Modern Age - Summer 2014 - 30

MODERN AGE

biblical God is not an abstraction, but a conscious personal being. That consciousness
forces us to face our own inner motivations.
Of course, it is not as if God were physically
present. But belief in God guides us into
an internal dialogue; we must explain and
justify our actions to another. We are obliged
to follow the advice of Socrates, "know thyself," never an easy task when we have done
something wrong. Accepting God as another
conscious being gives us that kind of awareness of the inner self sorely lacking in Lenin
and not fully developed in Vorotyntsev-
but ironically present in the simple piety and
charity of the tsarina.
Solzhenitsyn's The Red Wheel presents a
phenomenological account of religion-his
art shows us the various effects of religious
principles on the human soul. Religion can
make us carelessly optimistic, supinely parochial, or self-righteously violent. Yet, what
would we be without religion?
Instead of religion, Lenin wants the
transformation of the human condition.
He is not motivated solely by the prospect
of personal gain. He hopes to institute a
social system that resolves life's existential
uncertainty, a project that gives meaning to
his life and guidance to his adherents. Lenin
is supremely confident, perhaps to overcompensate for the doubts that complicate and
obscure all difficult choices. He believes that
Marxist philosophy has resolved the ambiguity of being. However, despite what Marx
claims, our lives are perpetually shrouded in
mystery. Thus, in order to master the elusive
character of existence, Lenin must assert
his will against other people to make them
obey, against nature to make it bountiful,
and against being to make it orderly. Since
he rejects any notion of a creature superior
to himself, he is tempted to become a tyrant.
He has no inner dialogue to check his ambition or ameliorate his cruelty.
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SUMMER 2014

One of the reasons that the high ideals
of Marxist political reform became repressive and violent, according to Solzhenitsyn,
is that Marxism seeks to conquer chance.
It wants to make individuals free from
contingency, anxiety, and material shortages. It wants to put people in full control
of their destiny. Nevertheless, such a goal
is impossible to achieve, because the beginning, end, and purpose of our lives are not
fully comprehensible. So long as the mystery
surrounding human life persists, the totalitarian temptation will be attractive to some
because it seeks to stamp out ambiguity
(1.342; 2.480-96, 574-601).
Tsarina Alexandra is as unsophisticated
as Lenin is worldly, as conservative as he is
radical, as enmeshed in the cultural norms of
early-twentieth-century Europe as Lenin is
opposed to them. Alexandra's naivety makes
her gullible and, of course, events have shown
how disastrous that credulousness was for
the royal family and Russia. Yet, despite her
power and privilege, Alexandra is restrained
from evil deeds by religious principles that
have been filtered through cultural norms.
She accepts the contingencies of life because
she sees them through traditional religious
categories. Thus, she does not attempt to
remake human nature or solve the riddle
of being-with all the violent actions such
a monumental task entails. Instead, she
endeavors to live up to the Christian principle of love thy neighbor by helping those
she can. Religion acts on her in the manner
it has always done in human civilization: it
curbs her baser longings and reminds her of
her civic and personal obligations.
Vorotyntsev would have made an excellent
officer in the Roman legions. Although ferocious in battle, Roman soldiers had a strong
sense of civic duty and loyalty to the ancient
laws of Rome. There was little regret for
the butchery they visited on their enemies.
Modern Age - Summer 2014

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