Bratislava, Slovakia—On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, UPF-Slovakia prepared an exciting lecture about that event’s ideological aspects.
UPF invited the philosopher Herbert Giller from Vienna, Austria, to speak on November 7, 2017—exactly 100 years after the armed insurrection in St. Petersburg.
Mr. Giller is a brilliant analyst and critic of Marxist thought and communism in all its shades. “It has been a long, deep desire of mine to give a lecture in a communist country someday,” he said when accepting our invitation in mid-October.
To find a convenient room for that date proved unexpectedly difficult. There were numerous obstacles to be overcome until the event took place. Finally, we found a lecture hall in the city center. Our small team worked tirelessly to inform and invite the public. We were happy to greet 40 participants. The audience was treated to a demanding two-hour lesson spiced with exciting statements. UPF-Slovakia Secretary General Milos Klas had done an excellent job by translating 40 slides from German into Slovak in advance.
Some guests took notes diligently; one lady spontaneously applauded several times to statements of the lecturer. One sociologist was so moved that he asked permission to take home a poster as a memento. One of the guests was the Russian attaché, who bought the exhibited book March to Moscow.
Mr. Giller gave an in-depth view into the opposing views of a just society held by the Christian and Marxist philosophies. The main source was the book Truth and Lies of Communism by the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948), who opposed communism before Vladimir Lenin and his comrades took power.
For some years Berdyaev had believed in Marxism, until he became aware of the dangerous delusion. In 1920, he was accused of conspiracy, arrested and jailed. His prior record of revolutionary activities saved him from execution; instead he was sent into exile. With profound insight he wrote:
The Russian people did not achieve their ancient dream of Moscow, the Third Rome. The ecclesiastical schism of the seventeenth century revealed that the Muscovite tsardom is not the Third Rome. The messianic idea of the Russian people assumed either an apocalyptic or a revolutionary form; and then there occurred an amazing event in the destiny of the Russian people. Instead of the Third Rome in Russia, the Third International was achieved, and many of the features of the Third Rome passed over to the Third International.
In his writings Berdyaev outlined that atheistic communism itself is a religion – without a God, and with the proletariat taking the role of the savior.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Herbert Giller was appointed an Ambassador of Peace. UPF-Slovakia hopes that he will return to Slovakia next year, as 2018 will be the 200th birthday of Karl Marx. Since there are some signs of a renaissance of Marxism among intellectuals, it is necessary to address the errors in his philosophy once again.