Vasily Rozanov Vasily Vasilievich Rozanov ( Василий Васильевич Розанов ) ( 1856 - 1919 ) was one of the most controversial Russian writers and philosophers of the pre- revolutionary epoch . His views have been termed the `` religion of procreation '' , as he tried to reconcile Christian teachings with ideas of healthy sex and family life and not , as his adversary Nikolai Berdyaev put it , `` to set up sex in opposition to the Word '' . Rozanov 's mature works are deeply personal diaries , which contain his intimate thoughts , impromptu lines , unfinished maxims , vivid aphorisms , reminiscences , and short essays . These collections , attempting to recreate intonations of spoken speech , form a loosely-connected trilogy : Solitaria ( 1911 ) , and the two-volume Fallen Leaves ( 1913 ; 1915 ) . Rozanov frequently referred to himself as Dostoyevsky 's Underground Man , and proclaimed his right to espouse contrary opinions at the same time . He first attracted attention in the 1890s when he published political sketches in the conservative newspaper New Times . His comments , always paradoxical and sparking controversy , would lead him to clashes with radicals ( like Lenin ) and the Tsarist government alike . Thus , Rozanov readily passed from a blasting criticism of Russian Orthodoxy and even of what he saw as the Christian preoccupation with death to the fervent praise of Christian faith , from the praise of Judaism to the unabashed anti-Semitism , and from acceptance of homosexuality as yet another side of human nature to the vitriolic accusations of Gogol and some other writers of latent homosexuality . Rozanov starved to death in the hungry years following the Revolution . His work was largely forgotten in the Soviet Union even though some prominent writers ( including Maxim Gorky and Vladimir Nabokov ) were among his admirers . Recently , his paradoxical writings have once again become available to the Russian readers , but he remains little known outside of Russia , though western scholars of Russian culture have become increasingly fascinated by his work and his persona . Categories : 1856 births | 1919 deaths | Russian essayists | Christian philosophers | Russian philosophers In other languages : Русский 