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The Image of the Future in the Philosophical and

Artistic Versions of Russian Cosmism

Anastasia G. Gacheva
A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy
of ­Sciences, Moscow, Russia
a-gacheva@yandex.ru

Abstract

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the interpretation of the image of the
future in the philosophical tradition of Russian cosmism, as well as the echoes of this
vision of the future in Russian writers of the xx century. Cosmists consider reality from
the point of view of what it should be, respectively, the image of the future is a model
of the perfect state of the world and man. The future for them is projective, and this
project should be embodied in reality. Key characteristics of the image of the future
in Russian cosmism: axiology, alternative, universality, cosmicity, immortalism, unity
of personality and community, assuming the completeness of the development and
interaction of both. The future for Russian cosmists is connected with the transition
from technical progress, increasing the power of man in the world through artificial
tools, to organic progress, associated with the improvement of the human body. Artis-
tic projections of the image of the future are given in the literary texts of the cosmists
themselves (K.E. Tsiolkovsky’s sci-Fi works, V. N. Muravyev’s philosophical mystery
­Sofia and Kitovras), as well as in the poetry of V. Bryusov, V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov,
N. Zabolotsky, in the novels of A. Belyaev and I. Efremov.

Keywords

Russian cosmism – image of the future – projectivism – deontology – alternative of

the future – axiology – transformation of man and the world – technical and organic
progress – artistic cosmism

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/23751606-01502007

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The Image of the Future in the Philosophical 161

1 Introduction

The philosophy of Russian cosmism in recent decades has attracted much

attention of researchers.1 The founder of this trend in Russian philosophical
and scientific thought of the second half of the xix–xx centuries is Nikolai Fe-
dorov, author of Philosophy of common cause. Two directions are distinguished
in Russian cosmism: natural-scientific cosmism (N.A. Umov, K.E. Tsiolkovsky,
V.I. Vernadsky, A.L. Chizhevsky, N.A. Holodny, V.F. Kuprevich) and religious-
philosophical cosmism (V.S. Soloviev, S.N. Bulgakov, N.A.Berdyaev, P.A. Floren-
sky, A.K. Gorsky, N.A. Setnitsky, V.N. Muravyev). Representatives of the natural
science direction put forward the idea of active, directed evolution, consider
life, consciousness, creative activity of mankind as a key factor in the devel-
opment of the Earth and the Universe. From their point of view, man is the
highest stage of Life development, moving to more complex, spiritually and
mentally organized forms. Representatives of religious and philosophical di-
rection substantiate the concept of active Christianity, according to which
man acts as an assistant to the Creator in the transformation of the world into
the Kingdom of God. Nikolai Fedorov, who gives the most radical version of
active Christian cosmism, stresses that Christian task of history is the resur-
rection of the dead and the spiritual and physical transformation of the living.
Both directions converge in the statement of active, creative role of the person

1 Russkij kosmizm: Antologiya filosofskoj mysli (Moscow, 1993); Filosofiya russkogo kosmizma.
(Moscow, 1996); A.G. Gacheva, Russkij kosmizm i vopros ob iskusstve. In.: Filosofiya bess-
mertiya i voskresheniya: Po materialam vii Fedorovskih chtenij. In 2 vv. Vol. 2. (Moscow, 1996);
Strategiya vyzhivaniya: kosmizm i ekologiya (Moscow, 1997); K.H. Hajrullin, Filosofiya kos-
mizma (Kazan’, 2003); M.A. Abramov Idejnye osnovaniya russkogo kosmizma (Saratov, 2003);
A.G. Gacheva, O.A. Kaznina, S.G. Semenova, Filosofskij kontekst russkoj literatury 1920–1930-h
godov (Moscow, 2003); S.G. Semenova, Metafizika russkoj literatury: in 2 vv. (Moscow, 2004);
Filosofiya kosmizma i russkaya kul’tura (Belgrad, 2004); E.A. Plekhanov, Pedagogika russkogo
kosmizma (Vladimir, 2004); A.A. Onosov Kul’turno-evolyucionnaya deontologiya: social’nye
proekcii russkogo kosmizma (Moscow, 2006); M.A. Abramov, Idei filosofii russkogo kosmizma
v tvorchestve religioznyh myslitelej xx v. (Saratov, 2007); O.D. Masloboeva, Russkij organicizm
i kosmizm xix–xx vv.: evolyuciya i aktual’nost’ (Moscow, 2007); S.G. Semenova, Palomnik v
budushchee. P’er Tejyar de SHarden (SPb., 2009); V.V. Kazyutinskij, Kosmizm klassicheskij i
kosmizm sovremennyj in ‘Sluzhitel’duha vechnoj pamyati’. Nikolaj Fedorovich Fedorov: in 2 vv.
Vol. 1. (Moscow, 2010); G. Young, Russian cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov
and His Followers (New York, 2012); B. Groys, A. Vidokle, Kosmismus (Berlin, 2018); See also
special issues of the journal Slavica Occitania: Le cosmisme russe (№°46, 2018); Le cosmisme
russe. ii. Nikolai Fiodorov (№ 47, 2018).

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162 Gacheva

in the nature and space. Cosmists-scientists and cosmists – religious philoso-

phers – seek to reconcile science and faith, creationism and evolutionism. N.
Umov emphasizes that Logos and Agape, scientific knowledge and love play
key roles in the moving forward man and the world. And V.S. Soloviev puts
forward the idea of continuing creation: creation is not a one-time act, but a
“gradual and persistent process” of incarnation in the matter of the spiritual,
divine principle. In this case, man is the crowning glory of the cosmogonic pro-
cess, because his body is a perfect form for the existence of spirit. And it is man
who must lead the development of the world, promote its “cosmic growth”.2
The philosophy of cosmism has had a significant impact on many phenom-
ena of Russian literature of the xix–xx century. And in cosmism itself there is
a powerful artistic movement associated with the names of M.V. Lomonosov,
G.R. Derzhavin, V.F. Odoevsky, F.I. Tyutchev. A special place is occupied by the
figure of the playwright A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin, who created the original philo-
sophical doctrine ‘Vsemir’. In the xx century artistic versions of cosmism were
given by V. Bryusov, V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, A. Platonov, N. Zabolotsky,
A. Belyaev, I. Efremov.

2 The Future as it should be

Russian cosmists look at the world and man from the point of view of the ideal.
They move from what is to what should be. This predetermines their attention
to the topic of the future and the peculiarities of its interpretation. They associ-
ate the image of the future with the image of perfection. In the religious and
philosophical course of cosmism the embodiment of perfection is the King-
dom of God, the image of which is presented in the xxi and xxii chapters
of Revelation of John the Theologian. In the natural science course of cosmism
the ideal of the noosphere, a new, creatively organized state of the biosphere,
is put forward. In the first case, the ideal state is associated with the image
of immortality, unity, love, the fullness of the unity of God and humanity. In
the second case, perfection is due to the fact that the physicist Nikolai Umov
called “harmony”,3 orderliness of the forces and elements of the world, and Vl.
Vernadsky – “perestrojkoj biosfery v interesah svobodno myslyashchego chel-
ovechestva kak edinogo celogo” [restructuring of the biosphere in the interests

2 V.S. Solov’ev Sochineniya: In 2 v. Vol. 2. (Moscow, Mysl’, 1988), 630.

3 N.A. Umov, Rol’ cheloveka v poznavaemom im mire. In: Russkij kosmizm. Antologiya filosofs-
koj mysli (Moscow, Pedagogika-press, 1993), 121.

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The Image of the Future in the Philosophical 163

of free-thinking humanity as a whole] .4 And for cosmists-scientists, and for

cosmists – religious thinkers – the perfect state is not static. It is a dynamic
creative eternity. Development here is carried out not through the change of
generations, not through the subsequent displacement of the previous one,
but through the increment of being, through the return of the lost, through the
expansion of knowledge, the creative possibilities of mankind. It involves the
participation of all, the Council of persons.
At the same time, the image of the perfect state in Russian cosmism refers
both to the world transformed by man and to man himself, simultaneously
transforming himself. The perfect man of the future appears in Russian cos-
mism as a creature that overcame death, capable of infinite self-renewal, to un-
limited movement over long distances without the help of technology, capable
of living in different natural environments. He is an autotrophic being, build-
ing their tissue just as do green plants. At the same time, it is a person who has
developed the maximum ability to love, empathy, sympathetic attention to the
other ‘I’, to people and all living beings. The man of the future claims to a new
level antique ideal kalokagathia. The gap between the immensity of man’s spir-
itual nature and the limitations of his physical nature is finally bridged. And at
the same time, the man of the future will have, according to the cosmists, an
unlimited capacity for creativity. He will be able “osushchestvlyat’ ne po nu-
zhde, a po izbytku dushevnoj moshchi beskonechnuyu mysl’ v neogranichen-
nyh sredstvah materii [to carry out not in need, but in abundance of spiritual
power infinite thought in unlimited means of matter]”.5

3 Future as a Project

A characteristic feature of Russian cosmism philosophy is projectivism. Rus-

sian cosmists think not only about the future, but also design the future, move
from idea to project.
The projective character of the future is directly connected with the idea
of man as an agent of world development, as a being in which, according to
Fedorov, nature comes to self-consciousness, begins “ne tol’ko soznavat’ sebya,
no i upravlyat’ soboyu [not only to be aware of itself, but also to control itself]”
(Fedorov 1995, Vol. 2, 239). The future appears as a task for humanity, as a plan
that must be thought out and implemented in reality with the active participa-
tion of the people themselves. Humanity is not just waiting for the future to

4 V.I. Vernadskij, Neskol’ko slov o noosfere. Ibid, 309.

5 N.F. Fedorov. Sobranie sochinenij. Vol. 1. (Moscow: Izdatel’skaya gruppa ‘Progress’, 1995) 125.

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come, but is actively shaping the image of the future, building a futurological
project, followed by the implementation of this project.
The implementation of the project of the future, according to Fedorov, the
founder of the philosophy of cosmism, requires collective activity. It must
become the common cause of a United humanity. The philosopher unites all
spheres of human practice around a common task – to build a future in which
death and discord will be overcome. He puts forward a project of regulation,
management of processes occurring in nature, calls to fight natural disasters:
earthquakes, floods, epidemics, crop failures that cause hunger. At the same
time, the action of regulation extends by the thinker not only to the earth, but
also to the entire universe: “Porozhdennyj kroshechnoyu zemleyu, zritel’ bes-
konechnogo prostranstva, zritel’ mirov etogo prostranstva, dolzhen sdelat’sya
ih obitatelem i pravitelem [Begotten by the tiny earth, the spectator of infinite
space, the spectator of the worlds of this space, must become their inhabitant
and ruler]” (Fedorov 1995. Vol. 2, 243).
The original project of the future was proposed by A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin,
the playwright and thinker. He was a senior contemporary of N. F. Fedorov. For
40 years in his estate ‘Kobylinka’ he translated Hegel and simultaneously cre-
ated Philosophy of the world of humanity. Sukhovo-Kobylin assumed that man-
kind in its development goes through three stages: earth (telluric), solar (solar)
and sidereal (stellar). The first stage is the content of the current moment of
history. The second and third stages represent the image of the future, the con-
tent of the future activity of mankind. At the second stage, man acquires the
ability to fly and master the planets of the solar system. And at the third stage,
he reaches the distant stars and becomes an inhabitant of the entire universe.
Another contemporary of Fedorov, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, also dreamed about the
cosmic future of mankind. He presented his dream both in works of art and
in philosophical works. Science fiction stories On the moon (1893) and Beyond
the Earth (1918) represent the image of humanity, going beyond the earth’s at-
mosphere and making the first steps in the Universe. He draws spaceships and
space settlement, describes the space of the greenhouse, where they grow use-
ful plants. Based on scientific knowledge and hypotheses, he shows what life
of mankind can be in extraterrestrial space. He reflects on how the human
body will be transformed, adapting to life in the interstellar environment. In
parallel, Tsiolkovsky builds his ‘cosmic philosophy’, outlining it in a series of
philosophical brochures. He acts as a monist and panpsychist, arguing that “ev-
ery particle of the universe is responsive”.6 He creates the concept of ‘thinking

6 K.E. Ciolkovskij, Monizm Vselennoj. In: Ciolkovskij K.E. Genij sredi lyudej (Moscow: Mysl’,
2002) 163.

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The Image of the Future in the Philosophical 165

atom’, thereby giving the potency of mind and of freedom to every element of
being. Tsiolkovsky-philosopher substantiates the prospect of the evolution of
mankind from the ‘half-animal state’ to physical and moral perfection, linking
this perspective with the idea of developing not only the Earth but also the
Cosmos. He designs the ‘future social order’ as an ideal community in which
all conditions are created for the maximum development of human genius.
Artistic texts of the founder of cosmonautics and his philosophical bro-
chures equally performed a projective function. Tsiolkovsky sought to inspire
his contemporaries by the image of the cosmic future of mankind. He was
convinced that artistic imagination and philosophical thought have the ability
to set the vector of movement into the future, to determine the development
of scientific knowledge and engineering genius, to direct historical action. He
wrote: “Snachala neizbezhno idut mysl’, fantaziya, skazka. Za nimi shestvuet
nauchnyj raschet. I uzhe v konce koncov ispolnenie venchaet mysl’ [At First
will inevitably come a thought, a fantasy, a fairy tale. They are followed by the
work of science. And in the end the execution is crowned with a thought]”.7
Projective attitude to the future was characteristic of other artistic phe-
nomena of the xx century, which were in the field of influence of the cosmic
thought. Alexander Bogdanov’s novels Red star (1908) and Engineer Manny
(1912) under the guise of Martian civilization drew the future of earthlings as
it was seen by the founder of organizational science. The image of the earth,
turned into a spaceship, which was put forward by Nikolai Fedorov, appeared
in the poetry of V.Ya. Bryusov

Veryu, derzkij! ty postavish’

Po Zemle ryady vetril.
Ty svoej rukoj napravish’
Beg planety mezh svetil
(V.Ya. Bryusov. Hvala CHeloveku, 1906)

I believe you! you put

On the Ground the rows of sails.
You will direct with your hand
Running the planet between the stars
(V. Y. Bryusov. Praise To The Man, 1906)

N. Ah. Zabolotsky in the poem The Triumph of agriculture written under the
influence of acquaintance with the ethics of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, presented his

7 K.E. Ciolkovskij, Issledovanie mirovyh prostranstv reaktivnymi priborami (Izdanie 1926

goda). In: K.E. Ciolkovskij, Zemlya kosmicheskaya (Moscow: Roskosmos, 2017) 324.

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166 Gacheva

image of the future system of the world, where man will cease to be a predator
and aggressor both in relation to his own kind and in relation to animals. Set-
tling in space, people leave the earth to higher animals. Horses, dogs, cows gain
intelligence, the ability to goal-setting and the ability to create. They turn into
independent figures, researchers, organizers of the world. They are no longer
slaves, but friends of man.

Nad Loshadinym institutom

Vstavala strojnaya luna.
Nauchnyj otdyh dan posudam,
I blizok chas veretena.
Osel, tovarishchem vedom,
Prihodit, goloden i hrom.
Ego, kak mal’chika, pitayut,
Uma rasten’e razvivayut.
Zdes’ uchat babochek trudu,
Uzhu dayut urok nauki
Kak delat’ pryazhu i slyudu,
Kak shit’ perchatki ili bryuki.
Zdes’ volk s zheleznym mikroskopom
Zvezdu vechernyuyu poet,
Zdes’ kon’ s rediskoj i ukropom
Besedy dlinnye vedet.
I hory strojnye lyudej,
Pokinuv pastbishcha efira,
Spuskayutsya na stogny mira
Otvedat’ pishchi lebedej.
(N. Zabolockij, Torzhestvo zemledeliya)

The projective attitude towards the future became particularly evident and
especially tense in the first years after the Russian revolution of 1917. Those
­Russian writers and poets who adopted the revolution perceived it as the ‘third
revolution of the spirit’ (Vladimir Mayakovsky’s expression), as a milestone af-
ter which the construction of perfect system of life begin. Their visions of the
future which is built by man, striving for perfection, gave birth to the proletarian
and ‘novokresiansky’ poets. At the same time, for the poets of the group ‘Forge’
M. Gerasimov, V. Kirillov, I. Filipchenko, who were influenced by the ideas of
cosmism, this future was the future of tamed, humanistic technology and en-
nobled industrial culture. In contrast, for S. Yesenin, N. Klyuev, S. Klychkov, it
assumed a new, truly adult, the appeal of the people to the land, to peasant
harmony and peace. At the same time, both the singers of the plant and the

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The Image of the Future in the Philosophical 167

apologists of the peasant affirmed the idea of work as the highest moral value
and as an existential task for man. Work drives the development of the world,
and it is for the poets-cosmists that it is the support for the construction of the
future. Velimir Khlebnikov writes:

Eto shestvuyut tvoryane,

Zamenivshij D na T,
Ladomira soboryane
S Trudomirom na sheste.
(V. Hlebnikov)

Reflections on the future of Fedorov’s followers, philosophers-cosmists of

1920–1930-s A.K. Gorsky, N.A. Setnicky, V.N. Muravyov also focus around tran-
sition from words to deeds. N.A. Setnicky offers a new interpretation of the
concept of ‘ideal’, emphasizing its projectivity. “Ideal po samomu smyslu svo-
emu est’ krajnee, poslednee i velichajshee zadanie, k kotoromu stremitsya che-
lovechestvo [The ideal in its very meaning is the ultimate, last and greatest
task to which humanity aspires]”.8 Setnicky believes that the embodiment of
an ideal is a necessary condition of his existence. A.K. Gorsky in Nikolai Fe-
dorovich Fedorov and modernity writes that the content of the future history
will be “organizaciya mirovozdejstviya [organization of world action]”.9 V.N.
Muravyev outlines a plan for building a “culture of the future”, including the
task of “transformation of things and organisms”, “transformation of society”,
“transformation of space”.10
A new round of designing the future is associated with the fiction cosmism
of Alexander Belyaev and Ivan Efremov. In Alexander Belyaev’s novel Star of
kets (1936) the abbreviation kets means Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky
Alexander Belyaev, like his ideological teacher, cosmist Tsiolkovsky, designs,
based on his scientific calculations and artistic foresight, the life and work of
people who go beyond the earth. Ivan Efremov’s novel The Andromeda Nebula
draw the collective efforts of mankind seeking to “break through space”, to mas-
ter distant worlds, to fill the universe with life and consciousness. The literary
text here is not just ahead of reality, but sets the parameters of this reality,
prospects of its development.

8 N.A. Setnickij, O konechnom ideale. In N.A. Setnickij, Izbrannye sochineniya (Moscow,

2010) 79.
9 A. K. Gorskij, Sochineniya i pis’ma. Kn. 1. (Moscow: imli ran, 2019) 711.
10 V. N. Murav’ev, Kul’tura budushchego. In V.N. Murav’ev, Sochineniya: V 2 kn. Kn. 2. (Mos-
cow: imli ran, 2011) 151.

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4 The Future, not Limited Only by History and Only by the Earth

Designing the future in the philosophy of cosmism is all-encompassing. It is

not only limited to history, only the sphere of social action, but also extends to
nature. N.F. Fedorov, A.K. Gorsky, N.A. Setnitsky, V.N. Muraviev talking about
the regulation of nature. They emphasize the need to “bring will and reason
into nature” (Fedorov 1995, vol. 1, 393). They are calling for the struggle with
the blind, elemental forces present in nature. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis,
epidemics, diseases, aging, death – all this, from the point of view of philos-
ophers-cosmists, threatens the very existence of life, and therefore must be
overcome. They seek to extend the moral law that operates in social relations
to the functioning of the natural world. The law of repression and struggle of
beings, characteristic of nature in its present state, must be replaced by the
law of solidarity, love, mutual assistance. Man must himself abandon devour-
ing, from heterotrophic nutrition, become autotrophic, like plants. And at the
same time people have to help animals to stop being predators, to become
intelligent, creative, striving forward creatures.
Artistic image of these ideas gave Nikolay Zabolotsky and Daniil Andreev.
In the poem Mad wolf (1931) and The Triumph of agriculture (1931) Zabolotsky
depicted the world of animals striving for evolutionary ascent. In his dream
about the future, animals are not predators, not eaters, but inventors and
creators. They move science forward, observe the starry sky, write integrals,
conduct biological research and chemical experiments. Daniil Andreev in the
poem Iron mystery presents the possibilities of a new science – zoo-pedagogy.
The need for such a science for the world of the future, he justified in his main
work – The rose of the world. Daniel Andreev writes:

Podhod k zhivotnym stanet nov,

Kogda klyuchom lyubvi i znaniya
Perevernetsya do osnov
Nauka zoovospitaniya.
CHlenorazdel’nejshuyu rech’
Razviv dlya nih usil’em vdumchivym,
Civilizaciyu sterech’
Poruchim zajcam,
zebram,
sumchatym.
(D. Andreev, Iron mystery)

And not only on the animal Kingdom extend cosmists scope of human ethics.
Based on the Christian maxim: “God is love” and the commandment “Love one

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The Image of the Future in the Philosophical 169

another” (St. Jn. 13, 14), on the prophecy of the Apostle Paul about the future
Kingdom of God, where “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15, 28), they extend the
law of love to all being. This law should replace the natural law of repression
and struggle there. It must become a universal law.
Also, the sphere of human activity, the area of its action, from the point of
view of representatives of Russian cosmism, can not be limited only to the
planet Earth. They build the image of the cosmic future of humanity. They
build an image of the cosmic future of mankind and talk about the regula-
tion of the Universe. This is a characteristic feature of cosmism, which dis-
tinguishes it from other philosophical currents. This is a characteristic feature
of cosmism, which distinguishes it from other philosophical currents. Nikolai
Fedorov especially insists that “a strong existence is impossible as long as the
earth remains isolated from other worlds. Each separate world because of its
limitations can not have immortal beings” (Fedorov 1995, Vol. 1, 249–250). The
future is connected for the cosmists with the expansion of regulation, with the
spread of the regulatory action of man on the whole Space. They come up with
the idea of global regulation aimed at saving the world from thermal death,
from local and large-scale cosmic catastrophes.

5 Alternativeness, Ethics and Axiology of the Future

For the philosophers of the cosmists the future is not predetermined, it is not
fatal. Man does not simply wait for the future to come, just as he waits in the
order of nature for winter, spring, summer, and autumn to come. Man shapes
the future, determines the shape of the future. It creates scenarios of the future
and can modify them.
A characteristic example is the reaction of cosmists to the idea of the ther-
mal death of the universe, expressed in 1865 by R. Clausius. For Dostoevsky’s
heroes, the idea that “zemlya obratitsya v ledyanoj kamen’ i budet letat’ v bez-
vozdushnom prostranstve s takim zhe mnozhestvom ledyanyh kamnej [the
earth will turn into an ice stone and will fly in a vacuum with the multitude of
ice stones]”11 makes the history and existence of man senseless. Philosophers-
cosmists N.Ah. Umov, N.F. Fedorov, V.I. Vernadsky strive to create an alternative
image of the future, where life, consciousness, creative activity of man oppose
the prospect of thermal death of the universe, they are agents of negentropy.
With the help of creative work, first on earth and then in the spaces of the Uni-
verse, man transforms the world, saving it from destruction.

11 F.M. Dostoevskij, Podrostok. In: F.M. Dostoevskij, Polnoe sobranie sochinenij. Vol. 13
(­ Leningrad, 1975) 49.

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170 Gacheva

The future for Russian cosmists is a space of freedom. But it is a freedom

based on ethical responsibility. Engineering the future – it is not voluntarism.
It, according to cosmists, should be based on a fundamental knowledge of the
laws of nature, understanding the trends of the world and man, and at the
same time – on the will to assert good. Humanity, projecting the future, can
create several of its scenarios, but the best of them should be implemented.
The image of the future in Russian cosmism is closely connected with axi-
ological thought. Russian cosmists formulate development goals, build a hier-
archy of basic values of mankind and design the future according to them. The
image of the future directly depends on the fundamental choice of civiliza-
tion. Fedorov wrote: “A civilization that exploits but does not restore can have
no other result than the acceleration of the end” (Fedorov 1995. Vol. 1, 197).
The future of such a civilization is pessimistic and catastrophic. It ‘eats’ the
earth, which means it destroys itself. Fedorov is an apologist of another choice
of mankind. This choice is connected with another image of the future, the
title image of which is the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity, all the hypostases of
which are connected undividedly and inseparably, bear in itself, according to
Fyodorov, the image of the perfect unity of mankind. It gives nature an image
of the whole being. The image of the Trinity sets an optimistic, creative model
of the future.
The alternativeness of the future associated with the problem of axiologi-
cal choice is present both in the natural science branch of cosmism and in
Christian cosmism. During the First world war, the revolution, the first years
of Soviet power Tsiolkovsky wrote a number of texts in which he seeks to give
a creative version of the development of human history, excluding the idea of
military and revolutionary violence. In contrast to the class idea and ethnic
and interstate strife, he put forward the ideal of planetary unity of mankind.
He drew the prospect of space expansion of the human race, which can not be
realized without human solidarity.
The same experience of creative design of the future based on the deon-
tological approach was carried out by V.I. Vernadsky. In his work A few words
about the noosphere, written during the Second world war, he contrasted the
idea of the noosphere with the ideology of fascism. If fascism bases its vision
of the future on the dividing principle of race and blood, the noospheric ap-
proach is based on the ideas of internationalism and planetary humanity.
In Christian cosmism, the idea of the alternativeness of the future is asso-
ciated with a new interpretation of Revelation of John Thelogian. Fedorov has
substantiated this interpretation, and then it was picked up and creatively
developed in the works of V. S. Solovyov, N.A. Berdyaev, A.K. Gorsky, N.A.
Cetnickу, V.N. Muravyov. The essence of this approach is that Revelation of

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John The Theologian gives two alternative scenarios for the future. At the same
time, the implementation (or non-implementation) of each of these scenarios
of the future directly depends on humanity. The first – the apostasy scenario –
is imprinted in the images of natural disasters falling on humanity, the harlot
sitting on the beast, the coming of the Antichrist, the last judgment and the
subsequent division of humanity into the few saved and many outcasts. The
second – a bright, optimistic scenario – is associated with other images: these
are the gusli, who stand on the sea, mixed with fire and glass, and sing a new
song, a woman like the sun, the Millennium of Christ and finally the Heavenly
Jerusalem, where “nothing will be cursed” (Rev. 22, 3). The first scenario, ac-
cording to Christian cosmists, will become a reality if humanity stays on the
paths of evil. The second will be realized if humanity follows Christ, realizes
itself as a collective instrument of the divine will in the world, becomes a good
master first on the planet Earth, and then – in the whole Universe.

6 Resurrection as the Unity of the Future and the Past in the Present

In the natural order of existence, past, present and future are mutually incom-
patible realities. They deny and displace each other. And the displaced has no
value or significance for the displacer. That is why Fedorov criticizes unidirec-
tional, linear aspiration to the future, which is a priori recognized as better and
perfect than the present, and even more so the past. Such unidirectional move-
ment is embodied, from his point of view, in the idea of progress. ­Fedorov con-
trasts the concept of linear progress and the concept of resurrection. A ­ ccording
to Fedorov, the Union of people of different nationalities, professions, beliefs
and religions in the return of life to the dead changes the course of history, the
ratio of past, present and future. It, emphasizes Fedorov, “leads to the reality of
history, that is, to the organic connection of the present and the future with the
past” (Fedorov 1995. Vol. 2, 113).
Vladimir Solovyov insists on the same restoration of unity of times. In the
essay The Secret of Progress, he recalls the image of Aeneas, who came from
burning Troy, carrying his father, Anchise. Solovyov formulates the concept of
true progress: you can go into the future only based on the past. The philoso-
pher emphasizes that the moral and spiritual basis of the movement of history
should be a strong connection of times. At the same time, following Fedorov, he
does not limit the presence of the past in the present and future only by forms
of memory. In the book Justification of good he defines the conditions under
which the perfect embodiment of the moral law in the social life of people is
possible, and calls resurrection one of the main conditions. Humanity must

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participate in the act of resurrection. From generation to generation needs to

be “oduhotvoryayushchaya rabota cheloveka nad svoej telesnost’yu i nad zem-
noyu prirodoyu voobshche [the spiritualizing work of man over his corporeal-
ity and over the earthly nature in general]”.12 So people will be able to create
“usloviya zhiznennoj polnoty i dlya otshedshih [the conditions of life of com-
pleteness and for the dead]”.13
Historical knowledge in this context also took on the meaning of the resur-
rection. Fedorov stressed: “Istoriya est’ vsegda voskreshenie, a ne sud, tak kak
predmet istorii ne zhivushchie, a umershie [History is always a resurrection,
not a judgment, because the subject of history is not living, but dead]” (Fedorov
1995. Vol. 1, 135). Later historian N.P. Antsiferov will pick up these ideas and will
talk about the resurrection sense of historical research. In the work Historical
science as one of the forms of struggle for eternity he conveys the image of the
resurrection work of scientists of different generations: “Ya podal mnogim za-
bytym umershim pomoshch’, v kotoroj ya sam budu nuzhdat’sya <…> Vse oni
zhivut teper’ s nami, i my chuvstvuem, chto my im rodnye, druz’ya. Tak sozdae-
tsya odna sem’ya, odin grad obshchij dlya mertvyh i zhivyh [I have given many
forgotten dead the help that I myself will need <…> they All live with us now,
and we feel that we are their relatives, friends. Thus, is one family created, one
city common to the dead and the living]”.14
The work of collecting memory becomes the cosmists’ eve of the resurrec-
tion act. However, Fedorov, the most radical representative of cosmism, does
not stop there. In order for the people of the past epochs, about whom his-
torical studies write, to return to life not only in the imagination, but indeed,
the efforts of all people and all areas of knowledge and human practice are
necessary. The work of resurrection of images of people of the past, which are
scientists, humanitarians, artists, writers, etc. is combined with the work of
natural scientists: biologists, physicians, physicists, chemists, mathematicians,
etc., who must work on a real return to life. Resurrection is the result of the
joint action of all people and all areas of human thought and practice.
In the same direction the thought cosmist 1920-ies Valerian Muravyov. Build-
ing his ‘philosophy of action’, he connects the vector of movement into the fu-
ture with the vector of movement into the past. This movement is not a return
back, but a resurrection, the removal of the past from oblivion. Speaking of
history, Muravyov formulates the concept of the Messianic act. This act, he
emphasizes, “soedinyaet fatalizm i konservatizm s krajnej revolyucionnost’yu,

12 V.S. Solov’ev. Opravdanie dobra. In: V.S. Solov’ev, Sochineniya. V. 1 (Moscow, 1988) 489.
13 Op. cit.
14 Issledovaniya po istorii russkoj mysli. Ezhegodnik 2003 (Moscow 2004) 162.

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pafos smeloj reformy – s uvazheniem k proshlomu [combines fatalism and

conservatism with extreme revolutionary, the pathos of bold reform – with
respect for the past]” (Muravyov, 2011. Vol. 2, 283). The Messianic act resurrects
the past and foretells the future. Through him the overcoming of time is ac-
complished, the fullness of unity is achieved.
In the resurrection paradigm, the future itself is not a denial of the past,
but its return to reality, but in a new, perfect quality. Fedorov gives a clear
formula for such a transforming resurrection of the past in the present and
future: “vosstanovlenie mira v to blagolepie netleniya, kakim on byl do pad-
eniya ­[restoring peace to the beauty of immortality as it was before the fall]”
­(Fedorov 1995. Vol. 1, 401).

7 Future and Two Types of Development: Technological and

Organic Progress

Reflection on the future, characteristic of philosophical and artistic cosmism,

included the question of choosing the type of movement forward. Representa-
tives of cosmism closely linked this issue with the question of technics and the
technical type of development of civilization. Despite the fact that the equip-
ment occupies in the philosophy of cosmism is the most important place,
the attitude of N.F. Fedorova, N.A. Berdyaev, P.A. Florensky, A.K. Gorsky, N.A.
Setnicky, V.N. Muravyov ambiguous. On the one hand, technology and techni-
cal capabilities expand the ideological and creative horizon of mankind, its
range of action in the world, give a sense of “planetary earth”.15 On the other
hand, the technical type of development is a manifestation of the instrumen-
tal principle of the relationship of man to the world, the reverse side of which
is alienation, the collapse of the intimate relationship of man and the world,
the subject-object, and not the subject-subject attitude to being.
In an effort to find a way out of this contradiction, the cosmists are trying
to understand the technical tools as a continuation of human organs. In this
they are close to E. Kapp, who in his Philosophy of technology (1877) put for-
ward the idea of organ projection. P. Florensky in the Chapter Organoprotec-
tive, included in his work At the watersheds of thought, shows how the technical
tools reproduce in itself the complexity of the structure and function of bodily
organs. Moreover, in technical tools are often manifested in a holistic and com-
plete form of those rudimentary organs and capabilities that are in the human
body. Accordingly, not only biology is a source of inspiration for technology,

15 N.A. Berdyaev, CHelovek i mashina. In: Berdyaev N.A. Filosofiya tvorchestva, kul’tury i
iskusstva: in 2 v. Vol. 1 (Moscow, 1994) 510.

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but also “tekhnika mozhet i dolzhna provocirovat’ biologiyu [“technology can

and should provoke biology]”.16
From the last thesis follows the turn of development from technology to or-
ganics, which is declared by the representatives of Russian cosmism as a pros-
pect for the future, starting with Fedorov and ending with Florensky, Gorsky
and Muravyov, Vernadsky. They represent a vector of gradual transition from
the ways of technological progress, which increases the power of man fabri-
cation of prostheses to his organs, on the way of organic progress, based on
the fact to reveal and develop the hidden capabilities of the human body, still
dormant potency of the living. This is the meaning of the idea of the future
autotrophy of mankind, which was expressed by V.I. Vernadsky. The scientist
argued that the human blood hemoglobin formula is similar to chlorophyll, an
important element of the process of photosynthesis, as a result of which the
plant builds living tissue.
Fundamental knowledge and large-scale study of natural processes in order
to manage them are especially important here. About this with special perse-
verance wrote N.F. Fedorov. It is this philosopher, who is often considered the
apologist of unrestrained technological progress, in fact, was a staunch sup-
porter of the transition to the organic path of development. He spoke about
the need to reveal the unmanifested possibilities of the human body. He intro-
duced the concept of ‘polnoorgannost”, understanding it as a perfect organism,
able to live in different environments, move over great distances without the
help of technology, to see far and deep, etc.
No less important role in the process of transition from technical to organic
progress cosmists assigned the role of spirit, consciousness, which in the fu-
ture should expand its power over material nature, learn to control physical
processes. They set the task of ascetics in a new way, emphasizing that ascetic
work should not kill the body, but transform it. In contrast to the ‘negative
chastity’, which refuses marriage and birth, Fedorov put forward the idea of
‘positive chastity’, which consists in the transformation of the very essence of
marriage, which from the Union for childbirth becomes a Union for resurrec-
tion. And mountain, following the ideas of Meaning of love Vladimir Solovy-
ov, put forward the problem of control of erotic energies, stressing that they
should be focused on the transformation of the body.
Ideas and intuitions of Russian cosmism related to the theme of organic
progress, picked up and developed literature. In the poems of Khlebnikov,
Mayakovsky, Zabolotsky sound motifs of transformation by man of his spiri-
tual and physical nature. The image of a man living in different environments,

16 P.A. Florenskij. Organoproekciya. In: P.A. Florenskij, Sochineniya: V 4 v. Vol. 3(1) (Moscow,
2000) 421.

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freely feeling in the water and air, painted science fiction writer Alexander Be-
lyaev in the novels Amphibian Man (1927) and Arie” (1940).
The focus on organic progress distinguishes cosmism from the current flow
of transhumanism, which in its vision of the prospects of development is en-
tirely focused on the technical path. If Russian cosmism ultimately aims to
develop biological, considering artificial, technical as a support, but not as a
replacement, then transhumanism actually abandons biological in favor of
technological, talking about the transfer of consciousness to the computer, the
creation of an artificial human body, in fact, the replacement of the human
body prosthesis.
Cosmists believed that the choice in favor of artificial, created by man is
associated with an underestimation of the limitless possibilities of life. For Fe-
dorov, Umov, Vernadsky, the living has an antientropic nature, i.e. the fate of
the planet, the world, and man directly depends on its development and fate.
To abandon the development of the living, to replace it with an artificial one
(namely, the vector to replace the natural with an artificial one can be clearly
seen in the constructions of transhumanists) means to jeopardize the future
not only of civilization, but of the world as a whole.

8 Conclusion

The image of the future in the philosophy of Russian cosmism is of a projec-

tive nature. It is closely connected with deontology, focuses not so much on
the existing as on the due. The future for the representatives of this direction is
not limited only to the land and only the area of history. It extends the sphere
of human ethics and human action to nature. They talk about going into space
and exploring the boundless Universe. They extend the sphere of human eth-
ics and human action to nature, replacing the principle of displacement and
struggle of beings with the principle of unity, love, mutual assistance. They
overcome the linearity of time, connecting past, present and future in the
resurrection act. They assert the inexhaustibility and richness of the living in
comparison with the limitations of the technical. And they see the vector of
future development in the transition from technical progress, externally en-
hancing the action of man, to organic progress, transforming both the spiritual
nature of man and his body.
The ideas of cosmism about the future received artistic expression both
in their own works (On the moon, Outside the Earth by K. E. Tsiolkovsky, in
the philosophical mystery Sofia and Kitovras by V. Muravyov) and in the
works of V. Bryusov, V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, N. Zabolotsky, A. Belyaev,
I. ­Efremov, etc.

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176 Gacheva

Acknowledgements

This scientific investigation was carried out in the A. M. Gorky Institute of

World Literature ras with financial support of Russian Science Foundation
(rsf, the project № 17-18-01432).

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