Description
Russian Revolution by Nicolas Berdyaev offers a profound psychological exploration of the revolution and its implications for both religious and antireligious Russian sentiment. Initially published in 1931 by Sheed and Ward and republished in 1961, this work delves into the transformation of Holy Russia into a hub of militant atheism. Berdyaev examines the historical and psychological factors that made the Russian people, deeply religious by their nature, fertile ground for communist and atheistic ideologies. The book discusses the influence of the seventeenth-century religious schism (Raskol) within the Russian Church, the effects of Peter the Great's reforms, and the rise of nineteenth-century Russian intellectuals and Nihilists, who were often clerical sons or from the aristocratic class. Berdyaev highlights the paradoxes in Russian atheism, which often retained a religious psychology directed toward social ideals. This comprehensive analysis includes the role of key figures such as Bielinsky, Dobroliubov, Chernyshevsky, Lenin, and Tolstoy, and discusses the transition from Russian Nihilism and atheism to Marxist Communism. Berdyaev's work is a critical resource for understanding the spiritual and psychological underpinnings of the Russian Revolution.