Book Description
Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century. He helped establish a rich tradition of Russian spirituality, inspiring a whole generation of thinkers, who followed his many-faceted spirit into diverse realms, bringing together philosophy, mysticism, theology, poetry, and powerful visionary experience with a trenchant social message. Solovyov was also a prophet, having been granted three visions of Sophia, Divine Wisdom. Less known in the anglophone world than Berdyaev (who was a pupil of his), Solovyov has a contribution of the first importance to offer to Western thought at its deepest level.Solovyov came from a rich and not yet fully understood tradition; his erudition was stupendous. Like his predecessors he was extremely sensitive to such problems as the religious meaning of history, of creativity, of culture. It is important to emphasize a general link between Solovyiev and preceding currents of Russian thought, for his Christian philosophy in a sense embraces them all. Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy sat at his feet.The differences between the Orthodox, Roman, and Anglo-Catholic and many of the Protestant Churches are not found in relation to the great dogmas or articles of the creed. Soloviev has a vital and unique message to Christians of all denominations; he offers a basis for reunion rarely suggested in Western Christianity, and this explains the motivation for this masterly study of Soloviev as playing a role in the Christian East similar to that played by John Henry Newman in the Christian West. ... Read more

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Solov'ev in renewed Contexts
Vladimir Solov'ev: Reconciler and Polemicist by International Vladimir Solov'ev Conference, William Peter Van Den Bercken, Manon De Courten, Evert Van Der Zweerde (Peeters) Vladimir Solov'ëv (1853-1900) is regarded as the most original and systematic of the Russian philosophers in the 19th century. Ηe has once again become the subject of international scholarly attention both in Slavic countries and the West. This volume contains selected papers pre¬sented at the international conference on Vladimir Solov'ëv held at Nijmegen University, The Netherlands, in September 1998. The scope of this conference was wide-ranging, dealing with theological, metaphysical, philosophical and historical themes.
Though SοΙον'ëv's broad intellectual activity defies any strict attempt at categorisation, the editors have classified its major themes under the dual characteristic of reconciliation and polemics. Solov'ëv was pas¬sionately committed to the reconciliation of all beings under the idea of all-unity, which he attempted to achieve by engaging in uncompromis¬ing polemics with his contemporaries.
The thirty contributors to this volume are specialists from Russia, ,Ukraine, Bulgaria, Western Europe and the United States. The volume makes a significant contribution to the intellectual reassessment of Vladimir Solov'ëv since the rediscovery of his philosophical heritage in his own homeland in the late 1980s.
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Book Description
Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century, was the founder of a tradition of Russian spirituality that brought together philosophy, mysticism, and theology with a powerful social message. A Platonist and a gnostic visionary, as well as a close friend of Dostoevsky, Solovyov was also a prophet who was granted three visions of Sophia, Divine Wisdom. A poet and a profoundly Christian metaphysicist, his works include The Justification of the Good; War, Progress, and the End of History; and The Meaning of Love.

This unique, timely book--the first in-depth, full-length portrait of Soloviev as a mystic to appear in English--is the rich fruit of Dr. Allen's lifelong interest in the cultural and spiritual achievements, the mysticism, and the esoteric work of the Russian people during Tsarist times leading up to the twentieth century. ... Read more

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one of the only books on Yuri
This is a niche book for those interested in the late communist period of the Soviet Union.This was the period after the stagnation of Breznev.He was suceeded by a succesion of rulers.Andropov and Chernenko.THis book details the many assets that Andropov brought with him to the Kremlin.His acitvities as head of the KGB.And most astonishing the fact that he was a reformer, who died to soon.An important work.Autopsy of an empire by Dmitri Volkogonov also has insights on the Andropov period. ... Read more

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The Persistence of Despotism in the Russian Soul
This review is based on the paperback edition (1988). The book focuses on Communist politics, especially in the 1970's and 1980's, but is much more than that. It probes the Russian psyche, making it timeless. Solovyov and Klepikova (hereafter SK) comment: "During the many centuries of their servile existence, the common people of Russia have become used to interpreting mercy as weakness, sadism and barbarous treatment as strength, and fear as respect." (p. 36).

"Every time a totalitarian system in Russia is weakened or destroyed, it arises again, in response to a special kind of need, to `popular demand'...Because totalitarianism in Russia is...a unique form of populism...the people's distrust and fear of freedom." (p. 257). SK accurately predicted that, after the fall of Communism, Russians would increasingly favor a return of authoritarianism (p. 266). Leon Trotsky once said: "Every policeman knows that although governments change, the police remain." (p. 86).

Soviet anti-Semitism is examined: "Stalin, though, had become an anti-Semite long before, most likely as a reaction to the disproportionate part take by Jews in political life (by no means merely among the Bolsheviks but across the whole pre-revolutionary spectrum, except for such extreme right-wing organizations as the pogromist `Black Hundred'.)(p. 133).

SK's discussion of Poland may as well have been copied out of a Polish history book! "Poland has always been the most unruly of the Russian empire's subject nations...The Polish uprising of 1831 was put down by Emperor Nicholas I, who had been so stern and cruel in Russia that he was nicknamed `Nick the Stick'. Yet in 1863, his liberal son, Emperor Alexander II, who two years before had abolished serfdom in his own country, used no less cruelty in `pacifying' Poland. We find the same amazing consistency in our own century. In 1920 Lenin...[then] Stalin...in the military pact with Hitler, and...again...at Yalta" (p. 109).

Interestingly, SK see Polish military successes not as Polish imperialism but as defense against perennial Russian imperialism: "A glance at the history of Russo-Polish wars, which covers several centuries, includes several defeats that deeply injured Russian imperial vanity, from the capture of Moscow early in the seventeenth century to that of Kiev and Minsk and the Red Army's humiliating defeat near Warsaw in 1920, sometimes called `the miracle on the Vistula River'." (p. 110). SK attribute the Katyn massacre to "...the Russians' traditional military fear of the Poles." (p. 110). Furthermore, "And does not Stalin's twofold fear of Poland--his own, compounded by the traditional Russian dread--explain the Red Army's failure to help the Poles (actually, its betrayal of them) in August 1944? The Warsaw Uprising itself was the result of a carefully thought-out Soviet provocation." (p. 110).

SK elaborate on the Soviet assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II (p. 103, 106, 117, 126). The mysterious murders of prominent Poles in the early 1980's, notably Father Jerzy Popieluszko, were part of a Soviet plan to destabilize Jaruzelski in favor of a more Soviet-servile successor (pp. 127-129).
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Russia's heart and soul
Reading Soloviev's plea to his fellow Russians at the end of the 19th century to draw out and develop their own culture independent of Western influences appears now as a cry unheeded which should have been.Looking at Russias history durning the last century up into the present it seems fairly obvious how little Russia has been able to take it's own course either by outside pressure from the West, pressure from within which desires it to be Westernized, or a combination of the two.Soloviev shows how the West has fallen to the three temptations which Christ faced and was able to stand up against and while doing so advancing.While Russia has not fallen totally to such temptations but has remained static.Soloviev unfolds a positive, divine following, course Russia can take that would contrast and help overcome the negative, divine neglecting, course taken by the West.Reading this gave me a new appreciation of what Russia holds in itself if it were allowed to flourish unhinderred and by extension how other cultures too could bring much more to humanity as a whole if they were helped to find their own way of life, that best suits their character, rather than having a "best" way of doing things.

Incredibly Persuasive
This is the first book by Solovyev that I have read, and also the first by an Orthodox Sophiologist.It is intellectually thorough, honest, and complete.I am absolutely impressed with it.The author begins by acknowledging the failures of materialism, rationalism, capitalism and it's excessively individualist tendencies, and leads us step by step to the spiritual realm and how much we depend on it.He does not try to sever Christianity from it's roots in hellenistic philosophy, but integrates the two in a most beautiful and consistent way.I have to say that his arguments in favor of the Christian Religion are simply the most persuasive that I have ever heard, and he never resorts to the blind repetition of dogmatic assertions about how it is the one true faith, like so many other so-called mystics.Instead, he uses his education and wit to persuade the reader (he's so smooth that you don't even know that he is trying to persuade you, and maybe he isn't) that Christianity is actually the culmination of all of man's religious history which came before it.This is truly an outstanding read. ... Read more

Book Description
Selected lyric poems and the long poem "Three Meetings", which together address the most important experience of Solovyov's lie: his vision of Sophia in the Egyptian desert at the end of November 1875. "Three Meetings" displays both Solovyov's mystical experiences and his irreverent sense of humor. ... Read more

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"Sophia" in English
Solovyov's Sophia poems--indeed his very concept of Sophia--have always been cited as crucial to the development of Russian Symbolism, but until now, they have unavailable in English. Russian Symbolism has always had a stronger mystical strain than its French model, and Solovyov has always been greatly responsible for that. The poems, written in two waves, the first almost immediately following a mystical vision that Solovyev experienced in the Egyptian desert in 1875, the second a "recollection in tranquility" composed in Russia in the 1890s, fired the imaginations of a generation of young Russian poets, foremost among them Alexander Blok.
Though this translation is slight in slight in size--a mere 42 pages--its importance to our understanding of literary Symbolism in Russia can not be overemphasized. ... Read more