War and faith: the issue of moral restoration in philosophical works of N.A. Berdyayev and A.A. Kersnovsky

The paper aims to look into the understanding of war in the context of Orthodox Christian culture, presented by emigrants who were forced to abandon Russia after the Great War and the revolutions and the Civil War that followed. The author compares the attitude to the war from two viewpoints: of N.A. Berdyayev, emigrant who had no combat experience, and A.A. Kersnovsky, emigrant who had field experience in war and philosophized about it. In their works they contemplate war through their existential situations, demonstrate personal paths of faith through the horrors of war, and construct the framework of interpretation of war for their emigrated compatriots. Reflecting on the war experience pushes N.A. Berdyayev and A.A. Kersnovsky to reconsider the essence of war by faith, which takes to the moral restoration, acceptance of guilt and claiming responsibility for the violence. The conclusion establishes that, in their interpretation, war does not present itself as essentially evil, it is rather a space for a man to act out their free will in its fullness, by serving their Christian duty in a righteous war.