“He saw the special mission of Russian people”. Why did Vladinir Solovév believe that Russia would unite all the mankind?

The conversation of the correspondent of “Lenta.ru” within the framework of the History of Russian Thought project, with Boris Mezhuyev, Associate Professor of the Department of History of Russian Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy of Lomonosov Moscow State University, devoted to the modern significance of V. Solovyov's philosophy of unity, his social mission, as well as about the complex aspects of his religious worldview, which have recently caused acute controversy. It is reported that V. Solovyov managed to create a philosophical system that meets the deep features of the national consciousness, that he tried to give Christianity a kind of social mission and, on the other hand, point out that the main problems of humanity will not be solved if it rejects the Gospels and leaves the church. The conversation emphasizes that Vladimir Solovyov remained the number one thinker in Russia for his contemporaries throughout almost his entire life. And he strengthened his status as a prophet by predicting the coming unification of Europe, the power of China and even the confrontation of Western countries with the Islamic world. It is argued that the philosopher saw the future of humanity in the unification of all Christians, which would end the wars that were inevitable until then. And Russia and the Russian people, with their idea of self-denial and striving for integrity, had to play a key role in this unification. The conversation also tells how Solovyov explained the contradictions of the West and the East and how he saw the future of the Russian people.