On March 18, a stamp dedicated to the 150th Birth Anniversary of Nikolai Berdyaev, a philosopher, a sociologist, was put into postal circulation

Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948) was religious and political philosopher, a sociologist, a representative of Russian existentialism and personalism. He is the author of the original concept of the philosophy of freedom and the concept of the New Middle Ages. He was nominated seven times for the Nobel Prize for Literature (1942-1948).

Nikolai Berdyaev was born on March 6 (18) of 1874 in the Kiev Province. He studied at the University of Kiev. In 1901, his article The Struggle for Idealism was published. N. Berdyaev became one of the leading figures of the movement that criticized the ideology of the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia. This trend first announced itself with the collection of articles Problems of Idealism (1902), then collections of articles Landmarks (1909) and Out of the Depths (1918), which gave a hostile assessment of the role of radicals in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Berdyaev wrote many articles and books, including The Meaning of the Creative Act and The Meaning of History.

After the revolution of 1917, he founded the Free Academy of Spiritual Culture that existed for three years from 1919 until 1922.

In September of 1922, he was expelled from the USSR. He lived first in Berlin, and then moved to Paris in 1924. He was the editor of the journal of Russian religious thought The Pathway and actively participated in the European philosophical process.

Among the books published by N. Berdyaev in exile are the New Middle Ages (1924), the Destiny of a Person. Experience of Paradoxical Ethics (1931), On Human Slavery and Freedom. The Experience of Personalistic Philosophy (1939), The Russian Idea (1946), The Experience of Eschatological Metaphysics. Creativity and Objectification (1947). The books published after N. Berdyaev’s death are Self-Knowledge. An Essay in Autobiography (1949), The Spirit Realm and the Kingdom of Caesar (1951) and others.

The postage stamp features a portrait of N. Berdyaev and his works.

In addition to the issue of the postage stamp, JSC Marka produced First Day Covers and special cancels for Moscow and Saint Petersburg.


Design Artist: V. Bektyukov.
Face value: 67 rubles.
Stamp size: 35×35 mm, sheet size: 160×96 mm.
Emission form: a sheet with formatted margins with 8 (4×2) stamps.
Quantity: 72 thousand stamps (9 thousand sheets).

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