Russian Intellectual History

Собрание сочинений Александра Сергеевича Глинки (Волжского) (1878-1940), "волжского идеалиста", друга и корреспондента С.Н. Булгакова, М.А. Новосёлова, П.А. Флоренского, В.В. Розанова, является первым полным и комментированным переизданием его работ. В Книгу I Собрания сочинений вошли ранние работы А.С. Глинки "Два очерка об Успенском и Достоевском" и "Очерки о Чехове", статьи и реценизии 1902-1905 гг. Для широкого круга читателей, интересующихся историей русской мысли.

"Вторую и наиболее важную книгу сборника «Сергей Дурылин и его время» составили малоизвестные работы Сергея Дурылина «Вагнер и Россия», «Судьба Лермонтова», «Жалостник», «Грех земле», «Об ангелах», «Сладость ангелов», «Об одном символе у Достоевского». Они отобраны и откомментированы с учетом дальнейшей реконструкции творчества писателя и мыслителя. Поэтический раздел Книги второй составили впервые публикуемые циклы стихотворений Сергея Дурылина: «Венец лета» (первый и последний варианты), «Бесы разны», «Старая Москва».
Библиографический раздел включает не только пономерные росписи газет и журналов «Новая Земля» (Москва), «Христианская Мысль» (Киев) и «Возрождение» (Москва), автором которых был Сергей Дурылин, но и републикации дурылинских текстов, выходивших в этих изданиях. Для широкого круга читателей, интересующихся историей русской мысли.
В препринт вошли: "Вагнер и Россия" и комментарии к нему"

""Книга является первым комплексным исследованием религиозно-философских взглядов иеросхимонаха Антония (Булатовича), одного из главных представителей имяславия — течения в русской религиозно-философской мысли, возникшего в 1910-х годах в связи с разгоревшимися на Афоне спорами о почитании имени Божия. Религиозно-философские взгляды Булатовича рассматриваются на культурно-историческом фоне эпохи. При этом главное внимание уделено сопоставлению воззрений Булатовича с учением византийских отцов православной Церкви и с византийским культурно-философским наследием в целом.
[The present book is the first comprehensive study of the theology of the late Father Anthony Bulatovich. At the turn of the twentieth century, Russian religious thought displayed a deep interest in the theology of the Divine Names. In the 1910s, this interest flared up in a sharp dispute concerning the veneration of the Name of God, with the monastic community on Mount Athos at the center of this controversy. In the course of these debates, the Athonite monk Anthony Bulatovich became one of the main figures in the controversy. In the present study, the theology of Father Anthony Bulatovich is reviewed against the cultural and historical background of the epoch. The focus of this study is an analysis of his theology in its relations to Byzantine patristic theological thought. This book will be of interest to all who study Russian religious philosophy as well as a wider audience of theologians, historians, philologists and philosophers.]""

"U ovom radu analizirane su političke ideje i prikazan je životni put ruskog mislioca, publiciste i političara Petra Struvea (1870-1943). Povod za interpretaciju Struveove zamisli sinteze klasičnih liberalnih vrednosti i konzervativne politike autor nalazi u reaktualizaciji koncepta “liberalnog konzervativizma” u raspravama o pravcima i tempu postkomunističke tranzicije u Rusiji. Biografski pristup predmetu istraživanja motivisan je autorovom namerom da prikaže “beogradski period” Struveovog emigrantskog života o kome je u nas malo pisano. U radu je analizirana evolucija Struveovih političkih ideja od mladalačkog “legalnog marksizma”, preko “liberalizma” do pozicije “konzervativnog liberalizma” koju je Struve gradio nakon neuspeha revolucije 1905. godine i, posebno, nakon pobede Boljševika u Rusiji. Naznačena ideološka putanja je prikazana praćenjem ključnih momenata Struveove biografije i interpretirana je kao reakcija na dramatične socijalne i istorijske promene čiji je on bio učesnik i svedok. Posebna pažnja je posvećena emigrantskom periodu Struveovog života i rada, kao i njegovom položaju u okviru ruske “beogradske kolonije”. U završnom osvrtu istaknut opštiji problem političkog kapaciteta i relevantnosti liberalne tradicije u Rusiji.

Summary
The paper presents an analysis of the political ideas and an account of the biographical trajectory of the Russian thinker Piotr Struve (1870-1943). This interpretation of Struve's conception of a synthesis between classical liberal values and conservative politics is motivated by the revival of the concept of “liberal conservatism” within debates on the course and pace of post-communist transition in Russia. The life-history approach to the subject is guided by the author's intention to present the “Belgrade period” of Struve's life in emigration, the period that has not been sufficiently researched in our historiography. In this paper the evolution of Struve's ideas is analyzed, from his youthful “legal Marxism” to “liberalism” to the position of “conservative liberalism” constructed by Struve after the failure of the 1905 revolution and particularly after the victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia. This ideological trajectory is outlined by marking the crucial moments of Struve's biography and interpreted as a set of responses to dramatic social and historical changes he witnessed and participated in. Special attention is paid to the emigre period of Struve's life and work, as well as to his position within the Russian “Belgrade colony”. In the concluding part of the paper the general problem of the political capacity and relevance of the liberal tradition in Russia is considered."

Bulgakov’s psychological and spiritual evolution can be reckoned as representative for his entire generation. Moving from Marxism to Idealism and finally conceiving his best known theory, namely Sophiology, he was considered by many one of the most influential and sometimes controversial Orthodox thinkers of the 20th century. The theory of Sophiology, his most disputed premise which lies at the center of his theological vision, is considered “a systematic attempt to work out the basis on which political action and policy could be seen as philosophically – and, eventual, theologically - legitimate” . If we reflect on our present cultural and political context we will find a renewed relevance in studying the evolution of Bulgakov’s theological and politic thought, due to the similarities of both periods. Just like in the last turn of the century, we also face issues of legitimacy of the political action, a new cultural paradigm and an economical crisis.

"Right after Nataliia Kornienko's first publication in "Novyi mir" 1991, 9, in Russia nobody seemed to pay attention to this unusual fragment of a novel written by Andrey Platonov in the 1930s. When I discovered this highly provocative text I decided to give a talk on it at a conference in Prague in 1992 convened by V. Svaton and Tomas Glanc, called "Russia as the Subconscious of the West" ("Rossiia kak podsoznanie Zapada", a quote from Boris Groys); the materials were published in T. Glanc's "Volné sdružení českých rusistů" IX, Prague 1993. Later my text was re-published in the journal NLO (Russia) and provoked not only a negative reaction from a conservative literary historian (published in "Novyi Mir") but also interest into Platonov's "Happy Moscow":
A. Nedel‘
http://v-ostrov.netslova.ru/akadem/text=2.html
Mariia Levchenko
http://proletcult.narod.ru/platonov.htm
N. Bragina; Н. Брагина : Мироздание А. Платонова: Опыт культурологической реконструкции. Москва – 2010.
http://www.fedy-diary.ru/html/112010/11112010-03b.html
Keith Livers
- Scatology and Eschatology: The Recovery of the Flesh in Andrei Platonov's Happy Moscow, Slavic Review, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 154-182.
- “Empty Is My Native Land”: The Problem of the Absent Center in Aleksandr Zel'dovich's Moscow, Issue The Russian Review
Volume 64, Issue 3, pages 422–439, July 2005
Philip Ross Bullock, The feminine in the prose of Andrey Platonov, 2005.

Platonov's text plays with the rules of socialist realism and blends Soviet ideology with abased symbolist concepts of the Soul (sophiology).
Platonov's novel intended to tell the story of "an orphan to whom in the detdom they gave the name Moskva Chestnova", to honour the capital of the USSR. She becomes a parachutist (at the shkola vodzukhoplavanija) and loses a leg while building the Moscow Metro (Metrostroi 1935). The amputation turns her into a Soviet Venus, adored by an engineer (Sartorious) and a surgeon (Sambikin). The most unusual part is to be found in Platonov's passages containing a very special kind of Soviet Soul Searching:
Sambikin is looking for the "airy" soul in a dead girl's body, trying to locate it in the intestines – a scatological parody of symbolist searching of the Weltseele. Humble as Moskva is, she marries the least attractive and significant of her suitors, the "vnevoiskovik" Komiagin.
With Vladimir Sorokin we discussed this piece and some motifs travelled to his script for Zeldovich‘s film "Moskva" which was started in 1997 and finished in 2001.

Tags: Platonov, Chaadaev, lacune, Fedorov, Female Wisdom,tvar, Sophia, Sophiology, Florensky, aviation and metro, Air, Pneuma, Allegories of the Soviet Union, Soviet Surgeons, Zerstückelung, Benjamin, I.P. Smirnov, Groys,"

""""Joseph Perl
Sefer Megale Temirin

Critically Edited and Introduced
By Jonatan Meir

Contents


Volume 1  - Critical Edition

Concerning this edition
Key personalities

Sefer Megale Temirin – Critical Edition


Volume 2 - Appendixes:

1. Glossary, Abbreviations, Acronyms
2. Explanation of the Speaking Names
3. Perl’s Hasidic Sources
4. Manuscripts of Sefer Megale Temirin
5. Yiddish Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin

Bibliographic Abbreviations
""""

""Imagined Hasidism

The Anti-Hasidic Writings of Joseph Perl

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By
Jonatan Meir

Contents
Preface                                                                                             

Introduction                                                                                       
Scholarship on the anti-Hasidic writings of Josef Perl • Hasidic hagiography and the emergence of satire • Two-fold reading of Perl’s writings and the gematriyot • Satire, literature, and history • ‘Holy Books’ and subversive books

Chapter 1: Josef Perl, Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, and the ‘Holy Books’
Prayer of the fall of Hasidism and the expungement of their books • Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht and the critique of hagiography • Sefer Sipurey Ma‘asiyot and the parodic response to it • Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, ‘heretical books’ and the ‘Holy Books’ • In praise of the true Tsaddikim • ‘Laughter of the heretics’: testimonies about the polemics against Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • ‘Holy Books’, ‘sacredness of hagiography’, and parodies of hagiography • Appendix: Parodic manuscript about an opponent of the ‘Holy Books’ who was reborn as a horse

Chapter 2: Speaking Names in Sefer Megale Temirin                               
Time of the composition of Megale Temirin, censorship, and a note on the Buch • Hasidic books and the emergence of parody • Structure of Sefer Megale Temirin • The Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin • Main Hasidic courts • The court in Żołyń (Łożne) and the peregrinations of the Buch • The court of Dishpal (Międzyboż), moneyboxes of the Besht, the holy relics • The court in Aklo (Olika) and the ritualized reading of Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • Function of the footnotes and the parodic hagiography • History of the rabbis – clandestine opponents of Hasidism • The Besht in Tarnopol • Rabbi Meir Jacob of Zasław and the letters from Galicja  • Zaddikim in Galicja • Ciphered stories • ‘Holy Places’: reincarnations of a praise from Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • The revelation of the Buch and the death of the secretary • ‘Gang of criminals’: another death and an escape to the Land of Israel • The End: Ovadia Ben Petahia and the rabbi of Opatów

Chapter 3: Joseph Perl, Hirsh of Zydaczów, and the Polemics of Gematriyot
Reb Zevi Hirsh of Zydaczów and Hasidism in Galicja • Maskilic opposition to the Zydaczówer • Letters concealed in Sefer Megale Temirin • A manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Books, education, and a note on Reb Nathan of Nemirov • Zydaczówer’s ban on the Maskilim and the first Gematria • Parodic letter of Perl and the second Gematria • About the parodic letter and the jumble of gematriyot • Denunciation and expulsions of R Zevi Hirsh • ‘Father of impurity’: Joseph Perl and the writings of the rabbi of Komarno • Final note • Appendix: Parodic letter against the Zydaczówer

Chapter 4: Speaking Names in the Book of Sefer Bohen Zaddik                 
The manuscript of Sefer Bohen Zaddik and the difficulties with its publication • Structure of the book • In search for the true Zaddik and the rabbi of Opatów • Travels of Ovadia Ben Petahia between the towns of Galicja • Kromcza Ruska (Zaleszczyki) or the entrance to Galicja • ‘Briks’ (Tarnopol): Rabbi Jehoshua Heschel Babad and the school • ‘Bicik’ (Lemberg) Rabbi Jacob Orenstein and a ban on the Maskilim • ‘Abdera’ (Brody) Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot and Sefer ha-Zoref • The explanation of the names of the rabbis • Utopia and dystopia • The hidden butcher and his kabbalistic writings • The discovery of the colonies • The image of the disciples of the Gaon and the ‘true Hasid’ • ‘The solution for the East’ or heterotopia •  The will to flee and the emissary

Chapter 5: The Imaginary Influence of Sefer Megale Temirin                       
The myth about the success of the book • Pamphlet Megale Sod • The manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Dialogues about Sefer Megale Temirin • For whom Sefer Megale Temirin was intended and who read it • Note concerning Sefer Megale Temirin in Yiddish • Influence real and imagined • Was Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht written by a parodist? • Temerl Bergson and Sefer Megale Temirin • Writ of defense of Hasidism • Sefer Megale Temirin and the Hebrew literature • Appendix: writ of defense of Joseph Judah Lob Sossnitz

Afterword: Note on the Anti-Hasidic Outlook                                         

Bibliographic Abbreviations                                                                 
""