Soloviev, Vladimir Sergeyevich

Soloviev, Vladimir Sergeyevich vlədyē´mĭr sĭrgā´əvĭch sələvyôf´ [key], 1853–1900, Russian religious philosopher and poet; son of Sergei Mikhailovich Soloviev. Soloviev believed in the incarnation of divine wisdom in a being called Sophia, a concept that greatly influenced the young symbolist poets, especially Blok. He advocated a synthesis of Eastern and Western churches inRussia and the Universal Church,which he wrote in French in 1889 (tr. 1948). The imminent coming of the Antichrist was the theme of hisThree Conversations on War, Progress, and the End of History(1899, tr. 1915). The best known of his mystical poems isThree Meetings(1899), which describes his visions of Sophia. Soloviev is also noted for political writings and literary criticism.

See biography by M. d'Herbigny (1918); studies by E. Munzer (1956) and P. M. Allen (1973).

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