SOURCE: "A Jewish-Christian Rift in Twentieth-Century Russian Philosophy: N. A. Berdiaev and M. O. Gershenzon," in The Russian Review, Vol. 53, No. 4, October, 1994, pp. 497-514.

In the following essay, Horowitz details the reasons for the ideological conflict between Berdyaev and his long-time friend M. O. Gershenzon.

My philosophy has always been a philosophy of conflict.

(Nikolai Berdiaev about himself)

The erudite "Kulturtrèger" several times showed me the power of the elemental forces living within him.

(Andrei Belyi about Mikhail Gershenzon)

The Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 found the two friends, religious philosopher Nikolai Berdiaev and historian and philosopher M. O. Gershenzon, on different sides of the conflict. Berdiaev's vehement opposition to the Revolution ostensibly caused him to sever relations with the sympathizer Gershenzon. In 1952, Gershenzon's daughter, Nataliia Mikhailovna GershenzonChegodaeva, wrote in her memoirs that her father's and Berdiaev's friendship "ended badly. During the days of the October Revolution, when...