Russian national character (in the works of Russian philosophers). Russian philosophers about the Russian national character - abstract Krasnoyarsk State Technical University

Krasnoyarsk State Technical University

Correspondence Faculty

PHILOSOPHY

Test No. 2

Subject : Russian national character (in the works of Russian philosophers).

Completed: Startsev A.G.Specialist.: 18.04 Cipher: 149836

Checked: ____________

Krasnoyarsk 2001.

PLAN:

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1.The study of the national character of the people according to their fairy tales and epics (based on the worksB.P. Vysheslavtsev);

CHAPTER 2.The main features of the Russian national character (according to the works of N.O. Lossky);

CHAPTER 3.The role of national character in the destinies of Russia (according to the works of N.A. Berdyaev).

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

Since ancient times, from its very formation, Russia has established itself as an unusual country, unlike others, and therefore incomprehensible and at the same time extremely attractive.

Tyutchev once said about Russia:

You can't understand Russia with your mind,

The general arshin cannot be measured:

She will become special -

You can only believe in Russia.

These lines are certainly relevant to this day. Russia is a country that does not fall under any standards, patterns or laws of logic. But Russia, its character, is the character of its people, a complex and very contradictory character.

Modern researchers are increasingly paying attention to the role of national character, which largely determines the development trajectories of society as a whole. The problem of national character is quite complex, and its study requires an integrated approach from historians, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, ethnographers, psychologists, and art historians.

The national character of any nation is an integral system with its inherent hierarchy of qualities, traits that dominate in motives, way of thinking and acting, in culture, and behavioral stereotypes characteristic of a given nation. The national character is very stable. The continuity of its qualities and traits is ensured by social means of transmitting socio-historical experience across generations. It cannot be “corrected” by administrative measures, but at the same time, being determined by the social and natural environment, it is subject to certain changes. A society with an underdeveloped and strong national character is doomed to defeat and setbacks, be it a severe economic crisis or external aggression.

For a long time now, the Russian national character, its unusualness and incomprehensibility, has aroused keen interest and the desire to understand, explain certain of its characteristic features, and find the roots of the tragic circumstances accompanying the history of Russia. However, it seems that the Russian people still cannot understand themselves, explain or at least justify their behavior in a given situation, although they admit to some illogicality and indirectness of behavior, as evidenced by endless tales and anecdotes that begin with the words: “The tsar caught a Russian, a German and a Chinese...”

Today the Russian people are experiencing a turning point in their history. One of the irreparable losses that befell Russia in the 20th century is associated with the decline of national self-awareness and the loss of age-old spiritual values. The awakening of Russia, of course, must begin with the spiritual revival of its people, i.e. with the attempt of the Russian people to understand themselves, to resurrect their best qualities and eradicate their shortcomings. To do this, I think, it is worth turning to the works of Russian philosophers who, at one time, were engaged in the study of the Russian national character, its negative and positive features.

CHAPTER 1. Study of the national character of the people according to their fairy tales and epics (based on the works of B.P. Vysheslavtsev);

In his report “Russian National Character”, read by B.P. Vysheslavtsev in 1923 at a conference in Rome, the author writes that we are interesting, but incomprehensible to the West and, perhaps, that is why we are especially interesting because we are incomprehensible. We don’t fully understand ourselves, and perhaps even the incomprehensibility and irrationality of our actions and decisions constitute a certain trait of our character.

The character of a people, Vysheslavtsev believes, its main features are laid down at an unconscious level, in the area of ​​the subconscious. This applies especially to the Russian people. The area of ​​the subconscious in the soul of the Russian person occupies an exceptional place.

How to penetrate into the unconscious of our spirit? Freud, writes Vysheslavtsev, thinks that it is revealed in dreams. To understand the soul of a people, it is necessary, therefore, to penetrate into their dreams. But the dreams of a people are their epics, their fairy tales, their poetry...

This is how the Russian fairy tale shows us what the Russian people are afraid of: they are afraid of poverty, they are even more afraid of work, but most of all they are afraid of “grief”, which somehow terribly appears to them, as if at their own invitation, becomes attached to them and does not lag behind . “It is also remarkable that the “grief” here sits in the person himself: this is not the external fate of the Greeks, based on ignorance, on delusion, it is one’s own will, or rather some kind of lack of will.” 1 But there is another fear in the fairy tales of the Russian people, a fear more sublime than the fear of deprivation, labor and even “grief” - this is the fear of a broken dream, the fear of falling from heaven.

What are the unconscious dreams of the Russian soul hidden in the Russian epic? The remarkable thing, notes Vysheslavtsev, is that the whole gamut of desires is unfolded in the Russian fairy tale - from the most sublime to the lowest. We will find in it both the most cherished dreams of Russian idealism and the basest everyday “economic materialism.” This is how the Russian people dream of such a “new kingdom”, where distribution will be based on the principle “to each according to his needs”, where you can eat and drink, where there is a “baked bull”, where there are milk rivers and jelly banks. And the main thing is that you can do nothing there and be lazy. Such, for example, is the well-known fairy tale about the lazy Emel, who appears by no means as a negative character.

In the same vein, Vysheslavtsev analyzes here the fairy tale “about cunning science”, in which “...you don’t have to work, eat sweetly and walk cleanly...”. There are a number of fairy tales in which “cunning science” turns out to be nothing more than the art of theft. In this case, happiness usually accompanies the lazy and the thief.

Vysheslavtsev rightly noted the fact that fairy tales are merciless: they expose everything that lives in the subconscious soul of the people, and, moreover, in the collective soul, which includes its worst sons. The tale reveals everything that is carefully hidden in life, in its official piety and in its official ideology.

All these funny fairy-tale dreams of the Russian people turned out to be prophetic and prophetic. So, for example, the “cunning science” of “easy bread” turned out to be Marx’s “scientific socialism”. This science taught the people that theft is not theft, but “expropriation of expropriators.” “Cunning science” explained how to get into that kingdom where you can eat and drink, where you can lie on the stove and everything will be done “according to the pike’s command”: you can safely jump there, to put it vulgarly; and in the language of strict science: “to make a leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.”

True, all this reality, in turn, turned out to be a dream and dissipated like a dream; but the Russian fairy tale foresees this too. After all, not only folk stupidity lives in it, but also folk wisdom.

Many prophecies can be found in our fairy tales, but there is one epic in our epic that has positive clairvoyance, writes Vysheslavtsev, - this is the epic about Ilya Muromets and his quarrel with Prince Vladimir. Ilya Muromets, the beloved national hero, comes from a peasant family and embodies the main support and strength of the Russian land. At the same time, he is the main and constant support of the throne and the church.

“Once Prince Vladimir gave an honorable feast for princes, boyars, Russian heroes, but he forgot to call the old Cossack Ilya Muromets.” Ilya, of course, was terribly offended. He pulled a tight bow, inserted a red-hot arrow and began to shoot at “God’s churches, and at wonderful crosses, at those gilded domes.”

Here is the whole picture of the Russian revolution, which the ancient epic saw in a prophetic dream. Ilya Muromets, the personification of peasant Rus', organized, together with the most disgusting mob, with drunkards and slackers, a real destruction of the church and state; suddenly he began to destroy everything that he recognized as sacred and that he defended all his life.” 1

Of course, the entire Russian character is clearly visible in this epic: there was injustice, but the reaction to it was completely unexpected and spontaneous. This is not a Western European revolution; with its acquisition of rights and the struggle for a new system of life, this is spontaneous nihilism, instantly destroying everything that the people’s soul worshiped, and, moreover, realizing its crime. This is not the restoration of violated justice in the world, it is the rejection of a world in which such injustice exists.

However, in his report, Vysheslavtsev tells the epic to the end and rightly notes that it ends more happily than the Russian revolution ended. “Vladimir, seeing the “pogrom,” was frightened and realized “that trouble was inevitable.” He arranged a new feast especially for the “old Cossack Ilya Muromets.” But the difficult task was to invite him; it was clear that he would not go now. Then they equipped Dobrynya Nikitich, a Russian noble gentleman who generally carried out diplomatic assignments, as an ambassador. Only he managed to persuade Ilya. And so Ilya, who was now seated in the best place and began to be treated to wine, tells Vladimir that he would not have come, of course, if not for Dobrynya, his “said brother.” 2

The Russian monarchy did not understand this prophetic warning, expressed quite clearly in the Russian epic, and thereby doomed itself to inevitable collapse.

Such is the wisdom of the epic - the subconscious soul of the people expresses in it what it secretly desires or what it fears. In these subconscious forces lies the entire past and future.

Those images and symbols that are given above are by no means, however, the pinnacle of folk art, the limit of the flight of fantasy.

Further, Vysheslavtsev writes that the flight of fantasy of the Russian people is always directed to “another kingdom,” to “another state.” He leaves far below everything that is daily, everyday, but also all the dreams of satiety, and all the utopias of the fat sky. The fairy tale laughs at them, this is not where its flight is directed, this is not its best dream. “Another country” - infinitely distant beckons the hero of the Russian fairy tale - Ivan Tsarevich. But why is he flying there? He is looking for a bride, “beloved beauty”, and according to other fairy tales, “Vasilisa the Wise”. This is the best dream of a Russian fairy tale. It is said about this bride: “When she laughs, there will be pink flowers, and when she cries, there will be pearls.” It is difficult to find, difficult to kidnap this bride, and at the same time it is a matter of life and death.

What is his beloved Vasilisa the Wise? She is transcendental beauty and wisdom, otherworldly, but strangely connected with the beauty of the created world. All creation obeys her: at her command, creeping ants thresh countless stacks, flying bees sculpt a church out of wax, people build golden bridges and magnificent palaces. She is connected with the soul of nature, and she teaches people how to build life, how to create beauty. While the Tsarevich is with her, there are no difficulties for him in life, Vasilisa the Wise helps him out of every trouble. There is only one real problem: if he forgets his bride. This, judging by the fairy tales, is the main and most beautiful dream of the Russian people.

CHAPTER 2. Main features of the Russian national character (according to the works of N.O. Lossky).

An invaluable contribution to the study of Russian national character was also made by the book of the Russian philosopher N.O. Lossky "The Character of the Russian People". In his book, Lossky gives the following list of the main features inherent in the Russian national character.

Religiosity of the Russian people. Lossky considers the main and deepest feature of the Russian people to be their religiosity and the associated search for absolute truth... Russian people, in his opinion, have a sensitive distinction between good and evil; he vigilantly notices the imperfections of all our actions, morals and institutions, never being satisfied with them and never ceasing to seek perfect good.

“Foreigners who have carefully observed Russian life, in most cases note the outstanding religiosity of the Russian people... Russians can talk about religion for six hours straight. The Russian idea is a Christian idea; in the foreground there is love for the suffering, pity, attention to the individual personality...” 1

In this regard, Christianity, as Lossky writes, fell on fertile soil in Russia: already in Kievan Rus, before the Mongol yoke, it was adopted in its true essence precisely as a religion of love. And following the logic of the development of events, the religiosity of the Russian people, it would seem, should have been expressed in the preaching of social Christianity, i.e. the teaching that the principles of Christianity should be implemented not only in personal individual relationships, but also in legislation and in the organization of public and government institutions.

However, despite the fact that in the 19th century the Orthodox clergy tried to present this idea in literature, the government systematically suppressed such aspirations and helped to strengthen the idea that the purpose of religious life was only concern for the personal salvation of the soul.

But, despite the deliberate belittlement of the importance of the Church, in Russia the real Christian Church was still preserved in the depths in the person of the ascetics revered by the people, who lived in the quiet of monasteries, and especially in the person of the “elders”, to whom they always came for instruction and consolation.

Very interesting is Lossky’s observation that among the Russian revolutionaries who became atheists, the place of Christian religiosity was taken by a mood that can be called formal religiosity - this is a passionate, fanatical desire to realize a kind of Kingdom of God on earth without God, on the basis of scientific knowledge.

The ability of the Russian people to higher forms of experience. Lossky sees the high development of moral experience in the fact that all layers of the Russian people show a special interest in distinguishing between good and evil and sensitively distinguish between the admixtures of evil and good.

One of the particularly valuable properties of the Russian people is their sensitive perception of other people's states of mind. This results in live communication between even unfamiliar people.

“...The Russian people have highly developed individual personal and family communication. In Russia there is no excessive replacement of individual relationships with social ones, there is no personal and family isolationism. Therefore, even a foreigner, having arrived in Russia, feels: “I am not alone here” (of course, I am talking about normal Russia, and not about life under the Bolshevik regime). Perhaps, these properties are the main source of recognition of the charm of the Russian people, so often expressed by foreigners who know Russia well...” 2

Such a feature of the Russian national character as the search for the meaning of life and the foundations of existence is excellently depicted in Russian literature, in particular, in the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others.

Feeling and will. Among the primary basic properties of the Russian people, according to Lossky, is powerful willpower. Passion is a combination of strong feelings and willpower directed towards a loved or hated value. Naturally, the higher the value, the stronger feelings and energetic activity it evokes in people with a strong will. This explains the passion of the Russian people, manifested in political life, and even greater passion in religious life. Maximalism, extremism and fanatical intolerance are the products of this passion.

To prove his rightness, Lossky cites such an example of the mass manifestation of Russian passion for fanatical intolerance as the history of Old Believers. A stunning manifestation of religious passions was the self-immolation of many thousands of Old Believers.

The Russian revolutionary movement, also, according to Lossky, is replete with examples of political passion and powerful willpower... The unbending will and extreme fanaticism of Lenin, together with the Bolsheviks led by him, who created a totalitarian state in such an excessive form that has never been, and God willing, will not be seen again earth.

Russian maximalism and extremism in its extreme form are expressed in the poem by A.K. Tolstoy.

If you love, so without reason,

If you threaten, it’s not a joke,

If you scold, so rashly,

If you chop, it’s off the shoulder!

If you argue, it’s too bold,

If you punish, that's the point,

If you ask, do it with all your heart,

If there is a feast, then there is a feast!

Passion and powerful willpower can be considered among the basic properties of the Russian people. But Lossky also does not deny that among the Russian people there is also the familiar “Oblomovism”, that laziness and passivity that is excellently depicted by Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov”. Here he shares the position of Dobrolyubov, who explains the nature of “Oblomovism” this way: ...Russian people are characterized by a desire for an absolutely perfect kingdom of being and at the same time excessive sensitivity to any shortcomings of their own and others’ activities. From here arises a cooling towards the work begun and an aversion to continuing it; the idea and general outline of it are often very valuable, but its incompleteness and therefore inevitable imperfections repel the Russian person, and he is lazy to continue finishing the little things. Thus, Oblomovism is in many cases the flip side of the high qualities of the Russian person - the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of our reality...

However, the willpower of the Russian people, as Lossky writes, is also revealed in the fact that a Russian person, having noticed any shortcoming of his and morally condemning it, obeying a sense of duty, overcomes it and develops a quality that is completely opposite to it.

The Russian people have many shortcomings, but the strength of their will in the fight against them is capable of overcoming them.

Love of freedom. Among the primary properties of the Russian people, along with religiosity, the search for absolute good and willpower, Lossky considers the love of freedom and its highest expression - freedom of spirit... Those who have freedom of spirit are inclined to put every value to the test, not only in thought, but even from experience... Due to the free search for truth, it is difficult for Russian people to come to terms with each other... Therefore, in public life, the love of freedom of Russians is expressed in a tendency towards anarchy, in repulsion from the state.

One of the reasons, according to Lossky, why Russia has developed an absolute monarchy, sometimes bordering on despotism, is that it is difficult to govern a people with anarchic inclinations. Such people make excessive demands on the state.

Kindness. They sometimes say that the Russian people have a feminine nature. This, according to Lossky, is incorrect; he, unlike Berdyaev, adheres to a different point of view: the Russian people, he writes, especially the Great Russian branch of it, the people who created a great state in harsh historical conditions, are extremely courageous; but what is especially remarkable about him is the combination of masculine nature with feminine softness. Anyone who lived in a village and interacted with peasants will probably have memories of this wonderful combination of courage and gentleness come to mind.

The kindness of the Russian people in all layers of them is expressed in the absence of rancor. Often a Russian person, being passionate and prone to maximalism, experiences a strong feeling of repulsion from another person, however, when meeting him, if specific communication is necessary, his heart softens and he somehow involuntarily begins to show his spiritual softness towards him, even sometimes condemning himself for this if he believes that the person in question does not deserve to be treated kindly.

“Life according to the heart” creates openness in the soul of a Russian person and ease of communication with people, simplicity of communication, without conventions, without external instilled politeness, but with those virtues of politeness that arise from sensitive natural delicacy...

However, as Lossky rightly notes, positive qualities often have negative sides. The kindness of a Russian person sometimes prompts him to lie due to the reluctance to offend his interlocutor, due to the desire for peace and good relations with people at all costs.

Russian woman. In his book, Lossky especially notes Russian women and quotes Schubart, who writes about a Russian woman like this: “She shares with an Englishwoman an inclination towards freedom and independence, without turning into a blue stocking. What she has in common with the French woman is spiritual mobility without pretensions to profundity; she has... the taste of a Frenchwoman, the same understanding of beauty and grace, but without becoming a victim of a vain predilection for outfits. She possesses the virtues of a German housewife without always fuming over kitchen utensils; she has the maternal qualities of an Italian, without coarsening them to the abundance of monkey love...” 1

Cruelty. Kindness is the predominant feature of the Russian people. But at the same time, Lossky does not deny that there are also many manifestations of cruelty in Russian life. There are many types of cruelty and some of them can be found, paradoxically, even in the behavior of people who are not at all evil by nature.

Lossky explains many of the negative aspects of the behavior of the peasants by their extreme poverty, the many insults and oppressions they experience and lead them to extreme embitterment... He considered the fact that in peasant life, husbands sometimes severely beat their wives, most often while drunk, to be especially outrageous...

Until the last quarter of the 19th century, the family life of merchants, townspeople and peasants was patriarchal. The despotism of the head of the family was often expressed in actions close to cruelty.

However, the strength of the Russian people, as mentioned above, is expressed... in the fact that having noticed some shortcoming in itself and condemning it, Russian society begins a decisive struggle against it and achieves success. Lossky is deeply convinced that it was thanks to this quality that the structure of family life in Russian society was freed from despotism and acquired the character of a kind of democratic republic.

CHAPTER 3. The role of national character in the destinies of Russia (according to the works of N.A. Berdyaev);

The problem of the Russian national character has found comprehensive coverage in such works by N.A. Berdyaev, such as “The Fate of Russia”, “Spirits of the Russian Revolution”, “The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism”, “Russian Idea”, “Self-Knowledge”, “Soul of Russia”, etc.

Russian national character occupied a special place in Berdyaev’s works. Berdyaev saw an essential feature of the Russian national character in its inconsistency.

At the same time, Berdyaev noted the influence of the Russian national character on the fate of Russia, for example: “The Russian people are the most apolitical people, who have never been able to organize their land.” And at the same time: “Russia is the most state-owned and most bureaucratic country in the world, everything in Russia turns into an instrument of politics.” Further: “Russia is the most non-chauvinistic country in the world. ...In the Russian element there truly is some kind of national unselfishness, sacrifice..." And at the same time: "Russia... is a country of unprecedented excesses, nationalism, oppression of subject nationalities, Russification... The other side of Russian humility is the extraordinary Russian conceit." On the one hand, “the Russian soul burns in a fiery search for truth, absolute, divine truth... It eternally grieves over the grief and suffering of the people and the whole world...”. On the other hand, “Russia is almost impossible to budge, it has become so heavy, so inert, so lazy... it is so resigned to its life.” The duality of the Russian soul leads to the fact that Russia lives an “inorganic life”; it lacks integrity and unity. 1

In his works, Berdyaev lists the following factors that, in his opinion, influenced the formation of the Russian national character.

Geographically, Russia is a gigantic territory covering one sixth of the landmass. The vast land, in Berdyaev’s words, is “national flesh” that has to be cultivated and spiritualized. However, Russian people have a passive attitude toward the elements of the earth, and do not strive to ennoble or “shape” it. “The power of the shire over the Russian soul gives rise to a whole series of Russian qualities and Russian shortcomings. Russian laziness, carelessness, lack of initiative, and a poorly developed sense of responsibility are associated with this. The breadth of the Russian land and the breadth of the Russian soul crushed Russian energy, opening up the possibility of movement towards extensiveness. This vastness did not require intense energy and intensive culture. ... The vastness of Russian spaces did not contribute to the development of self-discipline and initiative in Russian people...” notes Berdyaev.

Berdyaev attached great importance to the collective-tribal principle in the development of national character and in the fate of Russia. According to Berdyaev, “spiritual collectivism”, “spiritual conciliarity” is a “high type of brotherhood of people”. This kind of collectivism is the future. But there is another collectivism. This is “irresponsible” collectivism, which dictates to a person the need to “be like everyone else.” The Russian person, Berdyaev believed, is drowning in such collectivism; he feels immersed in the collective. Hence the lack of personal dignity and intolerance towards those who are not like others, who, thanks to their work and abilities, have the right to more.

However, Berdyaev did not deny the attractive aspects of Russian traditional collectivism. “Russians are more sociable... more inclined and more capable of communication than people of Western civilization. Russians have no conventions in communication. They have a need to see not only friends, but also good acquaintances, share thoughts and experiences with them, and argue.” 2

In Russia, according to Berdyaev, there is no middle and strong social layer that would organize people’s life, and accordingly there is no “middle culture.” The desire for “angelic holiness” and for goodness is paradoxically combined in Rus' with “beastly baseness” and fraud. A sincere thirst for divine truth coexists with the “everyday and external ritual understanding of Christianity,” which is far from genuine religious faith.

Peculiarities of national character are manifested in the way of thinking of Russian people. Berdyaev wrote about the “original Russian existentiality of thinking,” in connection with which Russian people are characterized by such traits as deep personal experience, the desire to “discover oneself,” and take everything to heart when considering any problems.

Ultimately, Berdyaev saw the peculiarities and contradictions of the Russian character in the absence of the correct balance between the “masculine” and “feminine” principles in him. It is the balance of “masculinity” and “femininity” that is inherent in a mature national character. Russian “national flesh,” according to Berdyaev, turns out to be feminine in its passive receptivity to good and evil. The “Russian soul” lacks courage, fortitude, will, and independence.

For the maturity of the Russian nation, Berdyaev believed, “there is only one way out: the revelation within Russia, in its spiritual depths, of a courageous, personal, formative principle, mastery of one’s own national element, the immanent awakening of a courageous, luminous consciousness.” 1

At the same time, Berdyaev is far from the idea that the shortcomings of the Russian national character are associated with the feminine principle. Thanks to their feminine soul, the Russian people have such wonderful national qualities as sincerity, mercy, and the ability to renounce goods in the name of a bright faith.

How did Berdyaev imagine Russia's future path? Is it true that the meaning of his “national program” was “deep and comprehensive Europeanization”?

Of course not, Berdyaev saw the path of world development in the mutual meeting of East and West, in the mutual enrichment of cultures, in the rapprochement of all nations. In his opinion, not only the West influences Russia, but also the spiritual forces of Russia can determine and transform the spiritual life of the West. In addition, Berdyaev believed that another era would follow, associated with spiritual transformation, in which Russia would occupy a leading role. However, for this, she herself must be transformed, revive within herself the faded rudiments of spirituality.

What is Berdyaev’s real program for the “re-education” of the Russian national character? Sikorsky B.F. in his work “N.A. Berdyaev on the role of national character in the destinies of Russia” writes that Berdyaev believed that man is a natural, social and spiritual being. Berdyaev saw the future society as one in which every person rises to true spirituality and realizes himself in unity with other people. The fate of society, from Berdyaev’s point of view, turns out to be dependent on the “personal principle.” Society will be what its people are.

The main, deepest character trait of the Russian people is their religiosity and the associated search for absolute good, therefore such good that is feasible only in the Kingdom of God. Perfect goodness without any admixture of evil and imperfections exists in the Kingdom of God because it consists of individuals who fully implement in their behavior the two commandments of Jesus Christ: love God more than yourself, and your neighbor as yourself. Members of the Kingdom of God are completely free from egoism and therefore they create only absolute values ​​- moral goodness, beauty, knowledge of truth, indivisible and indestructible goods that serve the whole world. Relative goods, that is, those whose use is good for some people and evil for others, do not attract members of the Kingdom of God. The pursuit of them constitutes the main content of the life of persons with an egoistic character, that is, persons who do not have perfect love for Nog and prefer themselves to their neighbor, if not always, then at least in some cases.

Since the members of the Kingdom of God are completely free from egoism, their body is not material, but transformed. In fact, the material body is a consequence of egoism: it is obtained as the conquest of a certain part of space through acts of repulsion, creating a relatively impenetrable volume. Such a body is susceptible to injury and destruction, it is full of imperfections and is necessarily associated with struggle.for existence. The transformed body consists of the processes of light, sound, heat, aromas created by the celestials and serves as an expression of their spiritual creativity, which creates absolute values. Such a spiritual-physical whole has ideal beauty. Without containing acts of pushing, the transformed body cannot be subject to repulsion; therefore it is able to penetrate everything

material barriers, it is not susceptible to any injuries and cannot be destroyed by anything. Members of the Kingdom of God are not subject to bodily death. In general, there are no imperfections and no evil in this Kingdom. *)

The search for absolute good, of course, does not mean that a Russian person, for example, a commoner, is consciously drawn to the Kingdom of God, having in his mind a complex system of teachings about it. Fortunately, in the soul of a person there is a force that attracts good and condemns evil, regardless of the degree of education and knowledge: this force is the voice of conscience. Russian people have a particularly sensitive distinction between good and evil; he vigilantly notices the imperfection of all our actions, morals and institutions, never being satisfied with them and never ceasing to seek perfect good.

The religion and philosophy of all peoples, long before Christianity, established that man and even all world existence is drawn, consciously or unconsciously, upward towards absolute perfection, towards God. *) The difference between people and nations is in what form and to what extent this upward striving is realized in them, and to what temptations they fall under. A significant part of my notes about the Russian people is devoted to the question of the nature of their search for absolute good.

Let's take the grandiose work of S. M. Solovyov, “History of Russia since ancient times.” In it we find the texts of chronicles, relations of princes with each other, relations of squads with princes, the influence of the clergy, relations of boyars with the prince, reports of diplomats and generals. All these documents are full of references to God, thoughts about the will of God and obedience to Him. Before their death, princes usually took monastic vows “to become monks and to the schema.” An example is the behavior of Prince Dimitry Svyatoslavich Yuryevsky. To the bishop of Rostov, who tonsured him into the schema, he said: “Mr. Father, Vladyka Ignatius, fulfill, Lord God, your work, which has prepared me for a long journey, for an eternal summer, equipped me as a warrior for the true king Christ, our God.” *)

In the 18th century, when many Voltaireans appeared among the Russian nobility, the activities of the Freemasons, who sought to deepen the understanding of the truths of Christianity and implement them in personal and public life, developed widely in the second half of the century. In the 19th century, the religiosity of the Russian people was expressed in great literature,

*) See my book “Conditions of Absolute Good”; YMCA-PRESS, Paris ; „Des conditions de la morale absolue“, ed. de la Balconnière, Neuchatel.

*) See mine book “Value and Being”, ch. II, pp. 52-54. „Value andExistence." George Allen and Unwin.

*) T. IV, ch. 3, pp. 1172 (third edition); see generally pp. 1172-1174.

driven by the search for absolute goodness and the meaning of life, as well as in the flowering of religious philosophy.

The listed manifestations of the religiosity of the Russian people relate to the behavior of its upper strata. As for the lower classes of the people, especially the peasants, their religiosity is revealed with no less obviousness. Let us remember Russian wanderers, pilgrims to holy places, especially to such famous monasteries as the Trinity St. Sergius Lavra, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Solovki, the Pochaev Monastery, and beyond the borders of Russia - to Mount Athos, to Palestine. The thirst for veneration of the miraculous icons of the Mother of God and the meaning of pilgrimage to various icons of the Mother of God seems like idolatry to people who do not have specific religious experience. These phenomena were thoughtfully explained by Fr. Pavel Florensky in his book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth.” “Every legitimate icon of the Mother of God,” he says, “is revealed, that is, marked by miracles and, so to speak, receivedapproval and approvalfrom the Virgin Mother Herself,attestedin its spiritual truthfulness by the Virgin Mother Herself, there is an imprint of only one side, a bright spot on the earth from only one ray of the Blessed One, one of Her picturesque names. Hence the quest to venerate different icons. The names of some of them partly express their spiritual essence” (369 p.).

How high a spiritual life can reach simple, poorly educated people is exemplified by the book “Frank Tales of a Wanderer to His Spiritual Father.” *) Dostoevsky finds the synthesis and completion of all the good properties of the Russian people in their Christian spirit. “Perhaps the only love of the Russian people is Christ,” thinks Dostoevsky (Diary of a Writer, 1873, V). He proves this idea this way: the Russian people in a unique way accepted Christ into their hearts as an ideal lover of mankind; Therefore, he possesses true spiritual enlightenment, receiving it in prayers, in legends about saints, in the veneration of great ascetics. His historical ideals are saints Sergius of Radonezh, Theodosius of Pechersk, Tikhon of Zadonsk (Diary writing, 1876, Feb. 1, 2). Having recognized holiness as the highest value, striving for absolute good, the Russian people, says Dostoevsky, do not elevate earthly relative values, for example, private property, to the rank of “sacred” principles. In the novel “Demons,” Dostoevsky expresses through Shatov his idea that the Russian people are a “God-bearing people” (Part II, Chapter 1).

Researcher of Russian religiosity G. P. Fedotov in his book

*) New editions of this book in YMCA-PRESS, Paris.

„ Russian religions Mind. Kiev Russia “ showed that Christianity found its way into Rus' on fertile soil: already in Kievan Rus before the Mongol yoke it was adopted, at least by the highest strata of the people, in its true essence, precisely as a religion of love. Vladimir Monomakh, Grand Duke of Kiev (died in 1125), in his “Teaching” to children condemns pride and vanity, speaks out against the death penalty, sees the beauty and glory of God in nature, and highly values ​​prayer. “If, while riding a horse, you are not doing business,” he writes, “then, if you do not know other prayers, constantly repeat: Lord, have mercy. It’s better than thinking about trifles” (thinking nonsense). He advises to be friendly to all people: “don’t walk past a person without greeting him, but say a kind word to him.” Metropolitan Nikifor of Kievan Rus in his “Message” to Monomakh says that he loves to prepare sumptuous dinners for others, and he himself serves the guests; “those under his control eat and drink to their heart’s content, but he just sits and watches, content with little food and water.” It should be noted that Vladimir Monomakh was a man of courageous character, who showed outstanding courage both in war and in dangerous hunting.

In the subsequent history of Rus', following the upper strata of society and thanks to the influence of the great saints, the lower strata of the population also adopted Christianity to such an extent that the ideal of the people became not powerful, not rich, but “Holy Rus'”. “In ancient Russian holiness,” says Fedotov, “the gospel image of Christ shines brighter than anywhere else in history.” *)

Russian saints especially realize in their behavior the “kenosis” of Christ, his “slave image,” poverty, humility, simplicity of life, selflessness, meekness (p. 128). Heroic philanthropy and miracles of St. Nicholas was so loved by the people that he became a national Russian saint (44). Sermons of St. John Chrysostom and St. Ephraim Sirinabecame a favorite reading; firstly, he was attracted by a call to mercy, and secondly, to repentance.

Leo Tolstoy, whose life and works serve as a shining example of the search for absolute goodness and the meaning of life, was well known to the Russian people. In the article “Songs in the Village” he says that the Russian people are “meek, wise, holy.” Two years before his death, in the “Preface to the album “Russian Men” by N. Orlov,” he says about Russian peasants that they are “a humble, hard-working, Christian, meek, patient people. Orlov and I love in this people their peasant, humble, patient, enlightened by true Christianity

*) Fedotov. Saints of ancient Rus'. YMCA - PRESS , Paris 1931, p. 251.

soul." Looking at Orlov’s paintings, Tolstoy experiences the consciousness of the “great spiritual power of the people.”

S. L. Frank in his excellent article"Die Russische Weltanschauung" says: “The Russian spirit is thoroughly imbued with religiosity.” *) Berdyaev often repeated in his discussions about Russia that Russians are not interested in the middle sphere of culture. “The Russian idea,” he says, “is not the idea of ​​a flourishing culture and a powerful kingdom, the Russian idea is the eschatological idea of ​​the Kingdom of God.” “Russian Orthodoxy does not have its own cultural justification; it had a nihilistic element in relation to everything that man does in this world. In Orthodoxy, the eschatological side of Christianity was most strongly expressed.” “We are Russian, apocalyptic or nihilistic.” *)

The historian and philosopher Lev Platonovich Karsavin finds that an essential element of the Russian spirit is religiosity, including militant atheism. The Russian ideal is the interpenetration of Church and state. But, unfortunately, he says, Russian Orthodoxy has a serious drawback - its passivity, inaction. "Confidence in the future deificationsterilizes the present.” Moreover, the ideal is unattainable “through partial reforms and isolated efforts”; Meanwhile, the Russian person wants to act “always in the name of something absolute or absolutized.” If a Russian doubts the absolute ideal, then he can reach extreme bestiality or indifference to everything; he is able to come “from incredible law-abidingness to the most unbridled boundless rebellion.” Striving for the infinite, Russian people are afraid of definitions; This, according to Karsavin, explains the brilliant reincarnation of Russians. *) Walter Schubart, a Baltic German who probably knew the Russian language and Russian culture as intimately as the Russians themselves, wrote a wonderful book« Europa und die Seele des Ostens», translated into Russian and English. Schubart contrasts mainly two types of man with each other: the Promethean, heroic man, and the Johannine, messianic man, that is, the man who follows the ideal given in the Gospel of John. He considers the Slavs, especially the Russians, to be representatives of the Johannine type. Promethean, “the heroic man sees chaos in the world, which he must shape with his organizing power; he is full of lust for power; he moves further and further from God and goes deeper into the world of things. Secularization- his

*) Philosophische Vorträge, veröffentlicht von der Kantgesellschaft, Nr. 29, 1926.

*) N. Berdyaev. Russian idea, pp. 144, 132, 131.

*) L. Karsavin. East, WestAnd Russian idea, pp. 15, 70, 58, 62, 79.

fate, heroism are his feelings of life, tragedy is his end.” These are the “Roman and Germanic peoples of modern times.” *)

John’s “messianic man” feels called to create on earth a higher divine order, whose image he fatally bears within himself. He wants to restore around himself the harmony that he feels within himself. This is how the first Christians and most Slavs felt.” “The messianic man is inspired not by a thirst for power, but by a mood of reconciliation and love. He does not divide in order to rule, but seeks what is divided in order to reunite it. He is not driven by feelings of suspicion and hatred, he is full of deep trust in the essence of things. He sees people not as enemies, but as brothers; in the world there is not prey that needs to be attacked, but rough matter that needs to be illuminated and sanctified. He is driven by a feeling of some kind of cosmic obsession; he proceeds from the concept of the whole, which he feels within himself and which he wants to restore in the fragmented surroundings. He is haunted by the desire for the all-encompassing and the desire to make it visible and tangible.” (5 pp.). “The struggle for universality will become the main feature of the Johannine man” (9). In the Johannine era, the center of gravity will pass into the hands of those who strive “for the supermundane as a permanent feature of the national character, and these are the Slavs, especially the Russians. The enormous event that is now being prepared is the rise of the Slavs as a leading cultural force” (16).

Schubart aims to influence “European self-understanding through contrast” (25) with his book. “The West,” he says, “has given humanity the most advanced forms of technology, statehood and communications, but it has deprived it of its soul. Russia’s task is to return it to the people” (26). “Only Russia is capable of spiritualizing the human race, mired in materiality and corrupted by the thirst for power,” and this despite the fact that at the moment “she herself is suffering in the convulsions of Bolshevism” (26 p.). The flow of the Promethean worldview spread in three waves in Russia, says Schubart: “it came through the Europeanizing policies of Peter the Great, then through French revolutionary ideas and, finally, atheistic socialism, which seized power in Russia in 1917” (56). The reaction of the Russian soul to this Promethean spirit is sometimes asceticism, but more messianic: he wants to shape the external world according to the heavenly internal image,” his ideal is “not pure this-worldliness, like that of the Promethean man, but the Kingdom of God” (58 p.).

*) V. Schubart. Europe and the Soul of the East, 3rd ed., pp. 5, 6. In English -"Russia and Western Man".

The Bolshevik regime gave birth to the Promethean spirit. Judging by the information coming from Russia, it causes horror, disgust and an increase in religiosity among the Russian people. Therefore, one can hope that after the fall of Bolshevik power, the Johannine spirit of Russian culture will be restored and will have a beneficial effect on all humanity.

Schubart's book testifies to his deep love for the Russian people and Russian culture. The ideal depths of a beloved being are revealed to a loving gaze, even those that are far from being fully realized and require further development. Schubart’s entire book has this type of insight into the depths and possibilities hidden in the spirit of the Slavs and especially the Russians. Therefore, it is useful to read it especially for us, Russians, in order to ask for God’s help for the perfect development of those spiritual properties that Schubart found in the Slavs, and for knowledge of deviations on this path that should be feared.

The most important expression of the nature of the religiosity of the Russian people is realized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Berdyaev is right that Russian Orthodoxy is focused on eschatology, on the desire for the Kingdom of God, that is, for the super-earthly absolute good. This character of Orthodoxy is clearly expressed in all services and in the annual cycle of church life, in which the “feast of feasts” is Easter, the Resurrection of Christ, signifying the victory over death in the form of the Transfiguration, that is, life in the Kingdom of God. The icons of the Russian Orthodox Church, like Byzantine icons, are deeply different from the religious painting of the Italian Renaissance: their beauty is not earthly comeliness, but super-earthly spirituality.

Orthodox monasticism leads a life dedicated to prayer for one’s soul and for the whole world. Engaged in ascetic deeds and monastic work, it takes little part in earthly life. A vivid idea of ​​this character of Russian monasticism can be obtained from the book of Hieromonk Sophrony, “Elder Silouan,” recently published in Paris. Relying on living prayerful communication with the Lord God and the Kingdom of God while venerating the saints, an Orthodox person is guided in his religious life and in theological works not by reference to authorities and not by complex conclusions, but by living religious experience. *) Khomyakov’s considerations are very valuable regarding the fact that the Orthodox Church, in developing dogmas and the foundations of church life, is not subject to external authority. When dealing with the question of how to combine two difficult combinations in church life,

*) See book V. Lossky. “Essay sur la théologie mystique de l"Église d'Orient". On the paramount importance of religious experience, see S. L. Frank’s book “God with us.”

Based on the principles of freedom and unity, Khomyakov developed a wonderful, original concept of conciliarity. He says that in the Catholic authoritarian Church there is unity without freedom, and in the Protestant Church there is freedom without unity. According to his teaching, the principle of the structure of the Church should be conciliarity, meaning by this word the unity of many persons on the basis of their common love for God, for the God-man Jesus Christ and for the truth of God. Love freely unites believers in the Church as the Body of Christ.

Khomyakov loses sight of the fact that the Catholic Church, being super-state and combining European, Asian, American, etc. Catholics into one whole, maintains unity also thanks to conciliarity, i.e., thanks to the love of Catholics for the same high values. But the high dignity of Orthodoxy lies in the fact that the principle of conciliarity is recognized in it as a higher foundation of the Church than any earthly authorities. Khomyakov admits that the principle of conciliarity is not implemented in Orthodoxy in its entirety, that the higher clergy is often prone to despotism, however, such a phenomenon is understandable in the conditions of earthly sinful life and it is good that the principle of love, and, consequently, freedom is proclaimed in Orthodoxy .

The concept of conciliarity developed by Khomyakov is so valuable and original that its translation into other languages ​​is impossible and the word “conciliarity” has already been adopted in German and Anglo-American literature. Commonwealth(fellow, ship) Anglican and Orthodox Christians, existing in some cities in Great Britain and the United States of America, even publish a magazine called"Sobornost".

The legal doctrine of salvation is rejected by the Orthodox Church. Corresponding to its spirit is the teaching that behavior guided by perfect love for God and neighbor is in itself, without any external rewards, bliss. A detailed work on this issue, “Orthodox Teaching on Salvation,” was written at the end of the 19th century by Archimandrite (future patriarch) Sergius.

The spirit of the Orthodox Church, which is based on love, is expressed in the “good” character and even appearance of many Russian clergy.

This feature of the Russian clergy was well noted by Schubart. He writes: “The harmonic spirit lives in all of ancient Russian Christianity.” “Harmony lies in the image of the Russian priest. His soft features and wavy hair are reminiscent of old icons. What a contrast to the Jesuit heads of the West with their flat, stern, Caesarist faces.” “In comparison with the businesslike, almost theatrical behavior of Europeans, Kireevsky notes: humility, calmness,

viye, restraint, dignity and inner harmony of people who grew up in the traditions of the Orthodox Church. This is felt in everything, even prayer. The Russian does not lose his temper with emotion, but, on the contrary, pays special attention to maintaining a sober mind and a harmonious state of mind” (51). Tolstoy notes the same properties of the Russian priest in War and Peace. In Moscow, on Sunday, July 12, 1812, the Emperor’s manifesto on the beginning of the war with Napoleon was received and a prayer was sent from the Synod for the salvation of Russia from the enemy invasion. The priest in the church, “a gracious old man,” writes Tolstoy, reads a prayer: “Lord God of hosts, God of our salvation,” the priest began in that clear, unpompous and meek voice, which is read only by spiritual Slavic readers and which has such an irresistible effect on the Russian heart" (volume II, part V, chapter 18).

Vladimir Filimonovich Martsinkovsky generally speaks about the benevolent character of Russian Orthodoxy in his wonderful book “Notes of a Believer.” Martsinkovsky, having become a religious preacher, traveled all over European Russia, met with many people and, based on his rich experience, speaks of the deep religiosity of the Russian people in all its layers and of their thirst for religious enlightenment. He fearlessly continued his lectures under the Bolshevik government, until it expelled him from Russia in 1923. Imprisoned in Moscow in the Taganskaya prison, he met the hieromonk Fr. Georgiy, who served as a nurse in the prison. “A great acquisition for me,” he writes, “was the acquaintance with this type of true Russian Orthodoxy, or simply Russian Christianity, which, with all its simplicity, contains wisdom and strong will, and most importantly, amazing gentleness, breadth and love, love without end. . . »

Father George was first a novice under the Optina elder Ambrose. From his words, Martsinkovsky gives an amazing account of Leo Tolstoy.

"ABOUT. Georgy also saw L.N. Tolstoy as he came to Optina after leaving Yasnaya Polyana. Not getting an appointment with Elder Joseph, who was then seriously ill, Lev Nikolaevich walked along the forest path, deep in thought. He sees two monks walking, carrying baskets of mushrooms. We said hello. - “It’s good you’re here!” . I would like to build a hut here and live with you.” . . “Well, that’s possible,” one of the monks answered affectionately. Then Lev Nikolaevich, after a second unsuccessful attempt to get to Fr. Joseph, went to Shamordino to visit his sister, nun Maria Nikolaevna. He loved her very much. O. Georgy assures that Lev Nikolaevich then told his sister: “Mashenka, I repent of my

teaching about Jesus Christ." . . This conversation stopped with the arrival of Chertkov and Makovitsky, who took Lev Nikolaevich away from Shamordin.” *) It is very difficult to prove whether Fr. Georgy reliable information about the conversation between Leo Tolstoy and his sister during their last meeting. Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy ceased to blatantly attack the traditional teachings and rituals of the Church. Therefore, there is some probability that the report is correct. George.

But there is one important inaccuracy in his story. When Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana, Doctor Makovitsky accompanied him all the time. Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya joined them in Shamordino. Chertkov was not in Shamordino; he joined Tolstoy after his departure from Shamordino, from where Tolstoy hastened to leave, fearing that his wife Sofia Andreevna would overtake him there. It should also be noted that the words “I repent of my teaching about Jesus Christ” were not communicated by Lev Nikolaevich’s sister herself to other members of his family. It is unknown who gave them to Father George, and whether they were exactly thinned out. *)

Therefore, there is no reason to confidently assert that Leo Tolstoy at the end of his life recognized the God-manhood of Jesus Christ, but there is no doubt that he began to refrain from crude attacks on Christianity.

The religiosity of the Russian people and the gentle goodness of the clergy, it would seem, should have been expressed in the preaching of social Christianity, that is, in the teaching that the principles of Christianity should be implemented not only in personal individual relationships, but also in legislation and in the organization of public and state institutions. Leroy-Beaulieu, in the third volume of his extensive work on Russia, says: the originality of Russia can be manifested in the implementation of the evangelical spirit, namely “in the application of the ethics of Christ in public life no less than in private life” (III, 506). The Orthodox clergy in the 19th century tried to advocate this idea in literature, but the government systematically suppressed such aspirations and helped strengthen the idea that the purpose of religious life is only concern for the personal salvation of the soul. In the work of Fr. Georgiy Florovsky “The paths of Russian theology can be found in the chapter “Historical School”; there is a lot of information about how the government constrained the literary activity of the clergy and, to the detriment of the Church and society, interfered with the development of religious ideology. By reducing the Church to the level of a servant of the state, the government turned clergy into officials. The essence of such a policy was well expressed in Leskov’s novel “Cathedrals”

*) V. F. Martsinkovsky. Notes of a Believer, Prague 1929, p. 171 p.

*) See the book: A. L. Tolstaya. Father, published. named after Chekhov.

not” swindler Thermosesov: Religion can only be allowed as one of the forms of administration. And as soon as faith becomes a serious faith, then it is harmful and must be picked up and tightened” (Part II, Chapter 10). A stunning example of the “humility” of bishops, members of the Synod, who submit against the dictates of their conscience to the demands of state power, is the story of the installation of the monk Barnabas as bishop, told by Miliukov in “Essays on the History of Russian Culture.” The subordination of the highest (black) clergy to the supreme power and its representative, the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, even intensified during the reign of Sabler, who continued the tradition of Pobedonostsev, says Miliukov. An extremely characteristic episode from the era of this subordination is the story of the blasphemous consecration of Rasputin’s protégé monk Varnava as bishop, told by a direct participant, Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, in a private letter to Metropolitan Flavian dated August 11, 1911: “The cane is already being wetted, and tomorrow the sovereign will sign the existence of the archimandrite Barnabas, Bishop of Kargopol; his consecration in Moscow. How did this happen? That's how. Vl. K. Sabler stated that the sovereign wants to see him as a bishop. Rev. Dmitry said: “And then Rasputin will have to be consecrated.” I began to offer to explain the inconvenience of this desire; then V.K. took out his most humble resignation from his briefcase and explained that in the refusal of the Synod he would see his inability to act as a mediator between the sovereign and the Synod and leave this matter to someone else. Then I, on behalf of the hierarchs, said: “To keep you in office, we will ordain the black boar as a bishop, but is it possible to send him to Biysk, ordain him in Tomsk, etc.” On the evening of August 8, we gathered secretly at Rev. Sergius and, having raised many sighs, decided to choose the lesser of two evils” (volume II, part 1, p. 183).

Thinking with sadness about the degraded state of that Church, which can be called “official”, we must remember that in Russia the real Christian Church was still preserved in the depths in the person of the ascetics revered by the people, who lived in the quiet of monasteries, and especially in the person of the “elders”, to which thousands of people from all strata of the Russian people resorted for instruction and consolation. The artistic depiction of how the “elder” acts is known to the whole world from Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, where the image of the elder Zosima is given.

Information about the elders who really existed can be obtained from the book of Fr. Sergius Chetverikov “Optina Pustyn”. *)

The clergy, subject to special spiritual censorship, could not

*) See also Karsavin, Starzen; Igor Smolitsch, „Leben und Lehre der Starzen“.

It was difficult to develop the idea of ​​social Christianity, but secular people have worked a lot on this problem. The Slavophiles Khomyakov and K. Aksakov were supporters of this idea, as far as it was possible to try to express it under the regime of Emperor Nicholas I. The doctrine of social Christianity was developed in many ways in the works of Vl. Solovyov especially in his “Justification of Good” and in the works of S. N. Bulgakov, N. A. Berdyaev.

We must also not forget Russia's participation in attempts to apply the principles of Christianity to international relations. Let us recall Russia's participation in the Holy Alliance under Alexander I and the proposal emanating from Emperor Nicholas II at the end of the 19th century to establish an international tribunal to resolve disputes between states not by war, but by court. The most remarkable idea about the normal relationship of peoples to each other was expressed by V.L. Soloviev: he applied the commandment of Jesus Christ “love your neighbor as yourself” in relation to nations to each other “love all other nations as your own.”

It is said about the Russian intelligentsia of the second half of the 19th century that it was the most atheistic. This is not true: she was indeed the most extra-church, but this does not mean that she was atheistic. The falling away from the Church was partly due to the false idea that the dogmatic content of Christianity did not agree with the scientific worldview, but even more to a greater extent the cooling towards the Church was due to the absurd policy of the government, which constrained the free development of religious life. Let me give you one example from a wonderful book by Fr. Georgy Florovsky “Ways of Russian Theology”: “The brilliant book of Moscow professor M.D. Muretov against Renan was stopped by censorship, since in order to refute it it was necessary to present the refuted “false teaching”, which did not seem reliable. Renan continued to be read in secret, but the book against Renan was 15 years late. And the impression was created that the reason for the prohibitions was the powerlessness to defend ourselves” (421).

Educated people who have left the Church have lost the Christian idea of ​​the Kingdom of God, but many of them have retained the desire for perfect goodness and are tormented by the untruth of our sinful earthly life. This mood is found, for example, in the search for social justice. A characteristic phenomenon of Russian social life was what Mikhailovsky called the words “repentant nobleman” and Lavrov expressed the idea of ​​the need to pay the “debt to the people.” This mood of Russian people belonging to the privileged classes of society was well expressed by Dostoevsky: he said in the “Diary of a Writer” that he could never understand such a system in which

one tenth of the people enjoys many of the blessings of life, while nine tenths are deprived of them.

Even among the big bourgeoisie, among wealthy industrialists and merchants, there were sentiments showing that they were ashamed of their wealth and, of course, would consider it blasphemous to call the right of property “sacred.” Among them were many philanthropists and donors of large sums to various public institutions. Let us recall, for example, such names as the Tretyakovs, Morozovs, Mamontov, Shanyavsky, Serebryakov, Shukin, Ryabushinsky. There were also wealthy industrialists who gave money to revolutionaries who fought against capitalism.

N.I. Astrov, the last elected mayor of the city of Moscow, reports the description given by Kobylinsky-Ellis *) of his brother Pavel Ivanovich Astrov, a member of the Moscow District Court. P. I. Astrov’s ideal was the reconciliation of three principles - integral religiosity, publicity in the spirit of peaceful and humane evolution, creative culture. Walking with Andrei Bely and Kobylinsky, he once said: “our ideal of the future is the face of a cultural righteous man, a saint of the future.” *)

I will give an example of one such cultural righteous man. This was a public school teacher, Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Avramov, a landowner of the Kostroma province. He received a higher education at the Mining Institute, but decided to devote his life not to engineering, but to the education of the lower classes. He became a teacher at a public school in St. Petersburg near the Volkov cemetery. His Russian literacy lessons and even arithmetic lessons were something like an artistic performance. Teachers from all over St. Petersburg came to his school to learn the art of teaching. In his youth, he fell in love with a girl who wanted to get a higher education and go to Switzerland for this purpose. Her parents didn't give her permission. She did not respond to Vyacheslav Yakovlevich’s feelings, but entered into a fictitious marriage with him, as was often done in the sixties, and immediately went abroad. So Avramov remained a bachelor for the rest of his life. He sold his estate and used the proceeds to set up several zemstvo public schools in the Kostroma province.

Among the Russian revolutionaries who became atheists, instead of Christian religiosity, a mood appeared that can be called formal religiosity, namely a passionate, fanatical desire to realize a kind of Kingdom of God on earth, without God, on the basis

*) Who Kobylinsky-Ellis is can be found out from the memoirs of Andrei Bely.

*) N. AND. Astrov. Memoirs, page 220.

scientific knowledge. S. N. Bulgakov wrote a number of articles about this character of the Russian intelligentsia and republished them in the collection “Two Cities”. He says that government persecution caused in the revolutionary intelligentsia “a sense of martyrdom and confession,” and forced isolation from life developed “dreaminess, utopianism, and a generally insufficient sense of reality” (180). Being a deputy of the Second State Duma and observing its political activities, “I clearly saw,” writes Bulgakov, “how essentially far from politics, that is, the everyday prosaic work of repairing and lubricating the state mechanism, these people stand. This is not the psychology of politicians, not calculating realists and gradualists, no, this is the impatient exaltation of people waiting for the implementation of the Kingdom of God on earth, the New Jerusalem and, moreover, almost tomorrow. One involuntarily recalls the Anabaptists and many other communist sectarians of the Middle Ages, apocalyptics and chiliasts, who waited for the imminent advent of the thousand-year Kingdom of Christ and cleared the way for it with the sword, popular uprising, communist experiments, and peasant wars; I remember John of Leiden with the retinue of his prophets in Munster” (135).

Further, Bulgakov shows how a passionate thirst for the implementation of the Kingdom of God on earth without God and, therefore, without absolute good leads to the replacement of the idea of ​​the God-man with man-theology, and after this to the bestialization of man, or more precisely, I would say, to the demonization of man, which is found in THE USSR.

Not only Russian writers, but also foreigners who have carefully observed Russian life, in most cases note the outstanding religiosity of the Russian people. I will refer to several foreigners and about those of them, whose opinions I will also report in the future, I will briefly tell you who they are and how they met the Russian people.

A remarkable and thorough study of Russia and the Russian people was carried out by the French scientist Leroy-Beaulieu(Leroy-Beaulieu, 1842-1912). He visited Russia four times in 1872-1881. and published his work in three large volumes"L' Empire des Tsars et les Russes"(1881-1889). The Russian masses, he says, have not lost their sense of connection “with the inhabitants of the invisible world” (i.e. III , book 1, ch. And, page 11). Among the simple Russian people he finds a peculiar combination of realism and mysticism, veneration of the cross, recognition of the value of suffering and repentance (45). He draws attention to the fact that the literary works of even non-believing Russians have a religious-Christian character. The originality of Russia, Leroy-Beaulieu thinks, can manifest itself in the implementation of the evangelical spirit, namely in the application of these

ki of Christ in public life no less than in private life (Book III, Chapter X1, p. 568).

Englishman Stephen Graham(Stephen Graham) traveled to Russia many times; he became acquainted with all layers of Russian society, especially with the peasants. Having mastered the Russian language well, dressing simply so as to be mistaken in the crowd for a Russian worker, he set out on foot manyhundreds of kilometers and observed Russian life from Arkhangelsk to Vladikavkaz. Together with pilgrims, he went to worship saints in monasteries, and traveled on a Russian steamship with pilgrims to Palestine. Traveling on foot in northern Russia near the White Sea, he spent the night in peasant huts. *)

In the book “The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary” Graham says that with the English the conversation ends with a conversation about sports, with a Frenchman - with a conversation about women, with a Russian intellectual - with a conversation about Russia, and with a peasant - with a conversation about God and religion (54, 72) . Russians can talk about religion for six hours straight. The Russian idea is a Christian idea; in the foreground there is love for the suffering, pity, attention to the individual personality (93-96). The Russian considers our mortal life not to be true life and material force not to be real force (111). In other words, Graham wants to say that Russian Christianity is focused on the idea of ​​​​the Kingdom of God and absolute perfection in it. The Eastern Church, he says, follows the path of Mary. The Russian is surrounded in the church by “witnesses of the truth,” the faces of saints looking at him from icons; the light of Transfiguration emanates from them; entering the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, a person enters “another world” (201-203).

In the book “Unknown Russia” Graham speaks with admiration about the lamp glowing in front of the icon, radiating peace, that such a lamp in front of the icon can be seen everywhere in Russia, both at the station and in the bathhouse; therefore, the nearness of God is felt everywhere. “I love Russia,” he says. — For me, in a sense, it is something more than my native country. Sometimes it seems to me that I am the lucky prince who found Sleeping Beauty" (7).

Englishman Maurice Baring(Maurice Baring, 1874-1945", poet and journalistnalyst,met in Copenhagen the family of the Russian envoy Count Benckendorff, whose wife was a highly cultured Russian intellectual. Since 1901, he often traveled to their Sosnovka estate in the Tambov province. During the Russo-Japanese War he was in Manchuria

*) I will indicate the following books written by him about Russia and the Russian people.“Undiscovered Russia”, 1912; “With Russian pilgrims to Jerusalem”, 1913; "Changing Russia", 1913; “The way of Martha and the way of Mary”, 1915; "Russia and the world", 1915; "Russia in 1916, 1917".

Jury under the Russian army, as a newspaper correspondent Morning Post. In 1905-1906 he observed the Russian revolution. *)

Living on the estate and being with the army, Baring observed the religiosity of the Russian people, fasting, prayer services, candles in front of icons, the rise of spirit during the Easter holiday, but among the educated Russian people, he says, there are more atheists than in Western Europe (Russian people, p. 72). In the book “The Main Fundamentals of Russia” he says that the Russian peasant is deeply religious, sees God in all things and considers a person who does not believe in God to be abnormal and stupid (p. 46). Pushkin’s poem “I have outlived my desires, I have stopped loving my dreams. All that remains for me is suffering, the fruits of heart emptiness.” Baring translated it perfectly, conveying not only its content, but also the music of the verse.

Englishman Harold Williams(Williams), Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova's husband, thanks to his connection with her highly cultured family and life on her parents' estate on the banks of the Volkhov, became well acquainted with the character and life of Russian peasants. In his book"Russia of the Russians" he talks about the high religiosity of the Russian people. The people, he says, not only receive aesthetic emotions from worship, but also acquire religious convictions thanks to the Gospel read in church, as well as drawing them from the lives of saints and legends. Williams knows that since the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian intelligentsia has awakened an interest in religion and began to return to the Church.

Professor Bernard Paire(Pares), former director of the school of Slavic studies at the University of London and editor of the magazine Slavonic Review, He traveled to Russia many times since 1890, lived not only in cities, but also in the countryside, for example, on the Mashuk estate of Ivan Ilyich Petrunkevich in the Novotorzhsky district of the Tver province. In the book"Russia" he speaks with love about the idealism of the Russian people (25).

R. Wright in the book "The Russians" (1917) says that religion is the basis of Russian life, its pulse: concern not for the present, but for heavenly life (11).

Sorbonne Professor Jules Legras(Jules Legras) wrote the book “L'âme russe” (1934).

In it he talks about the freedom of Russians to go or not to go to church, that Russians are the least disciplined people in Europe, but this people is distinguished by a vague attraction to the higher and, according to

*) Baring wrote many books about Russia. I will indicate the following from them . “With the Russians in Manchueria,” 1905. “A year in Russia,” 1907. “The mainspring of Russia,” 1914. “The Russian people,” 1911. A book about Baring's life and work was written by Ethel Smith, Hon. Maurice Baring, 1938.

In his own way, this is a deep religiosity, more mystical than in France. Orthodox worship, he says, makes a deep impression (167-179).

German K. Onasch (Onasch) in the book “ Geist und Geschichte der Russischen Ostkirche"(1947) indicates that the famous Protestant theologian Adolf Harnack misunderstood the Orthodox Church, considering belief in the sacraments and veneration of icons to be a manifestation of barbarism (8). The Russian understanding of life and religiosity, says Onash, is distinguished by its remarkable integrity (7): it is based on a passion for absolute values ​​and the transformation of the world (34); Russian icons testify to the overcoming of earthly existence (32).

Hans von Eckardt in the book “Russisches Christentum” (1947) considers the characteristic feature of Russian religiosity to be the desire to free oneself from temporary material existence and the attraction to a transformed life in the Kingdom of God (14 p.).

The examples given are enough to show that even foreigners who are well acquainted with Russia note the deep religiosity of the Russian people. Considering the main property of the Russian people to be Christian religiosity and the associated search for absolute good, realized only in the Kingdom of God, in the following chapters I will try to explain some other properties of the Russian people in connection with this essential feature of their character.

INTRODUCTION

Each personality is a unique, unique individual in the world, unique in its existence and irreplaceable in its value. The individual uniqueness of a person cannot be expressed in general terms. Trying to characterize Russian people, we have to talk, of course, about those general properties that are most often found among Russians and therefore can be expressed in general terms. These general properties are something secondary, derived from the individual essence of each individual, but they still deserve research because they give an idea of ​​​​what character traits can most often be encountered among a given people.

One should not think that the common properties that can be found belong to every Russian person. Pairs of opposites are embodied in the life of every nation, and there are especially many of them among the Russian people. Many of these opposites are also found among other peoples, but for each people they have a unique character.

The most fascinating, but also difficult, not always solvable task is to find such a basic property from which two opposite properties follow, so that the negative property is, as it were, the reverse side of the same coin, the front side of which is positive. The second task in studying the character of a people, which is more easily solved, is to determine which properties of a people represent the primary, basic content of its soul and which properties flow from its fundamental principles.

In my notes I will have in mind the soul of individual Russian people, and not the soul of the Russian nation as a whole or the soul of Russia as a state. According to the metaphysics of hierarchical personalism. which I adhere to, every social whole, nation, state, etc., is a personality of the highest order: at its core there is a soul that organizes the social whole in such a way that the people included in it serve the whole as its organs. The philosopher and historian L.P. Karsavin calls such a creature symphonic personality. The character of such a soul of the social whole can sometimes

or in some respects profoundly different from the character of the people composing it. The ancient Romans well noticed this phenomenon in the life of their state: they said “senatores boniviri, senatus mala bestia” (senators are good people, and the senate is an evil beast). But, of course, some properties of persons included in a social whole also belong to this whole itself. Therefore, sometimes I will talk not only about the character of Russians, but also about the character of Russia as a state.

Chapter One: Religiosity of the Russian People

The main, deepest character trait of the Russian people is their religiosity and the associated search for absolute good, therefore, such good that is feasible only in the Kingdom of God. Perfect goodness without any admixture of evil and imperfections exists in the Kingdom of God because it consists of individuals who fully implement in their behavior the two commandments of Jesus Christ: love God more than yourself and your neighbor as yourself. Members of the Kingdom of God are completely free from egoism, and therefore they create only absolute values ​​- moral goodness, beauty, knowledge of truth, indivisible and indestructible goods that serve the whole world. Relative goods, that is, those whose use is good for some people and evil for others, do not attract members of the Kingdom of God. The pursuit of them constitutes the main content of the life of persons with an egoistic character, that is, persons who do not have perfect love for God and prefer themselves to their neighbor, if not always, then at least in some cases.

Since the members of the Kingdom of God are completely free from egoism, their body is not material, but transformed. In fact, the material body is a consequence of egoism: it is obtained as the conquest of a certain part of space through acts of repulsion, creating a relatively impenetrable volume. Such a body is susceptible to injury and destruction, it is full of imperfections and is necessarily associated with the struggle for existence. The transformed body consists of the processes of light, sound, heat, aromas created by the celestials and serves as an expression of their spiritual creativity, which creates absolute values. Such a spiritual-physical whole has ideal beauty. Without containing acts of pushing, the transformed body cannot be subject to repulsion; therefore, it is capable of penetrating all material barriers, it is not susceptible to any wounds and cannot be destroyed by anything. Members of the Kingdom of God are not subject to bodily death. In general, there are no imperfections and no evil in this Kingdom *.

The search for absolute good, of course, does not mean that a Russian person, for example a commoner, is consciously drawn to the Kingdom

See my book Conditions of Absolute Good. Paris; "Des conditions de la morale absolue." Ed. de la Baconniere, Neuchatel.

God, having in his mind a complex system of teachings about him. Fortunately, in the soul of a person there is a force that attracts good and condemns evil, regardless of the degree of education and knowledge: this force is the voice of conscience. Russian people have a particularly sensitive distinction between good and evil; he vigilantly notices the imperfection of all our actions, morals and institutions, never being satisfied with them and never ceasing to seek perfect good. ъ

The religion and philosophy of all peoples, long before Christianity, established that man and even all world existence is drawn, consciously or unconsciously, upward towards absolute perfection, towards God *. The difference between people and nations is in what form and to what extent this upward striving is realized in them and to what temptations they fall under this. A significant part of my notes about the Russian people is devoted to the question of the nature of their search for absolute good.

Let's take the grandiose work of S. M. Solovyov, “History of Russia since ancient times.” In it we find the texts of chronicles, relations of princes with each other, relations of squads with princes, the influence of the clergy, relations of boyars with the prince, reports of diplomats and generals. All these documents are full of references to God, thoughts about the will of God and obedience to Him. Before their death, princes usually took monastic vows “to become monks and to the schema.” An example is the behavior of Prince Dimitry Svyatoslavich Yuryevsky. To the bishop of Rostov, who tonsured him into the schema, he said: “Mr. Father, Vladyka Ignatius, fulfill, Lord God, your work, which has prepared me for a long journey, for an eternal summer, equipped me as a warrior for the true king Christ, our God” (T. 4. Chapter 3. P. 1172 (3rd ed.); see generally pp. 1172-1174).

In the 18th century, when many Voltaireans appeared among the Russian nobility, the activities of the Freemasons, who sought to deepen the understanding of the truths of Christianity and implement them in personal and public life, developed widely in the second half of the century. In the 19th century, the religiosity of the Russian people was expressed in great literature, imbued with the search for absolute goodness and the meaning of life, as well as in the flowering of religious philosophy.

The listed manifestations of the religiosity of the Russian people relate to the behavior of its upper strata. As for the lower classes of the people, especially the peasants, their religiosity is no less obvious. Let us remember Russian wanderers, pilgrims to holy places, especially to such famous monasteries as the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Solovki, the Pochaev Monastery, and beyond Russia - to Mount Athos, to Palestine. The thirst for veneration of the miraculous icons of the Mother of God and the meaning of pilgrimage to various icons of the Mother of God seems like idolatry to people who do not have specific religious experience. These phenomena were thoughtfully explained

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See my book Value and Being. Ch. II. pp. 52-54; "Value and Existence". George Alien and Unwin.

O. Pavel Florensky in his book “The Pillar and Ground of Truth.” “Every legitimate icon of the Mother of God,” he says, “is “revealed,” that is, marked by miracles and, so to speak, received OK And statement from the Virgin Mother Herself, attested in its spiritual truthfulness by the Virgin Mother Herself, there is an imprint of only one side, a bright spot on the earth from one only the ray of the Blessed One, one from Her picturesque names. Hence... the quest to bow different icons The names of some of them partly express their spiritual essence” (P. 369 et seq.).

To what high spiritual life simple, poorly educated people can reach, an example is the book “Frank Stories of a Wanderer to His Spiritual Father.” Dostoevsky finds the synthesis and completion of all the good properties of the Russian people in its Christian spirit. “Perhaps the only love of the Russian people is Christ,” thinks Dostoevsky (Diary of a Writer. 1873, V). He proves this idea this way: the Russian people in a unique way accepted Christ into their hearts as an ideal lover of mankind; Therefore, he possesses true spiritual enlightenment, receiving it in prayers, in legends about saints, in the veneration of great ascetics. His historical ideals are saints Sergius of Radonezh, Theodosius of Pechersk, Tikhon of Zadonsk (Diary of a Writer. 1876. February, 1, 2). Having recognized holiness as the highest value, striving for absolute good, the Russian people, says Dostoevsky, do not elevate earthly relative values, for example, private property, to the rank of “sacred” principles. In the novel “Demons,” Dostoevsky expresses through Shatov his idea that the Russian people are a “God-bearing people” (Part II. Chapter 1).

Researcher of Russian religiosity G.P. Fedotov in his book “Russian Religions Mind. Kievan Russia” showed that Christianity found its way into Rus' on fertile soil: already in Kievan Rus before the Mongol yoke, it was adopted, at least by the highest strata of the people, in its true essence, precisely as a religion of love. Vladimir Monomakh; the Grand Duke of Kiev (died in 1125), in his “Teaching” to children, condemns pride and vanity, speaks out against the death penalty, sees the beauty and glory of God in nature, and highly values ​​prayer. “If, while riding a horse, you are not doing business,” he writes, “then, if you do not know other prayers, constantly repeat: Lord, have mercy. It’s better than thinking about trifles” (thinking about trifles). He advises to be friendly to all people: “Do not walk past a person without greeting him, but say a kind word to him.” Metropolitan Nikifor of Kievan Rus in his “Message” to Monomakh says that he loves to prepare sumptuous dinners for others, and he himself serves the guests; “those under his control eat and drink to their fullest, but he just sits and watches, content with little food and water.” It should be noted that Vladimir Monomakh was a man of courageous character, who showed outstanding courage both in war and in dangerous hunting.

In the further history of Rus', following the upper strata

society and thanks to the influence of great saints, the lower strata of the population also adopted Christianity to such an extent that the ideal of the people became not powerful, not rich, but “Holy Rus'”. “In ancient Russian holiness,” says Fedotov, “the gospel image of Christ shines brighter than anywhere else in history.”*

Russian saints especially realize in their behavior the “kenosis” of Christ, his “slave image,” poverty, humility, simplicity of life, selflessness, meekness (p. 128). Heroic philanthropy and miracles of St. Nicholas was so loved by the people that he became a national Russian saint (44). Sermons of St. John Chrysostom and St. Ephraim the Syrian became a favorite reading; in the first, the call to mercy attracted, and in the second, to repentance.

Leo Tolstoy, whose life and works serve as a shining example of the search for absolute goodness and the meaning of life, was well known to the Russian people. In the article “Songs in the Village” he says that the Russian people are “meek, wise, holy.” Two years before his death, in the “Preface to the album “Russian Men” by N. Orlov,” he says about Russian peasants that they are “a humble, hard-working, Christian, meek, patient people. Orlov and I love in this people their peasant, humble, patient soul, enlightened by true Christianity.” Looking at Orlov’s paintings, Tolstoy experiences the consciousness of the “great spiritual power of the people.”

S. L. Frank in his excellent article “Die Russische Weltanschauung” says: “The Russian spirit is thoroughly imbued with religiosity”**. Berdyaev often repeated in his discussions about Russia that Russians are not interested in the middle area of ​​culture. “The Russian idea,” he says, “is not the idea of ​​a flourishing culture and a powerful kingdom, the Russian idea is the eschatological idea of ​​the Kingdom of God.” “Russian Orthodoxy does not have its own cultural justification; it had a nihilistic element in relation to everything that man does in this world. In Orthodoxy, the eschatological side of Christianity was most strongly expressed.” “We Russians are apocalypticists or nihilists”***.

The historian and philosopher Lev Platonovich Karsavin finds that an essential element of the Russian spirit is religiosity, including militant atheism. The Russian ideal is the interpenetration of Church and state. But, unfortunately, he says, Russian Orthodoxy has a serious drawback - its passivity, inaction. “Confidence in future deification sterilizes the present.” Moreover, the ideal is unattainable “through partial reforms and isolated efforts”; Meanwhile, a Russian person wants to act “always in the name of something absolute or absolutized.” If a Russian doubts the absolute ideal, then he can reach extreme bestiality or indifference to

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*Fedotov G. Saints of Ancient Rus'. Paris, 1931. P. 251.

**Philosophische Voiträge, veröffentlicht von der Kantgesellschaft. 1926. Nr. 29.

*** Berdyaev N. Russian idea. pp. 144, 132, 131.

everything; he is able to come “from incredible law-abidingness to the most unbridled boundless rebellion.” Striving for the infinite, Russian people are afraid of definitions; This, according to Karsavin, explains the brilliant reincarnation of Russians*. Walter Schubart, a Baltic German who probably knew the Russian language and Russian culture as intimately as the Russians themselves, wrote a wonderful book “Europa und die Seele des Ostens”, translated into Russian and English. Schubart contrasts mainly two types of man with each other: the Promethean, heroic man and the Johannine, messianic man, that is, a man who follows the ideal given in the Gospel of John. He considers the Slavs, especially the Russians, to be representatives of the Johannine type. Promethean, “the heroic man sees chaos in the world, which he must shape with his organizing power; he is full of lust for power; he moves further and further from God and goes deeper into the world of things. Secularization is his destiny, heroism is his feeling of life, tragedy is his end.” These are the “Roman and Germanic peoples of modern times”**.

Ioannovsky, “messianic man feels called to create on earth a higher divine order, whose image he fatally bears within himself. He wants to restore around himself the harmony that he feels within himself. This is how the first Christians and most Slavs felt.” “The messianic man is inspired not by a thirst for power, but by a mood of reconciliation and love. He does not divide in order to rule, but seeks what is divided in order to reunite it. He is not driven by feelings of suspicion and hatred, he is full of deep trust in the essence of things. He sees people not as enemies, but as brothers; in the world there is not prey that needs to be attacked, but rough matter that needs to be illuminated and sanctified. He is driven by a feeling of some kind of cosmic obsession; he proceeds from the concept of the whole, which he feels within himself and which he wants to restore in the fragmented surroundings. He is not left alone by the desire for the all-encompassing and the desire to make it visible and tangible” (5ff.). “The struggle for universality will become the main feature of the Johannine man” (9). In the Johannine era, the center of gravity will pass into the hands of those who strive “for the supermundane as a permanent feature of the national character, and these are the Slavs, especially the Russians. The enormous event that is now being prepared is the rise of the Slavs as a leading cultural force” (16).

Schubart aims to influence “European self-understanding through contrast” (25) with his book. “The West,” he says, “gave humanity the most advanced forms of technology, statehood and communications, but it deprived it of its soul. Russia’s task is to return it to the people” (26). "Only Russia is capable

*Karsavin L. East, West and the Russian idea. pp. 15, 70, 58, 62, 79.

** Schubart V. Europe and the soul of the East, 3rd ed. pp. 5, 6. In English: “Russia and Western Man.”

to spiritualize the human race, mired in materiality and corrupted by the thirst for power,” and this despite the fact that at the moment “she herself is suffering in the convulsions of Bolshevism” (26ff.). The flow of the Promethean worldview spread in three waves in Russia, says Schubart, “it went through the Europeanization policy of Peter the Great, then through French revolutionary ideas and, finally, atheistic socialism, which took over Russia in 1917” (56). The reaction of the Russian soul to this Promethean spirit is sometimes asceticism, but more messianic: he wants to shape the external world “according to the heavenly inner image”, his ideal is “not pure this-worldliness, like that of the Promethean man, but the Kingdom of God” (58 et seq.).

The Bolshevik regime is a parody of the Promethean spirit. Judging by the information coming from Russia, it causes horror, disgust and an increase in religiosity among the Russian people. Therefore, one can hope that after the fall of Bolshevik power, the Johannine spirit of Russian culture will be restored and will have a beneficial influence on all humanity.

Schubart's book testifies to his deep love for the Russian people and Russian culture. The ideal depths of a beloved being are revealed to a loving gaze, even those that are far from being fully realized and require further development. Schubart’s entire book has this type of insight into the depths and possibilities hidden in the spirit of the Slavs, and especially the Russians. Therefore, it is useful to read it, especially for us Russians, in order to ask for God’s help for the perfect development of those spiritual properties that Schubart found in the Slavs, and for knowledge of deviations on this path that should be feared.

The most important expression of the nature of the religiosity of the Russian people is realized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Berdyaev is right that Russian Orthodoxy is focused on eschatology, on the desire for the Kingdom of God, that is, for the super-earthly absolute good. This character of Orthodoxy is clearly expressed in all divine services and in the annual cycle of church life, in which the “feast of feasts” is Easter, the Resurrection of Christ, signifying the victory over death in the form of the Transfiguration, that is, life in the Kingdom of God. The icons of the Russian Orthodox Church, like Byzantine icons, are deeply different from the religious painting of the Italian Renaissance: their beauty is not earthly comeliness, but super-earthly spirituality.

Orthodox monasticism leads a life dedicated to prayer for one’s soul and for the whole world. Engaged in ascetic deeds and monastic work, it takes little part in earthly life. A vivid idea of ​​this character of Russian monasticism can be obtained from the book of Hieromonk Sophrony, “Elder Silouan,” recently published in Paris. Relying on living prayerful communication with the Lord God and the Kingdom of God while venerating the saints, an Orthodox person is guided in his religious life and in theological works not by reference to

authorities and not by complex conclusions, but by living religious experience *. Khomyakov’s considerations are very valuable regarding the fact that the Orthodox Church, in developing dogmas and the foundations of church life, is not subject to external authority. While dealing with the question of how to combine in church life two difficult-to-combine principles—freedom and unity—Khomyakov developed a remarkable, original concept of conciliarity. He says that in the Catholic authoritarian Church there is unity without freedom, and in the Protestant Church there is freedom without unity. According to his teaching, the principle of the structure of the Church should be conciliarity, meaning by this word the unity of many persons on the basis of their common love for God, for the God-man Jesus Christ and for the truth of God. Love freely unites believers in the Church as the Body of Christ.

Khomyakov loses sight of the fact that the Catholic Church, being super-state and combining European, Asian, American, etc. Catholics into one whole, maintains unity also thanks to conciliarity, i.e., thanks to the love of Catholics for the same high values. But the high dignity of Orthodoxy lies in the fact that the principle of conciliarity is recognized in it as a higher foundation of the Church than any earthly authorities. Khomyakov admits that the principle of conciliarity is not implemented in Orthodoxy in its entirety, that the higher clergy is often prone to despotism, however, such a phenomenon is understandable in the conditions of earthly sinful life and it is good that the principle of love, and therefore freedom, is proclaimed in Orthodoxy.

The concept of conciliarity developed by Khomyakov is so valuable and original that its translation into other languages ​​is impossible and the word “conciliarity” has already been adopted in German and Anglo-American literature. The fellowship (fellow, ship) of Anglican and Orthodox Christians, existing in some cities in Great Britain and the United States of America, even publishes a magazine called “Sobornost”.

The legal doctrine of salvation is rejected by the Orthodox Church. Corresponding to its spirit is the teaching that behavior guided by perfect love for God and neighbor is bliss in itself, without any external rewards. A detailed work on this issue, “Orthodox Teaching on Salvation,” was written at the end of the 19th century by Archimandrite (future patriarch) Sergius.

The spirit of the Orthodox Church, which is based on love, is expressed in the “good” character and even appearance of many Russian clergy. This feature of the Russian clergy was well noted by Schubart. He writes: “Harmonic spirit. lives throughout all of ancient Russian Christianity.” “Harmony lies in the image of the Russian priest. His soft features and wavy hair are reminiscent of old icons. What a contrast to the Jesuit heads of the West with their flat, stern, Caesarist faces.” “Compared to the businesslike, almost theatrical behavior

*Cm. book by V. Lossky “Essay sur la thеologie mystique de l"Eglise d"Orient".

On the paramount importance of religious experience, see S. L. Frank’s book “God with us.”

Europeans, Kireevsky notes the humility, calmness, restraint, dignity and inner harmony of people who grew up in the traditions of the Orthodox Church. This is felt in everything, even prayer. The Russian does not lose his temper with emotion, but, on the contrary, pays special attention to maintaining a sober mind and a harmonious state of mind” (51). Tolstoy notes the same properties of the Russian priest in War and Peace. In Moscow, on Sunday, July 12, 1812, the Emperor’s manifesto on the beginning of the war with Napoleon was received and a prayer was sent from the Synod for the salvation of Russia from the enemy invasion. The priest in the church, “a gracious old man,” writes Tolstoy, reads a prayer: “Lord God of hosts, God of our salvation,” the priest began in that clear, unpompous and meek voice that only spiritual Slavic readers read and which has such an irresistible effect on the Russian heart.” (Vol. III. Part 1. Chapter 18).

Vladimir Filimonovich Martsinkovsky generally speaks about the benevolent character of Russian Orthodoxy in his wonderful book “Notes of a Believer.” Martsinkovsky, having become a religious preacher, traveled all over European Russia, met with many people and, based on his rich experience, speaks of the deep religiosity of the Russian people in all its layers and of their thirst for religious enlightenment. He fearlessly continued his lectures under the Bolshevik government, until it expelled him from Russia in 1923. Imprisoned in Moscow in the Taganskaya prison, he met the hieromonk Fr. Georgiy, who served as a nurse in the prison. “A great gain for me,” he writes, “was the acquaintance with this type of true Russian Orthodoxy, or simply Russian Christianity, which, with all its simplicity, contains wisdom, a strong will, and most importantly, amazing gentleness, breadth and love, love without end. ..”

Father George was first a novice under the Optina elder Ambrose. According to him, Martsinkovsky gives an amazing report about Leo Tolstoy.

"ABOUT. Georgy also saw L.N. Tolstoy as he came to Optina after leaving Yasnaya Polyana. Without getting an appointment with Elder Joseph, who was then seriously ill. Lev Nikolaevich walked along the forest path, deep in thought. He sees two monks walking, carrying baskets of mushrooms. We said hello. “It’s good here!.. I would like to build a hut here and live with you.” “Well, that’s possible,” one of the monks answered affectionately. Then Lev Nikolaevich, after a second unsuccessful attempt to get to Fr. Joseph went to Shamordino to visit his sister, nun Maria Nikolaevna. He loved her very much. O. Georgy assures that Lev Nikolaevich then said to his sister: “Masha, I repent of my teaching about Jesus Christ...” This conversation stopped with the arrival of Chertkov and Makovitsky, who took Lev Nikolaevich from Shamordin.”* Very hard

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*Martsinkovsky V.F. Notes of a believer. Prague, 1929. P. 171 et seq.

prove whether Fr. Georgy provides reliable information about the conversation between Leo Tolstoy and his sister during their last meeting. Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy ceased to blatantly attack the traditional teachings and rituals of the Church. Therefore, there is some probability that the report is correct. George. But there is one important inaccuracy in his story. When Tolstoy left Yasnaya Polyana, Doctor Makovitsky accompanied him all the time. Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya joined them in Shamordino. Chertkov was not in Shamordin; he joined Tolstoy after his departure from Shamordin, from where Tolstoy hastened to leave, fearing that his wife Sofya Andreevna would overtake him there. It should also be noted that the words: “I repent of my teaching about Jesus Christ” were not communicated by Lev Nikolaevich’s sister herself to other members of his family. It is unknown who gave them to Fr. George and whether he accurately conveyed *. Therefore, there is no reason to confidently assert that Leo Tolstoy at the end of his life recognized the God-manhood of Jesus Christ, but there is no doubt that he began to refrain from crude attacks on Christianity.

The religiosity of the Russian people and the gentle goodness of the clergy, it would seem, should have been expressed in the preaching of social Christianity, that is, in the teaching that the principles of Christianity should be implemented not only in personal individual relationships, but also in legislation and in the organization of public and state institutions. Leroy-Beaulieu, in the third volume of his extensive work on Russia, says: the originality of Russia can be manifested in the implementation of the evangelical spirit, namely “in the application of the ethics of Christ in public life no less than in private life” (III, 506). The Orthodox clergy in the 19th century tried to advocate this idea in literature, but the government systematically suppressed such aspirations and helped to strengthen the idea that the purpose of religious life is only concern for the personal salvation of the soul. In the work of Fr. Georgy Florovsky’s “The Ways of Russian Theology” can be found in the chapter “Historical School”; there is a lot of information about how the government constrained the literary activity of the clergy and, to the detriment of the Church and society, interfered with the development of religious ideology. By reducing the Church to the level of a servant of the state, the government turned clergy into officials. The essence of such a policy was well expressed in Leskov’s novel “Soboryan” by the swindler Termosesov: “Religion can only be tolerated as one of the forms of administration. And as soon as faith becomes a serious faith, then it is harmful and needs to be picked up and tightened up” (Part II. Chapter 10). A stunning example of the “humility” of bishops, members of the Synod, who submit against the dictates of their conscience to the demands of state power, is the story of the installation of the monk Barnabas as bishop, told by Miliukov in “Essays on the History of Russian Culture.” Submission of the superior (black)

*Cm. book: Tolstaya A.L. Father. Publishing house named after Chekhov.

the clergy of the supreme power and its representative, the chief prosecutor of the Synod, even intensified during the reign of Sabler, who continued the tradition of Pobedonostsev, says Miliukov. An extremely characteristic episode from the era of this subordination is the story of the blasphemous consecration of Rasputin’s protégé Monk Varnava as bishop, told by a direct participant, Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, in a private letter to Metropolitan Flavian dated August II, 1911: “The cane is already being wetted, and tomorrow the Sovereign will sign the existence of Archimandrite Varnava Bishop of Kargopol; his consecration in Moscow. How did this happen? That's how. Vl. K. Sabler stated that the Emperor wants to see him as a bishop. Rev. Dmitry said: “And then Rasputin will have to be consecrated.” I began to offer to explain the inconvenience of this desire; then V.K. took out his most humble resignation from his briefcase and explained that in the refusal of the Synod he would see his inability to be a mediator between the Sovereign and the Synod and would leave this matter to someone else. Then I, on behalf of the hierarchs, said: “To keep you in office, we will ordain the black boar as a bishop, but is it possible to send him to Biysk, ordain him in Tomsk, etc.” On the evening of August 8, we gathered secretly at Rev. Sergius and, having raised many sighs, decided to choose the lesser of two evils” (T. 2.4. 1. P. 183).

Thinking with sadness about the degraded state of that Church, which can be called “official”, we must remember that in Russia the real Christian Church was still preserved in the depths in the person of the ascetics revered by the people, who lived in the quiet of monasteries, and especially in the person of the elders, to whom Thousands of people from all strata of the Russian people came running for instruction and consolation. The artistic depiction of how the elder acts is known to the whole world from Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, where the image of the elder Zosima is given.

Information about the elders who really existed can be obtained from the book of Fr. Sergius Chetverikov “Optina Pustyn”*.

The clergy, subject to special spiritual censorship, could not develop the idea of ​​social Christianity, but secular people worked a lot on this problem. The Slavophiles Khomyakov and K. Aksakov were supporters of this idea, as far as it was possible to try to express it under the regime of Emperor Nicholas 1. The doctrine of social Christianity was developed in many ways in the works of Vl. Solovyov, especially in his “Justification of Good”, and in the works of S. N. Bulgakov, N. A. Berdyaev.

We must also not forget Russia's participation in attempts to apply the principles of Christianity to international relations. Let us recall Russia's participation in the Holy Alliance under Alexander 1 and the proposal emanating from Emperor Nicholas II at the end of the 19th century to establish an international tribunal to resolve disputes between states not by war, but by court. The most wonderful

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*Cm. See also: Karsavin Starzen. Starzen; SmoUtsch lgor. Leben und Lehre der

the idea of ​​a normal relationship between peoples was expressed by Vl. Solovyov: the commandment of Jesus Christ: “Love your neighbor as yourself” - he also applied it in relation to peoples to each other: “Love all other peoples as your own.”

It is said about the Russian intelligentsia of the second half of the 19th century that it was the most atheistic. This is not true: she was indeed the most non-church, but this does not mean that she was an atheist. The falling away from the Church was partly due to the false idea that the dogmatic content of Christianity was inconsistent with the scientific worldview, but to an even greater extent the cooling towards the Church was due to the absurd policy of the government, which constrained the free development of religious life. Let me give you one example from a wonderful book by Fr. Georgy Florovsky “Ways of Russian Theology”: “The brilliant book of Moscow professor M.D. Muretov against Renan was stopped by censorship, since in order to refute it it was necessary to present the refuted “false teaching”, which did not seem reliable. Renan continued to be read in secret, but the book against Renan was 15 years late. And the impression was created that the reason for the prohibitions was the powerlessness to defend ourselves” (421).

Educated people who have left the Church have lost the Christian idea of ​​the Kingdom of God, but many of them have retained the desire for perfect goodness and are tormented by the untruth of our sinful earthly life. This mood is found, for example, in the search for social justice. A characteristic phenomenon of Russian social life was what Mikhailovsky called the words “repentant nobleman” and Lavrov expressed the idea of ​​the need to pay the “debt to the people.” This mood of Russian people belonging to the privileged classes of society was well expressed by Dostoevsky: he said in “The Diary of a Writer” that he could never understand a system in which one tenth of the people enjoys many of the blessings of life, while nine-tenths are deprived of them.

Even among the big bourgeoisie, among wealthy industrialists and merchants, there were sentiments showing that they were ashamed of their wealth and, of course, would consider it blasphemous to call the right of property “sacred.” Among them were many philanthropists and donors of large sums to various public institutions. Let us recall, for example, such names as the Tretyakovs, Morozovs, Mamontov, Shanyavsky, Serebryakov, Shchukin, Ryabushinsky. There were also wealthy industrialists who gave money to revolutionaries who fought against capitalism.

N. I. Astrov, the last elected head of the city of Moscow, reports the description given by Kobylinsky-Ellis * of his brother Pavel Ivanovich Astrov, a member of the Moscow district

Who Kobylinsky-Ellis is can be found out from the memoirs of Andrei Bely.

court. The ideal of P.I. Astrov was the reconciliation of three principles - integral religiosity, publicity in the spirit of peaceful and humane evolution, creative culture. Walking with Andrei Bely and Kobylinsky, he once said: “Our ideal of the future is the face of a cultural righteous man, a saint of the future.”*

I will give an example of one such cultural righteous man. This was a public school teacher, Vyacheslav Yakovlevich Avramov, a landowner of the Kostroma province. He received a higher education at the Mining Institute, but decided to devote his life not to engineering, but to the education of the lower classes. He became a teacher at a public school in St. Petersburg near the Volkov cemetery. His Russian literacy lessons and even arithmetic lessons were something like an artistic performance. Teachers from all over St. Petersburg came to his school to learn the art of teaching. In his youth, he fell in love with a girl who wanted to get a higher education and go to Switzerland for this purpose. Her parents didn't give her permission. She did not respond to Vyacheslav Yakovlevich’s feelings, but entered into a fictitious marriage with him, as was often done in the sixties, and immediately went abroad. So Avramov remained a bachelor for the rest of his life. He sold his estate and used the proceeds to set up several zemstvo public schools in the Kostroma province.

Among the Russian revolutionaries who became atheists, instead of Christian religiosity, a mood appeared that can be called formal religiosity, namely a passionate, fanatical desire to realize a kind of Kingdom of God on earth, without God, on the basis of scientific knowledge. S. N. Bulgakov wrote a number of articles about this character of the Russian intelligentsia and republished them in the collection “Two Cities”. He says that government persecution caused in the revolutionary intelligentsia “a sense of martyrdom and confession,” and forced isolation from life developed “dreaminess, utopianism, and a generally insufficient sense of reality” (180). Being a deputy of the Second State Duma and observing its political activities, “I clearly saw,” writes Bulgakov, “how, in essence, far from politics, that is, the everyday prosaic work of repairing and lubricating the state mechanism, these people stand. This is not the psychology of politicians, not calculating realists and gradualists, no, this is the impatient exaltation of people waiting for the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth. New Jerusalem, and almost tomorrow. One involuntarily recalls the Anabaptists and many other communist sectarians of the Middle Ages, apocalyptics and chiliasts, who waited for the imminent advent of the thousand-year Kingdom of Christ and cleared the way for it with the sword, popular uprising, communist experiments, and peasant wars; I remember John of Leiden with the retinue of his prophets in Munster” (135).

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*Astrov N.I. Memoirs. P. 220.

Further, Bulgakov shows how a passionate thirst for the implementation of the Kingdom of God on earth without God and, therefore, without absolute good leads to the replacement of the idea of ​​the God-man with man-theology, and after this to the bestialization of man, or, more precisely, I would say, to the demonization of man that occurs in USSR.

Not only Russian writers, but also foreigners who have carefully observed Russian life, in most cases note the outstanding religiosity of the Russian people. I will refer to several foreigners and about those of them, whose opinions I will also report in the future, I will briefly tell you who they are and how they met the Russian people.

A remarkable study about Russia and the Russian people was carried out by the French scientist Leroy-Beaulieu (1842-1912). He visited Russia four times in 1872-1881. and published his work in three large volumes “L" Empire des Tsars et les Russes” (1881-1889). The Russian masses, he says, have not lost a sense of connection “with the inhabitants of the invisible world” (Vol. III. Book I. Chapter II. P. 11). Among the simple Russian people, he finds a peculiar combination of realism and mysticism, veneration of the cross, recognition of the value of suffering and repentance (45). He draws attention to the fact that the literary works of even non-believing Russians have a religious Christian character The originality of Russia, Leroy-Beaulieu thinks, can manifest itself in the implementation of the evangelical spirit, namely in the application of the ethics of Christ in public life no less than in private life (Book III. Chapter XI. P. 568).

Englishman Stephen Graham traveled to Russia many times; he became acquainted with all layers of Russian society, especially with the peasants. Having mastered the Russian language well, dressing simply in order to be mistaken in the crowd for a Russian worker, he walked many hundreds of kilometers and observed Russian life from Arkhangelsk to Vladikavkaz. Together with pilgrims, he went to worship saints in monasteries, and traveled on a Russian steamship with pilgrims to Palestine. Traveling on foot in the north of Russia near the White Sea, he spent the night in peasant huts *.

In the book “The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary” Graham says that with the English the conversation ends with a conversation about sports, with a Frenchman - with a conversation about a woman, with a Russian intellectual - with a conversation about Russia, and with a peasant - with a conversation about God and religion (54, 72) . Russians can talk about religion for six hours straight. The Russian idea is a Christian idea; in the foreground in it is love for the suffering, pity, attention to the individual personality (93-96).

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*I will indicate the following books written by him about Russia and the Russian people: “Undiscovered Russia”, 1912; “With the Russian pilgrims to Jerusalem”, 1913; "Changing Russia", 1913; “The way of Martha and the way of Mary”, 1915; "Russia and the world", 1915; "Russia in 1916", 1917.

The Russian considers our mortal life not to be true life and material force not to be real force (III). In other words, Graham wants to say that Russian Christianity is focused on the idea of ​​​​the Kingdom of God and absolute perfection in it. The Eastern Church, he says, follows the path of Mary. The Russian is surrounded in the Church by “witnesses of the truth,” the faces of saints looking at him from icons; the light of Transfiguration emanates from them; entering the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow, a person enters “another world” (201-203).

In the book “Unknown Russia” Graham speaks with admiration about the lamp glowing in front of the icon, radiating peace, that such a lamp in front of the icon can be seen everywhere in Russia, both at the station and in the bathhouse; therefore, the nearness of God is felt everywhere. “I love Russia,” he says. “For me, in a sense, it is something more than my home country. Sometimes it seems to me that I am the lucky prince who found Sleeping Beauty" (7).

The Englishman Maurice Baring (1874-1945), poet and journalist, met in Copenhagen the family of the Russian envoy Count Benckendorff, whose wife was a highly cultured Russian intellectual. Since 1901, he often traveled to their Sosnovka estate in the Tambov province. During the Russo-Japanese War he was in Manchuria under the Russian army as a correspondent for the Morning Post newspaper. In 1905-1906 he observed the Russian revolution*.

Living on the estate and being with the army, Baring observed the religiosity of the Russian people, fasting, prayer services, candles in front of icons, the rise of spirit during the Easter holiday, but among the educated Russian people, he says, there are more atheists than in Western Europe (Russian people. With 72). In the book “The Main Origins of Russia” he says that the Russian peasant is deeply religious, sees God in all things and considers a person who does not believe in God to be abnormal and stupid (p. 46). Pushkin’s poem “I have outlived my desires, I have fallen out of love with my dreams; All that remains for me is suffering, The fruits of the emptiness of the heart.” Baring translated it perfectly, conveying not only its content, but also the music of the verse.

The Englishman Harold Williams, the husband of Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova, thanks to his connection with her highly cultured family and life on her parents’ estate on the banks of the Volkhov, became well acquainted with the character and life of Russian peasants. In his book “Russia of the Russians” he talks about the high religiosity of the Russian people. The people, he says, not only receive aesthetic emotions from worship, but also acquire religious ones.

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*Baring wrote many books about Russia. I will mention the following from them: “With the Russians in Manchueria”, 1905; “A year in Russia”, 1907; “The mainspring of Russia”, 1914; “The Russian people”, 1911. Ethel Smith wrote a book about Baring’s life and work: Hon. Maurice Baring. 1938.

convictions thanks to the Gospel read in church, as well as drawing them from the lives of saints and legends. Williams knows that since the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian intelligentsia has awakened an interest in religion and began to return to the Church.

Professor Bernard Pares, former director of the school of Slavic studies at the University of London and editor of the Slavonic Review magazine, traveled to Russia many times since 1890, lived not only in cities, but also in the countryside, for example, on the Mashuk estate of Ivan Ilyich Petrunkevich in Novotorzhsky district of Tver province. In the book “Russia” he speaks lovingly about the idealism of the Russian people (25).

R. Wright in the book “The Russians” (1917) says that religion is the basis of Russian life, its pulse: concern not for the present, but for heavenly life (11).

Sorbonne professor Jules Legras wrote the book “L"ame russe” (1934). In it he talks about the freedom of Russians to go or not to go to church, that Russians are the least disciplined people in Europe, but this people is distinguished by a vague attraction to the highest and in its own way this is a deep religiosity, more mystical than in France. Orthodox worship, he says, makes a deep impression (167-179).

The German K. Onasch in his book “Geist und Geschichte der Russischen Ostkirche” (1947) points out that the famous Protestant theologian Adolf Harnack misunderstood the Orthodox Church, considering belief in the sacraments and veneration of icons to be a manifestation of barbarism (8). The Russian understanding of life and religiosity, says Onash, is distinguished by remarkable integrity (7): it is based on a passion for absolute values ​​and the transformation of the world (34); Russian icons testify to the overcoming of earthly existence (32).

Hans von Eckardt, in his book “Russisches Christentum” (1947), considers a characteristic feature of Russian religiosity to be the desire to free oneself from temporary material existence and the attraction to a transformed life in the Kingdom of God (14 et seq.). The examples given are enough to show that even foreigners who are well acquainted with Russia note the deep religiosity of the Russian people. Considering the main property of the Russian people to be Christian religiosity and the associated search for absolute good, which can only be realized in the Kingdom of God, in the following chapters I will try to explain some other properties of the Russian people in connection with this essential feature of their character.

Department of Philosophy

Essay

on the topic of:

Completed by: student gr. Bi-21

Yoshkar-Ola
2005
Content
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………3
CHAPTER 1. Study of the national character of the people according to their fairy tales and epics (based on the works of B.P. Vysheslavtsev)………….. 8
CHAPTER 2. Main features of the Russian national character (according to the works of N.O. Lossky)………………. 13
CHAPTER 3. The role of national character in the destinies of Russia (according to the works of N.A. Berdyaev)………………… 18
CONCLUSION…………….25
REFERENCES 26

INTRODUCTION
Since ancient times, from its very formation, Russia has established itself as an unusual country, unlike others, and therefore incomprehensible and at the same time extremely attractive.

Tyutchev once said about Russia:
“You can’t understand Russia with your mind,
The general arshin cannot be measured:
She will become special -
You can only believe in Russia.”

These lines are certainly relevant to this day. Russia is a country that does not fall under any standards, patterns or laws of logic. But Russia, its character, is the character of its people, a complex and very contradictory character.
Modern researchers are increasingly paying attention to the role of national character, which largely determines the development trajectories of society as a whole. The problem of national character is quite complex, and its study requires an integrated approach from historians, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, ethnographers, psychologists, and art historians.
The national character of any nation is an integral system with its inherent hierarchy of qualities, traits that dominate in motives, way of thinking and acting, in culture, and behavioral stereotypes characteristic of a given nation. The national character is very stable. The continuity of its qualities and traits is ensured by social means of transmitting socio-historical experience across generations. It cannot be “corrected” by administrative measures, but at the same time, being determined by the social and natural environment, it is subject to certain changes. A society with an underdeveloped and strong national character is doomed to defeat and setbacks, be it a severe economic crisis or external aggression.
For a long time now, the Russian national character, its unusualness and incomprehensibility, has aroused keen interest and the desire to understand, explain certain of its characteristic features, and find the roots of the tragic circumstances accompanying the history of Russia. However, it seems that the Russian people still cannot understand themselves, explain or at least justify their behavior in a given situation, although they admit to some illogicality and indirectness of behavior, as evidenced by endless tales and anecdotes that begin with the words: “The tsar caught a Russian, a German and a Chinese...”
Today the Russian people are experiencing a turning point in their history. One of the irreparable losses that befell Russia in the 20th century is associated with the decline of national self-awareness and the loss of age-old spiritual values. The awakening of Russia, of course, must begin with the spiritual revival of its people, i.e. with the attempt of the Russian people to understand themselves, to resurrect their best qualities and eradicate their shortcomings. To do this, I think, it is worth turning to the works of Russian philosophers who, at one time, were engaged in the study of the Russian national character, its negative and positive features.
Among all the works of N. O. Lossky, the book “The Character of the Russian People” occupies a special place. These are my own thoughts and conclusions, as well as a consistent and scrupulous study of the works of my predecessors and contemporaries on this issue. In his work, Lossky means “the soul of individual Russian people, and not the soul of the Russian nation as a whole, since... the character of the soul of a social whole can sometimes or in some respects be profoundly different from the character of the people included in it” (Lossky N. O “On Russian character.” M., 1990. P. 2).
However, some character properties of individuals included in the social whole also belong to this whole, therefore N. O. Lossky considers the properties of Russian character in relation not only to an individual person, but also to Russia as a whole.
The main character trait of the Russian people is their religiosity and the associated search for absolute good, which is feasible only in the Kingdom of God. In the soul of a Russian person there is a force that attracts him to good and condemns evil - the voice of conscience. Even with the loss of the Christian idea of ​​the Kingdom of God, having become an atheist, Russian people retain the desire for perfect goodness (the search for social justice by Russian revolutionaries, etc.). The most important expression of the nature of the religiosity of the Russian people is realized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Orthodoxy is focused on eschatology, on the desire for the Kingdom of God, for super-earthly absolute good. However, the official church in Russia is in a degraded state, being one of the forms of administration. The real Christian church is represented by the elders and ascetics revered by the people.
Lossky traces the ability of the Russian people to higher forms of experience (religious, moral experience, perception of someone else's spiritual life, intellectual intuition), starting with religious experience. Orthodox religiosity is in close connection with mystical religious experience and has a mystical contemplative character, which helps to realize the experience of closeness to God.
The high development of moral experience is manifested in a special interest in distinguishing between good and evil, as well as in a sensitive distinction between the admixtures of evil in good. “Despite the fact that a Russian person often sins, he is always aware that he has committed a bad act and repents of it.”
A particularly valuable quality of a Russian person is a sensitive perception of someone else’s spiritual mood. Hence - live individual communication even among unfamiliar people.
Religiosity, associated with the search for absolute good, makes a person think about the meaning of life. Russian people tend to have a “religious-emotional” understanding of life. This interest inevitably leads to philosophizing and attempts to build a holistic worldview. At the center of a philosophically developed worldview should be metaphysics, for the successful implementation of which it is necessary to have “...the ability to speculate, i.e. intellectual intuition, meaning the ideal foundations of the world, meaning by the word ideal ideas in the sense of Plato’s philosophy.” The search for absolute goodness and the meaning of life was expressed in Russian culture in the fact that religious philosophy occupies the most important place in the history of Russian thought.
The aesthetic experience necessary for artistic creativity is also highly developed among the Russian people.
The second primary property of the Russian character, along with religiosity, is powerful willpower. It is with this that the passion of the Russian person is connected, the product of which is maximalism, extremism and fanatical intolerance. The higher the value, the stronger feelings and activity it evokes in people with a strong will. Examples of this are the self-immolation of thousands of Old Believers, the history of the Russian revolutionary movement. Even minor values, such as the accumulation of property, can become the subject of an all-consuming passion.
Along with passion and willpower, one can also find “Oblomovism”, laziness, and passivity in the Russian character. They are found in all classes and are in many cases the reverse side of such high qualities of the Russian character as the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of reality. The idea is often very valuable, but sensitivity to the shortcomings of one’s own and others’ activities causes a chill in the Russian person towards the work he has begun.
Among the primary properties of the Russian people is the love of freedom, as well as its highest manifestation - freedom of spirit. This property is associated with the search for absolute good. In the real world it does not exist, therefore, each person makes an independent choice for himself of the best method of action, his own path. In public life, the love of freedom among Russians is expressed in a tendency towards anarchy, in repulsion from the state.
Freedom of spirit, broad nature, the search for perfect goodness and the associated test of values ​​by thought and experience led to the fact that the Russian people developed the most diverse, and sometimes opposite, forms and methods of behavior (despotism of the state and anarchy; freedom, cruelty and kindness , humanity; individualism, heightened consciousness of personality and impersonal collectivism, etc.). The search for absolute good has developed among the Russian people a recognition of the high value of each individual. This is where the increased interest in social justice comes from.
Kindness is another primary basic property of the Russian people. Thanks to religiosity and the search for absolute good, it is maintained and deepened. Sensitivity to goodness is combined in Russian people with a satirical direction of mind, with a tendency to criticize everything, and it is kindness, along with a vivid imagination, that often becomes the cause of lies.
Despite the fact that kindness is the predominant character trait of a Russian person, there are quite a few manifestations of cruelty in his life (cruelty as a means of education, as a means of intimidating criminals, etc.) A very peculiar phenomenon is the cruelty of government authorities. Representatives of government authorities very harshly and inexorably demand the implementation of laws. However, such behavior is not a manifestation of their personal cruelty. The state itself acts through the feelings and will of this person, so the individual properties of the individual recede into the background.
The search for absolute goodness is the source of varied experiences and varied abilities. Hence - the rich development of the spirit and an abundance of talents. The shrewd practical mind of the Russian man manifested itself in the very successful development of science and technical inventions, and the love of beauty and the gift of creative imagination became factors contributing to the high development of Russian art. Russian fiction, music, theater, ballet, painting, and architecture are known all over the world. Unfortunately, the healthy development of Russian spiritual life in Russia was interrupted, according to Lossky, by the Bolshevik revolution.
Since the time of the Pskov monk Philotheus, Russian national messianism received its vivid expression. The Russian people are characterized by a search for good for all humanity; the 19th century in the history of Russia is marked by a break from the order of life of the “fathers,” the loss of religion and materialism. All this led to nihilism - the flip side of the good qualities of the Russian people. Having become a materialist, the Russian intellectual set himself the goal of creating a paradise on earth according to his own plan, even if it had to be done by force. Among workers and peasants, nihilism was expressed in hooliganism and mischief.
There are many shortcomings in the Russian character that can lead to disruption (sometimes very dangerous) of social life: maximalism, extremism, lack of character development, lack of discipline, daring testing of values, anarchism, excessive criticism. However, it should be noted that all these negative traits are secondary, they are only the flip side of the main primary properties of the Russian character.

CHAPTER 1. Study of the national character of the people according to their fairy tales and epics (based on the works of B.P. Vysheslavtsev);
In his report “Russian National Character”, read by B.P. Vysheslavtsev in 1923 at a conference in Rome, the author writes that we are interesting, but incomprehensible to the West and, perhaps, that is why we are especially interesting because we are incomprehensible. We don’t fully understand ourselves, and perhaps even the incomprehensibility and irrationality of our actions and decisions constitute a certain trait of our character.

“The character of a people,” Vysheslavtsev believes, “its main features are laid down at an unconscious level, in the area of ​​the subconscious.” This applies especially to the Russian people. The area of ​​the subconscious in the soul of the Russian person occupies an exceptional place.
How to penetrate into the unconscious of our spirit? “Freud,” writes Vysheslavtsev, “thinks that it is revealed in dreams. To understand the soul of a people, it is necessary, therefore, to penetrate into their dreams. But the dreams of a people are their epics, their fairy tales, their poetry...”
Further, giving examples of Russian fairy tales and analyzing them, Vysheslavtsev determines the most characteristic features, fears and dreams of the Russian people.
This is how the Russian fairy tale shows us what the Russian people are afraid of: they are afraid of poverty, they are even more afraid of work, but most of all they are afraid of “grief”, which somehow terribly appears to them, as if at their own invitation, becomes attached to them and does not lag behind . “It is also remarkable that the “grief” here sits in the person himself: this is not the external fate of the Greeks, based on ignorance, on delusion, it is one’s own will, or rather some kind of own lack of will.” But there is another fear in the fairy tales of the Russian people, a fear more sublime than the fear of deprivation, labor and even “grief” - this is the fear of a broken dream, the fear of falling from heaven.
What are the unconscious dreams of the Russian soul hidden in the Russian epic? “What’s remarkable,” notes Vysheslavtsev, “is that the whole gamut of desires is unfolded in the Russian fairy tale - from the most sublime to the lowest. We will find in it both the most cherished dreams of Russian idealism and the basest everyday “economic materialism.” This is the well-known dream of the Russian people about such a “new kingdom”, where distribution will be based on the principle “to each according to his needs”, where you can eat and drink, where there is a “baked bull”, where there are milk rivers and jelly banks. And the main thing is that you can do nothing there and be lazy. Such, for example, is the well-known fairy tale about the lazy Emel, who appears by no means as a negative character.
In the same vein, Vysheslavtsev analyzes here the fairy tale “about cunning science”, in which “.. you don’t have to work, eat sweetly and walk cleanly..”. There are a number of fairy tales in which “cunning science” turns out to be nothing more than the art of theft. In this case, happiness usually accompanies the lazy and the thief.
Vysheslavtsev rightly noted the fact that fairy tales are merciless: they expose everything that lives in the subconscious soul of the people, and, moreover, in the collective soul, which includes its worst sons. The tale reveals everything that is carefully hidden in life, in its official piety and in its official ideology.
All these funny fairy-tale dreams of the Russian people turned out to be prophetic and prophetic. So, for example, the “cunning science” of “easy bread” turned out to be Marx’s “scientific socialism”. This science taught the people that theft is not theft, but “expropriation of expropriators.” “Cunning science” explained how to get into that kingdom where you can eat and drink, where you can lie on the stove and everything will be done “according to the pike’s command”: you can safely jump there, to put it vulgarly; and in the language of strict science: “to make a leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.”
True, all this reality, in turn, turned out to be a dream and dissipated like a dream; but the Russian fairy tale foresees this too. After all, not only folk stupidity lives in it, but also folk wisdom.
“Many prophecies can be found in our fairy tales, but there is one epic in our epic that has positive clairvoyance,” writes Vysheslavtsev, “this is the epic about Ilya Muromets and his quarrel with Prince Vladimir.” Ilya Muromets, the beloved national hero, comes from a peasant family and embodies the main support and strength of the Russian land. At the same time, he is the main and constant support of the throne and the church.
“Once Prince Vladimir arranged an “honorable feast” for “princes, boyars, Russian heroes,” “but forgot to call the old Cossack Ilya Muromets.” Ilya, of course, was terribly offended. “He pulled a tight bow, put in a red-hot arrow” and began to shoot at “God’s churches, and at wonderful crosses, at those gilded domes.”
“Here is the whole picture of the Russian revolution, which the ancient epic saw in a prophetic dream. Ilya Muromets, the personification of peasant Rus', organized, together with the most disgusting mob, with drunkards and slackers, a real destruction of the church and state; suddenly he began to destroy everything that he recognized as sacred and that he defended all his life.”
Of course, the entire Russian character is clearly visible in this epic: “there was injustice, but the reaction to it was completely unexpected and spontaneous. This is not a Western European revolution; with its acquisition of rights and the struggle for a new system of life, this is spontaneous nihilism, instantly destroying everything that the people’s soul worshiped, and, moreover, realizing its crime. This is not the restoration of violated justice in the world, it is the rejection of a world in which such injustice exists.”
However, in his report, Vysheslavtsev tells the epic to the end and rightly notes that it ends more happily than the Russian revolution ended. “Vladimir, seeing the “pogrom,” was frightened and realized “that trouble was inevitable.” He arranged a new feast especially for the “old Cossack Ilya Muromets.” But the difficult task was to invite him; it was clear that he would not go now. Then they equipped Dobrynya Nikitich, a Russian noble gentleman who generally carried out diplomatic assignments, as an ambassador. Only he managed to persuade Ilya. And so Ilya, who was now seated in the best place and began to be treated to wine, tells Vladimir that he would not have come, of course, if not for Dobrynya, his “said brother.”
The Russian monarchy did not understand this prophetic warning, expressed quite clearly in the Russian epic, and thereby doomed itself to inevitable collapse.
Such is the wisdom of the epic - the subconscious soul of the people expresses in it what it secretly desires or what it fears. In these subconscious forces lies the entire past and future.
Those images and symbols that are given above are by no means, however, the pinnacle of folk art, the limit of the flight of fantasy.
Further, Vysheslavtsev writes that the flight of fantasy of the Russian people is always directed to “another kingdom,” to “another state.” He leaves far below everything that is daily, everyday, but also all the dreams of satiety, and all the utopias of the fat sky. The fairy tale laughs at them, this is not where its flight is directed, this is not its best dream. “Another country” - infinitely distant beckons the hero of a Russian fairy tale - Ivan Tsarevich. But why is he flying there? He is looking for a bride, “beloved beauty,” and according to other fairy tales, “Vasilisa the Wise.” This is the best dream of a Russian fairy tale. It is said about this bride: “When she laughs, there will be pink flowers, and when she cries, there will be pearls.” It is difficult to find, difficult to kidnap this bride, and at the same time it is a matter of life and death.
What is his beloved Vasilisa the Wise? She is transcendental beauty and wisdom, otherworldly, but strangely connected with the beauty of the created world. All creation obeys her: at her command, creeping ants thresh countless stacks, flying bees sculpt a church out of wax, people build golden bridges and magnificent palaces. She is connected with the soul of nature, and she teaches people how to build life, how to create beauty. While the Tsarevich is with her, there are no difficulties for him in life, Vasilisa the Wise helps him out of every trouble. There is only one real problem: if he forgets his bride. This, judging by the fairy tales, is the main and most beautiful dream of the Russian people.

CHAPTER 2. Main features of the Russian national character (according to the works of N.O. Lossky).
Of course, an invaluable contribution to the study of Russian national character was made by the book of the Russian philosopher N.O. Lossky “The Character of the Russian People”. In his book, Lossky gives the following list of the main features inherent in the Russian national character.
Religiosity of the Russian people. Lossky considers the main and deepest feature of the Russian people to be their religiosity and the associated search for absolute truth... Russian people, in his opinion, have a sensitive distinction between good and evil; he vigilantly notices the imperfections of all our actions, morals and institutions, never being satisfied with them and never ceasing to seek perfect good.
“Foreigners who have carefully observed Russian life, in most cases note the outstanding religiosity of the Russian people... Russians can talk about religion for six hours straight. The Russian idea is a Christian idea; in the foreground in it is love for the suffering, pity, attention to the individual personality...”
In this regard, “Christianity,” as Lossky writes, “fell on fertile soil in Russia”: already in Kievan Rus before the Mongol yoke, it was adopted in its true essence precisely as a religion of love. And following the logic of the development of events, the religiosity of the Russian people, it would seem, should have been expressed in the preaching of social Christianity, i.e. the teaching that the principles of Christianity should be implemented not only in personal individual relationships, but also in legislation and in the organization of public and government institutions.
However, despite the fact that in the 19th century the Orthodox clergy tried to present this idea in literature, the government systematically suppressed such aspirations and helped to strengthen the idea that the purpose of religious life was only concern for the personal salvation of the soul.
But, despite the deliberate belittling of the importance of the Church, in Russia the real Christian Church was still preserved in the depths in the person of the ascetics revered by the people, who lived in the quiet of monasteries, and especially in the person of the “elders”, to whom they always came for instruction and consolation.
Very interesting is Lossky’s observation that among the Russian revolutionaries who became atheists, the place of Christian religiosity was taken by a mood that can be called formal religiosity - this is a passionate, fanatical desire to realize a kind of Kingdom of God on earth without God, on the basis of scientific knowledge.
The ability of the Russian people to higher forms of experience. Lossky sees the high development of moral experience in the fact that all layers of the Russian people show a special interest in distinguishing between good and evil and sensitively distinguish between the admixtures of evil and good.
One of the particularly valuable properties of the Russian people is their sensitive perception of other people's states of mind. This results in live communication between even unfamiliar people.
“...The Russian people have highly developed individual personal and family communication. In Russia there is no excessive replacement of individual relationships with social ones, there is no personal and family isolationism. Therefore, even a foreigner, having arrived in Russia, feels: “I am not alone here” (of course, I am talking about normal Russia, and not about life under the Bolshevik regime). Perhaps, these properties are the main source of recognition of the charm of the Russian people, so often expressed by foreigners who know Russia well...”
Such a feature of the Russian national character as the search for the meaning of life and the foundations of existence is excellently depicted in Russian literature, in particular, in the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others.
Feeling and will. Among the primary basic properties of the Russian people, according to Lossky, is powerful willpower. Passion is a combination of strong feelings and willpower directed towards a loved or hated value. Naturally, the higher the value, the stronger feelings and energetic activity it evokes in people with a strong will. This explains the passion of the Russian people, manifested in political life, and even greater passion in religious life. Maximalism, extremism and fanatical intolerance are the products of this passion.
To prove his rightness, Lossky cites such an example of the mass manifestation of Russian passion for fanatical intolerance as the history of Old Believers. A stunning manifestation of religious passions was the self-immolation of many thousands of Old Believers.
The Russian revolutionary movement is also, according to Lossky, “replete with examples of political passion and powerful willpower...” “The unbending will and extreme fanaticism of Lenin, together with the Bolsheviks led by him, created a totalitarian state in such an excessive form that has never been seen, and God willing, not there will be more on earth.”
Russian maximalism and extremism in its extreme form are expressed in the poem by A.K. Tolstoy:
“If you love, you are so crazy,
If you threaten, it’s not a joke,
If you scold, so rashly,
If you chop, it’s off the shoulder!
If you argue, it’s too bold,
If you punish, that's the point,
If you ask, do it with all your heart,
If there’s a feast, then there’s a feast!”
Passion and powerful willpower can be considered among the basic properties of the Russian people. But Lossky also does not deny that among the Russian people there is also the familiar “Oblomovism,” that laziness and passivity that is excellently depicted by Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov.” Here he shares the position of Dobrolyubov, who explains the nature of “Oblomovism” this way: “...Russian people are characterized by a desire for an absolutely perfect kingdom of being and at the same time excessive sensitivity to any shortcomings of their own and others’ activities. From here arises a cooling towards the work begun and an aversion to continuing it; the idea and general outline of it are often very valuable, but its incompleteness and therefore inevitable imperfections repel the Russian person, and he is lazy to continue finishing the little things. Thus, Oblomovism is in many cases the flip side of the high qualities of the Russian person - the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of our reality ... "
However, the willpower of the Russian people, as Lossky writes, is also revealed in the fact that a Russian person, having noticed any shortcoming of his and morally condemning it, obeying a sense of duty, overcomes it and develops a quality that is completely opposite to it.
The Russian people have many shortcomings, but the strength of their will in the fight against them is capable of overcoming them.
-Love of freedom. Among the primary properties of the Russian people, along with religiosity, the search for absolute good and willpower, Lossky considers the love of freedom and its highest expression - freedom of spirit. “... Someone who has freedom of spirit is inclined to put every value to the test, not only with thought , but even without experience... Due to the free search for truth, it is difficult for Russian people to come to terms with each other... Therefore, in public life, Russians’ love of freedom is expressed in a tendency towards anarchy, in repulsion from the state.”
One of the reasons, according to Lossky, why Russia has developed an absolute monarchy, sometimes bordering on despotism, is that it is difficult to govern a people with anarchic inclinations. Such people make excessive demands on the state.
-Kindness. They sometimes say that the Russian people have a feminine nature. This, according to Lossky, is incorrect; he, unlike Berdyaev, adheres to a different point of view: the Russian people, he writes, especially the Great Russian branch of it, the people who created a great state in harsh historical conditions, are extremely courageous; but what is especially remarkable about him is the combination of masculine nature with feminine softness. Anyone who lived in a village and interacted with peasants will probably have memories of this wonderful combination of courage and gentleness come to mind.
The kindness of the Russian people in all layers of them is expressed in the absence of rancor. Often a Russian person, being passionate and prone to maximalism, experiences a strong feeling of repulsion from another person, however, when meeting him, if specific communication is necessary, his heart softens and he somehow involuntarily begins to show his spiritual softness towards him, even sometimes condemning himself for this if he believes that the person in question does not deserve to be treated kindly.
“Life according to the heart” creates openness in the soul of a Russian person and ease of communication with people, simplicity of communication, without conventions, without external instilled politeness, but with those virtues of politeness that arise from sensitive natural delicacy...
However, as Lossky rightly notes, positive qualities often have negative sides. The kindness of a Russian person sometimes prompts him to lie due to the reluctance to offend his interlocutor, due to the desire for peace and good relations with people at all costs.
-Russian woman. In his book, Lossky especially notes Russian women and quotes Schubart, who writes about a Russian woman like this: “She shares with an Englishwoman an inclination towards freedom and independence, without turning into a blue stocking. What she has in common with the French woman is spiritual mobility without pretensions to profundity; she has... the taste of a Frenchwoman, the same understanding of beauty and grace, but without becoming a victim of a vain predilection for outfits. She possesses the virtues of a German housewife without always fuming over kitchen utensils; she has the maternal qualities of an Italian, without coarsening them to the abundance of monkey love...”
-Cruelty. Kindness is the predominant feature of the Russian people. But at the same time, Lossky does not deny that there are also many manifestations of cruelty in Russian life. There are many types of cruelty and some of them can be found, paradoxically, even in the behavior of people who are not at all evil by nature.
Lossky explains many of the negative aspects of the behavior of the peasants by their extreme poverty, the many insults and oppressions they experience and lead them to extreme embitterment... He considered the fact that in peasant life, husbands sometimes severely beat their wives, most often while drunk, to be especially outrageous...
Until the last quarter of the 19th century, the family life of merchants, townspeople and peasants was patriarchal. The despotism of the head of the family was often expressed in actions close to cruelty.
However, the strength of the Russian people, as mentioned above, is expressed in the fact that having noticed some shortcoming in itself and condemning it, Russian society begins a decisive struggle against it and achieves success. According to N. Lossky, it is precisely thanks to this quality that the structure of family life in Russian society was freed from despotism and acquired the character of a kind of democratic republic.
etc.................

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Department of Philosophy

Essay

on the topic of:

" BUT. Lossky about the character of the Russian people”

Completed by: student gr. Bi-21

Checked:

Yoshkar-Ola

2005

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………… 3

CHAPTER 1. Study of the national character of the people according to their fairy tales and epics (based on the works of B.P. Vysheslavtsev)………….. 8

CHAPTER 2. Main features of the Russian national character (according to the works of N.O. Lossky)………………. 13

CHAPTER 3. The role of national character in the destinies of Russia (according to the works of N.A. Berdyaev)………………… 18

CONCLUSION……………. 25

LIST OF REFERENCES USED26

INTRODUCTION

Since ancient times, from its very formation, Russia has established itself as an unusual country, unlike others, and therefore incomprehensible and at the same time extremely attractive.
Tyutchev once said about Russia:

“ You can't understand Russia with your mind,

The general arshin cannot be measured:

She will become special -

You can only believe in Russia.”
These lines are certainly relevant to this day. Russia is a country that does not fall under any standards, patterns or laws of logic. But Russia, its character, is the character of its people, a complex and very contradictory character.

Modern researchers are increasingly paying attention to the role of national character, which largely determines the development trajectories of society as a whole. The problem of national character is quite complex, and its study requires an integrated approach from historians, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, ethnographers, psychologists, and art historians.

The national character of any nation is an integral system with its inherent hierarchy of qualities, traits that dominate in motives, way of thinking and acting, in culture, and behavioral stereotypes characteristic of a given nation. The national character is very stable. The continuity of its qualities and traits is ensured by social means of transmitting socio-historical experience across generations. It cannot be “corrected” by administrative measures, but at the same time, being determined by the social and natural environment, it is subject to certain changes. A society with an underdeveloped and strong national character is doomed to defeat and setbacks, be it a severe economic crisis or external aggression.

For a long time now, the Russian national character, its unusualness and incomprehensibility, has aroused keen interest and the desire to understand, explain certain of its characteristic features, and find the roots of the tragic circumstances accompanying the history of Russia. However, it seems that the Russian people still cannot understand themselves, explain or at least justify their behavior in a given situation, although they admit to some illogicality and indirectness of behavior, as evidenced by endless tales and anecdotes that begin with the words: “The tsar caught a Russian, a German and a Chinese...”

Today, the Russian people are experiencing a turning point in their history. One of the irreparable losses that befell Russia in the 20th century is associated with the decline of national self-awareness and the loss of age-old spiritual values. The awakening of Russia, of course, must begin with the spiritual revival of its people, i.e. with the attempt of the Russian people to understand themselves, to resurrect their best qualities and eradicate their shortcomings. To do this, I think, it is worth turning to the works of Russian philosophers who, at one time, were engaged in the study of the Russian national character, its negative and positive features.

Among all the works of N. O. Lossky, the book “The Character of the Russian People” occupies a special place. These are my own thoughts and conclusions, as well as a consistent and scrupulous study of the works of my predecessors and contemporaries on this issue. In his work, Lossky means “the soul of individual Russian people, and not the soul of the Russian nation as a whole, since... the character of the soul of a social whole can sometimes or in some respects be profoundly different from the character of the people included in it” (Lossky N. O “On Russian character.” M., 1990. P. 2).

However, some character properties of individuals included in the social whole also belong to this whole, therefore N. O. Lossky considers the properties of Russian character in relation not only to an individual person, but also to Russia as a whole.

The main character trait of the Russian people is their religiosity and the associated search for absolute good, which is feasible only in the Kingdom of God. In the soul of a Russian person there is a force that attracts him to good and condemns evil - the voice of conscience. Even with the loss of the Christian idea of ​​the Kingdom of God, having become an atheist, Russian people retain the desire for perfect goodness (the search for social justice by Russian revolutionaries, etc.). The most important expression of the nature of the religiosity of the Russian people is realized in the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Orthodoxy is focused on eschatology, on the desire for the Kingdom of God, for super-earthly absolute good. However, the official church in Russia is in a degraded state, being one of the forms of administration. The real Christian church is represented by the elders and ascetics revered by the people.

Lossky traces the ability of the Russian people to higher forms of experience (religious, moral experience, perception of someone else's spiritual life, intellectual intuition), starting with religious experience. Orthodox religiosity is in close connection with mystical religious experience and has a mystical contemplative character, which helps to realize the experience of closeness to God.

The high development of moral experience is manifested in a special interest in distinguishing between good and evil, as well as in a sensitive distinction between the admixtures of evil in good. “Despite the fact that a Russian person often sins, he is always aware that he has committed a bad act and repents of it.”

A particularly valuable quality of a Russian person is a sensitive perception of someone else’s spiritual mood. Hence - live individual communication even among unfamiliar people.

Religiosity, associated with the search for absolute good, makes a person think about the meaning of life. It is typical for Russian people“ religious - emotional” understanding life. This interest inevitably leads to philosophizing and attempts to build a holistic worldview. At the center of a philosophically developed worldview should be metaphysics, for the successful implementation of which it is necessary to have “...the ability to speculate, i.e. intellectual intuition, meaning the ideal foundations of the world, meaning by the word ideal ideas in the sense of Plato’s philosophy.” The search for absolute goodness and the meaning of life was expressed in Russian culture in the fact that religious philosophy occupies the most important place in the history of Russian thought.

The aesthetic experience necessary for artistic creativity is also highly developed among the Russian people.

The second primary property of the Russian character, along with religiosity, is powerful willpower. It is with this that the passion of the Russian person is connected, the product of which is maximalism, extremism and fanatical intolerance. The higher the value, the stronger feelings and activity it evokes in people with a strong will. Examples of this are the self-immolation of thousands of Old Believers, the history of the Russian revolutionary movement. Even minor values, such as the accumulation of property, can become the subject of an all-consuming passion.

Along with passion and willpower, one can also find “Oblomovism”, laziness, and passivity in the Russian character. They are found in all classes and are in many cases the reverse side of such high qualities of the Russian character as the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of reality. The idea is often very valuable, but sensitivity to the shortcomings of one’s own and others’ activities causes a chill in the Russian person towards the work he has begun.

Among the primary properties of the Russian people is the love of freedom, as well as its highest manifestation - freedom of spirit. This property is associated with the search for absolute good. In the real world it does not exist, therefore, each person makes an independent choice for himself of the best method of action, his own path. In public life, the love of freedom among Russians is expressed in a tendency towards anarchy, in repulsion from the state.

Freedom of spirit, broad nature, the search for perfect goodness and the associated test of values ​​by thought and experience led to the fact that the Russian people developed the most diverse, and sometimes opposite, forms and methods of behavior (despotism of the state and anarchy; freedom, cruelty and kindness , humanity; individualism, heightened consciousness of personality and impersonal collectivism, etc.). The search for absolute good has developed among the Russian people a recognition of the high value of each individual. This is where the increased interest in social justice comes from.

Kindness is another primary basic property of the Russian people. Thanks to religiosity and the search for absolute good, it is maintained and deepened. Sensitivity to goodness is combined in Russian people with a satirical direction of mind, with a tendency to criticize everything, and it is kindness, along with a vivid imagination, that often becomes the cause of lies.

Despite the fact that kindness is the predominant character trait of a Russian person, there are quite a few manifestations of cruelty in his life (cruelty as a means of education, as a means of intimidating criminals, etc.) A very peculiar phenomenon is the cruelty of government authorities. Representatives of government authorities very harshly and inexorably demand the implementation of laws. However, such behavior is not a manifestation of their personal cruelty. The state itself acts through the feelings and will of this person, so the individual properties of the individual recede into the background.

The search for absolute goodness is the source of varied experiences and varied abilities. Hence the rich development of the spirit and an abundance of talents. The shrewd practical mind of the Russian man manifested itself in the very successful development of science and technical inventions, and the love of beauty and the gift of creative imagination became factors contributing to the high development of Russian art. Russian fiction, music, theater, ballet, painting, and architecture are known all over the world. Unfortunately, the healthy development of Russian spiritual life in Russia was interrupted, according to Lossky, by the Bolshevik revolution.

Since the time of the Pskov monk Philotheus, Russian national messianism received its vivid expression. The Russian people are characterized by a search for good for all humanity; the 19th century in the history of Russia is marked by a break from the order of life of the “fathers,” the loss of religion and materialism. All this led to nihilism - the flip side of the good qualities of the Russian people. Having become a materialist, the Russian intellectual set himself the goal of creating a paradise on earth according to his own plan, even if it had to be done by force. Among workers and peasants, nihilism was expressed in hooliganism and mischief.

There are many shortcomings in the Russian character that can lead to disruption (sometimes very dangerous) of social life: maximalism, extremism, lack of character development, lack of discipline, daring testing of values, anarchism, excessive criticism. However, it should be noted that all these negative traits are secondary, they are only the flip side of the main primary properties of the Russian character.

CHAPTER 1. Study of the national character of the people according to their fairy tales and epics (based on the works of B.P. Vysheslavtsev);

In his report “Russian National Character”, read by B.P. Vysheslavtsev in 1923 at a conference in Rome, the author writes that we are interesting, but incomprehensible to the West and, perhaps, that is why we are especially interesting because we are incomprehensible. We don’t fully understand ourselves, and perhaps even the incomprehensibility and irrationality of our actions and decisions constitute a certain trait of our character.

“The character of the people,” Vysheslavtsev believes, “its main features are laid down at the unconscious level, in the area of ​​the subconscious.” This applies especially to the Russian people. The area of ​​the subconscious in the soul of the Russian person occupies an exceptional place.

How to penetrate into the unconscious of our spirit? “Freud,” writes Vysheslavtsev, “thinks that it is revealed in dreams. To understand the soul of a people, it is necessary, therefore, to penetrate into their dreams. But the dreams of a people are their epics, their fairy tales, their poetry...”

This is how the Russian fairy tale shows us what the Russian people are afraid of: they are afraid of poverty, they are even more afraid of work, but most of all they are afraid of “grief”, which somehow terribly appears to them, as if at their own invitation, becomes attached to them and does not lag behind . “It is also remarkable that the “grief” here sits in the person himself: this is not the external fate of the Greeks, based on ignorance, on delusion, it is one’s own will, or rather some kind of own lack of will.” But there is another fear in the fairy tales of the Russian people, a fear more sublime than the fear of deprivation, labor and even “grief” - this is the fear of a broken dream, the fear of falling from heaven.

What are the unconscious dreams of the Russian soul hidden in the Russian epic? “What’s remarkable,” notes Vysheslavtsev, “is that the whole gamut of desires is unfolded in the Russian fairy tale - from the most sublime to the lowest. We will find in it both the most cherished dreams of Russian idealism and the basest everyday “economic materialism.” This is the well-known dream of the Russian people about such a “new kingdom”, where distribution will be based on the principle “to each according to his needs”, where you can eat and drink, where there is a “baked bull”, where there are milk rivers and jelly banks. And the main thing is that you can do nothing there and be lazy. Such, for example, is the well-known fairy tale about the lazy Emel, who appears by no means as a negative character.

In the same vein, Vysheslavtsev analyzes here the fairy tale “about cunning science”, in which “.. you don’t have to work, eat sweetly and walk cleanly..”. There are a number of fairy tales in which “cunning science” turns out to be nothing more than the art of theft. In this case, happiness usually accompanies the lazy and the thief.

Vysheslavtsev rightly noted the fact that fairy tales are merciless: they expose everything that lives in the subconscious soul of the people, and, moreover, in the collective soul, which includes its worst sons. The tale reveals everything that is carefully hidden in life, in its official piety and in its official ideology.

All these funny fairy-tale dreams of the Russian people turned out to be prophetic and prophetic. So, for example, the “cunning science” of “easy bread” turned out to be Marx’s “scientific socialism”. This science taught the people that theft is not theft, but “expropriation of expropriators.” “Cunning science” explained how to get into that kingdom where you can eat and drink, where you can lie on the stove and everything will be done “according to the pike’s command”: you can safely jump there, to put it vulgarly; and in the language of strict science: “to make a leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom.”

True, all this reality, in turn, turned out to be a dream and dissipated like a dream; but the Russian fairy tale foresees this too. After all, not only folk stupidity lives in it, but also folk wisdom.

“Many prophecies can be found in our fairy tales, but there is one epic in our epic that has positive clairvoyance,” writes Vysheslavtsev, “this is the epic about Ilya Muromets and his quarrel with Prince Vladimir.” Ilya Muromets, the beloved national hero, comes from a peasant family and embodies the main support and strength of the Russian land. At the same time, he is the main and constant support of the throne and the church.

“Once Prince Vladimir arranged an “honorable feast” for “princes, boyars, Russian heroes,” “but he forgot to call the old Cossack Ilya Muromets” . Ilya, of course, was terribly offended. “He pulled a tight bow, put in a red-hot arrow” and began to shoot at “God’s churches, and at wonderful crosses, at those gilded domes.”

“Here is the whole picture of the Russian revolution, which the ancient epic saw in the prophetic snow. Ilya Muromets, the personification of peasant Rus', organized, together with the most disgusting mob, with drunkards and slackers, a real destruction of the church and state, suddenly he began to destroy everything that he recognized as sacred and that he defended all his life.”

Of course, the entire Russian character is clearly visible in this epic: “there was injustice, but the reaction to it was completely unexpected and spontaneous. This is not a Western European revolution; with its acquisition of rights and the struggle for a new system of life, this is spontaneous nihilism, instantly destroying everything that the people’s soul worshiped, and, moreover, realizing its crime. This is not the restoration of violated justice in the world, it is the rejection of a world in which such injustice exists.”

However, in his report, Vysheslavtsev tells the epic to the end and rightly notes that it ends more happily than the Russian revolution ended. “Vladimir, seeing the “pogrom,” was frightened and realized “that trouble was inevitable.” He arranged a new feast especially for the “old Cossack Ilya Muromets.” But the difficult task was to invite him; it was clear that he would not go now. Then they equipped Dobrynya Nikitich, a Russian noble gentleman who generally carried out diplomatic assignments, as an ambassador. Only he managed to persuade Ilya. And so Ilya, who was now seated in the best place and began to be treated to wine, tells Vladimir that he would not have come, of course, if not for Dobrynya, his “said brother.”

The Russian monarchy did not understand this prophetic warning, expressed quite clearly in the Russian epic, and thereby doomed itself to inevitable collapse.

Such is the wisdom of the epic - the subconscious soul of the people expresses in it what it secretly desires or what it fears. In these subconscious forces lies the entire past and future.

Those images and symbols that are given above are by no means, however, the pinnacle of folk art, the limit of the flight of fantasy.

Further, Vysheslavtsev writes that the flight of fantasy of the Russian people is always directed to “another kingdom,” to “another state.” He leaves far below everything that is daily, everyday, but also all the dreams of satiety, and all the utopias of the fat sky. The fairy tale laughs at them, this is not where its flight is directed, this is not its best dream. “Another country” - infinitely distant beckons the hero of a Russian fairy tale - Ivan Tsarevich. But why is he flying there? He is looking for a bride, “beloved beauty,” and according to other fairy tales, “Vasilisa the Wise.” This is the best dream of a Russian fairy tale. It is said about this bride: “When she laughs, there will be pink flowers, and when she cries, there will be pearls.” It is difficult to find, difficult to kidnap this bride, and at the same time it is a matter of life and death.

What is his beloved Vasilisa the Wise? She is transcendental beauty and wisdom, otherworldly, but strangely connected with the beauty of the created world. All creation obeys her: at her command, creeping ants thresh countless stacks, flying bees sculpt a church out of wax, people build golden bridges and magnificent palaces. She is connected with the soul of nature, and she teaches people how to build life, how to create beauty. While the Tsarevich is with her, there are no difficulties for him in life, Vasilisa the Wise helps him out of every trouble. There is only one real problem: if he forgets his bride. This, judging by the fairy tales, is the main and most beautiful dream of the Russian people.

CHAPTER 2. Main features of the Russian national character (according to the works of N.O. Lossky).

Of course, an invaluable contribution to the study of Russian national character was made by the book of the Russian philosopher N.O. Lossky “The Character of the Russian People”. In his book, Lossky gives the following list of the main features inherent in the Russian national character.

Religiosity of the Russian people. Lossky considers the main and deepest feature of the Russian people to be their religiosity and the associated search for absolute truth... Russian people, in his opinion, have a sensitive distinction between good and evil; he vigilantly notices the imperfections of all our actions, morals and institutions, never being satisfied with them and never ceasing to seek perfect good.

“Foreigners who have carefully observed Russian life, in most cases note the outstanding religiosity of the Russian people... Russians can talk about religion for six hours straight. The Russian idea is a Christian idea; in the foreground in it is love for the suffering, pity, attention to the individual personality...”

In this regard, “Christianity,” as Lossky writes, “fell on fertile soil in Russia”: already in Kievan Rus before the Mongol yoke, it was adopted in its true essence precisely as a religion of love. And following the logic of the development of events, the religiosity of the Russian people, it would seem, should have been expressed in the preaching of social Christianity, i.e. the teaching that the principles of Christianity should be implemented not only in personal individual relationships, but also in legislation and in the organization of public and government institutions.

However, despite the fact that in the 19th century the Orthodox clergy tried to present this idea in literature, the government systematically suppressed such aspirations and helped to strengthen the idea that the purpose of religious life was only concern for the personal salvation of the soul.

But, despite the deliberate belittling of the importance of the Church, in Russia the real Christian Church was still preserved in the depths in the person of the ascetics revered by the people, who lived in the quiet of monasteries, and especially in the person of the “elders”, to whom they always came for instruction and consolation.

Very interesting is Lossky’s observation that among the Russian revolutionaries who became atheists, the place of Christian religiosity was taken by a mood that can be called formal religiosity - this is a passionate, fanatical desire to realize a kind of Kingdom of God on earth without God, on the basis of scientific knowledge.

The ability of the Russian people to higher forms of experience. Lossky sees the high development of moral experience in the fact that all layers of the Russian people show a special interest in distinguishing between good and evil and sensitively distinguish between the admixtures of evil and good.

One of the particularly valuable properties of the Russian people is their sensitive perception of other people's states of mind. This results in live communication between even unfamiliar people.

“...The Russian people have highly developed individual personal and family communication. In Russia there is no excessive replacement of individual relationships with social ones, there is no personal and family isolationism. Therefore, even a foreigner, having arrived in Russia, feels: “I am not alone here” (of course, I am talking about normal Russia, and not about life under the Bolshevik regime). Perhaps, these properties are the main source of recognition of the charm of the Russian people, so often expressed by foreigners who know Russia well...”

Such a feature of the Russian national character as the search for the meaning of life and the foundations of existence is excellently depicted in Russian literature, in particular, in the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and others.

Feeling and will. Among the primary basic properties of the Russian people, according to Lossky, is powerful willpower. Passion is a combination of strong feelings and willpower directed towards a loved or hated value. Naturally, the higher the value, the stronger feelings and energetic activity it evokes in people with a strong will. This explains the passion of the Russian people, manifested in political life, and even greater passion in religious life. Maximalism, extremism and fanatical intolerance are the products of this passion.

To prove his rightness, Lossky cites such an example of the mass manifestation of Russian passion for fanatical intolerance as the history of Old Believers. A stunning manifestation of religious passions was the self-immolation of many thousands of Old Believers.

The Russian revolutionary movement is also, according to Lossky, “replete with examples of political passion and powerful willpower...” “The unbending will and extreme fanaticism of Lenin, together with the Bolsheviks led by him, created a totalitarian state in such an excessive form that has never been seen, and God willing, not there will be more on earth.”

Russian maximalism and extremism in its extreme form are expressed in the poem by A.K. Tolstoy:

“If you love, you are so crazy,

If you threaten, it’s not a joke,

If you scold, so rashly,

If you chop, it’s off the shoulder!

If you argue, it’s too bold,

If you punish, that's the point,

If you ask, do it with all your heart,

If there’s a feast, then there’s a feast!”

Passion and powerful willpower can be considered among the basic properties of the Russian people. But Lossky also does not deny that among the Russian people there is also the familiar “Oblomovism,” that laziness and passivity that is excellently depicted by Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov.” Here he shares the position of Dobrolyubov, who explains the nature of “Oblomovism” this way: “...Russian people are characterized by a desire for an absolutely perfect kingdom of being and at the same time excessive sensitivity to any shortcomings of their own and others’ activities. From here arises a cooling towards the work begun and an aversion to continuing it; the idea and general outline of it are often very valuable, but its incompleteness and therefore inevitable imperfections repel the Russian person, and he is lazy to continue finishing the little things. Thus, Oblomovism is in many cases the flip side of the high qualities of the Russian person - the desire for complete perfection and sensitivity to the shortcomings of our reality ... "

However, the willpower of the Russian people, as Lossky writes, is also revealed in the fact that a Russian person, having noticed any shortcoming of his and morally condemning it, obeying a sense of duty, overcomes it and develops a quality that is completely opposite to it.

The Russian people have many shortcomings, but the strength of their will in the fight against them is capable of overcoming them.

Love of freedom. Among the primary properties of the Russian people, along with religiosity, the search for absolute good and willpower, Lossky considers the love of freedom and its highest expression - freedom of spirit. “... Someone who has freedom of spirit is inclined to put every value to the test, not only with thought , but even without experience... Due to the free search for truth, it is difficult for Russian people to come to terms with each other... Therefore, in public life, Russians’ love of freedom is expressed in a tendency towards anarchy, in repulsion from the state.”

One of the reasons, according to Lossky, why Russia has developed an absolute monarchy, sometimes bordering on despotism, is that it is difficult to govern a people with anarchic inclinations. Such people make excessive demands on the state.

- Kindness. They sometimes say that the Russian people have a feminine nature. This, according to Lossky, is incorrect; he, unlike Berdyaev, adheres to a different point of view: the Russian people, he writes, especially the Great Russian branch of it, the people who created a great state in harsh historical conditions, are extremely courageous; but what is especially remarkable about him is the combination of masculine nature with feminine softness. Anyone who lived in a village and interacted with peasants will probably have memories of this wonderful combination of courage and gentleness come to mind.

The kindness of the Russian people in all layers of them is expressed in the absence of rancor. Often a Russian person, being passionate and prone to maximalism, experiences a strong feeling of repulsion from another person, however, when meeting him, if specific communication is necessary, his heart softens and he somehow involuntarily begins to show his spiritual softness towards him, even sometimes condemning himself for this if he believes that the person in question does not deserve to be treated kindly.

“Life according to the heart” creates openness in the soul of a Russian person and ease of communication with people, simplicity of communication, without conventions, without external instilled politeness, but with those virtues of politeness that arise from sensitive natural delicacy...

However, as Lossky rightly notes, positive qualities often have negative sides. The kindness of a Russian person sometimes prompts him to lie due to the reluctance to offend his interlocutor, due to the desire for peace and good relations with people at all costs.

Russian woman. In his book, Lossky especially notes Russian women and quotes Schubart, who writes about a Russian woman like this: “She shares with an Englishwoman an inclination towards freedom and independence, without turning into a blue stocking. What she has in common with the French woman is spiritual mobility without pretensions to profundity; she has... the taste of a Frenchwoman, the same understanding of beauty and grace, but without becoming a victim of a vain predilection for outfits. She possesses the virtues of a German housewife without always fuming over kitchen utensils; she has the maternal qualities of an Italian, without coarsening them to the abundance of monkey love...”

- Cruelty. Kindness is the predominant feature of the Russian people. But at the same time, Lossky does not deny that there are also many manifestations of cruelty in Russian life. There are many types of cruelty and some of them can be found, paradoxically, even in the behavior of people who are not at all evil by nature.

Lossky explains many of the negative aspects of the behavior of the peasants by their extreme poverty, the many insults and oppressions they experience and lead them to extreme embitterment... He considered the fact that in peasant life, husbands sometimes severely beat their wives, most often while drunk, to be especially outrageous...

Until the last quarter of the 19th century, the family life of merchants, townspeople and peasants was patriarchal. The despotism of the head of the family was often expressed in actions close to cruelty.

However, the strength of the Russian people, as mentioned above, is expressed in the fact that having noticed some shortcoming in itself and condemning it, Russian society begins a decisive struggle against it and achieves success. According to N. Lossky, it is precisely thanks to this quality that the structure of family life in Russian society was freed from despotism and acquired the character of a kind of democratic republic.

CHAPTER 3. The role of national character in the destinies of Russia (according to the works of N.A. Berdyaev);

The problem of the Russian national character has found comprehensive coverage in such works by N.A. Berdyaev, such as “The Fate of Russia”, “Spirits of the Russian Revolution”, “The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism”, “Russian Idea”, “Self-Knowledge”, “Soul of Russia”, etc.

Russian national character occupied a special place in Berdyaev’s works. Berdyaev saw an essential feature of the Russian national character in its inconsistency.

At the same time, Berdyaev noted the influence of the Russian national character on the fate of Russia, for example: “The Russian people are the most apolitical people, who have never been able to organize their land.” And at the same time: “Russia is the most state-owned and most bureaucratic country in the world, everything in Russia turns into an instrument of politics.” Further: “Russia is the most non-chauvinistic country in the world. ...In the Russian element there truly is some kind of national unselfishness, sacrifice...” And at the same time: “Russia... is a country of unprecedented excesses, nationalism, oppression of subject nationalities, Russification... The other side of Russian humility is the extraordinary Russian conceit.” On the one hand, “the Russian soul burns in a fiery search for truth, absolute, divine truth... It eternally grieves over the grief and suffering of the people and the whole world...”. On the other hand, “Russia is almost impossible to budge, it has become so heavy, so inert, so lazy... it is so resigned to its life.” The duality of the Russian soul leads to the fact that Russia lives an “inorganic life”; it lacks integrity and unity.

In his works, Berdyaev lists the following factors that, in his opinion, influenced the formation of the Russian national character.

Geographically, Russia is a gigantic territory covering one sixth of the landmass. The vast land, in Berdyaev’s words, is “national flesh” that has to be cultivated and spiritualized. However, Russian people have a passive attitude toward the elements of the earth, and do not strive to ennoble or “shape” it. “The power of the shire over the Russian soul gives rise to a whole series of Russian qualities and Russian shortcomings. Russian laziness, carelessness, lack of initiative, and a poorly developed sense of responsibility are associated with this. The breadth of the Russian land and the breadth of the Russian soul crushed Russian energy, opening up the possibility of movement towards extensiveness. This vastness did not require intense energy and intensive culture. ...The vastness of Russian spaces did not contribute to the development of self-discipline and initiative in Russian people...” notes Berdyaev.

Berdyaev attached great importance to the collective-tribal principle in the development of national character and in the fate of Russia. According to Berdyaev, “spiritual collectivism”, “spiritual conciliarity” is a “high type of brotherhood of people”. This kind of collectivism is the future. But there is another collectivism. This is “irresponsible” collectivism, which dictates to a person the need to “be like everyone else.” The Russian person, Berdyaev believed, is drowning in such collectivism; he feels immersed in the collective. Hence the lack of personal dignity and intolerance towards those who are not like others, who, thanks to their work and abilities, have the right to more.

However, Berdyaev did not deny the attractive aspects of Russian traditional collectivism. “Russians are more sociable... more inclined and more capable of communication than people of Western civilization. Russians have no conventions in communication. They have a need to see not only friends, but also good acquaintances, share thoughts and experiences with them, and argue.”

In Russia, according to Berdyaev, there is no middle and strong social layer that would organize people’s life, and accordingly there is no “middle culture.” The desire for “angelic holiness” and goodness is paradoxically combined in Rus' with “beastly baseness” and fraud. A sincere thirst for divine truth coexists with the “everyday and external ritual understanding of Christianity,” which is far from genuine religious faith.

Peculiarities of national character are manifested in the way of thinking of Russian people. Berdyaev wrote about the “primordial Russian existentiality of thinking,” in connection with which Russian people are characterized by such traits as deep personal experience, the desire to “discover oneself,” and take everything to heart when considering any problems.

Ultimately, Berdyaev saw the peculiarities and contradictions of the Russian character in the absence of the correct balance between the “masculine” and “feminine” principles in him. It is the balance of “masculinity” and “femininity” that is inherent in a mature national character. Russian “national flesh,” according to Berdyaev, turns out to be feminine in its passive receptivity to good and evil. The “Russian soul” lacks courage, fortitude, will, and independence.

For the maturity of the Russian nation, Berdyaev believed, “there is only one way out: the revelation within Russia, in its spiritual depths, of a courageous, personal, formative principle, mastery of one’s own national element, the immanent awakening of a courageous, luminous consciousness.”

At the same time, Berdyaev is far from the idea that the shortcomings of the Russian national character are associated with the feminine principle. Thanks to their feminine soul, the Russian people have such wonderful national qualities as sincerity, mercy, and the ability to renounce goods in the name of a bright faith.

How did Berdyaev imagine Russia's future path? Is it true that the meaning of his “national program” was “deep and comprehensive Europeanization”?

Of course not, Berdyaev saw the path of world development in the mutual meeting of East and West, in the mutual enrichment of cultures, in the rapprochement of all nations. In his opinion, not only the West influences Russia, but also the spiritual forces of Russia can determine and transform the spiritual life of the West. In addition, Berdyaev believed that another era would follow, associated with spiritual transformation, in which Russia would occupy a leading role. However, for this, she herself must be transformed, revive within herself the faded rudiments of spirituality.

What is Berdyaev’s real program for the “re-education” of the Russian national character? Sikorsky B.F. in his work “N.A. Berdyaev on the role of national character in the destinies of Russia” writes that Berdyaev believed that man is a natural, social and spiritual being. Berdyaev saw the future society as one in which every person rises to true spirituality and realizes himself in unity with other people. The fate of society, from Berdyaev’s point of view, turns out to be dependent on the “personal principle.” Society will be what its people are.

Of great importance is Berdyaev’s statement that the natural-spontaneous and collective-spontaneous principles in the life of a Russian person must give way to “courageous Christian activity.” Christianity is characterized“universality” by origin and spirit. It has universal significance. And it is precisely with its universal moral and spiritual function, Berdyaev noted, that it is capable of replenishing the fortitude so lacking in the Russian national character.

Why could not the spiritual principle in the Russian national character be fully revealed? One of the most important reasons for this is the dichotomy between faith and life, or more precisely, between the Christian faith and so-called “historical Christianity.” According to Berdyaev, Russia has long been an example of universal social hypocrisy. “Historical Christianity” betrayed its idea and lost its power to influence people. In the life of Russia, there was a gradual loss of spiritual and moral roots. The ruling strata have rendered themselves sterile by the lack of genuine spiritual creativity. They did not pay attention to a living person, his inner world. This was the reason for the weakness of those in power.

However, a change in power and material living conditions alone, according to Berdyaev, cannot achieve a mature state of the nation. “Russia needs, first of all, radical moral reform, a religious revival of the very origins of life.” Moral reform is an internal matter for every person, and its implementation is facilitated by social upheaval... A miracle of spiritual transformation is possible if people, the entire nation, go through great trials and sacrifices. Through internal awareness of the catastrophe, through a person’s internal repentance, evil can turn into good.

“Radical moral reform” means the establishment of a healthy spirit of the nation. In the course of such a reform, the Russian people must overcome their inferiority complex, preserve their own individuality, and also eliminate blind imitation of the West.

The spiritual revival of society, of course, is inextricably linked with a change in the individual’s attitude towards himself. Thus, the improvement of national character, according to Berdyaev, begins with “cells” and gradually covers wider and wider layers, thereby forming a mature state of the nation. “We must make people believe in us, by virtue of our national will, in the purity of our national consciousness, and make them see our “idea” that we bring to the world.”

In addition, as Sikorsky writes, in his works Berdyaev reflected on Russia’s calling to be an example for other nations in the spiritual transformation of life, in the affirmation of “the positive existence of all humanity.” He expressed interesting points about the messianic destiny of Russia, the Russian people and the Russian people. True messianism, according to Berdyaev, is Christianity. It is based on the desire to arrange life on Earth in accordance with Christ's truth.

Christianity contains the understanding that all peoples are called to be “God-bearers.” However, not every nation is able to realize this. Opportunity, according to Berdyaev, can turn into reality only when the historical path of the people turns out to be “sacrificial.” Thus, “The messianic idea embedded in the heart of the Russian people was the fruit of the suffering fate of the Russian people.”

The implementation of the Russian idea, according to Berdyaev, comes in the form of Russia fulfilling specific “missions” in various areas of life.

From its location on two continents follows “Russia’s mission to be East-West, a connector of two worlds.” Russia is called upon to spiritually bring together the peoples of the East and West, to connect the two streams of culture and to appear as a country that realizes universal human values.

In addition, Russia's mission is to “protect and liberate small nations.” Berdyaev more than once criticized the policy of Russification, and at the same time he repeatedly emphasized that Russia is the most non-chauvinist country in the world.

Berdyaev also noted that “the mission of the Russian people is recognized as the implementation of social truth in human society, not only in Russia, but throughout the world.” This corresponds to Russian traditions. The search for truth, the desire for justice, the search for the meaning of existence has always distinguished Russian spiritual life.

As a patriot and scientist, Berdyaev sincerely believed in the noble mission of Russia and the Russian people. “...We have every reason to believe that Russia’s world mission lies in its spiritual life, in its spiritual universalism, in its prophetic premonitions of a new life, with which great Russian literature, Russian thought and people’s religious life are full,” he wrote.

Of course, Berdyaev understood that much of what he wrote about improving the Russian national character, about the spirituality of the Russian nation contradicts the realities of the 20th century. Injustice, double morality, cruelty, and the unspiritual thirst for profit, which have become entrenched among the Russian people, hardly indicate progressive changes in national self-awareness. Berdyaev knew these problems and tried to explain them. He proceeded from the fact that many negative traits of the Russian character arose as a result of the revolution and under its influence. “But God’s plan for the people remains the same, and it is up to the efforts of human freedom to remain faithful to this plan.” The basic positive qualities of the Russian character remain.

CONCLUSION

Thus, at the end of this work, it should be said that the Russian national character, as shown by the analysis of the works of Russian philosophers, certainly has its own characteristic features that are different from those inherent in other peoples and so incomprehensible to them. That inner strength, spirituality and sacrifice of the people, their kindness, spiritual simplicity, compassion and selflessness and, at the same time, inertia, illogicality and irrationality of actions, behavior justified most often only by intuition, all this makes the Russian people unlike any other people in the world. Russia, where such an extraordinary people lives, is unlike any other country in the world.

Russian philosophers in their works resort to different methods of studying this topic: some determine the main features of the Russian national character by analyzing folk tales, which, as mentioned above, do not choose the most beautiful and noble and are always truthful; others analyze the history of the people, its individual facts, events and behavior of the Russian people in a given situation, but all of them, like N. Lossky, are inclined to the conclusion that the Russian people are special, a people marked by God and fulfilling the mission entrusted to them.

In this regard, Russia also has its own destiny, its own path of development. In its development, it should not blindly follow the West or the East; on the contrary, its calling is to try on these two Cultures, absorbing all the best that they have. However, at present Russia itself

is going through hard times. Over the seventy years of socialism, the Russian people have destroyed almost everything valuable that was originally inherent in them, and now they have to revive in themselves all the best features that were lost, and get rid of the shortcomings that, under socialism, grew into vices.

If this task is completed, if each of us revives all our best qualities, then Great Russia, called upon to bring

the decisive word in the struggle between good and evil on Earth and make the whole world better, cleaner and kinder.

List of used literature:

1. Vysheslavtsev B.P. Russian national character // Questions of philosophy. 1995. No. 6;

2Vysheslavtsev B.P. Russian national character // Questions of philosophy. 1995.No.6. With. 113

3Vysheslavtsev B.P. Russian national character // Questions of philosophy. 1995.No.6. P. 116

2Ibid. – P. 117

4Lossky N.O. The character of the Russian people.// Questions of philosophy. 1996. No. 4

5Lossky N.O. The character of the Russian people // Questions of philosophy. 1996. No. 4. P. 41

2Ibid. – P. 42

6Lossky N.O. The character of the Russian people // Questions of philosophy. 1996. No. 4. P. 58

7Sikorsky B.F. BUT. Berdyaev On the role of national character in the destinies of Russia // Socio-political journal. 1993. No. 9 - 10.

8Sikorsky B.F. ON THE. Berdyaev on the role of national character in the destinies of Russia // Social and Political Journal. 1993. No. 9-10. P. 103

2Ibid. – P. 104

9Sikorsky B.F. ON THE. Berdyaev on the role of national character in the destinies of Russia // Social and Political Journal. 1993. No. 9-10. P. 106