Soren Aaby Kierkegaard

KIERKEGAARD, SOREN AABY Danish philosopher, was born in Copenhagen on May 5, 1813. After graduating at the university in 184o, he travelled in Germany, and in 1842 settled in his native town where he died on Nov. II, In 1843 he published his chief work, Euten—Eller (Either—or), a discussion of the ethical and aesthetic ideas of life. His philo sophy was a reaction against the speculative thinkers—Steffens (q.v.), Niels Treschow (1751-1833) and F. C. Sibbern (1785 1872) ; it was based on the absolute dualism of faith and know ledge, and of thought and reality. In his last years, especially in his Ojeblikke, he denounced the theology and practice of the State church on the ground that religion was a matter for the individual soul.

See his posthumous autobiography, Syns punktetfor min Forfatter virksomhed ("Standpoint of my Literary Work") ; Georg Brandes, Soren Kierkegaard (Copenhagen, i877) ; H. Hoffcling, Soren Kierke gaard als philosoph (Stuttgart 1896).

KIEV

(Keref), a city of the Ukrainian S.S.R. in 5o° 30' N., 3o° 28' E., on right bank of the Dnieper. Pop. (1933) 538,60o. The city is of peculiar interest, for its rise was the first step in the Slav domination of the land that was to become Russia. Situated on the navigable Dnieper, in a region where the broad corridor between the Carpathians and the Pripet marshes opens towards the illimitable steppe, it was a critical point in the eastward expansion of the Slays. East of the marshes, it was possible to turn north along the Dnieper and a string of primitive markets was thus formed which attracted Varangian traders. Its position on the soil map at the northern boundary of the black earth zone, with the less fertile forest soil to the north is instructive in view of Mayor's comment that after the first period of nuclear trade development, the subsequent history of Russia is the history of the exploitation of the soil. Even in the early period of the foundation of Kiev, the hunters trading in furs, honey, wax and slaves were beginning to engage in agriculture; the Russian Annals state that they paid tribute partly in furs and partly in the products of the rala or old Russian plough (Kluchevsky, Course of Russian History, Moscow, 1906-10).

History.

At what precise date a settlement first existed is unknown, but archaeology indicates that the plains of the Dnieper were inhabited in Palaeolithic times, and burial mounds (kurgans) of subsequent populations are present in abundance. According to

Nestor's legend Kiev was founded in 864 by three brothers Kiy, Shchek and Khoriv, and after their death was seized by two Varan gians (Scandinavians) Askold and Dir, followers of Rurik, also in 864, but the ancient trading link along the Dnieper is far older than this, and the Kiev which they captured was already sufficiently mature to be paying tribute to the Khazars. The princes of Kiev became the organizers and defenders of the flotilla of small craft that sailed each June down the Dnieper to the Black sea and Tsargrad (Byzantium), and through the Sea of Azov, the Don and Volga made contacts with eastern Islam. It was mainly a barter trade, Byzantine silks, stuffs, gold, wine and fruit in exchange for Russian furs, honey, wax, corn and slaves, and few Byzantine coins reached Russia, though colonial Roman coins of the 3rd and 4th centuries, and silver dirhems stamped at Samarkand, Balkh, Merv, etc., were found in 1869. By 88o Kiev had become the capital of the Varangian-Russian principality. From Kiev, too, marauding expeditions against Byzantium were made in the 9th and loth centuries until, in 988, Prince Vladimir was baptized in the Dnieper and thus made Kiev the first home of the Greek Church in Russia.

The link with the Byzantine East survived the fall of Kiev; the decision of Vladimir and his council to reject Islam and Western Christianity and accept the Eastern, Greek or Orthodox faith had momentous consequences quite apart from its cultural importance. Its political implications are written in the union of the Orthodox Russian States under Moscow, in the deep cleavage between the Poles and the Russians and in the determination to free the country from the Mussulman yoke. Under the Kiev princes, Oleg, Svyatoslav, St. Vladimir and Yaroslav the Law giver, the principality of Kiev developed and the city became the centre of a wealthy court and the beauty and number of its churches was great, though the "400 churches and 8 markets" reported by Thietmar of Merseburg is probably an exaggeration. The learning of its princes and the beautiful workmanship of the frescoes and mosaics, the gold and silver ornaments, and the illuminated manuscripts bear witness to the culture of the ancient city. But civil strife among the Slav princes broke out and in 1169 Kiev was captured by Andrey Bogolyubski and never re covered its supremacy.