The creative youth association "Demiurge" was founded in 1975 at the Leningrad Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics (LIPMO), now called the IPMO St. Petersburg University.

I, Smirnov A.A., was a second-year student at the philosophy faculty of Leningrad State University (LSU) in that time. The second year is traditionally considered very important in the life of every student. It is here, when the "studious" finally adapts to independent work, that the important time of choosing a specialization comes, that is, in fact, choosing your future professional destiny. And here it is very important for every young person to meet a "Teacher" who, by his example, shows where and what to strive for, forms the life strategy, values ​​and ideals of the "student". I was very lucky in this regard, since I met such a person, and he had a decisive influence o­n my formation and further development. For me, such a "Teacher" was (and still is) the philosopher Leo Mikhailovich Semashko, who in 1975 read a special course o­n ancient philosophy in our group of the philosophy faculty.

Leo Mikhailovich invited us to participate in the creation and work of the students' and workers' club he called "Demiurge" ("Creator"). The motto of this association was the call of the ancient Greek sages: "Know yourself. Through thorns to the stars." It should be noted that he approached its creation in an extremely non-random way that is, relying o­n o­ntological foundations and extensive experience in philosophical and sociological research. He managed to develop a fundamentally new, spheral and holistic concept of society, based o­n its laws of the holistic, eternal spheres dialectics. Leo spent his entire adult life developing (for the first time since Pitirim Sorokin) an holistic system of macrosociology, the social thinking integrity in which was achieved precisely by understanding the spheres of society as constant components of all its changes and its adequate, spheral conceptual language. The social spheres harmony is the source of a peaceful, just and creative state of any social organism, starting with the family, therefore the Demiurge unobtrusively taught its members "peace comes from the spheres and spherons harmony" that became the motto and goal of the peacemaking GGHA 30 years later.

Based o­n his dialectical models, Semashko proposed, o­n an experimental basis, a spheral, integral structure of the Demiurge club consisting of its four microgroups (m/g), modeling the eternal, spheral social structure of humanity, its four equally necessary and sufficient spheres of social production, which include four equally necessary and sufficient spherons (classes) of the population employed in these spheres. True, there was no concept of "spherons" at that time; instead, a palliative but more understandable term "spheral classes" was used ("Russika Encyclopedia", 2005: http://www.russika.ru/t.php?t=2969). This structure determined the content of the Demiurge main goal - harmonious, four-spheral development of the personality in it, creating favorable conditions, experience and skills for the harmonious self-development of each of its members for the future. The Demiurge functions and main areas of work followed from this fundamental goal. At the same time, it formed the foundations of spheral thinking, which after 50 years of development created the substantiated core of the "Perpetual Peace Science", presented here in its first Primer. Therefore, with full right, the Demiurge can be defined as the first practical, theoretically organized sprout of spheral thinking and its peace science in Russia, which determined the meaning of life of its creator.

In organizing the work of the "Demiurge", Lev Mikhailovich managed to take into account the subjective mechanism for creating a workable and effective team. Theorists and practitioners of creative team formation note that each person potentially has the need for self-actualization and self-realization. Why do we need self-actualization, what is its necessity? It is necessary so that an individual can get a social environment ready to provide him with a certain resource. He must become at least useful to someone, behave in such a way that society constantly needs the results of his efforts, so that it is objectively interested in him. This is self-actualization. Being relevant to other people, always in demand by them, throughout life - the most important human need.

Surprisingly, the Demiurge at that time also solved such an important problem of world history as the problem of achieving personal happiness. When do we feel happy? When someone needs us, someone is waiting for us, is happy to see us and hopes for us, and we, in turn, cannot imagine life without these people, without our partners in social interaction. In the language of social philosophy, this means that the community in whose activities we participate provides a person with effective and comfortable partnerships. Is it possible to be happy without being relevant, socially inclusive? – Now we understand that it is not.

But is self-actualization alone enough for happiness? Self-realization is also needed for happiness. It is another essential need and is directly related to the effectiveness of our behavior. Efficiency should be understood as maximum effectiveness with a minimum of costs for its implementation. People always strive to do what they do best, with a minimum of ineffective costs. This is self-realization.

It follows from this that happiness is the state of a person who is in demand precisely for those results in which he most fully and effectively expresses himself (his potential).

In Demiurge all conditions for self-actualization and self-realization of each of its members were created. This gave a feeling of a full-blooded, happy life, since happiness is a social partnership o­n the conditions of demand and fulfillment. The question: "Are you happy?" essentially means: "With whom are you co-participating? Do you have a common cause with comfortable and productive comrades?" Therefore, my comrades in "Demiurge", and I myself were very happy young people at that time. Then I even thought that in the distant future, all people will live the way we live in our team.

Despite the practical focus of the activities in the Demiurge four microgroups**, modeling the eternal social structure of the population four spherons (spheral classes) in Semashko’s integral sociology, especially when Demiurge became a workers' and students' club and settled in the workers' dormitory of the Kirov Plant in 1976, its activities also implemented the main provisions of the "Russian idea", laconically expressed by Berdyaev in the formula that "everyone is responsible for everyone". The Russian idea arose as an overcoming of the o­ne-sidedness of the Westerners and Slavophiles, as a synthesis of the two positions into a single theory of world culture. The Westerners treated Russia as a child who needed to be raised according to Western models, the Slavophiles - as a mother who needed to be loved and preserved.

In the Russian idea, the organic unity of the general and the individual found its expression in the concept of "sobornost". As Arseniy Gulyga notes, this is the grain of the Russian idea in its world-bearing nature, the central concept of Russian philosophy, a word that cannot be translated into other languages, even into German - the most comprehensive in terms of philosophical terminology.

Sobornost is the cornerstone concept of our time, living under the sign of two polar opposite systems: absolute individualism and absolute collectivism. In Demiurge, an attempt was made to overcome this opposition based o­n the system-spheral approach developed by Semashko.

Fifty years after the association Demiurge creation, I have an absolutely positive assessment of this unique social experiment, the experience of which was not in vain, embodied in the GGHA, in its fundamental innovative achievements of spheral thinking, its "Perpetual Peace Science" and its spheral AI, the seeds of which were born in it. I sadly state in the words of the song: "It's a pity that those years will not return, o­nly in the heart will respond with sweet pain." Thank you, Demiurge!

* The Russian text of this appendix is ​​published here:

https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=1138

The Russian original of this source, along with many other memoirs of the Demiurge’s student club members is published here: https://www.peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=305

** 1. Social m/g (sociosphere), responsible for the harmonious, spheral development of the Demiurge members; 2. Information m/g (infosphere), responsible for their information and spiritual development; 3. Organizational m/g (orgsphere), responsible for their organizational and managerial development; 4. Material m/g (technosphere), responsible for their material and labor development. This was the Demiurge stable division.

Smirnov Andrey Anatolievich, PhD, associate professor, graduated from the philosophy faculty of St. Petersburg University in 1978, teacher of the Novgorod thought-technical school, member of the Association "Analytics" scientific and methodological council. The author of more than ten textbooks and more than o­ne hundred and forty publications o­n the problems of political science, sociology, conflictology, methodology, management, technology of thinking and the history of Russian entrepreneurship, teaching aids o­n communication for analysts and o­n modular training of manager-analysts. Participant in the publication and coauthor of the first dictionaries in our country: "Analytical Dictionary" (Moscow, 2015) and "Civilization Analytics: Conceptual Paradigm" (Moscow, 2017). Author of the book "Great Novgorod - to the Great Civilization" (Great Novgorod, 2022). Methodologist-game technician with 34 years of experience. Personal page o­n the GGHA website: https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=813

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Svetlana Vetrova

My "Demiurge"

This piece of my life sits deep - deep under a pile of other events, meetings, years... Although, as it seems to me, "Demiurge" had a very strong influence o­n the formation of my personality.

It was 1977, I was a student at LIPMO, the head of the group, listening to lectures o­n philosophy. I like it, in our technical university; it was a humanitarian outlet that my versatile nature needed. In many ways, the attitude to the subject is formed through the teacher personality, I was lucky - it was Leo Semashko, an incredibly energetic, charming person and such people know how to captivate others. So he invited students to the "Demiurge" club. And I came to the club meeting. I liked the idea and the people who gathered around Leo. Little by little, I was imbued with the mood, frankly speaking, innovative in that stagnant time. I remember how my dad was afraid that I had ended up in some kind of "sect".

The life in our club was very active: weekly "symposiums" - that's what our meetings were called. Everyone had to bring something "new", prepare, share what they had read, seen, preferably o­n the topic. After all, all the members of our club belonged to different micro groups, to whom what was closer - for me, personal creativity, self-improvement. Everything you learned went into the common piggy bank, so the meetings seemed full and short, since people were bursting with ideas for holding evenings, hikes, clean-up days, meetings with interesting people, role-playing games, joint holidays, someone was more interested in theory. The names of Brodsky, Voznesenski and Tarkovsky were revealed to me in the club and then few of my peers knew them yet. There were wonderful poetry evenings. And what a memorable holiday of the Russian "Maslenitsa" we arranged for ourselves and others...

I am sure that some destinies changed thanks to Demiurge: the guys from the workers went to study, graduated from universities, their social circle and quality of life changed. Yura Zaklinski became a geologist, Sergey Busov teaches philosophy. And it was very useful for us, "students", to communicate with "workers", not as infantile as we were. Everyone was young and energetic, and thanks to Leo, people gathered who wanted to "give"! All these factors gave the Demiurge club phenomenon.

The most important thing that I took away from our meetings: "The soul must work day and night!" My clubmates turned out to be interesting personalities, very original: Andrey Smirnov, Nikolay Strelkov, Vladimir Strelkov, Sergey Busov, Anya Shumova (Smirnova), Yura Zaklinski, Ira Zeitlina (Medvedeva), Andrey Chechik and many others. It is not for us to judge how harmonious personalities we have become, but the process of striving is important. The life has scattered us, its own affairs and problems. But the vector was set for everyone precisely. I think I am not the o­nly o­ne who feels warmth in the soul with the word "demiuric".

Since then, "harmony" has always been with me, in addition to being a musician, I worked for a long time in the aesthetic group for harmonious development of personality "Umnitsa", our children ranged from o­ne and a half to six years old. Demiurgic principles were also applied in our practice. It was joyful to watch how parents changed in the process of communicating with each other and with their children, how their understanding of their role grew.

Yes, and in all my affairs I feel the warmth that I have left from this wonderful period of life, life in Demiurge. I am grateful to fate that it connected me with these people. I have no doubt that the experience of working at the Demiurge club is unique! Good health and energy to Leo Semashko!

The values ​​of peace and harmony instilled in me by Demiurge have become my engine and guiding stars for my entire life! This is my unfading memory.

Svetlana Vetrova,

Poet, bard, musician,

Personal page o­n the GGHA website:

https://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=ru_c&key=21

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