Politics and Society

"In our era of prevailing passions, of national and class hatred, we need movements that remind us of the brotherhood of humanity and the dignity of each person. [...] The untruth of nationalism is not that it requires love for one's own, but that it requires hatred of the foreign." - The Christian Youth Movement and Modern Nationalism, pages 10, 12

"I have always believed that overcoming the negative, even satanic, aspects of communism can only be achieved through internal forces, through internal transformation, and not through external intervention, not through counter-revolution. In this, I differ significantly from a large part of the emigration." - Response to Mr Julius Hecker, page 5 

"Bureaucratization is the mortal enemy of all creative fervor; it cools the living interest in real people and weakens active initiative in direct, everyday life." - On the Ideological Crisis of the Movement, page 6

"By this, I do not mean to say that everything in democracy and socialism is godless; there are also healthy elements, religiously neutral or religiously sanctified. But the healthy pessimism of Christianity does not allow for expansive dreams of an earthly paradise, of earthly happiness, of a perfect life within the limits of this finite world and this imperfect human nature." - The Lie of Humanism, 9

And the cruelty of the law itself is more humane than the humanistic idealism that unveils a beastly chaos. Vladimir Solovyov rightly said that law and the state are needed not to turn earthly life into paradise, but to prevent it from becoming hell. He defined the state as organized compassion. -The Lie of Humanism, 10

The secular utopias, which aim to liberate man from the constraints of culture, religion, and state, only unleash the chaotic forces within human nature. -The Lie of Humanism, 12

"The Christian spirit, however, resists the primal power of flesh and blood to which so many of today’s youth succumb in their national and political inclinations. The world is now torn by the coarsest political and national passions, which are tied to the urgent, vital needs of youth. But the task of Christianity is to bring enlightenment into this darkness of passions and instincts." - On the Ideological Crisis of the Movement, 3

"The Bolshevik revolution is an extended war in a state of disintegration, and it bears the marks of all the customs and methods of war. Bolshevik socialism is military socialism, applying wartime skills to the life of a vast state, to all spheres of social life. Bolshevik socialism has lost the distinctiveness of wartime; in it, war continues, but it has socialized its ideology, lost its discipline, and lost its organic advantage, claiming only social rights. The same as what the Germans did during their socialist revolution. There is also military violence, also a denial of freedom and rights. The style of our revolution is military, gray, a defensive style. The revolutionary people are dressed in the same uniform as during the war, but without the insignias and stripes, without everything that brought them into organized hierarchy. The revolution has shown no creativity; it continues the old ways but in a state of decay." - Post-Revolutionary Thoughts, 5

"Bolshevism is true socialism, socialism brought to its end, to its limit, revealed in its pure form as a self-sufficient, abstract principle, all-encompassing and all-destructive. Bolshevism is an experimental, empirical test of socialism, very important for those who, due to weakness of spirit and inconsistency of thought, cannot understand its nature without such a deep experiential study. [...] he Bolsheviks are implementing in practice, consistently and mercilessly, what all Russian socialists wanted and dreamed of for a long time; they have completed a long path, they have taken seriously what other socialists left in the realm of genuine discussions and disputes." - Post-Revolutionary Thoughts, 1, 2

"I criticize the Movement and expose its shortcomings not as an opponent from outside, but from within, as a friend. Self-criticism is always essential for the Movement to remain a movement, not a stagnation." On the Ideological Crisis of the Movement, 9

"The power of economic necessity and its conceptual framework can, in principle, operate even without great freedom. [...] It must be ensured that such totalitarian ideological power will eventually be overcome through the creative impulses of life." - On the Difficulties of Freedom, 2

"In the political and economic field, personalists stress the importance of both industrial and political democracy, of political and economic decentralization, and of the greatest possible degree of autonomy, under proper safeguards, of industrial and cultural associations." Personalist Group, 3 (19)

"In reality, if one were to seek pure truth, one would have to admit that communism and fascism are enemies who resemble each other like two drops of water. These are phenomena of the same order." - On the Prophetic Mission of Word and Thought, 1 (10)

"All our hopes may be based on the bankruptcy of both the revolution and the reaction. Revolutionaries with shattered hopes come to our village, tormented by the discrepancy between the holy dream of social justice and the stench of the revolution." - Gippius and Merezhkovsky, 7

"Like all communists you speak about exploitation and oppression of workers. And that is true - there is exploitation. But you forget that materialism and atheism have no idea of exploitation. If man is matter, as it is being taught by communism, then the power of the stronger ones is natural and justified. In the struggle for survival it is the best and the strongest who win. That is why the kulaks and the exploitators rule because of natural necessity, and are the best people." - Letters from Mme K, 12