Soloviev, Vladimir Sergeevich

(1853–1900)

   Theologian and Ecumenist.

   Soloviev was educated at the University of Moscow and he taught there and at the University of St Petersburg. He was compelled to retire in 1881, after he had recommended mercy for the assassins of Czar Alexander II. He is remembered for his doctrine of ‘Godmanhood’, the union of the Godhead with humanity through man’s identification with Jesus Christ. He was a close friend of dostoievsky and was an important influence on him. Towards the end of his life, he advocated the reunion of the Western and Eastern Churches. He conducted a long correspondence with the Roman Catholic Bishop Strossmayer and he outlined his ecumenical views in La Russie et l’Eglise Universelle. He has been described as the Russian newman and his work was much studied by White Russian émigrés after the Russian Revolution.

   E. Munzer, Solovyev: Prophet of Russian–Western Unity (1956);

   N. Zernov, Three Russian Prophets (1944).