YALTA,
December 30, 1902.
... You write that we talked of a serious religious movement in Russia. We
talked of a movement not in Russia but in the intellectual class. I won’t
say anything about Russia; the intellectuals so far are only playing at
religion, and for the most part from having nothing to do. One may say of
the cultured part of our public that it has moved away from religion, and
is moving further and further away from it, whatever people may say and
however many philosophical and religious societies may be formed. Whether
it is a good or a bad thing I cannot undertake to decide; I will only say
that the religious movement of which you write is one thing, and the whole
trend of modern culture is another, and one cannot place the second in any
causal connection with the first. Modern culture is only the first
beginning of work for a great future, work which will perhaps go on for
tens of thousands of years, in order that man may if only in the remote
future come to know the truth of the real God--that is not, I conjecture,
by seeking in Dostoevsky, but by clear knowledge, as one knows twice two
are four. Modern culture is the first beginning of the work, while the
religious movement of which we talked is a survival, almost the end of what
has ceased, or is ceasing to exist. But it is a long story, one can’t put
it all into a letter....