ROZANOV, VASILY VASILYEVICH

born May 2 [April 20, Old Style], 1856, Vetluga, Russia died Feb. 5, 1919, Moscow Russian writer known for his unorthodox religious ideas and for the exceptional originality and individuality of his prose works. Born into a middle-class family, Rozanov studied at the University of Moscow, majoring in history. For a while he taught history and geography, but he had very little interest in teaching. About 1880 he married Apollinaria Suslova, former mistress of the novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He attracted attention in 1890 with a critical analysis of the Legend of the Grand Inquisitor chapter in The Brothers Karamazov, the first study in depth of Dostoyevsky's work. During the 1880s Rozanov lived in St. Petersburg and wrote many works on religious issues, attacking Christianity for what he viewed as its asceticism and its emphasis on sorrow and renunciation. He advocated a naturalistic religion of sex and procreation. As a Slavophile, however, he was not accepted by the modernist literary groups, and his writings are frequently marred by an egregious anti-Semitism. In 1899 Rozanov began writing for the conservative paper Novoye vremya (New Time); it was as a permanent contributor to this publication, being permitted to write anything he liked but restricted by space, that he developed his characteristic fragmentary style. The abortive Russian Revolution of 1905 won his enthusiastic support, and for a time he wrote radical articles for the progressive publication Russkoye slovo (Russian Word), under the pseudonym V. Vavarin, while continuing to write conservative articles in Novoye vremya under his real name. In 1912 he published the work most representative of his mature genius, Uyedinyonnoye (Solitary Thoughts; Solitaria). Described as a collection of maxims and short essays, it evokes the intonations of a living voice, eloquent, rhythmic, and original. Shortly after the start of the Revolution of 1917, Rozanov settled in a monastery near Moscow, where he died in poverty but reconciled with the Orthodox church.