Reviewed by Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, United States

In the year of his untimely death at age 47, Solovyov published Three Conversations on War, Progress, and the End of History which uses narrative, or more precisely, two narratives, to explore the problem of evil in the world from several points of view. Using Plato as his model, Solovyov created three dialogues between five Russian travelers, one of which is a stand-in for Tolstoy, and another of which, Mr. Z, appears to speak for the author. To a great extent, the dialogues were an open satire of Tolstoy’s principle of non-violent resistance to evil. But Solovyov was also exploring larger questions about the efficacy of human action in the world. At the end of the third dialogue, Mr. Z produces the “Short Tale of the Anti-Christ,” a futuristic story about the end of the world, and the roles played by Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and Jews in the struggle with the Anti-Christ, who is portrayed as a charismatic saviour of humanity. This work has provoked a deep division among scholars, some arguing that is represents Solovyov’s complete rejection of his form social Christian theology (since evil is conquered only “outside” of history), while others contend that the central meaning of the story is consistent with his earlier work, since a unified, truly ecumenical humanity carries the day. In any case, Three Conversations is an memorable work of fiction in which Solovyov makes masterly use of narrative techniques (point of view, characterization, irony, humor, a framing narrative, etc.) to create its intriguing effect.