Written in French in 1888, The Russian Idea contains elements of ideas that Solovyov developed more extensively in his much larger work Russia and the Universal Church. In The Russian Idea, Solovyov seeks to answer the question: What is the role and function that God has in mind for Russia as being integrated into all of humanity and especially as being integrated into the Mystical Body of Christ on Earth? "The idea of a nation is not what it thinks of itself in time, but instead what God thinks of it in eternity." Remarkably perceptive and insightful, trenchant and charitable, Solovyov remains pertinent today.