N.A. Berdyaev (1874-1948) was a native of a noble family. While studying at Kiev University, he began to attend circles of social democrats and became interested in the ideas of Marxism. Already in this period, he began to be interested in questions of philosophy, read Hegel, Kant, Schelling, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, L. Tolstoy. Gradually, Berdyaev’s own philosophy was formed, the center of which was religious idealistic philosophy. Over time, he became one of the most consistent critics of materialism and Marxism.
His worldview evolved while working on the magazines Issues of Life and The New Way. He became the founder of a religious and philosophical society called "In Memory of V. Soloviev." In 1911 his first work came out. Berdyaev's “Philosophy of Freedom” marked the completion of his search for the rationale for the philosophy of “neo-Christianity” and the definition of “new religious consciousness”. In 1916, his next work, The Meaning of Creativity, appeared, cementing his ideas.
The First World War significantly affected the attitude of the philosopher, who took it as the end of the humanistic history of mankind. He saw the historical power that was able to fulfill the mission of the Christian reunification of mankind only in Russia. Therefore, he warmly welcomed the February Revolution and sharply negatively perceived the October Revolution. Bolshevik socialism in his work “The Philosophy of Inequality” he called “forced brotherhood”.
Berdyaev created the Free Academy of Spiritual Culture. The rejection of the Bolshevik ideology attracted close attention of the authorities, he was twice arrested, in 1922 - he was sent abroad on a "philosophical ship".
The main works, which expressed the individual philosophy of Berdyaev, were created during the period of emigration (first Berlin, then the French city of Clamart). His main works are “The Philosophy of Free Spirit”, “The Meaning of Creativity”, “On Slavery and Human Freedom”, “Spirit and Reality”, “The Kingdom of the Spirit and the Kingdom of Caesar”, “The Experience of Eschatological Metaphysics”.
The center of his philosophical thoughts is the subject of man. Berdyaev's philosophy was based on the postulate of freedom of creativity and personality. His teachings are ranked among the trends of existentialism and personalism.
Berdyaev believed that a person is characterized by loneliness, insecurity and abandonment, which are rooted in a social environment that enslaves the personality and inspires the longing of everyday life. Only philosophy, which is a breakthrough from a meaningless, violent personality of the world (the work “I and the world of objects”, which Berdyaev soon wrote) can free from oppressive fear of a person.
The philosophy of freedom in his work has been disclosed in many works, including "Self-knowledge". His teaching was aimed at helping to take a person an active life and creative position, thus overcoming the imperfection of being.
His three main ideas are the idea of "universal Christianity", the idea of freedom and the apology of creativity. On the whole, his views have a paradoxically inherent sense of a crisis of life and at the same time a romantic confidence in the victory of the ideal.
As a religious thinker, Berdyaev created an original cosmogonic picture of the world. Before being there was an abyss (an irrational state of freedom). That is, freedom preceded absolutely everything, and even God, who was born later and created the world and people. From God is poured out the spirit he breathes into man. Therefore, the world has two foundations: spirit and freedom. These bases are combined in man and contradict each other. Spirit is primary in relation to the material world and is more significant for a person. With it is connected the consciousness and self-awareness of people.
Berdyaev's philosophy proposed the ideal of freedom of society, which he called "personalistic socialism", which meant the primacy of personality over society. But real community, people can not achieve in society, but only in God ("conciliarity"). Therefore, the meaning of the history of mankind is the dispensation of the Kingdom of God. Earth history is finite, but it is not a catastrophe, but overcoming enmity, depersonalization and objectification.