Vasily Rozanov and Anatoly Aleksandrov: Personal and Literary Dialogue in the 1892 Correspondence

Abstract

This is the first publication of eleven consecutive letters exchanged in 1892 by the profound Russian intellectual, philosopher and publicist Vasily Rozanov and Anatoly Aleksandrov, a modest poet and a budding journalist. The publication is accompanied by a study of the reasons for their relationship and of the initial stage of their spiritual rapprochement. Rozanov and Aleksandrov started their correspondence in 1892, both being devoted followers of the outstanding Russian religiousthinker Konstantin Leontiev and admirers of his intellectual heritage. Over time, their relationship changed significantly, but they maintained personal contacts until Rozanov’s death. Mainly thanks to Aleksandrov, the influential highranking official and patron of young neo-Slavophile talents, Terty Filippov, showed interest in Rozanov, wo then was still little known in Russian intellectual circles and served as an inconspicuous teacher in the provincial town of Bely (Smolensk province). Having acquired the support of their high-ranking patron, Aleksandrov and Rozanov considered 1892 to be a turning point for their social status: Aleksandrov was appointed chief editor of the journal Russkoe Obozrenie in Moscow, while Rozanov obtained the opportunity to move to St. Petersburg when Filippov promised to hire him for a small position in the State Control, where Filippov was the chief. The recently found unknown archival drafts of letters from Vassily Rozanov to Filippov and Filippov’s letters back to Rozanov (from the collection of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art) and also excerpts from Filippov's diary of 1892 (in the possession of the Russian State Historical Archive) are published and analyzed here. Changes in Rozanov’s views on some aspects of the philosophical work of Konstanstin Leontiev are also investigated.