Vladimir Alexandrovich Kozhevnikov (1852-1917) - Russian publicist, philosopher. He gained great fame not only in Russia but also abroad thanks to his works on: moral theology, philosophy and religious studies.
Biography
The future scientist was born in the family of the eminent merchant Alexander Stepanovich Kozhevnikov and his wife Natalia Vasilievna in the city of Kozlov. The family had two more children: Dmitry (only survived to 24 years) and Zinaida. Natalia died, and the head of the family married M.G. Taranovskaya, in the marriage with whom he had a son, Gregory (in the future, a biologist).
Vladimir was a smart child and from a young age showed a craving for knowledge, received an excellent home education. The basis for its development was the work of such scientists as Archimedes, Euclid, Plato, Aristotle and Ptolemy. Many European languages were also included in his training program, and towards the end of his life, Vladimir Alexandrovich was considered a real polyglot, he knew 14 “living” languages and several ancient, including Sanskrit.
After the parents died early, all responsibility for the younger sister and brothers fell on Vladimir. Thanks to the capital of the parents and their reputation, the young Volodya easily assumed the responsibility of educating the younger ones. As a result, all of them received higher education diplomas, except for their eldest brother, who was not interested in studying the family’s business affairs. And yet, many scientists consider him one of the smartest scientists, in which a whole encyclopedia of various knowledge was concentrated.
Career
The beginning of scientific activity V.A. Kozhevnikov can be considered 1874, when he published his first works. And in 1875, the historian met with the Russian religious thinker Nikolai Fedorov and became his zealous supporter. Later, already in 1906, Kozhevnikov, in an alliance with N.P. Peterson, published the collected works of Fedorov under his title Philosophy of the Common Affair, which to this day remains the most significant and reliable source about the personality and ideas of the thinker.
From 1880 to 1894, the philosopher traveled the world. The largest libraries of Western Europe attracted his attention. He visited many countries of Europe and the East, where he constantly replenished his knowledge of the traditions and religions of different cultures, working with the largest libraries of that time. Kozhevnikov wrote many interesting research books on various philosophical and religious systems of different peoples.
During his life V.A. Kozhevnikov becomes a recognized expert on history, religion, philosophy, linguistics. Thanks to the accumulated knowledge, the scientist published his most significant work, “Buddhism Compared to Christianity, ” which was published in 1902 in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, many of the works of the famous philosopher were lost, but historians do not give up hope to someday find at least some of the scientist's priceless works.
