Filippov, Mikhail

Filippov, Mikhail Mikhailovich 

Born June 30 (July 12), 1858, in the village of Oknino, now in Zvenigorodka Raion, Cherkassy Oblast; died June 12 (25), 1903, in St. Petersburg. Russian encyclopedic scholar, positivist philosopher, writer, and journalist.

Filippov began studying physics and mathematics at Novorossiia University and then studied law at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1892 he earned the degree of doctor of natural philosophy at the University of Heidelberg. His major works were The Philosophy of Reality (vols. 1–2, 1895–98) and the essay cycle The Future of Russian Philosophy (separate edition, 1904).

Filippov became known as a critic and prose writer. His novel Sevastopol’ Besieged (1889) was, in the opinion of L. N. Tolstoy, “a perfectly clear and complete representation not only of the siege of Sevastopol’ but also of the entire war and its causes” (Sobr. soch., vol. 18, 1965, p. 356). From 1894 to 1903 Filippov was editor of the journal he had founded, Nauchnoe obozrenie, which published articles by V. I. Lenin, G. V. Plekhanov, and V. I. Zasulich, as well as K. E. Tsiolkovskii’s article “The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reactive Devices” (1903, no. 5). Filippov also edited the Encyclopedic Dictionary (vols. 1–3, 1901), published by P. P. Soikin.

Filippov’s life came to a tragic end in his laboratory, where he was experimenting with explosives.

WORKS

Etiudy proshlogo. Moscow, 1963.
Myslio russkoi literature. Moscow, 1965.
Osazhdennyi Sevastopol’: Istoricheskii roman. Moscow, 1976.

REFERENCE

Filippov, B. M. Ternistyi put’, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1969.