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12. M. O. Gershenzon and Georges Florovsky: Metaphysical Philosophers of Russian History

There are significant parallels in the historical approaches of M. O. Gershenzon and Georges Florovsky. They share a sensitivity to the metaphysical content of history and a marked respect for the religious truths contained in Russian culture. But the philosophical differences between them are numerous. They disagree about the purpose of history, the goal of the historian, and the meaning of the Russian intellectual tradition. Besides, they belong to two different generations: Gershenzon was a Silver-Age idealist thinker and a Jew by birth, whereas Florovsky was an Orthodox theologian who reached intellectual maturity in emigration. Gershenzon sought in Russian culture a universal idea, not associated with any institution, which he thought suitable for all time and all places. Florovsky, however, approached his studies from an Orthodox-Christian perspective. Therefore, while sharing a common attitude toward the past as a source for edification about the present, they are completely different with opposing worldviews, and their historical work reflects these differences. Intellectual history in the modern sense used by Wilhelm Dilthey came late to Russia. Silver-Age historians and religious philosophers just before World War One were its first major practitioners. Earlier in the nineteenth century, Russian historians considered their subject devoid of disciplinary boundaries. The study of the past straddled the lines between social thought, political science, literary investigation, and ethnography. Furthermore, political motivations often underlay the study of intellectuals and the treatment of their ideas. However, fin de siecle with its modernism in literature and anti-positivism in various branches of science changed the focus of historical studies. To a large extent the practice of intellectual history became entwined in the search for spiritual values characteristic of Russia’s Silver Age culture (18901920). This is explained in large part by the religious orientations of the practicing writers.