THE TRAJECTORY OF POSTREVOLUTIONARY RUSSIAN DIASPORA THOUGHT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO RUSSIAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Abstract

Attention is being paid to the rise of post-Soviet nationalism, particularly given
the conflict in Ukraine. To this end, the present paper examines Russian thought and its
relationship to exceptionalism in the context of the post-Revolutionary diaspora. Examining
the prevailing approach taken to freedom of thought, in light of Nikolai Berdyaev, Fr.
Sergius Bulgakov and other thinkers, a trajectory can be identified that departs from the
exceptionalist narrative. In the diaspora, this was accented by emergence in the context
of the ecumenical movement and the keenness demonstrated by the emigres, which was
fitting to the East / West interaction of the movement. In an important sense, the notion
of Sobornost emerged as a sign of the diaspora’s theological development – in light the
evolution of the notion and its ecclesiological aspect, but also in the journal by the same
name, which was published under the auspices of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius.
This altogether demonstrates a trajectory of thought that emerged in the diaspora
intelligentsia, which stood in opposition to exceptionalism, messianic or nationalist sentiments,
inasmuch as it was a inheritor of pre-Revolutionary Russian thought, is a contrast
to the post-Soviet milieu.