The Russian Cosmists: The Esoteric Futurism of Nikolai Fedorov and His Followers

Love this book! I so admire the pragmatism of Russian mystics. They have lofty ideals, but always think of how these ideals can be transformed into reality by making changes in society. Of course, many of them were sent to Siberia because of the changes they wanted.

George Young traces the philosophy of Cosmism, developed by N.F. Fedorov, and details how it came to be the single most important influence on Russia's 19th and 20th century philosophers, writers, poets and scientists. Supressed (unsucessfully) by the Soviets, it is now, once again, rapidly emerging as the most influential school of philosophy in Russia where it supports a museum and library and organizes conferences that are attended by many of Russia's most important thinkers and scientists today.Although a masterpiece of scholarship, The Russian Cosmists is also a joy to read. Young is a scholar who can also write!Anyone with a serious interest in Cosmism or transhumanism will want to read this book.

I agree with the other reviewers. Seldom does a scholarly survey stoke the imagination like this one; I read it months ago and still return to it constantly. Don't be put off by the dry academicky jacket copy, or the fact that it's a work of "Russian Intellectual History." The tradition of thought George Young maps out is truly an undiscovered country of fantastic, amazing, and crazy (in a good way) ideas. If I were a science-fiction writer, this book would provide me with years of good material to mine.

Absolutely fascinating. I used this book as part of research for a paper in my PhD program. I hope to learn more about this subject.

An amazing book which needs to be read and absorbed----life is much more complicated and rich than most Americans imagine.

Excellent book. A must have for the understanding of Russian Cosmism!

Fascinating book on thinkers that influenced the modern era in little-known ways.

This book is a marvelous thing. My feelings in coming across and reading it must be similar to those of a Gold Rush "forty-niner" who long ago in a remote virgin stream first saw significant nuggets of gold in his sluice pan. What an amazing discovery this book is! I believe I know Russia, Russian history, and Russian culture rather well yet this book opens up great new vistas for me. I recently finished reading it -- re-reading certain parts as I went along because they were so enlightening and delicious -- and I now intend to re-read the entire book. I am not alone in my enthusiasm. A piece was just posted on the Huffington Post about this book and already it has almost one thousand hits. To find that Huff Post string just go to Google and enter the author's name, the title of this book, and the two words Huffington Post. It has been years since I have felt, after reading a book, that I wanted to discuss it at length with others who have read it. This one triggered that old feeling and I am right now in the process of organizing two such groups, one actual and one virtual.Kenneth E. MacWilliamsPortland, Maine

I wasn't sure quite what to expect when I ordered this book, but found it fascinating from beginning to end and extremely well-written. It was a mine of information and opened my ideas to a whole new area of Russian thought. The only shortcomings weren't any fault of the author's (hence the five-star rating), but I felt that the index could have been slightly fuller and that a glossary might have helped the novice reader.

I have been researching about the Space Race between US and USSR for sometime now. One of the striking thing is that the Pioneers involved in the Space/Rocketry industry were somewhere between proper Genius and borderline Lunatic.Personally I knew very little from the Russian side of the space history apart from the Starman Yuri Gagarin. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky -the most famous Russian Rocket scientist - and Sergei Korolev -the Soviet Rocket Engineer responsible for launching the first artificial satellite and human being into space - were Russian cosmists. I knew I fell into a rabbit hole.Russian Cosmism is an unusual religious philosophical movement. The philosophy combines scientific method, esoterism , magic and religion that advocates immortality, resurrection of the death and space colonization as means of achieving salvation.Nikolai Fyodorov is Russian Orthodox Mystic who believes the only way to achieve salvation is through resurrection of all our ancestor and radical life extension. To address the Malthusian problem of radical life extension, Fyodorov advocates space colonization.In his work "Philosophy of the Common task", he advocates resurrection of all our ancestors across space and time and immortality. He admits which a task would require thousands of years to accomplish and believes human being should play an active role resurrection of the dead.Cosmists were polymath who were highly competent in half a dozen specialized discipline. Cosmists like Vladimir Vernadsky basically founded their own specified disciplines. Another interesting fact about Russian cosmism is that were every much interested in philosophical, theological, scientific and esoteric endeavorsCosmist had background on both religious and scientist minds. The most famous example is Pavel Florensky ,who is called Da vinci of Russia, was a priest, mathematician, philosopher, electrical engineer, physicist and philosopher.And about the book itself, there are very few books in English to non-Russian speakers. This is a accessible but a bit dry book. The subject at hand is so intriguing that you will overlook the style of writing.Takeway:We truly live a time of technological stagnation. We as a society no longer the have grandiose vision of conquering the stars. In the 19th century, many ordinary people had such dreams and visions. Now these dreams are left to the multi billionaire like Musk and Bezos.Joseph Stalin is truly the vilest dictator to walk this earth and Soviet had one of the vilest bureaucracy in our history. Some of the greatest minds were sent to gulag on the whims of the officers.Not only scientific progress was inter-related to religion. But there is a strong correlation between esoteric-occult-magic studies and scientific progress(at least till the end of 19th century).

fedorovはさまざまなロシアやソヴィエト関係の作品を読んでいくと必ず最後に突き当たる知る人ぞ知る奥の院の人物です。そういう意味では、著者の Nikolai F. Fedorov: An Introduction は有名な作品ですが、中古でしか手に入りませんし、その値段もちょっと手が出ないほどです。また、fedorovの数少ない英語で読める作品である、 What Was Man Created for? は、一読した方ならわかると思いますが、それなりの基礎知識や背景がないと、その価値は言うまでもなく内容すら理解できない不可思議な作品です。そういう意味では、この作品には、richard pipesの Russian Conservatism and Its Critics: A Study in Political Culture のように、限界はあるものの重要な役割があります。それはロシア語の原典に触れる能力のない人々に、このロシア以外にはあまり知られていない重要なロシアの思想の一潮流に関するある程度の一般的ながらも不可欠の知識を与えてくれます。cosmismの特徴、その思想的なスケールの広さは日本人の思考の枠を超えています。部分的な珍奇さと先見性だけでなくその全体論としてのスケールの大きさがわかりやすく解説されます。またfedorovだけでなくsoloviov、berdiaevやその他のあまたの今は忘れ去れてしまった様々な人物が、彼らの考え方の特性と一生が簡潔に取り上げられています。cosmistはオカルトとの境が微妙な思想体系なのですが、なぜこの種の思想が根強くロシアに残り続けるのか、この作品はそれなりの答えを与えてくれます。著者のfedorovとのかかわりは１９６4年以来と明かされますが、おそらく著者はfedorovに魅惑されていますが、その個人的な好みは見事に抑制されています。 Nikolai F. Fedorov: An IntroductionWhat Was Man Created for?Russian Conservatism and Its Critics: A Study in Political Culture