berdjajev o leontjevu

7/24/2019 Berdjajev o Leontjevu

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N. A. BERDYAEV (BERDIAEV)

K. Leont'ev -- Philosopher

of a Reationar! Ro"antiis"

(#$%& - #%)

Is it not terrile an* is it not an ins+lt sho+l* one

thin, that oses /ent +pon 0inai that the 1ellenes

+ilt their ele2ant Aropoliseis the Ro"ans /a2e*

the P+ni 3ars the han*so"e 2eni+s Ale4an*er

in a feathere*-sort hel"et rosse* over the 5rani,an* attle* 'neathe Arela that the Apostles

preahe* the "art!rs s+ffere* the poets san2

painters painte* an* ,ni2hts 2lea"e* at their

to+rne!s for this onl! that the 6renh the 5er"an

or the R+ssian o+r2eoise in their +2l! an* o"i

attire "i2ht e s"+2l! 7in*ivi*+al7 or 7olletivist7

+pon the r+ins of all this past 2reatness8..

It is neessar! to freezeR+ssia tho ait that it not7eo"e p+trifie*7...

K. Leont'ev

I.

There exist writers with an inexpressibly sad destiny, not acknowledged, not

understood, attracting no one, dying in spiritual solitude, though bestown of talents, in

mind, in originality they stand many heads above the acknowledged great. Such an

one was Konstantin Leont'ev, a very imposing, the sole imposing thinker from the

conservative camp, and altogether indeed one of the most brilliant and original minds

in ussian literature. Katkov was the foremost political publicist of conservatism, here

he ruled, but never was he a thinker, a philosopher of conservatism. The foremost and

sole philosopher of conservatism, and more truly, not even conservatism, but rather

reactionism, was K. Leont'ev.!
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"oor Konstantin Leont'ev# he is worse off than they know, and very cultivated

people even get him confused with the tedious classicist Leont'ev, co$editor with

Katkov on the %ussian &essenger%. erein indeed the irony of fate( K. Leont'ev

dreamt about having a political influence, he wanted to play a role in the capacity of a

leading reactionary publicist, but in this even he did not recognise himself. The

conductor of conservative politics would be Katkov, staid and positive, who had thefeel of real ground under his feet, and not Leont'ev, the romantic and dreamer, a

preacher of fanaticism in the name of mystical ends, of a foolish reactionism,

bordering on a mysterious sort of revolutionism. K. Leont'ev did not leave behind a

perceptible mark within the history of ussian thought and ussian spiritual cravings.

)or the progressive camp with all its factions he was absolutely unwelcome and could

evoke only contempt and indignation, while the conservatives however saw only the

surface of his ideas, in similitude of Katkov's, and they did not perceive his mystical

depths, his illegitimate romanticism.

*ut people of our mindset ought to ponder over Leont'ev, over his sad fate. K.

Leont'ev $$ was a strange writer, strange also for the whole of historical +hristianity,

strange and seductive compared with many a romantic and mystic. This solitary,

almost known to no one, ussian man in much anticipated iet-sche. e already

came nigh to the abyss of the apocalyptic mindsets, by which at present we have many

an ill, and in +hristianity he attempted to reveal the features of a dark satanism, akin

to his sick spirit. Leont'ev was a very complex writer, deeply contradictory, and it is

not wise to understand each word of his too simply and literally.

n the dark and aristocratic soul of Leont'ev burned an aesthetic hatred for

democracy, for the bourgeois middle ground, for the ideals of world harmony. This

was the strongest passion in his life, and it was not held in check by any sort of moral

hindrances, since with disgust he denied anything moral and considered everything

permissible in the name of the highest mystical aims. /ith Leont'ev still there was a

positive passion for the beauty of life, for its mysterious charm, and perhaps, there

was the thirst for a full life. *eyond the uni0ue, the bold and the harsh, feignedly$cold

style of his writing is to be sensed a passionate and fiery nature, tragically$divided,

having lived through the burdensome experience of the hypnotic might of ascetic

+hristianity. 1 man of strong fleshly passions and a thirst for a robust life is drawn

sometimes incomprehensibly and mysteriously to the polar opposite, to the beauty ofmonasticism. The aesthetic hatred for democracy and bourgeois contentment, for

hedonistic culture, and the mystical pull towards a dark monasticism led Leont'ev to

the romantic fondness for past historical epochs, to a mystical reactionism. e was not

given to moderation, the middle ground, and he arrived at a most extreme fanaticism,

he became a preacher of compulsion, oppression, the knout and the gallows. *ut in

the strange and repulsive words of Leont'ev is sensed not a real reactionary Katkov$


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politician, but rather an illogical dreamer, an unhappy romantic, lost and perishing in

an epoch alien for him.

/e do not propose the significance of Leont'ev to be with realistic convictions.

This man deemed the meaning of world history to be in the capricious advance of a

few chosen ones in the name of mysterious mystical goals. 2nly in this aristocraticblossoming did he see the beauty of life and he suffered unreasonably from the

awareness, that %liberal$egalitarian progress% carries mankind off to the opposite side,

to the reign of the petty bourgeoise, evoking within him the disgust and aversion of

the aesthete and aristocrat, the romantic and mystic. e snatched as one might after a

straw, as ussia, at Slavism, he saw herein his final hope, an almost dying hope to

save the so dear to him meaning of world life. )or 3urope there was no hope, it should

go on off to its ultimate extremes of socialism and anarchism 4for Leont'ev this was

even pleasing a prospect, as in everything extreme5, but through ussia it was

possible still to save the world, and for this it was necessary to free-e it, to put an halt

to the liberal$egalitarian progress, though this be at the price of the greatest sacrifices,

though this be by the 0uite darkest compulsion.

1nd K. Leont'ev seeks for salvation in *y-antium. %*y-antinism hath bestown

us all our strength in the struggle with the "olish, with the Swedes, with )rance and

with Turkey. 6nder its standard, if we be faithful, we certainly shall be able to hold

back the onrush and aims of an international 3urope, if it, having destroyed for itself

everything noble, if it somehow also for us should dare prescribe the rot and stench of

its new laws about a shallow happiness for all the whole world, about a radical all$

triteness for the world%.7 %The idea of the welfare of all mankind, the religion of

utility for the whole of society $$ is very cold, prosaic and moreover incredible,

unfounded from any of the religions%.8 shall provide still more in a series of places

for the general characteristics of Leont'ev.

%/hat does it matter for a venerable, an historical and real science, the extents of

discontent, the extents demanded, the extents of despotism, the extents of the

suffering9 )or what are these unscientific sentimentalities, so exhaustive in our time,

so prosaic moreover, so ungifted9 )or me what does it matter in suchlike 0uestions as

far as the very groanings of mankind%.: 1s far as sufferings, Leont'ev loved to wear a

mask of harshness and trans$morality.

%1nd suffering9 Sufferings accompany both together the process of growth and

developement, and the process of decay... all is sick from the tree of human life% ;...

%This is all but the means of confusion, $$ he says about the contemporary forefront

culture, $$ this is a gigantic surge, in all and everything


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egalitarian progress are composite, a coarse goal, simple as regards thought, ideals,

influence, etc. The goal of it all $$ is the mediocre man, bourgeois, content amidst

millions of precisely indeed the same mediocre people, likewise contented%.>

%"rogressive ideas are coarse, simple and capable for everyone. These ideas seem

rational and profound, as though worthy of some few chosen minds. "eople of a lofty

mindset have ennobled them by their brilliant talent= the ideas themself, however,essentially are not only mistaken, they are, would say, crude and contradictory. They

are a felicitous earthly outlook and an impossibility= the realm of an e0uitable and

universal human truth upon the earth $$ is an outlook and furthermore an outrageous

untruth, an insult to the best. The ?ivine truth of the @ospel did not promise an

earthly truth, it did not preach a


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there is nothing terrible in the thought, that millions of ussian people should dwell

whole centuries under the pressure of three atmospheres $$ the official, the estate and

the churchly, though it be but for this, that "ushkin could write 2negin and @odunov,

so that they might construct the Kremlin and its cathedrals, so that Suvorov and

Kutu-ov might sei-e their national victories... Since glory... since military glory,... yes,

that military glory of the realm and nation, its art and poetry $$ are facts= these are realmanifestations of an actual nature= these are attainable goals, and together with this,

they are lofty. *ut that godlessly$righteous and dully$blest mankind, for which

gradually and with various contemporary gestures ye want to strive, such a mankind

would be obnoxious, if it were to be possible%!:... %)or the aesthete particularly it is

properly becoming during times of immobility to be for movement, during times of

dissoluteness to be for strictness= for the artist it would be proper to be a liberal under

a domain of slavery= it would become him to be an aristocrat amidst the tendencies

towards demagoguery, a bit of the libre penseuramidst an hypocritical khanate,

devout amidst the godless%!;... This is awfully characteristic a recipe for Leont'ev, and

here he gives himself away, but regretably, as we see below, he himself was not

always consistent in following the aesthetic imperative. shall present yet still some

several characteristic places# %The culturefrom the former evilhas given the world

such an abundance of great minds... The new culture, cleansed$$ in the area of thought

provides us either the indisputably untalented E@eorgF *uechners, or the E3duardF

artmans, talented, but denying any actual benefit of progress%!>... %?uring the

difficult and dangerous moments of historical life society always stretches out its

hands not to the orators and not to the


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understanding of poetry there is necessary a sort of idle time, not that which is cheery

nor that which is melancholy, but we are now ashamed of everything such, and even

of poetic idling itself%.7D %The great freedom against the former has led the person

only to a great sterility and empty triumph... from which it emerges but in those

moments, when life is as though somehow returned to the old%.7! %Socialists

everywhere scorn your moderate liberalism... the )rench socialists and the altogetherextreme radicals scorn all those 3mEile deF @irardins, Thiers and Gules )avre... 1nd

they are right in their contempt... and how should these people not be hostile against

the present guardians or against the forms and manners of guarding, unfavourable to

them, but all essential the sides of the guarded teachings they themself need. )or them

there mustneeds be fear, there mustneeds be discipline= for them there must be

submissiveness, the habit for obedience= there are people, successful in manipulations

of their own economic life, but nonetheless upon earth there are malcontents, and they

then flare up with a new bla-e towards mystical teachings%77... %2n the one side,

esteem, the baronry= on the other, love the naivte and gruffness of the peasant. @raf

*ronsky or 2negin, on the one side, and the soldier Karataev $$ and who9... well,

though be it a wolf of Turgenev, for me it is better than that %mediocre% bourgeois

type, for which progress now reduces little by little both at above and at below, both

the mar0uis and the shepherd%.78 %)or the developement of great and strong characters

there are needful great social in


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his person. 1n aesthete, an immoralist, a revolutionary by temperament, a proud

aristocratic spirit, captivated by the beauty of the forces of life, in much anticipating

iet-sche, romantically in love with the power of past historical epochs, under the

burden of an as yet unrecognised and mysterious mysticism, while also $$ the preacher

of a monastic, strict traditional 2rthodox +hristianity, and the defender of the

despotism of a police state. erein is such the irony of fate( Leont'ev wanted to besaved from the triteness, the insipid, the mediocre, the narrow$minded bourgeois$ism,

the harsh odour of progress, and he fell into a place of intolerable stench, in which

there is nothing creative or original and beauty is defiled by each step. 1nd he was

harshly punished. o one wanted to hear a preacher of %autocracy, orthodoxy and

nationality%. ?ecent people held their noses, the nose even earlier than the ears.

eactionaries seemingly like$minded to Leont'ev were unable to understand, for them

what was evident only the apparent side of his world$outlook, and they made use of it

for their own dirty deeds. *ut Leont'ev is little useful for the real, the positive goals of

reactionary politics. ere was profoundly individual a thinker, splintered off from the

great historical path, with a presentiment of much too early, and his fateful connection

with reactionary politics was in an ultimate sense for him a matter of chance, and

deeply tragic. is thirst was for the eternal and together with this also for the new,

within his consciousness bla-ed up something beautiful and ultimately righteous, and

on the great historical path of his native$land he practically fro-e the rot, as he

floundered about in the stinking fetid pit. /e shall look closer, at what sort of theories

Leont'ev constructed, in order to


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certain inner despotic unity%.7B State organisms passed through three periods#

!5%initial simplicity= 75 blossoming complexity, and 85 a secondary mixed$


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established set of laws for a concrete course of life. To insist upon an inflexible course

as it were of an organic developement of societies would be more appropriate to the

?arwinist or to the economic materialist, than to Leont'ev.87 ow did he manage to

unite this historical fatalism, a conviction of the naturalistic inevitable ruin of national

cultures in a certain year of their life, to unite this with +hristian mysticism9 erein

the passionate will blinded his reason. )or Leont'ev there was a complete absence ofthe idea offreedom, to what produces for us be it religion, or philosophy, or science.

is hatred for democratic freedom reached such an extent, that he combined dark

apocalyptic predictions with purely naturalistic apologetics for the death of nations

and states.

n that the real social science of our day is held in check by the philosophic and

religious teaching about freedom, it tends to see the nature of society in the

psychological interaction of individualities, and the intimate essence of the historical

process to be in the free creativity of mankind. Science therefore disdains historical

predictions, and the mystery of the future it consigns to the realm of religious

freedom.

n close connection with the teaching of Leont'ev concerning organic developement

stands his theory of national types and the national mission of ussia. 1ll the nations

of 3urope, all the cultures of the /est have reached a terrible point, they have entered

upon the path of organic disintegration and death, the %blossoming complexity% for

them is in the past, during the era of the enaissance and suchlike. There, in 3urope,

the leveling and disorganising process of democracy has destroyed everything. n the

/estern culture of the HH +entury Leont'ev esteems only the pessimism, only

Schopenhauer and artmann, who honestly rose up against the illusion of %progress%,

against the hedonist hopes. The flourishing of culture, the %blossoming complexity%, is

possible only for ussia, for Slavdom, united not by liberal$democratic dissipative

principles, but by *y-antine organisative ones. n such manner upon ussia is

entrusted a great mission to be the bulwark of world guardianship from terrible

ruination, from universal disintegration, from the death of all the state organisms. *ut

the mission will only then come to fruition, if ussia creates a completely original

culture, distinct from the /estern 3uropean. The foundations fro suchlike an original

culture Leont'ev considers to be not in the great traits of the ussian national spirit,

but in the *y-antine autocracy and *y-antine 2rthodoxy. ere indeed the mountain

begets the molehill(

Leont'ev had a very complex and dis


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for what was the beauteous complexity and diversity, in the name of what was this

cult of strong individualities, which the contemporary %individualism% is destroying9

The religion of Leont'ev provides no


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the +hristianity of Leont'ev, wherein he so unsuccessfully feigned realism and created

for himself an idol from the state organism9 t is interesting to make analysis of

Leont'ev's explanation of +hristianity and his attempts to connect the religion of

+hrist, all is mysticism, with the reactionary misanthropic politics. This is an

absorbing and tremendous theme in its significance, and with its resolution is

connected the fate of +hristianity within the future human history.

99999999999999999999999999999999999999

)or Leont'ev +hristianity is not a religion of love and


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Leont'ev particularly disliked the %sentimental% or %rosy% +hristianity, of which he

accused two of the greatest of ussian geniuses# L. Tolstoy and ?ostoevsky. 3ven

?ostoevsky seemed %rosy% to his black soul( So hateful was everything to him, that it

blew away the %moral% preaching of love. )ear, fear, and not love $$ here is the

cornerstone( %The highest fruits of faith, $$ are for example, the constant, almost

minute by minute disposition to the love of neighbour, $$ either for someoneinaccessible, or accessible very little= for some $$ by an especial kind of grace of a fine

nature, for others $$ the conse0uence of a many$year prayerful struggle with difficult

inclinations. )ear however is accessible to everyone# both to the strong, and to the

weak, $$ the fear of sin, the fear of chastisement both here, and there beyond the

grave... and to feel ashamed at the fear of @od is simply silly= whoso is admitted by

@od, that one ought to be afraid of im, since the powers are too incommensurate.

/hoso is afraid, humbles himself= whoso humbles himself, that one seeks for a power

over himself, a force visible and tangible%... Leont'ev did not love @od and

blasphemously he denied is goodness. @od was for him a dark principle, and it is

with fear and the gritting of teeth that he worshipped im, as +reator of evil in the

world, and he gave thanks to im only for this, that he could in is ame appeal to

force, to the torment of every living thing. 1ll the attempts to realise the Kingdom of

@od, a kingdom of love upon earth, drove him to madness. %Love without the

humility and fear in facing a positive faith$teaching, it is fervent, sincere but in the

highest degree it is self$will, either it is 0uietly and hiddenly proud, or it is noisily

boastful, and it issues not directly from the teaching of the +hurch= it has come to us

not very long ago from the /est= it is the self$will fruition of anthropolatreia Ethe

worship of manF, a new faith in earthly man and in earthly mankind, $$ in the ideal, the

independent, autonomous worth of the person and in the high practical significance ofall %mankind% here upon the earth%.8> %+hrist did not promise us in the future a

reigning of love and truth upon the earth, no( e said, that %at the end love will

slacken%... *ut we personally ought to do the deed of love, if we want for ourselves

forgiveness and blessedness in the life beyond the grave $$ and herein is

everything%.8A n suchlike a manner, the religious meaning of universal history is

completely negated. %)aith in the ?ivinity of the a-arene +rucified under "ontius

"ilate, /ho taught, that on earth everything is transitory, but actuality and eternity

will ensue after the destruction of the earth and everything living upon it, $$ here is

that tangibly mystical point of support, upon which has balanced and balances til now

the gigantic lever of +hristian preaching. +hrist and is 1postles do not promise afull triumphing of love and universal truth upon this earth, but on the contrary rather

this, something of a sort of seeming failure of the @ospel preaching upon the earthly

sphere, since the closeness of the end ought to coincide with the final attempts to

render all as fine +hristians%8B... Leont'ev very much holds dear, that % upon earth

everything is false and everything is unimportant% and that at the end few will be %fine

+hristians%= this is pleasing to him aesthetically. %2ne thing only is certain, $$
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precisely, one thing, one thing only is undoubtable, $$ this, that everything here now

ought to perish( 1nd therefore $$ for what is this feverish concern about the earthly

welfare of future generations9 )or what are these childishly$sick daydreams and

raptures9 The day $$ is ours, the ages $$ are ours(%8C %*rotherhood such as is possible

and humaneness actually are recommended by oly Scripture, by the ew Testament,

for the salvation of the person's soul beyond the grave= but in the oly Scripturenowhere is it said, that by means of this humaneness people would arrive at a world of

prosperity. +hrist did not promise us this... This is untrue# +hrist commands, or

advises everyone to love their neighbours in the ame of @od, but on the other side,

e prophesies, that many will not obey im%.:D 1nd Leont'ev did not obey, he obeyed

only the prophecy about this, that the commandment of love would not be fulfilled,

and upon this prophecy rather than the commandment itself, he based his religion and

politics. e would have had to acknowledge, that the mysterious teaching of +hrist

concerning love was unacceptable and contrary. %1s regards the +hristian teaching,

voluntary abasement around the Lord is better and truer for the salvation of soul, than

this proud and impossible pretension of hourly lack of malice and minute by minute

oiliness. &any of the righteous preferred a withdrawing into the wilderness over

active love= there they prayed @odfirstlyfor their own soul, and then for other people=

many of them did this because 0uite correctly they did not hope upon themself and

they found, that repentance and prayer, i.e.fear and their own manner of abasementis

truer, than the pretension of worldly lack of malice, or than the self$confidence of

active lovein the multitudinous society. 3ven in monastic common$life communities,

experienced elders do not much allow themself to be transported away into an active

and fervent love, but first of all they teach obedience, lowliness, the passive

forgiveness of insults%

:!

...

Leont'ev elevated into a religious dogma his dark hatred for the world and for

people, and although secretly he had no love for people, nor about anything of the

sweetness of the world, he often naively displayed this half of his nature. e took to

the ultimate extreme the ancient teaching about @od as a ruler and master, gloomy and

chastising, and he reduced the relationship between man and @od exclusively to one

of fear and of submission. This is not a +hristian teaching, within it is forgotten the

idea of @od$manhood, of the intimate closeness and union of the ?ivine and the

human. )or the contemporary, for the new religious consciousness, both unacceptable

and horribly remote and terrible is the @od of Leont'ev, to which he proposes to servea black mass with his fanatical politics.

t has always appeared to me as blasphemous, hateful and base, every teaching

about @od as a ruling power, and about the human relationship to im $$ as

submission. "ower and submission are very dirty, very vile words, as much as any that

exist in human language. These words are taken from a very shameful area of human

life, and they want to adapt them to the verymost sacred and unutterable. The new
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man, anguished over the religious meaning of life, would not ever accept a religion of

might and fear, he finds accursed these dark signs from the past, which led him to the

torments of @od$struggling, he finds only attracting him a religion of freedom and yet

inexplicable love. The new religious consciousness, the so tormentedly desired

religious enaissance ought to transform within itself all the precious for us

experience of the new history# the already old enaissance, in which was begotten thenew man, and the rise of reason, and the declaration of the rights of man and citi-en of

the great revolution, and contemporary socialism and anarchism, and the revolt of

van Karama-ov and of iet-sche, and the falling into decadence, and the apparent

@od$struggling, and the thirst for boundless freedom. /e cannot still be pagans or

only +hristians in the historically limited sense of this world, we ought to emerge

forth from the contrary opposition of the religious thesis of paganism and the religious

antithesis of +hristianity, we want to love the world with a new love. /e

should accommodate the already great plenitude of revelation, that of the preceding

religious epochs. t is impossible to think out and fabricate a religion, it can only be

revealed, but the plenitude of religious revelation can be grasped only within the

expanse of the whole historical process, the soil for which is created by the endless

human experience, and therefore for religious creativity there is no limit. The new

mankind struggles against authority in religion, against theological despotism and

demonic darkness, the heroes of thought in this struggle went into the bonfires, and

we ought reverently to accept the legacy of this struggle. /e do not acknowledge any

sort of authority, any sort of external givenness binding for us in religion, but only our

inner mystical experience, by which we bind ourself with that, which was revealed in

the past, and our metaphysical mental reason, by which the religious experience is

transformed into religious teaching.

Leont'ev himself in much, in very much was the new man, but his distorted

nature led to this, that in religion and politics he made a genuine sadist of himself, he

confessed a cult of sensual torment and torture. The fanatical core and amidst this the

romantic reactionism of Leont'ev see to be in this, that he forgot and did not want to

know the most undoubtable truths of religious revelation, even in the religion of

+hrist also, $$ the immeasurable worth of the human person, the image and likeness of

@od, of the potential absolute, which is impossible to transform into a mere means.

e says much about the aesthetic love for individualness, but the trans$worldly

significance of all living individualness was for him foreign and unacceptable.Therefore for the world and for people with Leont'ev there was only evil and gloom,

coercion and fear. Leont'ev's philosophy of coercion and reaction ultimately reduces

itself to the following monstrous sophism# the Christian religion predicts the triumph

of evil in the world, consequently evil mustneeds be done, so that the predictions be

justified.


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laughed at the naivte of the Slavophils, but he deeply believed in and he worshipped

ussian statecraft, created under the influence of *y-antium and Tatarism.:8 1nd

Leont'ev becomes intoxicated by the state immoralism. %Iery fine people sometimes

dreadfully harm the state, if their political upbringing be false, and the +hichikovs and

police$inspectors of @ogol are sometimes incomparably more useful for their

purpose%.:: %1 certain degree of wickedness in politics is obligatory%:;... %n stateaffairs everyone is obliged to be if not crudely false, then wise, like a serpent... t is

impossible to build a political edifice either upon the flowing waters of material

interests, or upon the shifting sands of any sort of sentimental and stupid

liberalness%:>... %True +hristianity teaches, what sort of thing should not be, as

regards one's personal defects, and the earthly hierarchy, it is a reflection of the

heavenly%.:A %The state is obligated always to be dreadsome, sometimes harsh and

merciless, since society always and everywhere is too mercurial, wont to be poor of

thought and too emotional%.:B %t is necessary to temper our powers beforehand with

endurance and love for the sovereign powers, for but this only reason, that they are in

authority%:C... %/ithout coercive force $$ it is impossible. t is an untruth, that it be

possible to live without coercion... +oercion not only con0uers, it also persuades

many, when beyond them, beyond this coercion, is the idea%.;D %f wherein poetry and

+hristian morality fully coincide, this is so in suchlike incidents of unselfish

movements in the use of those at the top holding power%.;! %"arliamentarism does not

create leaders, but rather a real freedom, i.e. a certain degree of arbitrary self$

governance. t is necessary to know how to hold power shamelessly(%;7 Leont'ev

confessed a mysticism of power, he apotheosised the state, while the mystical

meaning of freedom was for him hidden, and in this was his disformity and distortion.

e did not wind up confessing his own aesthetic commandment# %t is befitting theartist to be a liberal under a domain of slavery= it would become him to be alibre

penseurunder an hypocritical khanate%. t is 0uite inconceivable, how this subtle

aesthete Leont'ev did not sense the harsh stench not only of coercive a domain, but

also of every state, always indeed monstrous, always besmeared with filth( 1nd to say

nothing about the empirical manifestations of our own *y-antine$Tatar domain, here

for the delights of it one must be bereft of the organs of smell. *ut herein present a

citation from Leont'ev, in which is expressed his revolutionary nature. e suddenly

makes of himself a defender of mystical anarchism,;8 and this is terribly important for

us.

e relates about two matters, the affair of the rogue Kurtin, who offered up his

own son by birth in sacrifice to @od, and the cossack Kuvaitsev, who dug up the

corpse of his beloved wife, cut off her fingers and hand and kept them with him under

a mattress. 1 civil court


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%external rules%, but neither the civil court, nor the so$called court of public opinion,

nor the police interrogation could exhaust the infinite rights of the personal spirit,;: to

the depths of which the general rules of law and the muddle of public opinion cannot

always reach. The


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certain sovereignty of power, bestowing and distributing these rights. The source

however of state power therein might be variously understood# one might see it in the

sovereign, unlimited will of the monarch,


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The theocratic variety of state positivism fell into being a sacrilegious sophism,

into so coarse a lie, that one is truck straight off, how could they endure it.

eactionary theocrats applied to the teaching about the state that, which was

applicable only to the teaching about the +hurch, and by this they diminished the

sanctity of the +hurch, they sought to seduce it with one of the temptations from the

devil in the wilderness, to which +hrist answered# %?epart from &e, Satan, since it iswritten# thou shalt worship the Lord thy @od and e alone shalt thou serve%. The

theocrats ought to have taught, that the Spirit of @od has resided in the +hurch, in a

mystical union of love, and to see in it only the soborno$catholic principle, ascendant

over the personal spirit, and in it only to worship the Lord its @od, but it is instead

wrought appertaining to the state and there it is worshipped as something in a

positivist union of coercion, and is yet otherwise, it is already not @od that is

worshipped, but rather the kingdom of this world and its prince. True theocracy can

preach only the replacement of the state by the +hurch, a casting down of the union of

coercion, of the kingdom of the prince of this world and the establishment instead of

an union of love, it can


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leads us beyond the bounds of the given world( 2nly love can place a limit to the

freedom of the personal spirit, but all however is a free love, all however is a

liberative spirit ultimately. @od $$ is absolutely existing freedom and love. "ower

however is fear derived from evil.

That which we have said about the state, ought to be applied also to the family,and to the other little leviathans. The personal spirit with infinite rights 4the concrete,

the living manifold of being5, the 1bsolute Spirit, the free and loving mystical union

of the multiplicity of individual spirits in the 2ne Spirit;B 4in this unity is attained the

absolute plenitude of being5 $$ only these three elements are


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being we ought and we desire to create culture, and not only a culture spiritual, but

also material. The metaphysical and religious significance of cultural progress is in

this, that only by its path can there be attained the ultimate freedom and plenitude of

universal being, in which each %personal spirit% possesses an %endless right%. n the

name of this mystical and romantic, mysteried end we cannot nor do we wish to

repudiate culture and progress.

%Liberal$egalitarian% progress can and ought to be affirmed and accepted

mystically and romantically, since its purpose is not in this, %that the )rench, the

@erman or the ussian bourgeoise in their ugly and comic attire might be smugly an

%individual% or a %collectivist% upon the ruins of past grandeur%... Leont'ev did not

understand the religio$metaphysical significance of the world$historical process, since

his religiosity was individual$ascetic. egarding the historical process, ultimately, he

held positivist views, and in him these views evoked a


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countenance is defined by the depths of the %personal spirit%, when that aberration

collapses, which was evoked by the material historical means.

n historical aristocracy there were noble features of the highest human type for

those times, for which, we confess, we foster a romantic weakness, but these features

have been deformed too much, and in the bourgeoise they have ultimately vanished.Terrible and tragic be this $$ that the democratic progress as it were lowers the human

type, leads to a crumbling, a weakening of cultural creativity. This is the obverse side

of democratic fairness, in view of which it is impossible to look upon democratic

culture as a goal or end. "rogress and culture are antinomic, here is the tragic

contradiction, from which there is no empirical egress. *ut in any case one might

think, that after the epoch of democratic fairness, after the socialist epoch of the

organisation of human sustainance there ought to ensue a new, a free aristocratic

epoch, which it is necessary to prepare for already now, not in counter$action to

democracy and socialism, but in the fulfilling of their destiny.

/e are not adherents of individualistic asceticism, because we cannot be

indifferent to the organisation of the material culture of mankind. eal science and

experience indeed do not prompt us for the ensuing historical period with other ways

of the organisation of material life, other than the collectivisation of production and

the corresponding change of the forms of ownership. &arxism has said much that is

correct about the capabilities of the struggle of mankind with %nature% and about the

reflection of this struggle in the material order of life. 1nd we ought to accept the

truth of socialism, so as by this itself to contend against the pseudo$religious pathos of

socialism, against the cult of social democratism as ends, and not for a time mere

means. The collective material and corporeal life of mankind will cease to be petty

and drab only then, when it is rendered religio$aesthetic, when there is brought back

into our new culture a collective mystical sense of past religious epochs and con


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ikolai *erdyaev.

!CD;

7DD> by translator )r. S. Ganos

4!CD: $ !7D48,!;5 $ en5

K. L32T'3I $ "L2S2" 31KTS22 2&1TK. )irst published in

Gournal %Ioprosy -hi-ni%, o.A, !CD;, p. !>;$!CB. *erdyaev reused the article as

+hapter !; in his !CDA book, %Sub specie aeternitatis% 4&. I. "iro-hkov, St.

"eterburg5, which has been subse0uently reprinted in year 7DD7, Kanon, &oskva,

article p. 8:7$8A8. Iide also *erdyaev's later book, %Leontiev%, published ussian

!C7> &K1 "ress "aris, and 3nglish translation !C:D London @eoffrey *les,

subse0uently reprinted in limited and rather expensive editions.

1rticle reprinted and included by J&+1 "ress "aris in !CBC in the *erdiaev

+ollection# Tipy religio-noi mysli v ossiiM, 4Tom 5, p. !:;$!AB.

! n the Slavophil camp there were outstanding thinkers, as for example Khomyakov,

but the old Slavophils were only half$wise conservative and in any case not

reactionary. The generations succeeding them in this were insignificant and pitiful.

7

Iide# K. Leont'ev. %Iostok, ossiya i Slavyanstvo% 4%The 3ast, ussia andSlavism%5, t. , p. CB.

8bid., p. !D;.

:bid., p. !:;.

;bid., p. !:>.

>bid., p. !>:.

Abid., p. 7>;.

Bbid., p. 7B8.

Cbid., p. 7C:.

!Dbid., p. 8DD.
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!!Iide# K. Leont'ev. %Iostok, ossiya i Slavyantsvo%, t. , p. 8B.

!7bid., p. 8C.

!8bid., p. 8C.

!:bid., p. ;D.

!;bid., p. ;>.

!>bid., p. AD.

!Abid., p. B!.

!Bbid., p. C8.

!Cbid., p. C;.

7Dbid., p. !::.

7!bid., p. !;:.

77bid., p. !;A.

78bid., p. 7!8.

7:bid., p. 7!;.

7;bid., p. 7!>.

7>bid., p. 7!C.

7Abid., p. 8B7.

7Bbid., p. !8A.

7Cbid., p. !:8.

8Dbid., p. !::.

8!/ithin +hapter , %"erson and Society%, of my book, %Sub


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87n defiance to the philanthropists Leont'ev says# %deas do not possess an human

heart. deas are inexorable and harsh, since essentially they are nothing other, than

clear or obscured conscious laws of nature and history%. t. , p. 7;. Such confused

assertions are possible only in the mouths of the most naive materialists and

positivists.

88Iide K. Leont'ev. %The 3ast, ussia and Slavism%, t. , p. !BD.

8:bid., p. 7!;.

8;bid., p. 77:.

8>bid., p. 7>C.

8Abid., p. 7AD.

8Bbid., p. 7B;.

8Cbid., p. 7CD.

:Dbid., p. 8DD.

:!bid., p. 8D!.

:7Iide# K. Leont'ev. %The 3ast, ussia and Slavism%, t. , p. CB.

:8%We have squandered much, we have wrought little in spirit and we stand at our

sort of terrifying limit%... p.!BB. These are terrible words.

::bid., p. !D8.

:;bid., p. 7::.

:>bid., p. 7;A.

:AIide K. Leont'ev. %The 3ast, ussia and Slavism%, t. , p. :!.

:Bbid., p. :8.

:Cbid., p. :B.

;Dbid., p. BD.
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;!bid., p. 7AB.

;7bid., p. !>A.

;8 utilise this expression not in that specialised meaning, which it now has received

with the %mystical anarchists%.

;:talics mine.

;;Iide K. Leont'ev. %The 3ast, ussia and Slavism%, t. , p. !A.

;>bid., p. !B.

;A i.e. anarchism upon a religious, and not a positivist ground.

;B

i.e. the +hurch, and not the state.

;CTo avoid misunderstanding it ought to be said, that use here the word %spirit% not

in its opposition to %flesh%, but as an acceptable signification of metaphysical concrete

being, which in full acknowledge as spiritu$fleshly. n philosophic terminology the

concept of %spiritualism% possesses a completely different significance, than it has in

the religio$cultural and moral problematics of asceticism. am a resolute adherent of

philosophic spiritualism or pan$psychism, and together with this also at enmity with

religious and moral spiritualism, i.e. asceticism.
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