Justification of Russia: political views of Russian cosmists

Abstract

The article is devoted to the investigation of Russian cosmists’ political views. The political theory touched upon in the works of the cosmists is an essential feature of the entire trend. At the same time, a paradox in the political views of cosmists is observed. On the one hand, the project of cosmism is universal, worldwide. On the other hand, not a single cosmist ignored the question of Russia's place in the world, and this reflects the nature of Russian thought. We can see that the problem of political power in cosmism is both universal and national. Unfortunately, not enough attention has been paid to this problem, although Russian cosmism is recognized as the core of all Russian philosophy and as an important element of the Russian idea. The study of the political thought of Russian cosmism is an important step in understanding the political characteristics of Russian culture. For a complete review the cosmists’ philosophy of politic, we analyzed the works of Russian cosmists – N.F. Fedorov, V.S. Solovyov, K.E. Tsiolkovsky V.I. Vernadsky, S.G. Semenova and lesser known figures – N.A. Setnitsky, V.N. Muravyov, B.B. Vakhtin, I.M. Borzenko. Dialectical and hermeneutic methods were used to solve the research problems. As a result of the study, the key features of various political concepts of cosmists are identified, the palette of political views of cosmists is presented, including N.F. Fedorov’s autocracy, V.N. Muravyov’s republic, B.B. Vakhtin’s skepticism of the possibility of stable political governance. The philosophical and historical causes of changes in the political views of cosmists are proposed. The proposition that the political views of Russian cosmists synthetically combine the universal and the individual, thereby removing the contradiction between the global and the national, is substantiated. It is noted that various political concepts of Russian cosmists is reduced by a general intention towards a global and cosmic essence of the political structure. This intention is one of the main features of Russian cosmism.