Preface to Translation of D. I. Chizhevsky's Review

Abstract

The reader is presented with a translation of a review by the philosopher and Slavic philologist D. I. Chizhevsky on N. A. Berdyaev's work “On Suicide,” published in 1931. This review was published in the Lviv journal “Dzvony” in Ukrainian and has remained one of Chizhevsky's works that had not previously been translated into Russian, making it virtually unknown to a wide circle of domestic researchers. The review itself is thematically structured by paragraphs as follows. In the first paragraph, Chizhevsky outlines his view of Berdyaev as a philosopher, as well as the specifics of his philosophical approach within the Russian and European philosophical traditions. In the second paragraph, Chizhevsky presents suicide both as a “pressing” problem in the USSR and as an urgent issue in contemporary philosophical discourse. In the following three paragraphs, which form the central part of the review, Chizhevsky briefly yet comprehensively examines Berdyaev's specific perspective on the problem of suicide as a Christian thinker. Finally, in the last paragraph, Chizhevsky proposes to broaden Berdyaev's interpretation by shifting the focus from the purely psychological-individual aspect of the suicide problem to its broader cultural context. In the philosophical understanding of suicide problem, Chizhevsky attaches particular importance to M. Heidegger, who is described in the review as the most outstanding thinker of modernity. Thus, Chizhevsky's review covers an extensive context of the suicide problem in the philosophical discourse of his time and, from this perspective, may be of particular interest not only to Chizhevsky scholars but also to a wider circle of researchers. This translation is timed to coincide with the 130th anniversary of Chizhevsky and the 150th anniversary of Berdyaev, both celebrated in 2024.