Vasily Vasilievich Rozanov (; – 5 February 1919) was one of the most controversial

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n writers and important philosophers among the symbolists of the pre-

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

ary epoch.

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Rozanov tried to reconcile Christian teachings with ideas of healthy sex and family life, but as his adversary

Nikolai Berdyaev Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; ; – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Empire, Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialism, Christian existentialist who emphasized the existentialism, existential spiritual significance of Pe ...

put it, he "set up sex in opposition to the Word". His interest in these matters, as in matters of religion, brought Rozanov close to Russian Symbolism. Because of references to the

phallus A phallus (: phalli or phalluses) is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history, a figure with an erect penis is described as ''ithyphallic''. Any object that symbo ...

in Rozanov's writings,

Klaus von Beyme Klaus Gustav Heinrich von Beyme (3 July 1934 – 6 December 2021) was a German political scientist who was professor of political science emeritus at the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. Education Beyme ...

called him the

Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin ( – ) was a Russian mystic and faith healer. He is best known for having befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, through whom he gained considerable influence in the final ye ...

of the Russian

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

. Rozanov's mature works are personal diaries containing intimate thoughts,

impromptu An impromptu (, , loosely meaning "offhand") is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ''ex tempore'' improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano. According to ''Allgeme ...

lines, unfinished maxims, vivid

aphorisms An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...

, reminiscences, and short

essays An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

. In the loosely connected

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

comprising ''Solitaria'' (1911) and the two volumes of ''Fallen Leaves'' (1913 and 1915), he attempted to recreate the intonations of speech. Rozanov frequently referred to himself as

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian literature, Russian and world literature, and many of his works are consider ...

's " Underground Man" and proclaimed his right to espouse contrary opinions at the same time. He first attracted attention in the 1890s when he published political sketches in the conservative newspaper '' Novoye Vremya'' ("New Time"), owned and run by Aleksey Suvorin. Rozanov's comments, always paradoxical and sparking controversy, led him into clashes with the Tsarist government and with radicals such as

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

. For example, Rozanov readily passed from criticism of Russian Orthodoxy, and even of what he saw as the Christian preoccupation with death, to fervent praise of Christian faith, from praise of

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

to unabashed

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and from acceptance of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

as yet another side of human nature to vitriolic accusations that

Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the Grotesque#In literature, grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works "The Nose (Gogol short story), ...

and some other writers had been latent homosexuals. He proclaimed that politics was "obsolete" because "God doesn't want politics any more"; constructed an "apocalypse of our times"; and recommended the "healthy instincts" of the Russian people, their longing for authority, and their hostility to modernism. Rozanov starved to death in a monastery in the hungry years following the revolution. His work was suppressed and largely forgotten in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, but there were some prominent writers, including

Maxim Gorky Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (; – 18 June 1936), popularly known as Maxim Gorky (; ), was a Russian and Soviet writer and proponent of socialism. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Before his success as an aut ...

and Venedikt Erofeev, among his admirers, and his ideas are thought to have exercised an influence on

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

's approach to the everyday world of existence (/''byt'') as utopian. Recently, however, his paradoxical writings have once again become available to Russian readers, and there has been somewhat of a resurgence among readers sympathetic to Rozanov's political views. Rozanov is the main source of inspiration for Dmitry Galkovsky's

philosophical novel Philosophical fiction is any fiction that devotes a significant portion of its content to the sort of questions addressed by philosophy. It might explore any facet of the human condition, including the function and role of society, the nature and ...

''The Infinite Deadlock'' (1988), which revises 19th-century Russian history and places Rozanov at the center of Russian philosophical thought. Rozanov remains little known outside Russia, but some western scholars have become increasingly fascinated by his work and his persona.

Bibliography

* ''Legenda o velikom inkvizitore F.M. Dostoyevskogo'' (1894; Dostoevsky and the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor) * ''Literaturnye ocherki'' (1899; "Literary Essays") * ''Sumerki prosvescheniya'' (1899; "Twilight of Education") * ''Semeyny vopros v Rossii'' (1903; "The Family Question in Russia") * ''Metafizika Khristianstva'' (1911; "Metaphysics of Christianity"): *: ''Temnyi Lik'' (Dark representation of a face) *: ''Liudi Lunnogo Sveta'' (People of the Moon light) * ''Uyedinyonnoye'' (1912; "Solitary Thoughts" eng. trans. Solitaria) * ''Opavshiye listya'' (1913–15; Fallen Leaves) * ''Apokalipsis nashego vremeni'' (1917–18; "The Apocalypse of our Time")

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rozanov, V. V. 1856 births 1919 deaths People from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast Deaths by starvation Russian male essayists Christian philosophers 19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian philosophers Russian monarchists

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Bibliography

See also

References