The book presents the main works of the outstanding Russian thinker and theologian Ivan Mikhailovich Kontsevich (1893-1965) “Acquiring the Holy Spirit in the ways of Ancient Rus'” and “Optina Pustyn and its time.” These works reveal the spiritual history of Holy Rus' - Russian civilization as a special grace-filled property of the Russian people, making them a new chosen people, a God-bearing people. The true goal of Christian life is to acquire the Holy Spirit of God. The Russian people were aware of their task as a God-bearing people to serve as the guardian of the truths of the faith, giving anyone the opportunity to fall to this source of living water, which opens the path to eternal and blessed life. The mission of Russian chosenness is not in the desire for dominance over other peoples, but in sacrificial primacy in the fight against world evil.

ISBN 978-5-902725-43-5

Institute of Russian Civilization, 2009.