The Karamazov Correspondence

The Karamazov Correspondence represents the first fully annotated and chronologically arranged collection of the Russian religious philosopher Vladimir S. Soloviev’s most important letters, the vast majority of which have never before appeared in English. Soloviev was widely known for his association with Dostoevsky in the final years of the novelist’s life, and these letters reflect many of the qualities and contradictions that also personify the title characters of The Brothers Karamazov.

Vladimir Wozniuk is professor emeritus at Western New England University and a center associate at Harvard’s Davis Center of Russian and Eurasian Studies. He has edited and translated four volumes of V. S. Soloviev’s essays spanning a wide range of topics, including religion, politics, law, human rights, art and aesthetics.

Vladimir Wozniuk is professor emeritus at Western New England University and a center associate at Harvard’s Davis Center of Russian and Eurasian Studies. He has edited and translated four volumes of V. S. Soloviev’s essays spanning a wide range of topics, including religion, politics, law, human rights, art and aesthetics.

“This book offers a panoramic view of Vladimir Soloviev’s spiritual-philosophical biography. The selected letters of the Russian philosopher-poet span three turbulent decades from 1871 to 1900, revealing a multitalented, adventurous, and erudite personality. … Wozniuk’s scholarship and skillful translation of Soloviev’s epistolary legacy make it possible for English-speaking readers to appreciate the passion, the existential commitment, and the unique vision that motivated Soloviev’s work. … Overall, Vladimir Wozniuk’s book is an impressive accomplishment in scholarship and literary translation, a true gift to the English-speaking scholars and students of Russian philosophy and literature.”

—Evgenia V. Cherkasova, Suffolk University, Russian Review

“The Karamazov Correspondence is an immensely valuable contribution to studies of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and to analogous studies of the author’s relation to Vladimir S. Soloviev. Vladimir Wozniuk’s book is a brilliant work of scholarship, and composed by a renowned scholar of Soloviev in general, and, in this case, of Soloviev and The Brothers Karamazov. His work is ‘must’ reading for all Dostoevsky and Soloviev scholars and students. Vladimir Wozniuk has done classic work on Soloviev, and his new book belongs to this high order.” —Robert Louis Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University

“The Karamazov Correspondence: Letters of Vladimir S. Soloviev takes its due place among the collected writings by this influential philosopher, poet, and journalist, offered to us in English by the talented translator and editor, Vladimir Wozniuk. These letters, sometimes witty, sometimes serious, reveal the personal and professional development of this crucial nineteenth-century Russian writer, who was not only friend and inspiration for Dostoevsky, as the volume’s title hints, but an influential correspondent with virtually all the major figures in late imperial Russia. It is a must read for all lovers, as well as scholars, of Russian literature, history, and philosophy.” —Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, Emeritus Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin–Madison