THE INTERSECTION OF VISIONS OF ANNA SCHMIDT AND VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV: SOPHIA GIFTEDNESS OR "OLD WOMAN’S NONSENSE"
The article is dedicated to Anna Nickolaevna Schmidt (1851-1905) - a gifted representative of Russian philosophy of the Silver age. Her name appears in the letters and memoirs of many philosophers and poets of that time. Among them are Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky, Andrey Bely, Alexander Blok, Maxim Gorky, Yulia Danzas, Nikolai Berdyaev, Vladimir Solovyov and others. Anna Schmidt had several mystical coincidences connected with Vladimir Solovyov. They were almost the same age. Almost at the same time, each of them experienced deep spiritual upheavals. Each of them had visions that made a revolution in their worldviews: these were meetings with ideal images of Christ and Sophia. Each of them embodied their mystical visionary experience in their philosophical writings. Anna Nikolaevna Schmidt wrote a mystical work “The Third Testament” in 1885-1886. As the writer believed, in this book her thoughts miraculously coincided with the Sophian insights of Solovyov. The ideas of Anna Schmidt and her fervent belief that it was in her that Sophia the Wisdom of God was incarnated, and Christ incarnated in Solovyov, caused confusion among contemporaries. Although the time was densely filled with mysticism and theosophy, Anna Schmidt’s “The Third Testament” was frighteningly unusual. The article provides the examples of the perception of the writer’s figure by her contemporaries. They all agreed that she was extraordinary gifted and deeply spiritual person. At the same time, they admitted that communicating with her caused conflicting feelings. Even a small review of “remarks” about Anna Schmidt shows that she was very talented, original and had a great energy of faith in her and Solovyov’s missionary vocation. Such people are perceived more as wacky persons; the greatness of the spirit and modesty of the way of life often disturb, irritate other people. In this tone, Anna Schmidt was remembered, for example, by the writer Andrey Bely, by the nephew of V. Solovyov - S. M. Solovyov, and by the philosopher Yulia Danzas. But philosophers Sergei Bulgakov, Pavel Florensky and Nikolai Berdyaev spoke differently about her and her writings. The article shows that the names of Anna Schmidt and Vladimir Solovyov were connected in the perception of the Silver age thinkers. Nevertheless, the religious visions they experienced caused polar reactions. V. Solovyov’s visions were perceived as brilliant insights, and Anna Schmidt’s visionary experiences were labeled as delusions.