Бывшее и несбывшееся

Zlo 19-go veka bylo zlom, eshche znavshim o svoeĭ protivopolozhnosti dobru. Zlo zhe 20-go veka ėtoĭ protivopolozhnosti ne znaet. Tipichnye li͡udi 20-go veka mni͡at sebi͡a, po Nit͡sshe, "po tu storonu dobra i zla". Ėto sovsem osobye li͡udi, besskorbnye i ne sposobnye k raskai͡anii͡u. Dumaetsi͡a, chto ikh "velikie dela", dazhe esli by oni i porodili kakie-nibudʹ polozhitelʹnye rezulʹtaty, nikogda ne preobrazi͡atsi͡a v pami͡ati "blagodarnogo" potomstva v svetlye podvigi. A vprochem, kak znatʹ? Eshche neizvestno, kakimi li͡udʹmi budut nashi potomki.Avtor ėtikh strok - Fedor Avgustovich Stepun (1884-1965), filosof, istorik, sot͡siolog i pisatelʹ, vyslannyĭ iz Rossii po init͡siative Lenina v senti͡abre 1922 goda, za nedeli͡u do znamenitogo "filosofskogo parokhoda", passazhirami kotorogo stali ego druzʹi͡a i kollegi Berdi͡aev, Osorgin, Kizivetter, Sergeĭ Trubet͡skoĭ i drugie.

The evil of the 19th century was an evil that still knew about its opposite to good. The evil of the 20th century does not know this opposite. Typical people of the 20th century imagine themselves, according to Nietzsche, "on the other side of good and evil." These are very special people, deplorable and incapable of repentance. It seems that their "great deeds", even if they gave rise to some positive results, will never be transformed in the memory of the "grateful" offspring into bright feats. However, who knows? It is still unknown what kind of people our descendants will be.The author of these lines is Fyodor Augustovich Stepun (1884-1965), a philosopher, historian, sociologist and writer, who was expelled from Russia on Lenin's initiative in September 1922, a week before the famous "philosophical steamer", whose passengers were his friends and colleagues Berdyaev, Osorgin, Kiziwetter, Sergei Trubetskoy and others.