Abstract

This chapter starts with an overview of the contentious issue of the demarcation of Solov’ëv’s intellectual development into distinct periods. For the purposes of this study, there are three, the second of which spans most of the 1880s in which Solov’ëv involved himself principally in religious and nationality issues. He intellectually distanced himself gradually during these years from his previous allies within the Slavophile movement, and in doing so he found cautious new ones within the “liberal” camp. Whereas Solov’ëv wrote no distinctively philosophical pieces during these years, his literary contributions revolved around moral themes and his view of the role of the Russian nation in his philosophy of history.