The Presidential Library marking the World Beauty Day

September 9 marks the World Beauty Day. Despite many attempts at reflection, it is difficult to give an accurate, capacious and concise definition of beauty. Every work of art, every philosophical trend, every “cultural situation”, every civilization interprets beauty in a different way. However, the question common to all attempts to define beauty is: to what extent beauty is, regardless of external circumstances, able to transform a person and his attitude to the world?

The Russian philosophers Pavel Florensky, Vladimir Solovyov, Pavel Evdokimov, Semyon Frank spoke about the transforming and at the same time incomprehensible property of beauty.

One of the apologists for beauty in the galaxy of Russian religious philosophers was Vladimir Solovyov. In his book Philosophical Dictionary of Vladimir Solovyov (1997), which is available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library, he defines the beauty.

The area of ​​"existence" of beauty is art. Following ancient thinkers, Russian philosophers believed that art as “aesthetically beautiful” should lead to a “new state”, to a “real improvement in reality”. They saw the path of development of beauty in connection with the transforming power of the presence of God. Mystical communication with the higher world, passing through "the path of inner creative activity" - only in this way the theurgical mission of beauty can be realized.

Beauty in art is not far from reality, but it is not fed solely by reality.

Reflections on beauty are available in the works of Vladimir Solovyov Beauty in Nature (1889), The General Meaning of Art (1890), The Meaning of Love (1884), "What does the word "picturesqueness" mean" (1897). The electronic reading room of the Presidential Library features a book by Ernest Radlov Vladimir Solovyov: Life and Teachings (1913), where Vladimir Solovyov's philosophical and religious views are presented in an accessible language, expressing his idea of ​​​​beauty. Important information is also available in the book by Vasily Velichko Vladimir Solovyov. Life and Creations (1902), provided in the Presidential Library.

Reasoning "about the despotism and holiness" of beauty is the book of our contemporary, St. Petersburg philosopher Alexander Kazin Russian beauty: the foundations of the national esthesis (2003), which is available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library. Continuing the tradition of Russian philosophers of the early 20th century, Alexander Kazin explores the phenomenon of beauty in close connection with Orthodox Christianity. The author focuses on the problem of the “secret” Russian beauty and freedom, the essence of which lies in the fact that “believing love or loving faith is based on Russian civilization”. As a tuning fork, Kazin considers the beauty of St. Petersburg, the city of "robbers and saints". The mystical beauty of St. Petersburg, the secret of its religious, cultural and historical symbolism lies in the fact that it “managed to preserve the cult in the space of culture” and “Protestant anthropocentrism did not obscure Orthodoxy in it”, and that “departing from God for a while, in its spiritual depth The Russian soul has never experienced complete, demonic god-forsakenness”.

A different view of beauty is spotlighted in Robert de la Sizerand's Ruskin and the Religion of Beauty (1900), which is available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library.

Talking about poetry, then, indeed, it is one of the embodiments of beauty, containing art, religion, nature and life itself. Poetry is the breath of beauty. Possessing the perfection of the linguistic system and the refined accuracy of thought, poetry creatively redefines the existence. Actually, the essence of poetry is manifested in the very ability to see “beauty filled with sacred silence”, - according to the poet Yevgeny Boratynsky.

The desire for beauty saves from petty malice and selfishness, saves from arrogance. Revealing itself in the chaos of the world, beauty reveals the idea about it, thereby making it clear that the world is not accidental, and that its purpose, the world, is to be tirelessly transformed.