Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (Oct 2022)
“Blind Zone’’ of L. Karsavin’s Archival Heritage
Abstract
The recent publication of Lev Karsavin's essay of 1929 in the Bulletin of Ekaterinburg Theological Seminary calls for focusing on the appearance of this article at this very time. The essay summarizes religious-philosophical and philosophical-political views of L. Karsavin as an ideologist of Eurasianism and is addressed to his associates in the movement. Paradoxically, this historical source available for decades in Bakhmeteff Archive of the Russian and East European Culture of Columbia University Library has remained (with a single exception) unclaimed and unknown to domestic and foreign researchers of the Eurasianism, despite the fact that research papers on the topic are estimated in hundreds. Meanwhile, it reveals a dangerous trend — the lack of necessary attention to archival funds and to the search for new historical documents among authors writing on the topics of Russian religious philosophy and Eurasianism, and suggests that the author's demand for constant verification of published information by documentary sources has decreased. An example of this trend is the current situation with the legacy of Lev Karsavin and the archival materials concerning his life and work. The long stay of a significant part of such materials in the “blind” zone have led to the replication of unverified information, errors and outright fantasies about the researcher, thinker and poet, including casting a shadow on the spiritual portrait of this faithful son of the Orthodox Church, to which Lev Karsavin remained loyal until his last breath. The article shows the groundlessness of many stories and assessments roaming through publications, related to the life of L. Karsavin, including the unsubstantiated statements about his conversion to Catholicism. The author raises the problem of a diversity of the “blind” zone, when the religious nature of Karsavin's thought is ignored by researchers and conveniently adjusted through sociological and political science analysis and science-oriented reinterpretation. As an appendix to this article, a letter from P. N. Malevsky-Malevich to L. P. Karsavin dated September 28 of 1929 with the author's comments on Karsavin's “Testament” to the Eurasians is published for the first time.
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