The article represents a study of F.М. Dostoevsky’s and Vl. Solovyov’s views on the essence of Christianity enabling a conclusion that neither of the thinkers recognized historical, ecclesiastical Christianity as the true form of Christianity. It is shown that F. Dostoevsky in “A Writer's Diary” of 1880 defines Christianity as the desire of man and mankind for “absolute self-improvement”. Since this is the ideal of perfection that pertains to the earthly world, and not to the transcendent divine reality (the Kingdom of Heaven), this understanding of the essence of Christianity is incompatible with the dogmatic teaching of the church. Vl. Solovyov’s views on ecclesiastical Christianity are analysed based on his works “Three Speechwa in Memory of Dostoevsky” (1883) and “On the Decline of a Medieval Worldview” (1891), in which he also contrasts ecclesiastical Christianity, which has a formal character and does not affect people's lives, and true Christianity, which should radically transform human society and the whole world. As a result, a conclusion was made that both Russian thinkers recognized ecclesiastical Christianity as a sharply distorted version of Jesus Christ’s teachings, replacing the idea of transfiguration of man and the world with the idea of formal faith in dogma. It is shown that, in their opinion, there are still very few representatives of true Christianity among people, though they believed that someday true Christianity would become the religion of all people, and then it would turn into the main force of history that would make man and mankind perfect. The article states that in his later work “Three Conversations about War, Progress and the End of the World History” Solovyov refuses from his previous ideas and supports the position of eccelesiastical Christianity. © 2019 Ivanovo State Power Engineering University. All rights reserved.