LEONTIEV, KONSTANTIN NIKOLAEVIČ. — Russian writer and thinker, born in Kudinov on 25 January 1831, died in the Trinity monastery at Chernigov (Moscow) on 24 November 1891.
A brilliant, paradoxical, bitter and aggressive journalist, he fought, in the name of “orthodox” Christianity and the Byzantine tradition, against liberal, democratic and socialist currents that were increasingly taking hold in Russian culture. A fierce opponent of the “commonplaces” of Westernism, he also polemicised against the “commonplaces” of the Slavophiles, rejecting every racist myth and seeing Russia’s greatness in the particular form of its spirituality. After a period of journalism, he entered a monastery. Among his writings are to be noted: Vostok, Rossija i slavjanstvo (The East, Russia and Slavdom) and Naši novye christjane (Our New Christians).