Konstantin Leontiev: ascetism and aesthetics

The article briefly presents the main features and principles of K.N. Leontiev’s worldview and philosophizing. The main subject of the study is the relationship between the categories of “asceticism” and “aestheticism” in his philosophy, journalism and artistic creativity. The differences between Leontiev and the traditional idea of a conservative thinker are pointed out. The author pays attention to his “pedagogical” methodology, which manifested itself in communication with his closest students, and suggests that the universalism of the idea of “new eastern culture” developed by Leontiev is close to the philosophical program of Vl. S. Solovyov. Among other things, the article notes the idea that is usually missed in works about Leontief, that the discipline he preached was the discipline of a free spirit.