Siberian Federal University 
- Issue
- Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2026 19 (2)
- Authors
- Sergeev, Andrei M.
- Contact information
- Sergeev, Andrei M.: Saint Peterburg State University (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation);
- Keywords
- truth; people; meaning; border; space; being; non-being; metaphysics
- Abstract
Within the Russian worldview, a loss of meaning is intrinsically tied to the absence of pravda (a concept encompassing both truth and righteousness). Pravda represents a fundamental relation from which the Russian people derive their origin. Both the Russian individual and the Russian world are defined not by the local, but by the universal. The Russian principle manifests as a boundless scope and a striving for open space, which inherently resists a “settled” or “ordered” existence. While many nations seek to build their lives on the principle of samostoianie (self-reliance) – which implies a rejection of God – such an arrangement is fatal for the Russian people. The very emergence of the Russian people in history is closely linked to the idea of the universal, against which any self-reliant order is ultimately doomed to oblivion. The Russian readiness to submit to the universal leads to a willingness to sacrifice earthly well-being. From this perspective, the earthly is revealed as incomplete, unnecessary, and merely temporary when juxtaposed with the heavenly. In Russia, power is called to answer not to an earthly, but to a metaphysical standard. Russian history presents itself as a continual testing of the people’s conformity topravda – a verification of their alignment with the task of bearing witness to it, irrespective of human cost. Metrics and measurement cannot allow an individual or a people to attain pravda, as they are separated from it by space. Space, in turn, is defined by the strangeness of human presence. Within space, the individual and the people are rendered fragmented; they are gathered into unity only through the “event.” Pravda is not discovered within space; rather, it is introduced into space by the individual and the people, and is upheld by them. This article may be of interest to philosophers of culture, cultural scholars, and anthropologists
- Pages
- 438–446
- EDN
- WCVCII
- Paper at repository of SibFU
- https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/158164
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).