On N. N. Strakhov's creative legacy in the context of the religious philosophy tradition in Russia

This article is a critical overview of the recent literary and scientific events devoted to the personality and creative work of Nikolay Strakhov (1828-1896), an eminent religious philosopher, literary critic, journalist and scholar. The article informs its readers that the years 2020 and 2021 saw three videoconferences held in Belgorod, the philosopher’s native city, in Moscow, and in St. Petersburg. These events witnessed a growing interest in the thinker’s personality and creative work. No less important evidence to this assumption is the publication of three large-scale editions dealing with Strakhov’s heritage - Nikolay Ilyin’s two-volume collection of articles My Fight for Russian Philosophy (2020), Valery Fateyev’s monograph Nikolay N. Strakhov: His Personality, His Creative Work, and His Time (2021), as well as the anthology of the opinions of Russian thinkers and researchers N. N. Strakhov: pro et contra (2021). The focus of the present article is an analysis of the anthology published in the popular pro et contra series issued by the Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy (St. Petersburg). As a study of the latter book has revealed, it contains a large number of interesting opinions on Strakhov’s creative legacy including informative excerpts from the philosopher’s own works. The book as a whole, however, does not adequately meet a demand for this kind of publications. The “Pro et contra” series presumes an unbiased and balanced approach to the choice of “for and against” reviews in order to comprehensively characterize such complex and insufficiently studied phenomena of our culture, one of which is N. N. Strakhov. As the article proves, however, this collection of selected works does not fully meet the demand. Nevertheless, the publication of this anthology in a popular series testifies, in the context of the entire abovementioned events and editions, the fact that the time of Nikolay Strakhov has arrived.