Vekhi ( rus, Вехи, p=ˈvʲexʲɪ, t=

Landmarks A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern-day use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures ...

) is a collection of seven essays published in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1909. It was distributed in five editions and elicited over two hundred published rejoinders in two years. The volume reappraising the Russian

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

was a brainchild of the literary historian

Mikhail Gershenzon Mikhail Osipovich Gershenzon () ( Kishinev, - Moscow, 19 February 1925) was a Russian scholar, essayist and editor. He studied history, philosophy, and political science at Moscow University, graduating in 1894. From graduation until the Bolshe ...

, who edited it and wrote the introduction.

Founding

Peter Struve Peter (or Pyotr or Petr) Berngardovich Struve (, ; – 22 February 1944) was a Russian political economist, philosopher, historian and editor. He started his career as a Marxist, later became a liberal and after the Bolshevik Revolution, joined ...

selected the contributors, five of whom had previously contributed to a 1902 volume, '' Problems of Idealism'', and he had attended the 1903

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; ; ; ; ), historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of Schaffh ...

Conference that laid the foundation for the

Union of Liberation Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Uni ...

. A founder of the

Constitutional Democratic Party The Constitutional Democratic Party (, K-D), also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of People's Freedom (), was a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy—among other policies� ...

in 1905, Struve had served in the Second

Duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...

in 1907, then went on to edit the journal ''Russian Thought''. In his essay, he argued that the intelligentsia owed its identity to standing apart from the government because it had coalesced in the 1840s under the impact of atheistic socialism. Thus, when the government agreed to restructure along

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

lines in 1905, the intelligentsia proved incapable of acting constructively toward the masses, within the new framework.

* Mikhail Gershenzon: Foreword *

Nikolai Berdyayev Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; ; – 24 March 1948) was a Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialist who emphasized the existential spiritual significance of human freedom and the human person. Biography Nikolai Be ...

: "Philosophical Truth and Intellectual Truth" *

Sergei Bulgakov Sergei Nikolayevich Bulgakov (, ; – 13 July 1944) was a Russian Orthodox theologian, priest, philosopher, and economist. Orthodox writer and scholar David Bentley Hart has said that Bulgakov was "the greatest systematic theologian of the tw ...

: "Heroism and Asceticism" * Mikhail Gershenzon: "Creative Self-Awareness" *

Alexander Izgoyev Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...

: "About Intelligent Youth" *

Bogdan Kistyakovski Bohdan (Fedir) Oleksandrovych Kistiakivskyi (; 16 November 1869 – 16 April 1920) was a Ukrainian philosopher, jurist, and sociologist. He reached prominence with his ''Gesellschaft und Einzelwesen'' (Society and Individuals) published in Berlin ...

: "In Defense of Law" *

: "The Intelligentsia and the Revolution" *

Semyon Frank Semyon Lyudvigovich Frank (; 28 January 1877 – 10 December 1950) was a Russian philosopher. Born into a Jewish family, he became an Orthodox Christian in 1912. In 1922 he was expelled from Soviet Russia and lived in Berlin. In 1933 he was r ...

: "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

Slavophiles Slavophilia () was a movement originating from the 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed on the basis of values and institutions derived from Russia's early history. Slavophiles opposed the influences of Western Europe in Rus ...

and the

Westernizers Westernizers (; , ) were a group of 19th-century intellectuals who believed that Russia's development depended upon the adoption of Western European technology and liberal government. In their view, Western ideas such as industrialisation needed t ...

for representatives of both currents displayed negligence with regard to law and even found certain merits in the weakness of the lawful state in Russia. Kistyakovsky pointed out that

Alexander Herzen Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (; ) was a Russian writer and thinker known as the precursor of Russian socialism and one of the main precursors of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudo ...

, the key-figure of the early Westernizer movement, saw in that a way to a quicker and easier overthrow of the regime in power, but

Konstantin Aksakov Konstantin Sergeyevich Aksakov (; 10 April 1817 – 19 December 1860) was a Russian critic and writer. He became one of the earliest and most notable Slavophiles. He wrote plays, social criticism, and histories of the ancient Russian social order ...

considered it to be another manifestation of Russia's uniqueness: abstaining from law, the Russian people chose the path of "inner truth". Ideas of justice were drawn in the country from fiction, not from legal treatises. In contrast, it was law, according to Kistyakovsky, that could provide an individual with both personal freedom and social discipline. The constitutional state emerges and develops to reflect people's solidary interests. It unites people and promotes mutual solidarity, thus contributing to individuals' personal growth.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. Kistyakovsky saw the ultimate embodiment of the lawful state in the socialist state, which would realize all the lawful principles declared. All citizens' rights would be fulfilled, people would govern the country and solidarity would reach its summit.

(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 French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

counterparts, lacking application and even a sense of fair play.

Philosophical positions

Nikolai Berdyayev, considering the intelligentsia's philosophical position, found

utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that lead to the ...

values had crowded out any interest in pursuing truth. Sergei Bulgakov showed how the intelligentsia had undertaken a heroic struggle for socialism and progress but lost sight of post-Reformation Europe's gains with respect to individual rights and personal freedom.

Nikolay Lossky Nikolay Onufriyevich Lossky (; – 24 January 1965), also known as N. O. Lossky, was a Russian philosopher, representative of Russian idealism, intuitionist epistemology, personalism, libertarianism, ethics and axiology (value theory). He gave h ...

, the father of

Vladimir Lossky Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky (; 1903–1958) was a Russian Orthodox theologian exiled in Paris. He emphasized '' theosis'' as the main principle of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Biography Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky was born on 8 June ( OS 26 M ...

, also made periodic contributions to the debate. For Semen Frank, as for Gershenzon and Struve, the intelligentsia's failure of leadership in the 1905 revolution warranted a reappraisal of their fundamental assumptions. His essay emphasised the nihilistic sources of the intelligentsia's utilitarianism: material progress and national education were always viewed as a means to another end. Moreover, he saw Russian

Marxists Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, and ...

as obsessed by a populist drive to perfect society through redistribution and faulted them for their penchant for dividing all humanity into friends and enemies. Gershenzon asserted, in the book's most controversial sentence, that "so far from dreaming of union with the people we ought to fear the people and bless this government which, with its prisons and bayonets, still protects us from the people's fury". 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 Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

document, ''Vekhi'' called for a rethinking of the

Enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

project of acculturation and proposed exploration of the depths of the self as an alternative to

populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

and

nihilist Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that life is meaningless, that moral values are baseless, and that knowledge is impossible. Thes ...

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 Samuel D. Kassow (born October 3, 1946) is an American historian of the history of Ashkenazi Jewry. Early life Kassow was born in a displaced persons' camp in Stuttgart, Germany. His mother survived because she, along with her sister, was hidd ...

, ''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) * Aizlewood, Robin, and Ruth Coates, eds. Landmarks Revisited: The Vekhi Symposium One Hundred Years On. Academic Studies Press, 2013

* Poltoratzky, Nikolai P. "Lev Tolstoy and 'Vekhi.'" The Slavonic and East European Review 42, no. 99 (1964): 332–52

*

Leonard Schapiro Leonard Bertram Naman Schapiro (22 April 1908 – 2 November 1983) was a British scholar of the origins and development of the Soviet political system. He taught for many years at the London School of Economics, where he was Professor of Po ...

, '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 * .

References

External links