Nikolai A. Berdyaev - Vekhi: Landmarks

Vekhialso known under the English title Landmarks or Signpostsis a collection of essays first published in Moscow in 1909. Writing from various points of view, the authors reflect the experience of Russias failed 1905 revolutiona failure to be blamed not only on the repressive forces of the autocracy but also on the intellectual bankruptcy of the intelligentsia and the Russian nation's inability to use freedom constructively. They saw as their task the construction of the moral, religious, philosophical underpinnings of a new, liberal order in Russia.

Condemned by Lenin, rediscovered by dissidents, and widely circulated in post-Soviet Russia today, the Vekhi essays have tremendous resonance. This new edition of Shatz and Zimmermans highly praised translation will afford invaluable insights to anyone who wants to grasp the terms of discussion in the postrevolutionary Russia of today.

NIKOLAI
BERDIAEV

SERGEI
BULGAKOV

MIKHAIL
GERSHENZON

A. S.
IZGOEV

BOGDAN
KISTIAKOVSKII

PETR
STRUVE

SEMEN
FRANK

Translated and edited by
MARSHALL S. SHATZ
and
JUDITH E. ZIMMERMAN

With a Foreword by
MARC RAEFF

First published 1994 by M.E. Sharpe

Published 2015 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vekhi. English.
Vekhi = Landmarks / [Nikolai Berdiaev et al.]; translated by
Marshall S. Shatz and Judith E. Zimmerman; with a foreword
by Marc Raeff.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Philosophical verity and intelligentsia truth / Nikolai
BerdiaevHeroism and asceticism (reflections on the religious
nature of the Russian intelligentsia) / Sergei BulgakovCreative
self-consciousness / Mikhail GershenzonOn educated youth (notes
on its life and sentiments / A.S. IzgoevIn defense of law (the
intelligentsia and legal consciousness) / Bogdan KistiakovskiiThe
intelligentsia and revolution / Petr StruveThe ethic of
nihilism (a characterization of the Russian intelligentsias moral
outlook) / Semen Frank.
ISBN 1563243903 ISBN 1563243911
1. RussiaIntellectual life18011917. 2. IntellectualsRussia.
I. Berdiaev, Nikolai, 18741948. II. Shatz, Marshall S.
III. Zimmerman, Judith E. IV. Title. V. Title: Landmarks.
DK255.V4413 1994
001.10947dc20 9426039
CIP

ISBN 13: 9781563243912 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 9781563243905 (hbk)

Marc Raeff

Marshall S. Shatz and Judith E. Zimmerman

Nikolai Berdiaev

Sergei Bulgakov

Mikhail Gershenzon

A. S. Izgoev

Bogdan Kistiakovskii

Petr Struve

Semen Frank

An orthodoxy that has long held sway over the values and ideas of an intellectual elite will eventually wear itself out and lose its power to shape societys public life. This is especially the case when the society has undergone a rapid and profound transformation under the impact of such forces as scientific discoveries, new values and interests from abroad, changing aesthetic styles and spiritual needs, economic innovation, political upheaval. The resulting sense of dissatisfaction and unease will spur some among the intellectual leadership to put on a new thinking cap, to quote Alfred North Whitehead. Such a change occurred in Western Europe and the United States after World War I and again in the 1960s; we are witnessing a similar development today in the former Soviet world.

A new thinking cap cannot be created ex nihilo, however. It has to make use of available fabrics and patterns, some of them drawn from older traditions. Even so, it may not be immediately and universally accepted; many will reject it as alien or subversive. In some instances the new ideas advanced by an intellectual avant-garde will be forced underground, only to be rediscovered and put to use by later generations. Such was the fate of the ideas and values propounded by the authors of Vekhi, or Landmarks, a collection of essays published in Moscow in 1909, during another time of intellectual crisis.

Why did some of the leading intellectuals in Russia feel the need for a new way of thinking in 1909? The informative introduction to this excellent translation of Vekhi by Marshall S. Shatz and Judith E. Zimmerman gives the essential facts of the collections origins and reception. Here I would like to offer only a few general reflections.

At the turn of the present century the majority of Russias intellectual elitethe intelligentsiahad failed to adjust its mentalit to the far-reaching social and economic changes brought about in the 1860s and 1870s by the Great Reforms of the reign of Alexander II, in particular the emancipation of the serfs. Without venturing a critical assessment of the accomplishments, as well as the failures, of the Great Reforms, it may be said that, as a result, by 1900 Russian society had undergone a radical transformation, and its rapid momentum had not slowed down as yet. On the other hand, the intelligentsias basic outlook had remained very much a pre-reform one, rooted in the simple-minded belief in a scientism that was now challenged by new orientations in the natural sciences. It had also remained uncritically beholden to what Leonard Schapiro called the mystique of revolution, a single-minded dedication to the overthrow of autocracy without giving much thought to constructive alternatives. In a sense the intelligentsias rigidity of thought was due to its rejection of the liberal solutions and compromises demanded by a society rapidly developing industrial capitalism with its attendant economic and social complexities. Paradoxically, although the traditional intelligentsias outlook had been shaped under the influence of West European ideas and experiences, there was a refusal to accept the aesthetic and philosophic innovations (symbolism, neo-Kantianism, pragmatism) that were flowing in from Europe and America. These new currents rejected the philosophic assumptions of materialist positivism and proclaimed the primacy of an idealist metaphysics and a revolutionary aesthetics and science. What most shocked Russias radical intelligentsia, however, was the revival of religious concerns on the one hand and respect for legal and national values on the other.