Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov was an outstanding Russian religious thinker, mystic, poet, publicist, and literary critic, as well as an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the field of fine literature since 1900. He played a key role in the beginning of the Russian spiritual revival of the 20th century and had a significant influence on the religious philosophy of thinkers such as Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergey Bulgakov, the Trubetskoy brothers, Pavel Florensky, and Semyon Frank. His ideas also inspired symbolist poets, including Andrei Bely and Alexander Blok. Solovyov founded a direction known as Christian philosophy and advocated for the unification of Christianity, rejecting the division between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. He developed a new approach to the study of man, which became dominant in Russian philosophy and psychology at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

Vladimir Solovyov was born in Moscow on January 16, 1853, into the family of the famous historian Sergey Mikhaylovich Solovyov. His mother, Poliksena Vladimirovna, came from the noble Romanov family with Polish and Cossack roots. Among his ancestors was the philosopher H. S. Skovoroda, who was his great-great-uncle. Vladimir was the younger brother of the writer Vsevolod Solovyov.

After graduating from the First Moscow Gymnasium in 1869, Vladimir entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow University, but two years later he transferred to the Department of History and Philology. After graduating from the university in 1873, he remained at the philosophy department to prepare for a professorship. In September 1873, he moved to Sergiev Posad, where he attended lectures at the Spiritual Academy for a year.

At the age of 21, Solovyov wrote his master's thesis "The Crisis of Western Philosophy," which he defended on November 24, 1874, at St. Petersburg University. After that, he became a full-time associate professor of philosophy and taught for one semester at Moscow University.

On May 31, 1875, Solovyov went to London to work at the British Museum, studying Indian, Gnostic, and medieval philosophy. There he became acquainted with spiritualism and studied Kabbalah. On October 16, 1875, he unexpectedly traveled to Egypt, inspired by a mystical vision of Sophia. After five months of traveling in Egypt, he visited Italy and returned to Moscow via Paris.

In June 1876, he resumed teaching at Moscow University, but in March 1877, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he became a member of the Scientific Committee under the Ministry of Public Education and taught at the university. In St. Petersburg, he befriended Dostoevsky. During the Russo-Turkish War, Solovyov experienced a surge of patriotism and almost went to the front. At this time, his philosophical views were finally formed.

Solovyov did not have a family and often lived in the estates of friends or abroad. By the end of the 1890s, his health deteriorated. In the summer of 1900, he came to Moscow to submit his translation of Plato for publication. On July 15, the day of his name day, he felt unwell.

On the same day, he asked his friend Davydov to take him to the suburban estate of Uzkoe, owned by Prince Peter Nikolaevich Trubetskoy. There lived his friend and student, Professor Sergey Trubetskoy. Solovyov arrived at the estate already seriously ill. Doctors diagnosed him with atherosclerosis, kidney cirrhosis, and uremia, but could no longer help him. Vladimir Solovyov passed away in Uzkoe on July 31 (August 13 in the new style) 1900. He was buried at the Novodevichy Convent cemetery next to his father.