The language of irrationalism? -- Russia and the West. The power of illusion -- On Russian dreamers -- Russian eros: love in the context of moral philosophy -- Towards the question of the "man of nature" and "man of culture" in Russian literature -- Cases of subversion. Chekhov and Brodsky: under the veneer of rationalism? (or: on the concepts of hot and cold blood as philosophical categories) -- Rebellious tradition: Russian literary laughter, between poetry and pain.