The article continues the cycle of publications devoted to Russian philosophical journalism during the October revolution (1917-1922). The subject of research is the formation of the perspective of Bolshevism and its socio-philosophical analysis in the journal “Russkaya Mysl” of the first two years (1920-1921) after the resumption of its activities abroad. The author's interest in this story arose from the fact that a century has passed from the heyday of Russian religious-philosophical thought, and also that the revival of this issue can serve as the starting point of a philosophical renewal in our country, reviving thus the pathos of Patriotic wisdom. On the basis of publications of P. M. Bitsilli, K. I. Zaitseva, P. N. Savitsky, P. B. Struve, and others, the authors demonstrate the ambiguity of the understanding of Bolshevism and the attitude of the Russian intellectual élite in exile. The most important part of the study is the one where we are talking about a fundamental inability of Russian intellectuals, educated in the spirit of bourgeois enlightenment and classical academism, to give an adequate assessment of the events that was meaningful and different from what characterized classical Western scholarship. So the description of the dynamics of Russian society three to four decades preceding the revolution did not give the true picture of the social processes taking place in the country. Because Bolshevism was a phenomenon generated by the paradox of sociopolitical processes, it can be understood only in the context of the exciting non-triviality of its event horizon.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)57-68
Number of pages12
JournalVestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo Universiteta, Filosofiia i Konfliktologiia
Volume34
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2018

    Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Religious studies
  • Cultural Studies

    Research areas

  • Bolshevism, Class, Event horizon, Historiosophy, Philosophy, Revolution, Socialism, The bourgeoisie, The dynamics of civilization, The peasantry, The proletariat, The Soviet government

ID: 42880157