The book on the history of Russian philosophical thought of the nineteenth century deals with six important representatives in the sharply present context of the ideological dispute between East and West. The author has chosen for analysis such Russian concrete worldviews which either advocated dialogue between Russia and the West, or particularly sharply proclaimed the conflict between them. Agreement should be made either in the name of universal-humanist Christian principles, with a special emphasis on Catholicism, or in the name of Enlightenment principles. None of these thinkers are popular in Putin’s Russia today, unlike Dostoevsky and Leontiev, the prophets of the fundamental conflict between Russia and Europe, also discussed in this work.

Grzegorz Przebinda is full professor at the Jagiellonian University and Carpathian State University in Krosno, Poland. His chief areas of academic interest include Russian philology, the history of ideas, translation, and the culture and history of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.