Russian soul
Encyclopedia
The term Russian soul has been used in literature
to describe Russian spirituality. The writings of many Russian writers such as Nikolai Gogol
, Leo Tolstoy
and Fyodor Dostoyevsky offer descriptions of the Russian soul.
The Russian word "душа" (dushá), is most closely translated into the word soul
. The Russian soul can be described as a cultural tendency of Russians to describe life and events from a religious and philosophical symbolic perspective. This word's widespread use and flexibility of its use in everyday speaking is one way in which the Russian soul manifests itself in Russian culture. In Russia a person's soul or dusha is the key to a person's identity and behavior and this cultural understanding that equates the person with his soul is what is described as the Russian soul. Depth, strength and compassion are general characteristics of the Russian soul. According to Dostoevsky, "the most basic, most rudimentary spiritual need of the Russian people is the need for suffering, ever-present and unquenchable, everywhere and in everything" Dostoevsky's ideas about Russian soul are closely connected with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, its ideal of Christ, his suffering for others, his will to die for others and his quiet humility about it. The Russians do not understand suffering for the sake of suffering. Depressed people have a dampened spirit and without inner strength, healthy spirit the Russians would not have been survived through the most tragic history among living nations. They would have perished like so many other nations. They love to share everything and especially joy of living (folk music depicts that aspect of Russian soul (chastushka)). The Russian soul has been described as: sensitive, revere, imaginative, compassionate, patient, strong (well-know survival in unbearable circumstances), poetic, mystic, fatalistic, introspective, mistrusting of rational thought, trusting intuition, fascinating, having ability to feel a wide array of extreme human emotions (from absolute joy, peace to the darkest despair) — the list goes on. Russians maintain their integrity in a way that conforms to their inner notion of what a human being should be, with a blatant honesty and integrity seldom seen elsewhere in the world. Above all they have an appreciation for wholeness or complete commitment and faith, no matter what that faith might be related to.
In the second edition of the story Taras Bulba
, Gogol provides one of the early characterizations of what came to be known as the Russian soul when Taras exhorted his fellow Cossacks, saying: "There have been brotherhoods in other lands, but never any such brotherhoods as on our Russian soil. It has happened to many of you to be in foreign lands. You look: there are people there also, God's creatures, too; and you talk with them as with the men of your own country. But when it comes to saying a hearty word--you will see. No! They are sensible people, but not the same; the same kind of people, and yet not the same! No, brothers, to love as the Russian soul loves, is to love not with the mind or anything else, but with all that God has given, all that is within you."
----
and literary critic Vissarion Belinskii
jointly coined the term upon the publication of Gogol’s masterpiece Dead Souls
in 1842. At the time landowners often referred to their serfs as “souls” for accounting purposes, and the novel’s title refers to the protagonist’s scheme of purchasing claims to deceased serfs. Apart from this literal meaning, however, Gogol also intended the title as an observation of landowners’ loss of soul in exploiting serfs.
Vissarion Belinskii, a notedly radical critic, took Gogol’s intentions a few steps farther and inferred from the novel a new recognition of a national soul, existing apart from the government and founded in the lives of the lower class. Indeed Belinskii used the term “Russian soul” several times in his analyses of Gogol’s work, and from there the phrase grew in prominence, and eventually became more clearly defined through the writings of authors such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This famous brand of nationalism, however, was the product of a continuous effort by Russia’s various classes to define a national identity.
’s reign the Russian people had been split between those in favor of Westernization
and those who wished to return to pre-Petrine customs. As the 18th century dawned, Slavophilism was gaining support, in spite of (or in response to) the progressive reforms of rulers such as Catherine II and Alexander I
. Many Russians feared the pollutive effects of Industrialization that they saw in the West , and wished to retain a Russian identity apart from the rest of Europe. Inspired by such sentiments and in an attempt to strengthen Russia as a world power, Emperor Nicholas I
instituted (by way of his minister of education Count Uvarov) the policy of “Official Nationality.” The policy comprised three components - Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality - and in short it emphasized the uniqueness of Russia and the danger of swaying toward foreign influence. Official Nationality appealed to Slavophilic concerns by turning to Russia’s past for guidance and strength.
and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
.
Schelling introduced the concept of a “world soul,” essentially the potential for a creative connection between humanity and the divine. His proposition of what he called the Absolute expressed the simultaneous significance of individual and collective souls. Schelling excited many literate Russians by proclaiming a “great purpose” for Russia. Hegel, in his Phenomenology of Spirit
(1807), formulated a more specific and practical conception of collective soul; he theorized that history progresses under the direction of nations which alternately possess an incarnation of God through a “national Spirit.” The ideas of Schelling, Hegel and others formed the bases of several, sometimes opposing, ideologies in Russia. Slavophiles and Westernizers alike cultivated a bold new nationalism that increasingly valued the common man and the power of human connection. The Slavophiles drew upon Hegel’s “national Spirit” to form the concept of a “Russian spirit” embodied by the peasantry. Though a predecessor of the more optimistic “Russian soul,” the Russian spirit represented the desire to seek Russia’s greatness in its pre-Petrine past.
The concept of Russian spirit countered its contemporary Official Nationality. Both relied heavily upon the Orthodox
faith, and both sought greatness in times gone by, but the Slavophiles found that greatness in the character of the peasant, while proponents of Official Nationality found it in allegiance to the autocrat. However, while these and other Romantic-influenced ideologies fell all across the spectrum of political thought, each trusted firmly in the inherent greatness of Russia.
’s pivotal defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the Russian elite turned its attention to the peasants who had secured the victory. Around the same time and for the next several decades, serfdom
was losing popular support, and more and more nobles favored abolition. Public estimation of the government fell steadily, and the simple hardworking peasant became the new embodiment of Russian character, the only hope for the fulfillment of its glorious national destiny.
In such an atmosphere did Gogol’s Dead Souls
arrive, in 1842. Gogol and his contemporaries established literature as Russia’s new weapon of choice, the tool by which it could inform itself of its greatness and urge the nation to its destined position as a world leader. Gogol may not have had such grand notions, but with the help of Belinskii
he paved the way for a new concept of Russian identity - the great Russian soul. As opposed to the preceding “Russian spirit,” which focused on Russia’s past, “Russian soul” was an expression of optimism. It stressed Russia’s historical youth and its ability, by following the wisdom of the peasant, to become the savior of the world. Indeed, although the concept of the Russian soul grew upon Western ideas, its advocates believed that Russia had made those ideas its own and would use them to save Europe from itself.
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
to describe Russian spirituality. The writings of many Russian writers such as Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
, Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
and Fyodor Dostoyevsky offer descriptions of the Russian soul.
The Russian word "душа" (dushá), is most closely translated into the word soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
. The Russian soul can be described as a cultural tendency of Russians to describe life and events from a religious and philosophical symbolic perspective. This word's widespread use and flexibility of its use in everyday speaking is one way in which the Russian soul manifests itself in Russian culture. In Russia a person's soul or dusha is the key to a person's identity and behavior and this cultural understanding that equates the person with his soul is what is described as the Russian soul. Depth, strength and compassion are general characteristics of the Russian soul. According to Dostoevsky, "the most basic, most rudimentary spiritual need of the Russian people is the need for suffering, ever-present and unquenchable, everywhere and in everything" Dostoevsky's ideas about Russian soul are closely connected with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, its ideal of Christ, his suffering for others, his will to die for others and his quiet humility about it. The Russians do not understand suffering for the sake of suffering. Depressed people have a dampened spirit and without inner strength, healthy spirit the Russians would not have been survived through the most tragic history among living nations. They would have perished like so many other nations. They love to share everything and especially joy of living (folk music depicts that aspect of Russian soul (chastushka)). The Russian soul has been described as: sensitive, revere, imaginative, compassionate, patient, strong (well-know survival in unbearable circumstances), poetic, mystic, fatalistic, introspective, mistrusting of rational thought, trusting intuition, fascinating, having ability to feel a wide array of extreme human emotions (from absolute joy, peace to the darkest despair) — the list goes on. Russians maintain their integrity in a way that conforms to their inner notion of what a human being should be, with a blatant honesty and integrity seldom seen elsewhere in the world. Above all they have an appreciation for wholeness or complete commitment and faith, no matter what that faith might be related to.
In the second edition of the story Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba
Taras Bulba is a romanticized historical novel by Nikolai Gogol. It tells the story of an old Zaporozhian Cossack, Taras Bulba, and his two sons, Andriy and Ostap. Taras’ sons studied at the Kiev Academy and return home...
, Gogol provides one of the early characterizations of what came to be known as the Russian soul when Taras exhorted his fellow Cossacks, saying: "There have been brotherhoods in other lands, but never any such brotherhoods as on our Russian soil. It has happened to many of you to be in foreign lands. You look: there are people there also, God's creatures, too; and you talk with them as with the men of your own country. But when it comes to saying a hearty word--you will see. No! They are sensible people, but not the same; the same kind of people, and yet not the same! No, brothers, to love as the Russian soul loves, is to love not with the mind or anything else, but with all that God has given, all that is within you."
----
The Term
The concept of a Russian soul arose in the 1840s chiefly as a literary phenomenon. Famous author Nikolai GogolNikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
and literary critic Vissarion Belinskii
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. He was an associate of Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin , and other critical intellectuals...
jointly coined the term upon the publication of Gogol’s masterpiece Dead Souls
Dead Souls
Dead Souls is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. Gogol himself saw it as an "epic poem in prose", and within the book as a "novel in verse". Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's second part, Gogol...
in 1842. At the time landowners often referred to their serfs as “souls” for accounting purposes, and the novel’s title refers to the protagonist’s scheme of purchasing claims to deceased serfs. Apart from this literal meaning, however, Gogol also intended the title as an observation of landowners’ loss of soul in exploiting serfs.
Vissarion Belinskii, a notedly radical critic, took Gogol’s intentions a few steps farther and inferred from the novel a new recognition of a national soul, existing apart from the government and founded in the lives of the lower class. Indeed Belinskii used the term “Russian soul” several times in his analyses of Gogol’s work, and from there the phrase grew in prominence, and eventually became more clearly defined through the writings of authors such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This famous brand of nationalism, however, was the product of a continuous effort by Russia’s various classes to define a national identity.
Predecessors of the "Russian soul"
It is fair to say that Russia has struggled to define itself throughout its history, but the 19th century in particular saw a slew of attempts to delineate what Russia was and could be. Ever since Peter IPeter I of Russia
Peter the Great, Peter I or Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov Dates indicated by the letters "O.S." are Old Style. All other dates in this article are New Style. ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from until his death, jointly ruling before 1696 with his half-brother, Ivan V...
’s reign the Russian people had been split between those in favor of Westernization
Westernization
Westernization or Westernisation , also occidentalization or occidentalisation , is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet,...
and those who wished to return to pre-Petrine customs. As the 18th century dawned, Slavophilism was gaining support, in spite of (or in response to) the progressive reforms of rulers such as Catherine II and Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
. Many Russians feared the pollutive effects of Industrialization that they saw in the West , and wished to retain a Russian identity apart from the rest of Europe. Inspired by such sentiments and in an attempt to strengthen Russia as a world power, Emperor Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
instituted (by way of his minister of education Count Uvarov) the policy of “Official Nationality.” The policy comprised three components - Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality - and in short it emphasized the uniqueness of Russia and the danger of swaying toward foreign influence. Official Nationality appealed to Slavophilic concerns by turning to Russia’s past for guidance and strength.
Influence of German Romanticism
Meanwhile other strains of nationalism were emerging with the advent of German Romantic literature in Russia. Authors of the Romantic movement strove to affirm an independent and unique German identity, and starting in the 1820s Russia’s upper classes began to emulate those authors in a quest for Russia’s own unique character. Two German writers in particular affected the course of Russian self-assessment: Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph SchellingFriedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling , later von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him between Fichte, his mentor prior to 1800, and Hegel, his former university roommate and erstwhile friend...
and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.Hegel developed a comprehensive...
.
Schelling introduced the concept of a “world soul,” essentially the potential for a creative connection between humanity and the divine. His proposition of what he called the Absolute expressed the simultaneous significance of individual and collective souls. Schelling excited many literate Russians by proclaiming a “great purpose” for Russia. Hegel, in his Phenomenology of Spirit
Phenomenology of Spirit
Phänomenologie des Geistes is one of G.W.F. Hegel's most important philosophical works. It is translated as The Phenomenology of Spirit or The Phenomenology of Mind due to the dual meaning in the German word Geist. The book's working title, which also appeared in the first edition, was Science of...
(1807), formulated a more specific and practical conception of collective soul; he theorized that history progresses under the direction of nations which alternately possess an incarnation of God through a “national Spirit.” The ideas of Schelling, Hegel and others formed the bases of several, sometimes opposing, ideologies in Russia. Slavophiles and Westernizers alike cultivated a bold new nationalism that increasingly valued the common man and the power of human connection. The Slavophiles drew upon Hegel’s “national Spirit” to form the concept of a “Russian spirit” embodied by the peasantry. Though a predecessor of the more optimistic “Russian soul,” the Russian spirit represented the desire to seek Russia’s greatness in its pre-Petrine past.
The concept of Russian spirit countered its contemporary Official Nationality. Both relied heavily upon the Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
faith, and both sought greatness in times gone by, but the Slavophiles found that greatness in the character of the peasant, while proponents of Official Nationality found it in allegiance to the autocrat. However, while these and other Romantic-influenced ideologies fell all across the spectrum of political thought, each trusted firmly in the inherent greatness of Russia.
The Russian Soul
As the 19th century progressed, focus shifted from the landowning minority to the laboring majority. After Alexander IAlexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
’s pivotal defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the Russian elite turned its attention to the peasants who had secured the victory. Around the same time and for the next several decades, serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
was losing popular support, and more and more nobles favored abolition. Public estimation of the government fell steadily, and the simple hardworking peasant became the new embodiment of Russian character, the only hope for the fulfillment of its glorious national destiny.
In such an atmosphere did Gogol’s Dead Souls
Dead Souls
Dead Souls is a novel by Nikolai Gogol, first published in 1842, and widely regarded as an exemplar of 19th-century Russian literature. Gogol himself saw it as an "epic poem in prose", and within the book as a "novel in verse". Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's second part, Gogol...
arrive, in 1842. Gogol and his contemporaries established literature as Russia’s new weapon of choice, the tool by which it could inform itself of its greatness and urge the nation to its destined position as a world leader. Gogol may not have had such grand notions, but with the help of Belinskii
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. He was an associate of Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin , and other critical intellectuals...
he paved the way for a new concept of Russian identity - the great Russian soul. As opposed to the preceding “Russian spirit,” which focused on Russia’s past, “Russian soul” was an expression of optimism. It stressed Russia’s historical youth and its ability, by following the wisdom of the peasant, to become the savior of the world. Indeed, although the concept of the Russian soul grew upon Western ideas, its advocates believed that Russia had made those ideas its own and would use them to save Europe from itself.
Dostoyevsky
The Russian soul evolved and entered into Western consciousness in the following decades, most famously through the work of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. In his novels and stories, Dostoyevsky exhibited an often anti-European nationalism and frequently suggested a “people’s spirit” held together by “unexpressed, unconscious ideas which are merely strongly felt.” By Dostoyevsky's death in 1881, the “Russian soul” had completed its evolution in Russia.After Dostoyevsky
From about 1880 to 1930, largely thanks to Dostoyevsky, the “Russian soul” concept spread to other countries and began to affect foreign perception of the Russian people. For many Europeans the idea offered a positive alternative to the typical view of Russians as backward, instead depicting the Russian people as an example of the innocence the West had lost. The popularity of the “Russian soul” continued into the 20th century but faded as Soviet power increased. By the 1930s the concept was slipping into obscurity, but it would survive in the work of the numerous writers who devised it.The western view of the Russian soul
The Russian soul can be best understood in the West through western characterizations for the authors who were thought best to epitomize these characteristics:- Ivan TurgenevIvan TurgenevIvan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
— Melchior de VogüéMelchior de VogüéEugène-Melchior, vicomte de Vogüé was a French diplomat, Orientalist, travel writer, archaeologist, philanthropist and literary critic.-Biography:...
who popularized Russian culture in Europe in the late 19th century, attributed to the poet Turgenev "the dominant qualities of every true Russian, natural kindness of heart, simplicity and resignation. With a remarkably powerful brain, he had the heart of a child." - Leo Tolstoy — de Vogüé found about him that "the skill of an English chemist with the soul of a HinduHinduHindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
Buddhist." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky — Martin MaliaMartin MaliaMartin Edward Malia was a historian specializing in Russian history. He taught at the University of California at Berkeley from 1958 to 1991.One of his colleagues at Berkeley was another prominent Russian historian, Nicholas V. Riasanovsky...
says of Dostoyevsky that "Dostoevsky's power of insight into the lower depths and the higher yearnings of the human soul was particularly Russian, born at once with the Russian people's intimate acquaintance with suffering and their unusual vitality of character."