The Fate of Russia

Russian history is built on a famous legend about the calling of foreign Varangians to govern our land, since “our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it.” How typical of the fatal inability and unwillingness of the Russian people to arrange order in their own land! It’s as if the Russian people want not so much a free state, freedom within the state, but freedom from the state—freedom from worrying about the arrangement of the land. The Russian people don’t want to be courageous builders; their nature is described as feminine, passive, and obedient in matters of state affairs. They always wait for a fiancé, a husband, a ruler. Russia is a submissive, feminine land.

“Russia’s Destiny” is perhaps N. Berdyaev’s best-known philosophical and publicistic work, in which the author sets out his vision of the problem of Russia’s special path and its connection to the national idea.