Konstantin Leont'ev is known as a philosopher of history and an author of novels about Russian life (for which he received praise from Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev), as well as the author of ethnographic novels about the life of Christians in Turkey. His reputation as an original thinker is based on his philosophy of history, which utilizes aesthetic, rather than ethic, principles. His aestheticism was linked not to an examination of art, however, but to an examination of life itself. Leont'ev is best known for his concept of transcendental egotism and his tripartite division of the historical process into periods of primeval simplicity, complex flowering, and resimplification. His religious and sociological views were based on a desire to propagate strict Byzantine principles. He did not accept the nationalistic principles of the Slavophilic doctrine; thus, his reputation as a Slavophile is a misconception. Leont'ev's view of the Slavs was as...