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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2015
Georges Florovsky (1893–1979) was a prominent Russian émigré historian, philosopher, Orthodox theologian, and ecumenist. He was also the first Orthodox theologian to teach at Harvard Divinity School (1957–1964). In the 1920s, Florovsky wrote and defended his dissertation on the leading nineteenth-century Russian public intellectual, Alexander Herzen (1812–1870). Until now, the full text of Florovsky's work had been considered lost. I recently found five documents containing a substantial portion of the dissertation in the Georges Florovsky Papers archive of the St Vladimir's Seminary Library (GFP SVS). This newly discovered material amounts to about one-half of the dissertation and contains some important clues for reconstructing the remaining half of the work. My article discusses: 1) the plan of the dissertation and the history of its composition; 2) Florovsky's defense of the dissertation in Prague in 1923, as summarized in Alexander Izgoev's report, preserved in the Georges Florovsky Papers at the Princeton University Library (GFP PUL); 3) Florovsky's preparation of the dissertation for publication; 4) the description of the newly discovered archival material; and 5) the reconstruction of the dissertation, as preserved in the redactions of 1928–1930. The dissertation is the only monographic study that Florovsky ever finished, his other book-length studies being surveys rather than monographs. The dissertation is also important for understanding the methodological presuppositions of Florovsky's magnum opus, The Ways of Russian Theology (1937).
1 Florovsky, Georges: Russian Intellectual and Orthodox Churchman (ed. Blane, Andrew; Crestwood, N.Y.: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1993)Google Scholar.
2 Florovsky, Letter to I. Polivka, July 6, 1920, in M. Iu. Dostal’, “Pis’ma russkikh uchenykh-emigrantov N. P. Kondakova i G. V. Florovskogo Irzhi Polivke,” Slavianovedenie 4 (1999) 95, original in Russian. This and all subsequent translations from Russian are mine—PG.
3 Florovsky, Letter to I. Polivka, July 6, 1921, in Dostal’, “Pis’ma,” 96.
4 Florovsky, , “Vechnoe i prekhodiashchee v uchenii russkikh slavianofilov,” Slavianski glas 1 (1921) 59−77Google Scholar.
5 Florovsky, Letter to I. Polivka, August 10, 1921, in Dostal’, “Pis’ma,” 97.
6 Florovsky, Letter to I. Polivka, October 3, 1921, in Dostal’, “Pis’ma,” 97–98.
7 Florovsky, Letter to I. Polivka, November 30, 1921, in Dostal’, “Pis’ma,” 99.
8 Andrew Blane and Thomas Bird, “Interview with Fr. Georges Florovsky on April 5, 1969,” 45. The author thanks Matthew Baker for sharing this unpublished typescript from the A. Blane Papers.
9 Florovsky, , “Review of Gustav Shpet's ‘Herzen's Philosophical Worldview,’” Russkaia mysl’ 43 (1922) 228–31 [Russian]Google Scholar.
10 Andreyev, Catherine and Savický, Ivan, Russia Abroad: Prague and the Russian Diaspora, 1918–1938 (London: Yale University Press, 2004)Google Scholar.
11 Iosif V. Gessen, Letter to G. Florovsky, February 21, 1922, GFP PUL, C0586, Box 12, folder 7 [Russian]. In his letter to Petr Suvchinsky of March 10, 1922, Florovsky promised to send a revised manuscript of the finished dissertation in ten days, that is, by March 20. His later statements imply that he completed this revision by July 1922, or earlier. See Baissvenger, M., “Pis’ma G. V. Florovskogo P. P. Suvchinskomu,” Transactions of the Association of the Russian-American Scholars in the U.S.A. 37 (2012) 200−28Google Scholar, at 201−2.
12 I. V. Gessen, Letter to G. Florovsky, November 13, 1922, GFP PUL, C0586, Box 12, folder 7.
13 Florovsky, Letter to N. S. Trubetskoy, December 14 (27), 1922. Publication: Sobolev, A. V., “O G. V. Florovskom po povodu ego pisem evraziiskoi pory,” Istoriia filosofii 9 (2002) 150–73, at 154Google Scholar.
14 I. V. Gessen, Letter to G. Florovsky, January 17, 1923, GFP PUL, C0586, Box 12, folder 8.
15 I. V. Gessen, Letter to G. Florovsky, March 29, 1923, GFP PUL, C0586, Box 12, folder 8.
16 Krats, G., “Materialy k istorii berlinskogo knigoizdatel'stva Slovo v zarubezhnykh kollektsiiakh,” in Dokumental’noe nasledie russkoi kul’tury v otechestvennykh arkhivakh i za rubezhom (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2005) 312–21Google Scholar.
17 I should remind that in my notation, “D” stands for the “dissertation,” “T” for the “typescript of,” and “R” for the “redaction of.”
18 A. S. Izgoev, “Disput G. V. Florovskogo (Pis’mo iz Pragi),” unpublished typescript, GFP PUL, C0586, Box 2, folder 5.
19 The typescript of these nineteen theses is preserved in the Andrew Blane Papers.
20 Lossky, Nicholas O., Vospominaniia (Moscow: Russkii Put’, 2008) 110Google Scholar.
21 Florovsky, , “Pis’mo k P. B. Struve ob Evraziistve,” Russkaia mysl’ 43 (1922) 267–74Google Scholar.
22 A. Blane and T. Bird, “Interview with Fr. Georges Florovsky on April 4, 1969,” 20.
23 Florovsky, , Letter to N. S. Trubetskoy, February 10, 1924, in Istoriia filosofii 9 (2002) 169Google Scholar.
24 A copy of the diploma is preserved in GFP PUL, C0586, Box 1, unnumbered folder 6.
25 Florovsky, Letter to F. Lieb, October 16 (29), 1928, trans. from German and published by Iantsen, Vladimir, “Materialy Florovskogo v arkhive F. Liba,” Issledovaniia po istorii russkoi mysli(Moscow: Tri Kvadrata, 2007) 531Google Scholar.
26 Florovsky, , “Iskaniia molodogo Gertsena,” Sovremennye Zapiski 39 (1929) 274–305Google Scholar; 40 (1929) 335−67. For the history of the difficulties accompanying the publication of this chapter, see Blane and Bird, “Interview with Fr. Georges Florovsky, April 4, 1969,” 20−21 (an unpublished typescript).
27 Florovsky, Letter to F. Lieb, October 4, 1929; in V. Iantsen, Ibid. 538.
28 Florovsky, Letter to F. Lieb, November 1, 1929; in V. Iantsen, Ibid. 540.
29 Florovsky, , “Die Sackgassen der Romantik,” Orient und Occident 4 (1930) 14–37 (trans. Benjamin Unruh)Google Scholar.
30 Blane and Bird, “Interview with Fr. Georges Florovsky, April 4, 1969,” 20–21. The bibliography of Florovsky's works compiled by Andrew Blane contains the following note after the article “Die Sackgassen der Romantik”: “Based in part on the unpublished Master's thesis,” Blane, ed., Georges Florovsky, 354.
31 Bychkov, V. V., “Florovskii. Gertsen v sorokovye gody,” Voprosy filosofii 4 (1995) 79–97Google Scholar. Bychkov's edition makes no mention of a 29-page lacuna in the text.
