On the representation of the cultural category of sinfulness in the works of A.N. Radishchev

Semukhina Elena Aleksandrovna ORCID: 0000-0001-8560-0707 PhD in Philology Associate Professor, Department of Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication, Yuri Gagarin State Technical University of Saratov 410054, Russia, Saratov region, Saratov, Polytechnic str., 77 semuh@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

Ovchinnikova Elena Viktorovna ORCID: 0000-0002-1197-5853 PhD in History Associate Professor, Department of Translation Studies and Intercultural Communication, Yuri Gagarin State Technical University of Saratov 77 Politechnicheskaya str., Saratov, 410054, Russia, Saratov region ovchinnikovaev@sstu.ru

The study of the works of the XIX century from the point of view of cultural studies is relevant for a number of reasons, in particular, due to the fact that the events and ideas of this period play a largely decisive role for modern society. The consideration of works of art in order to study the cultural component is due to the fact that the period of the XIX century is called the literary-centric era, because it was literature that became the exact mirror that could reflect the culture of the century.

As a tool for analyzing the cultural component in this study, a cultural category is used, by which we understand the structures of culture (considered as a system), including units of knowledge, as well as ideas and ideas about culture of different levels (including concepts, meanings, values, images, etc.), united by some common idea.

Russian Russian writers and philosophers, in particular, in the works of A.N. Radishchev, who had a significant influence on the Russian culture of his XVIII, XIX and subsequent centuries, will consider concrete examples of how the category of sinfulness is represented in the works of Russian writers and philosophers. It should also be noted that the framework of the XIX century, extremely rich in historical events, is being pushed by many researchers, including the so-called "long XIX century" period from 1789 to 1914 (in particular, this is written by I. Ehrenburg and E. Hobsbawm ^{[1, 2]}). Thus, some of A.N. Radishchev's works can be attributed to the very beginning of the "long XIX century". 

For analysis, we have chosen a work that examines the moral qualities of a person, the concept of the soul, depravity and virtue, namely the philosophical treatise "On man, his mortality and immortality" ^[3].

The book "About Man, his mortality and Immortality" was written by A.N. Radishchev in the period from 1792 to 1796, when the writer was in exile. It is known that he became one of the first political exiles sent for many years as far as possible from the capital – to Siberia, to the now defunct Ilimsk. The reason for the exile was his famous work "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", where A.N. Radishchev ruthlessly described the negative aspects of the socio-economic and political system of Russia, in which autocratic despotism was based on serfdom and the church. Catherine II, who also received a copy of the book, was angry, called Radishchev "a rebel, worse than Pugachev" ^{[4, p. 227]} and sent the writer under arrest to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Very soon, the chamber of the Criminal Court handed down a death sentence to A.N. Radishchev, which was replaced by the Empress with exile in commemoration of the peace concluded with Sweden.

A.N. Radishchev arrived at the place of exile, in Ilimsk, in January 1792 and immediately began his literary work. He planned and began several philosophical and historical works, some of which were never finally completed or published during the author's lifetime. These include the philosophical treatise "On man, his mortality and immortality". This work was published after the writer's death, at the very beginning of the XIX century, in 1809. It should be noted that the writings of A.N. Radishchev, as well as the mention of his name, were banned under Catherine II. Despite the subsequent rehabilitation under Paul I and Alexander I, the tendency not to write about Radishchev and his work persisted. As evidence, researchers usually cite the works of N.I. Grech, V.G. Belinsky, A.G. Herzen, where Radishchev's name is not really given. In connection with the above, modern researchers conclude that Radishchev's works were not considered relevant in the XIX century ^{[5, p. 19]}. However, if we consider in more detail the issue of censorship and attempts to print works or criticize the writings of the writer, it becomes clear that Radishchev's reputation as a revolutionary, prohibitions, permits, subsequent rehabilitation and repeated refusals to publish – all this fueled interest in his work. Radishchev's heirs in the second half of the XIX century put all their efforts to achieve the publication of his works or articles about him. These include an article in the magazine Sovremennik in 1856, the printing of the book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" in London in 1858, an article in the Russian Bulletin in the same 1858, etc. ^{[6, pp. 14-16]}. Which, of course, is an indicator of the interest of the society of that time in the ideas of the writer, the importance of his reasoning and conclusions in general for the Russian culture of the XIX century.

It should also be noted that the readers' interest was not lost either because of the circumstances of the publication, or because of the archaic form of the language chosen by the author, which A.S. Pushkin assessed as "barbaric" ^{[6, p. 14]}. It seems that this fact is also an argument in favor of the significance of this work for the culture of the XIX century, which preserved and transmitted the thoughts of A.N. Radishchev. It is no coincidence that the author chose the words of G.V. Leibniz as an epigraph to his essay "About man, his mortality and Immortality": "The present time carries the germ of the future." And despite the fact that, obviously, Radishchev was talking about life after death, it is still believed that the writer's intuition did not deceive the author, and these words also anticipate the meaning of the work for the descendants of the writer and the first noble revolutionary in Russia.

The treatise "On Man, his mortality and Immortality" is a work addressed to friends, full of emotional and even pathetic statements, personal assessments and comments. It gives the impression of a confused, not completely logical sincere speech of a person who wants not so much to convince the reader, to lead him to a common point of view with the author, as to invite the interlocutor to a discussion, and quite emotional. All this is full of explicit and hidden quotations, allusions and references to significant philosophical trends and schools of the XVIII century ^{[7, p. 83]}. It seems as if the author wanted to make some summarizing statement about those ideas about life and death, about the soul and immortality that reigned during the XVIII century ^{[8, p. 240]}, and, based on the conclusion obtained, to take a step forward, to approve new ideas for the coming century.

Compositionally, the work consists of two parts. In the first part, the author writes that the soul is only a dream, an empty dream created by the imagination of a person, he clearly expounds materialistic arguments. In the second part, the writer refutes the statements made earlier, which leads to the fact that most researchers of A.N. Radishchev's work believe that the philosopher was more inclined to think about the immortality of the soul (V.V. Zenkovsky ^[9], N.O. Lossky ^{[10, p. 16]}, Stanziani ^[11] write about this). Opinions are also expressed that in this way the author tried to reconcile two opposing teachings: faith and materialistic ideology.

Whatever the true views of the author, the further development of philosophical thought established materialism as the main paradigm of scientific knowledge. The ideas that A.N. Radishchev developed, along with other authors, were perceived and further disseminated by the philosophers of the XIX century. So, in particular, Radishchev pointed out that death is an inevitable part of life. F. Engels in his treatise "Dialectics of Nature" agrees with this idea of the Russian writer and also writes that the understanding of life is connected with the idea of death, which is a necessary result of the first. "To live means to die," F. emphasizes. Engels ^{[12, p. 610]}. In connection with these circumstances, A.N. Radishchev is recognized by a number of researchers not as an idealist (as we noted above), but as a materialist philosopher, which is also not without reason.

Materialistic views did not prevent A.N. Radishchev from discussing religious concepts: in his treatise "On man, his mortality and immortality" half of the text is presented from the standpoint of faith. In this regard, let us consider in more detail the category of sinfulness reflected in this work. We emphasize that, in general, the theme of sin is not the leitmotif of the work, the writer does not pay significant attention to it, however, it is present in the assessments of both people and their actions, and in discussions about spirituality and the structure of life after death. Careful analysis allowed us to find allusions and references to the category of sinfulness, which Radishchev does not consider necessary to develop or explain to the reader. These facts indicate, in our opinion, that the writer is confident that readers fully share his opinion about the nature and consequences of sin, he considers this knowledge to be among the background, universal for his contemporaries. All the more significant from a cultural point of view is the text of the treatise, which contains indications of universal cultural knowledge about the category of sinfulness.

In the first "materialistic" part of his treatise, A.N. Radishchev mentions one of the most important sins – blasphemy against God, recognizing it as unacceptable: "Your sobs and prayers are blasphemy" ^{[3, p. 69]}. He seems to justify himself to the higher powers for his materialistic calculations, which, according to the author, can be assessed as an attempt to encroach on an area subject only to God: "O almighty! let go of my boldness; I am trying to guess you by my wits alone" ^{[3, p. 45]}. At the same time, Radishchev does not demonstrate excessive obedience or religious zeal and gives permission to himself: "there is no boldness in that!" ^{[3, p. 45]}.

From the very first pages of the treatise, the writer boldly rushes into the description of intimate relationships and the process of human development before birth. The author is characterized by frank directness, the absence of any veiling, thereby he pays tribute to materialism, not forgetting, however, to mention the moral norms governing human behavior in these areas, in particular, the need to avoid such a sin as lust: "The ascended position, opening the childbearing parts in a person, entails, it seems that there is an inevitable consequence behind it – a girdle" ^{[3, p. 49]}. According to Radishchev, "immoderate love passions" can lead to the most depressing consequences, including insanity and death ^{[3, p. 70]}.

Radishchev finds a rational explanation for this sin of lust – it comes from the natural difference of the sexes, and its effect is "irresistible", and only varies in intensity. In virtuous people it is "sweet", in "depraved" it has a "brutal" character ^{[3, p. 57]}.

However, even in the "materialistic" part of his work, the writer positively evaluates the antipode of sin – chastity (which, in the absence of the concept of sin, does not matter much), arguing about the "depraved simpering of European capitals" and the chaste depiction of nudity in the ancient Roman period ^{[3, p. 54]}.

The writer attributes maternal love to virtues (also polar qualities in relation to sin), and also points out that all other human virtues flow from it ^{[3, p. 57]}.

An interesting fact is that in his treatise Radishchev does not consider other sins except lust, mentioning only greed, pride and laziness: "look at the lover of money, look at the one who is hungry for glory" ^{[3, p. 119]}. And he tries to find a rational explanation. So, for example, laziness, according to the author of the book, is prompted by the forces of nature, for example, by the wind: "In Cairo, even in Marseilles, when a certain wind blows, a certain laziness attacks a person ..." ^{[3, p. 63]} (we are talking, obviously, about the Mistral, the wind that brings drastic changes weather and deterioration of health in weather-dependent people).

In the second part of the treatise, where the author advocates spiritual ideology, A.N. Radishchev, on the contrary, argues that "the most powerful of passions" – love ^{[3, p. 117]} comes from the movement of the soul, and that it is possible to understand this by self-reflection, asking yourself the question of where the soul is at the moment, "when the passions kindle fire in your blood" ^{[3, p. 93]}. And also gives an argument against his own thesis that sinful tendencies (vices) arise in a person under the influence of circumstances and the external environment: "Although their root is substantial ... but what gives passion in a person a little energy and strength" ^{[3, p. 119]}, arguing that only the existence of the soul can give similar effect. The soul acts as the main driving force in man, it is "autocratic" and "dominates the body."

In the second part of the treatise, where the author refuses to search for rational explanations of sinfulness, we find numerous references to the idea of heaven and hell, from which the conclusion about punishment for sins and reward for virtues logically follows. Paradise, as Radishchev believes, is a place for those who "suffered for confession", as well as for those who rejoice in the "good done" and their own virtue, because this latter is in itself a reward for good deeds. Sinners, on the other hand, are waiting for hell, in which they will "reproach themselves hourly for their evil deeds, torment themselves, be executed" ^{[3, pp. 127-141]}.

Thus, in A.N. Radishchev's treatise "On Man, his Mortality and Immortality", the cultural category of sinfulness is often implicitly actualized, the author implies that his reader shares his religious views, in which vices are condemned and punished as properties leading to sin, and virtues are rewarded. In his work, the writer especially notes lust, the question of which he does not directly consider, but the thought of it is implicitly present in the narrative. Sins such as laziness, greed and pride are also mentioned.

It seems that the treatise reflects the attitude towards sinfulness that had developed in society by the beginning of the XIX century: the regulatory function of this category was still relevant, but did not require additional discussion and clarification and was perceived at the level of basic knowledge. Thinking about the material nature of human feelings still included an understanding of vices as properties leading to sin.