Dmitry
Merezhkovsky
Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky, (b.
Aug. 14 [Aug. 2, Old Style], 1865, St.
Petersburg, Russia—d. Dec. 9, 1941,
Paris), Russian poet, novelist, critic,
and thinker who played an important role
in the revival of
religious-philosophical interests among
the Russian intelligentsia.
After graduation from the University
of St. Petersburg in history and
philology, Merezhkovsky published his
first volume of poetry in 1888. His
essay O prichinakh upadka i o novykh
techeniyakh sovremennoy russkoy
literatury (1893; “On the Causes of the
Decline and on the New Trends in
Contemporary Russian Literature”),
sometimes erroneously described as the
manifesto of Russian Symbolism, was
nevertheless a significant landmark of
Russian modernism. At the beginning of
the 20th century he and his wife,
Zinaida Gippius, organized
religious-philosophical colloquia and
edited the magazine Novy put (1903–04;
“The New Path”).
With his trilogy Khristos i
Antikhrist (1896–1905; “Christ and
Antichrist”), Merezhkovsky revived the
historical novel in Russia. Its three
parts, set in widely separated epochs
and geographical areas, reveal
historical erudition and serve as
vehicles for the author’s historical and
theological ideas. Another group of
fictional works from Russian history—the
play Pavel I (1908) and the novels
Aleksandr I (1911–12) and 14 Dekabrya
(1918; December the Fourteenth)—also
form a trilogy. Merezhkovsky’s favourite
method is that of antithesis. He applied
it not only in his novels but also in
his critical study Tolstoy i Dostoyevsky
(1901–02), a work of seminal importance
and enduring value. His Gogol i chort
(1906; “Gogol and the Devil”) is another
noteworthy critical work.
The Russian Revolution of 1905 had a
radicalizing effect on Merezhkovsky.
Together with Gippius and Dmitry
Filosofov he published the anthology Le
Tsar et la révolution (1907; “The Tsar
and the Revolution”) while living in
France. After Merezhkovsky returned to
Russia in 1908, he became one of the
most popular Russian writers. He
published extensively in newspapers and
became known as the advocate of a “new
religious consciousness.”
Merezhkovsky enthusiastically
welcomed the first phase of the Russian
Revolution of 1917 but saw the
Bolsheviks’ rise to power after its
second phase as a catastrophe for
Russia. He emigrated in 1920. After a
short stay in Poland, he moved to Paris,
where he lived until his death. His
later works include the novels Rozhdenie
bogov (1925; The Birth of the Gods) and
Messiya (1928; “Messiah”) as well as
biographical studies of Napoleon, Dante,
Jesus Christ, and Roman Catholic saints.
Merezhkovsky was of the opinion that
Russia should be freed from Bolshevism
at any cost, which is why he welcomed
Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union in
1941 during World War II. During his
lifetime Merezhkovsky’s authority among
Russian émigrés was great. His works
began to be published in Russia again
only in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
as the Soviet Union began to collapse.
