Vekhi
Vekhi (Russian: Вехи, IPA: [ˈvʲexʲɪ], lit. 'Landmarks') is a collection of seven essays published in Russia in 1909. It was distributed in five editions and elicited over two hundred published rejoinders in two years. The volume reappraising the Russian intelligentsia was a brainchild of the literary historian Mikhail Gershenzon, who edited it and wrote the introduction.
Founding
Contents
- Mikhail Gershenzon: Foreword
- Nikolai Berdyayev: "Philosophical Truth and Intellectual Truth"
- Sergei Bulgakov: "Heroism and Asceticism"
- Mikhail Gershenzon: "Creative Self-Awareness"
- Alexander Izgoyev: "About Intelligent Youth"
- Bogdan Kistyakovski: "In Defense of Law"
- Pyotr Struve: "The Intelligentsia and the Revolution"
- Semen Frank,: "Ethics of Nihilism"
Social criticism
Bogdan Kistyakovsky discussed the intelligentsia's failure to develop a legal consciousness. Their insufficient respect for law as an ordering force kept courts of law from attaining the respect required in a modern society. Reflecting on the distressing character of revolutionary processes in Russia, he laid the blame on both the
Alexander Izgoyev (who, like Gershenzon, had not contributed to the 1902 anti-positivist volume) depicted contemporary university students as morally relativist, content merely to embrace the interests of the longsuffering people. Russian students compared very unfavourably to their French, German, and British counterparts, lacking application and even a sense of fair play.
Philosophical positions
Nikolai Berdyayev, considering the intelligentsia's philosophical position, found
The essays suggested that Russia had reached a milestone and was ready for turning. Five of the contributors had earlier abandoned Marxism under the influence of neo-Kantian concerns, over personal freedom and morality. They had participated in the establishment of a liberal political party but now recoiled at the Cadet Party's recklessness and ineffectiveness in parliamentary politics. A modernist document, Vekhi called for a rethinking of the Enlightenment project of acculturation and proposed exploration of the depths of the self as an alternative to populist and nihilist programs.
Bibliography
- Philip Boobbyer, S. L. Frank: The Life and Work of a Russian Philosopher 1877-1950 (1995. Athens: Ohio University Press)
- Jeffrey Brooks, 'Vekhi and the Vekhi Dispute', in Survey 19(1), pp. 21–50, 1973.
- Samuel Kassow, Students, Professors, and the State in Tsarist Russia (1989. Berkeley: University of California Press)
- Read, Christopher, Religion, Revolution and the Russian Intelligentsia: The Vekhi debate and its Intellectual Background (1979. London and New York: Macmillan)
- Leonard Schapiro, 'The Vekhi Group and the Mystique of Revolution', in Russian Studies, ed. E. Dahrendorf (1987. New York: Viking Penguin)
- N. Zernov, The Russian Religious Renaissance of the Twentieth Century (1963), esp. p. 111-130
- Horowitz, Brian (2016), "Unity in "Landmarks" ("Vekhi")?: The Tensions between Petr Struve and Mikhail Gershenzon", Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, 13 (2): 329–342, from the original on 22 September 2017, retrieved 28 June 2016.
References
- ^ Efremenko D., Evseeva Y. Studies of Social Solidarity in Russia: Tradition and Modern Trends. // American Sociologist, v. 43, 2012, no. 4, pp. 349-365. – NY: Springer Science+Business Media.