Isaiah Berlin on the Russian Preoccupation with Historicism

Lecture held at the University of Sussex
Recording date: c.1973
The original can be found at: berlin.wolf.ox....
Link to the official transcript: berlin.wolf.ox....

[@karl246111]

174 views for such brilliancy! I feel privileged. Thank you for this vital upload

[@johncorte4696]

if only there were someone who could make things so clear about russia in the 20 th century like this great man!

[@LaxerBraski]

Wow! Thank you so much for uploading!

[@kevinberntson4239]

Thank you so much!!

[@JeffRebornNow]

I don't know. I think Chekov's plays are pretty original. Name another European play that is even remotely like Three Sisters and predates it? Or name any writer that was as brilliant a dark humorist as Gogol? (Swift was a pamphleteer and "Gulliver's Travels" is not even as remotely psychologically complex as "Diary of a Madman" or "The Nose.") Also, Gogol predates Kafka and still out-Kafkas Kafka.

[@piushalg8175]

One may argue that Putin is a victim of the russian inferiority complex and that he has, to this very day, constantly been trying to cope with this "illness", to the detriment of the russian nation and the whole world. For most of his life he must have been well aware that the russian way was not really attractive for normal people and other nations and could only be upheld by sheer military power and oppression. But this power implied greatness to him. And when the Soviet Union fell apart, this was a catastrophic event, which he openly decried as the greatest politicical catastrophy of the 20th century. Now we have to live with the consequences Putin drawed from this notion.

[@saimbhat6243]

Stop psychologising putin. To begin with, YOU personally know nothing about putin, except how your media portrays him. And secondly, what historicism has led America to go for dozens of invasions, regime changes, unilateral interventions and bombings? Only bad thing about Russian invasion of Ukraine is that Russia failed to achieve its objectives, while as west gets away with its aggression in e.g. Iraq, Libya, Guatemala, panama, Iran, Suez canal, chile,.... And the list goes on.

[@krinkle909]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!

[@michaelpearse5603]

What a genius! And this lecture is so hilarious.

[@АлексейЛогинов-ж1ц]

this is brilliant thanks

[@thejackbancroft7336]

Fuck I wish there was a Berlin lecture on Anarchism

[@Castative]

I think he wrote a bit about Bakunin, might be worth checking out...

[@macsergio8738]

A definition of a nation is relatively new historically. And in russian literature and in historical Russia ,one finds not only russians.Russians are only part of Russia.If there are only russians ,so we can assume, that Russia is disappeared.

[@ilarimakela544]

Could someone spell the name of the first Russian thinker, Pushkin’s contemporary, who Berlin talks about?

[@nicolaspolychronopoulos5766]

Pyotr Chaadayev

[@EsatBargan]

Garcia Shirley Johnson Jennifer Smith Betty

[@ArtU4All]

Wow…. Although retrospective, how also foretelling this analysis is. And how Russia of today, standing in a sea of historic blood and dead bodies continuing to prove its “destiny”, is clawing through Ukraine’s people and Her Land…. Thank you for posting this. I found the link on Vlad Vexler channel

[@evefischer6503]

please dont confuse a war about wheat dominance and anti isolating complaint which western greedy pro globalization agendas are pushing with other political climates of the past. Humanity must be allowed to work through its course without irrational critical comparisons. Lets see things for what they are.Listen and appreciate for what things were and strive together to thrive. Life being short has no time for socialist anger. Berlin is doing philosophy afterall.Enjoy it.Thknk it.

[@ArtU4All]

@@evefischer6503 Really? And you can offer “rational” critical comparison of bloody wars?

[@JoseSanchez-zo5tb]

Spoken like someone who hates Russia and knows nothing of Ukraine, only Putin Bad.

[@BillAmanda-e1o]

Miller Nancy Gonzalez Paul Lopez Linda

[@claudiakelley3687]

This is the same lecture from '67, no?

[@Castative]

what do you mean?

[@BetsyWillie-t8f]

Lewis Cynthia Harris Susan Rodriguez Frank

[@AlexthunderGnum]

Russian Orthodox on Russian is called "Православие" which is a combination of two words - "Право" (right) and "Славие" (praise). In other words, the mainstream Russian religion is praising of the Right. Russians are always about what is Right and who is Right. The right moment, the right word, the right man, the right argument, the right thing to do, the right choice to make. Because Russians need to be praising the Right, the are always in the search for one. In order to the Right to be praised, it first need to be established, decided if you will. So the whole story is about finding the Right one. All this is because of Православие, also known as The Russian Orthodox.

[@ekkehard-tejawilke3747]

Can someone identify the photo?

[@ulfadolfgandalfalfelfmilf5652]

'Sreda' ('Wednesday'), Russian literary group of the 1890s.

[@ekesandras1481]

The preoccupation with historicism is not something especially specific for Russia. The same is true for all the other Eastern European countries, be it Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Georgia, Ukraine, even Greece. The only thing special about Russia is, they have nuclear weapons and a population of 140 million to enforce their revistionist ideas on their neighbours. P.S.: shame on Klaus Fuchs, the guy who stole the blueprints from the Manhatten project and handed it over to the KGB. His deed still haunts us, decades after his passing away. He thought he would do something good for mankind, but handed over the most powerful weapon to the most nationalistic revisionist power in Europe. What an idiot.

[@Baczkowa78]

Smdh