The first voyage on the dark side. About Th. Nemeth’s «The later Solov’ev. Philosophy in imperial Russia»

This article is a reflection on the book published last year by the American scholar Thomas Nemeth devoted to an examination of the late work of Vl. Solov’ev. The article evaluates the work by Nemeth highly, reveals the most important theses of the book, and also attempts to formulate the basic investigative hypothesis, which underlies this work. It is also asserted that Vl. Solov’ev’s late philosophical project is the least studied side of his work, if not the largest «blind spot!» in the historiography of Russian philosophy as a whole. The conclusion is that Nemeth’s book is the first step toward the systematic study of the late Vl. Solov’ev, probably after the second volume of E.N. Trubeckoi’s famous study. The article notes that Vl. Solov’ev’s philosophy of all-unity retains its relevance, if not for world philosophy, then for Russian culture, all of which were marked by an influence from philosophical romanticism with imperative of wholeness and mystical penetration to the final context.