“I see history in the eschatological perspective...”: N.A. Berdyaev about Soviet Russia in his late work period (1939-1948)

The aim of the article is to study Berdyaev's historical and religious views about Soviet Russia concerning his late work period. There is a modern researchers' interest in his oeuvre. The relevance of the subject is proved. The sources are analyzed, basis of which are Berdyaev's works, written in 1930-1940, as well as the thinker's ego-documents and his contemporaries. The peculiarities of Berdyaev's methodology being cross-disciplinary in character, within which the achievements of various social sciences and humanities were combined on the basis of mutual complementarity, are considered. The key significance for his religious symbolism methodology as a cognition method related to a Christian paradigm of history is pointed out. For Berdyaev's work the importance of the cultural and historical context peculiar to 1930-1940 is emphasized. The large-scale conflicts of the first half of the 20th century including two world wars and the Russia revolution of 1917 consolidated his view of the European civilization systemic crisis which he regarded not as a historical impasse, but as a growth crisis presumed finding ways to overcome it. Following the eschatological understanding of Christianity, emphasizing the idea of transforming the world, associating the Russian idea with it, being a supporter of personalist socialism, Berdyaev offered his vision of the Soviet construction in the light of the Christian ideas complex with the dominant idea in the history orientation towards the formation of a new society. The complexity of his approach to Soviet Russia connected with his desire to take into account the world development trends in the 20th century, due to the technological civilization formation with its characteristic development of science and technology, mass production, mass society, the increasing state role, is emphasized. It is noted the significance of Berdyaev's ideas complex for his interpretation of various Soviet reality angles whether Soviet industrialization or Soviet etatism is. The positive and negative aspects of Soviet society identified by him are analysed, and his ideas of the dialectic unity is discussed. His thoughts about occurred revolution in Soviet Russia between 1930-1940 are considered. The consequences he touched upon both negative, especially repression, and positive, contributed to the normalization of the Soviet people lives, are covered. As proposed by Berdyaev, positive achievements of Soviet Russia promoted the growth of its international authority are noted. The negative significance for the post-war world of “block thinking” is pointed out. In his opinion, the main obstacle to the exposure of the Soviet system positive potential was the freedom repression in the USSR. The conclusion about the content and relevance of the concept of the Russian revolution in 1917 and Berdyaev's Soviet history, despite the controversial type of his conclusions and assessments, is made.

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