SOURCE: "Nikolai Berdyaev," in Social Philosophies of an Age of Crisis, The Beacon Press, 1950, pp. 137-44.

In the following essay, Sorokin focuses on the social and historical concerns and implications of Berdyaev's philosophy.

Berdyaev is the author of many works in philosophy, social science, political economy and ethics: The Meaning of Creativeness (1916), The Meaning of History (1923), Philosophy of Inequality (1922), The New Middle Ages (1924), Christianity and Class Struggle (1931), Solitude and Society (1930), and many others. Most of Berdyaev's books have been translated into several languages.

Omitting the metaphysical part of Berdyaev's philosophy of history, the following empirical points of his reading of historical events should be mentioned.

(1) Methodologically, a mere description of singularistic historical events, persons, and objects only results in a dead corpse of history. "When one reads a scientific book on, say, ancient peoples, one clearly feels that from the history of cultures of these peoples their soul...