H.Petzold's Fragments of
the Unpublished Correspondence of N.Berdjajew
by Klaus Bambauer
Thirty years ago, Hilarion Petzold, then a student in
Paris, (later on becoming the well-known psychotherapist Prof.
(Dr.Med./Dr.Theol./Dr.Phil.) H.Petzold at Duesseldorf/Germany and
Amsterdam/NL), wrote together with W.Zenkowskij on Orthodox anthropology,
"Das Bild des Menschen im Lichte der Orthodoxen Anthropologie, Marburg
1969). He was interested in Orthodox subjects and became familiar with letters,
written by N.Berdjajew to an unknown Mrs. X. In his autobiographical essay
("Samopoznanie") Berdjajew had written on his curious exchanges of
letters to persons he had never met. It is remarkable, that the specialists of
Berdjajew have failed occupy themselves with these letter-fragments, published
in the German journal "Kyrios" back in 1971 (pp.21-50). Now – 30
years later, the existence of these letters deserves be made public by this
article.
This correspondence, written in Russian language,
belonged to Berdjajew’s niece Sophie, and the letters were located in
Berdjajew's house at Clamart/Paris. There are 142 excerpts from letters written
between 1930 and 1939 to a "Madame X". The manuscript consists of 25
pages in type-script. There are hand-written corrections, and here and there
fragments of a French translation (mostly on the back). The handwriting points
either to Eugenie Rapp (Berdjajew’s sister-in-law, 1875-1969) or to a Princess
Gagarin, the wife of a lawyer at Paris, who (Princess Gagarin) Berdjajew called
"his best friend" ("Samopoznanie"). She (E.Rapp) combined
the various excerpts (according to Sophie Berdjajew). The originals, here not
only of the letters of Berdjajew, but also of the letters of "Madame
X" are – according to H.Petzold – undiscoverable. These fragments can be
dated only sporadically. The letters are arbitrary and are sorted according to
thematic views. Some orders describe a chronological succession.
Who was the unknown "Madame X"? As far as we
can see there are three persons who could have received these letters:
Hilarion Petzold excludes both the Princess Gagarin
and Eugenie Rapp. Elisabeth Belençon had been a close friend of Eugenie Rapp
and played a role in Berdjajew's life. A Russian Jewess, who converted to
Catholicism, – E.Belençon had been a lady of exceptional prudence and
education, yet nevertheless in her character very eccentric. But H.Petzold is
not convinced that she is the addressee, since the fragments give the
impression that the person who received the letters is not very familiar with
the circumstances of Berdjajew's life, i.e. as one who was not very close with
the Russian thinker.
The result of the investigations of H.Petzold are
thus: the unknown person, as remarked by Berdjajew in his
"Samopoznanie", remains a "Madame X". We can suppose that
she was unknown both to Eugenie Rapp and to Sophie Berdjajew. The exchange of
letters covers a period of about 10 years (1930-1939). We can assume also that
Berdjajew was only very rarely in contact with her.
Sophie Berdjajew wrote in a notice of 11.7.1965:
"In the Berdjajew’s neighhbourhood, people wrote letters even if to
somebody residing in the same apartment".
The fragments had been sorted thematically for
publication and assembled under collective headings. The overlappings cannot
have been avoided. These excerpts of the letters of N.Berdjajew to Madame X
demand our particular intellectual attention. They afford not only a series of
essential thoughts of the Russian philosopher in the short accuracy of his
epistolary style, but they also shed light on his person and work. We
frequently meet with statements that recur in his biographical essay.
Because we cannot quote these many (142) fragments,
here one will first of all find the titles descriptive of the combined
collections of the excerpts. H.Petzold has thus assembled the letters in the
conceptual context of the whole work of the Russian thinker:
These are the headings:
Note
also: The literary bequest of N.Berdjajew was given by Eugenie Rapp in 1960 to
the "Rossijskij Gosudarstwennyj Archiv Literatury i Iskusstva"
(RGALI). The catalogue of this bequest presents 1005 references, among them
about 600 correspondences. Fond 1496, opis [catalogue] 1, delo [document] 377.
Cf. the description of the literary bequest of N.Berdjajew in: Archives d'État
de Russie de Littérature et d'Art. Inventaire des anciens fonds réservés.
Paris: Institut d'études slaves, 1994, pp. 9-12.
Cf. to the above mentioned details: S.G.Reichelt, Nikolaj A.Berdjaev in
Deutschland 1920-1950, Leipzig/Germany 1999, ISBN 3-933240-88-3.