and creative Christian conscience (“you are called to freedom, brethren,” Gal. 5:13), and on these foundations it must develop the Eastern Orthodox discipline of the will and organizations.

2. Russian art is called upon to preserve and develop the spirit of loving contemplation and objective freedom that has guided it hitherto. We should not be embarrassed at all by the fact that the West does not know Russian folk songs at all, is barely beginning to appreciate Russian music, and has not yet found access to our marvelous Russian painting. It is not the business of Russian artists (of all arts and all directions) to worry about success on the international stage and on the international market - and to adapt to their tastes and needs; It is not appropriate for them to “learn” from the West - neither its decadent modernism, nor its aesthetic winglessness, nor its artistic non-objectivity and snobbery. Russian art has its own covenants and traditions, its own national creative act: there is no Russian art without a burning heart; there is no Russian art without heartfelt contemplation; there is none without free inspiration; there is not and will not be without responsible, objective and conscientious service. And if this is all, then there will continue to be artistic art in Russia, with its own living and deep content, form and rhythm.

3. Russian science is not called upon to imitate Western scholarship either in the field of research or in the field of worldview. It is called upon to develop its own worldview, its own research. This does not mean at all that for a Russian person a single universal logic is “optional” or that his science may have a goal other than objective truth. It would be in vain to interpret this call as the right of the Russian person to scientific lack of evidence, irresponsibility, subjective arbitrariness or other destructive disgrace. But the Russian scientist is called upon to introduce into his research the principles of the heart, contemplation, creative freedom and living responsibility of conscience. The Russian scientist is called upon to love his subject with inspiration the way Lomonosov, Pirogov, Mendeleev, Sergei Solovyov, Gedeonov, Zabelin, Lebedev, and Prince Sergei Trubetskoy loved him. Russian science cannot and should not be a dead craft, a burden of information, indifferent material for arbitrary combinations, a technical workshop, a school of shameless skill.

The Russian scientist is called to saturate his observation and his thought with living contemplation - both in natural science, and in higher mathematics, and in history, and in jurisprudence, and in economics, and in philology, and in medicine. Rational science, which does not conduct anything other than sensory observation, experiment and analysis, is a spiritually blind science: it does not see the object, but observes only its shell; its touch kills the living content of the object; it is stuck in parts and pieces and is powerless to rise to the contemplation of the whole. The Russian scientist is called upon to contemplate the life of a natural organism; see a mathematical subject; to discern in every detail of Russian history the spirit and destiny of one’s people; grow and strengthen your legal intuition; see the integral economic organism of your country; contemplate the holistic life of the language he is learning; to comprehend the suffering of your patient with a medical eye.

This must be accompanied by creative freedom in research. The scientific method is not a dead system of techniques, schemes and combinations. Every real, creative researcher always develops his own, new method. For the method is a living, searching movement towards an object, a creative adaptation to it, “research”, “invention”, getting used to, feeling into the object, often improvisation, sometimes transformation. The Russian scientist, by his entire nature, is called upon to be not a craftsman or an accountant of a phenomenon, but an artist in research; a responsible improviser, a free pioneer of knowledge. Far from falling into comic pretentiousness or the amateurish swagger of self-taught people, the Russian scientist must stand on his own two feet. His science should become the science of creative contemplation - not in the abolition of logic, but in filling it with living objectivity; not in trampling on fact and law, but in seeing the integral object hidden behind them.

4. Russian law and jurisprudence must protect themselves from Western formalism, from self-sufficient legal dogma, from legal unprincipledness, from relativism and servility. Russia needs a new legal consciousness, national in its roots, Christian-Orthodox in its spirit and creatively meaningful in its purpose. In order to create such a sense of justice, the Russian heart must see spiritual freedom as the objective goal of law and the state and be convinced that a free personality with a worthy character and objective will must be raised in the Russian person. Russia needs a new political system, in which freedom would open up hardened and weary hearts, so that hearts would cleave to the homeland in a new way and turn to the national government in a new way with respect and trust. This would open the way for us to seek and find new justice and true Russian brotherhood. But all this can be realized only through heartfelt and conscientious contemplation, through legal freedom and substantive legal awareness.

Wherever we look, no matter what side of life we turn to - to education or to school, to the family or to the army, to the economy or to our multi-tribalism - we see the same thing everywhere: Russia can and will be renewed renewed in its Russian national structure precisely by this spirit - the spirit of heartfelt contemplation and objective freedom. What is Russian education without a heart and without an intuitive perception of a child’s personality? How is it possible in Russia for a heartless school that does not educate children for subject freedom? Is a Russian family possible without love and contemplation? Where will the new rational economic doctrine, communistically blind and unnatural, take us? How will we solve the problem of our multinational composition, if not with our hearts and not with freedom? And the Russian army will never forget the Suvorov tradition, which asserted that a soldier is a person, a living center of faith and patriotism, spiritual freedom and immortality...

This is the main meaning of the Russian idea I formulated. She is not made up by me. Her age is the age of Russia itself. And if we turn to its religious source, we will see that this is the idea of Orthodox Christianity. Russia received its national mission a thousand years ago - from Christianity: to realize its national earthly culture, imbued with the Christian spirit of love and contemplation, freedom and objectivity. The future Russia will also be true to this idea.

1948

We have no one and nothing to borrow this creative idea from: it can only be Russian, national. It must express Russian historical originality and at the same time Russian historical vocation. This idea formulates what is already inherent in the Russian people, what constitutes its good strength, in what it is right in the face of God and is unique among other peoples. And at the same time, this idea shows us our historical task and our spiritual path; this is what we must protect and cultivate in ourselves, educate in our children and future generations, and bring to real purity and fullness of being, in everything, in our culture and in our way of life, in our souls and in our faith, in our institutions and laws. The Russian idea is something living, simple and creative. Russia lived it in all its inspired hours, in its good days, in all its great people. We can say about this idea: it was so, and when it happened, the beautiful was realized; and so it will be, and the more fully and powerfully this is implemented, the better it will be...

What is the essence of this idea?

The Russian idea is the idea of the heart. The idea of the contemplative heart. The heart of the contemplative is free and objective; and transmitting his vision to the will for action, and thought for awareness and speech. This is the main source of Russian faith and Russian culture. This is the main strength of Russia and Russian identity. This is the path of our revival and renewal. This is what other peoples vaguely sense in the Russian spirit, and when they truly recognize this, they bow down and begin to love and honor Russia. In the meantime, they don’t know how or don’t want to find out, they turn away, judge Russia down and speak words of untruth, envy and hostility about it.

1. So, the Russian idea is the idea of the heart.

She claims that the main thing in life is love and that it is through love that life together on earth is built, for from love will be born faith and the entire culture of the spirit. The Russian Slavic soul, with an ancient and organic predisposition to feeling, sympathy and kindness, historically accepted this idea from Christianity: it responded with its heart to God’s gospel, to the main commandment of God, and believed that<Бог есть любовь>. Russian Orthodoxy is Christianity not so much from Paul as from John, James and Peter. It perceives God not with the imagination, which needs fears and miracles in order to be afraid and bow before<силою>(primitive religions); not by a greedy and imperious earthly will, which at best dogmatically accepts a moral rule, obeys the law and itself demands obedience from others (Judaism and Catholicism), not by a thought that seeks understanding and interpretation and then tends to reject what seems incomprehensible to it (space ). Russian Orthodoxy perceives God with love, sends him a prayer of love and turns with love to the world and to people. This spirit determined the act of Orthodox faith, Orthodox worship, our church hymns and church architecture. The Russian people accepted Christianity not by the sword, not by calculation, not by fear or mentality, but by feeling, kindness, conscience and heartfelt contemplation. When a Russian person believes, he believes not by will or mind, but by the fire of his heart. When faith contemplates it, it does not indulge in seductive hallucinations, but strives to see true perfection. When faith desires it, it does not desire power over the universe (under the pretext of its orthodoxy), but perfect quality. This is the root of the Russian idea. This is her creative power for centuries.

And all this is not an idealization, not a myth, but the living force of the Russian soul and Russian history. Ancient sources, both Byzantine and Arab, unanimously testify to the kindness, kindness and hospitality, as well as the love of freedom of the Russian Slavs. Russian folk tales are all imbued with melodious good nature. The Russian song is a direct outpouring of heartfelt feeling in all its modifications.

Russian dance is improvisation, flowing from an overflowing feeling.

The first historical Russian princes are heroes of the heart and conscience (Vladimir, Yaroslav, Monomakh). The first Russian saint (Theosius) is a manifestation of real kindness. Russian chronicles and edifying works are imbued with the spirit of heartfelt and conscientious contemplation. This spirit lives in Russian poetry and literature, in Russian painting and in Russian music. The history of Russian legal consciousness testifies to its gradual penetration by this spirit, the spirit of fraternal sympathy and individualizing justice. And the Russian medical school is its direct offspring (diagnostic intuitions of a living suffering personality).

So, love is the main spiritually creative force of the Russian soul. Without love, a Russian person is a failed creature. The civilizing surrogates of love (duty, discipline, formality, loyalty, the hypnosis of external law-abidingness) in themselves are of little character to him. Without love, he either vegetates lazily or tends toward permissiveness. Believing in nothing, Russian people become an empty being, without an ideal and without a goal. The mind and will of the Russian person are brought into spiritually creative movement precisely by love and faith.

2. And with all this, the first manifestation of Russian love and Russian faith is living contemplation. . .

First of all, our flat space, our nature, with its distances and clouds, with its rivers, forests, thunderstorms, blizzards, taught us contemplation. Hence our insatiable gaze, our dreaminess, our contemplating<лень>(Pushkin), behind which lies the power of creative imagination. Russian contemplation was given a beauty that captivated the heart; this beauty was introduced into everything from fabric and lace to housing and fortress buildings. From this, souls became more tender, more refined and deeper; contemplation was also introduced into internal culture in faith, prayer, art, science and philosophy. The Russian person has an inherent need to see what he loves alive and in reality, and then to express what he saw in action, song, drawing or word. That is why the basis of all Russian culture is the living evidence of the heart, and Russian art has always been a sensual depiction of insensibly perceived conditions. It is this living evidence of the heart that underlies Russian historical monarchism. Russia grew and grew in the form of a monarchy, not because Russian people gravitated towards dependence or political slavery, as many in the West think, but because the state in his understanding should be artistically and religiously embodied in a single person, living, contemplated, selflessly loved and popularly<созидаемом>and strengthened by this universal love.

3. But the heart and contemplation breathe freely. They demand freedom, and their creativity fades away without it. The heart cannot be commanded to love, it can be ignited with love. Contemplation cannot be prescribed what it should see and what it should create. The human spirit is a personal, organic and self-active being: it loves and creates itself, according to its internal needs. This corresponded to the original Slavic love of freedom and the Russian-Slavic commitment to national-religious identity. The Orthodox concept of Christianity corresponded to this: not formal, not legalistic, not moralizing, but liberating a person to living love and to living conscience. This was facilitated by the ancient Russian (both church and state) tolerance of all other faiths and all foreign tribes, which opened Russia up the path to imperial (not<империалистическому>) understanding of their tasks (see the wonderful article by Prof. Rozov: "Christian freedom and ancient Rus'" in N10 of the yearbook<День русской славы>, 1940, Belgrade).

Freedom is inherent in Russian people, as if by nature. It is expressed in that organic naturalness and simplicity, in that improvisatory ease and ease that distinguishes the Eastern Slav from Western peoples in general and even from some Western Slavs. This inner freedom is felt in everything: in the slow fluency and melodiousness of Russian speech, in Russian gait and gestures, in Russian clothing and dancing, in Russian food and Russian life. The Russian world lived and grew in spatial open spaces and itself gravitated in spacious unnaturalness. The natural temperament of the soul attracted the Russian person to straightforwardness and openness (Svyatoslavovo<иду на вы>. . .), transformed his passion into sincerity and elevated this sincerity to confession and martyrdom. . .

Even during the first invasion of the Tatars, the Russian people preferred death to slavery and knew how to fight to the last. He remained this way throughout his entire history. And it is no coincidence that during the war of 1914-1917, out of 1,400,000 Russian prisoners in Germany, 260,000 people (18.5%) tried to escape from captivity.<Такого процента попыток не дала ни одна на ция>(N.N. Golovin). And if we, taking into account this organic love of freedom of the Russian people, take a mental look at their history with its endless wars and long-term enslavement, then we should not be indignant at the relatively rare (albeit cruel) Russian riots, but bow before the power of the state instinct, spiritual loyalty and Christian patience, which the Russian people have demonstrated throughout their history.

So, the Russian idea is the idea of a freely contemplating heart. However, this contemplation is intended to be not only free, but also objective. For freedom, fundamentally speaking, is given to a person not for self-unbridling, but for organically creative self-formation, not for pointless wandering and arbitrariness, but for independently finding an object and staying with it. This is the only way that spiritual culture arises and matures. This is exactly what it consists of.

The entire life of the Russian people could be expressed and depicted like this: a freely contemplating heart sought and found its true and worthy object. In its own way the heart of a holy fool found him, in its own way the heart of a wanderer and pilgrim; In their own way, Russian hermitage and eldership were devoted to religious premise; in its own way, the Russian Old Believers clung to the sacred traditions of Orthodoxy; in its own, completely special way, the Russian army nurtured its glorious traditions; in its own way, the Russian peasantry had a non-competitive service and in this way the Russian boyars nurtured the tradition of Russian Orthodox statehood; Accordingly, those Russian righteous people who held the Russian land and whose appearance was artistically shown by N. S. Leskov affirmed their objective vision. The entire history of Russian wars is the history of selfless objective service to God, the Tsar and the Fatherland; and, for example , the Russian Cossacks first sought freedom, and then learned objective state patriotism. Russia has always been built by the spirit of freedom and objectivity, and has always staggered and disintegrated as soon as this spirit weakened, as soon as freedom was perverted into arbitrariness and encroachment, into tyranny and violence, as soon as the contemplative heart of the Russian person clung to pointless or anti-objective contents. . .

This is the Russian idea: freely and objectively contemplating love and life and culture determined by this. Where the Russian man lived and created from this act, he spiritually realized his national identity and produced his best creations in everything: in law and in the state, in solitary prayer and in social organization, in art and science, in economy and in family life, in the church altar and on the royal throne. God's gifts of history and nature made the Russian person exactly like this. This is not his merit, but this determines his precious originality among the host of other peoples. This determines the task of the Russian people: to be like this with all possible fullness and creative power, to guard their spiritual nature, without being tempted by other people’s ways, not to distort their spiritual face with artificially transplanted features, and to create their life and culture precisely by this spiritual act.

We are called not to borrow from other peoples, but to create our own in our own way; but in such a way that this is ours and what we created was actually true and beautiful, that is, objective.

So, we are not called to borrow spiritual culture from other peoples or imitate them. We are called to create our own and in our own way: Russian, in Russian.

Since ancient times, other peoples had a different character and a different creative way of life: the Jews had their own, the Greeks had their own, the Romans had their own, the Germans had another, the Gauls had another, the English had another. They have a different faith, a different<кровь в жилах>, different heredity, different nature, different history. They have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Which of us would want to borrow their shortcomings? Nobody. And the virtues are given to us and given our own. And when we fail to overcome our national shortcomings through conscience, prayer, work and education, then our virtues will flourish so that none of us will even want to think about strangers.

And are there really naive people who imagine that we could achieve this by drowning out the Slavs in ourselves, eradicating the eternal influence of our nature and history, suppressing our organic love of freedom, throwing out of ourselves the natural Orthodoxy of the soul and the immediate sincerity of the spirit? And for what?

In order to artificially instill in ourselves the alien spirit of Judaism, which permeates Catholic culture, and then the spirit of Roman law, the spirit of mental and volitional formation, and, finally, the spirit of world power, so characteristic of Catholics? . But in essence, in order to abandon our own historically and religiously given culture of spirit, will and mind: for in the future we will not have to remain exclusively in the life of the heart, contemplation and freedom, and do without will, without thought, without life form, lack of discipline and without organization. On the contrary, we have to grow from free heartfelt contemplation our own, special, new Russian culture of will, thought, organization. Russia is not an empty container into which you can mechanically, arbitrarily, put anything you want, regardless of the laws of its spiritual organism. Russia is a living spiritual system, with its own historical gifts and tasks. Moreover, behind it there is a certain divine historical plan, which we do not dare to renounce and which we would not be able to renounce even if we wanted to. . . And all this is expressed by the Russian idea.

This Russian idea of contemplative love and free objectivity does not in itself judge or condemn foreign cultures.

She just doesn’t prefer them and doesn’t make them a law. Every nation does what it can, based on that. what was given to him. But the bad people are those who do not see what is given to them, and therefore go begging under other people’s windows. Russia has its own spiritually historical gifts and is called upon to create its own special spiritual culture: a culture of the heart, contemplation, freedom and objectivity. There is no single universally binding<западной культуры>, before which everything else<темнота>or<варварство>. The West is not a decree or a prison for us. His culture is not an ideal of perfection.

The structure of his spiritual act (or rather, his spiritual acts) may correspond to his abilities and his needs, but it does not correspond to and does not satisfy our strengths, our tasks, our historical calling and spiritual structure. And we have no need to chase after him and make a model out of him. The West has its own errors, illnesses, weaknesses and dangers. There is no salvation for us in Westernism. We have our own paths and our own tasks. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

However, this is not pride or self-aggrandizement. For, wanting to go our own ways, we do not at all claim that we have gone very far along these paths or that we have conquered everyone. Similarly, we do not at all claim that everything that happens and is created in Russia is perfect, that the Russian character does not have its shortcomings, that our culture is free from errors, dangers, illnesses and temptations. In reality, we affirm something different: whether we are good or bad at the moment of our meeting, we are called and obliged to follow our own path, purify our hearts, strengthen our contemplation, exercise our freedom and educate ourselves towards objectivity. No matter how great our historical shortcomings and failures may be, we are called to be ourselves, and not to crawl before others; create and not borrow; turn to God, and not imitate your neighbors; look for Russian vision, Russian content and Russian form, and not go to pieces; collecting for imaginary poverty. We are neither students nor teachers of the West. We are students of God and teachers of ourselves. The task before us is to create a unique Russian spiritual culture from the Russian heart, with Russian contemplation, in Russian freedom, revealing Russian objectivity. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea.

The point is not to be like anyone else; requirement<будь как никто>wrong, absurd and impracticable. To grow and bloom, you don’t have to look askance at others, trying not to imitate them in anything and not to learn anything from them. We need not to push away from other peoples, but to go into our own depths and ascend from it to God; we must not be original, but strive for God’s truth; one must not indulge in the East Slavic delusions of grandeur, but seek with the Russian soul objective service. And this is the meaning of the Russian idea. This is why it is so important to imagine our national calling as vividly and concretely as possible. If Russian spiritual culture comes from the heart, contemplation, freedom and conscience, this does not mean that it<отрицает>will, thought, form and organization. The identity of the Russian people does not lie at all in being in lack of will and thoughtlessness, enjoying formlessness and vegetating in chaos: but in growing the secondary forces of Russian culture (will, thought, form and organization) from its primary forces (from the heart, from contemplation, from freedom and conscience). The originality of the Russian soul and Russian culture is expressed precisely in this distribution of its forces into primary and secondary: primary forces determine and lead, and secondary ones grow out of them and receive their law from them. This has already happened in the history of Russia. And it was true and wonderful. It should continue to be this way, but even better, more complete and more perfect.

1. According to this, Russian religiosity must continue to be based on heartfelt contemplation and freedom, and always observe its act of conscience. Russian Orthodoxy must honor and protect the freedom of faith, both its own and that of others. It must create, on the basis of heartfelt contemplation, its own special Orthodox theology, free from the rational, formal, deathly, skeptically blind reasoning of Western theologians; it should not adopt moral causticism and moral pedantry from the West, it should proceed from a living and creative Christian conscience (<к свободе призваны вы, братья>, Gal. 5, 13), and on these foundations it must develop the Eastern Orthodox discipline of will and organization.

Russian art has its own covenants and traditions, its own national creative act: there is no Russian art without a burning heart; there is no Russian art without heartfelt contemplation; there is no one without free inspiration; there is not and will not be his irresponsible, objective and conscientious service. And if all this happens, then there will continue to be artistic art in Russia, with its own living and deep content, form and rhythm.

3. Russian science is not called upon to imitate Western scholarship, either in the field of research or in the field of worldview.

She is called upon to develop her own worldview, her own research. This does not mean at all that for a Russian person<необязательна>a single universal human logic, or that his science may have another goal other than objective truth. It would be in vain to interpret this call as the right of the Russian person to scientific lack of evidence, irresponsibility, to subjective arbitrariness or destructive ugliness. But the Russian scientist is called upon to introduce principles of contemplation, creative freedom and living responsibility of conscience into his research. The Russian scientist is called upon to love his subject with inspiration the way Lomonosov, Mendeleev, Pirogov, Sergei Solovyov, Gedeonov, Zabelin, Lebedev, and Prince Sergei Trubetskoy loved him. Russian science cannot and should not be a dead craft, a burden of information, indifferent material for arbitrary combinations, a technical workshop, a school of unscrupulous skill.

The Russian scientist is called upon to saturate his observation and his thought with living contemplation, both in natural science, and in higher mathematics, and in history, and in jurisprudence, and in economics, and in philology, and in medicine. Rational science, which does nothing except sensory observation, experiment and analysis, is a spiritually blind science: it does not see the object, but observes only its shells; her touch kills the living content of the object; she is stuck in parts and pieces, and is powerless to rise to the contemplation of the whole. The Russian scientist is called upon to contemplate the life of a natural organism; see a mathematical subject; to discern in every detail of Russian history the spirit and destiny of one’s people; grow and strengthen your legal intuition; see the integral economic organism of your country; contemplate the holistic life of the language he is learning; with a medical eye to comprehend the suffering of your patient.

This must be accompanied by creative freedom in research. The scientific method is not a dead system of techniques, schemes and combinations. Every real, creative researcher always develops his own, new method. For method is a living, seeking movement towards an object, a creative adaptation to it,<исслеедование>, <изобретение>, getting used to, feeling into the subject, often improvisation, sometimes transformation. The Russian scientist, by his entire nature, is called upon to be not a craftsman or an accountant of phenomena, but an artist in research; a responsible improviser, a free pioneer of knowledge. Far from falling into comic pretentiousness or the amateurish swagger of self-taught people, the Russian scientist must stand on his own two feet.

His science should become a science of creative contemplation, not by abolishing logic, but by filling it with living objectivity; not in trampling on fact and law, but in seeing the integral object hidden behind them.

4. Russian law and jurisprudence must protect themselves from Western formalism, from self-sufficient legal dogma, from legal unprincipledness, from relativism and servility.

Russia needs a new legal consciousness, national in its roots, Christian Orthodox in its spirit and creatively meaningful in its purpose. In order to create such a legal consciousness, the Russian heart must see spiritual freedom as the objective goal of law and the state, and be convinced that a free personality with a worthy character and objective will must be raised in the Russian person. Russia needs a new political system, in which freedom would open up bitter and weary hearts, so that hearts would cling to their homeland in a new way and turn to the national government with respect and trust in a new way. This would open the way for us to seek and find new justice and true Russian brotherhood. But all this can be realized only through heartfelt and conscientious contemplation, through legal freedom and substantive legal awareness.

Wherever we look, no matter what side of life we turn to, to education or school, to the family or the army, to the economy or to our multi-tribalism, we see the same thing everywhere: Russia can and will be renewed in its Russian national structure precisely with this spirit, the spirit of heartfelt contemplation and objective freedom. What is Russian education without a heart and without an intuitive perception of a child’s personality? How is it possible in Russia for a heartless school that does not educate children for subject freedom? Is a Russian family possible without love and shared contemplation? Where will the new rational economic doctrine, communistically blind and unnatural, lead us? How will we solve the problem of our multi-tribal composition, if not with our hearts and not with freedom? And the Russian army will never forget the Suvorov tradition, which asserted that a soldier is a person, a living center of faith and patriotism, spiritual freedom and immortality. . .

This is the main meaning of the Russian idea I formulated. She is not made up by me. Her age is the age of Russia itself.

And if we turn to its religious source, we will see that this is the idea of Orthodox Christianity.

Russia received its national mission a thousand years ago from Christianity: to realize its national earthly culture, imbued with the Christian spirit of love and contemplation, freedom and objectivity. The future Russia will also be true to this idea.

This text is an excerpt from the work “Education as a Part of Russian Culture.”

To more accurately determine the characteristics of the Russian people and designate their special national idea, let us consider the work of the famous philosopher I. A. Ilyin “On the Russian Idea” (1948).

Ilyin speaks of a creative idea that “should express Russian historical originality and at the same time – Russian historical vocation.” And further, “We have no one and nothing to borrow this creative idea from: it can only be Russian, national.” These phrases contain the idea that the idea should be based on national characteristics, and only this can ensure a decent life for the people on earth and make it possible to fulfill their historical calling.

The colossal importance of the idea in education, culture and the entire life of the people is also considered: the national idea “is something that we must protect and nurture in ourselves, educate in our children and in future generations and bring to real purity and fullness of being in everything: in our culture and in our way of life, in our souls and in our faith, in our institutions and laws.”

If we talk about the essence itself, then Ilyin states: “The Russian idea is the idea of the heart.” Russian identity, Russian spirit and soul are all in this idea of the heart. “She claims that the main thing in life is love, and that it is through love that life on earth is built, for from love will be born faith and the entire culture of the spirit.”

This idea, of course, has its roots in Orthodox Christianity, which “Russian people accepted ... not by the sword, not by calculation, not by fear or mentality, but by feeling, kindness, conscience and heartfelt contemplation.”

Byzantine and Arabic sources, the originality of Russian folk tales (and other written monuments), songs, and dances speak about the kindness and love of freedom of the Russian Slavs. There are also examples of personalities in which this idea was clearly expressed: Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, the first Russian saint Theodosius.

Drawing a certain conclusion, Ilyin writes: “Believing in nothing, Russian people become an empty being without an ideal and without a goal. The mind and will of the Russian person are brought into spiritual and creative movement precisely by love and faith.”

Living contemplation is the first manifestation of the Russian idea. Dreaminess and contemplation “we were taught primarily by our flat space, our nature with its distances and clouds, with its rivers, forests, thunderstorms and blizzards.” Hence the tenderness of the soul, the need to see what you love in reality and then creatively express what you saw. Even monarchical power is not so much a gravitation towards political slavery as it expresses the desire to embody the state (contemplated) in a single person (the creative result of contemplation).

Moreover, without freedom, contemplation is impossible, as is creativity. And in free contemplation is the spirit of the Russian person. Freedom, along with contemplation, is felt in everything: “in the slow smoothness and melodiousness of Russian speech, in Russian gait and gestures, in Russian clothes and dances, in Russian food and in Russian life,” in the sincerity and broad soul of the Russian person, in his tolerance towards foreign cultures.

Thus, the Russian idea is the idea of a freely contemplating heart. However, contemplation must not only be free, but also objective, otherwise freedom leads to unbridledness and tyranny. “Based on the Russian way of life, we should remember one thing and take care of one thing: how can we fill the free and loving contemplation given to us with real objective content; How can we truly perceive and express the Divine - in our own way.<…>We are called not to borrow from other peoples, but to create our own in our own way; but in such a way that this is ours and in our own way, created in fact, is true and beautiful, that is, objectively.”

Ilyin writes that since ancient times other peoples have had a different character, a different nature, a different history, their own advantages and disadvantages. “So, for example, all attempts to borrow their strong-willed and mental culture from Catholics would be hopeless for us. Their culture grew historically from the predominance of the will over the heart, analysis over contemplation, reason in all its practical sobriety over conscience, power and coercion over freedom.”

Earlier it was said in the words of Ushinsky that the popular idea changes over time. One might think that Ilyin has contradictions in this regard. But then he quite rightly asserts that “... in the future we will not have to live exclusively in the life of the heart, contemplation and freedom and do without will, without thought, without life form, without discipline and without organization. On the contrary, we have to grow from free heartfelt contemplation our own special, new Russian culture of will, thought and organization. Russia is not an empty container into which you can purely mechanically, at will, put anything you want, regardless of the laws of its spiritual organism.”

Thus, Ilyin affirms the upcoming and necessary evolution of the Russian idea, and insightfully notes the requirements of the modern historical situation.

At the same time, the Russian idea and words about originality are not an expression of pride. Western culture is not a standard for other peoples, but the Russian vocation is not to consider itself an ideal. “In reality, we say something different: whether we are good or bad at this moment in our history, we are called and obliged to follow our own path...<…>We are not students or teachers of the West.”

According to this, art must “develop that spirit of loving contemplation and objective freedom that has guided it hitherto,” there is no need to learn from the West “neither its decadent modernism, nor its aesthetic winglessness, nor its artistic pointlessness and snobbery”; art for art's sake is not characteristic of the Russian spirit.
Our science must also be original and have the beginnings of living contemplation, heart, conscience, filling with this universal human logic and striving for objective truth.
Russian law must “protect itself from Western formalism, from self-sufficient legal dogma, from legal unprincipledness, from relativism and servility.”

Ilyin about the Russian idea. Russian idea in the works of I.A.

1. - So, the Russian idea is the idea of ​​the heart.

I. A. Ilyin

1. - So, the Russian idea is the idea of the heart.