The Role of Symbolism in Nikolai Berdyaev's Philosophy of History

This article analyzes the historiosophical system of Nikolai Berdyaev. The author proceeds from the following facts: (1) Berdyaev consciously builds his philosophy of history as a metaphysics of history, which implies the existence of spiritual realities and, in particular, spiritual history ("heavenly history") encompassing both the history of space (natural history) and the history of mankind; (2) Berdyaev believes that the driver of the historical process is heavenly history, which can manifest itself either directly (the incarnation of God) or indirectly through actions of people who, in their existential depth, come into contact with spiritual reality (and therefore with heavenly history); (3) Berdyaev views the history of mankind as the history of human destinies; (4) Berdyaev strives to reveal the meaning or meanings of the historical process. Using Michel Pastoureau's idea of the need to study symbolic history understood as a study of the figurative representations of people about various cultural phenomena, the concept "symbolic history" is conceptualized in relation to Berdyaev's philosophical and historical system. The article analyzes Berdyaev's understanding of the concept "symbol" and the presence of the concept "symbolic" in his philosophical system. In this context, the concepts "objectivization" and "realization", as well as two types of symbolization, "idealistic" and "realistic", are examined. A parallel is drawn between the symbolic interpretation of Berdyaev's philosophy of history and Plato's metaphysical conception. The conclusion is made that the Russian philosopher modernizes the system of his great predecessor by introducing the concepts "history" and "personality" into the philosophical system of the latter, and by recognizing a historical being in a person. The similarity of Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's concept "symbolic universe" and the symbolic interpretation of Berdyaev's philosophy of history its public dimension is noted. The conclusion is drawn on the advisability of conceptualizing the concept "symbolic history". Based on this, two aspects of the existential being of a person in history are revealed in Berdyaev's historiosophical system, and specifically in the history of human destinies: the existential sufferer (a person as a passive participant in history) and the existential creator (a person as an active participant in history). The latter aspect is associated with the meaning-constructing dimension of a person's historical being; due to this dimension, specific people and society as a whole have an idea of the "historical" in general and about its individual phenomena, and this "historical" may differ from reliable positive historical facts. The author refers to this dimension as the symbolic aspect of Berdyaev's philosophy of history.

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