The flow of ideas : Russian thought from the enlightenment to the religious-philosophical renaissance

880 Pages·2014·5.82 MB·English

by  Andrzej Walicki & Cain Elliott & Hilda Andrews-Rusiecka & Jolanta Kozak

Andrzej Walicki
The Flow of Ideas
Russian Thought from the Enlightenment
to the Religious-Philosophical Renaissance
7
EASTERN EUROPEAN CULTURE,
POLITICS AND SOCIETIES
This history of Russian thought was first published in Polish in 1973 and sub-
sequently appeared 2005 in a revised and expanded publication. The current
volume begins with Enlightenment thought and Westernization in Russia in the
17th century and moves to the religious-philosophical renaissance of first decade
of the 20th century. This book provides readers with an exhaustive account of re-
lationships between various Russian thinkers with an examination of how those
thinkers relate to a number of figures and trends in Western philosophy and in
the broader history of ideas.
Andrzej Walicki is a Polish historian, Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre
Dame (USA) and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He specializes in
the history of Polish and Russian philosophy, Marxism, and liberal thought, and
is associated with the Warsaw School of the History of Ideas. Walicki is the author
of over twenty books.
The Flow of Ideas
EASTERN EUROPEAN CULTURE,

POLITICS AND SOCIETIES
Edited by Irena Grudzińska-Gross
and Andrzej W. Tymowski

VOLUME 7
Andrzej Walicki

The Flow of Ideas
Russian Thought from the Enlightenment
to the Religious-Philosophical Renaissance

Translated by Jolanta Kozak and Hilda Andrews-Rusiecka
Editorial Work by Cain Elliott
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the
internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walicki, Andrzej.
[Zarys mysli rosyjskiej. English]
The flow of ideas : Russian thought from the enlightenment to the religious-
philosophical renaissance / Andrzej Walicki ; translated by Jolanta Kozak and
Hilda Andrews-Rusiecka ; editorial work by Cain Elliott. – 1 [edition].
pages cm. – (Eastern European culture, politics, and societies,
ISSN 2192-497X ; Volume 7)
ISBN 978-3-631-63668-8
1. Philosophy, Russian–History. I. Title.
B4201.W3513 2014
197–dc23
2014032548

This is an academic study financed by the National Programme for
the Development of Humanities of the Ministry of Science
and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland in 2012-2013.
This publication reflects solely the views of the author.
The Ministry cannot be held responsible for any use which
may be made of the information contained therein.
Cover illustration: Magdalena H. Gross

ISSN 2192-497X
ISBN 978-3-631-63668-8 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-04270-2 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-04270-2
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2015
All rights reserved.
Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH.
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utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to
prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions,
translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in
electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
www.peterlang.com
Contents

Author’s Note ........................................................................................ 13
Introductory Remarks ............................................................................ 19

PART I. FROM THE ENLIGHTENMENT TO ROMANTICISM ..................... 27

Chapter 1: Trends and Tendencies in Enlightenment Thought ..... 29
Introductory Remarks: The Paradoxes of Westernization .................... 30
Catherine II and Enlightenment Philosophy ......................................... 43
The Emergence of Professional Enlightenment Philosophy................. 52
Nikolai Novikov and Freemasonry ....................................................... 57
Mikhail Shcherbatov and the Aristocratic Opposition ......................... 69

Chapter 2: The Culmination of the Enlightenment in Russia:
Aleksandr Radishchev ........................................................................ 79
Radishchev’s Life .................................................................................. 79
Radishchev’s Social Philosophy ........................................................... 83
Radishchev’s Views on Ethics and Education ...................................... 88
Radical Reform or Revolution? ............................................................ 90
The Treatise on Immortality ................................................................. 93

Chapter 3: Political Philosophy in the Age of Alexander I ............. 97
Projects of International Order .............................................................. 100
The Liberal Conceptions ....................................................................... 106
Nikolai Karamzin and Conservatism .................................................... 112
The Decembrists .................................................................................... 118
The Northern Society ...................................................................... 119
Nikolai Turgenev ............................................................................ 122
The Southern Society ...................................................................... 123
The Society of United Slavs............................................................ 126
The Decembrist Philosophy of Russian History ............................. 127
The Decembrists’ Place in the History Of Russian Thought ......... 129

Chapter 4: Anti-Enlightenment Trends in the Early
Nineteenth Century ............................................................................. 131
Mysticism .............................................................................................. 132
The Ideology of an Anti-Philosophical Crusade ................................... 134
The Wisdom-Lovers and Russian Schellingianism .............................. 136
6
Ivan Kireevsky’s Young Years, or the West-Inclined Version of
Philosophial Romanticism .................................................................... 143

PART II. THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I ................................................... 145

Chapter 5: Petr Chaadaev and Religious Westernism .................... 147
Chaadaev’s Metaphysics and Philosophy of History............................ 148
Russia’s Past and Future ....................................................................... 151
Chaadaev’s First Philosophical Letter ............................................ 151
Apology of A Madman ................................................................... 154
Toward Ecumenism .............................................................................. 156
Chaadaev’s Place in Russian Intellectual History ................................ 158
Converts of The Age of Nicholas:
Ivan Gagarin and Vladimir Pecherin .................................................... 159

Chapter 6: The Slavophiles and Other Versions of Anti-Westernism 167
The Slavophile Philosophy of History and Social Ideals ..................... 168
The Concept of the “Integral Personality” and “New Principles in
Philosophy” ........................................................................................... 174
Slavophile Ecclesiology ........................................................................ 179
Slavophilism as Conservative Utopianism ........................................... 183
The Ideology of “Official Nationality” ................................................. 186
Tyutchev’s Imperial Vision................................................................... 191
The Evolution of Slavophilism at the Time of Great Reforms ............. 194

Chapter 7: The Russian Hegelians: From “Reconciliation with
Reality” To “Philosophy of Action” .................................................. 201
Nikolai Stankevich ................................................................................ 202
Mikhail Bakunin .................................................................................... 204
Vissarion Belinsky ................................................................................ 206
Philosophical Evolution .................................................................. 207
Aesthetic and Literary Critical Views............................................. 212
Aleksandr Herzen .................................................................................. 215

Chapter 8: Belinsky and Different Variants of Westernism........... 223
Belinsky’s Westernism.......................................................................... 224
Ancient and Modern Russia ............................................................ 224
Narodnost’ And Natsional’nost’ In Literature ............................... 226
The Polemic with Maikov ............................................................... 230
The Dispute over Capitalism .......................................................... 232
7
The Liberal Westernizers ...................................................................... 234
Timotei Granovsky ......................................................................... 235
Konstantin Kavelin ......................................................................... 236
Boris Chicherin .............................................................................. 237

Chapter 9: The Petrashevtsy .............................................................. 241
Social and Political Ideas of the Petrashevtsy ....................................... 241
Philosophical Ideas of the Petrashevtsy ................................................ 246

Chapter 10: The Origins of “Russian Socialism” ............................ 251
The Evolution of Herzen’s Views ......................................................... 251
The Crisis of Belief ......................................................................... 251
The Concept of “Russian Socialism” .............................................. 254
The Destiny of the “Old World” ..................................................... 260
Freedom and Necessity ................................................................... 264
To an Old Comrade ......................................................................... 268
Nikolai Ogarev ...................................................................................... 273

PART III. SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES OF THE REFORM
AND COUNTERREFORM PERIOD .......................................................... 277

Chapter 11: Nikolai Chernyshevsky and the “Enlighteners” of
the Sixties ............................................................................................ 279
Chernyshevsky’s Anthropological Materialism ................................... 282
Biographical Note ........................................................................... 282
Aesthetics ........................................................................................ 286
The Anthropological Principle ........................................................ 290
Russia’s Future Development ......................................................... 293
Chernyshevsky’s Place in the History of Russian Thought ............ 295
Nikolai Dobroliubov and the Dispute over the “Superfluous Men” .... 299
Dmitry Pisarev and “Nihilism” ............................................................. 306
Critics of the “Enlighteners”: Apollon Grigoriev and
Nikolai Strakhov ................................................................................... 312
Reactions to the “Enlighteners” in Spiritual Academies:
Pamphil Yurkevich and Fyodor Bukharev ........................................... 318

Chapter 12: Conservative Ideologies after the Land Reform ........ 329
Mikhail Katkov ..................................................................................... 331
Ivan Aksakov and Nikolai Danilevsky ................................................. 337
Konstantin Pobedonostsev .................................................................... 345
8
Konstantin Leontiev .............................................................................. 348

Chapter 13: Populist Ideologies ......................................................... 359
Introduction ........................................................................................... 359
From “Go to the People” to the “People’s Will” .................................. 362
Petr Lavrov ............................................................................................ 372
Biographical Note ........................................................................... 372
The Historical Letters ...................................................................... 374
Sociological Conceptions ................................................................ 378
Petr Tkachev .......................................................................................... 381
Nikolai Mikhailovsky ............................................................................ 388
Theory of Progress .......................................................................... 388
The “Struggle for Individuality” ..................................................... 398
The Social Content of Mikhailovsky’s Sociological Theory ......... 401
Nikolai Chaikovsky Aánd Godmanhood ............................................. 403

Chapter 14: Anarchism ...................................................................... 413
Mikhail Bakunin .................................................................................... 414
Biographical Note ........................................................................... 414
Bakunin’s Philosophical Views ...................................................... 419
Bakunin’s Social Philosophy ......................................................... 424
Petr Kropotkin ....................................................................................... 430
Biographical Note ........................................................................... 430
Kropotkin’s Philosophy of History ................................................. 432
Kropotkin’s Vision of the Future .................................................... 436
Revolution as the Test ..................................................................... 441

Chapter 15: Boris Chicherin and Conservative Liberalism ........... 447
The Tasks of Liberalism in Russia ........................................................ 449
Philosophy of the State .......................................................................... 456
Philosophy of Law ................................................................................ 460
Metaphysics and the Philosophy of History ......................................... 465
Chicherin’s Place in the History of Russian Thought ........................... 468

Chapter 16: Between Populism and Marxism.................................. 471
Plekhanov’s Road to Marxism .............................................................. 474
Aleksandr Ulianov ................................................................................ 482
“Legal Populism”: Vassily Vorontsov and Nikolai Danielson ............ 484