Russian philosophy of the 19-20 century (or rather, of its very beginning) is a very significant phenomenon both in terms of culture and the history of Russia. No wonder this period is called the "Silver Age." Interestingly, the extreme importance of this cultural breakthrough was not immediately recognized by his contemporaries, and this name is of a late nature. This era itself is distinguished by the fact that almost all cultural and creative life was in its prime, despite the crisis in the economy and the growing chaos of political life. The feeling of an approaching revolutionary coup seemed to spur philosophical creativity to an unprecedented flowering. For the first time in the history of Russian philosophy, original and unique philosophical systems were created.
It is difficult to say when exactly the era began, the main achievement of which is the Russian philosophy of the Silver Age, however, many cultural scientists attribute its beginning to the time of the Philosophical Society at St. Petersburg University in 1897. The end of this period is 1917, a time of revolutionary upheaval. The members of this society were precisely those representatives of the intellectual elite of Russia who made the greatest contribution to the development of philosophical ideas of their time, namely A. Losev, N. Berdyaev, S. Frank, D. Merezhkovsky, N. Lossky and other outstanding minds who were the authors such sensational philosophical collections as “Milestones”, “Logos”, “Russian Thought”. At the same time that this society was created, one of the most powerful Russian philosophers Vladimir Solovyov wrote his book “Justification of the Good”, which summarizes his philosophical views and summarizes the main ideas of the Silver Age.
The search for symbol and truth, the attempts to penetrate the world “on the other side” and the search for how to equip the world in which we live are just a few touches to the portrait of the various philosophical trends that characterized Russian philosophy of the 19-20 century during its the highest apogee. The ideological sources of this philosophy were the most diverse, sometimes completely unpredictable elements of philosophical heritage - ancient Gnosticism and German mystics, Nietzsche and Kant. Moreover, representatives of the philosophical schools created in Russia did not just transfer these original ideas to their native soil, but based on them, starting from them, made their own creative take-off.
The most interesting in terms of wealth and variety of ideas of the era described is Russian religious philosophy of the 19-20 centuries. Vladimir Solovyov himself, S. Bulgakov, P. Florensky, L. Karsavin, N. Berdyaev and many others made up the original core of this philosophy. But Nikolai Berdyaev and Vladimir Soloviev were able to create the most integral and harmonious systems. Their work is even called philosophical and religious Renaissance. As a matter of fact, the rise of religious philosophy is connected with the “back reaction” to the spread of atheistic and positivist ideas, as well as with the enormous popularity of mystical and esoteric teachings of various kinds and the expectation of the end of the “old world”. “God-seeking” and “God-building” even penetrated the Marxist and revolutionary camp, which provoked a fierce polemic in it.
At the turn of the era, Russian philosophy of the 19-20th century often turned to such a concept as a new religious consciousness and the demand for renewal for Orthodoxy in general and the church institution in particular. The non-dogmatic view of Christianity and, especially, Orthodox Christianity among philosophers of that time irritated the official Church. The “aesthetic” philosophers of the Silver Age often criticized the Church because, instead of influencing the improvement of society, it is simply in the service of the state. In particular, Vladimir Solovyov, who rebuked Orthodoxy for avoiding life, spoke out quite sharply against the rupture of Christianity and public affairs, and therefore all social progress passed into the hands of unbelievers. The basis of Soloviev’s philosophy - sophiology - consisted in the fact that God and man should go towards each other, doing good together.
Disagreeing with many of Solovyov’s many conceptual points, Nikolai Berdyaev, however, also believed that contemporary Christian culture was not genuine. He believed that in addition to the Old and New Testaments, the “Third Testament” is also needed, when the Holy Spirit appears in the hypostasis of Sofia, and then the Christian culture fulfills its true purpose. Russian philosophy of the 19-20 century, and especially the philosophy of Berdyaev, often positions the main goal of mankind - to perfect the creation of God, supplementing and enriching it. However, Berdyaev and other religious philosophers, nevertheless, tried, through rethinking ancient and Christian ideas, to solve pressing social problems.
