Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius (1869-1945) was from a Russified German family, father's ancestors moved to Russia in the 19th century; mother is from Siberia. Due to the frequent relocations of the family (father is a lawyer, he occupied high positions) Z. Gippius did not receive a systematic education, she attended in fits and starts educational establishments. From childhood she was fond of "writing poetry and secret diaries". In 1889, in Tiflis, she married D. S. Merezhkovsky, with whom she “lived for 52 years, not parting for a single day.” Together with her husband in the same year she moved to St. Petersburg; here the Merezhkovskys made wide literary acquaintances and soon took a prominent place in artistic life capital Cities.
Poems by Z. Gippius, published in the magazine of the “senior” symbolists “Northern Messenger”, - “Song” (“I need something that is not in the world ...”) and “Dedication” (with the lines: “I love myself like God”) immediately received notoriety. In 1904, the Collection of Poems was published. 1889-1893 "and in 1910 -" Collection of poems. Book 2. 1903-1909 ”, combined with the first book by the constancy of themes and images: the spiritual discord of a person who seeks in everything higher meaning, divine justification low earthly existence, but who did not find sufficient reasons to reconcile and accept - neither the "heavy of happiness", nor the renunciation of it.
In 1899-1901 Gippius worked closely with the magazine "World of Art"; in 1901-1904 he was one of the organizers and an active participant in the Religious and Philosophical Meetings and the actual co-editor of the magazine " New way”, where her smart and sharp critical articles under the pseudonym Anton Krainy, later became the leading critic of the journal Libra (in 1908, selected articles were published as a separate book - Literary Diary).
At the beginning of the century, the Merezhkovskys' apartment became one of the centers cultural life Petersburg, where young poets underwent a difficult test of personal acquaintance with
"Matressa". Z. Gippius made high, extreme demands on poetry of religious service to beauty and truth ("verses are prayers"). Collections of short stories by Z. Gippius enjoyed much less success with readers and provoked sharp attacks from critics.
The events of the Revolution of 1905-1907 became a turning point in the life creative biography Z. Gippius. If until that time socio-political issues were outside the sphere of Z. Gippius's interests, then after January 9, which, according to the writer, "turned" her, actual social problems, "civil motives" become dominant in her work, especially in prose. Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky become irreconcilable opponents of the autocracy, fighters against the conservative state structure Russia (“Yes, autocracy is from the Antichrist,” Gippius writes at this time).
In February 1906 they leave for Paris, where they spend more than two years. Here the Merezhkovskys are publishing a collection of anti-monarchist articles on French, draw close to the revolutionary circles, maintain relations with B. Savinkov. Passion for politics did not abolish the mystical searches of Z. Gippius: the new slogan - "the religious community" assumed the unification of all the radical forces of the intelligentsia to solve the problem of renewing Russia.
Political preferences are reflected in literary creativity those years; the novels The Devil's Doll (1911) and Roman Tsarevich (1912) are frankly tendentious, "problematic". Dramatically changed life position Z. Gippius manifested itself in an unusual way during the First World War, when she began to write “common people” stylized as a lubok women's letters soldiers to the front, sometimes putting them in pouches, on behalf of three women (“pseudonyms” are the names and surnames of three servants Z. Gippius). These poetic messages (“Fly, fly, present, “To the far side”, etc.), which are not of artistic value, had a great public response.
Z. Gippius accepted the October Revolution with hostility (collection " Last verses. 1911-1918, Pg., 1918) and at the beginning of 1920 emigrated with her husband and settled in France. Two more of her poetry collections were published abroad: “Poems. Diary 1911-1921" (Berlin, 1922) and "Shine" (Paris, 1939).
Gippius, Zinaida Nikolaevna, poetess, critic, writer (November 20, 1869, Belev, Tula province - September 9, 1945, Paris). Among the ancestors of Gippius were German nobles who emigrated to Moscow in 1515. As a child, she lived from time to time in St. Petersburg, and 30 years of her marriage with Dmitry Merezhkovsky (1889 - until their emigration) passed here - a rare example in world literature of the union of two people, which served as their mutual spiritual enrichment.
Zinaida Gippius in the early 1910s
Gippius began to write poetry from the age of 7, since 1888 they appear in print, and soon her first story came out. Before the revolution, many of her collections of poems, novels, collections of short stories and plays were published. In 1903-09, Gippius was closely associated with the editors of the religious and philosophical journal Novy Put, where, in particular, her literary critical articles were published under the pseudonym Anton Krainy, which attracted the attention of readers. Salon Gippius, which existed in 1905-17 in St. Petersburg, became a meeting place
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius is a famous Russian poetess, writer and literary critic. After reading this article, you will get acquainted with her life, as well as with creative heritage, which was left to the descendants of Zinaida Gippius.
The date of birth of the poetess is November 8, 1869. She was born in the city of Belev, Tula province. Her father is a nobleman, a Russified German, at one time he was a Russian poetess and writer Zinaida Gippius, the granddaughter of a police chief from Yekaterinburg. Gippius's education was not systematic, despite the fact that since young years she read a lot.
Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky
In 1889, Zinaida Nikolaevna married famous poet D.S. Merezhkovsky. She left Tiflis and moved with him to Petersburg. It was in this city that her debut as a poetess took place a year earlier. Zinaida Gippius lived with her husband for 52 years. Interesting biography this woman attracts connoisseurs not only of her own creativity, but also of her husband's creativity. No wonder, because Zinaida Gippius lived with him long life, according to her, "without parting ... not for a single day."
"Decadent Madonna"
AT early poems our heroine is noticeably influenced by S.Ya. Nadson. However, Zinaida Gippius quickly overcame him. Her biography is already early years marked by the creation of independent works. Members literary life two capitals of Russia at the turn of the century considered the work of the writer the personification of decadence, and she herself - " decadent madonna". So they began to call her from 1895, when "Dedication" was published. "I love myself like God" - Zinaida Gippius liked to repeat this phrase from him. The biography of the poetess is very interesting in terms of changing masks, roles. Not only the image "Decadent Madonna" was skillfully built by Gippius herself and introduced into the minds of connoisseurs of poetry. Zinaida Nikolaevna tried on several more roles. We invite you to get acquainted with them.
Role reversal
Zinaida Gippius is a poetess who carefully thought out her literary and social behavior. She periodically changed roles. So, before the revolution of 1905, for about 15 years, the poetess promoted sexual liberation. At this time, Zinaida Gippius carried the "cross of sensuality". Creativity and biography of the poetess reflect her position. She wrote about her outlook on life, about the "cross of sensuality" in 1893 in her diary. After that, she became an opponent of the "teaching church". In her diary in 1901, she wrote that "there is only one sin - self-deprecation." In the period from 1901 to 1904, Gippius was the organizer of religious and philosophical meetings, which presented a program of "neo-Christianity", which corresponded to the views of her husband, Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Zinaida Gippius, whose biography testifies to the versatility of her personality, also considered herself a champion of the revolution of the spirit, which is carried out contrary to the opinion of the "herd public".
House of Muruzi, relationship with A.A. Block
The Muruzi house, which was occupied by the Merezhkovskys, became important center social and religious-philosophical life of St. Petersburg. His visit was obligatory for young writers and thinkers gravitating towards symbolism. The authority of Gippius in the association that had developed around Merezhkovsky was indisputable. Most of its participants believed that it was Zinaida Nikolaevna who plays the main role in any of his undertakings. However, almost everyone disliked Gippius, since the poetess was distinguished by intolerance, arrogance, and also often experimented on people. The relationship between her and A.A. Blok became a special page in the history of Russian symbolism. Blok's first publication (in the journal Novy Put) took place precisely with her assistance. But this did not prevent sharp conflicts between them in the future, which were caused by the fact that they had different attitudes to questions about the appointment of the poet and the essence of artistic creativity.
Two collections of poems
A book called "Collected Poems. 1889-1903" was published in 1904 by Zinaida Gippius. The biography of the poetess a few years later was marked by a new collection. In 1910, a second book appeared, which presented works created in the period from 1903 to 1909. The 1904 publication became big event in the life of national poetry. responding to it, he wrote that the entire 15-year history of Russian lyrical modernism is represented in the work of Zinaida Nikolaevna. The main theme of her works, according to Annensky, is "the painful swing of the pendulum in the heart." V.Ya. Bryusov, an admirer of the work of Gippius, especially noted the "invincible truthfulness" with which the poetess captures emotional states, shows the life of her "captive soul".
Abroad
In 1905, a revolution took place, which contributed to the strengthening of the mood that owned Zinaida Gippius. The Merezhkovskys decided to go abroad. Between 1906 and 1908 they were in Paris. Here the couple became close to the revolutionary emigrants, among whom was B.V. Savinkov, whom Zinaida Nikolaevna helped in his literary experiments. In 1908, the Merezhkovskys returned to their homeland. Here they participated in a certain religious and philosophical society, which included Blok, Berdyaev,
literary critic
Zinaida Gippius as a critic is known under the pseudonym Anton Krainy. In the early 1900s, she was the preacher of the symbolism program, and also philosophical ideas upon which this program was built. As a literary critic, Gippius published frequently in magazines " Russian wealth"and" Scales ". The writer selected the best articles for the book "Literary Diary" created in 1908. It should be said that Zinaida Gippius ( short biography and whose work confirms this) assessed the state of modern domestic artistic culture generally negative. This situation, in her opinion, was associated with the collapse of social ideals and the crisis religious foundations that lived in the 19th century. Gippius believed that the vocation of the artist, which modern literature could not realize, consists in a direct and active influence on life, which should be "christianized", since there is no other way out of the spiritual and ideological impasse. These concepts of the poetess are aimed against the writers who belonged to the publishing house "Knowledge", led by M. Gorky, as well as against literature, which was based on the traditions of classical realism.
Reflection of the views of Gippius in literary work
The dramaturgy of the heroine of our article contains the same challenge to ideas that are based on an outdated understanding of humanism and faith in liberalism. Here it is necessary to note the "Green Ring" created in 1916. Also, this position is reflected in her stories, collected in 5 collections. In 1911, Zinaida Gippius wrote the novel The Devil's Doll, which describes the failure of beliefs in the improvement of society by peaceful means and in social progress.
Attitude to the October Revolution and its reflection in creativity
Zinaida Gippius reacted hostilely and implacably to what happened in 1917. A brief biography of the poetess of later years is closely connected with this event. The mood that dominated her was reflected in the book Gippius "The Last Poems. 1914-1918", published in 1918, as well as in the "Petersburg Diaries", which were partially published in the 1920s in emigre periodicals, and then published on English language(in 1975) and in Russian (in 1982).
Both in Gippius's diary entries of this time, and in poetry (the book "Poems. Diary 1911-1921" published in 1922), and in literary-critical articles published in the newspaper "Common Cause", the eschatological note prevails. Zinaida Nikolaevna believed that Russia was irretrievably lost. She spoke of the advent of the kingdom of Antichrist. The poetess claimed that brutality rages on the ruins of a culture that collapsed in 1917. The diaries became a chronicle of the spiritual and physical dying of the old world. Zinaida Gippius treated them as a literary genre that has one unique feature- the ability to capture and convey "the very course of life." The letters record trifles that "disappeared from memory", according to which in the future the descendants will form a reliable picture of the events that became a tragedy in the history of the country.
Severing relations with those who accepted the revolution
Zinaida Gippius's hatred for the revolution was so strong that the poetess decided to break off relations with all those who accepted her - with Bryusov, Blok, A. Bely. In 1925, the memoir cycle "Living Faces" appeared, the basis of the internal plot of which is the history of this gap, as well as the reconstruction of the ideological clashes that led to the events of October 1917. Revolution led to inevitable confrontation former allies in the literary field. This revolution itself is described by Zinaida Gippius (in defiance of Blok, who saw in it a cleansing hurricane and an explosion of the elements) as "amazing boredom" and a series of monotonous days, their "viscous suffocation." However, these weekdays were so monstrous that Zinaida Nikolaevna had a desire to "go blind and deaf." "Great madness" lies at the root of what is happening, as the poetess believed. It is all the more important, in her opinion, to maintain a "solid memory" and a "sound mind."
Creativity of the emigrant period
During the period of emigration, Gippius' creativity begins to fade. Zinaida Nikolaevna is becoming more and more convinced that the poet cannot work, being away from his homeland: "a heavy cold" reigns in his soul, she is dead, like a "killed hawk". The last metaphor is the key to the final collection of poems "Shine", created in 1938. In it, the motives of loneliness are predominant, the poetess sees everything with the eyes of "passing by" (these words are placed in the titles of important verses in later work Gippius, published in 1924). The poetess is trying to reconcile with the world before a close farewell to it, but these attempts are replaced by a position of intransigence with evil and violence. Bunin, speaking about the style of Zinaida Gippius, which does not recognize overt emotionality and is often based on oxymorons, called the poetess's work "electric verses". Reviewing The Shining, Khodasevich wrote that Gippius' "poetic soul" struggles with his "non-poetic mind" in them.
"Green Lamp"
You have already seen the organizational skills that Zinaida Gippius possessed. Biography, Interesting Facts and creativity is largely associated with her social activities, which lasted almost until the death of the poetess. On her initiative, a society called " green lamp", which existed from 1925 to 1940. The purpose of its creation is to unite various literary circles that ended up in exile, provided that they shared that view of vocation national culture outside of Russia, which Gippius formulated at the beginning of the activity of this circle. She believed that it was necessary to learn true freedom of speech and opinion, and this could not be done if one followed the "precepts" of the obsolete liberal-humanistic tradition. However, it should be noted that the "Green Lamp" was not free from ideological intolerance. As a result, numerous conflicts arose among its participants.
A book about Merezhkovsky written by Zinaida Gippius (biography)
We briefly reviewed the work of Zinaida Nikolaevna. It remains only to tell about her last book, which, unfortunately, remained unfinished, as well as about the last years of the poetess's life. died in 1941. Zinaida Nikolaevna experienced the death of her husband hard. After his death, she was ostracized, the reason for which is the ambiguous position she took regarding fascism.
Gippius spent the last years of her life working on her husband's biography. It was published in 1951. A significant part of the book dedicated to Dmitry Sergeevich is about his ideological evolution, as well as about the history of the activities of the Religious and Philosophical Assemblies. Zinaida Gippius died on September 9, 1945. Her poetry still lives in the hearts of many connoisseurs of her work.
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius (1869-1945) was from a Russified German family, her father's ancestors moved to Russia in the 19th century; mother is from Siberia. Due to the frequent relocations of the family (her father is a lawyer, he held high positions), Z. Gippius did not receive a systematic education, she attended educational institutions in fits and starts. From childhood she was fond of "writing poetry and secret diaries." In 1889, in Tiflis, she married D. S. Merezhkovsky, with whom she “lived for 52 years, not parting for a single day.” Together with her husband in the same year she moved to St. Petersburg; Here the Merezhkovskys made broad literary acquaintances and soon took a prominent place in the artistic life of the capital.
The poems of Z. Gippius, published in the journal of the “senior” symbolists “Northern Messenger”, are “Song” (“I need something that is not in the world ...”) and “Dedication” (with the lines: “I love myself, as God”) immediately received scandalous fame. In 1904, the Collection of Poems was published. 1889-1893 "and in 1910 -" Collection of poems. Book 2. 1903-1909 ”, combined with the first book by the constancy of themes and images: the spiritual discord of a person who is looking for a higher meaning in everything, a divine justification for a low earthly existence, but who has not found sufficient reasons to reconcile and accept - neither the “heaviness of happiness”, nor the renunciation of him.
In 1899-1901 Gippius worked closely with the magazine "World of Art"; in 1901-1904 she was one of the organizers and an active participant in the Religious and Philosophical Meetings and the de facto co-editor of the New Way magazine, where her clever and sharp critical articles are published under the pseudonym Anton Krainiy, and later becomes the leading critic of the Scales magazine (in 1908, selected articles published as a separate book - "Literary Diary").
At the beginning of the century, the Merezhkovsky apartment became one of the centers of the cultural life of St. Petersburg, where young poets underwent a difficult test of personal acquaintance with
"Matressa". Z. Gippius made high, extreme demands on poetry of religious service to beauty and truth ("verses are prayers"). Collections of short stories by Z. Gippius enjoyed much less success with readers and provoked sharp attacks from critics.
The events of the Revolution of 1905-1907 became a turning point in Z. Gippius' life creative biography. If until that time socio-political issues were outside the sphere of Z. Gippius's interests, then after January 9, which, according to the writer, "turned" her, actual social problems, "civil motives" become dominant in her work, especially in prose. Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky become irreconcilable opponents of autocracy, fighters against the conservative state system of Russia (“Yes, autocracy comes from the Antichrist,” Gippius writes at this time).
In February 1906 they leave for Paris, where they spend more than two years. Here the Merezhkovskys publish a collection of anti-monarchist articles in French, get closer to the revolutionary circles, maintain relations with B. Savinkov. Passion for politics did not abolish the mystical searches of Z. Gippius: the new slogan - "the religious community" assumed the unification of all the radical forces of the intelligentsia to solve the problem of renewing Russia.
Political predilections are reflected in the literary work of those years; the novels The Devil's Doll (1911) and Roman Tsarevich (1912) are frankly tendentious, "problematic". The dramatically changed life position of Z. Gippius manifested itself in an unusual way during the First World War, when she began to write "common" women's letters stylized as a popular print to soldiers at the front, sometimes putting them in pouches, on behalf of three women ("pseudonyms" - names and surnames three servants Z. Gippius). These poetic messages (“Fly, fly, present, “To the far side”, etc.), which are not of artistic value, had a great public response.
Z. Gippius accepted the October Revolution with hostility (the collection “Last Poems. 1911-1918”, Pg., 1918) and at the beginning of 1920 emigrated with her husband, settled in France. Two more of her poetry collections were published abroad: “Poems. Diary 1911-1921" (Berlin, 1922) and "Shine" (Paris, 1939).
Gippius Zinaida Nikolaevna (1869 - 1945)
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius - poet, prose writer, critic. In the 70s. 19th century her father served as a comrade of the chief prosecutor of the senate, but soon moved with his family to Nizhyn, where he received the position of chairman of the court. After his death, in 1881, the family moved to Moscow, and then to Yalta and Tiflis. There was no women's gymnasium in Nizhyn, and Gippius was taught the basics of science by home teachers. In the 80s, while living in Yalta and Tiflis, Gippius was fond of Russian classics, especially F. M. Dostoevsky.
Having married D. S. Merezhkovsky, in the summer of 1889, Gippius moved with her husband to St. Petersburg, where he began literary activity in a symbolist circle, which in the 90s. develops around the journal "Northern Messenger" (D. Merezhkovsky, N. Minsky, A. Volynsky, F. Sologub) and popularizes the ideas of Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Maeterlinck. In line with the moods and themes inherent in the work of the participants in this circle, and under the influence of new Western poetry, poetic themes and the Gippius style of poetry.
Gippius' poems appeared in print for the first time in 1888 in Severny Vestnik signed by Zinaida Gippius. Later she takes the pseudonym Anton Krainy.
Main motives early poetry Gippius - curses boring reality and the glorification of the world of fantasy, the search for a new unearthly beauty (“I need something that is not in the world ...”), a dreary feeling of disunity with people and at the same time - a thirst for loneliness. These poems reflected the main motifs of early symbolic poetry, its ethical and aesthetic maximalism. Genuine poetry, Gippius believed, comes down only to the "triple bottomlessness of the world", three themes - "about man, love and death." The poetess dreamed of reconciling love and eternity, but the only way I saw this in death, which alone can save love from everything transient. These reflections were identified on “ eternal themes” determined the tone of many of Gippius' poems.
In the first two books of Gippius stories, the same mood prevailed. "New People" (1896) and "Mirrors" (1898). Their main idea is the affirmation of the truth of only the intuitive beginning of life, beauty “in all its manifestations” and contradictions and lies in the name of some high truth. In the stories of these books, there is a clear influence of Dostoevsky's ideas, perceived in the spirit of a decadent worldview.
In the ideological and creative development of Gippius big role played the first Russian revolution, which turned her to public issues. They're starting to take over now great place in her poems, short stories, novels.
After the revolution, collections of short stories "Black on White" (1908), "Moon Ants" (1912), the novels "Devil's Doll" (1911), "Roman Tsarevich" (1913) were published. But, speaking of the revolution, creating images of revolutionaries, Gippius argues that a true revolution in Russia is possible only in connection with a religious revolution (more precisely, as a result of it). Outside of the "revolution in the spirit" social transformation is a myth, fiction, a game of the imagination, which can only be played by neurasthenic individualists. Gippius convinced readers of this by depicting post-revolutionary Russian reality in The Devil's Doll.
Having met the October Revolution with hostility, Gippius, together with Merezhkovsky, emigrated in 1920. Emigrant creativity Gippius consists of poems, memoirs, publicist. She came out with sharp attacks on Soviet Russia, prophesied her imminent fall.
Of the émigré publications, the most interesting is the book of poems “Shine” (Paris, 1939), two volumes of memoirs “Living Faces” (Prague, 1925), very subjective and very personal, reflecting her then social and Political Views, and an unfinished book of memoirs about Merezhkovsky (Gippius - Merezhkovskaya Z. Dmitry Merezhkovsky - Paris, 1951). Even the émigré critic G. Struve said about this book that it requires major corrections “for the memoirist’s partiality and even bitterness.”
Gippius Zinaida Nikolaevna (1865-1945)
"Decadent Madonna", poetess, prose writer, playwright, publicist and literary critic Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius was born on November 8 (20 n.s.) in the city of Belev, Chernihiv province, in the family of a government official.
On her father's side, she had German roots. Father's ancestor, the German Adolphus von Gingst, changed his surname to "von Gippius" and already in the 16th century in the German settlement of Moscow opened the first book store. My father served in the judiciary, and often changed his place of service, lived with his family in the most different cities Russia: Petersburg, Tula, Kharkov, etc. Mother was a Siberian, the daughter of the Yekaterinburg police chief Stepanov.
Father Z. Gippius died of tuberculosis when the girl was 12 years old and her mother and children (older Zinaida and her three younger sisters) moved first to Moscow, and then, due to illness of the children, to Yalta, and in 1885 to Tiflis (Tbilisi ) to my brother.
Z. Gippius, after family circumstances could not systematically study at the gymnasium, she received home education. Subsequently, she studied for a very short time at the Kiev women's institute(1877-1878) and classical gymnasium Fisher in Moscow (1882). She began writing poetry early, at the age of seven.
The first two poems of the young poetess were published in the St. Petersburg magazine Severny Vestnik in 1888 (N 12), where in different time G. Uspensky, N. K. Mikhailovsky, L. N. Tolstoy, M. Gorky, and others collaborated. etc.).
Naturally very beautiful: tall and flexible, thin as a youth, with large green eyes, golden braids around a small head, with a constant smile on her face, she did not lack admirers. They were drawn to her and, at the same time, were afraid of her sharp tongue, sharp phrases and funny jokes. "Satanessa", "real witch", "decadent Madonna", as her contemporaries called her. In 1888, in Borjomi, she met the metropolitan poet D. Merezhkovsky and after that she began to believe that "all my high school students ... have become completely stupid." She married him on January 8, 1889 in Tiflis and then, not parting "for a single day", lived for 52 years.
In the same year, she, together with her husband, moved to St. Petersburg. He meets Y. Polonsky and A. Maikov, D. Grigorovich and V. Rozanov, A. Blok, V. Bryusov, A. Bely, and others. magazines ("Bulletin of Europe", "Russian Thought"). Z. Gippius visits literary evenings and salons, listens to various lectures. She begins to look for her way in literature.
After the appearance of Merezhkovsky's program work "On the Cause of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature" (1892), the work of Z. Gippius acquires an explicit "symbolic" character (the first collections of stories "New People" (1896; 1907), "Mirror" (1898 )). Later, in the book "Literary Diary" (1908), she substantiates and defends symbolism. Liberal criticism reacted sharply negatively to the uninhibited maximalism of the "new people". The main theme of the works of Gippius was the metaphysics of love, neo-Christianity, fundamental philosophical foundations life and religion ("Scarlet Sword", "Black and White", "Moon Ants", etc.).
In 1899-1901, Z. Gippius published the first literary-critical articles in the journal "World of Arts". As a rule, he signs them with pseudonyms: Anton Krainy, Roman Arensky, Nikita Vecher, etc. In the same period, D. and Z. Merezhkovskys had the idea of updating Christianity, creating a "new church". They came up with the idea of creating "Religious-Philosophical Assemblies", the meaning of which was to unite the intelligentsia and representatives of the church with the aim of "religious revival" of the country, as well as the journal "New Way" - the printed organ of the Assemblies.
The influence of the ideas of D. Merezhkovsky on the work of Z. Gippius can be traced in such works as "The Lord Father", "Christ", etc. The most valuable part of her poetic heritage contained in five poetry collections: "Collected Poems 1889-1903" (1904), "Collected Poems. Book Two. 1903-1909" (1910), "Last Poems. 1914-1918" (1918), "Poems. Diary. 1911 -1921" (Berlin, 1922), "Shine" (Paris, 1938). An exquisite poetic dictionary, a special broken rhythm, the predominance of favorite epithets and verbs, "... all the same dull-pearl, noble colors with which Gippius has long captivated us," as V.A. wrote. Amphitheaters in 1922 - are an integral part of her poetic heritage. The poetess devoted many poems to the theme of love. One of the early ones: "Love is One" (1896) was translated into German Rainer-Maria Rilke.
Gippius met the October Revolution of 1917 with extreme hostility. Already in October 1905, in a letter to Filosofov (written an hour before the Manifesto), she, reflecting on the fate of Russia after the possible victory of the revolution, wrote: "... their whole path and this whole picture is so unacceptable to me, disgusting, disgusting, terrible that touching her ... would be tantamount to my betrayal of mine ... ". After the arrival of the "kingdom of the Antichrist", on December 24, 1919, Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky left Russia forever, first to Poland and then to France.
In Paris, Gippius receives Active participation in the organization of the literary and philosophical society "Green Lamp" (1927-1939), which played a significant role in the intellectual life of the first wave Russian emigration. He writes articles and, less often, poems in which he sharply criticizes the Soviet system. In 1925 he published two volumes of memoirs "Living Faces" (Prague), in 1939 a book of poems "Shine" was published in Paris.
Second World War Gippius brought not only poverty (their Paris apartment was described for non-payment), but also the loss of loved ones. At the end of 1941, her husband, D. Merezhkovsky, died, in 1942, her sister Anna. AT last years she is working on a large poem "The Last Circle" (published in 1972), occasionally composes poetry, writes memoirs and creates truly literary monument to her husband. "Dmitry Merezhkovsky", a biography book full of the richest actual material published after her death in 1951. Zinaida Gippius, the green-eyed and golden-haired "decadent Madonna" died on September 9, 1945 in Paris at the age of 76.
GIPPIUS, ZINAIDA NIKOLAEVNA (1869-1945), Russian poet, prose writer, literary critic. From 1920 in exile. She was born on November 8 (20), 1869 in Belev, Tula Province. in the family of a lawyer, a Russified German. By mother - the granddaughter of the Yekaterinburg police chief. She did not receive a systematic education, although from her youth she was distinguished by great erudition. In 1889 she married D.S. Merezhkovsky and moved with him from Tiflis to St. Petersburg, where her poetic debut had taken place a year earlier. They lived with her husband, according to her, "52 years, not parting ... not for a single day."
Having quickly overcome the influence of S.Ya. I love myself like God." This image was skillfully built and introduced into the consciousness of contemporaries by Gippius herself, who carefully thought out her social and literary behavior, which amounted to changing several roles. For a decade and a half before the revolution of 1905, Gippius appears as a propagandist of sexual emancipation, proudly bearing the "cross of sensuality", as her diary of 1893 says; then an opponent of the "teaching Church", for "there is only one sin - self-deprecation" (diary 1901); the initiator of the "Religious-Philosophical Meetings" (1901-1904), at which a program of "neo-Christianity" was developed, corresponding to the views of Merezhkovsky; champion of the revolution of the spirit, carried out in defiance of the "herd society".
An important center of religious-philosophical and public life Petersburg, the Muruzi house occupied by the Merezhkovskys, a visit to which was obligatory for young thinkers and writers gravitating towards symbolism, becomes. Recognizing the authority of Gippius and for the most part believing that it is she who plays the main role in all the undertakings of the community that has developed around Merezhkovsky, almost all of them, however, dislike the hostess of this salon with her arrogance, intolerance and passion to experiment on people. A special chapter in the history of Russian symbolism was the relationship between Gippius and A.A. Blok, the first publication of which took place with her assistance in the journal "New Way", which did not prevent later sharp conflicts caused by the difference in their ideas about the essence of artistic creativity and the appointment of the poet.
Collection of poems. 1889-1903 (1904; in 1910 the second Collected Poems appeared. Book 2. 1903-1909) became major event in the life of Russian poetry. Responding to the book, I. Annensky wrote that in the work of Gippius - "the entire fifteen-year history of our lyrical modernism", noting as the main theme of her poems "the painful swing of the pendulum in the heart." An admirer of this poetry, V.Ya. Bryusov, especially noted in it the “invincible truthfulness” with which Gippius captures various emotional states and the life of his “captive soul”.
As a critic who wrote under the pseudonym Anton Krainy, Gippius of this time remains a consistent preacher aesthetic program symbolism and philosophical ideas that served as its foundation. Constantly publishing in the journals Libra and Russian Wealth (the best articles were selected by her for the book Literary Diary, 1908), Gippius generally negatively assessed the state of Russian artistic culture, associated with the crisis of the religious foundations of life and the collapse of social ideals, which lived 19 in. The vocation of the artist, which modern literature has not been able to realize, for Gippius lies in the active and direct impact on life, which, according to the utopia taken on trust by Merezhkovsky, needs to be “christianized”, because there is no other way out of the ideological and spiritual impasse.
These concepts are directed against writers close to the Znanie publishing house led by M. Gorky and, in general, against literature that focuses on the traditions of classical realism. The same challenge to a circle of ideas based on belief in liberalism and outdated interpretations of humanism is contained in the dramaturgy of Gippius (Green Ring, 1916), her stories, which made up five collections, and the novel The Devil's Doll (1911), which describes the bankruptcy of beliefs in progress and peaceful improvement of society.
To October revolution 1917 Gippius reacted with irreconcilable hostility, the monument of which is the book The Last Poems. 1914–1918 (1918) and Petersburg diaries, partly published in the emigrant periodicals of the 1920s, then published in English in 1975 and in Russian in 1982 (most of them were found in public library St. Petersburg in 1990). And in the poetry of Gippius of this time (the book Poetry. Diary 1911–1921, 1922), and in her diary entries, and in literary critical articles on the pages of the newspaper Common Cause, the eschatological note prevails: Russia has perished forever, the kingdom of the Antichrist is advancing, on brutality rages on the ruins of a collapsed culture. The chronicles of the bodily and spiritual dying of the old world are diaries, which Gippius understood as literary genre, which has a unique ability to capture "the very course of life", fixing "little things that have disappeared from memory", according to which descendants will make up a relatively reliable picture of the tragic event.
Hatred of the revolution forced Gippius to break with those who accepted it - with Blok, Bryusov, A. Bely. The history of this break and the reconstruction of the ideological collisions that led to the October catastrophe, which made the confrontation of the former allies in literature inevitable, is the main internal plot of the memoir cycle Gippius Living Faces (1925). The revolution itself is described (contrary to Blok, who saw in it an explosion of the elements and a purifying hurricane) as a "strong suffocation" of monotonous days, as "terrific boredom", although the enormity of these everyday life inspired one desire: "It would be nice to go blind and deaf." At the root of all that is happening "is a Great Madness". It is all the more important, according to Gippius, to maintain the position of " of sound mind and solid memory.
During the years of emigration, Gippius’s artistic work begins to fade, she is more and more imbued with the conviction that the poet is not able to work away from Russia: a “heavy cold” reigns in his soul, she is dead, like a “killed hawk”. This metaphor is key to latest collection Gippius Radiance (1938), where the motifs of loneliness predominate and everything is seen with the gaze of “passing by” (the title of poems important for the late Gippius, published in 1924). Attempts to reconcile with the world in the face of a close farewell to it are replaced by declarations of non-reconciliation with violence and evil. Bunin, referring to the style of Gippius, which does not recognize open emotionality and is often built on the use of oxymorons, called her poetry "electric verses", Khodasevich, reviewing the Radiance, wrote about "a kind of internal struggle of the poetic soul with the non-poetic mind."
On the initiative of Gippius, the Green Lamp Society (1925-1940) was created, which was supposed to unite different literary circles of emigration, if they accepted that view of the vocation of Russian culture outside Soviet Russia, which the inspirer of these Sunday meetings formulated at the very beginning of the circle's activity: it is necessary to learn true freedom of opinion and speech, and this is impossible if you do not abandon the "precepts" of the old liberal-humanistic tradition. The Green Lamp itself, however, suffered from ideological intolerance, which gave rise to numerous conflicts.
After Merezhkovsky's death in 1941, Gippius, ostracized for her ambiguous stance on fascism, devoted her last years to working on his unfinished biography (published in 1951).
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius - poetess, critic, prose writer (11.20. 1869 Belev, Tula province. - 9.9. 1945 Paris). Among the ancestors of Zinaida Nikolaevna were German nobles who emigrated to Moscow in 1515. The father is a high-ranking lawyer. As a child, Gippius lived from time to time in St. Petersburg, here 30 years (from 1889 to emigration) of her married life with D. Merezhkovsky passed - a rare example in world literature of the union of two people, which served as their mutual spiritual enrichment.
Zinaida Gippius began to write poetry from the age of 7, since 1888 they appear in print, and soon her first story. Before the Bolshevik coup, many collections of poems, short stories, plays, and novels were published. In 1903-09. Zinaida Nikolaevna was closely associated with the editors of the religious-philosophical journal "New Way", where, in particular, her literary-critical articles were published under the pseudonym Anton Krainy, which attracted the attention of readers. Salon Gippius in St. Petersburg (1905-17) became a meeting place for the symbolists.
The poetess rejected the Bolshevik coup, seeing in it an act against freedom and human dignity. On December 4, 1919, together with Merezhkovsky, she managed to leave first for Warsaw, and then for Paris. There she became one of the most significant poets of emigration. One collection" Poems"(1922) was released in Berlin, the other -" Radiance"(1938) - in Paris. great attention also enjoyed her journalism, especially - the book " living faces(1925). Gippius' book about her husband was published posthumously" Dmitry Merezhkovsky" (1951).
Before perestroika, her works were not published in the USSR, but in Munich in the early 70s. reprints were printed. In 1990, Gippius' book "Dmitry Merezhkovsky" and the novel " December 14". In 1991, many works by Zinaida Nikolaevna were printed in Russia and Tbilisi.
The lyrics of Gippius are deep in thought, religious and formally perfect. The poetess came out of the circle of symbolists, for whom literature was part of a broadly understood cultural process and a means of expressing the highest spiritual reality. Man, love and death are the main themes, the range of which captures her poetry. Poetry for Zinaida Gippius means spiritual experience and a constant philosophical and psychological dispute with oneself and with the imperfection of earthly existence. At the same time, her intellectual brilliance is combined with poetic susceptibility. In his fiction Gippius (under the influence of Dostoevsky) prefers to portray people in borderline situations. This prose is infused religious worldview, which in lesser degree than Merezhkovsky, mysticism is inherent. Her publicity high class, this also applies to diaries, and, above all, very personally painted portraits of A. Blok, V. Bryusov, V. Rozanov, etc. Here, as in some of her poems, Zinaida Nikolaevna sharply opposes Bolshevism and gives evidence of her deep reverence freedom of human dignity and Russian cultural tradition.
