Dmitry Merezhkovsky
Dmitry Merezhkovsky | |
---|---|
Nazi-occupied France | |
Occupation |
|
Alma mater | Saint Petersburg State University |
Period | 1888–1941 |
Genre | Poetry, historical novel, philosophical essay |
Literary movement | Russian symbolism |
Notable works | Christ and Antichrist (trilogy) |
Spouse | Zinaida Gippius |
Relatives | Konstantin Mereschkowski |
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky (Russian: Дми́трий Серге́евич Мережко́вский, IPA: However, because he was close to the Nazis, he was virtually forgotten after World War 2.
Biography
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky was born on August 14 [
Early years
Dmitry Merezhkovsky spent his early years on the Yelagin Island in Saint Petersburg, in a palace-like cottage which served as a summer
In 1876 Dmitry Merezhkovsky joined an elite grammar school, the St. Petersburg Third Classic Gymnasium.
Debut
Much as Dmitry disliked his tight upper-lipped, stone-faced father, later he had to give him credit for being the first one to have noticed and, in his emotionless way, appreciate his first poetic exercises. In July 1879, in
In Autumn 1882 Merezhkovsky attended one of the first of Semyon Nadson's public readings and, deeply impressed, wrote him a letter. Soon Nadson became Merezhkovsky's closest friend – in fact, the only one, apart from his mother. Later researchers suggested there was some mystery shared by the two young men, something to do with "fatal illness, fear of death and longing for faith as an antidote to such fear." Nadson died in 1887, Varvara Vasilyevna two years later; feeling that he's lost everything he'd ever had in this world, Merezhkovsky submerged into deep depression.[13]
In January 1883
University years
In 1884–1889 Merezhkovsky studied history and
In 1884 Merezhkovsky (along with Nadson) joined the Saint Petersburg's Literary Society, on
It was under the guidance of the latter that Merezhkovsky, while still a university student, embarked upon an extensive journey through the Russian provinces where he met many people, notably religious cult leaders. He stayed for some time in Chudovo village where Uspensky lived, and both men spent many sleepless nights discussing things like "life's religious meaning," "a common man's cosmic vision" and "the power of the land." At the time he was seriously considering leaving the capital to settle down in some far-out country place and become a teacher.[7]
Another big influence was Mikhaylovsky, who introduced the young man to the staff of Severny Vestnik, a literary magazine he founded with Davydova. Here Merezhkovsky met Vladimir Korolenko and Vsevolod Garshin, and later Nikolai Minsky, Konstantin Balmont and Fyodor Sologub: the future leaders of the Russian Symbolism movement.[16] Merezhkovsky's first article for the magazine, "A Peasant in the French literature", upset his mentor: Mikhaylovsky spotted in his young protégé the "penchant for mysticism," something he himself was averse to.[17]
In the early 1888 Merezhkovsky graduated from the University and embarked upon a tour through southern Russia, starting in
Late 1880s to early 1890s
Merezhkovsky's major literary debut came with the publication of Poems (1883–1888). It brought the author into the focus of the most favourable critical attention, but – even coupled with Protopop Avvacum, a poetry epic released the same year, could not solve the young family's financial problems. Helpfully, Gippius reinvented herself as a prolific fiction writer, producing novels and novelettes with such ease that she later struggled to remember their names. Sergey Merezhkovsky's occasional hand-outs also helped the husband and wife to keep their meagre budget afloat.[20]
Having by this time lost interest in poetry, Dmitry Merezhkovsky developed a strong affinity to
These translations from Ancient Greek, including his later work on Daphnis and Chloe (prose version, 1896), though largely overlooked by contemporary critics, later came to be regarded as "the pride of the Russian school of classical translation," according to biographer Yuri Zobnin.[22]In the late 1880s Merezhkovsky debuted as a literary critic with an essay on
In May 1890
Russkaya Mysl released The Family Idyll (Semeynaya idillia, 1890), a year later another symbolic poem Death (Smert) appeared in Severny Vestnik. In 1891 Merezhkovsky and Gippius made their first journey to Europe, staying mostly in Italy and France; the poem End of the Century (Konetz Veka) inspired by the European trip, came out two years later. On their return home the couple stayed for a while in Guppius' dacha at
The Symbolism manifests
In 1892 Merezhkovsky's second volume of poetry entitled Symbols. Poems and Songs came out. The book, bearing the influences of
In 1893–1894 Merezhkovsky published numerous books (the play The Storm is Over and the translation of Sophocles' Oedipus the King among them), but the money all this hard work brought were scant. Now writing his second novel, he had to accept whatever work was offered to him. In the late 1893 Merezhkovskys settled in Saint Petersburg again. Here they frequented the Shakespearean Circle, the Polonsky's Fridays and the Literary Fund gatherings. Then the pair started their own home salon with Filosofov and Akim Volynsky becoming habitués. All of a sudden Merezhkovsky found that his debut novel was to be published in Severny Vestnik after all. What he didn't realise was that this came as a result of a Gippius' tumultuous secret love affair with Akim Volynsky, one of this magazine's chiefs.[28]
1895–1903
The Death of the Gods which came out in 1895 (Severny Vestnik, Nos.1–6) opened the Christ & Antichrist trilogy and in retrospect is regarded as the first Russian symbolist novel. Sceptics prevailed (most of them denouncing the author's alleged
Merezhkovsky's relationship with Severny Vestnik, though, again started to deteriorate, the reason being Akim Volynsky's jealousy. In 1896 all three of them (husband still unaware of what was going on behind his back) made a trip to Europe to visit Leonardo da Vinci's places. Several ugly rows with Volynsky finally prompted Gippius to send her scandalous-minded lover home. Volynsky reacted by expelling his ex-lover's husband from Severny Vestnik (some sources[29] say it was the Merezhkovskys who withdraw their cooperation with the "Severny Vestnik" a year before the magazine shut down in 1898, along with Minsky and Sologub), made sure the major literary journals would shut the door on him and published (in 1900[30]) under his own name a monograph Leonardo da Vinci, written and compiled by his adversary.[31]
The scandal concerning plagiarism lasted for almost two years. Feeling sick and ignored, Merezhkovsky in 1897 was seriously considering leaving his country for good, being kept at home only by the lack of money. For almost three years the second novel,
By the time of his second novel's release Merezhkovsky was in a different cultural camp – that of
The God-seekers and Troyebratstvo
In the early 1900s Merezhkovskys formed the group called the Religious-Philosophical Meetings (1901–1903) based on the concept of the New Church which was suggested by Gippius and supposed to become an alternative to the old Orthodox doctrine, "...imperfect and prone to stagnation."[7] The group, organized by Merezhkovsky and Gippius along with Vasily Rozanov, Viktor Mirolyubov and Valentin Ternavtsev, claimed to provide "a tribune for open discussion of questions concerning religious and cultural problems," serving to promote "neo-Christianity, social organization and whatever serves perfecting the human nature." Having lost by this time contacts with both Mir Iskusstva and Mir Bozhy, Merezhkovskys felt it was time for them to create their own magazine, as a means for "bringing the thinking religious community together." In July 1902, in association with Pyotr Pertsov and assisted by some senior officials including ministers Dmitry Sipyagin and Vyacheslav von Plehve, they opened their own Novy Put (New Path) magazine, designed as an outlet for The Meetings.[34]
After the 22nd session, in April 1903, the Meetings of the group (by this time known as Bogoiskateli, or God-seekers) were cancelled by the procurator of the
The couple formed their own domestic "church", trying to involve miriskusniks. Of the latter, only Filosofov took the idea seriously and became the third member of the so-called Troyebratstvo (The Brotherhood of Three) built loosely upon the
In 1904
1905–1908
After the
In The Forthcoming Ham (Gryadushchu Ham, 1905) Merezhkovsky explained his political stance, seeing, as usual, all things refracted into Trinities. Using the pun ("Ham" in Russian, along with a Biblical character's name, meaning 'lout', 'boor') the author described the three "faces of Ham'stvo" (son of Noah's new incarnation as kind of nasty, God-jeering scoundrel Russian): the past (Russian Orthodox Church's hypocrisy), the present (the state bureaucracy and monarchy) and the future – massive "boorish upstart rising up from society's bottom." Several years on the book was regarded as prophetic by many.[36]
In spring 1906, Merezhkovsky and Filosofov went into a self-imposed European exile in order to promote what they termed "the new religious consciousness." In France they founded Anarchy and Theocracy magazine and released a compilation of essays called Le Tsar et la Revolution.[37] In one of the articles he contributed to it, Revolution and Religion, Merezhkovsky wrote: "Now it's almost impossible to foresee what a deadly force this revolutionary tornado starting upwards from the society's bottom will turn out to be. The church will be crashed down and the monarchy too, but with them — what if Russia itself is to perish — if not the timeless soul of it, then its body, the state?" Again, what at the time was looked upon as dull political grotesque a decade later turned into grim reality.[9][16]
In 1908 the play about "the routinous side of the revolution," Poppy Blossom (Makov Tzvet) came out, all three Troyebratstvo members credited as co-authors. It was followed by "The Last Saint" (Posledny Svyatoy), a study on
Among people whom Merezhkovskys talked with in Paris were
1909–1913
In 1909 Merezhkovsky found himself in the center of another controversy after coming out with harsh criticism of
Some argued Merezhkovsky's stance was inconsistent with his own ideas of some five years ago. After all, the Vekhi authors were trying to revitalize his own failed project of bringing the intellectual and the religious elites into collaboration. But the times have changed for Merezhkovsky and – following this (some argued, unacceptably scornful)[39] anti-Vekhi tirade, his social status, too. Shunned by both former allies and the conservatives, he was hated by the Church: Saratov Bishop Dolganov even demanded his excommunication after the book Sick Russia was published in 1910.[14] For the Social Democrats, conversely, Merezhkovsky, not a "decadent pariah" any-more, suddenly turned a "well-established Russian novelist" and the "pride of the European literature." Time has come for former friend Rozanov to write words that proved in the long run to be prophetic: "The thing is, Dmitry Sergeyevich, those whom you are with now, will never be with you. Never will you find it in yourself to wholly embrace this dumb, dull and horrible snout of the Russian revolution."[40]
In the early 1910s Merezhkovsky moved to the left side of the Russian cultural spectrum, finding among his closest associates the esers Ilya Fondaminsky and, notably, Boris Savinkov. The latter was trying to receive from Merezhkovsky some religious and philosophical justification for his own terrorist ideology, but also had another, more down to Earth axe to grind, that of getting his first novel published.[41] This he did, with Merezhkovsky's assistance – to strike the most unusual debut of the 1910 Russian literary season. In 1911 Merezhkovsky was officially accused of having links with terrorists. Pending trial (which included the case of Pavel Pervy play) the writer stayed in Europe, then crossed the border in 1912 only to have several chapters of Alexander the First novel confiscated.[42] He avoided being arrested and in September, along with Pirozhkov, the publisher, was acquitted.[21]
1913 saw Merezhkovsky involved in another public scandal, when Vasily Rozanov openly accused him of having ties with the "terrorist underground" and, as he put it, "trying to sell Motherland to Jews." Merezhkovsky suggested that the Religious and Philosophical Society should hold a trial and expel Rozanov from its ranks. The move turned to be miscalculated, the writer failing to take into account the extent of his own unpopularity within the Society. The majority of the latter declined the proposal. Rozanov, high-horsed, quit the Society on his own accord to respond stingingly by publishing Merezhkovsky's private letters so as to demonstrate the latter's hypocrisy on the matter.[43]
1914–1919
1914 - 1916
For a while in 1914 it looked as though Merezhkovsky would have his first ever relatively calm year. With the two Complete Works Of editions released by the Wolfe's and Sytin's publishing houses, academic
Two new plays by Merezhkovsky, Joy Will Come (Radost Budet) and The Romantics were staged in war-time
1917: February and October
1917 for the Merezhkovskys started with a bout of political activity: the couple's flat on Sergiyevskaya Street looked like a secret branch of Russian
Merezhkovsky viewed the October Socialist Revolution of 1917 as a catastrophe. He saw it as the Coming of Ham he wrote about a decade later, the tragic victory for, as he choose to put it, Narod-Zver (The Beast-nation), the political and social incarnation of universal Evil, putting the whole of human civilization in danger. Merezhkovsky and Gippius tried to use whatever influence they retained upon the Bolshevist cultural leaders to ensure the release of their friends, the arrested Provisional-government ministers. Ironically, one of the first things the Soviet government did was lift the ban from Merezhkovsky's anti-monarchist Pavel Pervy play, and it was staged in several of Red Russia's theaters.[9]
1918 - 1919
For a while the Merezhkovskys' flat served as an Eser headquarters, but this came to an end in January 1918 when Vladimir Lenin dissolved the so-called Uchredilovka - the Russian Constituent Assembly. In his 1918 diary Merezhkovsky wrote:
How fragrantly fresh our February and March were, with their bluish, heavenly blizzards, what a beauty human face shone with! Where is it all now? Peering into the October crowd, one sees that it is faceless. Not the ugliness of it, but facelessness is what's most disgusting. [...] Strolling down the Petersburg streets, I recognize a Communist face at once. What frightens most in it – the self-satisfaction of a satiated beast, animalistic obtuseness? No, the most horrible in this face is its dreariness, this transcendental dreariness, found only in Paradise that's been found on Earth, the Antichrist's Kingdom Come.[7]
In 1919, having sold everything including dishes and extra clothes, the Merezhkovskys started collaborating with Maxim Gorky's new World Literature publishing house , receiving a salary and food rations. "Russian Communists are not all of them villains. There are well-meaning, honest, crystal clear people among them. Saints, almost. These are the most horrible ones. These saints stink of the 'Chinese meat' most", Merezhkovsky wrote in his diary.[7][note 1]
After news started to filter through of the defeats suffered by the White forces of Yudenich, Kolchak and Denikin in the course of the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922, the Merezhkovskys saw their only chance of survival in fleeing Russia. They left Petrograd on December 14,[citation needed] 1919, along with Filosofov and Zlobin (Gippius' young secretary), having obtained from Anatoly Lunacharsky signed permission "to leave Petrograd for the purpose of reading some lectures on Ancient Egypt to Red Army fighters".[7][16]
Merezhkovsky in exile
Merezkovsky, Gippius, Filosofov and Zlobin headed first for
In Warsaw Merezhkovsky did practical work for some Russian immigrant organizations, Gippius edited the literary section in Svoboda newspaper.[7] Both were regarding Poland as a "messianic", potentially unifying place and a crucial barrier in the face of the spreading Bolshevist plague. In the summer of 1920 Boris Savinkov arrived into the country to have talks with Józef Piłsudski: he engaged Merezhkovsky and Filosofov in the activities of the so-called Russian Evacuation committee (more of a White Army mobilization center) and introduced the writer to Piłsudski. On behalf of the Committee Merezhkovsky issued a memorandum calling the peoples of Russia to stop fighting the Polish army and join its ranks. The whole thing flopped, though, as Poland and Russia reached the armistice agreement. Merezhkovskys and Zlobin left for France, Filosofov staying in Warsaw to head the Savinkov-led Russian National committee's anti-Bolshevik propaganda department.[47]
In Paris Merezhkovsky founded the Religious Union (later Soyuz Neprimirimykh, the Union of the Unpacified), was holding lectures, contributed to
Merezhkovsky insisted upon severing all the
In winter 1925 a small literary and philosophy circle was formed by Merezhkovsky and Gippius; two years later it was officially launched as the Green Lamp group. With the Novy Korabl (The New Ship) magazine of its own, the group attracted the whole of the Russian intellectual elite in exile and remained the important cultural center for the next ten years. "We are the Criticism of Russia as such, the latter's disembodied Thought and Conscience, free to judge its present and foresee its future," wrote Merezhkovsky of the Green Lamp mission.[36]
In 1928 at the First Congress of Russian writers in exile held in
Merezhkovsky's literary activities: 1925–1941
In the mid-1920s, disappointed by the Western cultural elite's reaction to his political manifestos, Merezhkovsky returned to religious and philosophical essays, but in the new format, that of a monumental free-form experimental-styled treatise. Some of his new books were biographies, some just extensive, amorphous researches in ancient history.[9][52] Speaking of the first two of them, The Birth of Gods. Tutankhamen in Crete (1925) and Messiah (1928), Merezhkovsky thus explained his credo: "Many people think I am a historical novelist, which is wrong. What I use the Past for is only searching for the Future. The Present is a kind of exile to me. My true home is the Past/Future, which is where I belong."[53]
Of the three fundamental books Merezhkovsky created in the late 1920s early 1930s another trilogy took shape, loosely linked by the concept of man's possible way to salvation. The Mystery of the Three: Egypt and Babylon (
All of a sudden Merezhkovsky, a prolific writer again, drifted into the focus of the Nobel Prize committee attention. From 1930 onwards Sigurd Agrell, professor of Slavic languages in Lund University, started to methodically nominate Merezhkovsky for the Prize, although, invariably (and rather frustratingly for both), in tandem with Ivan Bunin. In November 1932 Gippius in a letter to Vera Bunina expressed her opinion that Merezhkovsky had no chance of winning "because of his anti-Communist stance," but the truth was, Bunin (no lesser a Communism-loather than his rival) wrote books that were more accessible and, generally, popular. Merezkovsky even suggested they should make a pact and divide the money should one of them ever win, but Bunin took seriously what was meant apparently as a joke and responded with outright refusal. He won the Prize in 1933.[55]
Agrell continued nominating Merezhkovsky up until his own death in 1937 (making eight such nominations, in all), but each year the latter's chances were getting slimmer. The books he produced in his latter years (like the compilation of religious biographies Faces of Saints: from Jesus to Nowadays and The Reformers trilogy, published posthumously) were not ground-breaking. Hard times and deepening troubles notwithstanding, Merezhkovsky continued to work hard until his dying day, trying desperately to complete his Spanish Mysteries trilogy; the last of the three pieces, the unfinished Little Theresa, was with him at his deathbed; he died literally with a pen in his hand.[36][56]
Merezhkovsky and the European dictators
Although never a
The best, the truest and the liveliest document on Dante is — your personality. To understand Dante one has to live through him, but only you being around makes that possible. Two souls, his and yours, are merged into one, Infinity itself bringing you two together. Visualize Mussolini in contemplation, and it's Dante. Imagine Dante in action, and it's Mussolini.[9]
All the while Merezhkovsky was trying to convince Mussolini that it was the latter's mission to start the "Holy War against Russia" (the idea formed the basis of his article "Meeting Mussolini", published by Illustrated Russia in February 1937). Seeing his name frequently mentioned by the Italian press in connection with Merezhkovsky's bizarre suggestions made the Duce uneasy and he took a step back. Visiting Rome in summer 1937, Merezhkovsky had talks with the Italian Foreign Minister, but failed to meet Mussolini. Then came the disillusionment, and in October of the same year he was already speaking of how disappointed he was with the Italian leader's "petty materialism". He tried to contact General Francisco Franco, now seeing Spain as the last anti-Communist citadel of Europe - and failed. Thus Merezhkovsky's choice of the new European "heroes" narrowed down to Adolf Hitler.[57]
Merezhkovsky had never seen Fascism as an alternative to Communism. As early as 1930 he wrote of a doomed Europe stuck between the two "stores of explosives: Fascism and Communism", expressing hope that some day these two evils will somehow destroy one another.[7] But the danger of the Fuhrer's possible subjugation of Europe was still the lesser evil for him - compared to possible Communist expansion.[36] The "Hitler dilemma" was the only thing husband and wife ever disagreed on. Gippius hated and despised the Fuhrer, referring to him as "an idiot". Merezhkovsky thought he found a leader who'd be able to take the whole of Antichrist Kingdom upon himself, this outweighing for him such trivia as the fact that his own Joan of Arc (1939) was banned in Germany on the day of its release.[50]
In summer 1939 Paramount (in collaboration with the French Association des Auteurs de Films) bought Merezhkovsky's scenario The Life of Dante. The production was cancelled on September 1, as World War II broke out in Europe. On September 9, fleeing the air raids, the Merezhkovskys moved to Biarritz in the south of France, where they spent the next three months, communicating mainly with the French and the English military officers, but also with Irina Odoyevtseva and her husband Georgy Ivanov.[58]
On June 27, 1940 the German
The "infamous radio speech"
Exactly how and why did Merezhkovsky found himself on the German radio in June 1941 nobody was quite sure of. Gippius (according to Yury Terapiano who was quoting
Bolshevism will never change its nature... because right from the start it's been not a national, but international phenomenon. From the very first day Russia has been – and remains to this very day – only a means to the end: that of its conquering the whole world.
"This is the end for us," Gippius allegedly commented, disgusted and horrified.[36] In the days to come, though, husband and wife (as those who knew them later attested) often expressed horror at the news of Nazis' atrocities on the Eastern front; according to Gippius' friend, poet Victor Mamchenko, Merezhkovsky far from supporting Hitler, in those days was actually condemning him.[36]
Biographer Zobnin doubts that Merezhkovsky appeared on German radio at all, noting that none of the memoirists who mentioned it had himself heard Merezhkovsky speaking on air. All of those "witnesses" invariably referred to the printed version of the "speech" published in 1944 by Parizhsky Vestnik. This document, according to Zobnin (the author of the first comprehensive Merezhkovsky biography published in Russia) was most certainly a montage fake, concocted by Nazi propagandists out of the 1939 unpublished essay The Mystery of the Russian Revolution (on Dostoyevsky's Demons novel), with bits and pieces thrown in. The researcher insists such a speech could not have been broadcast in the late June: the couple resided in Biarritz and for an elderly person to give everybody a slip and somehow get to Paris was hardly probable.[59]
Adding to the confusion is the well-documented fact that Merezhkovsky had already made one speech mentioning Hitler and Joan of Arc in one breath. It happened in August 1940 at his 75th-birthday celebration in Biarritz, and in a different context. In fact, his speech caused trouble because it was deemed too pro-Russian and anti-German. According to
On the huge hotel terrace under the guidance of countess G., the audience gathered, German uniform seen here and there. Merezhkovsky pronounced a lengthy tirade which rather frightened the Russian camp. Targeting both bolsheviks and the [German] fascists, he spoke of the times when the nightmare finally ends, both Antichrists – one tormenting Russia, the other tormenting France – perish, and the 'Russia of Dostoyevsky' at last will be able to stretch a hand to the 'France of Pascal and Joan of Arc'. "Well, now they'll throw us out of the hotel, that's for sure," horrified Russian lodgers were whispering. But the Germans looked as if they never heard this prophecy: they applauded benevolently, along with others.[59]
Irina Odoyevtseva independently corroborated this. "He was going on about the Atlantis and its demise. For those who understood Russian it was obvious that what he meant was Germany's defeat and Russia's imminent victory, but the Germans never understood this and applauded," she remembered.[60] All this, according to Zobnin, makes the "infamous German radio speech" look very much like a Nazi propaganda myth, picked up first by Yuri Terapiano, then authenticated by numerous reiterations.[59]
Merezhkovsky's death
For the last three months of his life Merezhkovsky was working continuously in the couple's Paris flat, trying to finish Little Theresa. On December 6 husband and wife returned from one of their regular walks and spent the evening, in Gippius' words, "arguing, as usual, about the Russia versus freedom dilemma." Skipping both supper and his habitual evening cigarette, Merezhkovsky went to his room early. Next morning the maid called Gippius to tell her the man was in some kind of trouble. Merezhkovsky was sitting unconscious next to a cold fireplace. The doctor arrived in 15 minutes' time and diagnosed
Merezhkovsky's ideas
Merezhkovsky's first adopted philosophical trend was the then popular positivism. Soon, disillusioned in this idea, although never rejecting it wholly, Merezhkovsky turned to religion.[6] Seeds of this hybrid (European positivism grafted to what's been described as "the subjective idealism" of Russian Orthodoxy) sown on the field of literature study brought forth a brochure entitled "On the Causes of the Decline and the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature". This manifesto gave a burgeoning Russian Symbolist movement both ideology and the name as such: Merezhkovsky was the first in Russia to speak of symbols as definitive means of cognizance in modern Art.[6]
In the center of this new train of thought was the notion of "rejecting the rational in favour of the intuitive" by means of exploiting what the author termed as "spirituality of a symbol," seeing the latter as a perfect means of describing Reality, otherwise unfathomable. Only through a symbol, according to Merezhkovsky, one could get to an object's deeper meaning, whereas (quoting, as he did,
In poetry the unspoken things, flickering through the beauty of symbol, affect us stronger than what's expressed by words. Symbolism endows both style and essence of poetry with spirituality; poetic word becomes clear and translucent as walls of alabaster amphora carrying flame... Longing for things that have never been experienced yet, looking for undertones yet unknown, searching out dark and unconscious things in our sensual world is the coming Ideal poetry's main characteristics. [...] The three principal elements of the new art are: the mystic essence, symbolism and the expansion of artist's impressiveness.[62]
According to scholar D.Churakov, Merezhkovsky, pronouncing "the death of metaphysics" and putting forward the idea that only language of symbols could be an adequate instrument for discovering the modern world's pattern of meanings, was unwillingly following Auguste Comte, the difference being that the latter was employing these ideas in scientific fields, while the former proposed to use them in literature and criticism.[32]
The Third Testament
Merezhkovsky's next and most fundamental step ahead as a self-styled modernist philosophy leader was taken in tandem with his young intellectual wife Zinaida Gippius who from the first days of their meeting started generating new ideas for her husband to develop. Thus the Third Testament theory was born, or rather revived, transplanted from its Middle Ages Italian origins into the early 20th century's Russian ambience. It was the Third Testament that formed the basis of the early 20th-century Russian New Religious Consciousness movement which in turn kick started the Religious-Philosophical Society into action, again Gippius producing basic ideas for her husband to formulate. Borrowing the original idea from Joachim of Fiore, a 12th-century theologist, Merezhkovskys created and developed their own concept of man's full-circle religious evolution. In it the Bible was seen as a starting point with God having taken two steps towards Man, for the latter to respond with the third, logically conclusive one.[36]
According to Merezhkovsky, the First (Divine Father's) and the Second (Divine Son's) Testaments could be seen only as preliminary steps towards the Third one, that of the Holy Ghost. With the first maintaining the Law of God and the second – the Grace of God, what the third Testament should do is bring Liberation to the human race; the First Testament revealing God's power as the gospel Truth, the Second transforming the gospel Truth into Love, the Third translating Love into Liberation. In this last Kingdom "pronounced and heard will be – the final, never before revealed name of the coming one: God the Liberator," according to the author.[9]
Merezhkovsky saw the Third Testament as a synthesis of the two original revelations: that "about Earth" (pre-Christian beliefs) and that "about Heaven" (Christianity). The Mystery of the Holy Trinity, when resolved, should link three elements into a circle, the great "new Earth under the new Heavens," as promised in the Book of the Apocalypse. As Rozanov put it, "Merezhkovsky's greatest innovation was this attempt to merge together the two — the Christian and the Heathen — poles of poignancy. To discover a 'tempting vice' in the greatest of virtues and the greatest of virtues in the tempting vice."[63] This New Trinity concept implied that the all-inviting Holy Ghost was not a sexless spirit, but a female entity.[36]
Sex and spirituality
Human history, according to Merezhkovsky, was one ceaseless "battle of two abysses": the abyss of Flesh (as discovered by pre-Christians) and the abyss of Spirit (opened by Christianity's sexless asceticism). Pre-Christians celebrated flesh-driven sensuality at the expense of spirituality. Ascetic Christians brought about the rise of Spirit, at the expense of sex. Merezhkovsky declared the dialectical inevitability of thesis and antithesis' coming together, of the spiritual and the sexual poles uniting on a higher, celestial level.[64]
In his own words, "Being aware of myself in my body, I'm at the root of personality. Being aware of myself in the other one's body, I'm at the root of sex. Being aware of myself in all human bodies, I am at the root of unity".[64] Noticing that one of the Aramaic languages translates Spirit as Rucha, a female entity, Merezhkovsky interpreted the Holy Trinity as Father and Son's unity in the higher being, their common godly Mother. It is the latter's Kingdom Come that the Third Testament was supposed to lead to. Seeing both God and man as intrinsically unisexual, Merezhkovsky regarded a male/female schism to be a symptom of imperfection, the cause for primal human being's fatal disintegration.[64]
In the modern times, according to Merezhkovsky, both monastic and ascetic Christianity will cease to exist. Art would not just adopt religious forms, but become an integral part of religion, the latter taken in broader concept. Human evolution as he saw it, would lead to merging of whatever had been polarized: sex and spirit, religion and culture, male and female, et cetera — bringing about Kingdom Come, not 'out there', but 'here on Earth'.[64]
Merezhkovsky and "religious anarchism"
Man's evolutional progress towards the Third Testament Kingdom Come will not be without some revolutionary upheavals, according to Merezhkovsky, will be strewn with "catastrophes", most of them dealing with the "revolution of Spirit."[65] The consequence of such revolution would bring about gradual change in the nature of religion itself, the latter taking under its spacious wing not only man's sensual liberation but also the latter's "freedom of rebellion." "We are human only as long as we're rebels," Merezhkovsky insisted, expressing what some saw as a proto-existentialist idea.[36]
One result of the "revolution of Spirit" should be the severing of ties between state and religion, according to Merezhkovsky. "The Church – not the old, but the new, eternal, universal one – is as opposite to the idea of the state as an absolute truth is opposing an absolute lie," he declared in an open letter to Berdyaev.[66]
B.Rozental, analyzing Merezhkovsky's political and religious philosophy, thus summed up the writer's position: "The Law amounts to violence... The difference between legitimate power that holds violence 'in reserve' and violence itself is but a matter of degree: sinful are both. Autocracy and murder are nothing more than the two extreme forms of exhibiting [criminal] power."[34] Interpreting the Biblical version of the human history as a sequence of revolutionary events, Merezhkovsky saw religion and revolution as inseparable. It is just that for a social revolution to succeed, spiritual revolution should always come one step ahead of it. In Russia the lack of the latter brought about the former's fiasco, with Antichrist taking hold of things, he argued.[36]
In the 1920s Merezhkovsky lost interest in the religious anarchism doctrine. In his later years he became close to
Legacy
Throughout his lifetime Dmitry Merezhkovsky polarized opinion in his native Russia, bringing upon himself both praise and scorn, occasionally from the same quarters. According to Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Merezhkovsky became Russia's first ever "new-type, universal kind of a dissident who managed to upset just about everybody who thought themselves to be responsible for guarding morality and order":
Tsarist government saw Merezhkovsky as subverting the state foundations, patriarchs of official Orthodoxy regarded him a heretic, for literary academia he was a decadent, for Futurists – a retrograde, for Lev Trotsky, this ardent global revolution ideologist, – a reactionary. Sympathetic Anton Chekhov's words came and went unnoticed: 'A believer he is, a believer of an apostolic kind'.[67]
In the words of a modern biographer, "he will find his place in history alongside
Merezhkovsky has been given credit for his exceptional erudition, the scientific approach to writing, literary gift and stylistic originality.[4] Seen in retrospect as the first ever (and, arguably, the only one) Russian "cabinet writer of a European type," Merezhkovsky was, according to Berdyayev, "one of the best-educated people in Saint Petersburg of the first quarter of the 20th century."[54] Korney Chukovsky, pondering on the dire state of the early 20th century Russia's cultural elite, admitted that "the most cultured of them all" was this "mysterious, unfathomable, almost mythical creature, Merezhkovsky".[68] Anton Chekov insisted that the Russian Academy of Sciences should appoint Merezhkovsky its honorary academic, in as early as 1902.[67]
Merezhkovsky was the first in Russia to formulate the basic principles of Symbolism and Modernism, as opposed to 'decadence', a tag he was battling with.
Merezhkovsky was praised as an engaging essayist and "a master of quote-juggling." Some critics loathed the repetitiveness in Merezhkovsky's prose, others admired his (in a broad sense) musical manner of employing certain ideas almost as
No less influential, even if so much more controversial, were Merezhkovsky's philosophical, religious and political ideas. Alongside the obvious list of contemporary followers (Bely, Blok, etc.; almost all of them later became detractors) deeply interested in his theories were political figures (Fondaminsky, Kerensky, Savinkov), psychologists (
Later researchers noted Merezhkovsky's willingness to question dogmas and thwart tradition with disregard to public opinion, never shying controversy and even scandal. Crucial in this context (according to O.Dafier) was his "quest for ways of overcoming deep crisis which came as a result of the Russian traditionalist Church losing its credibility."[6]
Criticism
In Russia the general response to Merezhkovsky's literary, cultural and social activities was negative.[7] His prose, even if on the face of it stylistically flawless and occasionally accessible, was, critics argued, an elitist thing unto itself, "hermetically closed for the uninitiated majority."[9] "Having isolated himself from the real life, Merezhkovsky built up the inner temple for his own personal use. Me-and-culture, me-and-Eternity – those were his recurring themes," wrote in 1911 Leon Trotsky.[70]
For all his scientifically strict, academic approach to the process of collecting and re-processing material, contemporary academia, with little exception, ridiculed Merezhkovsky, dismissing him as a gifted charlatan, bent on rewriting history in accordance with his own current ideological and philosophical whims.[54] Due to his incorrigible, as many saw it, tendency towards inconsistency, Merezhkovsky's old allies were deserting him, while new ones approached him warily. Vasily Rozanov wrote in 1909:
Merezhkovsky is a Thing that ceaselessly speaks; a jacket and trousers combination producing a torrent of noise... To clear grounds for more speaking activity, once in three years he undergoes a total change of mental wardrobe and for the following three years busies himself in defying all things he was maintaining previously.[7]
Another former friend, Minsky, questioned Merezhkovsky's credibility as a critic, finding in his biographies a tendency to see in his subjects only things that he wanted to see, skillfully "re-moulding questions into instant answers."[71]
For all his religiosity, Merezhkovsky was never popular with either Russian Orthodox Church officials or the religious intellectual elite of the time, people like
The writer's work published in emigration was, according to the 1934 Soviet Literary encyclopedia "the telling example of the ideological degradation and cultural degeneration of the White emigres."[73] Maxim Gorky's verdict: "Dmitry Merezhkovsky, a well-known God-admirer of a Christian mode, is a small man whose literary activity is akin to that of a type-writer: each type is clear and well-read, but it's soul-less and boring," served as a leitmotif of the Soviet literary officialdom's view on Merezhkovsky for decades. In the Soviet times the writer was (in the words of Alexander Men) "aggressively forgotten,"[54] his works unofficially banned up until the early 1990s, when the floodgate of re-issues opened the way for serious critical analysis of Merezhkovsky's life and legacy.[7]
Select bibliography
Novels
- Christ and Antichrist trilogy
- The Death of the Gods. Julian the Apostate (Christ and Antichrist trilogy, 1895).
- ISBN 4-87187-839-2, books.google
- Peter and Alexis (book 3 of the Christ and Antichrist trilogy, 1904)
- The Kingdom of the Beast
- Paul I (Pavel Pervy, 1908)
- Alexander the First (Аleksandr Pervy, 1913)
- December 14 (Chetyrnadtsatoye Dekabrya, 1918)
Non-fiction
- On the Causes of the Decline and on the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature (1892)
- The Eternal Companions (1897)
- Tolstoy and Dostoevsky (1901)
- The Forthcoming Ham (Gryadushchu Ham, 1905)
- Sick Russia (Bolnaya Rossia, 1910)
- The Birth of Gods. Tutankhamen in Crete (1925)
- Messiah (1928)
- The Mystery of the Three: Egypt and Babylon (1925)
- Mystery of the West: Atlantis-Europe (1930)
- Unknown Jesus (1932)
- Jesus Manifest (1935) (1936, First American Edition)
Plays
- Sylvio (1890)
- The Storm is Over (1893)
- Poppy Blossom (Makov Tzvet, 1908, with Gippius and Filosofov)
- The Last Saint (Posledny Svyatoy, 1908)
- Pavel the First (Pavel Pervy, 1908), part 1 of the Kingdom of the Beast trilogy.
- Joy Will Come (Radost Budet, 1916)
- The Romantics (Romantiki, 1916)
Poetry
- Poems (1883–1888)
- Protopop Avvacum (1888)
- Vera (1890)
- The Family Idyll (Semeynaya idillia, 1890),
- Death (Smert, 1891)
- Symbols. Poems and Songs (1892)
- End of the Century (Konetz Veka, 1893)
Notes
- ^ Many people found it inexplicable that amidst mass hunger with no agricultural farms functioning suddenly lots of fresh veal would appear from time to time at market places, sold invariably by the Chinese. This "veal" was widely believed to be human flesh: that of the "enemies of the revolution", executed in the Cheka basements.
References
- ^ "Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky". Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 13, 2010.
- ^ a b Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Retrieved October 13, 2010.
- ^ a b Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved October 13, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g Mihaylov, Oleg. "The Prisoner of Culture". The Foreword to The Complete Work of D.S.Merezhkovsky in 4 volumes. 1990. Pravda Publishers.
- ISBN 978-5-235-03072-5pp.15–16
- ^ a b c d e f g Tchurakov, A.D. "Russian decadent movement aesthetics in the late 19th – early 20th century. Early Merezhkovsky. p. 1". www.portal-slovo.ru. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Nikolyukin, А. "Merezhkovsky's Phenomenon". russianway.rchgi.spb.ru. Archived from the original on November 13, 2004. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p.11
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Polonsky, Vadim. "Merezhkovsky, Dmitry Sergeevich". www.krugosvet.ru. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f Magomedova, D.M. (1993). "Foreword. Works by D.S.Merezhkovsky. Moscow". az.lib.ru // Khudozhestvennaya literatura Publishers. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p.7
- ^ Zobnin, p.26
- ^ Zobnin, p.81-82
- ^ a b c d Semigin, V.D. "D.S.Merezhkovsky in Russia's cultural and social life of the late XIX century (1880–1893)". www.lib.ua-ru.net. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p.45
- ^ a b c d e f "Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky". writerstob.narod.ru. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p.40
- ^ "The Biography of Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky". ww.merezhkovski.ru. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
- ^ Shelokhonov, Steve. "Zinaida Gippius biography". www.imdb.com. Retrieved October 13, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p. 81
- ^ a b c d e "Merezkovsky Dmitry Sergeevich". Russian Biographies Dictionary. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p. 401
- ^ a b c Zobnin, p. 402
- ^ Zobnin, p. 94
- ^ Zobnin, p. 57
- ^ Zobnin, p. 104
- ^ Zobnin, p. 400
- ^ Zobnin, p. 106
- ISBN 9780521024303. Retrieved August 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
- ISBN 9789004335325. Retrieved August 31, 2017 – via Google Books.
- ^ Zobnin, p. 400-404
- ^ a b c d e f D.O.Tchurakov. "Russian Decadent movement's esthetic, in the late XIX – early XX century. The Early Merezhkovsky and others. P.2". www.portal-slovo.ru. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ Gippius, Z.N. (1924). "Fragrance of Grayness. "Living Faces"" (PDF). russianway.rchgi.spb.ru. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 17, 2007. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
- ^ a b Tchurakov, D.O. "The Esthetics of Russian Decadence in the Late XIX – Early XX Centuries. P. 3". www.portal-slovo.ru. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
- ^ "Merezhkovsky, D.S. Biography". yanko.lib.ru. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Volkogonova, O. "Merezhkovsky's Religious Anarchism". perfilov.narod.ru. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
- ^ Merezhkovsky. D.S. Revolution and Religion[permanent dead link]. — russianway.rchgi.spb.ru. — 1907.
- ^ Merezhkovsky, D.S. (September 19, 1909). "Tempting these Minors (K soblaznu malykh sikh)" (PDF). Russian Way site. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2005. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
- ^ Roshchin, Mikhail. "The Prince. A Book on Ivan Bunin". magazines.russ.ru. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
- ^ Rozanov, Vasily. "Fallen Leaves (Opavshiye listya)". lib.ololo.cc. Retrieved August 13, 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Zobnin, p.249
- ^ Zobnin, p.254
- ^ Zobnin, p.256
- ^ Zobnin, p.414
- ^ Zobnin, p.266
- ^ "Speaking to D.S.Merezhkovsky". www.russianresources.lt. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
- ^ Wulf, Vitaly. "The Decadent Madonna". mylove.ru. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p.313-315
- ^ Zobnin, p.419-420
- ^ a b Terapiano, Yuri. Sundays at Merezhkovskys and The Green Lamp Group. Distant Shores. Portraits of Writers in Exile. Memoirs. — Moscow, Respublica Publishing House, 1994. p. 21
- ^ Zobnin, p.327
- ^ Zobnin, p.422-423
- ^ Zveno (The Link) magazine. March 16, 1925.
- ^ a b c d e Menh, Alexander. "Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius (Lecture)". www.svetlana-and.narod.ru. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p.426
- ^ Zobnin, p.329
- ^ Zobnin, p.427
- ^ a b Zobnin, p.385
- ^ a b c Zobnin, p.383-384
- ^ Kolonitskaya, А. All is Clean for a Clean Beholder. Talks with Irina Odoyevtseva. Moscow, 2001. P. 133.
- ^ Zobnin, p.385-388
- ^ Merezhkovsky, D. "On the Causes of the Decline and the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature. P.1". www.ad-marginem.ru. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ Rozanov, V.V. "Among the Foreign. D.S.Merezhkovsky". russianway.rchgi.spb.ru. Archived from the original on November 4, 2005. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
- ^ a b c d Lossky, N. "Dmitry Sergeevich Merezhkovsky (1865—1941)". www.vehi.net. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
- ^ Merezhkovsky, D.S. The Seven Humble Ones (Sem smirennykh). The Complete D.S.Merezhkovsky, Vol. XV. I.D.Sytin's Publishing house. Moscow, 1914
- ^ Merezhkovsky, D.S. The New Religious Action. An Open Letter to N.A.Berdyayev. P. 168
- ^ a b c Yevtushenko, Yevgeny (April 28, 2005). "Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Between Sharikov and Antichrist". 2005.novayagazeta.ru. Archived from the original on April 29, 2005. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ Chukovsky, K. "D.S.Merezhkovsky. An Object-seer (Tainovidets veshchi)". russianway.rchgi.spb.ru. Archived from the original on November 4, 2005. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
- ISBN 0-520-02626-8.
- ^ Trotsky, L. (May 22, 1911). "Мережковский". Kiyevskaya mysl (newspaper) Nos. 137, 140. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ Minsky, N.M. "The Absolute Reaction. Leonid Andreev and Merezhkovsky". russianway.rchgi.spb.ru. Archived from the original on November 4, 2005. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ Zobnin, p. 80
- ^ "D.S.Merezhkovsky". The Literary Encyclopedia. 1934. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
External links
- Media related to Dmitry Merezhkovsky at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by Dmitry Merezhkovsky at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Dmitry Merezhkovsky at Internet Archive
- Works by Dmitry Merezhkovsky at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Biography
- Leon Trotsky Merezhkovsky, 1911
- Alexander Men' Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius
- "Joseph Pilsudski Interview by Dmitry Merezhkovsky, 1921". Archived from the original on February 13, 2005. Retrieved May 30, 2006.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). - Rykov, A."Twilight of the Silver Age. Politics and the Russian Religious Modernism in D.S.Merezhkovsky's novel Napoleon" in Studia Culturae 2016 № 1 (27), pp. 9–17 (in Russian)