Discourse of Secular Salvation in Russian Communism

Abstract

The radical ideological doctrines of Russian communism of the late 19th – early 20th century gave rise to the ideal of a revolutionary and the corresponding way of existence, approaching the limit to the religious. The article shows a set of practices that constituted the phenomenon of secular revolutionary salvation. Using a methodology of discursive analysis, the author shows the complexity and ambiguity of communist soteriology. Salvation was constituted by different practices and could have different existential content on a case-by-case basis. Therefore, it is legitimate to talk not about the presence of the phenomenon of secular salvation in Russian communism, but about the discourses of such.