First, excerpts from his books
“Marxists talked a lot about a “new type of man” and... created a state of mankurts, “cogs”, “faithful Ruslans.” Lutherans and Calvinists, through centuries of spiritual activity, truly created a man of spirit, an ascetic, an activist, a creator own life. It can be said without exaggeration that modern Western man is largely the creation of Luther, Calvin<...>.
Hegel, himself a former Protestant, called the Reformation the meaning of the history of a new era.
Luther and Calvin formulated the principles of honorable private enterprise. People are unequal, they taught, they are born unequal, but they are all equal before God's grace and all have God's gift of “making themselves.” Here, and not in heaven, they are given the right to self-realization; here they, endowed with spirit and reason, are free to use freedom according to their own understanding. Luther and Calvin also told people what they wanted to hear, but these were not words about the utopian desires of the lazy people Cockayne and Quick Riches, but a call to live and get rich with dignity, not contrary to real human qualities, but in accordance with the high destiny of man!
The Reformation did not abandon matter or turn it into evil: matter bears the imprint of divinity and by its nature can be good. Calvin not only did not condemn the flesh, but considered earthly activity, labor, to be the primary human duty and the most godly deed. He preferred deeds, labor, asceticism, complete dedication in life, both body and mind, to ranting about life in the spirit and in the spirit alone (is it not from them that there are so many holy fools?). Returning the land to man, the reformers declared hard work (as well as piety) as evidence of chosenness. Man's best performance of his duties is the only form of service to God. The pathos of activity and the initiation of business initiatives acquired the significance of a religious calling, regardless of profession. It is not the nature of the work that is important, but “staying in your calling.”
Calvin encouraged initiative, efficiency, and the accumulation of material values under the sole condition of observing the categorical imperative. Wealth was seen not as a means of achieving earthly goods, but as a sign of divine grace. The power of the community over the individual was seen as a necessity to accustom “idlers” to work in their own interests.
The Protestant ethic created new type entrepreneur and, ultimately, a new type of personality who played a decisive role in the economic revolution of the Western world: an active, disciplined, responsible personality, sensitive to lack of freedom and lies. It is significant that the European countries that adopted the reform, especially the German states, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and England, were economically far ahead of those that retained Catholicism.
We can say that the main difference between Byzantium and Genena, which led to two cultures - East and West - is precisely in the different attitude towards matter: utopian in the East and pragmatic in the West.<...>
The Protestant Christian was prepared for severe trials, fulfillment of obligations, discipline of body and spirit, he was taught that heroism does not lie in knightly deeds or reckless courage on the battlefield, but in everyday, patient work, in activity, freedom, martyrdom of internal struggle , the Orthodox - despite everything that he knew and saw around him - was consoled with fables about the heights of his spirit and instilled in him a disdain for flesh and earth.
It was not the Enlightenment that brought Western freedoms, but the Protestant Church.”
This is I.I. Garin, from the book “Calvin”.
And here is from his “Unknown Tolstoy”:
“Genius and holiness are incompatible: why closer person approaches the saint, the weaker the passions rage, the more clearly the heavens open, the closer to the priest and the judge. To the judge handing down sentences...
In terrifying moments of disappointment with the “farce grandfather”, I wonder: will time treat him as it did with Shakespeare? No one has any doubts about the future of Dostoevsky or Joyce, but what will sophisticated descendants say about the leafy primitives of the Yasnaya Polyana Host?
Do you know what they will say?! They, living in the 5th century from the birth of Tolstoy, will say: this was the next coming of Christ!
Yes, in his personality there really was something monstrously expanded, all-encompassing, endless. Not a person is a symbol of humanity.
This excess was in everything: in unquenchable confession, in self-incrimination, in the desire to understand the incomprehensible, in self-improvement, in the number of books read and thoughts that came to mind, in obsession, in inconsistency, in reproach, in repentance...
Wisdom is full of self-denial. Socrates forbade recording his speeches, Antisthenes and Diogenes refused everything, Shakespeare treated with “confident disdain” what he wrote, Gogol burned Dead Souls, Tolstoy anathematized War and Peace...
Tolstoy restored the true Christ - the creator of a supranational and selfless religion that humanizes man, a religion that knows no boundaries, no forms, no churches.”
Finally, “The Many Faces of Dostoevsky” by the same author:
“A terrible question: why is my homeland so rich in crippled writers? Why Pushkin and Lermontov were killed, Gogol went crazy, Garshin threw himself down a flight of stairs, Nikolai Uspensky became a drunkard, Tolstoy loving country sent ropes with a noose, Dostoevsky...
Dostoevsky's heart was burned by the suffering of the people, but he sincerely loved the throne, the crown, and tsarism. He was consumed by the desire to raise the humiliated and insulted, to restore the humanity of the fallen, but he knew the human world too well. He wanted to be a healer, but he was sick...
Apparently, Dostoevsky even held the opinion that spiritual enlightenment, the acquisition of the gifts of grace without the experience of sin and evil, is generally impossible.
Dostoevsky is DOSTOEVSKY because, with all his admiration for logic, he is irrational and contradictory. The mind is only a part of the soul, not even a large part. Distinctive feature Dostoevsky - precisely in the greater share of the inner man with his will, subconscious impulses, Russian irrationalism.
If Russia has a spiritual symbol, it is Dostoevsky. As N.A. Berdyaev said, “Western people will recognize Russia from Dostoevsky.” Dostoevsky is a symbol of the spiritual greatness of the nation and its illness, violence and humility, genius and foolishness, immensity and hysteria.
Here's another riddle: Tolstoy's ecstatic commitment to non-resistance and Dostoevsky's inconsistent darting from evil in man to divine good - aren't they evidence of their... confusion? Prophets who didn’t know what to do?.. Never found salvation? Isn’t that why one hid in non-resistance, the other hid behind Christ?
This is typical: the Chernyshevskys know what to do, the Dostoevskys and Tolstoys do not...”
These are the three books by I. I. Garin that I miraculously found.
But “The Mysterious Gogol” - I can’t get it!
There are no prophets in their own country. Moreover, those recognized during their lifetime. I. I. Garin’s fame clearly does not reach his level.
Professor, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, laureate of the USSR State Prize, world-renowned physicist, now working at the intersection of materials science and medicine, Igor Isaakovich Papirov - in his other life, Igor Ivanovich Garin, author of excellent journalism, philosopher and literary critic.
I asked him when he managed to write so much. The secret is simple: 3 pages a day, and he has been writing for the last 35 years: first for the table, now he publishes both old and new.
He does not need anything, he has a European level of income, he is extremely respected abroad, and the almost complete lack of due fame is compensated by his wonderful wife and wonderful children and grandchildren.
I. I. Garin is [almost] out of politics (as much as possible in our time), and when he came to me for my pre-election meeting with voters (I didn’t know about him then), he did not risk distracting me by introducing himself to his person.
The book boom of the 90s has passed, and today it is considered difficult to read. I don’t understand this. I devoured Calvin, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky - all three from him - in 4 days (including re-reading Dostoevsky himself, whom I became hooked on again).
In a couple of decades, he will be referred to in the same way as the classics are now. When I found out from the Internet that this was our contemporary, moreover, from my Kharkov, and even a leading physicist, I was incredibly surprised. Read Garin and - read. During his lifetime. Surprised with me.
In my autobiographical book “Angels of Libraries,” I talked about the most outstanding scientists of our institute, some of whom I had friendly relations with for many years. I knew Ilya Mikhailovich Lifshitz solely from his frequent speeches at scientific councils and seminars. He was a free man, endlessly passionate about science and until the end of his life he achieved outstanding results in it. He defended his doctoral dissertation at the age of 24, and in 1968 he moved from Kharkov to Moscow, replacing Lev Davidovich Landau at the Institute of Physical Problems. Back in 1941, Landau himself considered 25-year-old Ilya Mikhailovich one of the few domestic theorists of world rank and emphasized his outlook, which was rare even among theoretical physicists.
Writer, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
It was thanks to people like Landau and Lifshits that our institute (National Scientific Center KIPT) for a long time represented, in the words of my friend A.M. Kosevich, a bundle of intelligence that obviously exceeded the “critical mass” of the collective mind, sufficient to generate outstanding achievements.
While working on an essay about the life and scientific activities of Ilya Mikhailovich, I came across a little-known fact, which was told by the widow of Academician Lifshits Zinaida Freidina after the death of her husband. Here's her story:
“Ilya Mikhailovich was a self-sufficient person, and he had practically no friends. The only person who came to us easily was Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich. They temperamentally discussed affairs “in the country and in the world,” their views converged in many ways, sometimes they argued, but always in a friendly manner. One day in October 1973, Yakov Borisovich came very gloomy and asked: “Is Lelya at home?” - and walked into the office, closing the door behind him. (Ilya Mikhailovich’s family name was Lelya). Pretty soon he left just as gloomy. Ilya Mikhailovich was silent for several days, and then said that Yasha told him that he had learned that ours were going to use atomic bomb in the Yom Kippur War. If this happens, then Yakov Borisovich will commit suicide, leaving a letter. If he leaves the letter next to him, then, of course, it will disappear, so he leaves the letter, and Ilya Mikhailovich will not let it get lost. But everything turned out well, and Yakov Borisovich took the letter.”
Lifshits was never a dissident or an obvious opponent of the regime and, like all sane people, preferred exciting work to political demonism, and the very fact of his agreement to help Zeldovich testifies to his dedication and civic courage.
Here it is necessary to recall who Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich is. In the book “Soviet Military Power from Stalin to Gorbachev” the following is said about Zeldovich: “An outstanding theoretical physicist, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, head of the theoretical department, deputy scientific supervisor KB-11 (known as Arzamas-16, where our nuclear weapons were created). Three times Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Stalin, State and Lenin Prizes.” It remains to add that until his death in 1987, Yakov Zeldovich remained one of the most authoritative leaders of the nuclear program. And, of course, one of the most informed people in the country.
The attention of the Politburo was diverted by the insurrection of Prague, which forced it to change one adventure to anotherIn “Angels of Libraries” I talked about this fact of the biography of I.M. Lifshits, but did not go into the details of this political fury Soviet power, which was going to incinerate the main center of human culture and the birthplace of three world religions. Now the time has come to tell the details of the preparation of the next crazy idea of the Bolshevik necrophiles.
In 2008, an article by Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Minaev “Flight over Tel Aviv” appeared, in which the author introduced readers to the provocative flight of the Soviet MiG-25 over Tel Aviv. It turned out that the brother of the author of the article, Alexey Minaev, being deputy general designer of the Mikoyan Design Bureau, convinced the government that the Soviet MiG-25 was inaccessible to Israeli missiles and aircraft. Therefore, his reconnaissance flight over Israel is completely safe. In 1973, during the conflict between Israel and Egypt, the MiG-25, piloted by pilot Bezhevets, was lifted from an airfield near Cairo and within a few minutes found itself in the sky over Tel Aviv at an altitude of 22 km. The Israeli Air Force raised several interceptors to meet him. The Phantoms and Hokies fired at the target from different directions, but the missiles and shells did not reach the Soviet fighter. The bezhevets turned on the camera and captured the fiery extravaganza on film, and at the same time the city over which it was flying. For this flight, Bezhevets received the title of Hero Soviet Union, and in Israel they realized that the impending attack on the Aswan Dam would not go unpunished for him.
It should be recalled here that all this happened during the fourth Arab-Israeli war, or the “Yom Kippur War” - a military conflict between a coalition of Arab countries, on the one hand, and Israel on the other. The war began on October 6, 1973, with an Egyptian and Syrian attack on Israel and ended 18 days later. The war received its terrible name precisely because it could escalate into a nuclear apocalypse.
The Soviet Union then took an active part in this war and provided Egypt and Syria with weapons by sea and supplies by air. To ensure the safety of Soviet transports, a detachment of Soviet warships was formed to escort the transports. Soviet submarines were sent to the Mediterranean Sea. As academician Yakov Zeldovich, one of the main creators of nuclear weapons, testified, the option of using nuclear weapons against Israel was considered.
Today it turns out that this was not the first attempt of this kind. Official Gazette of the Presidential Archives Russian Federation the historical magazine "Rodina", 1996, No. 7-8, said that five years earlier, namely on the first day of the Passover holiday in 1968, the state of Israel was to be wiped off the face of the Earth. The historical significance of the evidence presented in the newsletter is not inferior to the decisions of the Wannsee Conference (January 1942), at which the Nazis decided to exterminate European Jews. But while Germany largely succeeded in realizing its monstrous plans, the Soviet Union at the last moment had to abandon its plans.
The former commander of the K-172 submarine, and now reserve vice admiral Nikolai Shashkov, told stunned readers that in the spring of 1968 his submarine was on combat duty off the coast of Syria. Before you, dear readers, is a very colorful description of the events of those days as presented by the Rodina magazine:
“Captain 1st Rank Nikolai Aleksandrovich Shashkov was supposed to destroy Israel by firing eight P-6 cruise missiles with nuclear warheads at it, after which at least eight Hiroshimas should have broken out on this ancient biblical land, or, if we resort to biblical comparisons, eight Gomorrahs destroyed by the Almighty in smoke and flame. This event was supposed to take place before Passover in the month of Nissan in 1968.”
The pretext for an attack on Israel (“a joint American-Israeli landing on the Syrian coast”) was a traditional part of the Soviet propaganda cliché when carrying out aggressive actions against independent states. Let us remember what the political commissars told their soldiers during the days of the invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979: “If we had not entered here today, then tomorrow there would be American imperialists and Israeli Zionists here.” The consequences of an atomic strike on Israel, of course, were not predictable at that time, but Moscow, in its usual spirit, declared that it would demonstrate to the whole world how decisively it had dealt with “the main enemy of progressive humanity” (that’s what Soviet propagandists called Israel).
Journalist Arkady Krasilshchikov, analyzing the events of those days, wrote that the destruction of Israel looked very tempting for the Soviet Union for a number of reasons: “As for moral considerations, after the cold-blooded destruction of tens of millions of compatriots, the deportation of entire peoples, the bloody suppression of uprisings in “fraternal countries” "and peaceful demonstrations in their own country (Novocherkassk), these considerations were completely absent from the plans of the Kremlin strategists, as further evidenced after April 1968 - Prague, Afghanistan, Tbilisi, Baku, Vilnius, Chechnya. Let us add that all these actions lacked even basic common sense. Only the Soviet leaders themselves did not understand this, as well as a significant part of their subjects, who believed that the USSR was truly a stronghold of peace and democracy and that therefore in its merciless struggle against internal and external enemies there could be no restrictions - both regarding the number of victims and destruction methods. In fact, this “stronghold” has long since turned into a cancerous tumor, the metastases of which were destroying the human community on planet Earth.”
What prevented the implementation of yet another infernal plan of the Bolsheviks? Fear? Fear of responsibility to history? Second Nuremberg? No and no! The attention of the Politburo was then diverted by the insurrection of Prague, which forced them to change one Kremlin adventure to another - the suppression of the famous “Prague Spring”, the fear of the collapse of the entire socialist camp. The peak of these two events coincided in time, and Moscow was simply unable to simultaneously settle scores with Israel and restore order in the “brotherly” country. The Czechoslovak events confused the Kremlin's cards, and preference was given to the suppression of Prague in order to leave the incineration of Israel until better times.
“The month of Nissan has arrived, but the Politburo was busy with more important matters than issuing the fatal order to Captain 1st Rank Shashkov. According to him, the submarine continued to emerge to periscope depth every two hours, risking being detected by American Sea King anti-submarine helicopters, but Moscow was silent... Israel was saved. The priority for Moscow of the Czechoslovak problem overshadowed and then completely removed Soviet plans for its destruction from the agenda.”
The Russian law enforcement system forcibly took away a child from a defenseless Tajik woman, Zarina Yunusova, then allowed him to die almost instantly, did not return the body of the deceased to his mother for three days, and then deported the unfortunate woman from the country. Something out of the ordinary? A blatant fact of absolute cruelty, ruthlessness, disregard, lawlessness, indifference? No way! One can cite endless lists of such “Russian virtues” in all spheres of life - from secret funerals of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine and Syria, used by the government as cannon fodder and state cover-up of military losses in “peacetime”, to the rape of suspects with a bottle in the police and other savages in law enforcement and penitentiary systems.
Every time they start talking about Russian obscenities, I am haunted by questions about how they are combined with the core of the Russian idea, that is, with the ideology of the highest, unique, unknown to the world of Russian spirituality, “impeccability of moral principles,” “moral purity", "intense religious and ethical search", "impeccable morality", " the highest power spirit”, “endless spiritual and moral quest”, “the spiritual homeland of humanity”, “the moral foundations of Russian patriotism”, with the current “spiritual bonds”?
In Russia, the hagiographic genre of literature about Holy Rus', paving and illuminating the spiritual path of humanity, has long arisen. I noticed that this genre especially flourishes under scoundrel rulers who are raping the country. This government mobilizes yesterday's Marxists-Leninists to collect “forecasts and predictions” of Russian elders, sorcerers and sorceresses, shamans of all times and peoples, Nostradamus, Vanga, Casey, Mavis, and other clairvoyants. What are they about? Naturally, about the extraordinary spirituality and future greatness of fabulous Russia, this homeland of the Hyperboreans, whose purpose is to bring love, trust, brotherhood, wisdom, new spirituality and religiosity to the world, to free peoples from selfishness and gross material passions. Recently, these shamans agreed to “Russia - the spiritual heart of the planet”:
The genre of stories about Holy Rus' especially flourishes under scoundrel rulers
“Russians are the most spiritual people by origin and purpose. It is the Russians who will begin the rebirth of the whole world.”
“Russia has no business looking at other countries. She has a special future. Then everyone will follow Russia.”
“Russia’s mission was born and nurtured by its progressive idealists under any regime and, when the deadlines are fulfilled, will be revealed in all its strength and glory for the benefit of the whole world...”
“Like an eagle, Russia will soar above the earth and cover the whole earth with its wings. Everyone, even America, recognizes her spiritual superiority.”
“A new man under the sign of the New Teaching will appear from Russia.”
How does all this “beauty” look against the backdrop of total sloppiness, moral decline, infernal corruption, mass domestic violence, widespread mutual distrust in society, the absence of free and fair elections, mass emigration of the population, a degraded, stealing elite, the absence of a real opposition that is quickly collapsing infrastructure. What does it look like in the absence of historical memory, the paradoxical combination of megalomania with loss of self-respect, attributing one’s own troubles to a global Jewish-Masonic-American conspiracy, and deforming reality to the point of complete idiocy? And why is it somehow not customary to talk about unique spirituality at all in countries of sustainable development and economic growth?
The unique Russian spirituality is highlighted in a special way against the backdrop of an endless series of facts and figures, of which I have selected the most insignificant part:
In Russia only officially registered:
- alcoholics - about 5,000,000 people;
- drug addicts - about 2,500,000 people;
- mentally ill - 1,000,000 people;
- HIV-infected - more than 1,740,000 people;
- disabled people - more than 12,000,000 people;
- tuberculosis patients - about 890,000 people;
- hypertensive patients - over 22,400,000 people.
Russia ranks:
— 1st place in the world in terms of absolute population decline;
— 1st place in sales of strong alcohol;
— 1st place in the number of street children and minor prostitutes;
— 1st place in the number of children who smoke and drink;
— 1st place in terms of growth rate of tobacco smoking;
— 1st place in the number of plane and car accidents;
— 2nd place in the number of suicides;
— 2nd place in the number of journalists killed over the past ten years;
— 2nd place in the number of prisoners per 1000 people;
— 2nd place in the number of children adopted in the USA;
— 2nd place in the distribution of counterfeit medicines;
— 3rd place in distribution of child pornography;
— 3rd place in terms of AIDS incidence rates;
— 3rd place in car theft;
— 3rd place in the number of totalitarian sects.
The life expectancy of Russian men is 59 years (in EU countries - 79 years, in the USA - 78, in Canada - 81, in Japan - 82 years). Over the past seven years, the number of patients with the cardiovascular system has increased from 2.4 to 3.7 million people, and cancer patients - from 1.2 to 1.4 million people). 66% of Russian citizens cannot receive qualified medical care.
According to official statistics, 70 percent of pregnancies in the country end in abortions; in reality, there are much more. Every third baby in Russia is born sick. The incidence rate of newborns has increased by a third over five years. Every year, 26 thousand children do not live to be 10 years old, 50 babies die every day, 70% of them in maternity hospitals. Out of every five teenagers admitted to the Filatov Children's Hospital in the capital, one child is an alcoholic, one is a drug addict, two are substance abusers. Only one child out of every five is normal. 60 percent of young guys may have problems with their offspring. Russia supplies 50 percent of child pornography to the world market. Child homelessness has become one of the most profitable and dirty businesses in Russia. “Moscow has become for foreign pedophiles what Thailand is for lovers of small female body“This is the terrible conclusion that the staff of the Center for Temporary Isolation of Juvenile Offenders (TSVIMP) came to. In Moscow, Russia’s first sobering-up center for alcoholic children was opened - a children’s and adolescent drug treatment inpatient department on the basis of drug treatment clinic No. 12. Every day in the country, 82 people of military age die from heroin use, 30,000 people a year. And this is only according to official data. Over the past 10 years, the population in the Far East has decreased by 40% and in the Far North by 60%. In Siberia for last years 11,000 villages and 290 cities disappeared.
I’m not even talking about the level of Russian political culture, mafia and criminal power, the absence of the slightest hint of “democratic transformation”, the war with the whole world, with the exception of the most odious regimes such as Syrian and North Korean, the military and terrorist threats emanating from the country, the internal security crisis , a government waging an eternal war with its own people, the eternal criminal use of the masses as cannon fodder, a society permeated with cynicism and lies, the complete destruction of historical memory, the corrupting power of unscrupulous state lies and the endless deception of the population by temporary rulers, undisguised xenophobia, anti-Semitism and fascist nationalism sense, open imperialism of the “Russian idea”, merciless fight against dissent, eternal suppression and humiliation of the masses, extrajudicial persecution and destruction the best people country, political repressions and murders, a destroyed sense of justice, total lack of faith and apathy.
I could go on and on, but the results of what was said at the end of the 19th century were summed up by the brilliant Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov: “National self-consciousness - national complacency - national self-adoration - national self-destruction.”
