Russian revolution of 1917 and modernization: Nikolai Berdyaev on some aspects of the revolution in Russia

The aim of the paper is to cover some aspects of Nikolai Berdyaev's (1874-1948) concept on the Russian revolution of 1917 in connection with the problem of Russian cultural modernization in the 20th century. The relevance of the appeal to this part of his ideological and theoretical heritage containing the richest material whose study is necessary for a profound understanding of the premises, character and ambiguous consequences of the revolution caused by a complex interaction of the international and endogenous factors of the development is emphasized. The peculiarities of Berdyaev's research strategy cross-disciplinary in character combining actually scientific methods of knowledge and basic provisions of religious symbolism connected with a Christian paradigm of history are considered. Heuristic opportunities of this approach allowed him to bring about the systematic sociocultural analysis of the Russian revolution of 1917, innovative for the time, to broaden the problem field of the research, to take into account many factors of the revolution and its polysemantic character. In particular, he was able to reveal the significance of historically formed people's mental features, both positive and negative, that affected in their dialectical interaction many peculiarities of the revolution and Soviet modernization caused by it. Special attention is paid to covering the mixed factor of the Russian Orthodox Church as part of the revolution reasons. Being a Christian thinker, Berdyaev considered this event in the light of a historical process problem. His aspiration to reveal negative and positive demonstrations and results of the Russian revolution of 1917 in their dialectic unity is emphasized to have been defined by his belief in the relation of this event to the Christian period of history. Berdyaev, like some other Russian thinkers, for example, Stepun, is noted to consider "February" and "October" as parts of an indivisible revolutionary process; he paid special attention to the October revolution and believed in its universal significance. Berdyaev's ideas of the Soviet modernization caused by the revolution, his connecting its specificity with the communistic ideology, are covered. In the conditions of the international integration deepening his aspiration to consider modernization inevitability in the world is noticed. Along with it, the importance of his theoretical provision on the asynchrony of social and cultural modernization of Russia and Europe that should be considered in the analysis of the Soviet modernization version is emphasized. Berdyaev's positive evaluation of social consequences of the revolution in Russia, above all, the abolition of man by man exploitation and the mission of the historical masses activity is particularly pointed out in the paper. At the same time the thinker is noted not to have put the value problem of the Soviet achievements as an acute one. A conclusion about the content, the relevance and scientific significance of Berdyaev's concept on the Russian revolution of 1917 is drawn.

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