Abstract: The focus of this study is the literary-critical statements of V.S. Solovyov and Yu.N. Govorukha-Otrok about the poetry of A.A. Fet. The main object of research – articles written in the 1890s, during the formation of the philosophical method of literary criticism: "About lyrical poetry. Concerning the last poems of Fet and Polonsky" (Solovyov, 1890), "Poetry of Fet" (Govorukho-Otrok, 1892; 1893). Vladimir Solovyov, a younger contemporary and opponent of Govorukho-Otrok, can paradoxically be considered as a mentor in philosophical criticism. The purpose of this work is to identify and analyze the views of Solovyov and Govorukho-Otrok on the essence of poetic creativity. The novelty of the research lies in the comparison of the literary-critical systems of the opposing authors. The homogeneity of the methods reveals itself through a combination of journalism and subjectivity, as well as a mandatory focus on social impact. But if for Govorukho-Otrok the main point of support in literary and critical judgments is religion, for V. Solovyov it is history. Only the spiritual and eternal, according to those writers, can be both a source and an object of poetic comprehension. For both critics, the poet appears, if not a sacred, then an exceptional figure.

Abstract: In the most complete collection of I.B. Rodnyanskaya's works, The Movement of Literature, the name of V.S. Solovyov appears more than 50 times in different contexts. The influence of the founder of philosophical criticism on the strengthening of this direction in Rodnyanskaya's works is provided both by theoretical and methodological works ("Beauty in Nature", "The General Meaning of Art", "The First Step to Positive Aesthetics", etc.) and by private literary and critical observations ("The Fate of Pushkin", "Poetry of F.I. Tyutchev", "Buddhist mood in Poetry", etc.). The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze those principles of positive aesthetics that have most influenced Rodnyanskaya's critical method.     The absence of a holistic teaching about aesthetics in Solovyov did not prevent the fact that the basic principles were used by Rodnyanskaya in private literary and critical observations. The main conclusions of the study are the data that allow us to talk about the rapprochement of Rodnyanskaya and Solovyov not only at the level of methodology, but also in the aspect of the poetics of literary and critical utterance. Common to Solovyov and Rodnyanskaya should be considered the plot, which consists in solving a problem related to the sphere of spirituality or, in a narrow sense, with the study of the artist's soul. The works of representatives of the philosophical direction of criticism are distinguished by the presence of two time layers.