Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev

Nationality

Russia

Date of Birth

1874

Date of Death

1948

Political
Preference

Marxist, Orthodox Cristian

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev was born in Kiev in an aristocratic family. He commenced his education in a military school and subsequently entered the University of Kiev to study law. Berdyaev was a Russian philosopher, theologian and Orthodox priest who lived as an emigrant in Paris after the Russian Revolution. He was involved in the study programme of the Life and Work Council and attended the Oxford Conference of 1937.

In 1901, Berdyaev became acquainted with Sergius Bulgakov, a former Marxist and professor of economics at Kiev. Bulgakov awakened his religious interests. The two became lifelong friends.
Berdyaev participated in the Saint Petersburg intellectual circles, eventually departing from radical Marxism to focus his attention on philosophy and Christian spirituality. Berdyaev considered himself a Russian Orthodox, under the Moscow Patriarchate auspices, but he stayed critical. Ardent from character, Berdyaev always stayed rebellious to all authority, portrayed as a negative spirit.
After the October Revolution he was appointed by the Bolshevists to a chair of philosophy in the University of Moscow, but soon after, he was accused of participating in a conspiracy against the government, and jailed. He became one of a group of prominent writers philosopher ships, scholars and intellectuals who were sent into exile. He was twice imprisoned and in 1922 was expelled from the country. During expulsion, he moved to Berlin, where he opened a Russian Academy of Philosophy and Religion. A few years later, he moved to France and re-established the Academy in Paris, and founded a monthly journal Put (The Way), devoted to religious philosophy. In 1939 he received an invitation to lecture at the Sorbonne and participated during the Oxford Conference in 1937.

He lived through the German occupation unmolested in France and wrote over 15 books. After the war, Berdyaev became active in the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA). Berdyaev met Visser ‘t Hooft during his work as lecturer at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey and ‘t Hooft saw him as a suitable member to present the Russian voice in the Commission’s work. Berdyaev provided the Commission with a better understanding of Russian and Orthodox thinking in international affairs.