Merezhkovsky D.S. (1865-1941), writer and philosopher

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MEREZHKOVSKY Dmitry Sergeevich (1865, St. Petersburg - 1941), a prose writer, poet, critic, literary and public figure. He graduated from Petersburg University with a major in philology in 1888. He married Z. N. Gippius in 1889, who was his most intimate friend for the rest of his life. They lived at Muruzi House, with interruptions, from the autumn of 1889 and at 83 Sergievskaya Street (today, Tchaikovskogo Street) from 1912 (see Merezhkovsky Salon). He appeared in print from 1881 with poems, while from 1883 to 1887 he was influenced by populist ideas of Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will), his first book published in St. Petersburg in 1888. In his further works, Merezhkovsky searched for a mystical meaning of life, advocated a religious outlook, and drew parallels between heathen and Christian cultures, which he strove to synthesise in the future. His collected poems such as the final Collection of Poems 1883-1910 published in St. Petersburg in 1910, as well as his book, Causes of Decadence and New Trends in the Modern Russian Literature, published in St. Petersburg in 1893 were interpreted as a call for a new art. Merezhkovsky was seen as a spiritual mentor by A. A. Blok. A. Bely, et al. As a prose writer, he achieved his greatest fame for his Christ and Antichrist, a trilogy published by parts in St. Petersburg in 1896, 1901, and 1905. Many of his philosophic critical essays were also published in St. Petersburg. One of the founders of Novy Put (The New Way) Magazine and Religious and Philosophical Assemblies in 1901-03 and a member of the Religious and Philosophical Society operating in St. Petersburg from 1907, Merezhkovsky often appeared in the press. After the events of 1905, he focused on social and political problems that he represented as an age-old struggle between spiritual slavery and spiritual freedom as in his essay, The Approaching Boor, published in 1905 and collection Not Peace But Sword. Future Criticism of Christianity, published in 1907. The enthusiasm evoked by the events of the February of 1917 changed into a feeling of tragic and final catastrophe in October. Merezhkovsky and Gippius left St. Petersburg in December 1919 to live and carry on creative work in Paris.

References: Белый А. Между двух революций. М., 1990 (ук.); Его же. Начало века. М., 1990 (ук.); Гиппиус З. Н. Дмитрий Мережковский: Воспоминания // Мережковский Д. С. 14 декабря: Роман; Гиппиус-Мережковская З. Н. Дмитрий Мережковский: Воспоминания. М., 1991; Кумпан К. А. Д. С. Мережковский - поэт: (У истоков "нового религ. сознания") // Мережковский Д. С. Стихотворения и поэмы. СПб., 2001. С. 5-113.

Т. М. Dvinyatina. Bely Andrey (real name Bugaev Boris Nikolaevich)
Blok G.P.
Gippius Zinaida Nikolaevna
Merezhkovsky Dmitry Sergeevich
Tchaikovskogo St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 83
Белый А. Между двух революций. М., 1990
Белый А. Начало века. М., 1990
Кумпан К. А. Д. С. Мережковский - поэт: (У истоков "нового религ. сознания") // Мережковский Д. С. Стихотворения и поэмы. СПб., 2001
Гиппиус З. Н. Дмитрий Мережковский: Воспоминания // Мережковский Д. С. 14 декабря: Роман; Гиппиус-Мережковская З. Н. Дмитрий Мережковский: Воспоминания. М. , 1991 Merezhkovsky Salon
Novy Put (New Way), newspaper
State University, St. Petersburg
Muruzi House
October General Political Strike of 1905
February Revolution of 1917