On Vladimir Solovyov and Russian Culture

The article deals with the problem of personality’s influence on public consciousness and the consequences of this influence. According to the author of the article, examples of this kind of influence are found in European philosophy and are associated with the works of Plato, Descartes and Kant. It is further noted that in Russian culture (up until the 19th century), philosophical thought found not so much logical-abstract expression as figurative expression, which, to a large extent, the author of the article believes, is due to the specifics of Russia’s state development. This specificity is determined by the fact that the formation of statehood in Russia is closely connected with Orthodoxy and the church. The semantic dominants of this specificity, the forms of its existence and the consequences of its loss are revealed, one of the most dramatic of them is the formal observance of church dogmas. A number of examples from the lives of famous figures are given, testifying to how faith was perceived in society. The author of the article identifies two significant events in Russian culture of the 19th century, thanks to which Russian society began to “rediscover” faith as the foundation of life. One of these events is the painting by the artist A. Ivanov “The Appearance of Christ to the People”, and the other is the reading by Vl. Solovyov of public lectures “Readings on God-Manhood” in St. Petersburg in 1878. It is shown that these lectures had a strong influence on the minds of the philosopher’s contemporaries and served as a kind of catalyst for the creation of a number of important artistic and philosophical texts. As a result, Vl. Solovyov became not only the founder of Russian religious philosophy, but in the minds of his contemporaries he acquired the features of a prophet, which was largely facilitated by his way of life. In the end, the author of the article asserts that Russia’s turn to its roots will always be associated with the name of Vl. Solovyov as a unique Russian religious philosopher.