Martin Heidegger and Russian symbolist philosophy

In this paper Russian Symbolist philosophy is represented primarily by Viac heslav Ivanov (1866-1949), but its conclusions are intended to be valid for other philosophers we classify as Symbolist, including Nikolai Berdiaev an d S. L. Frank. It is posited that, by comparing Ivanov's cosmology, aesthet ics, and anthropology to those of Martin Heidegger, one can reconceive of S ymbolist philosophy as an existential hermeneutic. This, it is claimed, can help to identify a common basis among the Symbolist philosophers, and also to place Russian thought in the context of modern European philosophy and vice versa.