Welcome from Ana Siljak, Director, Nikolai Berdyaev Library Project:

In 2022, I traveled to Nikolai Berdyaev’s final home in Clamart, France, known as the “Berdyaev House," to study the collection of Berdyaev's books preserved in his library. To my surprise and delight, I discovered so much more: previously uncatalogued letters and papers that filled the drawers of his desk and filing cabinet. This website is the fruit of that discovery. It is dedicated to preserving and displaying the letters, papers, and books recently discovered in Clamart.

The inscriptions in his books and the numerous letters found in his library all testify to a forgotten truth: Nikolai Berdyaev was once a global intellectual and Russia’s best-known emigre philosopher. Books signed by the philosophers Jacques Maritain and Martin Heidegger sit beside an honorary Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Letters from readers as far-flung as Mexico, New Zealand, China, the United States, India, and Japan are scattered throughout the cabinets.

I am very grateful for the assistance of the students who helped me produce this website. Ilias Stanekzai and Matthew Sullivan spent hours poring over manuscripts and taking careful photographs. Chris Eybergen painstakingly organized this scanned material and made it accessible on this website, and the credit for the exceptional organization of this website must go to him. He also introduced and oversaw the use of AI and OCR technology to assist with transcribing and translating the texts, making the archive more accessible to researchers. None of us could have done our work without the invaluable assistance and warm welcome we received from the current residents of the Berdyaev House, especially the curator, Hiermomonk Joseph (Panteleimon Pavlinciuc). Thank you also to Sr. Theresa Obolevitch, who provided us with advice and assistance. Finally, the scanning and cataloging of the website were made possible in part by Insight and Institutional Grants provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Ana Siljak, Associate Professor of Humanities, Hamilton Center, University of Florida.

About the Website:

This website invites you to explore the manuscripts, correspondence, and other documents that shaped Berdyaev’s thought and life. From his existential and personalist philosophical treatises to his reflections on Christianity, human destiny, and the challenges of modernity, this collection offers a unique window into the mind of a philosopher who saw the convergence of cultures and ideas as vital to humanity’s spiritual and intellectual progress.

While most of Berdyaev’s letters and papers were transferred to Moscow’s State Archive of Russian Literature and Art (RGALI), a number remained in his Clamart home and are unique to this collection. Thus, this website is an original effort to ensure these invaluable materials are accessible to scholars and researchers, offering new insights into Berdyaev’s life and thought.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The archive is a work in progress, with only a portion of the documents uploaded. Many placeholders remain. Moreover, the transcription, transliteration, and translation work for the manuscripts and documents on this website have been primarily facilitated by AI, specifically ChatGPT, with additional assistance from Transkribus. Though the results have been reviewed, mistakes and omissions remain- —particularly in cursive script transcriptions, which may have a higher margin of error than typed text. Thus, such transcriptions and transliterations should not be considered authoritative, but should be understood as a starting point for further reading and analysis. 

Scholars are encouraged to contact Ana Siljak at ana.siljak@ufl.edu if they find any errors or omissions.