Author: Gregory Arthur Gaut

Publisher:

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 570

ISBN-13:

The Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900) was identified with Slavophile and Panslavist circles in the 1870s, but he later broke with them and allied himself with liberal Westernism. The turning point of his life was a lecture in 1881 at which he called on Alexander III to set a Christian example by pardoning the assassins of Alexander II. This led to the end of his academic career and the beginning of his life as a publicist. It also marked the initiation of his life-long campaign of "Christian politics," the idea that Christian moral precepts must be actively applied in social, economic, and political life with the goal of establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Solovyov's universalist Christianity led him first to ecumenism and then into an extended polemic with his former conservative nationalist friends. He argued that Christianity celebrated nationality but outlawed all nationalism. He charged that their anti-Semitism and support for the russification of non-Russian minorities violated Christian ethics. In the midst of this, he joined the inner circle of the leading liberal journal, Vestnik Evropy (European Messenger). Solovyov's contemporaries knew him as a prolific and hard-nosed publicist, but scholars since then have ignored his journalistic career, arguing that it was grounded in a "this-worldly" approach to Christianity which was related to other "social Christian" movements in Europe and America at that time. This approach was the basis for his writings on nationalism, which remain an important Christian intervention into this troubling problem which as re-emerged in Russia and Eastern Europe in our time. Contrary to the traditional view, the author argues that Solovyov made a total break with the Slavophile tradition and subsequently enjoyed warm and supportive relations with liberal circles and a unique concurrence with Russian liberalism. After his "Slavophile" period, Solovyov consistently followed a "social Christian" path until the end of his life, as he sought to understand and interpret the social and political realities of Russia and Europe at the turn of the century.