Mikhail Novoselov in the 1880s–1890s: From Tolstoyan Movement to Mystical Experience of Knowing God
https://doi.org/10.53822/2712-9276-2023-2-116-135
Abstract
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Novoselov belongs to the cultural figures of Russia, whose inquisitive mind, towards the end of the 19th century, sought new meanings in personal and social life amidst the historical and cultural modernization of Russia and later affirmed these meanings within Christianity at the beginning of the 20th century. From a young age, Mikhail Novoselov was acquainted with Leo Tolstoy, getting carried away by the writer’s works and teachings, and adopting Tolstoy’s method of seeking truth in life as a role model. The history of their relationship was etched in Mikhail Novoselov’s letters from the 1880s to 1890s, and his collection of writings, “Letters to Friends”, details Mikhail Novoselov’s struggle against the Tolstoyan movement. Leo Tolstoy’s rational approach to Christianity, though admired by many of his followers and imitators, lacked the depth of thought and fervor for religious faith in the living God. At the same time, both aspects were conveyed to the world by the institutional Christian church, which Leo Tolstoy rejected. Genuine friendly relations linked Mikhail Novoselov and Leo Tolstoy, and even feeling that Novoselov was becoming more distant from him, the writer sought and suggested religious literature to his friend. In 1903, being already a former participant of the Tolstoyan movement, Mikhail Novoselov definitively severed ties with the person he perceived as his teacher, and embarked on an independent path of knowing God. This journey led him to the Orthodox Church, and he continued guiding others spiritually, who wandered in search of truth during an era when the apologetic paradigm of Russian Orthodoxy was threatened by the pressures of irreligious humanism.
About the Author
I. V. Vorontsova
Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Irina Vladimirovna Vorontsova — Candidate of Theology, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher
6, bld 1, Likhov pereulok, Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Vorontsova I.V. Mikhail Novoselov in the 1880s–1890s: From Tolstoyan Movement to Mystical Experience of Knowing God. Orthodoxia. 2023;(2):116-135. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.53822/2712-9276-2023-2-116-135
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