Problems of “Untimely Thoughts”

...She is akin to nature. Woe to those who think that in the revolution they will find the fulfillment of only their dreams, no matter how lofty and noble they may be. A revolution, like a thunderstorm, like a snowstorm, always brings something new and unexpected; she cruelly deceives many; she easily cripples the worthy in her whirlpool; she often brings the unworthy to land unharmed; but - this is her particularity, it does not change either general direction stream, nor that menacing and deafening roar that the stream emits. This hum, anyway, is always about the great.
...With all your body, with all your heart, with all your consciousness - listen to the Revolution.
A.A. Block "Intellectuals and Revolution"

Gorky comprehends revolutionary events in a series of articles “Untimely Thoughts.” He states that after February, Russia married freedom, but, according to Gorky, this is external freedom, while internally the people are not free and are shackled by a sense of slavery. Gorky saw the overcoming of slavery in the democratization of knowledge, in “cultural-historical development”: “Knowledge is a necessary tool in the interclass struggle, which underlies the modern world order and is an inevitable, albeit tragic moment of this period of history, an irreducible force of cultural and political development... Knowledge must be democratized, it must be made popular; it, and only it, is the source of fruitful work, the basis of culture. And only knowledge will arm us with self-awareness, only it will help us correctly assess our strengths and tasks at this moment and show us wide path to further victories. Calm work is the most productive.”

Gorky was afraid that in a revolution the destructive element could prevail over the creative, and the revolution would turn into a merciless rebellion: “We must understand, it’s time to understand that the most terrible enemy of freedom and law is within us: this is our stupidity, our cruelty and all that chaos of dark, anarchic feelings that was brought up in our soul by shameless oppression, the monarchy, its cynical cruelty... for about a year and a half ago, I published “Two Souls,” an article in which I said that the Russian people are organically inclined towards anarchism; that he is passive, but cruel when power falls into his hands.” From these thoughts it follows that Gorky did not accept the actions of the Bolsheviks, fearing that “the working class will suffer, for it is the vanguard of the revolution and he will be the first to be exterminated in the civil war. And if the working class is defeated and destroyed, then the best forces and hopes of the country will be destroyed. So I say, addressing workers who are aware of their cultural role in the country: the politically literate proletariat must thoughtfully examine its attitude towards the government people's commissars, must be very careful about their social creativity.
My opinion is this: the people's commissars are destroying and ruining the working class of Russia, they are terribly and absurdly complicating the labor movement; by directing it beyond the limits of reason, they create irresistibly difficult conditions for all future work of the proletariat and for the entire progress of the country.”

Gorky, comprehending the course of revolutionary events, argues contradictorily, weighing all the pros and cons and derives his definition of socialism, timed to the current historical moment: « We must remember that socialism is a scientific truth, that the entire history of human development leads us to it, that it is a completely natural stage of political and economic evolution human society, we must be confident in its implementation, confidence will reassure us. The worker must not forget the idealistic beginning of socialism - only then will he confidently feel himself both an apostle of the new truth and a powerful fighter for its triumph, when he remembers that socialism is necessary and salutary not only for the working people, but that it liberates all classes, all of humanity from rusty chains of an old, sick, lying, self-denying culture.”

To resolve contradictions, Alexey Maksimovich again turns to historical literature. It is characteristic that he views the victory of the Revolution through the concept of “time of troubles.” To put an end to the discussion about Gorky’s rejection of the concept “the end justifies the means,” I will quote from his letter to R. Rolland on January 25, 1922 (Gorky was already in exile - a business trip abroad - forced exile from the People's Commissariat for Education), where Alexey Maksimovich remains on his own general humanistic, but clearly erroneous, in my opinion, positions in assessing the revolution: “I have been promoting the need for ethics in struggle since the first days of the revolution in Russia. I was told that this was naive, insignificant, even harmful. Sometimes this was said by people to whom Jesuitism was organically disgusting, but they still consciously accepted it, accepted it, forcing themselves.”

These mistakes in Novaya Zhizn were repeatedly criticized by the newspaper Pravda and V.I. Lenin: “Gorky is too dear to our social revolution not to believe that he will soon join the ranks of its ideological leaders.”

Gorky, despite his rejection of the “means” of revolution, saw in the Bolsheviks an ordering force: “The best of them are excellent people of whom history will eventually be proud. (But in our time history has been turned upside down, all “corrected”, all distorted (N.S.)"

The newspaper “New Life” was closed in July 1918. Making the decision to close the newspaper and understanding the importance of Gorky for the cause of the revolution, Lenin said: “And Gorky is our man... He will certainly return to us... Such political zigzags happen to him...”

In the end, Gorky admits his mistakes: “I’m tired of the powerless, academic position of “New Life”; “If Novaya Zhizn had been closed six months earlier, it would have been better for both me and the revolution”...

And after the assassination attempt on Lenin on August 30, 1918, Gorky radically reconsidered his attitude towards October:
“I did not understand October and did not understand it until the day of the attempt on the life of Vladimir Ilyich, recalls Gorky. - The general indignation of the workers at this vile act showed me that Lenin’s idea had deeply entered the consciousness of the working masses... Since the day of the vile attempt on the life of Vladimir Ilyich, I again felt like a “Bolshevik”.

To be continued

The Russian people married Freedom. Let us believe that from this union in our country, exhausted both physically and spiritually, new strong people will be born.

Let us firmly believe that in the Russian man the powers of his mind and will will flare up with a bright fire, powers extinguished and suppressed by the centuries-old oppression of the police system of life.

But we should not forget that we are all people of yesterday and that the great task of reviving the country is in the hands of people brought up by the painful impressions of the past, a spirit of distrust of each other, disrespect for their neighbors and ugly selfishness.

We grew up in an "underground" atmosphere; what we called legal activity was, in essence, either radiation into the void, or petty politicking of groups and individuals, the internecine struggle of people whose self-esteem had degenerated into painful pride.

Living among the soul-poisoning ugliness of the old regime, among the anarchy it gave birth to, seeing how limitless were the limits of the power of the adventurers who ruled us, we - naturally and inevitably - became infected with all the harmful properties, all the skills and techniques of the people who despised us, mocked us.

We had nowhere and nothing to develop a sense of personal responsibility for the misfortunes of the country, for its shameful life; we were poisoned by the cadaveric poison of dead monarchism.

Lists of “secret employees of the Security Department” published in newspapers are a shameful indictment against us, this is one of the signs of social disintegration and rotting of the country, a formidable sign.

There is also a lot of dirt, rust and all kinds of poison, all this will not disappear soon; the old order is destroyed physically, but spiritually it remains alive both around us and in ourselves. The many-headed hydra of ignorance, barbarity, stupidity, vulgarity and rudeness has not been killed; she was scared, hid, but did not lose the ability to devour living souls.

We must not forget that we live in the wilds of many millions of ordinary people, politically illiterate and socially illiterate. People who don't know what they want are politically and socially dangerous people. The mass of the average person will not soon be distributed along their class paths, along the lines of clearly recognized interests; they will not soon organize themselves and become capable of conscious and creative social struggle. And for the time being, until it is organized, it will feed with its muddy and unhealthy juice the monsters of the past, born of the police system familiar to the average person.

It would be possible to point out some other threats to the new system, but it is premature to talk about this and, perhaps, obscene.

We are experiencing a highly difficult moment, requiring the exertion of all our strength, hard work and the greatest caution in decisions. We do not need to forget the fatal mistakes of 905-6 - the brutal massacre that followed these mistakes weakened and beheaded us for a whole decade. During this time, we were politically and socially corrupted, and the war, having exterminated hundreds of thousands of youth, further undermined our strength, undermining the economic life of the country.

To the generation that will be the first to accept new system life, freedom came cheap; This generation knows little about the terrible efforts of people who, over the course of a whole century, gradually destroyed the gloomy fortress of Russian monarchism. The average person did not know the hellish, mole-like work that was done for him - this hard labor is unknown not only to one average person in ten hundred Russian district towns.

We gather and we must build new life on the basis of which we have long dreamed. We understand these principles with reason, they are familiar to us in theory, but these principles are not in our instinct, and it will be terribly difficult for us to introduce them into the practice of life, into ancient Russian life. It is difficult for us, because we, I repeat, are a completely ill-educated people socially, and our bourgeoisie, now moving to power, is just as little educated in this regard. And we must remember that the bourgeoisie is taking into its hands not the state, but the ruins of the state; it is taking these chaotic ruins under conditions that are immeasurably more difficult than the conditions of 5-6 years. Will she understand that her work will be successful only if there is a strong unity with democracy, and that the task of strengthening the positions taken from the old government will not be strong under all other conditions? There is no doubt that the bourgeoisie must get better, but there is no need to rush into this, so as not to repeat the dark mistake of the 6th year.

In turn, revolutionary democracy should assimilate and feel its national tasks, the need for itself to take an active part in organizing the economic strength of the country, in the development of the productive energy of Russia, in protecting its freedom from all encroachments from outside and from within.

Only one victory has been won - political power has been won; many more difficult victories remain to be won, and first of all we must defeat our own illusions.

We overthrew the old government, but we succeeded not because we are a force, but because the power that was rotting us was itself completely rotten and collapsed at the first friendly push. The mere fact that we could not decide on this push for so long, seeing how the country was being destroyed, feeling how it was being raped us - already Our long-suffering alone testifies to our weakness.

The task of the moment is to firmly strengthen, as far as possible, the positions we have taken, which is achievable only with the reasonable unity of all forces capable of working political, economic and spiritual rebirth Russia.

The best motivator of a healthy will and the surest method of correct self-esteem is a courageous awareness of one’s shortcomings.

The years of war have shown us with terrifying clarity how weak we are culturally, how poorly organized we are. The organization of the country's creative forces is necessary for us, like bread and air.

We are hungry for freedom and, given our inherent inclination towards anarchism, we can easily devour freedom - it is possible.

Quite a few dangers threaten us. It is possible to eliminate and overcome them only under the condition of calm and friendly work to strengthen the new order of life.

Most valuable creative power- a person: the more spiritually developed he is, the better armed he is technical knowledge, the more durable and valuable his work is, the more cultural and historical it is. We have not learned this - our bourgeoisie does not pay due attention to the development of labor productivity, a person for them is still like a horse - only a source of brute physical strength.

The interests of all people have a common ground where they are united, despite the irremovable contradiction of class friction: this ground is the development and accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge is a necessary tool in the interclass struggle, which underlies the modern world order and is an inevitable, albeit tragic moment of this period of history, an irreducible force of cultural and political development; knowledge is a force that, in the end, should lead people to victory over the elemental energies of nature and to the subordination of these energies to the general cultural interests of man, humanity.

Knowledge must be democratized, it must be made popular, it, and only it, is the source of fruitful work, the basis of culture. And only knowledge will arm us with self-awareness, only it will help us correctly assess our strengths, the tasks of the current moment and show us a broad path to further victories.

Quiet work is the most productive.

The force that has held me firmly on earth all my life has been and is my faith in the human mind. To this day, the Russian revolution in my eyes is a chain of bright and joyful manifestations of rationality. A particularly powerful manifestation of calm rationality was the day of March 23rd, the day of the funeral on the Champ de Mars.

Untimely thoughts

Untimely thoughts
The title of a book by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).
In Russia, the expression became widely known thanks to the writer Maxim Gorky, who also named a series of his journalistic articles written in the first months after the October Revolution of 1917 and published in the newspaper “Novaya Zhizn” (December, 1917 - July, 1918). In the summer of 1918, the new authorities closed the newspaper. Gorky’s “Untimely Thoughts” was published in 1919 as a separate edition and was not reprinted again in the USSR until 1990.
In his articles, the writer condemned the “socialist revolution” undertaken by the Bolsheviks:
“Our revolution gave scope to all the bad and brutal instincts that had accumulated under the lead roof of the monarchy, and, at the same time, it threw aside all the intellectual forces of democracy, all the moral energy of the country... People's Commissars treat Russia as material for experience...
The reformers from Smolny do not care about Russia; they are cold-bloodedly dooming it to be a victim of their dream of a world or European revolution.”
Playfully and ironically: about an opinion that was expressed inappropriately, at the wrong time, when society (the audience) is not yet ready to perceive and appreciate it.

encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.

See what “Untimely thoughts” are in other dictionaries:

- (lat. intelligentia, intellegentia understanding, cognitive power, knowledge; from intelligens, intellegens smart, knowledgeable, thinking, understanding) in the modern generally accepted (everyday) view, social layer educated people … Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

The request for "Gorky" is redirected here; see also other meanings. This term has other meanings, see Maxim Gorky (meanings). Maxim Gorky ... Wikipedia

BITTER- Maxim (real name Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov) (03/16/1868, Nizhny Novgorod 06/18/1936, Gorki, near Moscow), writer, playwright, public figure. Genus. in the family of a cabinetmaker, lost his parents early, was raised by his grandfather, the owner... ... Orthodox Encyclopedia

Nickname famous writer Alexey Maksimovich Peshkov (see). (Brockhaus) Gorky, Maxim (real name Peshkov, Alexey Maxim.), famous fiction writer, b. March 14, 1869 in Nizhny. Novgorod, s. upholsterer, paint shop apprentice. (Vengerov) ... ... Large biographical encyclopedia

Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Ganieva. Alisa Ganieva Nicknames ... Wikipedia

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Schumpeter Date of birth: February 8, 1883 (1883 02 08) Me... Wikipedia

Maxim (1868) pseudonym of the modern Russian writer Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov. R. in the middle-class family of a Nizhny Novgorod upholsterer. When I was four years old, I lost my father. “At the age of seven (we read in G.’s autobiography) I was sent to school, where I studied for five... ... Literary encyclopedia

Joseph Schumpeter Austrian economist Date of birth: February 8, 1883 ... Wikipedia

Schumpeter, Joseph Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Schumpeter Date of birth: February 8, 1883 (1883 02 08) Place of birth: Tresti, Moravia Date of death ... Wikipedia

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Schumpeter Austrian economist Date of birth: February 8, 1883 ... Wikipedia

Books

• Untimely Thoughts, M. Gorky. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. Maxim Gorky - founder socialist realism, one of the writers...

“Untimely Thoughts” by M. Gorky

For a person starting to study Soviet period in Gorky’s work, one has to thoroughly “strain” this material in order to present with maximum objectivity the writer’s path during these years: his hopes and disappointments, the torment of his quest, hesitations, delusions, his mistakes, real and imaginary. My interest in Untimely Thoughts is not accidental. As you know, this book was banned until “perestroika”. Meanwhile, without intermediaries, it represents the artist’s position on the eve and during the October Revolution.

“from the autumn of 16 to the winter of 22” he “did not write a single line” works of art. All his thoughts were connected with the turbulent events that were shaking the country. All his energy was directed to direct participation in public life: he intervened in the political struggle, tried to rescue innocent people from the dungeons of the Cheka, sought rations for scientists and artists dying of hunger, started cheap editions of masterpieces of world literature... Journalism, due to its specificity, was one of the forms for him direct social action.

"Untimely Thoughts" is a series of 58 articles that were published in the newspaper Novaya Zhizn, the organ of the Social Democratic group. The newspaper existed for a short time more than a year- from April 1917 to July 1918, when it was closed by the authorities as an opposition press organ. Studying Gorky's works of the 1890-1910s, one can note the presence in them of high hopes that he associated with the revolution. Gorky also speaks about them in “Untimely Thoughts”: the revolution will become the act thanks to which the people will take “conscious participation in the creation of their history”, gain a “sense of homeland”, the revolution was called upon to “revive spirituality” among the people. But soon after the October events (in an article dated December 7, 1917), already anticipating a different course of the revolution than he expected, Gorky anxiously asked: “What new will the revolution give, how will it change the brutal Russian way of life, how much light will it bring? into the darkness of people's life?

“I got the opportunity to create freely.” The whole “intrigue” of the work lies in the fact that we can see the clash of the ideals, in the name of which Gorky called for revolution, with the realities of revolutionary reality. From their discrepancy arises one of the main questions that arises in the process of studying the articles: what is, in Gorky’s words, his “line of divergence from the insane activities of the people’s commissars”? the main objective revolution, according to Gorky, is moral - to turn yesterday's slave into a person.

But in reality, as the author of “Untimely Thoughts” bitterly states, the October events and the beginning Civil War not only did they not carry “signs of the spiritual rebirth of man,” but, on the contrary, they provoked a “release” of the darkest, most base - “zoological” - instincts. “An atmosphere of unpunished crimes,” which removes the distinction “between the bestial psychology of the monarchy” and the psychology of the “rebellious” masses, does not contribute to the education of a citizen, the writer claims. Having independently analyzed the facts that Gorky reports in the article dated March 26, 18, we can understand what we are talking about, the so-called statement of the “special meeting of sailors of the Red Fleet of the Republic,” which caused Gorky’s “deepest amazement.” " Wild idea physical retribution" - main idea this document.

“For each of our killed comrades we will answer with the death of hundreds and thousands of rich people...”) and a publication in Pravda, the authors of which, “mistaking the damage to a car body for an attempt on the life of Vladimir Ilyich, menacingly declared: “For each of our heads we will take a hundred heads of the bourgeoisie." The identity of these statements indicates that the cruelty of the sailor masses was sanctioned by the authorities themselves, supported by the “fanatical intransigence of the people’s commissars.” This, Gorky believes, “is not a cry of justice, but a wild roar of unbridled and cowardly animals.” When analyzing this article, I would like to especially note its stylistic qualities, which give the writer’s words special expression.

“So, does the government agree with the method of action promised by the sailors?” “I ask you, gentlemen sailors: where and what is the difference between the animal psychology of the monarchy and your psychology?” The expression is also contained in a decisive, clear and brief conclusion and appeal: “We need to come to our senses. We must try to be human. It’s difficult, but it’s necessary.” (It is also worth mentioning that the Kronstadt sailors threatened Gorky with physical harm for his “Untimely Thoughts”).

The next fundamental difference between Gorky and the Bolsheviks lies in their views on the people and their attitude towards them. This question has several facets. First of all, Gorky refuses to “half-adore the people,” he argues with those who, based on the best, democratic intentions, passionately believed “in the exceptional qualities of our Karatayevs.” Looking at his people, Gorky notes “that they are passive, but cruel when power falls into their hands, that the renowned kindness of their soul is Karamazov’s sentimentalism, that they are terribly impervious to the suggestions of humanism and culture.”

“The conditions among which he lived could not instill in him either respect for the individual, or a consciousness of the rights of a citizen, or a sense of justice - these were conditions of complete lawlessness, oppression of man, the most shameless lies and brutal cruelty.” Consequently, the bad and terrible that appeared in the spontaneous actions of the masses during the days of the revolution is, according to Gorky, a consequence of that existence, which for centuries killed the dignity and sense of personality in Russian people. This means a revolution was needed! But how can we combine the need for a liberation revolution with the bloody bacchanalia that accompanies the revolution?

“Untimely Thoughts”, for example, analyzing an article dated July 14, 1917, dedicated to the “drama of the 4th of July” - the dispersal of a demonstration in Petrograd. The article is interesting for analysis in many respects. It is worth noting the originality of its compositional structure: in the center of the article, the picture of the demonstration itself and its dispersal is reproduced (precisely reproduced, not retold). And then follows the author’s reflection on what he saw with his own eyes, ending with a final generalization. The reliability of the report and the immediacy of the author's impressions serve as the basis for the emotional impact on the reader.

into the picture drawn by the writer, it is necessary to note the details and details, not forgetting their emotional coloring. We see participants in the July demonstration: armed and unarmed people, a “truck-car” closely packed with motley representatives of the “revolutionary army”, rushing “like a rabid pig”. (Next, the image of a truck appears before us, causing no less expressive associations: “a thundering monster”, “a ridiculous cart”.)

Then the “panic of the crowd” begins, frightened “of itself,” although a minute before the first shot it “renounced the old world” and “shaked its ashes from its feet.” A “disgusting picture of madness” appears before the eyes of the observer: the crowd, at the sound of chaotic shots, behaved like a “herd of sheep” and turned into “heaps of meat, mad with fear.” Gorky is looking for the cause of what happened. Unlike the absolute majority, who blamed everything on the “Leninists”, Germans or outright counter-revolutionaries, he calls main reason the misfortune that happened was “severe Russian stupidity” - “lack of culture, lack of historical sense.” The very conclusions I drew from this work turn into a statement of the main, according to the author, tasks of the revolution: “This people must work hard in order to acquire consciousness of their personality, their human dignity, this people must be calcined and cleansed from the slavery nurtured in it by the slow fire of culture.”

The Russian people married Freedom. Let us believe that from this union in our country, exhausted both physically and spiritually, new strong people will be born. Let us firmly believe that in the Russian man the powers of his mind and will will flare up with a bright fire, powers extinguished and suppressed by the centuries-old oppression of the police system of life. But we should not forget that we are all people of yesterday and that the great task of reviving the country is in the hands of people brought up by the painful impressions of the past in the spirit of distrust of each other, disrespect for their neighbors and ugly selfishness. We grew up in an "underground" atmosphere; what we called legal activity was, in essence, either radiation into the void, or petty politicking of groups and individuals, the internecine struggle of people whose self-esteem had degenerated into painful pride. Living among the soul-poisoning ugliness of the old regime, among the anarchy it gave birth to, seeing how limitless were the limits of the power of the adventurers who ruled us, we - naturally and inevitably - became infected with all the harmful properties, all the skills and techniques of the people who despised us, mocked us. We had nowhere and nothing to develop a sense of personal responsibility for the misfortunes of the country, for its shameful life; we were poisoned by the cadaveric poison of dead monarchism. The lists of “secret employees of the Security Department” published in newspapers are a shameful indictment against us, this is one of the signs of social disintegration and rotting of the country, a formidable sign. There is also a lot of dirt, rust and all kinds of poison, all this will not disappear soon; the old order is destroyed physically, but spiritually it remains alive both around us and in ourselves. The many-headed hydra of ignorance, barbarity, stupidity, vulgarity and rudeness has not been killed; she was scared, hid, but did not lose the ability to devour living souls. We must not forget that we live in the wilds of many millions of ordinary people, politically illiterate and socially illiterate. People who don't know what they want are politically and socially dangerous people. The mass of the average person will not soon be distributed along their class paths, along the lines of clearly recognized interests; they will not soon organize themselves and become capable of conscious and creative social struggle. And for the time being, until it is organized, it will feed with its muddy and unhealthy juice the monsters of the past, born of the police system familiar to the average person. It would be possible to point out some other threats to the new system, but it is premature to talk about this and, perhaps, obscene. We are experiencing a highly difficult moment, requiring the exertion of all our strength, hard work and the greatest caution in decisions. We do not need to forget the fatal mistakes of 905-6 - the brutal massacre that followed these mistakes weakened and beheaded us for a whole decade. During this time, we were politically and socially corrupted, and the war, having exterminated hundreds of thousands of youth, further undermined our strength, undermining the economic life of the country. The generation that will be the first to accept the new system of life got freedom cheaply; This generation knows little about the terrible efforts of people who, over the course of a whole century, gradually destroyed the gloomy fortress of Russian monarchism. The average person did not know the hellish, mole-like work that was done for him - this hard labor is unknown not only to one average person in ten hundred Russian district towns. We are going and we are obliged to build a new life on the principles that we have long dreamed of. We understand these principles with reason, they are familiar to us in theory, but these principles are not in our instinct, and it will be terribly difficult for us to introduce them into the practice of life, into ancient Russian life. It is difficult for us, because we, I repeat, are a completely ill-educated people socially, and our bourgeoisie, now moving to power, is just as little educated in this regard. And we must remember that the bourgeoisie is taking into its hands not the state, but the ruins of the state; it is taking these chaotic ruins under conditions that are immeasurably more difficult than the conditions of 5-6 years. Will she understand that her work will be successful only if there is a strong unity with democracy, and that the task of strengthening the positions taken from the old government will not be strong under all other conditions? There is no doubt that the bourgeoisie must get better, but there is no need to rush into this, so as not to repeat the dark mistake of the 6th year. In turn, revolutionary democracy should assimilate and feel its national tasks, the need for itself to take an active part in organizing the economic strength of the country, in the development of the productive energy of Russia, in protecting its freedom from all encroachments from outside and from within. Only one victory has been won - political power has been won, many more difficult victories remain to be won, and above all we must defeat our own illusions. We overthrew the old government, but we succeeded not because we are a force, but because the power that was rotting us was itself completely rotten and collapsed at the first friendly push. The very fact that we could not decide on this push for so long, seeing how the country was being destroyed, feeling how we were being raped - our long-suffering alone testifies to our weakness. The task of the moment is to firmly strengthen, as far as possible, the positions we have taken, which is achievable only with the reasonable unity of all forces capable of working for the political, economic and spiritual revival of Russia. The best motivator of a healthy will and the surest method of correct self-esteem is a courageous awareness of one’s shortcomings. The years of war have shown us with terrifying clarity how weak we are culturally, how poorly organized we are. The organization of the country's creative forces is necessary for us, like bread and air. We are hungry for freedom and, given our inherent inclination towards anarchism, we can easily devour freedom - it is possible. Quite a few dangers threaten us. It is possible to eliminate and overcome them only under the condition of calm and friendly work to strengthen the new order of life. The most valuable creative force is man: the more spiritually developed he is, the better armed with technical knowledge, the more durable and valuable his work is, the more cultural and historical it is. We have not learned this - our bourgeoisie does not pay due attention to the development of labor productivity, a person for them is still like a horse - only a source of brute physical strength. The interests of all people have a common ground where they are united, despite the irremovable contradiction of class friction: this ground is the development and accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge is a necessary tool in the interclass struggle, which underlies the modern world order and is an inevitable, albeit tragic moment of this period of history, an irreducible force of cultural and political development; knowledge is a force that, in the end, should lead people to victory over the elemental energies of nature and to the subordination of these energies to the general cultural interests of man, humanity. Knowledge must be democratized, it must be made popular, it, and only it, is the source of fruitful work, the basis of culture. And only knowledge will arm us with self-awareness, only it will help us correctly assess our strengths, the tasks of the current moment and show us a broad path to further victories. Quiet work is the most productive. The force that has held me firmly on earth all my life has been and is my faith in the human mind. To this day, the Russian revolution in my eyes is a chain of bright and joyful manifestations of rationality. A particularly powerful manifestation of calm rationality was the day of March 23rd, the day of the funeral on the Champ de Mars. In this parade of hundreds of thousands of people, for the first time and almost tangibly it was felt - yes, the Russian people have made a revolution, they have risen from the dead and are now joining the great cause of the world - the construction of new and increasingly free forms of life! Great happiness to live to see such a day! And with all my soul I would wish the Russian people, just as calmly and powerfully, to move further, ever forward and higher, until the great holiday of world freedom, universal equality, brotherhood!