La synthèse de l’Orient et de l’Occident comme perspective historiosophique dans l’oeuvre de Viatcheslav Ivanov

The synthesis of East and West as a historiosophic perspective in the works of Vyacheslav Ivanov. The famous symbolist poet Vyacheslav Ivanov, more than any other Russian thinker, can justly be called a “Russian European”. The idea of synthesis of the two cultures – Eastern and Western – literally permeates all his art. But it finds its brightest realization in the Tale of Prince Svetomir, the concept of which the author gestated from the beginning of the 1890s and until his death in 1949. When creating the Tale, Vyacheslav Ivanov modelled it on different genres of mediaeval literature. And, in doing so, the author mainly chose such motifs that can justifiably be called “international”. The comparative analysis reveals that the majority of “international motifs” – to a greater or smaller degree – reflect the metaphysical dream about an ideal ruler and Сivitas Сaelestis, about the transfigur ing synthesis of East and West. However, Vyacheslav Ivanov was prompted to select “international” motifs also by the idea of “The synthesis of medieval Western and Eastern concepts”. Notably, this “synthesis” was important for him both as a historiosophic and a spiritual, religious perspective stemming from the ideas of Vladimir Solovyov – “the philosopher of Russian messianism” according to the definition of N. A. Berdyaev.