INTRODUCTION: Transcendentalism and Anti-Bourgeoisism
As I noted in my series “John Coltrane Through a Russian Prism,” Russian culture, thought, history and, to some extent, even politics have been infused with transcendentalism for centuries. Although this cultural strand is most strong among the intelligentsia, it has bled into the masses over the centuries largely as a result of the power of Orthodox Christianity in Russian culture and countervailing but equally transcendental trends in response.
Many have perceived a certain transcendentalism in Russian religious, philosophical, literary, and general cultural discourse as well as in certain behaviors. One of the recent decades’ leading analysts of Russian culture, James H. Billington noted, many post-Soviet Russians are inclined to seek out something transcendental, a transcendent experience.[1] Russian literary critic I. I. Yevlampiev observed: “Pushkin expressed in a vivid artistic form the main feature of our national character – the contradictory combination and interaction in our spirituality of two intentions, two attitudes to the world: ‘admiration’ for the world, empirical reality, a clear sense of one’s inseparable belonging to this earthly reality and an equally clear sense of higher harmony, a passionate desire to join it and see the whole world transformed in accordance with an unearthly ideal.”[2] Russians’ aspiration to monism and universalism through a ‘higher harmony’ for the ‘whole world’ reflects or results in transcendentalism, escaping beyond the bonds of the human condition to a higher, purer, more integral one, a ‘transformation ‘in accordance with an unearthly ideal.’ ………… . . . . . . . . .
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED THERE ON 5 SEPTEMBER 2026
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About the Author –
Gordon M. Hahn, Ph.D., is an Expert Analyst at Corr Analytics, www.canalyt.com. Websites: Russian and Eurasian Politics, gordonhahn.com and gordonhahn.academia.edu
Dr. Hahn is the author of the new book: Russian Tselostnost’: Wholeness in Russian Thought, Culture, History, and Politics (Europe Books, 2022). He has authored five previous, well-received books: The Russian Dilemma: Security, Vigilance, and Relations with the West from Ivan III to Putin (McFarland, 2021); Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West, and the “New Cold War” (McFarland, 2018); The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond (McFarland, 2014), Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), and Russia’s Revolution From Above: Reform, Transition and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime, 1985-2000 (Transaction, 2002). He also has published numerous think tank reports, academic articles, analyses, and commentaries in both English and Russian language media.
Dr. Hahn taught at Boston, American, Stanford, San Jose State, and San Francisco State Universities and as a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia and was a senior associate and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group.