Nikolai berdyaev biography sample

BERDYAYEV, NIKOLAI (1874–1948), Russian philosopher.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyayev was born into an aristocratic family on 18 March (6 March, old style) 1874, near Kiev.

Rather than follow the family tradition of military service, he entered Kiev University in 1894. His formal education ended in 1898, when he was arrested and expelled for socialist activity. Two years later he was sentenced to a three-year exile in Vologda, a town in the northern part of European Russia.

Soon after returning to Kiev, he met and married Lydia Trushova. They had no children.

Berdyayev was a prominent figure in the intellectual debates of his time.

Nikolai berdyaev biography sample pdf

In 1894 he helped launch a "back to Kant" movement intended to supplement Marxism with an autonomous ethic, among other goals. In 1902 he rejected Marxist materialism, but not socialism. That year, he participated in the pathbreaking symposium, Problems of Idealism, which challenged the positivism, rationalism, and materialism ch