“The faith of all-penetrating conscience”. Russian religiosity in the soviet period in the life and works of A. Platonov and V. Shukshin

Annotation

To understand Russia as a state- civilization, it is important to consider the distinctive features of the religious consciousness of the Russian people, which, despite significant ideological contradictions, managed to create a spiritual and cultural continuity between the pre- Soviet and Soviet eras. This article focuses on the lives and works of two major Russian writers and thinkers, Andrei Platonov and Vasily Shukshin. The author explores the phenomenon of moral consciousness of the Soviet era (“Soviet faith”), identifying the paradoxes of “faith” and “unbelief ” in their thought and work, thereby revealing the specific features of Russian religious identity during the Soviet period. The authors’ moral and religious quest finds its ultimate expression in the following statements: for Platonov, it is the phrase “I am ashamed to live without truth”, and for Shukshin, it is the question “Do believers’ souls ache or not?”. This expands the traditional confessional boundaries of the concept of religiosity without, however, leading them into the infinitely undefined realm of pseudo- religious phenomena. In answering the question “To what extent was this Soviet faith communist (atheistic) or Russian (Orthodox)?”, a deep moral archetype is revealed, the presence of which ensured the value- semantic unity of the Russian state- civilization during this period.

Keywords

Russian religious identity, Soviet faith, Orthodox atheism, A. Platonov, V. Shukshin, morality, cordiality, truth- seeking, conscientiousness, faith and conscience, Russianness, state- civilization

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