Akim Volynsky and Vladimir Solovyov: A Conflict of Idealisms in Russian Thought

The study analyzes the public polemic between two prominent figures of the Russian religious-philosophical renaissance – Vladimir Solovyov and Akim Volynsky – a conflict that, despite its limited treatment in Russian philosophical historiography, exerted significant influence on the fundamentals of Russian humanistic thought. The article examines the reasons that prompted their continuous debate, which stemmed from both subjective animosity and objective disagreements on key issues including the revival of philosophical idealism, the Jewish question and the moral implications of war. Volynsky sharply criticized Solovyov’s mysticism and philosophical inconsistencies. He contested Solovyov’s characterization of “extreme materialism” as an intrinsic feature of Jewish mentality (countering that it was, in fact, marked by “extreme idealism”), as well as his assertions regarding the progressive and moral nature of wars and the inevitable expansion of state influence in society. Furthermore, Volynsky dismissed Solovyov’s idealism as disingenuous, denouncing him as bourgeois, and little more than a mediocre publicist. Through an assessment of both thinkers’ arguments, the author demonstrates the imbalance in Volynsky’s critique, attributing its unfairness to his superficial engagement with Solovyov’s philosophy – and with German classical idealism more broadly – as well as his reliance on a reductive, Platonic interpretative framework. The study concludes that Volynsky’s polemical stance was ultimately undermined by these methodological limitations.

Keywords: history of philosophy; Russian philosophy; Russian religious and philosophical renaissance; Silver Age of Russian culture; idealism; materialism; Vladimir Solovyov; Akim Volynsky