V.S. Solovyov's articles in A.F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron's encyclopaedic dictionary: history of publication, authentication, subject matter

Abstract

For the first time Solovyov's lexicographical heritage, as represented in A.F. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron's Encyclopaedic Dictionary (1890–1907), is comprehensively examined. The authentication of the materials from the dictionary itself, epistolary sources and a separate edition of Solovyov's dictionary works (1997) have yielded a list of 183 articles written by the philosopher for the dictionary. The reader is welcomed for the regularity of the ideological component of the articles. Nine thematic groups are distinguished, in particular: “Terms, concepts”, “Personalities (philosophy, religion)”, “Philosophical, social and religious schools/studies”, “Personalities (others)”, “Mythology”. The articles that stand out in particular in Solovyov's system of encyclopedic heritage are identified. These are “Freedom of Will”, “Hegel”, “Plato”, “Comte”, and “Kant”. It is demonstrated that at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. V.S. Solovyov created his own history of philosophy, thus realizing the original strategy of studying the world philosophy by the Russian-speaking readers of the present section of the Dictionary (from VI–V BC up to XIX c.). The author underlines that the choice of names of philosophers, which Solovyov wrote about, illustrates the author's all-embracing and large-scale thinking. The author emphasizes the role of bibliographical sources, which were developed and verified by Solovyov and which help present not only the most important works, in the author's opinion, but the cultural context of the epoch as a whole. The thematic references in the articles are found to reflect the specific organization of the whole corpus of Solovyov's lexicographical works.