Аннотация:This article considers the various concepts of the human personality that took shape in Russia in the first half and middle of the 19th century. It traces the evolution of the wide range of meanings the word lichnost’ (personality) had acquired at the time. The author identifies two polar points of view, one arising from the tradition of German classical philosophy (Vissarion Belinsky, Konstantin Kavelin, Yury Samarin, Konstantin Aksakov, Pyotr Lavrov) and the other from the Patristic Heritage (Mikhail Speransky, Ivan Kireyevsky, St. Theophan the Recluse). The former associated personality with self-consciousness and the experience of the Self, which ultimately led to an awareness of the need to serve the “saving idea.” The latter implied self-realization of man in spirit and love with deification as the ultimate goal of the personality. This tradition was directly influenced by ThePhilokalia, a collection of Patristic texts translated into the Church Slavonic and later into Russian. In accordance with the two opposing approaches, personality could reveal itself either in and through the self or in God and through God. Fyodor Dostoyevsky frequently used the word lichnost’ in all the meanings then current depending on his specific artistic task. And he also developed a theological teaching on personality in line with the Patristic heritage. The central concept of this teaching was fulfilment of the personality through self-sacrifice. While following the tradition Dostoyevsky spoke to his reader in the language of his time using all the then current concepts.