The Russian revolution of 1917 according to F.A. Stepun

The aim of the paper is to study the historical and religious views of the Russian religious thinker F.A. Stepun (1884-1965) about the Russian revolution of 1917. The relevance of the subject is proved, its insufficient study despite systematic researchers' interest in his works is emphasized. Sources main of which being Stepun's works and his epistolary heritage are analyzed. The peculiarities of his research strategy combining actually scientific methods of cognition, first of all a critical method, and basic provisions of religious symbolism connected with the history Christian paradigm are considered. The principle belief for his works about the Christianity universality as a living faith, having defined the look of the European civilization to which he attributed Russia as Eastern Europe, is emphasized. His theoretical postulates about the world development orientation, the historical Russian mentality conditionally, asynchrony of the sociocultural modernization of Russia and Europe are touched upon. Such theoretical postulates connected with his Christian beliefs as "historical destiny", "collegiality", "fall" are viewed. Stepun's interest in urgent present problems, his aspiration to avoid abstractedness in historical and theoretical constructions is emphasized. Based on the analysis, the conclusion about his belonging to the historical tendency of "intellectual history" in the definition of the Russian thought historian M.M. Karpovich is proved for the first time. It's necessary to take into account the religious orientation of Stepun's revolution concept. The complexity of his views on "February" and "October" is focused, his objective conclusion about the stages continuity of the revolution of 1917 is emphasized. Its backgrounds and reasons not allowing to consider it as a political coup are discussed. The importance of World War I to start revolution and its stylistics is particularly stressed. The positive Stepun's attitude to the February revolution, him to treat the defeat as a breakdown of the democratic alternative in Russia, is reviewed. His ideas of the Bolshevism that he strictly differentiated considering as a "national fall" and at the same time as a political system are analyzed. Substantially recognizing the Bolshevism as the national phenomenon, Fyodor Stepun yet critically regarded attempts to embed the Bolshevism as a political system to the tradition of the Russian authority. So critically he perceived those explanatory versions of the Bolshevism ignored a long tradition of the Russian liberation movement not being reduced to the Bolshevism. The positive Stepun's evaluation of the February revolution which democratic ideals were considered as viable and important for further Russian development is specially pointed out in the paper. The conclusion about the content and the relevance of Stepun's concept of the Russian revolution of 1917 in the conditions of the civil society formation in modern Russia is drawn.

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