Abstract
<jats:p>This article, marking the 195th anniversary of the birth of K.N. Leontyev, offers a comprehensive analysis of his personality, philosophical views, and place in Russian culture. The author examines Leontyev as a complex and contradictory figure: ranging from a “Russian dandy” and the “demon of Russian philosophy” to the monk Kliment and a “literary exile”. The text details Leontyev’s relationships with his contemporaries – I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, and V.S. Solovyov – revealing their ambiguous assessment of his personality and work. Particular attention is paid to the question of Leontyev’s philosophical status. The author analyzes the opinion of V.S. Solovyov, who did not consider him a philosopher, and the position of N.A. Berdyaev, who was the first to see him as one. The author concludes that Leontyev was a philosopher in the broad sense, an “artist of thought”, whose legacy is organically integrated into the tradition of Russian literature as a form of philoso-phizing.</jats:p>