The Russian Prophet of Immortality The Russian Prophet of Immortality
i
Illustration by Mieczysław Wasilewski
Good Mood

The Russian Prophet of Immortality

The Philosophy of Nikolai Fyodorov
Michał Milczarek
Reading
time 10 minutes

He was a rebel in the absolute sense. He believed that in order to save humanity, we need to oust death from the world. Therefore, not only must the living be saved, but also the dead need to be resurrected. His extraordinary vision fascinated the writers of his time: Dostoevsky, Solovyov, Tolstoy.

“Mortals of the world, of all countries, tribes, nations, occupations, titles, estates, faiths, beliefs, opinions – unite!”

(From the introduction to “Common Task”, Odessa, 1914; a collection of writings on Fyodorov)

He ate little. His staple diet consisted of dry bread and tea. He also slept little, believing that sleep is the brother of death. As far as we know, he refrained from sex. He worked in the reading room of Moscow’s Rumyantsev Museum, the biggest library in Russia at the time. He showed up before the library opened, and left long before it was closed. He brought readers not only the books they ordered, but also others that they might find interesting. It was easy for him to find the additional material, as he allegedly knew the entire catalogue by heart. He gave his salary away, leaving only a small sum to cover his modest needs. He slept on a bare wooden chest, covering himself with his coat. He actually had no personal belongings. Because of his worn out clothes, he was often taken for a homeless person.

His name was Nikolai Fyodorov (1829–1903)

Information

You’ve reached your free article’s limit this month. You can get unlimited access to all our articles and audio content with our digital subscription. If you have an active subscription, please log in.

Subscribe

Also read:

You Don’t Come Here Voluntarily You Don’t Come Here Voluntarily
i
Anton Chekhov. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Experiences

You Don’t Come Here Voluntarily

Chekhov and Sakhalin Island
Andrzej Kula

“Why are you keeping a dog and a rooster tethered?” Anton Chekhov asked one of his interlocutors during a three-month stay on the Russian island that was then unknown to the public. “Here, in Sakhalin, everything is on a chain,” the host replied.

Lower down stands a crumbling building, and not much further you can see the remains of another. In the background, there is a hill and the sea hitting against it. Everything is covered with snow. The color white dominates in these photos: in one of them the photographer managed to capture the snowstorm in the city, while in another you can see a woman struggling through snowdrifts reaching up to her knees. Here someone is fishing in a blowhole, over there a man is pushing wheelbarrows with coal. There is also an elderly man in a rural setting, walking across a road that resembles a gutter surrounded by several-dozen-centimeter-high snowdrifts on both sides. This is what Sakhalin looks like today. With an area similar in size to Czechia, the island is situated on the eastern borders of Russia. Further, there is only Kamchatka. Even further, beyond the Pacific Ocean, the US begins (from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, it is closer to Honolulu than to Moscow).

Continue reading