'Italy opened the doors of my religious consciousness': Catholicism in Rozanov's Italian Impressions

This article discusses the relationship of Catholicism and Russian national identity in the work of Vasilii Rozanov (1856-1919), with particular reference to his Italian Impressions (1909). In this work, largely neglected by scholars, Rozanov describes his travels to Italy (and to a lesser extent Germany) and his thoughts on what he saw there, writing a counterpoint to Fedor Dostoevskii's Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863). The article argues that exploring Italy informed Rozanov's re-evaluation of the merits of Catholicism, and in turn helped him analyse and criticize Russian Orthodoxy and its role in Russian society and culture.