An Attempting at Encapsulating the Conundrum of Russian Soul: History and Evaluation

Abstract

The theme of the Russian soul or Russian national character has long been a subject for historians of Russia; however, it does not allow either many Western or Korean scholars to interpret and cope with easily. The question of the Russian soul has never fully been answered. In short, to date no comprehensive study has been made. On the basis of this retrospective view, my article overviews four books by Nikolai Berdiaev (1947), Ronald Hingley (1977), Michael Cherniavsky (1961), and James Billington (1970), all of whose works have long been considered standard classics for Russian history, culture, and literature. The primary purpose of this article is to demonstrate those fundamental questions: What are these studies addressing in their main points, what are the critical junctures between them, and in what ways is the theme of Russian national character closely related to other research topics.