Guest
Bernard Marchadier, Retired International Civil Servant (United Nations), Paris, France This video was prepared in cooperation with Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. Vladimir Soloviev had an amorous complexion combined with a great philosophical genius and profound ascetic and mystical aspirations. He tried all his life to associate these components of his personality into a dynamic philosophy and spirituality of human love. A lot is known – mostly from Soloviev himself – about his romantic passions in his youth and in later life. The best known sources are his poem Three Encounters and his short story At the Dawn of a misty Youth. But in both romantic experiences one finds a mystical streak: the young girl he fell in love with at the age of ten and the lady he meets on the train as a young man both turn out to be for him what Beatrice was for Dante : a manifestation of light and heavenly beauty vanishing into a mystical light. Throughout his (short) life, Soloviev’s romanti
