M. V. Kulikov

The article considers the issue of the spatiotemporal organization of being as one of the central ones in the work of Fr. Pavel Florensky in relation to the border spaces, more specifically, the space of the Bolshoi Solovetsky Island. The author's deeply personal experiences in letters to his relatives and friends in regard to his general theoretical views give us the opportunity to interpret the island as a special kind of micro and macrocosm, as the boundary of confluence of heterogeneous spaces, as a special semiotic place of oblivion, in which the thinker summed up his reflections and his whole life. Father Pavel states that the end of his life's journey coincides with the beginning, but in a caricatured, perverted form. The theme of the border and the existence of the island as a boundary space between land and sea, being and non-being, nature and existence are reviewed separately. The island is seen as a microcosm – a separate world with its inherent originality, and macrocosm – as a world center, ecumene, abode, and a space of meanings in the midst of a boundless ocean of chaos. The temporal organization of the island, in which the author experiences falling out of the general flow of time, its monotony, cyclicality, and, in connection with this, the emptiness of his studies is considered. This kind of experience of the perversion of life's meanings raises the situation to the level of tragedy, in connection with which it can be stated that the spatial separation of the island also materializes internal discord, confirming the ancient, so important for Florensky knowledge about the unity of the world and man, mutual reflection in each other, their parallelism.

Kulikov Mikhail Vyacheslavovitch, Candidate of Sciences (Philosophy), Associate Professor, Department of Humanities, Social and Economic Disciplines and Information Management Technologies Kuzbass Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, 49, Oktyabrsky ave., Novokuznetsk, 654056, Russian Federation, e-mail: philosophy_mk@mail.ru

Kulikov M.V. Metaphisic of Boundary Spaces: the Bolshoi Solovetsky Island in the Letters of Father Pavel Florensky (1934–1937). The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series Political Science and Religion Studies, 2025, vol. 52, pp. 154-163. https://doi.org/10.26516/2073-3380.2025.52.154 (in Russian)

Pavel Florensky, the Bolshoi Solovetsky Island, liminal spaces, boundary, chronotopos, microcosm, macrocosm, unity.

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