Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev ( ) (March 18 [O.S. March 6] 1874 March 24, 1948) was a Russian religious and political philosopher. Berdyaev was born in Kiev into an aristocratic military family. He spent a solitary childhood at home, where his father''s library allowed him to read widely. He read Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Kant when only fourteen years old and excelled at languages.