An Exceptional Dialogue, 1925-1948: Nikolai Berdyaev and Jacques Maritain.

The article reviews a new English edition of Bernard Hubert’s study and correspondence between Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev and French philosopher Jacques Maritain, highlighting their development of Christian humanism and personalism from 1925 to 1948. It emphasizes the intellectual exchange shaped by differing philosophical backgrounds—Berdyaev’s Protestant mysticism and Russian religious thought versus Maritain’s Thomism—and notes their complex, sometimes paradoxical friendship. The review also discusses Tyler C. Kirk’s book *After the Gulag: A History of Memory in Russia’s Far North*, which examines the Memorial Society’s role in preserving Gulag memory in the Komi Republic from glasnost through 2021, focusing on survivor autobiographies, community identity among former prisoners (“Brotherhood of Zeks”), and the evolving public memory infrastructure. Kirk’s work is praised for its archival depth and regional focus but critiqued for underemphasizing the role of state “securitizing agents” in shaping memory politics and for some historical and contextual gaps. Both works contribute to understanding the interplay of philosophy, memory, and identity in twentieth-century Russian and Soviet contexts. [Extracted from the article]