Abstract: A holistic and close study of journalism, works of art and letters of K. N. Leontiev allows the author of the article to show the formation of the writer’s views, designated by him at the end of his life with the words “my ascetic philosophy”, the context they existed in and his vocabulary changes. The work discusses Leontiev’s creative, philosophical and personal interest to the issues of life of the spirit, the dynamics of his views, it is shown, how in the 1860s Leontiev comes from an aesthetic interest in the Church and its political defense in consular posts to a thirst for faith. The author pays special attention to the idea and concept of obedience, which are associated with Leontiev's idea of “transcendental egoism”, focusing on personal salvation. Behind the idea of obedience, Leontiev thinks about self-condemnation. The writer and thinker clearly explains the interdependence and interdependence of two principles, the “world” and the “monastery”; for Leontiev, monastery culture becomes a synonym for Orthodox culture. Leontiev tried to introduce ascetic principles of discipline and “sobriety” into his own artistic creation, and not only into content, but also into “performance”, applying in practice the rules that he formulated later in his famous article Analysis, Style and Trends.
References
Avdeeva, L. R. K. N. Leont'ev. Prorok ili “odinokii myslitel'”? [K. N. Leontiev. Prophet or “Lonely Thinker”?] Moscow, Rossiiskoe gumanitarnoe obshchestvo Publ., 2012. 158 p. (In Russ.)
Gol'dt, R. “Asketizm kak transtsendental'naia forma zaboty o sebe u K. N. Leont'eva” [“Asceticism as a Transcendental Form of Self-care in K. N. Leontiev’s Works”]. Herlt, J, and K. Zehnder, editors. Izobilie i askeza v russkoi literature: Stolknoveniia, perekhody, sovpadeniia: sb. statei [Abundance and Asceticism in Russian Literature: Collisions, Transitions, Coincidences: Collection of Articles]. Moscow, NLO Publ., 2020, pp. 122–145. (In Russ.)
Zhuravleva, A. V. Osobennosti eskhatologicheskoi etiki K. N. Leont'eva [Peculiarities of K. N. Leontiev’s Eschatological Ethics]. Available at: https://www.gramota.net/articles/issn_1997-292X_2017_11_13.pdf (Accessed 13 February 2021). (In Russ.)
Zhuravleva, A. V. “ʽEsteticheskii amoralizm’ K. N. Leont'eva: pro et contra” [“ʽAesthetic Immoralism’ by K. N. Leontiev: Pro et Contra”]. Izvestiia Tul'skogo gos. universiteta. Gumanitarnye nauki, no. 3, 2017, pp. 133–140. (In Russ.)
Kokovkina, A. A. “Ob ‘esteticheskom amoralizme’ Konstantina Leont'eva” [“On the ‘Aesthetic Immoralism’ of Konstantin Leontiev”]. Dukhovnaia deiatel'nost' i ee formy [Spiritual Activity and Its Forms]. Khabarovsk, 1999, pp. 14–18. (In Russ.)
Kotel'nikov, V. A. Pravoslavnye podvizhniki i russkaia literatura. Na puti k Optinoi [Orthodox Ascetics and Russian Literature. On the Way to Optina Monastery]. Moscow, Progress-Pleiada Publ., 2002. 384 p. (In Russ.)
Nosov, S. N. Antiratsionalizm v russkoi literature vtoroi poloviny XIX – nach. XX (Ap. Grigor'ev, Konst. Leont'ev, Vl. Solov'ev, V. Rozanov): avtoref. diss. ... dokt. filol. nauk [Anti-rationalism in Russian Literature of the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Centuries (Ap. Grigoriev, Konst. Leontiev, Vl. Soloviev, V. Rozanov): DSc thesis]. St. Petersburg, 1998. 43 p. (In Russ.)
Okeanskii, V. P. “Khristianskoe osmyslenie sushchnosti gosudarstva v traditsii russkogo pravoslavnogo organitsizma: Khomiakov – Leont'ev – Solonevich” [“Christian Comprehension of the State Essence in the Tradition of Russian Orthodox Organicism: Khomyakov – Leontiev – Solonevich”]. Traditsii v kontekste russkoi kul'tury [Traditions in the Context of Russian Culture]. Cherepovets, Cherepovetskii gosudarstvennyi pedagogicheskii institut Publ., 1995, pp. 135–139. (In Russ.)
Repnikov, A. V. “Esteticheskii amoralizm” v proizvedeniiakh K. N. Leont'eva [“Aesthetic Immoralism” in K. N. Leontiev’s Works]. Moscow, 1999. 39 p. (In Russ.)
Fetisenko, O. L. “Geptastilisty”: Konstantin Leont'ev, ego sobesedniki i ucheniki [“Heptastilists”: Konstantin Leontiev, His Interlocutors and Students]. St. Petersburg, Izdatel'stvo Pushkinskii Dom Publ., 2012. 784 p. (In Russ.)
Fetisenko, O. L. “Materinskoe ruslo ‘reki vremen’ Konstantina Leont'eva” [“Maternal Channel of Konstantin Leontyev’s ‘River of Times’.”]. Konstantin Leont'ev: Semeinyi arkhiv: Dokumental'nye povesti, vospominaniia i dnevnikovye zapisi F. P. Leont'evoi. Pis'ma [Konstantin Leontiev: Family Archive: Documentary Stories, Memoirs and Diary Entries of F. P. Leontyeva. Letters]. St. Petersburg, Izdatel'stvo Pushkinskii Dom Publ., 2020. pp. 5–36. (In Russ.)
