Konstantin Leontiev as an existential philosopher

The article examines K. N. Leontiev as an existential thinker, who primarily solves the problem of his existence in his philosophy. The article shows that such features of Leontiev’s philosophy as “transcendent egoism”, paradoxalism, internal inconsistency, pessimism, an apology for dread and disappointment in everything earthly have an existential character. The thesis is substantiated that Leontiev’s historiosophical ideas are developed by him from the position of a “subjective philosopher”, for whom his own existence acts as a starting point. The author claims that Leontiev’s religious worldview, which the philosopher himself called “mysticism”, was based not on mystic, but on existential experience. Leontiev is compared with other existential thinkers, first of all, with Kierkegaard. The author comes to the conclusion that existential philosophizing, based on the experience of boundary situations, was for Leontiev a way to radicalize his Christian worldview.