On the question of the history of the formation of Russian сosmism

The cultural phenomenon of Russian cosmism was fully revealed in Russia during the period of Gorbachev’s «perestroika». The group of thinkers, which is usually attributed to the Russian cosmists, was first identified in the late sixties of the XX century by the participants of Scientific Readings in memory of K. E. Tsiolkovsky. The first mention of the concept of «Russian cosmism» by Western researchers is contained in a monograph by M. Hagemeister published in 1989. The study of the literary and philosophical heritage of N. F. Fedorov by Western researchers was previously conducted within the framework of the concept of Prometheanism. In the first two decades of the XXI century, both Western and domestic researchers are dominated by an erroneous idea of N. F. Fedorov as the “ancestor of Russian cosmism”, as well as K. E. Tsiolkovsky, A. L. Chizhevsky and V. I. Vernadsky as spokespeople for his ideas. The first article by S. G. Semenova with the concept of Russian cosmism with N. F. Fedorov as its founder was published in vol. 9 of the Concise Literary Encyclopedia in 1978. Hopes for the «resurrection of the fathers» are close only to the followers of the teachings of N. F. Fedorov. K. E. Tsiolkovsky, A. L. Chizhevsky, V. I. Vernadsky and other major Russian cosmists were not supporters of N. F. Fedorov’s «doctrine of resurrection». Modern followers of N. F. Fedorov’s teaching use the concept of «Russian cosmism» as an influential trend in Russian philosophical and scientific thought to promote their religious ideas. The essence of the teachings of the Fedorovites is transhumanism, which is disguised under Christianized moral and ethical ideas.