THE IDEA OF DEPARTURE IN SPACE IN THE CONTEXT OF SOVIET MENTALITY
UDC index:
008
DOI: 10.31773/2078-1768-2019-47-48-55.
Article ID in the RSCI: 37531566
Article file: Download
Information about authors: Popova Natalya Sergeevna, PhD in Art History, Associate Professor of Department of Culturology, Kemerovo State University of Culture (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). E-mail: bublikova2007@yandex.ru Popov Sergey Ivanovich, PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor of Department of Humanities, Kemerovo Institute (Branch) of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). E-mail: bende-ostap@yandex.ru
Annotation: The article investigates the cultural and humanistic meaning of man’s departure in space: the “place” of cosmos in the “device” of soul of Soviet man. It is a hypothesis that for a Soviet person, going in space was not a utilitarian but quasi-religious act: it was a search of a miracle. Trying to understand in terms of what views on the miracle this search was comprehended leads to likening the intentions of the Soviet soul to the religious attitudes of the late Antiquity-Renaissance. Assuming that the miraculous understood by the Soviet mass consciousness in the spirit of eclecticism and pantheism inherent in these eras as not a divine prerogative but nature as wonderful itself. Man (and the scientist as the quintessence of man) is a magician, called to master the wonderful forces of nature from the standpoint of his knowledge. The cosmonaut is the actualization of the human divine potential, that is, the superman, the cultural hero, the transcendental subject. The detailed understanding the miracle arises from the general “device” of the soul of a Soviet person, akin to the antique device of the soul in an installation for eternity, anti-historicity, playfulness (frivolity) as opposed to the historicity and seriousness of Christian soul. The idea of man’s mission in space was the most vivid and convincing embodiment of the Soviet narrative: progressively and unswervingly becoming better, overpowering the “nature,” on whose existential dramas gambles the Christianity. The ambitious naivety of the Soviet project of man is stated, but also its perspective in overcoming the current crisis of humanism: the dominance of the anonymous entities that rule the man.
Keywords: space, nature, miraculous, Soviet society, Soviet man, eternity, time, history.
DOI: 10.31773/2078-1768-2019-47-48-55.
Article ID in the RSCI: 37531566
Article file: Download
Information about authors: Popova Natalya Sergeevna, PhD in Art History, Associate Professor of Department of Culturology, Kemerovo State University of Culture (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). E-mail: bublikova2007@yandex.ru Popov Sergey Ivanovich, PhD in Philosophy, Associate Professor of Department of Humanities, Kemerovo Institute (Branch) of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). E-mail: bende-ostap@yandex.ru
Annotation: The article investigates the cultural and humanistic meaning of man’s departure in space: the “place” of cosmos in the “device” of soul of Soviet man. It is a hypothesis that for a Soviet person, going in space was not a utilitarian but quasi-religious act: it was a search of a miracle. Trying to understand in terms of what views on the miracle this search was comprehended leads to likening the intentions of the Soviet soul to the religious attitudes of the late Antiquity-Renaissance. Assuming that the miraculous understood by the Soviet mass consciousness in the spirit of eclecticism and pantheism inherent in these eras as not a divine prerogative but nature as wonderful itself. Man (and the scientist as the quintessence of man) is a magician, called to master the wonderful forces of nature from the standpoint of his knowledge. The cosmonaut is the actualization of the human divine potential, that is, the superman, the cultural hero, the transcendental subject. The detailed understanding the miracle arises from the general “device” of the soul of a Soviet person, akin to the antique device of the soul in an installation for eternity, anti-historicity, playfulness (frivolity) as opposed to the historicity and seriousness of Christian soul. The idea of man’s mission in space was the most vivid and convincing embodiment of the Soviet narrative: progressively and unswervingly becoming better, overpowering the “nature,” on whose existential dramas gambles the Christianity. The ambitious naivety of the Soviet project of man is stated, but also its perspective in overcoming the current crisis of humanism: the dominance of the anonymous entities that rule the man.
Keywords: space, nature, miraculous, Soviet society, Soviet man, eternity, time, history.
