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Bertrand Russell works. Russell Bertrand - biography, facts from life, photographs, background information

Russell Bertrand Arthur William (1872 – 1970)

Outstanding English mathematician, philosopher, public figure, scientist. Third Earl Russell. Nobel Prize winner in literature, founder of analytical philosophy.

Born in Trelleck (Wales). Grandson of Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Bertrand Russell inherited the title in 1931. Entered Trinity College, Cambridge University. Subsequently, he was a member of the Royal Society of London, was elected a member of the council of Trinity College, Cambridge University, and lectured on philosophy at a number of universities and colleges.

Essentially important results were obtained by Russell in the field of symbolic logic and its application to philosophical and mathematical problems. Professor Russell is the author of many works in the field of mathematical logic. The most important of them, “Principles of Mathematics” (1910-1913) (co-authored with A. Whitehead), proves the correspondence of the principles of mathematics to the principles of logic and the possibility of defining the basic concepts of mathematics in terms of logic.

Russell's work in the field of philosophy is very significant. Russell believed that philosophy could be made a science by expressing its basic principles in logical terms. Russell's most popular works in philosophy are Our Knowledge of the External World and The History of Western Philosophy. Psychology was also subjected to a detailed analysis (the book “Human Cognition: Its Sphere and Boundaries”).

Russell has always been an active public figure. His analytical mind allowed him to sometimes very accurately characterize the obvious features of social, political, and religious movements. The combination of magnificent irony with the author’s talent gave rise to many interviews, articles, essays, speeches, very relevant both at the time of writing and in our days. The works, “On the Value of Skepticism”, “Free Thought and Official Propaganda” are bright and to the point. Russell wrote many works on religion and the church. His lecture is famous, later published as a separate brochure “Why I am not a Christian.”

During the First World War he was imprisoned for his pacifist activities.

Russell was one of the first members of the Fabian Society, was elected to Parliament and, from 1944, took an active part in the work of the House of Lords. For the outstanding literary merits of his scientific and journalistic works, the philosopher was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950. In the 50s and 60s. Russell became increasingly involved in discussions of international issues.

Immediately after World War II, he insisted that the West use its then-monopoly on nuclear weapons and force the USSR to cooperate in maintaining world peace. There is a well-known declaration of protest by Russell and Einstein, which led to the organization of the Pugwash movement of scientists.

In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he maintained intensive correspondence with J. Kennedy and N.S. Khrushchev, calling for the convening of a conference of heads of state that would avoid a nuclear conflict.

In the last years of his life, Russell fought passionately against US intervention in Vietnam. He also condemned the Soviet and Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. At the end of his long life, Bertrand Russell published his three-volume Autobiography, once again showing the world the brilliance of his outstanding mind.

The twentieth century gave us not only a whole cohort of cruel dictators, but also a small group of humanists who rightfully became moral authorities for their contemporaries. Mahatma Gandhi, Andrei Sakharov, Martin Luther King... A special place in this series is occupied by Sir Bertrand Russell - the famous English philosopher, mathematician, logician, sociologist, publicist and public figure.

Mikhail Dubinyansky

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was an English mathematician, philosopher and social activist. Honorary Member of the British Academy (1949). In 1950 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature

...in recognition of the varied and significant works in which he champions humanistic ideals and freedom of thought.

Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born in Wales on May 18, 1872. He came from an influential liberal aristocratic family. His paternal grandfather, John Russell, twice led Queen Victoria's government and served as prime minister in the 1840s and 1860s. Having lost his parents early, the boy was raised on his grandmother's family estate near London. Bertrand inherited the title of Earl in 1931, was elected to Parliament, and from 1944 took an active part in the House of Lords.

A thirst for knowledge and the beginnings of a scientific worldview distinguished Russell already at a very tender age. Hearing that the Earth was round, five-year-old Bertrand immediately undertook a bold experiment - he began to dig a tunnel in the sand to the antipodes. At sea, the boy was amazed by the shellfish: when you try to tear them off the rock, they stick even more strongly.

Can shells think? - Bertrand asked his aunt.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

“You need to know,” the meticulous little one was indignant.

In search of knowledge, the grown-up Russell turns to smart books. He was especially impressed by Euclid's Geometry. Bertrand came to the conclusion that nature is governed by mathematical laws, and the world is based on mathematical harmony. Soon, to the chagrin of his devout grandmother, the young aristocrat declared that he did not believe in God. He rushed into science, determined to understand the secrets of the Universe.

After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1894, Russell was passionate about mathematics, philosophy, and logic. He defends his dissertation on geometry and lectures at a number of universities and colleges. In 1908, Bertrand Russell was admitted to the Royal Scientific Society.

I managed to understand something, although quite a bit,

This is how Russell himself assessed his scientific and philosophical activity. This “quite a bit” included the birth of English neorealism and neopositivism, the construction of an original version of set theory, the creation of the concept of logical atomism, etc. At the same time, Russell was not a boring scientific snob, divorced from mere mortals: he sought to make scientific knowledge accessible, interest the general public.

A striking example is Russell's paradox, which he discovered in 1903 and caused a sensation in mathematics. It is unlikely that non-professionals would be able to appreciate the following formulation: “Let K be the set of all sets that do not contain themselves as their element. Does K contain itself as an element?” But the witty Russell had no difficulty in popularizing his paradox: “The village barber was ordered to shave all those and only those villagers who did not shave themselves. Should a barber shave himself?

Russell's lectures were very popular. At one of them the thinker stated:

You can prove anything based on the false equality 1+1=1.

Prove that you are the Pope! - shouted from the audience.

“One person is me, another is the Pope,” Russell answered calmly, “but one and one is one again, that is, I and the Pope are one and the same person!”

Professor Russell is the author of many works in the field of mathematical logic. The most important of them - “Principles of Mathematics” (1910-1913) (co-authored with A. Whitehead) - proves the correspondence of the principles of mathematics to the principles of logic and the possibility of defining the basic concepts of mathematics in terms of logic. It has been noted that Russell's contribution to mathematical logic is the most significant and fundamental since Aristotle.

Russell believed that philosophy could be made a science (and he included only technical sciences in this concept) by expressing its basic constructs in terms of logic. A number of his works were devoted to this. Psychology was subjected to the same detailed analysis.

Russell's book Problems of Philosophy (1912) is still considered in Anglo-Saxon countries the best introduction to philosophy. He is also the author of the widely acclaimed History of Western Philosophy (1945), an exposition of basic philosophical concepts from antiquity to the time of his writing.

He is also known as a popularizer of Einstein's theory of relativity: “The ABC of Relativity” (1925). His general work “Human Cognition: Its Sphere and Boundaries” (1948) is devoted to issues of language and cognition.

Russell wrote many works on religion and the church, outlining those centuries-old claims to church institutions and religious dogmas that haunted many thinkers. His lecture is famous, later published as a separate brochure “Why I am not a Christian.”

During his long life, Russell the scientist wrote many books. Thanks to his lively manner of presentation, Russell's works were of interest not only to specialists and quickly became bestsellers. The writer Jorge Luis Borges once said that if he were destined to land on the moon forever and take with him only five books, one of them would be Russell's History of Western Philosophy.

Perhaps Bertrand Russell would be remembered only as a prominent philosopher and mathematician, a talented popularizer of science. But 1914 brought the scientist the deepest emotional shock. "The First World War began, and all my thoughts were focused on human suffering and madness," he later wrote. Russell was struck by the short-sightedness and irresponsibility of politicians, the fanaticism of the masses, and the heartlessness of intellectuals who talked about “the war that will end wars.” And he decides to act.

While England was overwhelmed by war hysteria, Russell took an active pacifist position. He joins the Anti-Conscription Movement, speaks at numerous rallies, and publishes anti-war pamphlets. The subversive activities of the titled pacifist attracted the attention of the authorities. In 1916, Russell was sentenced to a substantial fine, then disqualified from teaching at Trinity College, and in 1918 he was imprisoned for six months in Brixton Prison.

Russell's "anti-patriotism" cost the rebel aristocrat many friends from his circle. But thanks to his active anti-war activities, Bertrand Russell unexpectedly became a hero of the left. However, after the war, the philosopher himself became interested in socialism, pinning hopes on it for the harmonization of human society. In 1920, Russell visited Soviet Russia as part of a delegation of British Laborites. He met Lenin and Trotsky, Maxim Gorky and Alexander Blok, and traveled down the Volga.

At that time, it was customary in left-wing circles to lavish praise on the Bolsheviks. But Bertrand Russell broke the tradition in his book The Theory and Practice of Bolshevism (1920). “I cannot participate in the conspiracy of silence, which is supported by many Western socialists who have visited Russia,” he noted. Russell argued that Bolshevik ideology was a kind of religion with dogmas and scriptures, and Lenin and his circle were akin to religious fanatics and deeply hostile to freedom. Russell wrote:

He who, as I do, regards the free intellect as the chief engine of human progress, cannot fail to oppose Bolshevism as fundamentally as he opposes the Roman Catholic Church.

Today such an assessment of Bolshevism may seem banal, but at that time Russell’s demarche seriously angered “progressive” circles, which began to indiscriminately denigrate the author. Thus Bertrand Russell became a pariah for both the right and the left. But the feeling of responsibility for the fate of humanity no longer left him.

In the 20s and 30s, Russell wrote a lot on political topics. He did not change his negative attitude towards the Lenin-Stalin regime. Russell and Mussolini and Hitler aroused no less antipathy. One of his publications was called: “Scylla and Charybdis, or Communism and Fascism.” Well aware of the shortcomings of bourgeois democracy, the liberal thinker was convinced of its superiority over authoritarianism.

This quote by Bertrand Russell became famous.

The scientist was worried about a dangerous trend: he saw how science, which for centuries had been the bastion of freedom, was becoming an ally of authoritarian regimes, providing militant dictators with unprecedented means of destruction and control over the masses. Back in the early 1920s, long before the advent of the atomic bomb, Russell in one of his books recalled the Greek myth of Icarus: having received wings from his father Daedalus, he was destroyed by his own recklessness. The philosopher feared that the same fate could befall human civilization, trained to fly by modern Daedalian scientists.

Bertrand Russell was an astute diagnostician and better than anyone else he saw the dangerous diseases that threatened society. But the recipes for their treatment, offered by the kind-hearted English aristocrat, were often too naive. He dreamed of a secret organization of scientists that would develop a special “kindness serum” to be injected into government leaders. About a united and fair World Government. About the times when everyone will be able to go to the Himalayas or the North Pole, and people will satisfy their natural desire for adventure without getting involved in wars...

Russell married for the first time in 1894, but his marriage to a young, well-behaved American woman, Alice Smith, was unsuccessful and childless.

In 1919, Sir Bertrand met the ardent feminist Dora Black, who, like Russell, dreamed of children. Miss Black agreed to accompany Russell to China, where the philosopher was offered a chair at Peking University. When they returned to England in 1921, Dora was pregnant. The liberal couple formalized their relationship a month before the birth of little John. He was followed by his daughter Kate.

At the very beginning, the progressive partners agreed that their marriage would be free. But when Dora gave birth to a child from American journalist Griffin Barry, Russell could not stand it. In 1935, the couple divorced.

However, by that time Russell had already become close to Patricia Spence, his children’s teacher. The forty-year age difference did not interfere with their relationship. They married in 1936 and had a son, Conrad.

Family ups and downs had a great influence on Russell's social and journalistic activities. He became interested in teaching and, not daring to entrust John and Kate to conservative teachers, founded his own school. Russell was confident that rational methods of education could save the new generation from the mistakes of their parents, who plunged the Earth into the nightmare of a world war.

Then the philosopher turns to the problem of relationships between the sexes. In the book “Marriage and Morality” and other works, he came up with theses that were revolutionary by the standards of the 1930s.

Unorthodox views caused Russell a lot of trouble in the United States, where the thinker and his family moved in 1938. At the University of Chicago and the University of California, his lectures on philosophy and logic were a success, but when the Briton was invited to teach at the City College of New York, conservative circles began a campaign of protest. Soon the Council had to refuse the services of the philosopher.

While Russell was in the United States, World War II broke out in Europe. Hitler's invasion of Poland forced the staunch pacifist to somewhat adjust his views. And Russell in his articles supports the anti-Hitler coalition.

In 1944, Bertrand Russell returned to England and was surprised to find that he was no longer an outcast and the owner of a scandalous reputation. Labor won the next election, the ideas of liberalism were in the air, and Russell’s freethinking became quite in tune with public opinion. His views on marriage no longer seemed too eccentric even to the church. The long-awaited recognition came to the philosopher. He resumes teaching at Trinity College, regularly appears on the BBC, and publishes numerous articles and essays.

In 1950, Bertrand Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his book “Marriage and Morality” and his active journalistic work. At the awards ceremony, Russell, a member of the Swedish Academy, was named

one of the most brilliant representatives of rationalism and humanism, a fearless fighter for freedom of speech and freedom of thought in the West.

For the Western world, the gray-haired intellectual with a pipe has truly become a recognized authority. But behind the Iron Curtain, the Nobel laureate was not favored. Thus, the newspaper Pravda in 1951 published a pogrom article “Prophecies of an Obscurantist.” It quoted from an interview with Bertrand Russell to American correspondents: “Communism is a passing hobby that will disappear and be forgotten in fifty years.” Russell's name will be forgotten not in 50, but in 10 years! - retorted the indignant Pravda. Time has shown who was more insightful.

In 1952, Russell turned eighty, but the philosopher’s humorous remark - “Diagnostics has achieved such success that there are practically no healthy people left” - clearly does not apply to him. The cheerful old man files a divorce from Patricia Spence and marries for the fourth time - to a university teacher from the United States, Edith Finch.

And soon Russell is completely taken over by a new idea - the fight against the nuclear threat.

In 1955, together with Albert Einstein, Russell drew up a manifesto, which was subsequently signed by many other prominent scientists. The historical document stated:

We must learn to think differently. We must learn to ask ourselves not what steps must be taken to achieve military victory by the camp to which we belong, for such steps no longer exist; We must ask ourselves the following question: what steps can be taken to prevent armed struggle, the outcome of which will be catastrophic for all participants?

In the summer of 1957, the signatories of the manifesto gathered in the Canadian town of Pugwash. The conference of leading scientists from ten countries, including the USA and the USSR, marked the beginning of many years of productive dialogue. Meeting as individuals, members of the Pugwash Movement developed alternative approaches to addressing global challenges and threats. Over time, native governments began to listen to intellectuals: for example, the Treaty Banning Tests of Nuclear Weapons in Three Environments appeared.

However, Bertrand Russell himself soon moved away from the Pugwash movement, turning to more radical methods of influencing public opinion and those in power. He was prompted to take decisive action by the 1958 agreement on the stationing of US missile forces in the British Isles. According to Russell, England was thereby turning into a hostage of the Soviet-American confrontation. The scientist advocated Britain's neutrality and his country's unilateral renunciation of nuclear weapons.

Also in 1958, the restless pacifist Russell organized the Nuclear Disarmament Movement and then initiated a campaign of civil disobedience in England. Already the first such action - a sit-in demonstration near the building of the Ministry of Defense in February 1961 - attracted more than 20 thousand participants. Russell and his wife Edith were always in the thick of things.

The rally in memory of the victims of Hiroshima, held on August 6, 1961 in Hyde Park, turned into a scandal. Microphones were not traditionally allowed in this area of Hyde Park, but Bertrand Russell was the first to break this ban. Policemen immediately intervened, roughly snatching the microphone from the hands of the venerable peacekeeper. A month later, 89-year-old Russell was prosecuted for disturbing the peace and sentenced to Brixton Prison for the second time in his life. True, he served only a week of two months - violent public protests forced the British authorities to release the famous thinker.

Being in prison did not dampen Russell's anti-war fervor. In the alarming autumn of 1962, during the days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he literally bombarded Kennedy and Khrushchev with letters calling for peaceful dialogue. In 1964 he created the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, which is supported by funds received from the sale of his own archives.

Such actions radically changed the attitude towards Bertrand Russell in the USSR. The “bourgeois obscurantist” gave way to a noble fighter for peace. For the first time, Russell's philosophical works began to be published - however, with critical comments, extensive denominations and the stamp “For scientific libraries only.” On the contrary, in England and the United States, many did not like the philosopher’s pacifist activity. In right-wing circles they clearly hinted that the old lord was simply out of his mind.

Russell incurred especially many attacks in the second half of the 60s. Being an ideological opponent of communism, the philosopher, nevertheless, strongly condemned the actions of the United States in Vietnam:

It is a war pitting the richest and most powerful nation in the world against a nation of impoverished peasants who have been fighting for their independence for more than a quarter of a century.

In 1966, Bertrand Russell, together with the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, established the International War Crimes Tribunal for Vietnam. The Tribunal began collecting information about the bombing of civilian targets, the use of napalm and defoliants, and the inhumane treatment of prisoners.

Objectively, all these revelations played into the hands of the Soviet camp. But Moscow failed to “tame” the English humanist lord. In 1968, he sent an angry letter to Soviet Premier Kosygin protesting the August invasion of Czechoslovakia.

The fate of the world continued to worry Russell until the very end - three days before his death, on January 31, 1970, he dictated a message to the international parliamentary conference in Cairo, in which he condemned Israeli aggression in the Middle East.

Bertrand Russell died of influenza on February 2, 1970, at the age of 97, at his home. His body was cremated on February 5, 1970. In accordance with Russell's wishes, there was no religious ceremony; his ashes were scattered over the Welsh mountains.

In 1980, a modest monument to Russell was erected in one of London's squares.

Russell was once asked who could be considered a true gentleman. The famous Briton replied:

A gentleman is a person with whom everyone also involuntarily becomes a gentleman.

The dialogue with Bertrand Russell forced millions of contemporaries to adopt a piece of his humanism, thirst for knowledge, and devotion to the ideals of freedom. This means that the many years of efforts of the thinker, who sought to change the world for the better, were not in vain.

The following mathematical objects are named after Russell:

Russell's antinomy (paradox).

Based on materials from the article “The Three Passions of Bertrand Russell” by M. Dubinyansky (Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper, November 16, 2007) and Wikipedia.

The life of the English scientist and public figure Bertrand Russell is almost a century-long history of Europe. Born during the heyday of the British Empire, in the 20th century. he witnessed two terrible world wars, revolutions, the collapse of the colonial system and lived to see the nuclear era.

Marriage and Morality is a book for which Bertrand Russell received the Nobel Prize in 1950. It outlines not only a brief history of the emergence of the institutions of marriage and family, but also touches on issues that concern every man and every woman - about sexual feelings and love, about marriage and divorce, about family and raising children, about prostitution, eugenics and many others , playing an important role in our lives.

In the preface to the first edition of the book, Russell wrote: “I have tried to say what I think of the place of man in the universe and how capable he is of achieving well-being... In human affairs, as we can see, there are forces that promote happiness, and forces that contribute to misfortune. We do not know which of them will prevail, but to act wisely we must know about them."

"The History of Western Philosophy" is the most famous, fundamental work of B. Russell.
First published in 1945, this book is a comprehensive study of the development of Western European philosophical thought - from the rise of Greek civilization to the 1920s. Albert Einstein called it "a work of the highest pedagogical value, standing above the conflicts of groups and opinions."

Bertrand Russell - Science and Religion (Book Chapters)

Religion and science are two aspects of social life, of which the first has been important from the very beginning of the known history of the human mind, while the second, after a very short existence among the Greeks and Arabs, was revived only in the 16th century and since then has had an increasingly strong influence on ideas and on the entire lifestyle of modern man.

In the legacy of the English philosopher, Nobel Prize laureate, and active fighter for peace, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), the problems of atheism occupy a significant place. Russell is a passionate propagandist of free thought; his articles of an atheistic nature have such a revealing intensity that it is difficult to find in other modern non-Marxist authors.
Many of these articles, translated into Russian for the first time, are included in a collection intended for a wide range of readers.

Pearls of subtle humor mixed with witty phrases, each of which resembles an aphorism, are generously scattered on literally every page of this unique collection, which critics called a collection of “very serious jokes.”
So. Satan opens a doctor's office and promises his clients all sorts of shocks and excitement.

This collection presents the works of B. Russell, which characterize the doctrine he called logical atomism. The doctrine that interests us, as can be seen from the constant references, was created under the undoubted influence of the views of his student and then colleague L. Wittgenstein and, to a large extent, can be understood only in the perspective of the latter’s ideas. This dependence is ambiguous and the degree of its significance varies from job to job.

Bertrand Russell - Philosophical Dictionary of Mind, Matter, Morals

Excerpts from the writings of Lord Bertrand Russell. As a rule, each paragraph is from a different article. Bertrand
Russell - modern (1872-1970) philosopher, historian of philosophy and mathematician - one of the founders of modern mathematical logic. In addition, in 1952 he received the Nobel Prize in... literature.

May 18, 2012 - 140th anniversary of the birth of Bertrand Arthur William Russell
(English Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell; May 18, 1872 - February 2, 1970) - English mathematician, philosopher and public figure.

Bertrand Russell (1916).

My whole life was permeated by three passions, simple but irresistible in their power: the thirst for love, the thirst for knowledge and painful sympathy for the suffering of humanity. Like mighty winds, they carried me over the abyss of pain, dragging me from side to side and sometimes driving me to despair.
I was looking for love, first of all, because it makes my soul boil with delight, immeasurable delight - for a few such hours it would not be a pity to sacrifice your whole life. I was looking for love also because it drives away loneliness, the terrible loneliness of a trembling consciousness, whose gaze is directed beyond the edge of the Universe, into an incomprehensible lifeless abyss. Finally, I was looking for love also because in the unity of the two I saw, as if on the headpiece of a mysterious manuscript, a prototype of paradise, which was revealed to poets and saints. This is what I was looking for and this is what I finally found, although it resembles a miracle.
With no less passion I strove for knowledge. I longed to penetrate the human heart. I longed to know why the stars shine. He sought to solve the riddle of Pythagoreanism - to understand the power of number over changing nature. And I managed to understand something, albeit quite a bit.
Love and knowledge - when they were given into my hands - drew me upward, to the heavenly heights, but compassion brought me back to earth. The cries of pain echoed in the heart: starving children, victims of violence, helpless old people who became a hated burden for their own children, this whole world where endless loneliness, poverty and pain turn human life into a parody of itself. I so wanted to moderate the evil, but I was unable to, and I myself am suffering.
This was my life. It was worth living, and if I could, I would willingly live it first.

Bertrand Russell. Autobiography. What do I live for?

Russell, like Voltaire, was the "laughing philosopher" of his generation. He had the face of a cheerful, animated elf and a thin, aristocratic body. A mind that was irreverent to any authority and a magnetism of nature were part of his insatiable appetite for life. At the same time, he was, like Voltaire, an unusually passionate person. In some newspaper photographs taken during his violent speeches, he looked like an avenging angel. Throughout his life, Russell sharply criticized traditional views in all areas of human life, from sex, education, religion, to women's rights, politics and the nuclear arms race.
Russell was born into one of the oldest and most famous families in England.

Bertrand Arthur William Russell born in Trelleck (Wales) 18 May 1872. He was left without parents at an early age and was raised by a stern and ascetic Presbyterian grandmother.

John Russell, Viscount Amberley (1842-1876). Father of Bertrand Russell.
He lived in the shadow of his father, the famous statesman Earl Russell. However, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1865 to 1868, when support for the birth control project ended any chance of him continuing in public life. Then he turned to literary activity. He did not have a strong constitution, suffered constantly from bronchitis, and died early from grief after the death of his wife and daughter in 1874 from diphtheria

Lowes Cato Dickinson. John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (8 August 1792 – 28 May 1878). Lord John Russell - grandfather of Bertrand Russell, 1st Earl Russell - British statesman, 32nd and 38th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1846 to 1852. and from 1865 to 1866, leader of the Whigs. Bertrand remembered his grandfather as a kindly old invalid who spent his days reading Hansard.

Lady Stanley of Alderley. The fearsome Lady Stanley is a lady from the eighteenth century, according to her grandson."

Lady John Russell, Frances Anna Maria Elliot Russell - Bertrand's grandmother.

When I turned fourteen, my grandmother's limited mental horizons began to irritate me, and Puritan views on morality seemed extreme. But in my childhood, I responded to her great affection for me and tireless concern for my well-being with ardent love, and all this together gave me a great sense of security, so necessary for children. I remember lying in bed—I was four, maybe five years old—and the thought of how terrible it would be when my grandmother died kept me awake. But when she actually died - I was already married then - I took it for granted. However, now, looking back, I understand that as I grew older, I increasingly felt how much she influenced my formation. I have always credited her fearlessness, concern for the public good, contempt for conventions, indifference to prevailing opinion; they aroused my admiration and desire to imitate them. My grandmother gave me a Bible, on the flyleaf of which she wrote her favorite sayings, including this: “Do not follow the majority for evil.”* Thanks to these words, which were full of special meaning for her, I was never afraid of being among those who remain in the minority

Bertrand Russell. Autobiography

Katharine Russell, Lady Amberley (1842-1874), daughter of Lord Stanley of Alderley, married Viscount Amberley in 1864, having three children between 1865 and 1872, of whom Bertrand was the last. Like her husband, she advocated birth control, religious freedom, and even free love. She died when Bertrand was too young to remember her. Russell described his mother as "energetic, lively, witty, serious, original, and fearless"

"Frank", John Francis Stanley Russell (1865-1931) - older brother of Bertrand Russell and his sister Rachel (1868-1874). In July 1874, Rachel (aged 6) and Bertrand's mother died of diphtheria.

Pembroke Lodge, in Richmond Park - Russell's childhood home was given by Queen Victoria to Lord John Russell and his wife in 1847 as a reward for services to the nation.

Bertrand grew up as a shy and sensitive child and suffered from what he considered to be many “sins.”

Russell in 1876, in which he was left an orphan at the age of four

"Bertie" as recorded in his Aunt Agatha's photo album

At the age of 18, Russell rejected religion and entered Trinity College, Cambridge University in 1890, where he began to study mathematics in order to understand whether “anything in this world could be known.” This turned into his life's work. He met the young George Edward Moore and came under the influence of Alfred North Whitehead, who recommended him to the Cambridge Apostles.

Russell in 1893 as a BA in mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge

At the age of 20, he fell in love with 15-year-old Alys Pearsall Smith.

Alys Russell (Pearsall Smith) 1892

Alice lived in Philadelphia and was from a prominent Quaker family. Russell decided that he would definitely marry Ellis, and kissed her for the first time 4 months after he proposed to her. His grandmother actively opposed this, calling Alice nothing more than a “child thief” and a “cunning and treacherous woman.” Young people, meanwhile, began to actively discuss the question of how often they would have sex when they became husband and wife. They, however, resisted temptation and did not lose their virginity until their marriage in 1894.
Some sexual problems that arose after marriage were quickly resolved. Alice believed that sex was given to women by God as a punishment, and Russell “didn’t even consider it necessary” to argue on this issue. They both believed in free love, but neither of them practiced it: the first five years of their married life were happy and highly moral.

Bertrand Russell, Alys Russell 1895

Around 1901, however, Russell fell in love with Evelina Whitehead, the gifted wife of his collaborator A. N. Whitehead. Their relationship was purely platonic, but it influenced Russell so much that he revised many of his previous views. During a bicycle ride, which he took completely alone, he suddenly realized that he did not love Alice, and immediately admitted it to her. He later wrote: "I did not want to be cruel to her, but in those days I believed that in intimate life one should always tell the truth." Over the next nine years, Russell and Alice carefully maintained the appearance of a happy family life, but they occupied separate bedrooms and were unusually unhappy. Russell further wrote: "About twice a year I tried to restore our sexual relationship to relieve her suffering, but I was no longer attracted to her and these attempts were unsuccessful."
In 1910, Russell met Lady, the wife of Liberal MP Philip Morrell. Russell described Lady Ottoline as follows: "She was very tall, with a long thin face, a little like a horse's, and she had magnificent hair."

Lady Ottoline Morrell

Lady Ottoline Morrell

They carefully hid their sexual relationship, because Ottoline did not want to leave her husband and did not want to embarrass him. Philip knew about their connection and highly appreciated their prudence and secrecy. Russell left Alice that same year. They met again only in 1950 as “good friends.” Russell later admitted: “Ottoline almost destroyed the Puritan in me.” Despite their frequent violent quarrels, they remained lovers until 1916 and close friends until her death in 1938.
Russell was no longer a Puritan. After 1910, he never again led a monogamous lifestyle into old age, although he was married three more times. His private life was a real chaos of serious romances, light flirting and meaningless sexual relationships, and all this constantly threatened to result in a noisy and stormy scandal. This, fortunately, did not happen. In his letters to Ottoline and his other mistresses, he honestly spoke about the existence of other women in his life. His mistresses, however, were surprisingly calm about both his adventures and each other.

Bertrand Russell was never truly part of the Bloomsbury group. Although he shared her pacifism, atheism, anti-imperialism and general progressive ideas, he despised her apathetic despondency: she in turn rejected him. He thought that Strachey had distorted Moore's Principles to justify homosexuality. If anything, he felt that the book was shoddy. “You don’t like me, do you, Moore?” - he asked. Moore replied, after long and conscientious consideration, “No.” It is noteworthy that Russell, unlike Strachey, actually fought for pacifism during the Great War and went to prison for it. He read “Eminent Victorians” in Brixton prison and laughed “so loudly that the guard came to my cell and told me not to forget that prison is a place of punishment.” But his considered verdict was that the book was superficial, “imbued with the sentimentalism of an old-fashioned girls' school.” With his four marriages, his insatiable philandering, his fifty-six books on the widest range of subjects ever covered by a single author, his incurable desire for active participation, Russell was more hardened than any of the Bloomsbury group.

Bertrand Russell 1894

Russell is the author of many works in the field of mathematical logic. The most important of them - “Principles of Mathematics” (1910-1913) (co-authored with A. Whitehead) - proves the correspondence of the principles of mathematics to the principles of logic and the possibility of defining the basic concepts of mathematics in terms of logic. It has been noted that Russell's contribution to mathematical logic is the most significant and fundamental since Aristotle.

Russell's book Problems of Philosophy (1912) is still considered in Anglo-Saxon countries the best introduction to philosophy.

As a convinced pacifist, Russell became a member and then the leader of the Anti-Mobilization Committee in 1914. His views of those years were reflected in the book “Principles of Social Reconstruction” (1916). In 1918, for his pacifist activities, for calls for refusal to serve in the army, he was imprisoned for six months. At the same time, the famous Russian Bolshevik Maxim Litvinov was in the same prison.

Politically, Russell combined the principles of liberalism with a kind of benevolent, libertarian socialism, similar to but different from Fabianism. During this period of his life, Russell was a member of the Liberal Party and called himself a socialist.

In Roads to Freedom (1917), Russell defined socialism as the establishment of public ownership of land and capital. In his book In Praise of Idleness (1935), he pointed out that the definition of socialism must consist of two parts, political and economic. The economic part presupposes the concentration of exclusive economic power in the hands of the state. The political part lies in the demand for the democratic character of the highest political power.

Russell initially spoke hopefully of the “communist experiment.” In 1920, Russell visited Soviet Russia and met with Lenin and Trotsky. The result of the trip and disappointments was the book “The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism” (1920).

In this book, Russell noted that Bolshevism is not just a political doctrine, but also a religion with its own dogmas and scriptures. In his opinion, Lenin was like a religious fanatic and did not like freedom. In The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism Russell writes:

I came to Russia as a communist, but communication with those who have no doubts strengthened my own doubts a thousandfold - not about communism itself, but about the wisdom of such a reckless adherence to a creed that for the sake of it people are ready to endlessly multiply adversity, suffering, and poverty.

Subsequently, Russell harshly criticized the Stalinist regime and the methods of states proclaiming Marxism and communism. In 1934, he published the article “Why I Am Not a Communist.” He fought against theories preaching the absorption of the individual by the state, opposed fascism and Bolshevism (“The Origin of Fascism” (1935), “Scylla and Charybdis, or Communism and Fascism” (1939)).

Bertrand Russell in 1916

In 1914, during his first lecture tour of America, Russell began an intimate relationship with Helen Dudley, the daughter of a Chicago surgeon. He invited her to come visit him in England. In a letter to Ottoline, Russell, honestly admitting everything, wrote: “Darling, do not think that this means that I began to love you less because of this.” When Helen arrived in England, Russell's passion had already subsided, and he felt "absolute indifference" towards her. By this time, he had already begun an affair with the talented and beautiful Irene Cooper Ullis. Irene, however, was afraid of a scandal, and Russell hated all the precautions she carefully used to disguise the relationship. Russell once told Ottoline: “And the devil pulled me to make love to her.”
In 1916, Russell met Lady by Constance Malleson. She was 21 years old, she was an actress with the stage name Colette O'Neill

Lady Constance Malleson ("Colette O"Niel") (married to the actor Miles Malleson) 1917-1919

Lady Constance Malleson (Colette O'Niel)

Her marriage to actor Miles Malleson was, by mutual agreement, an "open" one. Russell remained her lover until 1920 and often spent his holidays with Constance and her husband. They renewed their love affair three more times over the next 30 years, and Colette always sent him roses on his birthday. Russell wrote to Ottoline: “My feelings for Colette cannot be called even a small shadow of the feelings that I have for you.”

Russell longed to have children. In 1919 he met Dora Black, a feminist who also passionately dreams of having children, but without marriage and forced monogamy. In the midst of his affair with Colette, regularly and honestly telling everything to Ottoline, Russell went to China, where he was offered a position at Peking University. Dora went with him. When they returned to England in August 1921, Dora was nine months pregnant. "We didn't take any precautions from the beginning," Russell told a friend. Russell and Dora decided to enter into a marriage alliance in which each of them was allowed to have love affairs with other partners. They got married a month before the baby was born. Some believe that during this time he had an affair with Vivienne Hay-Wood, T. S. Eliot's first wife.

Vivienne on the left, with Peter Stainer and Mildred Woodruff, photographed by Lady Ottoline Morrell in 1921

In 1927, Russell and Dora founded an experimental school. Beacon Hil

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Dora Russell, John Russell, and Katharine Russell

The atmosphere at school was extremely liberal. In it, in particular, the right of all school teachers to free love was defended. Russell also had several affairs with young teachers. While Russell was having fun at his school and during his lecture tours across America, Dora began an affair with the American journalist Griffin Barry and gave birth to two children with him.

Russell clearly did not like this application of his theory in practice. In their marriage contract, in particular, he included the following clause: “If she has a child not from me, this will be followed by a divorce.” Russell and Dora divorced in 1935.

Bertrand Russell, John Russell, Katharine Russell

Russell always believed that he would never know a woman until he slept with her. In his work "Marriage and Morality" he advocated trial and open marriage unions. In 1929, such ideas seemed extremely radical. He believed that he simply “cannot physically like the same woman for more than 7 or 8 years.” Dora wanted to have another child with him, but Russell “considered it impossible.” His affair with Joan Falwell, then 21, was typical of Russell. Many years later, Joan wrote: "After our third dinner together, I began to sleep with him... This continued for more than three years." However, Russell was too old for her and she left him.

After the death of his elder brother Frank, in 1931, Russell became the 3rd Earl of Russell, was elected to Parliament, and from 1944 took an active part in the House of Lords.

In 1930, Russell began a long affair with Patricia Spence, the young governess of his children. They got married in 1936, and the following year a son was born into the family.

Patricia ("Peter") Russell 1935

Bertrand Russell, Patricia Russell, Kate Russell, John Russell.1939.

In ethics and politics, Russell adhered to the position of liberalism, expressed disgust for war and violent, aggressive methods in international politics - in 1925 he signed the “Manifesto against conscription.”

Based on his pacifist convictions, he welcomed the Munich Agreement of 1938.

He partially revised his views with the outbreak of World War II. Believing that any war is a great evil, he admitted the possibility of a situation where it could be the lesser of the evils, referring to Hitler's capture of Europe.

1940

Bertrand Russell, G.E. Moore (1941)

Bertrand Russell, Albert Schweitzer,

Bertrand Russell, Conrad Russell. USA in August 1942

Bertrand Russell, Patricia Russell, Conrad Russell in Cambridge in April 1945.

During the Second World War, the family lived in the USA. Patricia began to feel more and more unhappy. Russell's daughter described their family life this way: "She realized that her marriage did not bring her joy. His passion ... was replaced by courtesy, which could not satisfy the romantically inclined young woman." In 1946, Russell, who was already over 70, began an affair with the young wife of a Cambridge University lecturer. This affair lasted three years. Colette, whom he last met in 1949, wrote him a bitter letter: “I see everything quite clearly now. What a terrible end to all our years spent together... Three times I became part of your life, and three times you threw me into side."

This is a photograph of Bertrand Russell sitting in a hospital bed in Trondheim, Norway after he was rescued from a flying boat crash, Oct. 8, 1948.

Patricia Spence divorced Russell in 1952. That same year he married his old friend Edith Finch, a writer from the USA. Russell finally had the opportunity to cool his “abnormally strong sexual instincts” as he turned 80 years old. His family life with Edith was happy. On his last birthday, he, as always, received a gift from Colette - a bouquet of red roses.

Bertrand Russell, Edith Russell 1950

Bertrand Russell, Edith Russell Russell and Edith at their wedding on December 15, 1952.

Honorary Member of the British Academy (1949). In 1950 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature "...in recognition of the varied and significant works in which he champions humanistic ideals and freedom of thought."

Bertrand Russell posing for the bronze bust made by the famous British sculptor, Jacob Epstein.(1953)

During the 1950s and 1960s, Russell became increasingly involved in international discussions. Immediately after World War II, he insisted that the West use its then-monopoly on nuclear weapons and force the USSR to cooperate in maintaining world peace. However, the unfolding of the Cold War and the proliferation of nuclear weapons convinced him that humanity was under threat of destruction. “It’s better to be red than dead,” this is how this staunch anti-communist now reasoned.

The Russell-Einstein Manifesto led to the organization of the Pugwash Scientists' Movement. Russell joins demonstrations to ban nuclear weapons. Following one of these demonstrations, he was jailed in London (at the age of 89), where he remained for a week.

The Evening Standard cartoon refers to Russell's week-long prison sentence in September 1961.

In 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Russell maintained intensive correspondence with John F. Kennedy and N. S. Khrushchev, calling for a conference of heads of state to avoid nuclear conflict. These letters, as well as letters to the heads of other states of the world community, were published in the collection “Victory without Arms” (1963).

In the last years of his life, Russell passionately fought against US intervention in Vietnam, in 1963 he created the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, and in 1966 he organized the International War Crimes Tribunal. He also condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Jack Rosen. Caricature of Bertrand Russell. May 10, 1960.