Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) is an outstanding representative of the Russian intelligentsia in exile. The philosopher devoted his whole life to the study of the psychology of the Russian people. Berdyaev investigated and described various spheres of political, spiritual and everyday activities of the people of Russia, a number of general laws were inherent in any kind of totalitarian power both in Russia and in any other country.
N. A. Berdyaev
Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev was born on March 6, 1874 in the Kiev province of the Russian Empire, in the personal estate of his father Alexander Mikhailovich, who belonged to an old noble family.
Nikolai received an excellent home primary education and without exams entered the Kiev Cadet Corps. Teachers noted the striking craving of the future philosopher for the humanities and the phenomenal ability to learn. The rector of the building advised Nikolai's parents to arrange a son at the university. At the age of thirteen, Nikolai passed the entrance exams and became a student of the natural faculty of Kiev University.
Very soon, Nikolai Berdyaev became a staunch supporter of the philosophy of Marxism, for which in 1897 he was expelled from the university. Two years later, Nikolai’s first article is published, devoted to F. A. Lange and his views on the critical philosophy of attitudes toward socialism.
Philosophical concept
Berdyaev believed that his worldview lies in the usual philosophy of the spirit, which is freedom and unlimited creative experience. According to the philosopher, the superiority of freedom over everyday life is the manifestation of the human spirit.
Being in exile, Berdyaev more deeply analyzed the provisions of the philosophy of Marxism and realized that he was closer to the theological understanding of reality. This aroused in Nikolai a keen interest in religious existentialism and spiritual personalism.
Based on the theological principles of freedom of spirit, Berdyaev creates his own philosophical concept of worldview, which he will later present in the treatise “Philosophy of Freedom”, published in Germany on the philosopher’s own savings.
Attitude to communism
Throughout his life, Berdyaev adhered to a dual attitude towards communism. In his view, there was “primordial communism” and “Russian communism”. Both of these concepts were significantly different from each other.
“Primordial Communism” is the theory of Marx and Engels unchanged. And “Russian communism” is an interpretation of their theories taking into account national characteristics.
At first, Berdyaev was close to “original communism,” but later the philosopher realized that his comrades in struggle considered “Russian communism” to be a worthy struggle. And he rethought his political position, starting to adhere to a theological worldview.
Berdyaev believed that the ideology of communism was only a test of the spirit for the Russian people, who could not stand it. Communism did not lead to anything, in the end it became one of the reasons for the collapse of the USSR. And Berdyaev assumed this, considering the civil war and the split of society a clear prerequisite for the degradation of the political structure of the country.
Nikolai Alexandrovich understood that communism was widely spread on the territory of the Russian Empire precisely because of its dual nature and “the dual nature of the Russian soul.” Initially, the people saw only the positive aspects of this ideology for the sake of their own desires, trying not to notice the possible negative consequences.
Ultimately, only a small part of the positive aspects of the ideology of communism manifested itself in reality, in contrast to the negative, which influenced the people in full.
Writing a book
Berdyaev’s book “The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism” was conceived by the philosopher in 1933 during his stay in Germany after communism in Russia reached its logical conclusion in the first stage. The revolution did not bring any positive fruits to the people; rather, on the contrary, it plunged the population into the abyss of poverty and enmity.
Nikolai Alexandrovich was well aware that most of the people demanding the revolution in 1917 understood its future consequences. Reflections on this subject contributed to the grandiose plan to describe the history, causes and premises of the revolution in Russia.
Summary of "The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism"
This monumental work of Berdyaev is a generalizing treatise for his entire philosophy. The book can be called a kind of conclusion to all the writings and research of the writer. Nikolai Aleksandrovich himself considered the “Sources and Meaning of Russian Communism” to be the notes of “a person who has made many mistakes and is trying to correct these errors”.
Such a philosophy of Berdyaev was dictated primarily by understanding the causes of his own mistake, which he made while supporting the ideology of revolutionary Marxism in his youth. Through the prism of his own vision, the philosopher is trying to understand what exactly prompted such a huge mass of people to oppose the dominant government in support of a relatively small number of Bolsheviks.
Berdyaev comes to the conclusion that the revolution could not be an accidental or spontaneous phenomenon in the life of the Russian people, but was, in essence, a splash of emotions and anger accumulated as a result of centuries of injustice.
Slavophilism and Westernism
N. A. Berdyaev believed that the duality of the Russian soul "is the root of all evils in Russian people." In one of the chapters of the book, the author gives an exhaustive answer to the question of the origin of the reasons for the 1917 revolution.
An analysis of the “Sources and Meaning of Russian Communism” gives every reason to assume that this reason is the division of thinking people of Russia into Slavophiles and Westerners, while “the natural spiritual state of the Russian person is something between these two directions.”
The Russian intelligentsia has always been not a professional, but an ideological union with its specific goals.
Russians are all inclined to perceive totalitarianism, they are alien to the skeptical criticism of Western people. This is a flaw, but it is also a virtue and indicates the religious integrity of the Russian soul. The Russian radical intelligentsia developed an idolatrous attitude towards the sciences themselves. When the Russian intellectual became Darwinist, then Darwinism was not a biological theory for him to argue, but a dogma ... Sanitarianism, Fourierism, Hegelianism, materialism, Marxism, in particular, were totally and dogmatically experienced by the Russian intelligentsia.
Russian socialism
The Sources and the Meaning of Russian Communism summarizes Berdyaev’s main theses regarding his views on Russian nihilism and domestic socialism.
The scientist in his writings believes that the emergence of the philosophy of nihilism in Russia is largely due to the concept of Russian Orthodoxy. Its tsarist authority was not considered as a separate religious philosophy, it built on the authority of "spiritual authority political authority."
The "separation of church power and government power" served as a serious impetus to the formation of "ideology of hatred" in the narrow circles of the domestic intelligentsia. Later, the same views will spill over into the ideology of Russian socialism, the basis of which will be the "idea of freedom from any philosophy, concept or religion."
The culmination of the development of nihilism was anarchism, which is "the unbridled passion and hatred of the people for everything that has restrained them for centuries."
Berdyaev’s book, The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism, examines the transition from the philosophy of anarchism directly to the very “cause of revolution”. This transition was a natural reaction to the "blindness and deafness of the ruling power." Berdyaev believed that the upper strata of society should pay attention to the problems of the lower strata in time and help them solve them. Then, the lower strata simply would have no reason for rebellion and, all the more, for carrying out a large-scale ideological revolution.
Marxism
Based on Berdyaev’s quotes from “The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism”, it can be concluded that the 1917 revolution was completely unique, as it was an unconscious expression of the will of the people. People were not aware of their actions. The revolution was “a grandiose hurricane of unexplained emotions, unjustified hopes, mixed with high expectations of propaganda,” which inspired the Russian people to the greatest rebellion in human history.
Totalitarian regimes in Russia were extremely different in degree of cruelty for all periods of development of the statehood of the country.
The philosopher notes that:
The old Russian monarchy rested on an orthodox world outlook, demanded agreement with it. The new Russian communist state also rests on an orthodox world outlook and requires an even greater coercion to agree with it. The sacred kingdom is always the dictatorship of the worldview, it always requires orthodoxy, it always spews heretics. Totalitarianism, the requirement of the integrity of faith, as the foundation of the kingdom, corresponds to the deep religious instincts of the people. The Soviet communist state has a great resemblance in its spiritual construction to the Moscow Orthodox kingdom. It is the same asphyxiation.
Criticism
The works of Berdyaev were constantly criticized by the Soviet government and were banned for printing and distribution. The Soviet press presented the philosopher as an “evil slanderer” who “could not get along in the socialist homeland and vilely slanders its political system” from abroad.
Reviews on the "Sources and Meaning of Russian Communism" from Soviet literary scholars were mostly negative. The Soviet government was outraged by the fact that the philosopher not only allows himself to compare the tsarist regime and Soviet power in any context. But he gives every reason to believe that the Power of the Soviets has all the shortcomings of previous dictatorships, since it is totalitarian in nature.
Despite the fact that Berdyaev generally gave a positive assessment to the actions of I.V. Stalin, who was able to raise the country out of ruin, significantly increase the percentage of economic growth and fight organized crime, Soviet criticism still considered his treatises unacceptable for reading by Soviet citizens , since the philosopher put the national Russian identity above the concept of the international proletariat.
“The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism” is not only a full-fledged historical study of the majority of state power schemes in Russia, but also a treatise warning warning about the inadmissibility of the imposition of a totalitarian regime in the country, since each of these regimes was overthrown.
Publications abroad
The first edition of the book “The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism” was carried out in Paris in 1955. Berdyaev was forced to publish a book in French in a very abridged version. Initially, the book was written for the Russian reader, so the philosopher considered some of its fragments inappropriate, and they were removed from the French edition.
The subsequent French edition of the book was the most complete version of the treatise, also published with some modifications.
The philosopher was saddened by the fact that foreign publishers could not fully realize the importance of his work for the Russian and Soviet readers. And also they may find some aspects of his book offensive to residents of Europe, in particular, England, France and Germany.
Edition in Russia
In the philosopher’s homeland, the book unofficially appeared only in the mid-60s and was an abridged French edition of 1955 in Russian. Officially, the metropolitan publishers released the first copies of the book in 1989, with a very small circulation, which was instantly sold out by the Soviet intelligentsia.
The popularity of the book “The Origins and the Meaning of Russian Communism” came at the end of the 90s, when any materials criticizing communist ideology in one way or another were in demand by the people.
Berdyaev’s ideas and philosophical views were used by many scholars of that time, who actively criticized the Soviet state system and wrote their own monographs on similar topics.