Vladimir Sergeevich Solov'ëv was a Russian philosopher, poet, polemical essayist, and literary critic. His father, S. M. Solov'ëv, was an eminent historian and professor at Moscow University.

After graduating in 1873 from the historico-philological department of Moscow University, Solov'ëv studied for a year at the Moscow Theological Academy. In 1874 he defended his master's dissertation, Krizis zapadnoi filosofii. Protiv pozitivistov (The crisis of western philosophy: Against positivists) and was elected a docent of philosophy at Moscow University. During 1875–1876 he conducted research at the British Library, where he concentrated on mystical and Gnostic literature, including Jakob Boehme, Paracelsus, Emanuel Swedenborg, and the kabbalah.

Having a poetic and impressionable nature, Solov'ëv apparently possessed mediumistic gifts. Several times he had visions of Sophia, or the Eternal Feminine; he tells about one such vision...