Fyodor Augustovich Stepun (1884-1965), a prominent philosopher, novelist, critic, theater critic, and memoirist, was among those figures of Russian science and culture who turned out to be objectionable and "unnecessary" to the Soviet government and was expelled from the country in 1922. For almost half a century he was destined to live in a foreign land, in Germany, to write a lot and about a lot of things. Only now the rich legacy of the thinker begins to return to his homeland, gradually reprinted in Russia, although it is too early to talk about a real, worthy "return", a more or less solid reproduction of the works of F. A. Stepun.
In exile, he wrote an original philosophical novel in letters, Nikolai Pereslegin (1923-1925). From his pen came a series of essays " Thoughts on Russia "(1923-1928), many literary and critical articles, later combined in the collection "Meetings" (1962). the books "Basic problems of Theater" and "Life and Creativity" (1923), memoirs "Past and unfulfilled" (1956), a number of works in foreign languages. The ideas he preached, first of all, the ideas of "Christian socialism", which were especially deeply developed in the Novy Grad magazine (edited by F. A. Stepun, I. I. Fondaminsky and G. P. Fedotov), were popular in the circles of the ecclesiastical part of the emigration. Other refugees with the name L. Zander, Y. Ivask, K. Pomerantsev, D. Chizhevsky spoke respectfully about the articles and books of F. A. Stepun... The Germans also appreciated the thinker: in particular, in February 1964, the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts held a solemn meeting dedicated to the anniversary of F. A. Stepun. In other words ,the" philosopher-artist " (as one of his contemporaries described F. A. Stepun) won a well-deserved European (if not world) fame during his lifetime, not loud, but stable.
F. A. Stepun is less well-known as a Pushkinist, but his essays about the poet allow us to rank the thinker among the glorious cohort of researchers of the spiritual world of Pushkin. Three such works were identified; two - "A. S. Pushkin (To the 150th anniversary of his birth)" and "The Spiritual Appearance of Pushkin" - were published in the venerable journal "Vestnik RSHD" in 1949 and 1962, respectively. The third experience is now offered to the attention of readers - and, undoubtedly, deserves such attention.
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The etude "Pushkin and Russian Culture" was published in the New York magazine "For Freedom" in 1952 (No. 3). It aroused such lively reader interest that the editorial board considered it possible to reprint it, which was done a year later (1953. N 13. July 28). More than a decade has passed since then, and F. A. Stepun's thoughts, even though expressed concisely, are not outdated at all. Quite the contrary: the sketch was written at a time when a new era was coming in Russia-and F. A. Stepun spoke about what, in his opinion, "is necessary for the revival of Russia"; now in Russia there is again turmoil, again expectation and hope - and the voice of a long-gone compatriot sounds not only convincing, but also very important. and fresh, as if it is being heard today, now, in our presence.
It is worth being silent, listening and thinking - of course, for those who really care about the fate of both "native ashes"and" fatherly coffins". Others are asked not to worry.
M. D. Filin
F. STEPUN
Pushkin and Russian Culture
We associate our annual celebration of the Day of Russian Culture (1) with two names: with the name of St. Prince Vladimir (2) and with the name of the great poet Pushkin. This means that we recognize Eastern Christianity as the root of Russian culture, and its most modern incarnation is the poet, who, being the most Russian of Russian geniuses, was at the same time the most pronounced European among them. A genius of measure, form, and harmony, Pushkin was a singer and admirer of Peter the Great, who turned the Kingdom of Moscow toward Europe and thus connected it with the more western Kiev and the more democratic Novgorod.
The statement of the inner connection between Vladimir the Saint and Pushkin suggests confidence in the religious nature of Pushkin's genius. Of course, Pushkin was neither a religious thinker, nor a moral and social preacher, nor a Christian mystic. His connection with the spiritual world and with the Orthodox Church was super-personal and simple, popular and even popular. In this connection, there was more biological-mystical memory than personal experience and self-willed thought. This mystical and biological memory alone explains his gift for retelling folk tales, arranging prayers in verse, reincarnating in ancient Russian people, and revealing his religious roots in modern people.
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Perhaps it was because in the very nature of Pushkin's genius there was an exceptionally strong grace: humility and unguarded wisdom. - it was he who succeeded so perfectly in portraying Pimen repenting of his sins before the people of Pugachev and Tatiana. Almost all the people created by Pushkin are people of spiritual and everyday good looks. there is nothing boundless, ugly, or ugly about them. The world - both as a natural cosmos and as the history of mankind - was turned to Pushkin by its positive side, although the poet was neither a utopian nor an illusionist. That is why he never distorted people's images like Gogol, never smashed up cultures like Tolstoy, and never "respectfully" returned them to the Lord God himself in the world that had failed Him-the Karamazov temptation, which Dostoevsky himself was no stranger to.
Far from detracting from the absolute height of these greatest geniuses of Russia, we must nevertheless admit that today, in the hour of the violent distortion of the image of Russia, the materialistic and civilizational pogrom of Russian culture and the audacious seizure from the Lord God of the entrance ticket to the world He created, Pushkin's spirit of measure and balance, sobriety and beauty, is incomprehensible the living combination of nationality and ecumenism, Russianness and Europeanism, is more necessary for Russia than the mystical eschatology of Gogol, the anarcho-socialist moralism of Tolstoy and the religious - nationalist messianism of Dostoevsky.
When the shackles of Stalinism, that indissoluble unity of the dying revolution and the nascent reaction, are lifted from Russia, nothing will be able to revive it except the life-giving spirit of genuine conservatism, which Pushkin was so richly endowed with and which was so poor in both popular and intellectual Russia. The spirit of conservatism is primarily a rejection of extremes, of the "apology of polarity" that Merezhkovsky one-sidedly considered the essence of Russia. The negation of extremes is inseparable from the affirmation of the middle, not of the middle-class middle, but of the middle in the sense of the religious center of the world and life. This was well understood by the clever poet Mayakovsky, who began his akathist to the devil with the words: "All the midpoints have failed, there are no more midpoints!"
Pushkin created, that is, as a poet lived from the depths of the world's center. This center nourished in him a vivid memory of the past, a strong love for his fathers and grandfathers, but it also opened his eyes to the "cruelty" of his age and forced him to praise "freedom" and call for "mercy for the fallen."
But even while praising freedom, demanding justice and mercy for the fallen, a friend of the Decembrists, Pushkin never became a revolutionary. He didn't become one because of his freedom, rooted in tradition
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it was based on good feelings and God's will:
Two feelings are wonderfully close to us-In them the heart finds nourishment:
Love for the native ashes, Love for the father's coffins.
It is based on them from the beginning
By the will of God Himself
Self-standing of a person,
a pledge of his greatness (3).
Wonderful thoughts: obedience to God's will, a strong memory of the past and freedom rooted in goodness as a guarantee of human greatness-this is all that is needed for the revival of Russia.
Comments
Published by the publishing house: "For Freedom". New York, 1953. N 13. July 28.
1 Day of Russian Culture - the main secular holiday of the first Russian emigration, citizens of Russia Abroad. It was celebrated in all regions of the Russian diaspora since the mid-1920s and was timed to coincide with Pushkin's birthday.
2 Vladimir the Holy, Prince (c. 962-1015) - son of Grand Duke Svyatoslav of Kiev, Grand Duke of Kiev since 978, baptist of Russia. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church and named "equal-to-the-Apostles". In exile, right-wing, national forces celebrated St. Vladimir's Memorial Day (July 15, U.S.S.R.) as a Day of Russian Glory, to a certain extent contrasting this holiday with the Day of Russian Culture, the idea of which originated in liberal circles. However, if politicians found a reason to compete here, then ordinary enlightened citizens, truly Russian people, did not in any way oppose the holidays to one another, but celebrated both; and after the Second World War, when the ranks of the first emigration for natural reasons noticeably thinned, and financial opportunities, already meagre, became simply beggarly, citizens of the Russian Federation were forced to pay for the holidays. In foreign Russia, in fact, only the Day of Russian Culture was celebrated, remembering at the same time the greatest of Russian princes and the greatest poet.
3 " Two feelings are wonderfully close to us... "(1830, Belov autograph).
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