Тhe Phenomenon of А. Ya. Flier in Russian Culturology: the Facets of Personality and the Boundlessness of Creative Intentions

The article is devoted to the personality and scientific legacy of Andrey Yakovlevich Flier (1950– 2025), a renowned Russian culturologist, scholar of exceptional individuality and talent. The study draws not only on published works and interviews, but also on unpublished documents, letters, and conversation notes from the author's personal archive. A comprehensive source base, collected and analyzed, helps us identify the preconditions for the development of A. Ya. Flier's scientific interests, demonstrating the role of his family, mentors, and teachers in shaping his character and scientific work. His winding path to culturology is also explored. The article examines the specifics of A. Ya. Flier's intellectual legacy, and attempts to provide a preliminary analytical systematization of his main scientific achievements. His organizational contributions (the Higher School of culturology, etc.) are highlighted. It is emphasized that, largely due to the efforts of A. Ya. Flier and with his direct participation, the first state educational standards for culturology were prepared in Russia, and culturology itself was established as an independent science and academic discipline. It is noted that this scholar's contribution to the development of culturology – despite its contradictions and heterogeneity – is difficult to overestimate. It is believed that A. Ya. Flier's ideas, as well as the debates surrounding them, will inspire generations of researchers to come. The conclusion is that with Flier's death, an entire era, a time of hopes and disappointments, has passed into the past, and a whole page in the history of Russian science of culture has been turned.