born Dec. 10, 1822, Obertse, Russia
died Nov. 19, 1865, Tiflis, Russian Georgia
Russian naturalist and historical philosopher.
He was the first to propound the philosophy of history as a series of distinct civilizations. In his Russia and Europe (1869), he contended that Russia and the Slavs should be indifferent to the West and concentrate on the development of political absolutism, their own special cultural heritage.