249 p.

The esoteric subtext of entire epochs in the history of Russian culture of the thirteenth and early twentieth centuries, the desire for the mystical and occult, which was experienced by the first Russian intellectuals of the time of Catherine the Great, the romantics of the early nineteenth century, and the poets of the Silver Age, is a topic as fertile and promising as it is, paradoxically, poorly studied, in some of its aspects practically

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not affected by the researchers. The more you open a special monograph on this intriguing problem with high expectations, but the more demands you make on it.

In her book, Marina Aptekman sets herself a rather daring task: to identify and analyze Kabbalistic ideas and symbols in Russian literature (not only artistic, but also religious and philosophical) of all the periods mentioned above, to show the development of what she calls "Kabbalistic allegory" for more than a century and a half. Obviously, in order to solve this problem, the researcher must be familiar not only with the work of specific writers and thinkers, but also with the Jewish mystical tradition itself, its occult interpretations in non-Jewish (European) culture, as well as with Orthodox theology, exegesis and asceticism as fundamental elements for Russian mystics.

The author tries to draw a complete picture of the existence of Kabbalistic symbols and images in Russian literature. It attracts a significant number of little-known texts, historical facts, and archival documents. The book is distinguished by its unity of concept, consistently applied methodology, and clear structure. The author's conclusions are formally logical and, as a rule, supported by relevant texts. The book is somewhat similar to a textbook, and if you trust the author as a mentor and guide in a student-like way, it leaves a very good impression.

To solve this problem - to draw a unified tradition of perception and transmission of Kabbalistic images and ideas in Russian literature-the author divides the time period under consideration into three stages, during which, as she notes, Kabbalah had "a significant impact on the intellectual climate... and the artistic imagination of the authors" (p. 228). In an effort to strictly follow his own scheme, that is, to show clear boundaries between the selected periods and a significant meaningful difference between them, the author inevitably falls into schematism, strengthening some features (differences) and not paying attention to many others (similarities, continuity, etc.). Thus, describing the interest in Kabbalah in Russian Freemasonry of Catherine's time as mystical, oriented

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The author does not take into account that this attitude was largely preserved in Alexander Freemasonry at the beginning of the XIX century, and for more than half a century after the official prohibition of Freemasonry (1822) in the "theoretical" lodges that continued to operate underground (see, for example, the recently published "Memoirs" of the mason V. S. Arsenyev, 1829-1915). and also - at the end of the XIX century-by Vladimir Solovyov. As the author correctly notes, in the second period (1810-1840), interest in magical ("alchemical") Kabbalah increases, but we see it also among some Russian brothers of the 1780s, and in Russian occult circles of the early XX century. Kabbalistic linguistics, the mysticism of language as a creative force, attracted not only symbolists of the early twentieth century, but also, say, one of the most famous Russian Freemasons of the time of Catherine II - I. P. Elagin. It is obvious, however, that all this does not fit into the scheme chosen by the author.

At the same time, Aptekman's book is perhaps the first serious attempt to examine the influence of Kabbalah on Russian literature from a historical perspective, and therefore its observations are of undoubted value, if only they are not perceived as the ultimate truth. It is also impossible to do this for another reason: many texts that are of central importance to this topic, such as the manuscripts of Russian Freemasons dealing with Kabbalah, and (oddly enough) the works of Russian philosophers devoted to this topic, for example, V. Solovyov and P. Florensky, have not yet been practically studied or published. As long as this situation persists, any of our judgments about this topic will remain nothing more than hypotheses.

As is often the case in literary studies, cultural studies, etc., Aptekman understands Kabbalah primarily as a theoretical Jewish mystical teaching, which was later adopted and adapted in a distorted form by European occultists, who, on the contrary, saw in it only one of the varieties of magic (p.11). At the same time, the practical side that is most important for Kabbalah (theurgic, "effective") is usually underestimated, which, as it seems, largely influenced the formation of European magic in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Offering a fairly good overview of the history of Kabbalah as

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theosophical teaching, the author incorrectly confuses theurgic tendencies in Kabbalah (for example, in the book "Zohar"), associated with the desire to influence the upper world and bring down the divine energies to the earthly world , with ecstatic Kabbalah, aimed at mystical fusion, clinging to the Deity in an act of mystical ecstasy (p. 24). It is also difficult to understand her claim that "most" authentic Kabbalah texts are written in Aramaic (p. 28): only the Book of Radiance (Zohar) was composed in Aramaic at the end of the thirteenth century. in Spain, the rest of the Kabbalistic writings (hundreds, if not thousands) are written in Hebrew.

Following the structuralist, semiotic approach, the author considers Kabbalistic texts only as literary works, and not theosophical treatises; the main task of the book is to identify "kabbalistic" allegorical "codes" in Russian literature (pp. 15-16). In his interpretations, the author primarily focuses on Lotman's semiotic theory, the concept of the semiosphere proposed by him (p. 43). At the same time, it often deviates from the stated task and begins to talk about the presence of supposedly "real Kabbalah" in Russian texts, about the influence of ideas, not images or symbols, which, of course, requires a completely different research methodology. So, in another place, she directly writes: "The purpose of the book is to offer the reader a clear answer to the question of when, how and where Kabbalah was used in Russian literary texts from pre-Romanticism to modernism" (p. 33).

For the author, the division into "kabbalah" (which, according to the author, meant exclusively "moral teaching" among Freemasons, p. 123) and "kabbalistics" (the doctrine of the divine power of letters and numbers associated with Kabbalistic linguistics and combinatorics, pp. 123, 124, 130) is fundamental. These terms are indeed found both among Freemasons and in the later literature of Russian Romanticism. Following her conception, the author asserts that the Masons of the 1770s and 1780s were not interested in Kabbalism, "a universal science, a combination of language and mathematics"; interest in it arose only in the 1810s and 1820s (p. 123), when, in her opinion, the "scientific" approach to Kabbalah completely replaced the "scientific" approach to Kabbalah. "morally mystical" (p. 124). An entire chapter on evolution is devoted to this topic.

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from "Kabbalah " to" Kabbalistics " and from the latter to black magic in the Russian literature of Romanticism (pp. 124-139). As we have already noted above, excessive schematism, as well as poor familiarity with archival materials, do not allow the author to notice an interest in" Kabbalistics " throughout the entire history of Russian Freemasonry, that is, for a whole century. The chapter on Freemasons in the book is entitled "Striving for moral perfection", and it is on this aspect that the author's entire attention is focused, although in real Freemasonry the practical study of the secret sciences for theurgic operations, as well as ecstatic experiments and experiments, played a significant role.

In his research, Aptekman quite rightly emphasizes the two most important concepts of Masonic theosophy - " Love-Sophia "and" Eternal Adam", analyzing in detail their existence both in Masonic theoretical works and in the poetic works of Russian brothers. Especially interesting is the interpretation of M. Kheraskov's poem "Vladimir Reborn", which is understood by the author as the first Russian mystical travelogue. The author examines in detail the use of the image of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, in Masonic literature, but it remains unclear what this has to do with the main theme of the book. The concept of Sophia among Russian mystics of the 18th and early 20th centuries goes back to the German mysticism of the 17th century (Jacob Boehme and his followers), and probably also to some Gnostic ideas, but it is hardly connected in any way with the Jewish Kabbalah. It is no coincidence that we do not find any arguments about Sophia in the rich Christian-Kabbalistic literature of the late 15th and 17th centuries. (Pico della Mirandola, P. Galatii, I. Reichlin, H. Knorr von Rosenroth, and others): this idea, so popular in Protestant mysticism and Rosicrucianism, is completely alien to Jewish mysticism.

Extremely important for understanding the phenomenon of Russian Freemasonry is the combination of strict adherence to the Orthodox tradition, in theory and in practice, and even some conservatism - with an openness to the study and use of mystical teachings and magical practices, which, in their opinion, go back to the original ancient revelation and can enrich the mind and experience of the "seeker". wisdom". To co-

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Unfortunately, the author practically does not touch on this topic (see: pp. 53-54), which is actually of crucial importance for revealing the attitude of Russian Freemasons to Kabbalah; nor does she once refer to the book by R. Fagionato 1, which specifically deals with this problem on the basis of archival materials, among other things. As a result, Aptekman often discovers "Kabbalistic" terms, images, and ideas where he speaks... on the concepts generally accepted in the theological and ascetic Orthodox literature of that time. Thus, the idea that I. V. Lopukhin's "Spiritual Knight" contains "a description of creation in accordance with Kabbalistic views" and that "Lopukhin considers God as a cyclical process similar to Einsof" is completely unconvincing (p. 56). The author connects with Kabbalah the idea that as a result of the fall, along with Adam, all nature fell, but, as is known, this is a common place in Christian thought since the Church fathers (for example, John Chrysostom). In many cases, the author presents general Christian ideas as Kabbalistic (for example, V. Sokolovsky's poem "Pre-Modernity" (p. 118), in our opinion, does not contain any specifically Jewish symbols and images at all, but is written quite in line with Orthodox theology). Some interpretations seem insufficiently reasoned: for example, the author understands the description of God before creation in Semyon Bobrov's "Reflections on the Creation of the World" as an indication of the idea of self-reduction (self-removal) of God before the act of creation (Hebrew Tzimtzum), although nothing in the lines cited by her speaks in favor of such an understanding (p. 65).

Considering the evolution of the attitude to Kabbalah (more precisely, to "Kabbalistics") in the Russian literature of the 1820s - 1830s, the author shows how it gradually begins to be associated with the practices of divination, predictions, and even gambling. Indeed, a similar transformation becomes apparent at this time: Kabbalah begins to be understood as something shameful, dangerous, close to black magic, and as a result later becomes one of the targets in the accusations of anti-Semites.

In general, it can be noted that in the 1820s-1830s, we see not so much a fundamental transformation from-

1. Faggionato, R. (2005) A Rosicrucian Utopia in Eighteenth-Century Russia: The Masonic Circle of N. I. Novikov. Dordrecht: Springer.

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The author believes that the approach to Kabbalah is from the mystical to the magical, but rather an expansion of the circle of people interested in this topic. Already at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries, works were copied and distributed in Russia (for example, "Raimundus Lullius Kabbalistics"), in which Kabbalah was understood precisely as a universal art of combinatorics, knowledge of the world and prediction of its phenomena. Masonic culture at the end of the 18th century, especially associated with the study of the secret sciences (including Kabbalah), was a closed, elitist phenomenon, whereas, starting in the 1820s, discussions about secrets, homunculi, Kabbalah and magic penetrated into the thick magazines that appeared at that time for manor reading. "Kabbalistics" becomes a phenomenon that is both attractive and frighteningly dangerous, but, most importantly, "well - known". It seems that this is the reason for the changes in the attitude towards it that took place in the first half of the XIX century and were reflected in the literature.

Aptekman's discussion of the place of "Kabbalistic allegories" in the literature of the Silver Age begins a little earlier - with Vladimir Solovyov, who, as is well known, was a connoisseur and, one might say, a connoisseur of Kabbalistic ideas. The problem, however, is that not only he, but many, if not most of the characters in the last chapter of this book, have shown themselves in several fields at once-both as philosophers, as poets, and as religious thinkers. It is impossible to understand the origin of the images and symbols they use by analyzing only their poetic works. Therefore, the author, departing from the previously accepted scheme, begins to consider the theoretical works of such authors as, say, Solovyov or Florensky, again trying to reconstruct the traces of real Kabbalah in their works, as well as in their poetic work. The result is often confusion. Thus, she correctly notes V. Solovyov's connection with the Freemasonry tradition, which is not taken into account by most researchers, suggesting that it was from Freemasons that he borrowed the idea of Sophia and, moreover, "the interpretation of Sophia as a Kabbalistic concept" (p. 164). However, Sophia has nothing to do with Kabbalah either for him or for the Freemasons! Aptekman is probably influenced by the ideas of the American researcher Judith Kornblatt, who has repeatedly written about the alleged Kabbalistic basis

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Solovyov's thought, and proceeds from the presence of a certain unified "sophiology", which, as is well known, the Russian philosopher never created and, apparently, did not try to create. By the way, the author rightly notes that, according to H. P. Blavatsky (whose works had a huge impact on the worldview of some symbolists), Kabbalah as a whole is of non - Jewish origin, and Sophia and Adam Kadmon are Indian concepts. This position, however, was widespread not only among occultists, but also among many Jewish scholars and Hebraists of the nineteenth century; later this idea was shared by some Russian symbolists (for example, Andrey Bely) and Austro-German ariosophists and mystics (Guido von List, Rudolf Steiner).

Turning further to the leading theme of the third period, Aptekman notes that "for Solovyov, language is a central component of Kabbalistic mysticism" (p. 168). However, in reality (unlike his followers - Florensky, Bulgakov, Losev), Solovyov was not at all concerned with the problem of language as a creative force and did not write anything about it! Obviously, the idea of the creative poet and demiurge was central to the symbolist circle, and the book shows in great detail the idea of the proto-language and creative power of poetry in this circle. It is worth noting, however, that while for Blok, Bryusov, Gumilev and others any language of poetry is endowed with creative power, philosophers (Florensky, Bulgakov, Rozanov) recognized the special status of Hebrew as the language closest to the proto-language of mankind.

Constantly emphasizing the proximity of Silver Age thinkers to Russian Freemasonry in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the author sees Masonic literature as the main source of terminology and images that, in her opinion, go back to the Jewish Kabbalah (p. 169 et seq.). It is known, however, that the theological literature of the late XVIII - first half of the XIX century was imbued with the same vocabulary as Masonic: see the works of Tikhon Zadonsky, Plato (Levshin), Filaret (Drozdov) , F. Golubinsky, Mikhail (Desnitsky), etc. At that time, work was underway to develop a modern theological language, in which, of course, some Freemasons also took part. At the same time, it is most likely Masons who learned this vocabulary from spiritual writings (for example, I. Lopukhin, S. Gamaleya), and not vice versa. From this, by the beginning of the XX century, perhaps, already somewhat archaic, godly-

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P. Florensky and S. Bulgakov borrowed many of the terms of their lexicon from the Slovenian language, and Freemasonry often has nothing to do with it. Thus, the author points out as an example Florensky's use of the expression "lamp of reason" to refer to (supposedly) Adam Kadmon, seeing in this a reference to the Masonic and even Kabbalistic lexicon... But this expression - "lamp of reason" - which goes back to the second canonical Book of Ezra III (3 Ezra 14: 25: "I will kindle in your heart a lamp of reason that will not be quenched"), is often found in the Russian theological literature of the XIX century, for example, in A. S. Khomyakov (although we know more from Nekrasov's lines about Dobrolyubov - " what a lamp of reason has gone out..."), and Florensky is clearly referring here not to Adam Kadmon, but to man as a rational being. (However, an intrusive reader who wishes to check the author's findings will be puzzled, since they will not find anything quoted by the author on the pages indicated by her; see, for example, references 54-63 to pp. 185-186, allegedly referring to the 3rd volume of P. A. Florensky's" Works " - Moscow: Mysl, 1999-2000.)

In general, a successful and interesting analysis of the work of symbolist poets, some of whose images could actually go back to Kabbalah through occult literature (N. Gumilev, M. Kuzmin), unfortunately, is spoiled by annoying inaccuracies. Thus, the occult-anti-Semitic-Kabbalistic publication " Ekhad. Thirteen Wounds of Yushchinsky " is erroneously attributed by the author to V. V. Rozanov (pp. 13, 176-179); whereas, on the contrary, Rozanov, unlike most representatives of the Silver Age, was completely alien to interest in occult matters (and this also showed his originality). This article was written by the Vilna historian and occultist S. F. Dobryansky, and Rozanov only included it in his collection " Olfactory and Tactile Attitude of Jews to Blood "(1914). The author explicitly calls Rozanov's approach to Kabbalah occult (p. 179), which is completely incorrect; in general, it is not clear why this thinker and publicist and the place of "Kabbalistic" arguments in Russian anti-Semitism are mentioned in the book devoted to "kabbalistic allegories in Russian literature".

It seems that the main problem with this in many ways interesting and valuable book is that it does not exactly specify the subject of the research.-

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research institute. It remains unclear what the author means by "kabbalah", "kabbalistic allegory". The book often refers to a certain "alchemical-Kabbalistic tradition", but does not explain what it is. In our opinion, this phenomenon, if it exists at all, clearly has little relation to Jewish Kabbalah as such. It seems to us that it would be much better to give this book a more general title: "Occultism (or occult allegory) in Russian literature". It is also obvious that after some reworking, it would make sense to publish Marina Aptekman's book in Russian in Russia: the questions raised by the author will certainly be perceived with interest by the Russian reader, cause disputes, objections, and, possibly, initiate a scientific discussion about this topic, which is still undeservedly in an almost mystical concealment.

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