Information about the author:
Elena Yu. Knorre
Elena Yu. Knorre — PhD in Philology, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Orthodox St. Tikhon University for the Humanities, Likhov lane, 6, p. 1, 127051 Moscow, Russia.
E-mail:
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3272-8659
Abstract:
The article analyzes the optics determining the perception of the revolution of 1905 in the L. Tolstoy’s and L. Andreyev’s works. On the basis of L. Tolstoy’s story “Divine and Human” (1905) and “The Seven Who Were Hanged” by L. Andreyev (1908), dedicated to Tolstoy, the plot of overcoming death, and its religious and philosophical context are reconstructed. It is concluded that the problematics of the revolutionary upheaval in the works of L. Tolstoy and L. Andreyev is refracted in the eschatological and existential dimension of the individual’s spiritual transformation. The social revolution, which affirms the path of violence and enmity, is opposed to the idea of “moral revolution” as a spiritual liberation that opens the world beyond the walls of egoism. Werner, like Svetlogub, sees the internal unity of externally divided and displacing wills. The revelation of the unity of the world awakens compassion for all living things in the soul of the characters, helps them to forgive their enemies. In the concept of spiritual liberation in the stories of Tolstoy and Andreyev, allusions to the philosophy of A. Schopenhauer, his idea of the coexistence of two worlds — the “kingdom of nature” and the “kingdom of grace” — are visible: liberation from the illusions of the world, where the principle of war and displacement reigns, opens up a true immortal world, based on compassion.
Keywords: Revolution of 1905, Apocalypse, Mysticism of Liberation, A. Schopenhauer, L. Tolstoy, L. Andreyev, Plot of Overcoming Death.
