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Author Frede, Victoria.

Title Doubt, atheism, and the nineteenth-century Russian intelligentsia / Victoria Frede
Published Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, ©2011

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Description 1 online resource
Contents pt. 1. Doubt -- pt. 2. Atheism -- pt. 3. Two modes of living without God
Summary "The autocratic rule of both tsar and church in imperial Russia gave rise not only to a revolutionary movement in the nineteenth century but also to a crisis of meaning among members of the intelligentsia. Personal faith became the subject of intense scrutiny as individuals debated the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, debates reflected in the best-known novels of the day. Friendships were formed and broken in exchanges over the status of the eternal. The salvation of the entire country, not just of each individual, seemed to depend on the answers to questions about belief. Victoria Frede looks at how and why atheism took on such importance among several generations of Russian intellectuals from the 1820s to the 1860s, drawing on meticulous and extensive research of both published and archival documents, including letters, poetry, philosophical tracts, police files, fiction, and literary criticism. She argues that young Russians were less concerned about theology and the Bible than they were about the moral, political, and social status of the individual person. They sought to maintain their integrity against the pressures exerted by an autocratic state and rigidly hierarchical society. As individuals sought to shape their own destinies and searched for truths that would give meaning to their lives, they came to question the legitimacy both of the tsar and of Russia's highest authority, God."--Publisher's description
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
Print version record
digitized 2011 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Atheism -- Russia -- History -- 19th century
Russia -- Religion -- History -- 19th century
Anti-clericalism -- Russia -- History -- 19th century
Intellectuals -- Russia -- History -- 19th century
RELIGION -- Atheism.
Anti-clericalism
Atheism
Intellectuals
Atheismus
Intellektueller
Russia
Russland
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2011011567
ISBN 9780299284435
0299284433
128348613X
9781283486132
9786613486134
6613486132