The Dispute between Vladimir Solovyov and Alexander Kireev about the Union of Churches in 1897: Chronology, Context, Sources

Abstract

The article is devoted to documents concerning the polemical exchange between Vladimir Solovyov and Alexander Kireev on the unification of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches in 1897 as well as the final stage of their relationship on the whole. For the first time, the author reconstructs the exact chronology and sequence of the first set of polemics between the two thinkers after a ten-year break that took place on the pages of several newspapers and journals from May to September 1897 of that year. Some portions of this polemic have never been republished, and some other articles were republished with significant alterations. This introductory article examines the arguments of Solovyov and Kireev, as well as the positions of the respective presses themselves. Novoye Vremya [New Time], Moskovskiye Vedomosti [Moscow Gazette] and Russkoe Obozrenie [Russian Review]. This article provides an assessment of the context in which this dispute broke out, and the appendix provides a list of fifteen historical sources arranged in chronological order. In addition to the open letters between Solovyov and Kireev directed against each other, notes by Nikolay Engelhardt and Boris Shchetinin concerning this dispute are also included. In addition, for the first time, Solovyov’s archival letters to Anatoly Alexandrov as well as Kireev's previously unpublished memoirs about Solovyov (from the 1900s) are also presented. With the publication of the articles by the two thinkers, the present author has taken into account all discrepancies and alterations when comparing the original journal and newspaper texts with their subsequent re-printings in the collected works of Solovyov and Kireev.