Paradoxes of religious revolution : Vladimir Ern and The Christian Struggle Association

This paper presents a portion of the history of ideas in pre-Revolutionary Russia. Specifically, it deals with the history and the philosophical ideas of The Christian Struggle Association - the orthodox intelligentsia circle that was formed in Moscow after "The Bloody Sunday" in January of 1905th. This was an illegal political organisation formed by philosopher Vladimir Em (1882-1917) and religious publicist Valentin Swientnicki (1879-1931). This article addresses two general matters, the first being the political actions of this organisation from its inception to its fall in 1908. In this part, the author presents its members to achieve their goals. The ideology of this organisation can be described as a Christian revolutionary movement with four fundamental ideas: 1) ecclesiastical utopia in which all ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and state institutions would be severed; 2) anarchism; 3) radical democracy; 4) communism. Secondly, the author addresses the socio-political ideas and values that made up the Assocation's doctrine of Christian socialism. In this part, the author analyses Em's philosophy, on which the Association's political program was built. The subjects addressed include Em's concept of freedom, his theory "catastrophic progress" and the eschatological foundation for the social and economic reforms proposed by The Christian Struggle Association