Historical and culturological conception of Andrey Belyi: the problems of its modern understanding

The article is devoted to the historical and culturological conception of Andrey Belyi (or Andrei Belyi, Boris Bugaev 1880-1934) and is aimed at solving of two problems. First, the article contains an introduction to the study of the conception of historical and cultural development of mankind in the treatise of Belyi “The History of the formation of a self-conscious soul” (published for the first time in 2020), it includes the analysis of the key concepts used by the thinker: a self-conscious soul, a rational soul, a sentient soul. These basic terms are interpreted through the prism of the anthroposophical typology of the three soul levels in human consciousness. Secondly, the article deals with the perception of Belyi's treatise, the key milestones in the history of its study are considered, as well as various obstacles to its adequate understanding. It is shown that the difficulties of its perception are connected primarily with the need to get acquainted with the anthroposophical terminology as a worldview base in the work of Andrey Belyi of the second (after 1912) period, as well as the need to overcome the typical mistakes and common cliches of its negative and perverse interpretation. A number of publications devoted to the culturology of Andrey Belyi are being analyzed, and it is shown that in research receptions there is a tendency of reducing the historical and culturological ideas of Andrey Belyi, of their substitution, placing them in the “Procrustean bed” of familiar and convenient conceptual and categorical networks. It is shown that modern researchers sometimes move his way of thinking into rational, abstract and alien concepts that do not reflect the true essence of the ideas of this thinker.