Criticism of capitalism and socialism in the philosophy of Nikolai Berdyaev

Abstract

Philosophical understanding of the economy and economics is not the main, but significant topic of the reflections of Russian religious philosophers. It is important to trace the specifics of the formation of the Russian view on the economy and economics, on the basic principles of the economic systems’ structure (among which we can single out capitalism and socialism), since the interpretation of Russian thinkers, including N. А. Berdyaev, cannot be included in the mainstream of Western economic thought. The article examines the criticism of capitalism and socialism in the post-revolutionary works of Nikolai Berdyaev, highlights the key contradictions of the two basic principles of economic organization with the post-revolutionary views of the thinker, which were significantly strengthened after the revolutionary events of 1917; these views can be conditionally called socialist-personalistic. Inheriting the tradition of Russian thought, Berdyaev unequivocally rejects the capitalist principles (in many respects this attitude was formed by the period of his legal Marxism), while he assesses socialist concepts ambiguously, with a certain amount of sympathy for the very socialist formulation of the problem of justice and the fight against “slavery”, exploitation of a man by a man. The article indicates the main line of criticism of Christian socialism by Berdyaev, and also describes his preferred variant of socialism, that he called “social personalism”.