Section 1. L.P. Karsavin……………………………………………………..3

Curriculum vitae……………………………………...3

Philosophical direction…………………………………...8

Section 2. “Philosophy of History”…………………………………………..10

2.1. History of creation……………………………………………...10

2.2. Structure and content ……………………………………...10

2.3. Analysis of the main ideas………………………………………...11

Section 3. Conclusions…………………………………………………………...16

3.2. The value of the work for history and modernity……..16

Section 1. L.P. Karsavin

Curriculum vitae

Lev Platonovich Karsavin was born in 1882 in St. Petersburg. His father, Platon Konstantinovich Karsavin, was a famous dancer at the Mariinsky Theatre, a student of Marius Petipa. The upbringing and education of the son became the subject of special concern for Karsavin's mother, Anna Iosifovna, nee Khomyakova, cousin-niece of the founder of Slavophilism A.S. Khomyakov. This relationship meant a lot to her, she believed and hoped that Leo through her inherited something from the gifts of a great relative and in the future would be his successor. These expectations were justified: Karsavin's philosophy is really connected with Khomyakov by many strong threads.

The mother's hopes were justified. After graduating from the gymnasium with a gold medal, Karsavin entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University. In 1901 - 1906. he is in the group of Professor I.M. Grevsa studies history, becomes a medievalist. His area of ​​interest is the religious movements in Italy and France in the late Middle Ages.

While still a student, in 1904 Karsavin got married. After graduating from the university, he immediately begins to work hard: he teaches in gymnasiums (the gymnasium of the Imperial Philanthropic Society and the Prokofieva Private Women's Gymnasium), publishes articles on the history of the end of the Roman Empire. Having received a two-year business trip abroad after graduation, he is engaged in painstaking research in the libraries and archives of these countries - on the history of Franciscan monasticism, as well as the heresies of the Waldensians and Cathars. The results of these works were two large works - "Essays on Religious Life in Italy in the XII - XIII centuries" (1912) and "Fundamentals of Medieval Religiosity in the XII - XIII centuries, mainly in Italy" (1915).

"Essays on Religious Life in Italy in the 12th-13th Centuries" was soon published as a master's thesis, which Karsavin defended in May 1913. A month later, he was appointed extraordinary professor at St. Petersburg University. At the same time, Lev Platonovich was a teacher at the Higher (Bestuzhev) Women's Courses, at the Higher Courses of Lesgaft, at the Psychoneurological Institute, a history teacher at the gymnasium of the Imperial Humanitarian Society, treasurer of the Historical Society at St. Petersburg University. He writes articles for the New Encyclopedic Dictionary (a total of 39 articles), published in magazines (Bulletin of Europe, Church Bulletin, Voice of the Past, Historical Bulletin, etc.). 1

It should be noted that in addition to the degree of Doctor of History, Karsavin received, as a layman - which was a great rarity - the degree of Doctor of Theology at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. And in April 1918 he was elected an extraordinary professor at Petrograd University.

1918 - 1923 became a time of exceptionally intense creative life for Karsavin. In the winter of 1919/20, the participants of his seminar gathered in the professor's home office, since the university premises were not heated. Karsavin participated in meetings of philosophical societies, read reports and lectures, collaborated in the editorial office of the publishing house "Science and School", in the collections "Phoenix" and "Sagittarius". During this period, he wrote articles: "The Depths of Satan", "Sophia of the Earth and Heaven", "Dostoevsky and Catholicism". At the same time, he published "Introduction to History", "Metaphysics of Love", in 1922 he published the articles "On Freedom" and "On Good and Evil", as well as the work "East, West and the Russian Idea". In the Soviet press, vicious responses to the journalistic activities of a religious philosopher appear: “Medieval fanatic”, “scientist obscurantist”, “sweet-talking sermon of priesthood”, “nonsense”, “meaningless theories” ... - such assessments are met by Karsavin and his work in these reviews. And in the light of this subtle criticism, Karsavin’s message in one letter, which he writes in the summer of 1922, is not surprising: “... I foresee the imminent inevitability for myself to become silent in our press.” 2

This prediction very soon came true with a vengeance: already in the autumn of that year, Karsavin had to not only “shut up in the press”, but also leave the Motherland: in 1922, Karsavin was arrested and, together with a large group of Russian thinkers, was expelled from the country.

He first settled in Berlin. Here, in 1923, in the Obelisk publishing house, he published books: the Philosophy of History, written back in Russia, the philosophical biography of Giordano Bruno, Dialogues. In a new presentation, the metaphysics of unity appears - "On the Beginnings" (an experience of Christian metaphysics) (1925). In Berlin, Karsavin participates in the activities of the Religious-Philosophical Academy, created in 1922 on the initiative of philosophers who emigrated from Russia; gives lectures on the topic "Middle Ages", publishes an article "The Path of Orthodoxy".

In 1926 Karsavin moved to Paris. As he himself says about this time, he did not enter into communication with foreign scientific circles. During this period, he publishes the book "Holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church" (Disclosure of Orthodoxy in Their Works) (1926), intended as a textbook for the Russian seminary, "Church, Personality and State" (1927), publishes articles in German, Italian, Czech, takes a fairly active part in the Eurasian movement, publishing articles in the newspaper "Eurasia".

The Eurasian movement was determined, on the one hand, by the tasks and problems of the new, post-revolutionary Russia, and, on the other hand, by the awareness of the deep crisis of modern European culture.

Eurasianism saw in Russia a special cultural - the Eurasian world, the world of the emerging Orthodox culture, equally different from European and Asian. As the Eurasians themselves stated, based on the fact - from the Russia that is emerging from the revolution - Eurasianism singles out and reveals those aspects of Russian modernity that are turned to the future. In the name of a new Russia - Eurasia, a new Russian culture and power, and a new guiding ideology, the Eurasianists resolutely pushed back both from communism and from pre-revolutionary restoration ideals, organically combining, as it seemed to them, the traditions of genuine Russian guardianship with the mobility of modern political action.

Gradually, religious and political motives converged in the Eurasian movement, and soon it was largely transformed into a very rigid political ideology. Moreover, the decisive force in this transformation belonged to L.P. Karsavin, who previously did not hide his critical attitude towards Eurasianism, in 1925-1926. becomes one of the ideologists of the movement. 3

One can only make assumptions about how Karsavin's relations with the circle of Russian philosophers developed in exile. Belonging to one culture, of course, gives grounds for the convergence of some themes of their work, the influence of certain mental and religious traditions. At the same time, when one gets acquainted with the works of Karsavin, one involuntarily gets the impression of a certain isolation, a kind of aesthetic self-sufficiency of the creator of the metaphysics of unity. In all his work, one can feel some kind of stubborn, almost superhuman power of thought. It is known that among the Russian philosophers L.P. Karsavin appreciated A.S. Khomyakova, F.M. Dostoevsky and S.L. Frank, deliberately relied on the patristic tradition, and not on patristics in general, but on the writings of St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Maximus the Confessor. 4

It seems to Karsavin that the values ​​of politicized life and thought have always seemed narrow, of limited significance. The politicization of the Eurasian movement inevitably led to its internal disintegration, since 1929 Karsavin actually broke with it.

According to P.P. Suvchinsky (husband of Karsavin's middle daughter, Marianna Lvovna), in 1927 L.P. Karsavin received an invitation to Oxford, but, to the chagrin of the whole family, he did not accept this invitation. However, in 1926, A. Voldemaras, a former assistant professor of the Bestuzhev Courses in St. Petersburg, became prime minister in Lithuania, and in 1927 Karsavin was called to the department of general history at Kaunas University. The family remained in Paris. Here he published three philosophical works: Peri Arkhon (Ideas of Christian Metaphysics) (1928), On Personality (1929) and Poem on Death (1932).

Having quickly learned Lithuanian, Karsavin gives lectures in this language, and devotes himself entirely to historical issues. Already in 1929, his works written in Lithuanian were published. Since 1931, Karsavin began to publish a six-volume essay "The History of European Culture" in the national language.

It should be noted that the Lithuanian academic community was proud and proud that Karsavin belonged to their environment. All archival materials related to the life and work of L.P. Karsavin in Lithuania, are carefully preserved. Following the publications in the Lithuanian newspapers, the magazine "Vilnius", dedicated to Karsavin, in July 1991, the First Karsavin Readings took place in the capital of Lithuania.

In 1940, together with the university, Karsavin moved to Vilnius, and after the inclusion of Lithuania in the Soviet Union, he was removed from teaching and temporarily held the position of director of the Vilnius Art Museum. Even earlier, Karsavin brought his family from France to Lithuania and settled in Vilnius with the whole house. During these years, L.P. Karsavin set himself the task of writing world history, understood in the light of Christian metaphysics, but this plan remained unfulfilled. At the beginning of 1948, Lev Platonovich was arrested.

In a remand prison in Leningrad, he developed tuberculosis. After the trial, Karsavin was transferred to the Abez invalid camp. In the camp, the philosopher experienced an extraordinary spiritual and creative upsurge. In this regard, we recall his words: “Then thought develops, then it becomes free, when it is oppressed and persecuted in every possible way.” 5 Here in 1951-1952. he writes a number of religious-philosophical works, including "The Wreath of Sonnets" and "Tercynes", in which his metaphysics finds poetic expression, as well as several articles: "On the Lord's Prayer", "On the Immortality of the Soul", "Apogee of Humanity", " On Art”, “On Reflexology” and also in Lithuanian “Spirit and Body” and “On Perfection”. It is known that some of these writings ended up in Western Europe and were published in the 104th - 105th issues of the journal "Bulletin of the Russian Student Christian Movement" in Paris (1972). 6

L.P. Karsavin died on July 20, 1952 in a camp hospital. His grave was miraculously found in Abezi in 1989.

Philosophical direction

The philosophy of Karsavin (and above all his philosophy of history), for all its originality, took shape and developed in line with the Russian religious and philosophical tradition, focusing on the eternal problems of God, man, immortality, moral roots and collisions of human existence; close and dear to the Russian thinker was the theme of the fate of his homeland.

Lev Platonovich developed a peculiar version of the "philosophy of unity" in relation to the problem of personality, the methodology of history, the history of culture, epistemology, ethics, sociology, striving to create an integral system of Christian worldview. He relied on early Christian teachings (patristics, Origen) and Russian religious philosophy, especially on the tradition of V. S. Solovyov. Category unity at L.P. Karsavin is understood as a dynamic principle of the formation of being and, as a fundamental category of the historical process, underlies historiosophy.

The philosophical and historical views of Karsavin were significantly influenced both by the ideas of Solovyov (set out mainly in the Readings on God-Mankind) and the works of the old Slavophiles - Khomyakov and Kireevsky. Of the Western thinkers, J. Bruno and Nikolai Kuzansky were closest and dearest to Karsavin. (J. Bruno Karsavin dedicated a large book.)

In the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius, there is a Russian school named after an outstanding Russian philosopher, poet and medievalist historian Lev Platonovich Karsavin. A museum dedicated to the life and work of this great man, who, alas, is not well known in our time, has been created in this school. After the October Revolution of 1917, the great Russian philosophers and thinkers who remained in Soviet Russia were either expelled from the country, or were shot, or exiled to camps. Mention of them was banned, and everything connected with them had to be forgotten. L.P. did not escape this fate either. Karsavin. However, time is changing and thanks to enthusiasts who cherish the true values ​​of the Russian people, the memory of what was lost is restored, because without the past, there is no future.

Natalia Fyodorovna Koltunova- one of the members of the group, which includes school students and teachers working in the museum. N.F. Koltunova answered the questions of Yaroslav Moshkov, editor-in-chief of the news agency Russkiye Novosti.

Who came up with the idea to name the school after Lev Karsavin?

As far as I know, the idea was submitted by the librarian Elena Georgievna Muller. At that time I did not work at this school yet, so I do not know the intricacies. I came to work in 1999, by that time the school already bore the name of Lev Karsavin.

To what extent is the personality of Lev Karsavin known in Lithuania?

Lev Karsavin is now well known in scientific circles. On November 18, 2005, a memorial plaque was unveiled in Vilnius on the house where the Karsavin family lived. In addition, those people who remember him as a scientist, lecturer, and person are still alive. It is them that we are trying to attract to the school, so that they convey precious grains of memories to children, "nourish", strengthen the souls of children with them, broaden their horizons, and contribute to the formation of their worldview.

How is it related to Lithuania?

The fact is that in 1927 L.P. Karsavin, turning down an offer to teach at Oxford, chose Vytautas the Great University in Kaunas, where he was offered the chair of world history. The main condition for teaching at Kaunas University was the mastery of the Lithuanian language. Within one and a half to two years, Karsavin managed to master the language at a fairly good level, which allowed him not only to teach, but also to write scientific articles, and also, after analyzing the Lithuanian language, to introduce new scientific concepts. His five-volume work "History of European Culture" was written in Lithuanian. Attempts have been made to translate this work into Russian, but, as far as I know, this work has only just begun.

Tell us more about Lev Karsavin himself.

In general, one can talk about him as a person, as a philosopher, as a historian, as a theologian. If you start a story about him as a person, then we can say the following. He was born in 1882 in St. Petersburg. Born in the family of the dancer of the Mariinsky Theater Platon Karsavin and his wife Anna Khomyakova. The family had two children - Lev Platonovich and Tamara Platonovna.

Lev Platonovich graduated from the Fifth Petersburg Classical Gymnasium with a gold medal, then entered the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, which he also graduated with a gold medal. He was named the most brilliant student of St. Petersburg University.

His fate repeats the fate of many outstanding Russian scientists. For example, his fate is somewhat similar to the fate of the philosopher Ivan Ilyin. It should be added that Lev Karsavin became the youngest professor in Russia. First, he defended his master's thesis, and then he defended his doctoral dissertation and received two degrees at once - a doctor of history and a doctor of theology. He collected materials for his master's thesis by traveling through the ancient monasteries of Italy and France, since the topic of his work was the history of medieval religiosity.

In 1922, by the decision of Vladimir Lenin, a group of prominent figures of science and culture was deported on the so-called "philosophical ship" outside Russia without the right to return. One of the leaders of the Soviet era uttered approximately the following words: "We have no reason to shoot them, but we cannot leave them in the country, since they are very harmful to the new Soviet state." About 200 families were sent away. There were two boats. On one of them, Karsavin and his family were expelled. And in the family he already had three daughters by that time. They went to Germany and lived in Berlin. Our museum has a photograph of that Berlin house. And they even say that Karsavin and his family are captured in this photo on the balcony.

Search work at the school began at the end of 1999. We managed to get acquainted with the daughter of Lev Platonovich - Susanna Lvovna, who lived in Vilnius. She visited our school more than once, participated in the Karsavin Readings, which began to be held in 2000.

Susanna Lvovna told us a lot of interesting things about her parents and sisters. I did not get tired of repeating that "dad always worked", he was not seen idle. He had a family to support: a wife and three daughters. Having lost his position, and in fact in Russia he was a professor, which means not only a solid salary, but also excellent living conditions (they say that his apartment with fourteen windows overlooking the bay has now become the library of the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University), he had to start life "from scratch". Finding themselves in a foreign land without a livelihood, a group of exiled scientists decides to create a university and teach in European languages. They teach what they can teach: history, philosophy, theology. A little later they move to France. I got the impression that they lived in such a group and then gradually began to define themselves. They had to do something, apparently, they could not stay in Germany. Maybe they felt what processes were going on in Germany. After all, this is 1927-1928.

They move to France, to Clamart, a suburb of Paris. Susanna Lvovna said that she had a lot of family photos, but there were also many visitors, after whom these photos were dispersed. These photographs show that the Karsavins' house was hospitable and hospitable. Very famous people came to visit them. He said that she had a photograph of Marina Tsvetaeva visiting her with her son. Their life was quite eventful, let's say so. They communicated with their compatriots. Further, as I have already said, he receives two offers: to head a chair in Oxford and to head a chair in Kaunas, at Vytautas the Great University. Of course, the whole family gathered in Oxford, but Karsavin packed his things and came to Kaunas alone. The choice of Kaunas was dictated primarily by the fact that Kaunas is closer to Russia than Great Britain. The management of the university set such a condition - to learn the Lithuanian language in order to get the right to teach and head the department. He fulfills this condition and for a year and a half masters this, in his words, "very exotic" language, analyzes it and introduces new scientific concepts. The family came to him only in 1933. I happened to participate in the celebrations of the Vilnius University in honor of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Karsavin. A person who was a student of Lev Platonovich said that he went to classes with a suitcase in which there were historical books, art albums. So he tried to educate students, to transfer the knowledge that he possessed. He was a respectable scientist with a worldwide reputation, because he was invited to Lithuania precisely because the young Lithuanian state had to be built on some principles. And on what? It was decided to return to the roots, because Lithuania was a powerful state in the Middle Ages. Karsavin, on the other hand, was one of the greatest authorities on the Middle Ages, and on the then scientific horizon he was a very, very significant figure.

In 1940, the university moved to Vilnius and Karsavin began teaching here. An honest scientist, in his lectures he speaks openly about his attitude towards the Soviet system, says that socialism is a compilation. The NKVD begins to follow him. An informant is introduced into the environment of students. Journalist Irina Arefyeva, using materials from the archives, published a number of articles in which she investigates the case of "Alchemist" (this was the name of Lev Karsavin in denunciations).

As a result, in 1949 Karsavin ended up in the dungeons of the NKVD, from where he was sent to the Abez camp for the disabled. Abez is located on the Arctic Circle, where many famous people were imprisoned. For example, there he met Anna Akhmatova's husband, N. Punin (a monument was erected to him in the cemetery in Abezi). Previously, with a group of Lithuanians, he ends up in the inner prison of Leningrad. Karsavin is happy: he has finally returned to Russia! Let as a prisoner. After all, exile for him was tantamount to death. From the Leningrad internal prison, they are sent by stage to Abez. In Abezi, fate brings him together with a man named Anatoly Anatolyevich Vaneev, who ended up in this camp as a boy. Having met Karsavin there and realizing that he was a great scientist and a wonderful person, he asked Lev Platonovich to lecture him on the history of religion. Vaneev leaves the camp as a philosopher, a grateful student and follower of Karsavin.

Subsequently, A. A. Vaneev wrote a book called "Two Years in Abezi". She is also represented in the museum. Anatoly Anatolyevich Vaneev rendered us an invaluable service by writing this book. Thanks to his testimony, we know exactly what happened to Karsavin in the camp.

While still in prison, Karsavin develops tuberculosis. July 12, 1952 he dies. On this stand we see a posthumous portrait of Karsavin, which was made by the people who surrounded him, that is, the Lithuanians. They treated him with unconditional respect and kept a lot of memories associated with Lev Platonovich's stay in the camp.

He is buried in Abezi. Imagine: the Arctic Circle, frozen ground. The crowbar is heated over the fire and the earth for the grave is hollowed out with it. The camp doctor undertakes such an action - he puts someone's amputated leg in Karsavin's grave. Explaining his act by the fact that it is on this leg that they will determine that Lev Karsavin is buried here. He also puts in a capsule and some information about him. He has no doubts that Karsavin's grave will be searched for. Subsequently, when it became possible, a whole expedition was sent from Lithuania in search of the graves of dead relatives. Among others, the grave of Karsavin was also found. At the camp cemetery, the Lithuanians erected a monument - a flaming cross, which reminds us of those who died in Abezi.

After Lev Platonovich died, Vaneev wrote a letter to the Karsavin family - his wife and two daughters who lived in Vilnius (the middle daughter Marianna remained in Paris). Vaneev writes: "Our friend the architect" - he does not even name the architect - "suggests to make tombstones where Lev Platonovich is buried." He attaches sketches of future tombstones. You see copies of these sketches on the stand. The letter is dated 1954, Stalin has recently died, but the "architect" cannot yet be called by name, it is still impossible to voice Karsavin's surname. An amazing thing, Vaneev's handwriting became similar to Karsavin's handwriting, compare, here is Karsavin's handwriting.

What did Lev Platonovich do in the camp?

First, he lectured. Surrounding even joked: "created the left-Platonic academy." Secondly, he wrote terzan and sonnets. They are all about his relationship with God. He fell ill with tuberculosis and lay in an isolation cell in appalling conditions. The imprisonment sapped his strength. Vaneev described in his book how Lev Platonovich lived his last days, how he meekly endured all the hardships and rudeness of the orderlies of the camp infirmary, how, fading away, he wrote his sonnets and tercina, which have survived to this day and were published as a separate book. These poetic works were translated into Lithuanian by the poet and translator A. Bukantas. In total, more than 20 philosophical works and poetic works were written in the camp.

The school museum presents the personal belongings of Lev Platonovich, which were given to us by his daughter, Susanna Lvovna. This is his pen, glasses and even his business card. Now look - this is written by his hand, but here he writes in Lithuanian. This is his cigarette case made of Karelian birch. These are books that belong to his daughter. They were given to us by Irina Emelyanova, who had been friends with Marianna Karsavina for a long time in Paris. Marianna learned to draw from these books. She has been a lifelong contributor to Vogue magazine and has been a fashion designer, preparing collections for teens and young adults. This is Professor Karsavin's article "Byzantium". Several articles for the Lithuanian encyclopedia: Gaius Julius Caesar, Gothic, Directory. Journalist Tatyana Yasinskaya presented us with photocopies of Karsavin's manuscripts. Here is literature about it.

Pavel Ivanovich Ivinsky, a professor at Vilnius University, gave us great help in creating the museum. This brochure, written by P.I. Ivinsky, released for the reprint of the book "History of European Culture".

Here are articles about Karsavin and books donated by the philosopher Andrey Konitsky.

In this place there is a stand dedicated to Karsavina places in Vilnius, and this stand is dedicated to Tamara Karsavina, an outstanding ballerina of the 20th century. Of course, the world first learned about Tamara because she was a star. When Lev Platonovich began to appear in scientific activity, they said about him: "Ah, this is that Karsavin - Tamara's brother." There was a tender friendship between them. They say that when they met, they walked around the city, holding hands.

Before you is a portrait of Karsavin's wife, Lydia Nikolaevna (nee Kuznetsova). He married in 1904 a graduate of the Bestuzhev Higher Women's Courses, subsequently they had three daughters. The middle daughter Marianna got married in Paris and stayed there, while Irina and Susanna came to Lithuania with their mother. It is impossible not to remember Milda Gutauskienė, she was friends with their family and took care of them in every possible way. When Susanna was left alone, Milda became a nurse at her bedside. Some of the exhibits were given to us by Milda.

Before you is a portrait of Tamara. Her life was full of events. Tamara married an English diplomat who was Irish by birth, his name was Henry Bruce. She moved to London in 1919. In England, among the few figures in ballet, she created the troupe of the English Royal Ballet and for a long time was its president and vice president. Tamara Platonovna lived to a ripe old age. Until now, she is remembered not only as a world ballet star, but also as a wonderful teacher who brought up more than one generation of ballerinas.

I would like to show you one more detail. The fact is that when the NKVD began to closely monitor Karsavin and when the cup of patience of the NKVD overflowed, he was gradually expelled from everywhere where he worked. He was expelled from the university, then from the art institute. Moved to the art museum as director. People who were associated with him during that period say that his work is simply invaluable. Lev Karsavin had vast experience and knowledge to systematize what this museum possessed. When the threat of arrest hung over him, I am telling this from the words of Milda, he understood that he, as the director of the museum, as the administrator, would have some requests from his subordinates, but he would not be there. Then he took a paper and put his signature on the blank sheets, thus showing full confidence in his employees. This signature is another touch to his portrait.

Are there any other museums dedicated to Lev Karsavin?

Looks like no. Anyway, Internet search engines do not give a positive answer. The only thing I can say is the fact about Abezi. It turns out that a fantastic person lives in Abezi. This is Viktor Ivanovich Lozhkin. He voluntarily began to take care of those graves that are located on the site of this camp, created a museum, and those people who came there, visiting the graves, looking for their relatives, inevitably got to know him. I want to talk about one more person. This is Rimvydas Racenas, who is the inspector of burials of Lithuanian exiles throughout the former Soviet Union. It was he who told us about Lozhkin. He mentioned that people come to Abez from different countries - Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and each delegation puts an end to it. There is a Lithuanian cross, Ukrainian, Polish ... In memory of those who forever remained lying in the camp cemetery.

Was a tombstone placed on the grave of Karsavin?

As far as I know, now this grave is simply marked with a wooden Orthodox cross. We even have a photo of the local intelligentsia visiting the grave and laying flowers. These are humble people. Several students, several teachers were photographed at his grave.

Are there any relatives of Karsavin in Lithuania now?

Not in Lithuania. There are only burials at the Euphrosyne Cemetery (Cemetery Lepkalne - ed.).

In your opinion, does the Lev Karsavin Museum influence the students of your school?

One of the Lithuanian cultural figures said the following words: "Karsavin was a person who influenced life choices." People who have ever come into contact with Karsavin must have reconsidered something in their lives. Therefore, when our students touch the legacy of Karsavin, studying his biography, getting acquainted with his works, I see that they are changing. There is no need to prove anything here. They begin to take a deeper look at their lives, their education and many other fundamental, fundamental things in life. Therefore, I believe that our small school museum performs, first of all, an educational function, and then an educational one. The fate of Karsavin, perhaps in some details, differs from the fate of famous, outstanding people of the 20th century, but the whole ocean is reflected in it, like in a drop of water. For me, this person comes first. He did not let himself be broken: he was removed from one institute - he went to another, taken away from the second - he went to the third. And he ended up writing terzan and sonnets in the camp, under the most difficult conditions, which have survived to this day and are of great value. At the same time, he was dying. He died and created masterpieces.

Documents on the case of L.P. Karsavina:

Karsavin L.P.
Small compositions

St. Petersburg: Aleteyya, 1994. - 532 p.
ISBN: 5-85233-009-4
Series: Monuments of Religious and Philosophical Thought of Modern Times

Format: Djvu 12.7 MB

Quality: scanned pages + OCR layer

Language: Russian

The work of Lev Platonovich Karsavin (1882-1952) is organically part of the tradition of Christian philosophy, which was started in Russia by the works of Khomyakov and Vladimir Solovyov. Karsavin seems to link the ends and beginnings of this tradition: he is the author of the last philosophical system created in its mainstream, and he is also in close proximity to its ancestor Khomyakov, a closeness that included deep spiritual influence, similarity of style, character, and even, maybe be distantly related. Like many figures of that brief and amazing era that is called the Silver Age, Karsavin possessed the brilliance and breadth of talents. He began his career as a medievalist historian, immediately standing out with his bright, ahead of his time works, where, with the help of new concepts, a new approach, the medieval vision of the world and the whole image of a medieval person were recreated. Following this, however, the bursting events of the Russian revolution - as well as the philosophical turn of his mind - lead his thoughts to other and more general topics. The circle of his work is expanding unusually. In addition to the old themes of Catholicism and the Middle Ages, he writes about the meaning of the revolution and the fate of Russia, the French Revolution and Joseph de Maistre, about Dostoevsky, about the Gnostic teachings of the era of early Christianity ... - and also gradually begins to develop the ideas of his own philosophy of history and religious metaphysics. Moreover, all these writings are surprisingly different in style and genre. Strict academicism met here, where cascades of quotations and syuks, free arguments full of controversial ideas and paradoxes, caustic polemics, mysticism and hoaxes, pious preaching and love confession. Such polyphony is confusing; you wonder which of these voices is behind the real and main Karsavin. Or for everyone? But one thing is indisputable, that here is a complex creative personality, a subtle, wayward nature, combining sincere faith, depth, philosophical gift - with some kind of baroque, with a whimsical break, with a passion for challenge, paradox, complicated trains of thought, sometimes bordering on sophistry .
All these features are distinguishable in mature creativity, after the expulsion from Russia, which the Bolsheviks subjected him to in the autumn of 1922, together with a large group of philosophers, scientists and cultural figures. Karsavin lived a full life, the life of a Christian and a philosopher, who did not avoid answering all the difficult questions that ask the thoughts and consciences of our age. In the thirties, while living in Lithuania and teaching at the University of Kaunas, he created a major course in the history of European culture in the Lithuanian language, where the history of thought is in the foreground. In the forties, refusing to go to the West, he finds himself in the USSR and, showing a bold rebelliousness of the Stalinist ideology, inevitably ends up in a concentration camp. Arrested in July 1949, after the investigation and trial, he was sent to the Abez polar camp, one of the vast system of Vorkuta camps. Here are the last two years of his life. Sick of tuberculosis, he is nearing death, continuing his works on philosophy and theology until his last days, conducting philosophical and spiritual conversations with fellow prisoners. After he died in July 1952, he became one of the great host of new martyrs, which Russia is now beginning to honor.
It is said that iron is sharpened by iron, and man by man. Karsavin's thought is not one of those teachings that, trusting them completely, you follow to the end. But by raising deep questions, providing a language for their discussion - and at the same time inciting disagreement, dispute - it wakes up our thought in the best possible way, pushes it to live its own work. And this is after all - Socrates' work.

S. Khoruzhy

CONTENT

(To the reader) 7
Mysticism and its significance in the religiosity of the Middle Ages 9
Saligia 24
Satanic Depths (Ophites and Basilides) 58
Sophia earthly and heavenly 76
Noctes Petropolitanae 99
About freedom 204
About good and evil 250
Dialogues 285
The Path of Orthodoxy 343
A.S. Khomyakov 361
Apologetic Study 377
On the dangers and overcoming abstract Christianity 395
Church, individual and state 414
Russia and Jews 447
Prayer 470
APPS
1. A. V. Kartashev. Lev Platonovich Karsavin (1882-1952) 471
2. A. 3. Steinberg. Lev Platonovich Karsavin 478
3. Gleb Sorochkin. From the diary (on the history of the Kaunas religious and philosophical circle) 499
NOTES 522

The pagination of this electronic article corresponds to the original.

from the unreleased

All prose and poetry works by L.P. Karsavin printed below were written by him in the concentration camp in Abez between 1949 and 1952.

L. P. KARSAVIN

TERCINES

You know yourself by your death,

Himself and ending, the Infinite.

So you called me out of nothing,

So that I live in Your Thy eternal death.

Your destiny is fulfilled: in me

You are all resurrected, and with life I meet

I burn all in Divine fire.

Pleroma, perfection You are always.

My opportunity I - lives in the grain

Mighty oak. In the invisible circle of ice

Heat, movement, lust for life,

Sparkling in the sun, water falls...

I am powerless. But with your weakness

- You alone cannot overcome it -

I, the almighty, am stronger than you.

You can do anything rotting in graves

Resurrect the bodies with a single word,

And the blood will boil in their renewed veins.

In Yourself You were able to perfect me.

But my freedom is dear to You;

And I'm afraid of immortal death to live

Like a solar bat of sunrise.

Ridiculous my fulfilling desire

Without complete death, live for your own pleasure,

You made my vegetation yours

An oppressive host of unfulfilled aspirations,

You are not death, but eternal suffering. —

Eden has become Gehenna, Your garden is blooming,

Where the phoenix sang, the unicorn roamed,

Where, hiding in the depths of a drowsy forest,

The serpent of the pitchfork rings, prophesying rock...

But there was no earthly paradise yet.

I could not contain the Divine within myself.

And I live without dying at all

And in dying I do not become everything.

Is it already, playing me ruthlessly,

Blessed are you with your passionless being?

And all my prayers and penalties are in vain?

Are you blind, or deaf, or dumb?

The sun does not see the shadow it casts;

We see only the light of the sun in the shadows.

So maybe all our torments

Not in God? “Then they don’t exist at all.”

And there are they! My treason burns

An evasive answer to your call.

Your life is complete. And there is a change

Does not tell fortunes of an unheard-of emptiness.

She boils. And my life is like foam

At the trait held by death.

This life is bad. And not a consolation

Joy of noisy false vanity.

We all live in the arms of stuffy Hell.

In the night they crawl, shaking the silence,

To us are the tentacles of an alarmed reptile.

Hell only embodies my guilt.

Without hellish torments, it cannot exist.

I myself in them, I curse her in myself. —

The fire burns me and the hungry worm gnaws

Will love destroy this torment?

* * *

One - Love and eternal Death torment.

Loving, You shrink to a point. And she,

As exact science says,

An idea, a thought, is equal to nothingness.

The abyss of darkness opened up, which also

It couldn't be until love wave

Not poured into an ugly bed,

Until you lit up

Your uplifting, all-pervading light, O God.

Immeasurably the world, You loved me

Not yet existing - Love is omnipotent.

But you, the free one, are not nice

Lazy slave, with a touching smile,

With the soul of a traitor, a crafty flatterer,

Satisfied with Your abundant mercy.

Free You called and waited, Creator,

And equal to You in everything. Free -

So thought You, Divine Sly, -

Can arise only in barren darkness,

So that in response to your creative click

You (to become like the Only Begotten Son.

You called me from the abyss. I arose

And rushed to you. So beautiful

By the suffering of Love, Your bright face;

And Your gaze is so solemn and clear.

But the horror of death drew me back

And - Your call sounded in me in vain.

In Your suffering, a drop is Hell.

You suffer the torment of all living things.

We burn with fire, torn apart on the rack,

In the tears of a child You are in the agony of the sick.

Forever crucified I saw the body

God forsaken by His Father.

To be you? - Soul numb

Before the agony of death. Yet she persists

I aspired to You... with a timid thought.

Your life-giving light barely shone on her.

She shrank in the darkness of her original

Almost motionless, obedient to inertia,

The earth became formless and cold.

Like the eyes of God, the stars silently called

Her to myself from the abyss of that rootless.

And, full of magic sadness,

The moon took. And the sun shone

Your paths are exalted.

And all she remembered your image

And his first impulse, languishing viscous

Longing without end and without beginning.

Clouds slowly crawled across the sky,

The whole window is ominously covering.

Repentance pierced with burning pain;

And, waving gray hair,

Those clouds wept bitterly. Under them

Not frightened flocks of ravens,

Demons rushed about with their wings

Noisy like the wind, laughing maliciously,

When, flashing, Your Name was hidden.

But their souls eagerly listened to their stupidity,

In doubt, affirming their lack of will. —

Did the day of creation shine

Above the meager, miserable earthly vale?

And your image, for a moment only illuminated.

Was it created by unbearable pain?

Is not eternal darkness desired peace?

Despond born Nirvana

Is it rest of non-existence or Unspeakable?

Isn't it the same grief through the mist of fog

The world of angels I see above heaven

And jubilant hosannas are heard?

After all, the mountain world, bloodless, incorporeal,

Isn't he the fruit of the same self-deception,

What is Buddha, son of Maya, Hinayana?

In doubt I stagnate at the threshold

Non-existence (beginning and end). —

There is no knowledge without me, there is no God:

There can be no Creator without the Creature,

How can there be no perfect creature

Without Your crown of thorns.

But there is no me without this mortal life,

Without hellish torments, without heaven and earth,

Without a universe divided by malice,

Without vile reptiles and insignificant aphids.

Your love has made me perfect

In itself. But could you and I

To forget, not to do what happened?

Freely I did not want to accept

All that Your love promised me. —

You lowered the limit I raised:

Deify me, my hell

Overcame with my own being.

And, enslaving decay, I resist decay,

And reluctantly I want to become you,

Changeable, I swear my treason.

In You my sin is one suffering: to wait.

Do I want, Your creation,

To give all of myself in others to You.

You filled up the created desire

Incompleteness. You are loving and powerful.

My repentance is Epiphany;

My fault is Love's victorious ray.

So, revitalizing the dry field,

From black clouds shone by the sun

Rain falls like a rainbow.

The past me (no longer "I", but "he")

Immortality of dying I live out

The mask of darkness is an unshakable law,

To from this life and shame

Through thee I was resurrected through Death.

The holy Torah, the daughter of God, fell silent.

She still triumphantly reigns

In the cold light of the stars

Above the world of lust and resentment.

Mindless Nature is obedient to her

And all the people are bestial in appearance.

But Freedom has lifted us above them.

It was revealed later by the Son of God,

What started the movement of the sky.

But He is with His Father and God is one,

And in eternity, embracing all time,

Their creative initiative is timeless.

And with Them we, God-born tribe,

We consciously create ourselves, as the world,

The old law overthrowing the burden.

I create myself. And how else

In a free way I could be made

And together with God become Christ one?

Born by you through guilt and death,

I transform darkness into Your bright world;

And no one in the creatures of the abyss of sleep

Not subject to You and nothing.

Is the power of the laws of the world indestructible,

Or a given, incomprehensible to the mind,

The power of his own created idol?

Law - Your creatures are harmonious,

They are only alive. So the strings of the lyre

They sound the same melody.

But the weakness of creaturely knowledge

The law in the motionless sign of the law is compressed.

Is not the point of the beginning of the universe? —

That sign is invisible, point, - Tao, the way

Not being, but being a search.

The essence is not in the mountainous realm of the spirits of the world,

But in us it is, in all the manifestations of the Son,

Those who overcome Nirvana Death are terrible.

Creation Man is the cause of everything.

In him, the Divine became all creation.

He distributes the rank

Substance in time and place.

In it on earth as a person realized

Himself for a moment a single essence.

But in a moment, the beginning met the end.

Invisible, unknown to us is Adam,

And there is none. Just a dim mirror

Traditions face not the former shows us.

Heavenly Adam's life thirsty

We languish in the knowledge of each thought.

Your knowledge and thought and will

And their work is the whole world created by You.

Another created knowledge share. —

Your bright world is unstoppable

Attracts, hiding in everything, always desired,

Like a home for a prodigal son.

In anguish, I strive tirelessly for him,

But... only a thought, a feeble dream.

And he brings grief, foggy,

Resting with unearthly beauty.

But in the world of heaven do not find the eyes

No sacrifice on the cross, no love. He is toyu

Blessed is an imaginary life without contention,

Without change, without personal consciousness,

Which angels of disembodied choirs

Shows our hopes...

No! On earth, God is alive in every creature,

Through earthly things, suffering is completely alive.

Guilt consciousness is God's light; and in a square

God is compassionate with us. In this life -

Wonderful, ever new God's gift -

Not about the fortune-telling soul of the homeland

We think, but our evil soul

We reject with bitter reproach,

Not a body, not Nature, any living

In his inexhaustible renewal.

And with a thought in it, in everything that is, I live,

I partake of creation from nothing,

But - only by thought, in the lightless night

Willlessness turning into doubt

* * *

Through perfect united Death

Movement and rest, earth and firmament.

* * *

With you in you from an inconspicuous point,

Non-existent point, into the darkness of non-existence

The mighty element, selflessly,

Rejoicing and beaming, I erupted.

I in God, as the universe, arose,

And God's, and as much mine.

It was a birth in a moment of creation,

Gathering itself in that moment eternity,

Where is God me and God I comprehended

Like Life-through-Death, peace transience

Moved, appeared comprehensible

Finiteness is our infinity.

The swift flight of the seraph

My rays rushed, piercing the darkness.

And everyone turned me into a burning one

Love new creativity hearth.

Like a Phoenix, I rose from the ashes.

And there were firmament, earth and every kind of grass

And every animal and I tormented the lamb;

And my blood oozed from the wound

(In my beam, an alley, like a coral)

Feeding pelican chicks.

Everything was me, I am all creatures

In the cycle of this life drunk.

And there was at once a tree and a seed.

After all, in an instant everything was any

Moments are all birthing time.

Space, dividing the world with his sword,

Enthusiastic about the cycle

Merged into one center

And it was everywhere and nowhere.

Imperfect, in one past

To know my creativity is given to me

Who raised me into their all-timeness.

Like the past, like the dead I comprehend

And what will be, I am a prophetic view.

To the wisest of the sages of China

I once dreamed that he was like a moth

Drinking the sweet juice of flowers, fluttering in the garden.

Waking up, the sage could not decide:

Did he have a fleeting dream

Or a moth asleep mind

He imagines that he

Furry moth, lives like a glorious

The philosopher is also honored by the Chinese.

A moment of time equals everything.

In the moments of the real runner

Through the multitude its unity is manifest.

That moment lives past and future

In their unity (not at an abstract point,

Not in a dead sign, punishment only existing)

In the depths of it, from the gaze of the hidden

Who covered her with all the struggle,

The world is perfect, mixed with God,

Freedom combined with Destiny.

I, like that world, is elemental, but free:

I see no boundaries anywhere in front of me;

My way is boundless, like the way of the Lord.

I reveal myself

I am under every creation

And I live and die in it.

It is always everywhere in me.

So I am everything, and I am everything in everything.

It becomes clear in a wayward dream,

The objects of all washing away the borders,

River flowing from wave to wave.

In a dream, I myself, and I, and the beast, and the bird,

Both the wind and the wave ... Do you need examples

How the world dreams of unity

Wings covered with Chimeras?

It divides itself and unites itself.

In multitude there is order and measure,

deceptive appearance

Laws-signs, mental grievances.

* * *

In you, with you one, without interference,

Without separating our unity

From the multitude, the law in it I am all

Apparitions as I realize myself.

But, from You, the One, and far away,

I became the whole world, having separated myself.

In every part of it I am alone,

I do not recognize myself in other parts,

in other beings. incomprehensible rock

I meet the enslaver in them,

Incomprehensible law given,

In which the noise of traffic subsided,

Like the unspeakable will of the universal will.

Raises the waves of all my desires

Peace of indestructible desire.

Shrinking in painful search

Your blessed immutability,

Neither death is inaccessible, nor suffering.

But she is not! And - like a world of shadows

Floats, slides creatures of other lines.

In the dwelling of death dear Orpheus

Wandering, groaning looking for and calling.

For a moment, like a dying flame,

The shadow came to life before him, slowing down the flight,

And - he catches the darkness with cold hands.

We are looking for a "soul" there, chasing a shadow

Which is not, neither in us nor above us.

We live in motion, but the limit is motion

Put in a push and - we squeeze ourselves

At a non-existent point instead of expansion.

We amuse ourselves in the “home of the spirits”, paradise,

Seeing no clear sunrise.

But where is the paradise when we lose ourselves?

Carrying their raging waters

We are all swallowed up by the flow of life.

But that death is the birth of Freedom:

Our fate becomes freedom in it.

I overcome my death

Like You, God living with all Death,

Themselves and the world, and thousands of lights

From the darkness, from that non-existent point

Dreams are rushing faster.

As a bright world, I resurrect Yours

Not only the former me, a prisoner,

Not my shadow, not an inanimate ghost.

Not only this world is mine, immutable

In its dull pattern,

In his aspirations, predatory and insignificant

I rise from the darkness by Your power

Not slavish to dream - to live fully

And everything that will be, may have been

To fulfill Thy fullness.

I suffer from incomplete guilt.

(Otherwise there could not be peace

defective). Clothed with a veil

Ignorance is my perfection.

But I live a different life,

Burning in the fire of God's acceptance,

Like Your light, eternal torment must be

In the indescribable joy of bliss.

Let your thought come true

In one world by my death.

Far away I see Your fullness,

The world promised to Moses.

Creation is related to You only by a mortal sacrifice:

Only in it she was born by You.

* * *

A murderous strife rages.

But, destroying life, Death sows another life

And he draws his mysterious pattern,

May everything be in everything, so that in the Son

Revealed the Father of creations harmonious choir.

But only "will" the world be like that. And "now" -

Keeping yourself with its peculiarity,

The creature wants each in its own guise

To be the whole world, destroying another creature,

Trying to overcome her ability.

Imperfect, loving part of you.

Can I completely die?

* * *

Attracts, threatening, Fate. That is the song of Shiva

wordless magical speech,

And dance him, and his arms twist,

Similar to the movements of terrible snakes.

Everything perishes, everything is alive with a different death

Spinning in a ring of flickering lights.

Evil infinity of dying,

Mutual destruction of creatures in it,

Neither life nor death, but eternal suffering

(Earthly death, painful anguish,

Does not break the threads of vegetation).

This is my rock. In response to your call

Its my free will

Already admitted, with Your will plums.

A hungry lion torments the lamb,

But the lamb of death has crossed the line,

Whole Death, supernatural sacrifice:

So that another creature is fed,

He gave himself to her without regret.

So take life away from you with creation,

So the world is justified by Your incarnation;

So everything becomes, though not quite

Every creation is imperfect.

You languish forever You yourself outside,

Descended into Hell and unable to die,

As long as Your Pleroma is the light in me

Did not shine, creating, while in the grave

I did not call on the Risen One

And he did not know the whole death.

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Lev Platonovich Karsavin (1882-1952) is a historian of religious thought of the Middle Ages, a religious thinker who, like his predecessors, develops the Russian version of the philosophy of unity. He was born into the family of the remarkable ballet dancer Platon Karsavin (1854-1922). The famous Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina (1885-1978) was the sister of the historian and philosopher. Lev Karsavin's mother, Anna Iosifovna, was the daughter of A. S. Khomyakov's cousin and bore the same surname before marriage. (Subsequently, L. Karsavin would write a long preface to the reprint of the work of his distant relative, the Slavophile philosopher “On the Church”, supporting Khomyakov’s tradition of free philosophical theology.) In the life and works of Karsavin, the artistic artistry of his father and the religious and spiritual Khomyakov traditions that mother cultivated. Capable of the finest logical reasoning in the spirit of scholasticism, Karsavin at that lt; At the same time, he was poetic in nature: he wrote poetry, did not shy away from literary hoaxes, wrote a lyric-philosophical treatise on love (“Noctes Petropolitanae”, 1922) and “A Poem about Death” (1931).
The life path of Karsavin was refracted through the complex ups and downs of the destinies of the first half of the 20th century. In 1901-1906. he studies at the Faculty of History and Philology of St. Petersburg University, specializing in the study of religious movements in Italy and France in the late Middle Ages. In 1910-1912. the historian got the opportunity to work in the archives and libraries of France and Italy. In 1912, his master's thesis "Essays on the religious life of Italy in the 12th-13th centuries" was published, and in 1915 his doctoral dissertation "Fundamentals of medieval religiosity in the 12th-13th centuries, mainly in Italy", which he defended in March 1916. The historical works of Karsavin are of a cultural nature, recreating the era under study in a certain spiritual integrity.
Since 1913, Karsavin has been teaching historical disciplines at St. Petersburg University, at the Higher Women's Courses and other institutions. After the revolution, he continues teaching and lecturing at the university, is actively engaged in literary and philosophical work, writes and publishes such philosophical and religious studies as "SALIGIA, or a very short and soulful meditation on God, the world, man, evil and the seven deadly sins" , "The Depths of Satan", "Sophia of the Earth and Heaven", "On Freedom", "On Good and Evil", etc. At the same time, he reads sermons in churches. It is not surprising that in 1922 Karsavin was included in the list of anti-Soviet figures of Russian culture to be expelled from the country.
From 1922, the emigrant period of Karsavin's life and work began. From 1922 to 1926 he lives in Berlin and writes The Philosophy of History (1923), Giordano Bruno (1923), On the Beginnings (1925), which define his philosophical and religious views. Since 1926, Karsavin moved to Paris and theoretically headed the left wing of the Eurasian movement until 1929. This movement, which was a variant of the Russian idea, saw Russia's uniqueness in its geopolitical and cultural position between Europe and Asia (Eurasia). Supporters of Eurasianism sought to create an ideologically unified state formation based on Orthodoxy, hoping for the possibility of using the Soviet state that arose during the Bolshevik revolution.
In 1927 Karsavin was invited to Lithuania as head of the department of general history at Kaunas University. Having mastered the Lithuanian language, he reads a course in the history of European culture. In 1940 the university was relocated to Vilnius. Having survived the years of German occupation during World War II, the philosopher was expelled from the university in 1946, and in 1949 he was arrested and exiled to Siberia. Sick of tuberculosis, he ends up in the Abez invalid camp, located near the Arctic Circle. During his stay in the camp, Karsavin did not stop his philosophical, religious and poetic work, which was gratefully received by his fellow campers, and especially A. A. Vaneev (1922-1985), who became his student and follower. July 20, 1952 Lev Karsavin dies, he was buried in an unmarked grave. But in order to identify the body of the Russian thinker in the future, the Lithuanian camp pathologist V. Shimkunas put a closed vial into Karsavin's body, which contained a note-epitaph written by A. A. Vaneev.
Karsavin occupies a peculiar place in Russian religious philosophy. He went from history to philosophy and theology, from historical theology to the philosophy of history and the philosophy of theology. His metaphysics of unity is, of course, in line with the traditions of Christian Platonism, most clearly represented in Russia by Vl. Solovyov. But Karsavin does not directly adjoin either Solovyov or the Solovyovites (despite the fact that contemporaries saw an external resemblance between him and the great Russian philosopher), appealing to the teachings of the Church Fathers and Nicholas of Cusa.
As a historian, Karsavin poses the problem of the meaning of evaluation, evaluation activity in historical knowledge. “Evaluation in history is necessary”, “the moment of evaluation” is irremovable, he notes in Philosophy of History. The problem of value and evaluation has been widely discussed in Western European and Russian philosophical thought since the second half of the 19th century. The need for a “reassessment of all values” (Nietzsche), awareness of the importance of the value worldview, especially in the field of practical activity and humanitarian historical knowledge, led to the development of a “philosophy of values”, “axiology” (from the Greek axia - value and logos - teaching) in its various variants, especially in the philosophy of the neo-Kantians (Windellband, Rickert).
Karsavin also considers it “possible to justify the axiological moment in historiography by eliminating all subjectivism and relativism from it” (FI, 224). In other words, he includes a value factor in history, but at the same time, Karsavin, in contrast to the Rickertians, considers value itself not as a subjective “my construction”, a “transcendental” construction that does not have ordinary empirical existence. Yes, "assessments differ", but "the historian is mistaken only if he rejects the value of other "inclinations"; recognizing it as purely "subjective", he is mistaken in that he considers it to be peculiar only to his limited self, and not rooted in the Absolute. According to Karsavin, “the essence of any assessment is in the Absolute,” and “the so-called “subjectivity” is only a periphery, the individualization of an assessment,” because “and absolute value, an absolute criterion does not exist without individualization.” True, “their “values,” even if they are absolute, are evaluated. For some reason, they are recognized by us as “valuable” and “values”. We can recognize them as valuable only if we ourselves are higher than them and make them valuable, or if they, being higher than us, are at the same time ourselves, and therefore assert themselves in ourselves and in us. They are undeniably, absolutely valuable because they are the self-evaluation of the Absolute in Himself and in all His theophany [epiphany], that is, in us” (ibid., 226-227).
The author of the "Philosophy of History", thus, acts as a supporter of the theological, theological theory of value. The essence of this theory in the early 20's. formulated N. O. Lossky in the subtitle of his axiological work "Value and Being": "God and the Kingdom of God as the basis of values." According to Karsavin, "God's laws will be the criterion for the comparative evaluation of everything relative in quality" (ibid., 222). The absolute as a beginning, including the axiological one, of the whole world lies at the basis of Karsavin's metaphysics of unity. Karsavin affirms "the equivalence of all moments of development." Moreover, there is a central moment of historical development. This is the Incarnation of God, possessing “primary value”. However, according to Karsavin, “its primary value does not in the least detract from the value of other moments and, in a certain sense, it is equivalent to them” (ibid., 250).
Karsavin formulates his understanding of the All-Unity in the following "metaphysical theses". First, there is "the Deity, as the absolute perfect All-Unity." Secondly, there is a “perfect or deified (absolute) created total unity” different from God. Thirdly, “a completed or acquired created total unity, striving for its perfection, as an ideal or an absolute task, and through it to merge with God...”. Fourthly, “unfinished created all-unity, that is, relative many-unity, all-unity that becomes perfect through its completion, or the moment of all-unity in its limitation” (FI, 55). In the treatise On the Personality (1929), figuratively describing the structure of the world, Karsavin noted that the world "looks like an Easter egg, consisting of many eggs included in each other, with which our children played so recently." The world consists of many "moments", which he calls "qualities". But these "moments" or "qualifications" form a "contracted unity." The concept of "contracted", suggesting the dialectical unity of the part and the whole, Karsavin borrows from Nicholas of Cusa. According to Karsavin, “contracted pan-unity” is a pan-unity that “compresses all moments” (FI, 50). All-unity as a “contracted all-unity”, thus, is present in every “moment”, and all of them together form the all-unity of the Absolute. To a certain extent, not only Easter eggs included in each other, but also the literary form of the “wreath of sonnets” are a model of Karsavin’s unity. Apparently not by chance, being in the Abez camp, Karsavin expresses his cherished metaphysical ideas in the form of a “wreath of sonnets”. What is a "wreath of sonnets"? The classical sonnet itself is the most complex literary and poetic construction, consisting of 14 lines (2 quatrains connected by a single rhyme, and 2 three-line verses). The wreath of sonnets is 14 sonnets, in which each last line of the previous sonnet becomes the first line of the next sonnet. And from these first and last lines, the 15th, “main sonnet” is formed. The “main sonnet” forms the “constricted unity” of all sonnets, and at the same time it is dissolved in each of the “moments”, “qualities” of all other sonnets. Here is the main sonnet of Karsavin's wreath of sonnets, poetically expressing his metaphysics of unity:
You are all one: what will be and what was, And is, and what can be. Everything shines for you, as it shone in the sky, And it moves, submissive to Fate.
Immeasurable power is hidden in You. You appear in harmony and struggle, you, the whole light, the light without darkness in yourself. And the darkness from outside did not cover you.
You are infinite: there is no nonexistence. Can I also be in pitch darkness? You are your limit - completely dying. Non-existent, You live in Yourself like I do, so that Your life will rise in me. You are my Creator, Your fate forever is me.
Considering himself in line with the Russian philosophy of unity, Karsavin introduces a number of important features into this philosophy. This applies, firstly, to the concretization of unity by trinity. And secondly, to the understanding of unity-trinity as a dialectical formation of personality.
The Absolute is comprehended by Karsavin as the Trinity in connection with "Orthodox religious metaphysics" (FI, 329). The principle of trinity not only links the Absolute with the Holy Trinity (such a connection was emphasized by the Church Fathers), but seeks to reveal the structure of development, its movement in a triple rhythm: the primordial unity - self-separation-self-reunion. If the literary form of the “wreath of sonnets” can serve as a model of “contracted unity”, then the temporary deployment of unity through trinity is clearly represented by the poetic form “tertsin”, which Karsavin also turned to in the last camp period of his work. “Tercines” (they wrote Dante’s “Divine Comedy”), as it were, suggest the realization of unity in time: the rhyme of the first stanza aba goes into the rhyme of the second ЪсЪ, the second - into the rhyme of the third cdc, the third - into the rhyme of the fourth ded, etc. Here is an example karsavinsky "tertsin":
In doubt, I stagnate at the threshold of Non-existence (beginning and end). - There is no knowledge without me, there is no God:
There can be no Creator without the Creature, Just as there cannot be a perfect creature Without Your crown of thorns.
But there is no me without this mortal life, Without hellish torments, without heaven and earth, Without a universe divided by malice,
Without vile reptiles and insignificant aphids. Your Love has perfected me In itself. But could you and I
To forget, not to do what happened? ..
Emphasizing the historical deployment of all-unity through trinity, Karsavin sees the foundation of the developing all-unity in the individual: “The whole world is an all-one person in the sense that it is a theophany [theophany], that is, a Trinitarian Deity, through the Hypostasis of the Logos, participating in the created substrate” (R. -f. op., 100); “The all-uniting personality of the Logos is the ideal and essence of created personal existence. But in the creature we must take into account its imperfection” (R.-f. soch., 124). Thus, the Personality appears as a triunity in the Most Holy Trinity. But the human personality "reveals itself as self-unity, self-separation and self-reunion" (R.-f. soch., 5).
The imperfection of the creature is expressed in the fact that in the form of things and animals it has only a potential and rudimentary personal existence. However, the individual human personality does not complete the process of personal development. In addition to the individual personality, Karsavin introduces the concept of "social personality" and "symphonic personality". A "social group" is conceived by him as a "certain whole", as an "organism" (FI, 91). These are also separate social groups or classes of people, nations, local churches, cultural formations, etc. However, the “social personality” can be expressed in individual personalities with varying degrees of completeness (see R.-F. cit., 126). The imperfection of the creature is "its disunity" (see ibid., 214). But besides the "imperfect personality" there is "its ideal image" (ibid., 216). The "symphonic personality" is the perfect social personality. From a theological point of view, "symphonic personality" is "a complete and perfect reflection of God's Trinity" (ibid., 66). Speaking in axiological language, "symphonic personality" is a social personality in its value meaning. Hence the figurative-musical term "symphonic".
In his doctrine of the "symphonic personality" Karsavin develops the idea of ​​Khomyakov's catholicity. The representation of the development of unity as the development of the individual and the universal humanity, in which “the higher personality gives birth as its own moment to the lower one” (ibid., 126), allows Karsavin to free himself from the symbol of Sophia. Only in the composition “Sophia on Earth and Above” (1922), stylized as an ancient work, did Karsavin sing “Sophia the Eternal” and wrote: “Who is She like her creation? - Of course, the Word and Mind, Her self-realization. The Word is Man, Man is Sobornost, Sobornost is Sophia. In the treatise “On the Personality” (1929), Karsavin calls the “reborn created Sophia”, which does not differ from the “Virgin Mary”, the angel of “the whole of the churched humanity” (R.-f. soch., 218). Karsavin's concept of "symphonic personality" therefore absorbed the symbolic mythology of Sophia.

Karsavin's metaphysics of unity-trinity, united in the mid-20s. with the ideology of Eurasianism, was ambiguously perceived by Russian philosophers. Without doubting the enormous historical and philosophical erudition and culture of Karsavin's philosophical reflections, some shortcomings were seen in his views, incompatible with the views of critics. Thus, N. O. Lossky noted “the pantheistic nature of Karsavin’s system” and saw its discovery in the fact that “in it the relationship between God and the cosmic process is in some way a game of God with himself.” N. A. Berdyaev in 1929 criticized Karsavin from the point of view of his personalistic philosophy (that is, a philosophy that proclaims the priority of freedom, creativity and the value of an individual person - a person). “It is completely incomprehensible,” he wrote, “that, for example, Karsavin denies the existence of a human person and recognizes only the existence of a Divine person (hypostasis). He builds the doctrine of a symphonic personality, realizing the divine trinity. The doctrine of the symphonic personality is deeply opposed to personalism and means the metaphysical justification for the slavery of man.
Philosophy of unity-trinity L. Karsavin persecution of the 40s. and the camp death of a religious thinker was colored by a tragic fate. In this aspect, the "deep core of his philosophy, the idea of ​​life-through-death" also acquires a new sound. The martyrdom of Karsavin and the long suppression of his work in his homeland to a certain extent contributed to the awakened in the 90s. interest in the religious and philosophical works of Karsavin, which were not republished abroad for many years.