By substituting the hermit of the Sacciah tribe for the "rabbi from Galilee," the sham Christians would have lost nothing of importance, but would win something very valuable indeed, at least in my eyes —they would win the possibility of being, even while erring, honestly thinking and to an extent consistent. But they do not want this. . . .
The hollowness of the teaching of the new religion and its logical contradictions are too apparent, and in this matter I have been satisfied to give (in the Third Discussion) only a brief, though complete, statement of their pronouncements, obviously con- tradictory in themselves and hardly capable of tempting anybody outside the hopeless class of people typified by my Prince. Should I succeed in opening anybody's eyes to the other side of the question and making any deceived but living soul feel all the moral falsity of this death-spreading
xxvi SOLOVIEV
teaching taken in all its entirety, the polemical object of this book would be fully achieved.
I am firmly convinced, however, that the exposure of an untruth made without reservation, should it even fail to produce any beneficent effect, still remains, apart from the fulfilment of duty it in- volves for its author, a measure of spiritual sanita- tion in the life of society, and brings useful results both in the present and in the future.
Bound up with the polemical object of these dialogues I also pursue a positive aim: to present the question of the struggle against evil and of the meaning of history from three different standpoints. One of these is based on a religious conception of the everyday life, which is characteristic of past times, and is given much prominence in the First Discussion in the speeches of the General. The other, representing the ideas of culture and progress as prevailing in our time, is expressed and defended by the Politician, particularly in the Second Discus- sion. Lastly, the third standpoint, which is abso- lutely religious and which will yet show its decisive value in the future, is indicated in the Third Dis- cussion in the speeches of Mr. Z. and in the story by Father Pansophius. Personally, I unreservedly accept the last point of view. But I fully recognise the relative truth contained in the two others, and for this reason could with equal fairness express the opposing arguments and statements of the Politician and the General. The higher absolute
AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxvii
truth does not exclude or deny the preliminary con- ditions of its realisation, but justifies, appreciates, and sanctifies them. If from a certain point of view the world's history is God's judgment of the world— die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht—this in- volves a long and complicated contest or litigation between the good and the evil historical forces, and this contest, to come to a final solution, must needs involve both a determined struggle for existence between those forces, and their greater inner, there- fore peaceful, development in the common forms of culture. For this reason the General and the Politician are both right in the light of the Higher truth, and I could with complete sincerity place myself in the position of the one or the other. It is only the power of evil itself that is absolutely wrong, but not such means of fighting it as the sword of the soldier or the pen of the diplomat. These weapons must be appraised at their actual usefulness in the given circumstances and that must be considered the better of the two whose use is more effective in upholding the cause of good. St. Alexis the metropolitan, when peacefully pleading for the Russian princes at the Tartar Horde, and St. Sergius when blessing the arms of Dmitrius of the Don against the same Horde both equally served one and the same cause of good—that finds its expression in many various forms and fashions. __________
xxviii SOLOVIEV
These discussions about evil and the militant and the peaceful methods of combating it, had to be concluded with a definite statement of the last, the extremest manifestation of evil in history the picture of its short-lived triumph and its final destruction At first I treated this subject in the form of a dia- logue, as I had treated the other parts, and with a similar sprinkling of the jocular element. But friendly criticisms convinced me that this method of exposition was doubly unsuitable: firstly, because the interruptions and interpolations required by the form of dialogue tended to weaken the interest in the story; and, secondly, because the colloquial and particularly the jocular character of conversation did not accord with the religious importance of the subject. I recognised the justice of these criticisms and accordingly altered the form of the Third Dis- cussion, introducing in it the reading from a MS. left by a monk after his death, of an independent short story of the Anti-Christ." This story, which earlier formed the subject of a public lecture, created a good deal of bewilderment and confused comment on the platform and in the Press, the main reason for which appears to be very simple: the prevailing insufficient knowledge of the references to Anti- Christ contained in the Scriptures and in Church tradition. These give indications of all the main features of Anti-Christ such as the inner significance of Anti-Christ as a religious impostor, who obtains the title of the Son of God by "stealing" it, and not
AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxix
by spiritual self-sacrifice; his connection with a false prophet, wizard, who seduces people by means of real and false miracles; the obscure and peculiarly sinful origin of Anti-Christ himself, who secures is external position of a monarch of the world by the help of evil powers; lastly, the general develop- ment and the end of his activity. Other particulars, characteristic of Anti-Christ and his false prophet, may also be found in the same sources. We have there, for instance, bringing down fire from Heaven,'' murdering the two witnesses of Christ, exposure of their bodies in the streets of Jerusalem, and many others.* To connect the events with each other and to make the story more speaking several details had to be introduced, partly based on his- torical conjectures, and partly created by imagine- tion. On the details of the latter kind, such as the semi-psychic, semi-conjuring tricks of the great magician with subterranean voices, fireworks, etc., I placed, it hardly needs saying, very little import- ance, and I think was justified in expecting a similar attitude on the part of my "critics." As regards the other and extremely essential point the charac- teristics of the three impersonated confessions in the œcumenical council, this could be noticed and fully appreciated only by those of my critics who were acquainted with the history and life of the churches.
The character of the false prophet given in the Revelation and his mission, as clearly indicated
xxx SOLOVIEV
therein, to mystify people for the benefit of Anti- Christ, made it necessary for me to attribute to him different prodigies of the kind that is peculiar to magicians and conjurers. It is known for certainty, dass zein hauptwerk ein Feuerwerk sein wird: " and he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." Apocalypsis, xiii. 13.) At present we cannot, of course, know magic and mechanical technique of these prodigies, but we may be sure that in two or three centuries it will advance very far from what t is now, and what will be made possible by such progress for a magician like ours—is not for me to say. I have admitted to my story certain definite features and details only as concrete illustrations to the essential and fully-established relations, so that they would not be left mere bare schemes. The essential and the details should also be clearly dis- tinguished in all that I say about Pan-Mongolism and the Asiatic invasion of Europe. But, of course, the main fact itself has not in this case the absolute certainty which characterises the future coming and the fate of Anti-Christ and his false prophet. Nothing has been taken direct from the Scriptures in describing the development of the Mongolo- European relations, though a great deal of it can be based on Scriptural statements. Taken in general, the history indicated presents a series of conjec- tures of the probable based on the actual facts. Personally, I believe this probability to be very near
AUTHOR'S PREFACE xxxi
the