Николай Бердяев и Жозеф де Местр

Вопросы философии. 2025. № 9. С. 92–102.

Parsamov V.

The name of Joseph de Maistre appears in Berdyaev’s writings throughout his entire oeuvre. The peak of his interest in this thinker falls on the revolution and the first years of emigration. At the center of the article is Berdyaev’s review of the works of French scholars Georges Goyau and Émile Dermengem, contem­porary to him, in which de Mestre appeared as a mystic and an idealist, a pacifist and a liberal conservative, and the author of an original historiosophic concept. These works were important for Berdyaev in two ways. Firstly, a number of points of intersection of the historical metaphysical and epistemological views of these two philosophers were discovered. Both were characterized by the idea­lization of the Middle Ages and calls for a spiritual reaction against the revolu­tion. Both were fascinated by mysticism and the occult sciences and opposed monism. Secondly, the ideas of French researchers became a theoretical basis for Berdyaev in the controversy that unfolded in emigrant circles around the role of Freemasons and Jews in the Russian revolution. The Russian Сhernosotency spread myths about Masonic conspiracies, in which Berdyaev played a leading role. De Maistre’s polemic with Abbé Barruel, as presented by Dermengem, be­came a good experience for Berdyaev to reflect on such accusations. Der­mengem’s works, if not influenced Berdyaev, then at any rate were a confirma­tion of his ideas about de Mestre not as a conservative, looking into the past, but as an original thinker who prepared the further movement of philosophical thought of the 19th century and remained relevant in the 20th century.

Keywords: revolution, мистика, масонство, mysticism, freemasonry, Ж. де Местр, N. Berdyaev, революция, J. de Maistre, Н.Я. Бердяев, черносотенцы

Publication based on the results of: War and Post-War Peace in the Russian Empire and the USSR (2025)