ABSTRACT
The element of 'Christian naturalism' was very strong in the 'cult of primitive immediacy' or 'Pochvennichestvo' generally. The combination of immanentism and striving 'toward the ideal', the fenseits, sprang in both Apollon Grigoryev and F. M. Dostoyevsky from an aesthetic foundation. Grigoryev's theories mark the highest point in the development of Russian aesthetic humanism. Grigoryev was primarily a literary critic, but he was always enthusiastic about philosophy. Although he went from Hegel to Schelling, his searchings were original; his part in the elaboration of the ideology of 'primitive immediacy' is unquestionably a very significant one. In Nicholas Nikolayevich Strakhov the 'cult of primitive immediacy' culminated in a struggle against the whole system of Western secularism and an uncritical acceptance of Tolstoy's religio-mystical conception of culture. Strakhov regarded Western culture as a 'triumph of rationalism', and his rejection of rationalism only strengthened his cult of Russian independence and originality.
