Konstantin Leontiev “In full growth”: marking the publication of the complete works and letters of K. N. Leontiev (2000-2021)

This article presents the Complete Works and Letters of Konstantin N. Leontiev in 12 volumes and 22 books, published between 2000 and 2021. The successful completion of this project is regarded in the article as a major event in the cultural life of Russia affording a possibility for both experts and general readers alike to explore Leontiev “in full growth”, that is in all the scope of his personal development and in the wealth of his talents - as a philosopher, a novel and story writer, a literary critic, a journalist and a master of the epistolary genre. A steadily high level of scholarly research in the comments and reference materials of the complete works is shown. The unusual creative path of Konstantin Leontiev from a talented and refined writer of novels and long stories, including exotic works from the life of the Slavic peoples under the Turkish yoke, a liberal aesthete and individualist, to a creator of keen conservative and religious essays and books full of philosophical and political prophesies coming true later, is outlined. A tragic literary fate of Konstantin Leontiev is highlighted: his conservative views earned him the contempt of society and a negative reputation of a literary exile that did not change for more than a century. A growth of the thinker’s popularity associated with the publication his Complete Works is noted. The mature Leontiev’s Orthodox Christian views with the emphasis on a submission to the monastic Elders and on the fear of God are accentuated. The possible directions of further, more profound insight into the creative work of this outstanding traditionalist thinker and writer are traced.