Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948)
'Communism is dying of its contradictions'. 1927
Seven autograph letters signed (most 'N. Berdiaeff') to various recipients, Clamart (near Paris), 1927-1947 and n.d.

Six in French, one in Russian. Altogether seven pages, various sizes. Two envelopes. Provenance: letter of 9 November 1933 sold at Artoria, 15 October 2019, lot 103.

'Communism is dying of its contradictions and its inherent poison'. To Dr Schwied (letter-card, postmarked 13 October 1927), Berdiaev announces the publication in German of his book The New Middle-Ages: 'My thought is dialectic and I mean that communism is dying of its contradictions and its inherent poison'. To an unidentified recipient (9 November [1933]), he agrees to the publication of the supplement to his The Sense of History in the magazine The Colosseum. He writes to an English-speaking admirer, Madame Wyschnegresky first a letter of thanks, and then to report on the situation of a fellow emigré, C. Matchoulsky (30 August [1946]). To another English-language correspondent (5 October n.y.), he summarises the dangers of the period: 'We live in an epoch when the human individual is in great danger and we must gather our intellectual and spiritual forces to defend it'. To Marcel Maré (postmarked 27 October 1945), he declines to attend a meeting on account of his ill-health. The undated letter in Russian refers to his The existential dialectic of God and Man.

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