Panel: RELIGIOUS ROOTS OF TRANSHUMANISM AND COSMISM: METHODOLOGICALLY GROUNDED APPROACHES



592.4 - CONSTRUCTING POSTERITY: IMMORTALITY AND THE SACRALIZATION OF THE COLLECTIVE IN RUSSIAN COSMISM

AUTHORS:
Baron G.B. (DREST Unimore ~ Turin ~ Italy)
Text:
In recent years, Russian Cosmism has re-emerged as a significant reference point within the broader "cultural turn" of contemporary Russian political ideology. This revival is visible not only in academic discourse but also in state-supported platforms that seek to articulate a broader narrative on Russia as the bearer of a distinct civilizational truth, positioned as an epistemic and spiritual alternative to Western modernity. A prominent example is the Inventing the Future International Symposium, which brought together scientists, philosophers and political figures to discuss technological development in Russia and humanity's long-term destiny. Russian Cosmism is particularly significant in this respect because it frames posterity as a form of collective immortality, linking the survival of the social body to the ethical and technological engagement of its members. Recent scholarship by Lorusso (2020) and Galofaro (2021) has shown how posterity within a text can be constructed both as a simulacrum and as an active agent. Building on this insight, the present paper argues that Russian Cosmism operates as a constructed medium of posterity: it not only projects a future community but also articulates multiple possible worlds in which Russia's continuity is secured, even under the persistent horizon of civilizational confrontation with the West. The analysis therefore examines selected Cosmist texts, from Fyodorov's writings to contemporary technological projects such as the 2045 Initiative, as attempts to trace coherent pathways within the often contradictory semiotic space of cultural memory. These pathways take the form of chains of homologies among values: sequences of structurally analogous elements that reproduce the same normative orientation across theological, philosophical, and technological domains. Through these chains, the Cosmist "Common Task" is constructed simultaneously as an anticipated future and as a program of transformative action.