YAKOV KROTOV

March 1, 2001, 22.02 PM, Moscow

Sergey Averintsev

Just now, March, 1, 2001, 21.15, I've returned from the Russian State University of Humanities. Sergey Averintsev, Olga Sedakova presented the Russian edition of the book of Luigi Giussani "Religious Feeling". Giussani is famous as the founder of the Italian Catholic laic's movement "Comunione e Liberazione ." Olga Sedakova is the famous poet, last year Pope awarded her the prize of Vladimir Solovyov.

Sergey Averintsev, born 10.12.1937, is the famous culturologist. He became famous in 1970-s when he wrote about Christianity in different legal books using "Oesopus language." He also managed to study Byzantium Orthodoxy and the Bible (Fr. Alexander Menn wrote about him as a bibleist in 1985 - Russian text). Averintsev chairs the Association of Culturologists and heads the Bible Society of Russia.

Averintsev is Russian Orthodox, parishioner of Fr. George Kochetkov. He studied also the works of Vladimir Solovyov and Vyacheslav Ivanov, although he is not a professional philosopher himself. Still, he became a symbol of creative potential of Russian Christian humanism.

In the beginning of 1990-s he was elected member of the Russian Academy of Science. From mid-90-s Averintsev lives abroad, earning his living as a professor of philology: Institute fur Slawistik der Wiener Universitat, Spitalgasse 2-4, hof 3, A-1090, Vienna (Austria).

Averintsev's appeal to the Patriarch defending Kochetkov: http://www.ripnet.org/besieged/appealof.htm.

English Web about Averintsev: http://www.penrussia.org/a-m/se_ave.htm (very short);

As member of the Pontifical academy: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdscien/own/documents/averints.html