Vladimir Solovyov was one of the largest Russian religious thinkers of the late 19th century. He became the author of several concepts and theories (about God-manhood, pan-Mongolism, etc.), which are still studied in detail by domestic philosophers.

early years

The future philosopher Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov was born on January 28, 1853 in Moscow, in the family of a famous historian (author of the multi-volume “History of Russia from Ancient Times”). The boy studied at the 5th gymnasium, and later entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. From his youth, Solovyov read the works of German idealists and Slavophiles. He was also greatly influenced by radical materialists. It was his passion for them that brought the young man to the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, although after the second year he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology. Impressed by materialistic literature, young Vladimir Solovyov even threw icons out of the window of his room, which extremely angered his father. In general, his reading circle then consisted of Khomyakov, Schelling and Hegel.

Sergei Mikhailovich instilled in his son hard work and productivity. Every year he himself systematically published his “History” according to that, and in this sense he became a clear example for his son. Already as an adult, Vladimir wrote every day without exception (sometimes on scraps of paper when there was nothing else at hand).

University career

Already at the age of 21, Soloviev became a master and associate professor. The work he defended was entitled "The Crisis of Western Philosophy." The young man decided to get a degree not in his native Moscow, but in St. Petersburg. What point of view in your first scientific work defended Soloviev Vladimir? The philosopher criticized positivism, which was then popular in Europe. After receiving his master's degree, he embarked on his first major overseas trip. The aspiring writer visited the Old World and the countries of the East, including Egypt. The voyage was purely professional - Soloviev became interested in spiritualism and Kabbalah. Moreover, it was in Alexandria and Cairo that he began work on his theory of Sophia.

Returning to his homeland, Soloviev began teaching at St. Petersburg University. He met and became close to Fyodor Dostoevsky. The author of The Brothers Karamazov chose Vladimir Solovyov as the prototype for Alyosha. At this time another fire broke out Russian-Turkish war. How did Vladimir Soloviev react to her? The philosopher almost went to the front as a volunteer, however, at the last moment he changed his mind. His deep religiosity and rejection of war had an impact. In 1880 he defended his dissertation and became a doctor. However, due to a conflict with the rector of the university, Mikhail Vladislavlev, Solovyov did not receive the position of professor.

Termination of teaching activities

The year 1881 became a turning point for the thinker. Then the whole country was shocked by the murder of Tsar Alexander II by revolutionaries. What did Vladimir Soloviev do under these conditions? The philosopher gave a public lecture in which he stated that it is necessary to pardon terrorists. This act clearly demonstrated Solovyov’s views and beliefs. He believed that the state had no right to execute people, even in response to murder. The idea of ​​Christian forgiveness forced the writer to take this sincere but naive step.

The lecture led to a scandal. It became known at the very top. Minister of Internal Affairs Loris-Melikov wrote to the new Tsar Alexander III a memo in which he convinced the autocrat not to punish the philosopher due to the latter’s deep religiosity. In addition, the author of the lecture was the son of a respected historian, who was once the rector of Moscow University. Alexander, in his response, called Solovyov a “psychopath,” and his closest adviser, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, considered the offender “insane” before the throne.

After this, the philosopher left St. Petersburg University, although no one formally fired him. Firstly, it was the hype, and secondly, the writer wanted to focus more on books and articles. It was after 1881 that the period of creative flourishing began, which Vladimir Solovyov experienced. The philosopher wrote without stopping, because for him it was the only way earnings.

Knight-monk

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Soloviev lived in monstrous conditions. He did not have a permanent home. The writer stayed in hotels or with numerous friends. Household instability had a bad effect on health. In addition, the philosopher regularly kept a strict fast. And all this was accompanied by intensive training. Finally, Soloviev was poisoned with turpentine more than once. He treated this liquid as healing and mystical. All his apartments were soaked in turpentine.

The controversial lifestyle and reputation of the writer inspired the poet Alexander Blok to call him a knight-monk in his memoirs. Solovyov's originality was manifested in literally everything. The writer Andrei Bely left memories about him, which, for example, say that the philosopher had an amazing laugh. Some acquaintances considered him homeric and joyful, others - demonic.

Solovyov Vladimir Sergeevich often went abroad. In 1900 he last time returned to Moscow to submit his own translation of Plato’s works to the publishing house. Then the writer felt bad. He was transported to Sergei Trubetskoy, a religious philosopher, publicist, public figure and Solovyov's student. His family owned the Uzkoye estate near Moscow. Doctors came there to see Vladimir Sergeevich and made a disappointing diagnosis - “renal cirrhosis” and “atherosclerosis”. The writer's body was exhausted from overload at his desk. He had no family and lived alone, so no one could monitor his habits and influence Solovyov. The Uzkoye estate became the place of his death. The philosopher died on August 13. He was buried on Novodevichy Cemetery, next to his father.

God-manhood

A key part of Vladimir Solovyov's legacy is his idea of ​​God-manhood. This theory was first outlined by the philosopher in his “Readings” in 1878. Its main message is the conclusion about the unity of man and God. Soloviev was critical of the traditional mass faith of the Russian nation. He considered the usual rituals “inhumane.”

Many other Russian philosophers, like Solovyov, tried to comprehend the then state of Russian Orthodox Church. In his teaching, the writer used the term Sophia, or Wisdom, which was to become the soul of the renewed faith. In addition, she also has a body - the Church. This community of believers was to become the core of the future ideal society.

Soloviev, in his “Readings on God-Humanity,” argued that the Church is experiencing a serious crisis. It is fragmented and has no power over the minds of people, and new popular but dubious theories - positivism and socialism - are claiming its place. Solovyov Vladimir Sergeevich (1853-1900) was convinced that the cause of this spiritual catastrophe was the Great French Revolution, which shook the usual foundations of European society. In 12 readings, the theorist tried to prove: only a renewed church and religion can occupy the resulting ideological vacuum, where late XIX century there have been many radical political theories. Soloviev did not live to see the first revolution in Russia in 1905, but he correctly sensed its approach.

Concept of Sofia

According to the philosopher’s idea, the principle of the unity of God and man can be realized in Sophia. This is an example of an ideal society based on neighbor. Talking about Sophia as the ultimate goal of human development, the author of the Readings also touched on the issue of the universe. He described in detail his own theory of the cosmogonic process.

The book by philosopher Vladimir Solovyov (10th reading) gives the chronology of the origin of the world. In the beginning there was the Astral Age. The writer associated her with Islam. Next came the Solar Age. During it, the Sun, heat, light, magnetism and other physical phenomena arose. On the pages of his works, the theorist connected this period with numerous solar religious cults of antiquity - the belief in Apollo, Osiris, Hercules and Adonis. With the appearance of organic life on Earth, the last, Telluric era began.

Vladimir Solovyov paid special attention to this period. The historian, philosopher and theorist highlighted the three most important civilizations in human history. These peoples (Greeks, Hindus and Jews) were the first to propose the idea of ​​an ideal society without bloodshed and other vices. It was among the Jewish people that Jesus Christ preached. Soloviev treated him not as an individual person, but as a person who managed to embody all of human nature. Nevertheless, the philosopher believed that people have much more material than divine. Adam was the embodiment of this principle.

When discussing Sophia, Vladimir Solovyov adhered to the idea that nature has its own single soul. He believed that humanity should become like this order, when all people have something in common. These views of the philosopher found another religious reflection. He was a Uniate (that is, he advocated the unity of churches). There is even a point of view that he converted to Catholicism, although it is disputed by biographers due to the fragmentary and inaccurate sources. One way or another, Solovyov was an active supporter of the unification of the Western and Eastern churches.

"Beauty in Nature"

One of the fundamental works of Vladimir Solovyov was his article “Beauty in Nature,” published in 1889. The philosopher examined this phenomenon in detail, giving it many assessments. For example, he considered beauty to be a way of transforming matter. At the same time, Soloviev called for appreciating beauty in itself, and not as a means to achieve another goal. He also called beauty the embodiment of an idea.

Soloviev Vladimir Sergeevich, short biography which is an example of the life of an author who touched upon almost all spheres of human activity in his work, in this article he also described his attitude to art. The philosopher believed that he always had only one goal - to improve reality and influence nature and human soul. The debate about the purpose of art was popular at the end of the 19th century. For example, Leo Tolstoy spoke on the same topic, with whom the writer indirectly polemicized. Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov, whose poems are less known than his philosophical works, was also a poet, so he did not talk about art from the outside. “Beauty in Nature” significantly influenced the views of the intelligentsia Silver Age. The importance of this article for their work was noted by writers Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely.

"The Meaning of Love"

What else did Vladimir Solovyov leave behind? God-manhood (its main concept) was developed in the series of articles “The Meaning of Love,” published in 1892-1893. These were not isolated publications, but parts of one whole work. In the first article, Soloviev refuted the idea that love is only a way of reproduction and continuation of the human race. Next, the writer compared its types. He compared in detail the maternal, friendly, sexual, mystical to the Fatherland, etc. At the same time, he touched on the nature of egoism. For Solovyov, love is the only force that can force a person to step over this individualistic feeling.

The assessments of other Russian philosophers are indicative. For example, Nikolai Berdyaev considered this cycle “the most wonderful thing that has been written about love.” And Alexei Losev, who became one of the writer’s main biographers, emphasized that Solovyov considered love a way to achieve eternal unity (and therefore, God-manhood).

"Justification of Good"

The book “The Justification of Good,” written in 1897, is the key ethical work of Vladimir Solovyov. The author planned to continue this work in two more parts and, thus, publish a trilogy, but he never managed to realize his idea. In this book, the writer argued that goodness is comprehensive and unconditional. First of all, because it is the basis of human nature. Soloviev proved the truth of this idea by the fact that all people from birth are familiar with a feeling of shame, which is not brought up or instilled from the outside. He also named other similar qualities characteristic of a person - reverence and pity.

Good is an integral part of the human race, because it is also given from God. Soloviev, explaining this thesis, mainly used biblical sources. He came to the conclusion that the entire history of mankind is a process of transition from the kingdom of nature to the kingdom of spirit (that is, from primitive evil to good). Case in point This is the evolution of methods of punishing criminals. Soloviev noted that over time the principle of blood feud disappeared. Also in this book, he once again spoke out against the use of the death penalty.

"Three Conversations"

Over the years of his work, the philosopher wrote dozens of books, lecture courses, articles, etc. But, like every author, he had his last work, which ultimately became a summation of the results of his long-term journey. Where did Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov stop? "Three conversations about war, progress and the end world history"- this was the title of the book he wrote in the spring of 1900, shortly before his death. It was published after the author passed away. Therefore, many biographers and researchers began to consider it as the writer’s creative testament.

The philosophy of Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov, affecting ethical problem bloodshed, is based on two theses. War is evil, but even it can be fair. As an example, the thinker cited the example of Vladimir Monomakh's preventive campaigns. With the help of this war, the prince was able to save Slavic settlements from the destructive raids of the steppes, which justified his action.

In the second conversation on the topic of progress, Soloviev noted the evolution international relations, which began to be built on peaceful principles. At that time, the most powerful powers really sought to find a balance among themselves in a rapidly changing world. However, the philosopher himself no longer saw the bloody world wars that broke out on the ruins of this system. The writer in the second conversation emphasized that the main events in the history of mankind took place in Far East. Just then European countries China was divided among themselves, and Japan embarked on the path of rapid progress along the Western model.

In the third conversation about the end of world history, Soloviev, with his characteristic religiosity, argued that, despite all the positive trends, evil persists in the world, that is, the Antichrist. In the same part, the philosopher first used the term “pan-Mongolism,” which his many followers later began to use. This phenomenon consists of the consolidation of Asian peoples against European colonization. Soloviev believed that China and Japan would join forces, create a single empire and expel foreigners from neighboring regions, including Burma.

Biography of Solovyov V.S.

Soloviev Vladimir Sergeevich is a famous philosopher and publicist. Born on January 16, 1853. His father is a famous historian; the mother comes from the Little Russian noble family of the Romanovs. My great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side was the famous Ukrainian philosopher Skovoroda. He studied at the First Moscow Gymnasium in its parallel department (now the 5th Moscow Gymnasium). After graduating from the course in 1869 with a gold medal, he entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, in the department of natural sciences; from the 3rd year he became a full-time student at the Faculty of History and Philology; in 1873

In March 1881, he delivered a famous speech against the death penalty as a conclusion to public lectures on the literary movement of the 19th century. In the same year, he left his service in the Ministry of Public Education, but finally stopped lecturing only in 1882. He began to appear before the public again as a lecturer only in the late 90s. From September 1891, he served as editor of the philosophical section of this Dictionary. Dedicated exclusively to science and literature, he lived now in Moscow, now in St. Petersburg, now on the estates of his friends (in Lately increasingly in Pustynka, near St. Petersburg), then in Finland on Imatra, then abroad.

In Croatia, he established close friendships with the famous Slavic bishop Strossmayer, with Canon Raczki and others. His appearance was mysterious and enigmatic. The face is feminine and youthful, pale with large dark blue eyes, lifeless, standing and not blinking, looking into the distance. A dry, pale neck and long, thin hands tucked into pockets or straightening the hair on the head. The voice sounded both soulful and harmonious. Very beautiful eyes.

Berdyaev Soloviev dialectics philosophy

Religious philosophy of V. Solovyov

V.S. Solovyov created an original religious philosophy, which had a huge influence on the philosophical and religious quests of the Russian intelligentsia in the 20th century. Many of the philosopher’s ideas were difficult to perceive by his contemporaries, and part of the thinker’s scientific heritage still requires detailed study. The scientist left a huge scientific legacy. When analyzing his publications “Philosophical Principles of Integral Knowledge”, “The Crisis of Western Philosophy”, “Critique of Abstract Principles”, “Readings on God-Humanity”, the conclusion suggests itself that he was a religious philosopher. According to Vladimir Solovyov, a person must do or is doing “Divine work - or joint divine-human work in history.” He worshiped Plato’s nature of beauty, truth and goodness.” The Absolute wants as good the same thing that it represents as truth and feels as beauty.” After purification and unification, human activity becomes “whole creativity,” knowledge, cognition becomes “whole knowledge,” and reality, practice becomes “whole society.” Any of these 3 spheres, in turn, is a kind of synthesis of 3 subordinate moments: “integral creativity” - mysticism, elegant and technical creativity, “art”, “integral knowledge” - theology, abstract philosophy and positive Sciences; “whole society” - church, state and economic institutions. He called “whole life” the synthesis of wholes - society, creativity and knowledge.

A distinctive feature of V. Solovyov is his refusal to subordinate “action”, practice and “doing”, creation to cognition. He placed all three spheres on the same level; equally treating them as essential components of a “whole life.” In his opinion, it follows that the contradiction between religious and secular principles in human society(they can neither cancel each other nor coexist as independent spheres) -- disappears when we understand that the secular or natural order provides the necessary means to achieve the absolute goal of the religious or mystical order, and the absolute goal can only be achieved with the help of these funds. The secular order has real independence, but the religious order has an ideal primacy, since it is it that provides the content and purpose of the secular order. But since maintaining such an order requires formal and material resources(that is, political and economic institutions), the religious order in turn depends on the secular order. At a philosophical debate at St. Petersburg University, V. Solovyov made a report “A few words about the real task of philosophy,” where it was noted that philosophy and religion should complement each other and be in a unique combination, and this is “the real task of philosophical thought.” .

According to the philosopher, ethics, aesthetics and the philosophy of history apparently have as much “content” as physics, chemistry, biology or geology, although this “content” is of a completely different type, and the moral element “should be the basis of theoretical philosophy” . Vladimir Solovyov connected his philosophical work with a positive ethical decision “to be or not to be true on earth,” and the scientific work “Beauty in Nature” is consonant with the cosmic transformative ideas of V. Vernadsky, N. Fedorov, K. Tsiolkovsky.

The concept of “all-unity” created by V. Solovyov was the center of the thinker’s philosophical searches. Unity is an ideal absolute. “Since the realization of unity is not yet given in our reality, in the world of man and nature, but is only being accomplished and at the same time accomplished through ourselves, then it is a task for humanity.” To comprehend unconditional unity is possible only with “whole knowledge.” This refers to the synthesis of religion, science and art. The concept of unity today is the methodological foundation of ecological and economic knowledge, built on the principles of an integral (integral) worldview.

Religious philosopher all his life short life observed the rule: to lead an ethically correct life and “maintain spiritual sobriety and clarity of consciousness.” According to the philosopher G. Florovsky, Vladimir Solovyov knew how to awaken the mental conscience. He was for the fact that “we need to pray to God, help each other... Prayer, alms and fasting, these three actions consist of all personal or private religion,” but there is also “public religion: participation in the life of the church. Christ is inherent in his church as the way, the truth and the life.” From them “the kingdom of God is formed, whose ruler is Christ.” In the image of Christ, one must examine one’s conscience or the ethical side of a person’s life. In the book “Spiritual Foundations of Life,” the philosopher gave readers advice “...before deciding to take any action, it is necessary to remember the “moral image of Christ, concentrate on it and ask yourself: could he commit this act... remember Christ, imagine Him alive as He is and place on Him all the burden of your doubts.”

V.S. Solovyov was also interested in problems of economic environmental management. The fact is that the end of the 80s of the 19th century brought drought, crop failure, and famine to Russia. He wrote about the desiccation and depletion of lands as a result of predatory and inept land use, and man is helpless in resisting the elements. According to the scientist, in history there are three stages in man’s approach to nature. The first stage that has been passed is the forcible removal from nature of everything urgently necessary. The second stage to which a person moves is a reasonable seizure “with caution,” but also violent, and the third stage, perhaps in the distant future, is a complete cessation of violence against nature. “Cultivating the land does not mean abusing it, not destroying it, but improving it, bringing it into greater strength and fullness of being... Without love for nature for nature itself, it is impossible to carry out the moral organization of material life... Man used his superiority over nature not only for his own sake, but also for her own aggrandizement. The attitude towards one’s own home... must be built on a moral basis, on the basis of a certain philosophy of ecology, a scientific study of the integrity of the world’s creation as an organic and rational whole,” and “humanity cannot live with immediate concerns, without a clear goal ahead.” This could be said by a person who had an ethically pure soul, and his actions and numerous works confirm the deep morality of the great religious philosopher.

In numerous memoirs, V. Solovyov is characterized as an outstanding religious philosopher who had a huge influence on the search for God and the religious philosophy of S. Bulgakov, the brothers S. and E. Trubetskoy, P.A. Florensky, N. Berdyaev and others. According to K. Leontiev, the philosopher Solovyov was an incomprehensible thinker, and then a clear philosopher - a writer in modern Europe. O. Klyuchevsky believed that the philosopher was ready to “preach in the desert.” Religious philosophy V.S. Solovyov has received worldwide recognition, and many of his opinions remain relevant today.

Source - Wikipedia

Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov

Date of birth: January 16 (28), 1853
Place of birth: Moscow, Russian empire
Date of death: July 31 (August 13) 1900 (age 47)
Place of death: Uzkoe estate, Moscow district, Moscow province, Russian Empire (now Moscow)
Nationality: Russian Empire
Significant Ideas: God-Humanity
Influenced by: Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergei Trubetskoy, Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, Alexander Kozhev

Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov (January 16, 1853, Moscow - July 31, 1900, Uzkoye estate, Moscow province) - Russian religious thinker, mystic, poet, publicist, literary critic; honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature (1900). He stood at the origins of the Russian “spiritual revival” of the early 20th century. He influenced the religious philosophy of N. A. Berdyaev, S. N. Bulgakov, S. N. and E. N. Trubetskoy, P. A. Florensky, S. L. Frank, as well as the work of symbolist poets - A. Bely, A. Blok and others.

early years
Vladimir Solovyov was born in Moscow on January 16, 1853, in the family of the Russian historian Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov. Mother, Polixena Vladimirovna, belonged to the noble Ukrainian-Polish Romanov family, among whose ancestors was the famous Ukrainian philosopher G. S. Skovoroda. Vl. Solovyov studied at the First Moscow Gymnasium, where teaching was divided into general and special, and completed his studies at the Fifth Moscow Gymnasium.

University career
In 1869 he entered the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, two years later moving to the historical and philological department. He studied the works of A. S. Khomyakov, Schelling and Hegel, Kant, Fichte.
In 1874, 21-year-old Solovyov wrote his first major work (master's thesis), “The Crisis of Western Philosophy,” in which he opposed positivism and the division (dichotomy) of “speculative” (rationalistic) and “empirical” knowledge. The defense took place on November 24 at St. Petersburg State University, after which the philosopher received the title of associate professor. He lectured at Moscow University for one semester, but on May 31, 1875, he went on a business trip to London to work at the British Museum. From there, on October 16, he undertook a voyage to Egypt (Cairo), where he stayed for 4 months.
In June 1876, he again began teaching at Moscow University, but due to professorial squabbles, he left Moscow in March 1877 and moved to St. Petersburg, where he became a member of the Academic Committee under the Ministry of Public Education and at the same time taught at the university.
On April 6, 1880, he defended his doctoral dissertation “Critique of Abstract Principles.” M. I. Vladislavlev, who played an influential role at St. Petersburg University, who had previously positively assessed Solovyov’s master’s thesis, began to treat him rather coldly, so Vladimir Solovyov remained in the position of associate professor, but not professor. On March 28, 1881, he gave a lecture in which he called for pardon for the murderers of Alexander II. The reading of that lecture, the text of which has not survived, is considered the reason for his departure from the university. Although the case remained without serious consequences.
Had no family; lived mostly on the estates of his friends or abroad; was an expansive, enthusiastic and impetuous person.
Death
By the end of the 1890s, his health began to deteriorate noticeably. In the summer of 1900, Solovyov came to Moscow to submit his translation of Plato for printing. Already on July 15, on my name day, I felt very bad. On the same day, he asked his friend Davydov to take him to the Uzkoye estate near Moscow (now within the boundaries of Moscow, Profsoyuznaya St., 123a), which then belonged to Prince Pyotr Nikolaevich Trubetskoy, in which a friend and student of Vladimir Solovyov, a famous professor, then lived with his family Moscow University Sergei Trubetskoy, who was the half-brother of the owner of the estate. Solovyov arrived at the estate already seriously ill. Doctors diagnosed him with atherosclerosis, cirrhosis of the kidneys and uremia, as well as complete exhaustion of the body, but they could not help. V. S. Solovyov, after a two-week illness, died in Uzkoy, in the office of P. N. Trubetskoy on July 31 (August 13, new style) 1900. He was buried in the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent next to his father’s grave.

Essays
The Crisis of Western Philosophy (1874)
Philosophical principles of integral knowledge (1877)
Critique of Abstract Principles (1880)
Three speeches in memory of Dostoevsky (1881-1883)
Towards True Philosophy (1883)
Russia and Universal Church (1889)
Beauty in Nature (1889)
The General Meaning of Art (1890)
On the Decline of the Medieval Worldview (1891)
The Meaning of Love (1894)
Vindication of Good (1897, 1899)
The Mystery of Progress (1898)
Three Conversations on War, Progress and the End of World History (1900)

Doctrine of law
Morality - always strives to build an ideal; prescribes proper behavior, addressed only to inside the will of the individual. Law is conditional in nature and involves restrictions, because in the legal field the action and its result are important; considers the external manifestation of will - property, action, result of action.
The task of law is not to create the Kingdom of God on earth, but not to turn people's lives into Hell.
The purpose of law is to balance two moral interests: personal freedom and the common good. The “common good” must limit the private interests of people, but it cannot replace them. Therefore, Solovyov opposed the death penalty and life imprisonment, which, in his opinion, contradict the essence of law.
Law is “the limitation of personal freedom by the requirements of the common good.”
Features of the law: 1) publicity; 2) specificity; 3) real applicability.
Signs of power: 1) publication of laws; 2) fair trial; 3) execution of laws.
The state protects the interests of citizens.
Christian state - protects the interests of citizens and strives to improve the conditions of human existence in society; takes care of economically weak persons.
The progress of the state consists in “constraining the inner moral world of a person as little as possible and providing the external conditions for the dignified existence and improvement of people as accurately and broadly as possible.”
“Legal coercion does not force anyone to be virtuous. His job is to prevent to an evil person become a villain (dangerous to society).” Society cannot live solely according to the moral law. Legal laws and the state are needed to protect all interests.

Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov
The main idea of ​​his religious philosophy was the idea: Sophia - the Soul of the World. We are talking about a mystical cosmic being that unites God with the earthly world; Sophia represents the eternal feminine in God and, at the same time, God's plan for the world. This image is found in the Bible; It was revealed to Solovyov in a mystical vision, which is narrated in his poem “Three Dates.” The idea of ​​Sophia is realized in three ways: in theosophy the idea of ​​it is formed, in theurgy it is acquired, and in theocracy it is embodied.

Theosophy is literally Divine wisdom. It represents a synthesis of scientific discoveries and revelations of the Christian religion within the framework of integral knowledge. Faith does not contradict reason, but complements it. Solovyov recognizes the idea of ​​evolution, but considers it an attempt to overcome the Fall through a breakthrough to God. Evolution passes through five stages or “kingdoms”: mineral, plant, animal, human and divine.
Theurgy is literally the creation of God. Solovyov strongly opposed the moral neutrality of science. Theurgy is a purifying practice, without which it is impossible to obtain truth. It is based on the cultivation of Christian love as a renunciation of self-affirmation for the sake of unity with others.
Theocracy is literally the power of God, what Chaadaev called the perfect system. A theocratic state must be based on spiritual principles, and it must have a universal rather than a national character. According to Solovyov, the first step towards theocracy should have been the unification of the Russian monarchy with Catholic Church. Policy document V. Solovyov sent a letter on this topic to Pope Leo XIII.
In the 1880s, Vladimir Solovyov wrote and published a number of works in which he propagated the idea of ​​​​the reunification of the Western and Eastern Churches under the leadership of the Pope (the most important of them is “Russia and the Universal Church.” Paris, 1889), for which he was criticized by Slavophiles and conservatives.

However, the Russian religious philosopher V.V. Rozanov in the article “The spat between Dostoevsky and Solovyov” (1906) writes: “At the end of his life, in a deep moment of powerlessness, he expressed that he refused attempts at conciliation between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, and died strong Orthodox person. Thus, the suspicion of its strong Catholic overtones falls by itself.”

At the same time, there are sources from which, on the contrary, it follows that Solovyov in last years life officially joined the Catholic Church. So, Ph.D., Assoc. The Center for the Study of Religions of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Alexey Yudin, claims that V. Solovyov in 1896, in the home church of the first Russian Catholic priest, pronounced the Catholic Creed (Tridentine), and also took communion at mass. During Solovyov’s lifetime, this fact was not known to the public. However, Soloviev was never a practicing Catholic. 08:12 A. Yudin “Russian Catholicism” // Website “PostScience”

Influence on art
The main influence of creativity is noticeable in Russian symbolism and Modernism of the beginning. 20th century In many ways, Alexander Blok and Vyacheslav Ivanov were guided by him. It is interesting that when in 1894-1895 Valery Bryusov came out with the collections “Russian Symbolists”, Solovyov came up with evil and apt parodies of their style.

Cultural influence
Vladimir Solovyov inspired F. Dostoevsky to create the image of Alyosha Karamazov in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”. His influence can also be seen in the work of the symbolists and neo-idealists of the late Soviet era. The influence of his series of articles “The Meaning of Love” can be traced in L. Tolstoy’s story “The Kreutzer Sonata” (1889).

Attitude towards Jews
Solovyov's attitude towards Jews was a consistent expression of his Christian universalism, ethical principles, prescribing to love all peoples as one’s own. The rejection of Jesus by the Jews seemed to Solovyov to be the greatest tragedy that predetermined the entire future history of the Jewish people, but the philosopher laid the blame for the stubborn rejection of Christianity by the Jews not on the Jews, but on the Christians themselves.

The mutual relations of Judaism and Christianity during many centuries of their life together represent one remarkable circumstance. The Jews always and everywhere looked at Christianity and acted regarding it according to the prescriptions of their religion, according to their faith and according to their law. The Jews have always treated us like Jews; We Christians, on the contrary, have not yet learned to relate to Judaism in a Christian way. They never violated their religious law regarding us, but we constantly violated and are violating the commandments of the Christian religion regarding them. If the Jewish law is bad, then their stubborn adherence to this bad law is, of course, a sad phenomenon. But if it is bad to be faithful to a bad law, then it is even worse to be unfaithful to a good law, an absolutely perfect commandment.

- “Jewishness and the Christian Question”
In 1890, censorship did not allow publication of a declaration against anti-Semitism, written by Solovyov and signed by a number of writers and scientists. It was published abroad.

Solovyov not only defended Jews in his philosophical works, but also fought against the persecution of Jews in Russia. In letters to F. Getz, Solovyov denounced the pogroms and assured that his pen was always ready to defend distressed Israel. At the same time, Solovyov was not a sentimental philo-Semite; he did not idealize the Jewish people and repeatedly pointed out the shortcomings that, in his opinion, were inherent in Jews:

The Jewish people, showing the worst sides of human nature, a “stiff-necked people” and with a heart of stone, this same people is the people of the saints and prophets of God
On his deathbed, Solovyov prayed for the Jewish people and read a psalm in Hebrew. Solovyov's death caused deep grief for all Russian Jewry. In synagogues, prayers were read for the repose of the soul of Solovyov, one of the “Righteous Among the Nations.”

Pan-Mongolism
Solovyov did not have a serious education in oriental studies, but made ambiguous statements regarding the eastern peoples and was the author of negative character the term “pan-Mongolism”, into which he invested apocalyptic content.

“If I consider the cessation of war in general impossible before the final catastrophe, then in the closest rapprochement and peaceful cooperation of all Christian peoples and states, I see not only a possible, but a necessary and morally obligatory way of salvation for the Christian world from being absorbed by the lower elements. »
“It seems to me that the success of pan-Mongolism will be facilitated in advance by the stubborn and exhausting struggle that some European states will have to endure against the awakened Islam in Western Asia, North and Central Africa. »
The end of world history[edit | edit source text]
The concept of the “end of world history” is considered by Vladimir Solovyov in the book “Three Conversations about War, Progress and the End of World History”, by which he means the second coming of Christ, God's judgment and the end of the struggle between good and evil on Earth.

Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov is a Russian philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He devoted his entire life to an uncompromising search for truth and was critical of the political and spiritual life of Russia, which aroused hostility among the ruling circles. His work has always been semi-legal. He left a rich creative legacy, despite his short life, although his philosophical statements still cause ambiguous attitudes. Some consider him a heretic and a renegade, some call him a retrograde and obscurantist, and some call him a great philosopher and poet.

The Solovyov family - historians, philosophers, poets

Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov was born on January 16, 1853 into a very famous family. His father is the famous historian Sergei Mikhailovich Solovyov, author of “The History of Russia since Ancient Times,” a multi-volume fundamental work. In the family of his mother, Little Russian noblewoman Romanova, there was the famous Ukrainian philosopher Grigory Skovoroda. The elder brother Vsevolod is a famous author of historical novels. Younger sister Polyxena is a famous poetess of the Silver Age, who wrote under the pseudonym Allegro. Nephew and biographer Sergei Solovyov Jr., famous poet and religious figure.

Search for truth

Having graduated from the First Moscow Gymnasium in 1869 with a gold medal, Soloviev entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, Department of Natural Sciences. After the second year, he transferred to the Faculty of History and Philology as a volunteer student, regretting that he had in vain cut up a huge number of innocent leeches. In 1873, he passed the candidate's exam at the University, after which he entered the Moscow Theological Academy as a volunteer.

A year later, he defended his dissertation at St. Petersburg University and received a master's degree in philosophy. The topic of his dissertation, “The Crisis of Western Philosophy,” immediately caused controversy among scientists, historians and philosophers, which did not prevent Solovyov from becoming a full-time associate professor of philosophy at his native “alma mater.” At the same time, he lectures at higher women's courses. A young lecturer recklessly falls in love with the beautiful Liza Polivanova, one of the students, declares his love, but is refused.

“If you have been deceived in love,

Hurry up and fall in love again

Better yet, take your staff

And go wandering"

These are the lines the young philosopher and poet from Heine translates, and sets off on a journey, especially since the leadership of the University sends him to London to study Eastern, Gnostic and medieval philosophy at the British Museum.

Mark of the Heretic

While in England, Solovyov, who is keen on spiritualism, attends several sessions and comes to the conclusion that the British are either charlatans or blind fanatics, which is equally unacceptable for him. Suddenly he has an irresistible desire to visit Egypt, as suggested to him in the visions that have visited him since the age of nine. And Solovyov, obeying the instructions of Sophia he saw, goes to Egypt. Along the way he visits France and Italy. Spends the winter in Cairo studying Eastern philosophy

Returning to Russia, Solovyov resigns from Moscow University because he receives an appointment to a committee of the Ministry of Public Education. Engaged in lecturing. In 1880 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The topic of his dissertation is “Criticism of Abstract Principles.” This work was also controversial and added many opponents to Solovyov. The tsarist authorities also do not favor him and even propose to ban Solovyov’s public appearances for a while. But this restless man with the face of a Christian martyr does not want to sit in one place. He either volunteers during a Turkish company, then ends up in Croatia, then in Finland.

He is completely indifferent to everyday inconveniences and therefore does not monitor his health at all, thereby undermining his already not very strong body. Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov died on July 31, 1900, in the Moscow region.

• As a child, he committed an absolutely blasphemous act - he dumped a cross in a cemetery and began jumping on it. Later, he explained his action by the appearance of religious skepticism. Quite a creepy act for a thirteen-year-old child from a highly cultured family.