On N.A. Berdyaev's “Soviet Orientation”: Clarifying the Concept
Publication Title:
On N.A. Berdyaev's “Soviet Orientation”: Clarifying the Concept
Abstract:
In N.A. Berdyaev's work, a significant place is occupied by his studies of Russian history and, within this framework, his research on Soviet history. To characterize N.A. Berdyaev's socio-political behavior in the last years of his life, researchers use the definition “Soviet orientation” that he himself proposed, which he understood as a moment in the actualization of the “Russian idea” that he was the herald of. However, researchers have not always taken into account the contradictory content of this definition, and it is presented as a clear and positive attitude of the philosopher towards Soviet reality. The emergence of the concept of “Soviet orientation” is associated with different understandings of patriotism by N.A. Berdyaev and the Russian diaspora, as well as with their different political positions during the Great Patriotic War and in the post-war period. However, N.A. Berdyaev's recognition of the national character of Soviet statehood made it impossible to reconcile his philosophy of freedom with the practices of Stalin's totalitarianism. The very reality of the situation compelled the philosopher to a decisive break with Stalinist socialism, and in his article “The Third Exodus” he declares his affiliation with Christian socialism, the religious-philosophical justification for which is provided in V.S. Solovyov's teaching on history as a God-human process. By identifying Soviet Russia with “eternal Russia”, N.A. Berdyaev makes the Russian people the main subject of history. In this case, the epithet “Soviet” indicates not the political, but the national content of N.A. Berdyaev's “orientation”.
References:
(Sources)
Collected Works
1. Pis'mo N.N. Berberovoy G.P. Fedotovu ot 28 fevralya 1948 g. [Letter from N.N. Berberova to G.P. Fedotov, dated February 28, 1948], in Fedotov, G.P. Sobranie sochineniy v 12 t., t. 12. Pis'ma G.P. Fedotova i pis'ma razlichnykh lyudey k nemu. Dokumenty [Collected Works in 12 vols., vol. 12. Letters from G.P. Fedotov and Letters from various people to him. Documents]. Moscow: Izdatel'stvo «Tetis pablishn», 2008, pp. 403–407.
Individual Works
2. Berdyaev, N.A. Na poroge novoy epokhi [On the Threshold of a New Era], in Berdyaev, N.A. Istina i otkrovenie. Prolegomeny k kritike otkroveniya [Truth and Revelation. Prolegomena to the Critique of Revelation]. Saint-Petersburg: Izdatel'stvo RKhGI, 1996, pp. 156–349.
3. Berdyaev, N.A. Istoki i smysl russkogo kommunizma [The Origins and Meaning of Russian Communism]. Moscow: Nauka, 1990. 224 р.
4. Berdyaev, N.A. Russkaya ideya [The Russian Idea]. Saint-Petersburg: Azbuka-Klassika, 2012. 320 p.
5. Berdyaev, N.A. Samopoznanie. Opyt filosofskoy avtobiografii [Self-Knowledge. Experience of Philosophical Autobiography]. Moscow: Kniga, 1991. 446 р.
6. Berdyaeva, L. Professiya: zhena filosofa [Profession: wife of a philosopher]. Moscow: Molodaya gvardiya, 2002, p. 198.
(Articles from Scientific Journal)
7. Berdyaev, N.A. Iz zapisnoy tetradi N.A. Berdyaeva [From N.A. Berdyaev's Notebook], in Novyy zhurnal. New York, 1966, book 85, pp. 231–241.
8. Berdyaev, N.A. Tretiy iskhod [The Third Outcome], in Solov'evskie issledovaniya, 2025, issue 1(85), pp. 68–76.
9. Gaman, L.A. Sovetskaya Rossiya: vzglyad N.A. Berdyaeva (nekotorye aspekty problemy) [Soviet Russia: N.A. Berdyaev's View (Some Aspects of the Problem)], in Solov'evskie issledovaniya, 2014, issue 2(42), pp. 92–108.
10. Vysheslavtsev, B.P. Nikakogo tret'ego puti net. Otvet na politicheskoe zaveshchanie Berdyaeva [There is No Third Way. Response to Berdyaev's Political Testament], in Solov'evskie issledovaniya, 2025, issue 1(85), pp. 76–80.
(Articles from Proceedings Collections of Research Papers)
11. Berdyaev, N.A. «V chetvertom izmerenii prostranstva…». Pis'ma N.A. Berdyaeva k kn. I.P. Romanovoy. 1931–1947 [“In the Fourth Dimension of Space...”. Letters of N.A. Berdyaev to Princess I.P. Romanova. 1931–1947], in Minuvshee: Istoricheskiy al'manakh, 16 [The Past. Historical Almanac, 16]. Moscow; Saint-Petersburg: Atheneum; Feniks, 1994, pp. 209–264.
12. Zaytsev, B.K. Berdyaev, in N.A. Berdyaev: pro et contra. Anthology. Book 1. Saint-Petersburg: Izdatel'stvo RKhGI, 1994, pp. 77–81.
(Monographs)
13. Gaman, L.A. N.A. Istoriosofiya N.A. Berdyaeva [Berdyaev's Historiosophy]. Tomsk, 2003, p. 212.
14. Kolerov, M.A. Vvedenie v ideynuyu istoriyu russkoy emigratsii [Introduction to the Ideological History of the Russian Emigration]. Kaliningrad: Izdatel'stvo BFU im. I. Kanta, 2024. 416 р.
15. Volkogonova, O.D. Berdyaev. Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya, 2010, pp. 355–370.
Key words:
the idea of “eternal Russia”, Soviet socialism, Christian socialism, “the third exodus”
The DOI index:
10.17588/2076-9210.2025.4.044-057
Publication file:
