Pavel Alexandrovich Florensky (1882, 1937) was a Russian religious philosopher, scientist, priest, and theologian. He is often compared to Leonardo da Vinci. In his main work "The Pillar and Ground of Truth" (1914), Florensky develops the concept of all-unity proposed by Vladimir Solovyov, where all things are interconnected and form a single whole.

In the early 1920s, in addition to religious philosophy, Florensky began to engage once again in physics and mathematics. From 1921, he worked in the system of the Main Administration of Energy of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry and participated in the development of the State Electrification Plan of Russia (GOELRO). At the same time, he was involved in art studies and served as the scientific secretary of the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquity of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

In 1928, Florensky was first exiled to Nizhny Novgorod, but thanks to the help of Ekaterina Peshkova, the first wife of Maxim Gorky, he returned home. However, in 1933, after another campaign against him in the Soviet press and denunciatory articles, he was sent for ten years to the "Free" camp in the Far East under the administration of BAMLAG. In 1934, he was transferred to Skovorodino at an experimental permafrost station, where he studied permafrost and construction problems in such conditions. In the autumn of that year, Florensky was sent under guard to the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp (SLON). The Soviet authorities could not tolerate intelligent and thinking people, considering them enemies. In 1937, he was sentenced to execution and buried in a mass grave near Leningrad.

Philosopher Sergei Bulgakov wrote in a Paris obituary for Florensky: "It can be said that life offered him a choice between Solovki and Paris, but he chose his homeland, even if it was Solovki. He wanted to share the fate of his people to the end. Father Pavel could not and did not want to become an émigré, severed from his homeland. His life and fate are the glory and greatness of Russia, but at the same time, the greatest of its crimes."