Страшный 1918-й

Философические письма. Русско-европейский диалог. 2025. Т. 8. № 3. С. 11–36.

Kantor V.

In his article, the author examines one of the most diffi cult eras for Russia. Not only had the First World War just ended, but the Spanish flu pandemic swept across Europe, taking more lives than the clashes of armies, then in 1918, at Lenin’s call, Russian radicals turned the imperialist war into the nightmare of the Civil War, Western countries, as always, dreamed of tearing away some piece of territory from Russia. In the redistribution of the world that had begun, a weakened Russia was clearly losing. One of the best novels about this era was Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The White Guard.” The heroes experience the civil war in Kyiv. Kyiv before the revolution, and the fi rst years after, was one of the intellectual capitals of Russia, from where the greatest Russian thinkers and writers came. From March 1917 to June 1920, power in the city changed fourteen times. Some of the Kyiv coups of that time were relatively bloodless, while others cost the lives of many Kyivans. The cavorting of rulers since 1917 — Bolsheviks, nationalists, Germans, Poles, Petliurists — was a kind of mini-Armageddon. Mark Aldanov called his 1918 book “Armageddon.” The article also examines other very important works of that year — “The Twelve” by Blok, “Mystery Buff” by Mayakovsky, and “The Apocalypse of Our Time” by Vasily Rozanov. It is these texts that give an idea of that time. The author shows how Russian culture interpreted the horror that befell it.

Keywords: Платон, Plato, Василий Розанов, Маяковский, Блок, Mayakovsky, Campanella, Vasily Rozanov, Булгаков, Bulgakov, starry sky, звездное небо, Алданов, Aldanov, Blok, ark, Kant’s formula, ковчег, формула Канта, Кампанелла

Publication based on the results of: National philosophy and culture: spiritual and moral values (2025)