Epilogue

This concluding chapter reflects on Leontiev's life, relationships, and works. As with his novels, his political, ethical, and social writing made little headway during his lifetime. For despite his service in the diplomatic corps, he seems never to have acquired the people skills necessary to gain a wide audience for his groundbreaking, not to say revolutionary, ideas and his uncannily accurate predictions. Yet if it was his misfortune to live and die a voice crying in the wilderness, the chapter asserts that it has at least been to the benefit of posterity. Here, the chapter considers how Leontiev's bold ideas have been handed down throughout the generations unsullied and undiluted by any vain attempts on his part to trim his sails according to the prevailing winds.