Sick childhood

Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius was born on November 8 (November 20, new style) 1869 in the city of Belev, Tula province, into the family of a government official who served in Nezhin. Like many children from aristocratic families, Zinaida Gippius received an excellent education at home. However, there was another explanation for homework - the girl suffered seriously from lung disease. After the death of their father, the family moved to Moscow, from there to Yalta, and then to Tiflis.

All this time, the life of a talented girl was inextricably linked with her passion for Russian classics. However, “passion” is not quite the right word - she lived in this world, the world of literature was more real for her than everything that surrounded her. In 1888, Zinaida Gippius herself began to publish poetry, then stories, novels, and plays. She signed the essay most often with the pseudonym Anton Krainy...

Dmitry Merezhkovsky - true love or marriage “for show”?

At the age of 18, the young poetess met her first and only love - Dmitry Merezhkovsky, who from now on and for the rest of her life became her husband, companion, friend, ally, just as she was for him. In the summer of 1889 they got married and moved to St. Petersburg.

The personal life of the Merezhkovskys, who were never separated until death, was accompanied by many rumors and fables. Sometimes their marriage was called the union of a homosexual and a lesbian, but no matter what, their spiritual and creative union was distinguished by extraordinary longevity - it lasted 52 years.

Eternal themes

Reflections on “eternal themes” - “about man, love and death” - determined the tone of many of Gippius’s poems at the beginning of the 20th century. The main value for her was the Nietzschean understanding of her own personality (“I love myself as God”). She became one of the brightest representatives of symbolism. Her poems contained everything that is characteristic of this literary movement: deliberate isolation from life, thoughts about love and death, exaltation of the value of the individual (primarily her own).

I hate humanity
And I run away from him, in a hurry.
My beloved fatherland -
My desert soul.

Pain for Russia

After the revolution of 1905, symbolist motifs still predominated in poetry, but issues of social life occupied a significant place in prose. Like most Russian intellectuals, Gippius was concerned about the fate of her people, the fate of the country - she, like everyone else, dreamed that Russia would turn from a poor, downtrodden country into a progressive world power.

Therefore, like again, the majority of the intelligentsia, they enthusiastically welcomed the February Revolution, seeing in it a spiritual upheaval designed to cleanse man, liberate religious consciousness and create a free Russia. However, this delight did not last long, only until October 25, 1917.

Being Christians, the Merezhkovsky-Gippius couple could not come to terms with the bloody dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. They considered the October Revolution a crime, so without hesitation they rejected the dispersal of the constituent assembly, the Brest Peace Treaty, and the Red Terror. During the days of the coup, Gippius wrote a series of angry poems:

We lie spit on and tied up
In all corners.
Sailors' spittle is smeared
On our foreheads.

At first, the Merezhkovskys hoped to overthrow the new regime, but their hopes dissipated with the defeat of Yudenich. In 1919, the couple left the country.

Fleeing abroad

The Merezhkovskys illegally cross the Polish border near Bobruisk and first settle in Minsk, where they give lectures for Russian emigration and publish political articles in the Minsk Courier newspaper.

In February 1920 they moved to Warsaw, where Gippius became editor of the literary department of the emigrant newspaper Svoboda. But they don’t stay here either. Another hope was dissipated: to create an alliance of fraternal peoples to fight Bolshevism. After Poland signed an armistice with Soviet Russia and the government banned criticizing Bolshevism under threat of expulsion from the country, the Merezhkovskys went to Wiesbaden and then to Paris. There they settled in their own apartment, which had been preserved since pre-revolutionary times.

If the light goes out, I can't see anything.
If a person is a beast, I hate him.
If a person is worse than a beast, I kill him.
If my Russia is over, I die.

Living in exile, Zinaida Gippius and her husband tried to “reconstruct” pre-revolutionary Russian life among their own kind, creating the Green Lamp society, which united the best representatives of the Russian emigration.

Gippius was not only the organizer and ideological inspirer of the society - she was its soul, its spiritual center. For Zinaida Nikolaevna, the green light was associated with faith in religion and Russia. The couple resumed acquaintance with Balmont, Bunin, Kuprin...

In exile, Zinaida Nikolaevna continues her literary activity: writes poetry and memoirs. In September 1928, the Merezhkovskys took part in the 1st Congress of Russian emigrant writers in Belgrade. For their contribution to the treasury of Russian literature, King Alexander awarded the spouses the Order of St. Sava, 1st degree.

The biggest loss

In 1941, Zinaida Gippius experienced one of the greatest tragedies in her life (after parting with her homeland) - the death of her beloved husband. She kept his image in her heart, in her memory.

Until her death on September 9, 1945, she worked on her memoirs about Dmitry Sergeevich. At the age of 76, Zinaida Nikolaevna died on September 9, 1945 in Paris.

And the book of her memoirs about her husband was published only in 1951, and her return to her compatriot readers took place only in 1987...

It was said about the golden-haired representative of the Silver Age, Zinaida Gippius, that God honored her with “handcraft,” releasing other people in “packs” and “series.” The writer loved to shock the public with revealing outfits, shocking statements and extraordinary behavior.

While some admired the works of the writer, others showed disdain for the ideologist of Russian symbolism, declaring that her genius was quite mediocre. Centuries later, interest in the work and biography of the Decadent Madonna has grown significantly, and now the works of the poetess are read by both older audiences and young people.

Childhood and youth

On November 8, 1868, lawyer Nikolai Romanovich Gippius and his wife Anastasia Vasilievna (Stepanova) had a daughter, who was named Zinaida. The family lived in the city of Belev, Tula province, where Nikolai Romanovich served after graduating from the Faculty of Law.

Due to the specific nature of their father’s activities, the Gippiuses did not have a permanent place of residence. During her childhood, the poetess managed to live in Kharkov, St. Petersburg, and Saratov.

In 1880, Nikolai Romanovich received the position of judge, and the family moved again: this time to their homeland - the city of Nezhin. Since there was no girls’ gymnasium in the small town, Zina was sent to the Kiev Institute for Noble Maidens, but after six months she was taken back: the girl was so homesick that she spent all six months in the institute’s infirmary.

The death of her father was a huge shock for the poetess. The man died suddenly in March 1881 from tuberculosis. Left without a livelihood, Anastasia Vasilievna and her daughters (Zinaida, Anna, Natalya and Tatyana) move to Moscow. There Zina was sent to the Fischer gymnasium. After six months of study, the future poetess was also diagnosed with tuberculosis. The mother feared that all the children who had inherited the tendency to consumption from their father would not live long, and therefore left for the Crimea.

Due to her mother’s excessive care, home schooling became the only possible path to self-realization for the future hoaxer. The exact sciences never interested the writer. From an early age, Zina began keeping diaries and writing poems, first humorous ones about family members. She even managed to infect her aunt and governesses with passion.

After Crimea, the family moved to the Caucasus. My mother’s brother, Alexander Stepanov, lived there. His material well-being allowed them to spend the summer in Borjomi. The next year, the family went to Manglisi, where Alexander Stepanov died of brain inflammation. The Gippiuses were forced to stay in the Caucasus.

The golden-haired beauty managed to conquer the youth of Tiflis. The devil with mermaid eyes attracted the views, thoughts, and feelings of everyone who came across her. Zinaida was nicknamed “the poetess,” thereby recognizing her literary talent. In the circle that she gathered around her, everyone wrote poetry, imitating Semyon Nadson, the most popular at that time. Gippius’s poetry even then stood out from the general mass of the works of his comrades, devoid of an emotional component.

Literature

The Merezhkovsky house became the center of religious, philosophical and social life in St. Petersburg. All young thinkers and aspiring writers dreamed of attending the spouses’ literary evenings. Visitors to the salon recognized the authority of Gippius and for the most part believed that it was she who played the main role in the endeavors of the community that had developed around Dmitry Sergeevich.

In the literary circles of the capital, Zinaida Nikolaevna was in the forefront: with her assistance, a literary debut took place, she brought a beginner into the public, she was the first to review the poems of a then unknown writer.

Already in 1888, she began to publish: her first publication was poetry in the magazine “Northern Messenger”, then a story in “Bulletin of Europe”. Later, to publish literary critical articles, she took a pseudonym - Anton Krainy. The writer wrote about everything: about life (“Why,” “Snow”), about love (“Powerlessness,” “One Love”), about the Motherland (“Know!”, “December 14,” “So it is,” “ She will not die"), about the people ("Scream", "Glass").

The poems of Zinaida Gippius, like the prose of Dmitry Merezhkovsky, did not fit into the framework of generally accepted literature. Therefore, publishers published their works at their own peril and risk.

Gippius found herself at the origins of symbolism emerging in Russia. Along with Nikolai Minsky and Innokenty Annensky, she was elevated to the rank of “senior symbolist” during her lifetime.

The main motives of Gippius's early poetry are curses of boring reality and glorification of the world of fantasy, a melancholy feeling of disconnection from people and at the same time a thirst for loneliness. The stories of the first two books, “New People” (1896) and “Mirrors” (1898), were dominated by ideas that Gippius passed through the prism of her own decadent worldview.

The First Russian Revolution (1905–1907) played a major role in the ideological and creative development of the writer. After it, collections of stories “Black and White” (1908), “Moon Ants” (1912) were published; novels “Devil's Doll” (1911), “Roman Tsarevich” (1913). In her works, Gippius argued that without a “revolution of the spirit” social transformation is impossible.

Having met the October Revolution of 1917 with hostility, Gippius and her husband emigrated to Paris. Zinaida's emigrant creativity consists of poetry, memoirs and journalism. She made sharp attacks on Soviet Russia and prophesied its imminent fall.

Having settled in Paris, where they had an apartment since pre-revolutionary times, the Merezhkovskys renewed acquaintance with the flower of the Russian emigration: Nikolai Berdyaev, Ivan Shmelev, Konstantin Balmont, and others.

In 1926, the couple organized the literary and philosophical fraternity “Green Lamp” - a kind of continuation of the community of the same name at the beginning of the 19th century, in which he participated.

The meetings were closed, and guests were invited only according to the list. Regular participants in the “meetings” were Alexey Remizov, Boris Zaitsev, Ivan Bunin, Nadezhda Teffi, Mark Aldanov and Nikolai Berdyaev. With the outbreak of World War II, the community ceased to exist.

Personal life

Even during her lifetime, legends were made about the love affairs of the white devil. The woman, who had a huge number of admirers, was married only once. Her husband was the well-known philosopher and poet -. Their union was repeatedly called fictitious: Zinaida was credited with having affairs with the entire literary elite of St. Petersburg, and Dmitry was credited with male incompetence. Only close friends knew how much these two extraordinary people loved each other.

The young people met in 1888 in Borjomi. There Gippius was recovering her health, and Merezhkovsky, who was traveling around the Caucasus at that time, was passing through the city. At the very first conversation, Zinaida felt their mystical kinship of souls. Dmitry was also fascinated by the eighteen-year-old poetess. He was captivated not so much by the girl’s beauty as by her intelligence. A couple of months later, the man proposed to his beloved, and she, without a moment’s doubt, agreed.

On January 8, 1889, a modest wedding ceremony took place in Tiflis. The couple did not celebrate their wedding day. Upon returning home, each of them went to work: Merezhkovsky - into prose, and Gippius - into poetry. Much later in her memoirs, the poetess admits that for her it was all so unimportant that the next morning she no longer remembered that she had gotten married.

It is reliably known that there were no intimate relationships between the spouses. Gippius, in principle, was not interested in carnal pleasures. The woman could not imagine life without two things: reflection and intellectual work. Everything else she either despised and denied, or ridiculed.

Of course, Zinaida was flattered by the attention of men. The decadent Madonna knew how to use her beauty. She liked to charm and liked to be charmed, but things never went beyond correspondence.

She had “relationships” with the writer Nikolai Minsky, and with the prose writer Fyodor Chervinsky, and with the critic Akim Volynsky. The white devil loved to look into the eyes of men who were madly in love with her and see her own reflection there.

In 1905, the Merezhkovsky family became close to the publicist Dmitry Filosofov. Writers not only created together, but also lived. In the eyes of society, the “triple alliance” of writers was the height of indecency. People condemned Gippius, saying that with such unworthy behavior she had disgraced both herself and her husband.

Champions of morality forgot that the poetess could not have had any vicious relationship with Dmitry Filosofov, even if because the publicist was of non-traditional sexual orientation, and the mere thought of physical contact with a woman “turned him inside out.” Their cohabitation is a failed experiment, the purpose of which was to destroy ossified moral norms.

No matter what rumors there were about the poetess, no matter how many novels she actually had, all of this did not matter in the end, because the soul of the writer did not recognize anyone except Dmitry Merezhkovsky, with whom Zinaida Nikolaevna lived for half a century.

Death

After the death of her husband, Gippius began writing the book “Dmitry Merezhkovsky,” but due to the fact that Zinaida’s right hand stopped functioning, she was unable to finish the work.

Deprived of the opportunity to create, the poetess gradually lost her mind. The writer wanted to reunite with her husband as quickly as possible, so she periodically made attempts to leave for another world ahead of schedule. After a series of failures, the writer’s fantasy, which was still working well, created a world in which Dmitry Sergeevich was still alive.

The only consolation for a woman who was going crazy was a cat. The animal, which never left its owner for a second, left the woman only once - on the day of her death. Dying, Zinaida Nikolaevna tried in vain to find with her hands the companion of her last years.

On the evening of September 1, 1945, Father Vasily Zenkovsky administered communion to Gippius. She understood little, but she swallowed the communion. The Silver Age legend passed away on September 9, 1945 (at the age of 76). She was buried in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois in the same grave with her husband. The hoaxer's literary heritage has been preserved in collections of poems, dramas and novels.

• During her lifetime, Gippius was called a witch, so people who came to the funeral, in order to make sure that the poetess had died, approached the coffin and knocked on it with sticks.
• There is a known case when, at a dinner of the Free Philosophical Society, the poetess was upset by the monotony of the dishes presented. The annoyed writer shared her dissatisfaction with her table neighbor, telling him: “How boring! They all serve the same thing. Veal again! Tired of it. If only they could serve a fried baby at least once!” Gippius's neighbor was a church minister, who was shocked by Zinaida's statement.

• While drawing a sketch of the portrait of Gippius, Leon Bakst, in order to show the world the infinitely long legs of the poetess, had to glue paper to the sheet. Same-sex “relationships” were also attributed to Gippius. It is known that in her poems the poetess repeatedly confessed her love to her friend, Baroness Elisabeth von Overbeck.
• Ivan Bunin, who had never gone to a funeral before (the classic was terrified of death and everything connected with it), did not leave the writer’s coffin for a minute.
• There was a legend that Gippius took the wedding rings from her fans, strung them on a chain and hung it at the head of the bed. At social events, the writer often appeared with a duck doll in her arms. The duck, according to the writer, symbolized the separation of spouses who considered sexual intercourse vulgar.

Bibliography

• “Collected Poems” (book one. 1889-1903);
• “Collected Poems” (book two. 1903-1909);
• “Last Poems” (1914-1918);
• "Poetry. Diary 1911-1921" (1922).
• "New people". The first book of stories. (1896);
• "Mirrors" (second book of stories, 1898);
• "The Third Book of Stories" (1901);
• “The Scarlet Sword” (fourth book of stories, 1907);
• “Black and White” (fifth book of stories, 1908);
• "Moon Ants" (sixth book of stories, 1912);
• "Devil's Doll" (1911);
• “Roman Tsarevich” (1913).
• "Green Ring" (1916).

On November 8, 2014, a book exhibition entitled "The Decadent Madonna" dedicated to the 145th anniversary of his birth Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius(1869-1945) - Russian poetess and writer, playwright and literary critic, one of the representatives of the “Silver Age” of Russian culture.

Contemporaries called Gippius a “sylph”, a “witch” and a “Satan”, sang her literary talent and “Botticelli” beauty, feared her and worshiped her, insulted her and praised her. All her life she tried to stay in the shadow of her great husband (Dmitry Merezhkovsky) - but she was considered the only real woman - a writer in Russia, the smartest woman in the empire. Her opinion in the literary world meant extremely much; and she lived the last years of her life in almost complete isolation.

Her poems contained everything that is characteristic of the literary movement (decadence): deliberate isolation from life, thoughts about love and death, exaltation of the value of the individual (primarily her own).

Reflections on “eternal themes” - “about man, love and death” - determined the tone of many of Gippius’s poems at the beginning of the 20th century. The main value for her was the Nietzschean understanding of her own personality (“I love myself as God”).

"My road is merciless,

She is leading me to death.

But I love myself like God, -

Love will save my soul."

In 1899-1901, Zinaida Gippius published her first literary critical articles in the World of Arts magazine. As a rule, he signs them with pseudonyms: Anton Krainy, Roman Arensky, Nikita Vecher, etc.

The most valuable part of her poetic heritage is contained in five collections of poetry: “Collected Poems 1889-1903” (1904), “Collected Poems. Book Two. 1903-1909” (1910), “Last Poems. 1914-1918” (1918), "Poems. Diary. 1911-1921" (Berlin, 1922), "Radiants" (Paris, 1938).

On December 24, 1919, Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky left Russia forever, first to Poland and then to France. Living in exile, Zinaida Nikolaevna continues her literary activity: writes poetry and memoirs.

Together with her husband Dmitry Merezhkovsky, they tried to “reconstruct” pre-revolutionary Russian life among their own kind, creating the Green Lamp society, which united the best representatives of the Russian emigration. Gippius was not only the organizer and ideological inspirer of the society - she was its soul, its spiritual center.

In 1941, Zinaida Gippius experienced one of the greatest tragedies in her life - the death of her beloved husband. She kept his image in her heart, in her memory. Until her death on September 9, 1945, she worked on her memoirs about Dmitry Sergeevich. At the age of 76, Zinaida Nikolaevna died on September 9, 1945 in Paris.

The book of her memoirs about her husband was published only in 1951, and her return to her compatriot readers took place only in 1987.

Readers will be offered books from the library's collections:

Adamovich G. V.
Loneliness and freedom: essays. - St. Petersburg. : ABC-classics, 2006. - 283 p.

Critical essays devoted to the works of Z. Gippius, D. Merezhkovsky, I. Bunin, V. Nabokov, M. Aldanov, B. Zaitsev and others are not only discussions about the strength, skill, successes and failures of writers of Russian diaspora - this is also a story about the resilience of people who, in homeless solitude, defended the freedom and dignity of creativity.

"Handmade woman" " - that’s what the critic of the Russian diaspora Georgy Adamovich called her in his book.

Gippius Z. N.
Diaries: In 2 books. T. 1-2 / Under general. ed. A.N. Nikolyukina. - M.: Intelvac, 1999.

Gippius Z.N. I’m not afraid of anything - M.: Vagrius, 2004. - 554 p.

A wonderful collection of poems and memoirs by Zinaida Gippius, which form a single memoir cycle. This is a kind of book of portraits - psychologically convincing and artistically authentic; It is no coincidence that the main thing in it is not the events, but the personalities - bright, unique and at the same time focusing in themselves the important features and trends of that catastrophic time - A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Bryusov, F. Sologub, V. Rozanov, A. Vyrubova, G. Rasputin.

Gippius Z. N. (Anton Krainy).
Literary diary (1899-1907). - M.: Agraf, 2000. - 309 p.

A broad picture of Russian artistic culture is presented - an alarming picture, reflecting the crisis of spiritual foundations and the irreconcilable struggle of currents within the Russian intelligentsia. Gippius's gaze knows no authority, her pen spares no one, and above all her literary opponents - writers guided by the traditions of classical realism. But we, unlike the author who published the “Literary Diary” in 1908, know that less than a decade later, 1917 will trample all those who so enthusiastically fought with each other on the ruins of the social ideals of the 19th century - both the Symbolists and realists, and representatives of other less noticeable movements. He will force some, like Gippius, to leave their homeland, while others, like Gorky, will force them to seek compromises with the authorities and their own conscience. And this knowledge of ours encourages us to carefully read the “Literary Diary”, written on the topic of the day a hundred years ago, and look in it for answers to the questions of our modern life.

Makovsky S.K.
On Parnassus of the Silver Age. - M., 2000. - 400 p.

Sergei Makovsky (1877 - 1962) - son of the famous artist K. Makovsky, a brilliant critic, journalist, exhibition organizer, lived a long and interesting life. His memoirs, written masterfully and with artistic brilliance, resurrect the images of people who made a huge contribution to the development of Russian culture. Sketches and essays are dedicated to V. Solovyov, K. Sluchevsky, Z. Gippius, A. Blok, N. Gumilev, M. Dobuzhinsky, E. Evreinov and many others. The book is addressed to a wide range of readers.

Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius: New materials, research. - M.: Institute of World Literature RAS, 2002. - 383 p.

Bely A. (1880-1934; Bugaev Boris Nikolaevich).
I was among you... - Moscow: Vagrius, 2004. - 425 p.

The one-volume memoirs of Andrei Bely consisted of selected chapters from his memoirs, where the history of the formation of the writer’s personality was dissolved in the vicissitudes of life and where the cultural environment became the main character. Among the characters in the book there are memories of Zinaida Gippius and Dm. Merezhkovsky.

Khrisanfov V. I.
D.S. Merezhkovsky and Z.N. Gippius. From life in exile. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg University Publishing House, 2005. - 163 p.

The exhibition can be viewed throughout November in the circulation department (1st floor, room 18) during library opening hours.

Contact phone: 72-84-03

Chief Librarian of the Pskov Regional Library
scientific library - Kamneva Olga Aleksandrovna

DECADENT MADONNA
My soul, in its anxiety,
(Zinaida Gippius)
Don't be afraid, don't be sorry.
Two lightning - two
impossibility -
We came into contact with her.
I'm looking for something dangerous and powerful
The confluence of all roads
And everything is alive and beautiful
Arrives on deadline.
And if the truth is here
tenderness
Not pity, but love, -
All-destructive rebellion
Don't contradict mine.
Z.
Gippius

...She allowed herself everything that was forbidden
to the rest. I wore men's clothes - they are effective
perfectly emphasized her undeniable femininity
ness. This is exactly how he depicted her on the famous
our portrait of Lev Bakst. Loved playing people
mi, to carry out some kind of experiments on them
You. At first I attracted them with the expression of deep
interest, charmed with its
opinionated beauty and charm, then - repulsions
arrogance, mockery, cold
contempt. With her extraordinary mind it was
not difficult. Her favorite pastimes were
to be insolent to people, to embarrass them, to put them in an awkward position
position and observe the reaction. History includes
famous ENT
1906
L.Bakst. Portrait of Z. N. Gippius
a lorgnette, which the short-sighted Zinaida Nikolaevna used
walked with defiant unceremoniousness, and the necklace was made
one of her fans' engagement rings...

She tried to hide her true
face, thus trying to learn not to
suffer. Vulnerable, super sensitive
noble nature, Gippius specially
broke, remade myself in order to find
psychological protection, gain armor
rem protecting her soul from damage.
And since, as you know, the best way
defense - attack, Zinaida Nikolaevna and
chose such a defiant style of behavior
nia...
In his diary, Blok made a laconic
a new but capacious note about this poetess:
"The Uniqueness of Zinaida Gippius."
Yes, the uniqueness of Zinaida Gippius. There are people who like
as if crafted by a machine, released into the light of God intact
homogeneous series, and there are others, as if “handmade”
You". This is exactly what Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius was like...

Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius was born on November 8 (20)
1869 in the city of Belyov, Tula province in obru
a settled German noble family. Father, Nikolai Ro
Manovich Gippius, famous lawyer, for some time
served as chief prosecutor in the Senate; mother, Anastasia Va
Silievna, née Stepanova, was the daughter of an ecate
Chief of Police of Rinburg.
As necessary related to work activities
father's father, the family often moved from place to place, due to
that the girl did not receive a full education; various educational
She visited institutions in fits and starts, preparing for exams with governesses.
My father died at the age of 48 from tuberculosis. In 1882 his widow together
moved to Moscow with 4 daughters, and Zinaida began studying at the gymnasium
Fisher. She studied willingly and with interest, but doctors soon discovered
She also has tuberculosis. I had to leave the gymnasium. "Little
a man with great grief,” - with these words I remember
There was a girl here who always wore the stamp of sadness on her face.

The future poetess began writing poetry at the age of seven. In 1902, in a letter to Va
She remarked to Leria Bryusov: “In 1880, that is, when I was 11
years, I was already writing poetry (and I really believed in inspiration and tried
write immediately, without lifting the pen from the paper). My poems seemed to everyone
“depravity,” but I didn’t hide them. I must say that I was
not at all “spoiled” and very religious for all this ... "
The girl also read voraciously, kept diaries, and willingly corresponded with
father's acquaintances and friends. One of them, General N.S. Drashusov, lane
you drew attention to the young talent and advised Zinochka seriously
engage in literature.
Already for the first poetic exercises, the girls were
characterized by the darkest moods. “Since childhood I have been
hated by death and love,” she later admitted.
As one of the poetess’s biographers noted, “Gippius with
the beginning of his days lives as if outside of time and space
work, occupied almost from the cradle
solving eternal questions." "All she knows

At 70, she already knew and felt at seven.”

Zinochka and her sisters inherited from their father a tendency
to consumption, so their mother takes them out of Moscow first
to Crimea, and then to the Caucasus - my mother’s brother lived there,
Alexander Stepanov. His financial situation
allowed everyone to spend the summer in Borjomi, the resort
town near Tiflis. Next summer
We went to Georgia again, to Manglis, where Alexander
Stepanovich died suddenly from inflammation
brain The Gippius family was forced to stay
Caucasus.
Zina captivated the youth of Tiflis. Tall, stately beauty with a plump figure
golden-haired braid below the knee and emerald eyes
Zhimo attracted the views, thoughts, and feelings of everyone who came across her. Her
nicknamed “poetess” - thereby recognizing her literary talent. IN
in the mug that she gathered around her, almost everyone wrote poetry,
zhaya the most popular poet at that time Semyon Nadson, recently
but died of consumption - but her poems were the best.

In Tiflis, Zina came across the magazine “Picturesque Review” with
article about Nadson. There, among other things, the name of another mo
a famous poet, Nadson’s friend, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, and was quoted
one of his poems. Zina didn’t like it, but she remembered the name...
In the spring of 1888, the Gippiuses again went to Borjomi. He comes there too
D.S. Merezhkovsky traveling through the Caucasus after graduating from Pe
Terburg University. By that time he had already released his pen
a book of poems and was a very famous poet. Both believed that they
the acquaintance was of a mystical nature and was predestined from above.
Z. Gippius later wrote about her first meeting with her future husband: “...I saw
affairs of my mother and around her -
a thin young man of short stature with
chestnut beard. He said something vividly
mom, she smiled. I realized what it was
Merezhkovsky... I love his poems
were much worse than Nadsonov's, that I
I didn’t fail to tell him... However
after the first meeting we became acquainted
every day..."

Feeling spiritual and intellectual closeness with your new
acquaintances who were sharply different from those around her, 18-year-old Gippius
His proposal for marriage without hesitation was answered with consent.
January 8, 1889 Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky
got married in the Tiflis Church of the Archangel Michael. She was 19 years old, he
– 23. A modest wedding ceremony was followed by a short wedding
new journey... They lived together for more than 50 years, “without parting
not for a day..."
The alliance with Merezhkovsky had a decisive influence not only on the fate
Zinaida Gippius, but also on the fate of all Russian literature “silver
century." The skies are sad and low,
But I know that my spirit is high.
You and I are so strangely close
And each of us is alone...
You and I are the only ones close,
We're both heading east.
The skies are gloating and low,
But I believe that our spirit is high. March
1894

This couple made a strange impression: in appearance they were strikingly
didn't suit each other. He is short, with a narrow sunken chest,
in an antediluvian frock coat. Black, deep-set eyes burned
the disturbing fire of the biblical prophet. This similarity was emphasized
freely growing beard and that slight squeal with which
the words shimmered when Dmitry Sergeevich became irritated. He held on
with a certain sense of superiority and sprinkled quotes from the Bible,
then from pagan philosophers.
And next to him is Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius. Seductive,
elegant, special. She seemed tall due to her excessive thinness.
But the mysteriously beautiful face bore no traces of illness.
Lush dark-golden hair hung down onto a soft white forehead and
set off the depth of the elongated eyes, in which an attentive mind shone.
Skillfully bright makeup. A dizzying aroma of strong, very pleasant
spirits She behaved like a recognized beauty, and also a poetess.
I have heard more than once from people close to the Merezhkovskys that
concerns about family well-being were handled almost exclusively by Z.N. And
that in this area she achieved incredible success.

Immediately after the wedding Gippius and Merezhkovsky
moved to St. Petersburg, where they received guests
– poets, writers, artists, religious and
political figures. Gippius became queen
this brilliant literary salon. Don't be the owner
Coy, namely the queen. Fragile, capricious girl
ka, which at first was perceived only as a shadow
famous husband, managed to break everything
possible stereotypes and conquer among modern
nicknames the title of “decadent Madonna” – inspire
calf and one of the most merciless criti
kov of his era.
At first, Gippius and Merezhkovsky concluded
unspoken agreement: she will write exclusively
but prose, and he - poetry.
But Merezhkovsky himself broke the agreement: he had an idea
novel about Julian the Apostate. From that moment on they became
write poetry and prose each. Depending on your mood.

In St. Petersburg, Gippius met from
famous writers: A.N. Pleshcheev,
Ya.P. Polonsky, A.N. Maikov, D.V. Griego
Rovich and others; became close to a young poet
Nikolai Minsky (pseudonym N.M. Vilen
Kina) and the editors of Severny Vestnik, od
Noah was one of the central figures in which he was
critic A.L. Volynsky. With this new-oriented magazine
direction - “from positivism to idealism”, were the first connected
Gippius's literary experiments. In 1890 she wrote the story “Simple
life", which was published in the "Bulletin of Europe" under the title
"Unfortunate."
It should be noted that this was not the first publication of Zinaida Gippius. Her
professional literary life began shortly before the wedding,
when in the 12th book of the Northern Bulletin magazine for 1888 it appeared
two “half-childish” poems, as the poetess recalled,
reflecting “the general situation of pessimism and melancholy
1880s" and signed with the initials Z.G.

By her own admission, before meeting Merezhkovsky it was
“not yet a poet - Zinaida Gippius”, it was “Nadson in a skirt”. In general, all
early poetry of Z.G. painted in tones characteristic of the “statut generation”
"shih" - the generation of the 1880s, the generation of "timelessness". And of course,
here we could not do without the very common in the literature that
of the time of motives: powerlessness, abandonment, meaninglessness of man
existence, on the one hand, and attractiveness, the savior
of death - on the other (and Gippius overlaid all this with his own
imprint – traces of a recent illness, tuberculosis):
My friend, doubts do not bother me.
I have felt the closeness of death for a long time.
In the grave, where they put me,
I know, damp, stuffy and dark...
The title of the poem is “Otrada.” It was written in
1889, from a male person (in the distant
Gippius will come to this reception
talk not only in poetry).

As an original poet, with his own voice, Z. Gippius will take shape in
the first decade of the new, twentieth century, when religious and mystical
Kania will take on poetic form when the tense spiritual being
the struggle between two polar poles is what tormented her and did not
there was an answer, she would be able to convey in words: “God is close to me - but I can’t
pray./ I want love, but I can’t love.” When "I" goes beyond
personality and will become both the world and God (and the world and God in itself).
But until that time, Gippius will try his hand at prose. In 1892 she
will write the stories “In Moscow” and “Two Hearts”. Her novels (“Without a Talisman”
on", "Winners", "Small Waves") will be successfully published both in
"Northern Bulletin", and in "Bulletin of Europe", "Russian Thought" and
other popular publications. Gippius later stated: “Romanov
I don’t remember these, not even the titles, except for one called “Small
waves." What kind of “waves” these were - I have no idea what they are
I do not respond". However, many critics treated this period as creative
qualities of Gippius more seriously than herself, noting the duality
the essence of man and existence, angelic and demonic principles and
indicating the clear influence of F.M. Dostoevsky.

Researchers of the work of Zinaida Gippius note that
that in her work she largely followed Me
Rezhkovsky, was “a devoted conductor of his religion
hyos-philosophical ideas" (V. Bryusov), that its role in
symbolism was inseparable from the role of the husband, because
often remained almost unnoticed. But Z. Gippius
introduced an element of theatricality into Russian symbolism, with
created a special, “decadent” style in life and work (went to
dresses that caused a stir in St. Petersburg and Paris).
Decadence (from the French “decadence” - decline) - the general name
the emergence of cultural phenomena of the last third of the 19th – early 20th centuries.
Decadence was marked by sentiments of decadence, hopelessness
aversion to real life and/or fear of it, pessimism
ma, extreme individualism, skepticism, loss of moral values,
elitism, bohemianism. “Loving yourself is the beginning
novel,
which will last a lifetime,” wrote O. Wilde in
“Testah to the younger generation.” This postulate turned out to be
very close to the decadents.

Much more vivid, in comparison with the prosaic, was
poetic debut of Gippius: poems, published
bathrooms in the “Northern Herald”, - “Song” (“I need
something that does not exist in the world...") and "Dedication" (with the lines:
“I love myself as I love God”) immediately received a scandalous
fame. Many nicknames stuck to her
go: “Sataness”, “white devil”, and, of course, “sounding board”
Dent's Madonna."
If in prose Zinaida Gippius consciously focused “on the general
aesthetic taste,” then she perceived poetry as something extremely intimate
new, created “for myself” and created them, in her own words, “as if
prayer." "The natural and most necessary need of human
souls always pray. God created us with this need. Every
a person, whether he realizes it or not, strives for prayer. Poetry in general
versification in particular, verbal music is just one of the forms
which prayer receives in our Soul. Poetry... there is
a complete feeling of this moment,” wrote Gippius in es
se "Necessary about poetry."

It was confession, “prayerfulness” that gave rise to
critics for attacks: it was argued, in particular, that,
turning to the Almighty (under the names He, the Invisible,
Third), Gippius established with him “her own, direct and
equal, blasphemous relationship.”
Little of. She even acted as the protector of the lord
that kingdom where the souls of suicides end up, for example,
in the poem “God’s Creature” (1902):
For the Devil I pray to you,
Lord! And he is Your creation.
Gippius herself provoked public opinion in many ways, carefully
carefully thought through her social and literary behavior,
which led to a change of several roles, and skillfully introduced artificially
world image into the public consciousness.
She considered herself a creator, creating herself, her image, her
style, your own world. She participated in the creation of a “new re
ligious consciousness,” new morality, etc. But she didn’t appeal
strove for age-old values, she sculpted her own.

Zinaida Nikolaevna always strived to be free - both externally and
internally. She despised conventions. She liked to dress in men's clothes, like
Joan of Arc or Nadezhda Durova. In lyrics and criticism she spoke about herself in
masculine, signed with male pseudonyms “Lev Pushchin”,
“Comrade Herman”, “Anton Krainy”. Many people were annoyed by this, but some
Some were scared, others were repelled. And she, not paying attention to any
vyh, neither second nor third (except for Dmitry Sergeevich - he always
in everything remained the only authority, to whose voice she
listened), was always what she could be: attractive
the attention of men and women, restless, carried away by the mysticism of “po la”,
resolving questions of the “metaphysics of love”, reflecting on Christ.
All of St. Petersburg knew Gippius thanks to her appearance and frequent performances
niyam at literary evenings, where she read her “so criminal
poems with obvious bravado": I cannot submit to people.
Is it possible to want slavery?
We've been each other's whole lives
we judge -
And then die.

Here's what she wrote about herself:
And I'm so kind
If I fall in love, I'll suck it in.
I'm like a gentle cobra,
Caressing, I will wrap myself.
The “devil doll” had a sharp tongue and could “seal” with one phrase
person. She became famous for her poisonous criticism of her brothers, and this is her
Through efforts, the marriage of Alexander Blok and Mendeleeva was destroyed.
But she also brought to light the unknown Sergei Yesenin.
I am in myself, from myself, I am not afraid of anything,
No oblivion, no passion.
I'm not afraid of my despondency or my sleep,
For everything is in my power.
I’m not afraid of anything in others - from others,
I will not go to them for a reward.
For in people I love not myself, but from them
I don't need anything.
Nevertheless, this proud, eccentric woman
earned the reputation of the smartest woman in the empire. Why?

Her whole business is in her diaries. The early ones end in 1904. Kernel
plots - the search for Love. Later entries begin in the summer of 1914.
The world war began - an encroachment not only on the freedom of individual
a different person, but to Freedom in the universal sense. Even in the first days
war, she is in the camp of her few opponents. Records almost
prophetic...
Even the poems of this period generally become less intimate, they
they begin to touch other strings (“All of Her,” 1914):
All are one, all are one,
Are we, are they... death is one.
And the machine works
And the war chews and chews...
And here is the reaction to 1917: jubilation in February, bitterness in October
fears come true. “A “social revolution” is being prepared, the most
dark, idiotic and dirty, as only will be in
stories. And you have to wait for him from hour to hour,” this is an entry in
diary the day before the revolutionary uprising...

Zinaida Gippius lived by literature, religious quest and
this, which (without strain) she loved. But the one that was, and not the one that
has become paradise. The revolution of 1905 was no longer hers. October Revolution
On the 17th – even more so. In her diary, the poetess wrote: “The next day” after
coup, “black, dark, we came out with D.S. outside. How
slippery, cold, black... The pillow fell - on the city? On
Russia? Worse..." At the end of 1917, Gippius still had the opportunity
print anti-Bolshevik poems in surviving newspapers.
The next year, 1918, passed under the sign of depression. In the diaries
Gippius wrote about the famine (“There are no hunger riots - people barely
stay on their feet, you won’t rebel..." February 23), about the atrocities of the Cheka
(“...In Kyiv, 1200 officers were killed, the legs of the corpses were cut off, carrying away
boots... The streets stink. Uncollected horses lie everywhere.
Every day someone is shot..." March 17). In October
Gippius writes: “Everyone who had a soul walks like the dead. We are not
we are indignant, we do not suffer, we are not indignant, we do not
We are waiting..." And with a poetic document of time, reflect
Gippius’s attitude towards what happened in 1917-1918,
became the collection “Last Poems. 19141918" (1918).

Having met the revolution of 1917 with extreme hostility and
calling it “fornication”, “disrespect for sacred things”,
the accession of the “kingdom of Antichrist” and the triumph
“worldwide evil”, Z. Gippius in 1920 with her husband
emigrated to France. Since 1921, the couple lived in
Paris, founding the Green Lamp society there (1925
1939), around which creative emigration gathered,
sharing their views. Thus began the next stage of her
life full of losses, hardships and thoughts.
While maintaining a militantly sharp rejection of Bolshevism, the couple sharply
experienced their alienation from their homeland. Nina Berberova brought
in her memoirs, this is their dialogue: “Zina, what is more valuable to you: Russia
without freedom or freedom without Russia? She thought for a minute. "Freedom
without Russia... And that’s why I’m here and not there.” “I’m here too, not there, but
because Russia without freedom is impossible for me. But...” And he
I washed myself without looking at anyone. “...What do I actually need freedom for?
yes, if there is no Russia? What should I do with this freedom without Russia?”

In September 1928, the Merezhkovskys took part in
The first congress of Russian emigrant writers.
In the fall of 1938, Merezhkovsky and Gippius performed
condemnation of the “Munich Agreement”: “Non-Aggression Pact”
Institute", concluded on August 23, 1939 between the USSR and
Germany, Gippius called “a fire in a crazy
home." Then she announced the creation of an uncensored
collection “Literary Review” (published in
later), designed to combine “works
all writers rejected by other publications.”
Z. Gippius devoted her last years to working on her husband’s biography.
This book remained unfinished and was published in 1951. Teffi vspo
minala: “The last months of his life Z.N. I worked a lot, and everything was fine
at night. She wrote about Merezhkovsky. With your wonderful beaded handwriting
I filled up entire notebooks and prepared a large book. TO
She treated this work as a duty to the memory of “Ve
"faced Man" who was her life partner.

oo
Also in recent years, Z. Gippius worked on the poem “The Last
circle" (published in 1972), which remained, like the book "Dmitry
Merezhkovsky", unfinished. The last entry in Hippy's diary
The mustache made just before his death was the phrase: “I stand little. Like God
wise and fair."
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius died in
Paris on September 9, 1945, having outlived her husband by
4 years. Staying by your side until the last
Secretary V. Zlobin testified that in
a moment before his death, two tears flowed down
her cheeks, and an “expression” appeared on her face
deep happiness." Zinaida Gippius was
buried under the same tombstone with her husband on
Cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève de Bois.
Those few who respected and appreciated
poetess, saw her death as the end
an entire era...
Grave of D.S.Merezhkovsky and Z.N.Gippius at the Sainte-Genevieve des Bois cemetery

LITERARY CREATIVITY
ZINAIDA GIPPIUS
(Main motives and orientation)

The beginning of Zinaida Gippius’s literary activity “romantically
imitative": in her early poems and stories, critics see
influenced by Nadson and Nietzsche. After the appearance of the programmatic work of D.S.
Merezhkovsky “On the cause of the decline and new trends in modern Russian
literature" (1892), Gippius's work acquired a distinctly "symbolist
"sky" character; moreover, subsequently it began to be considered one of the ideals
lairs of modernism in Russian literature. During these years, its central theme
creativity becomes the preaching of new ethical values. How
she wrote in her Autobiography, “I was interested, in fact, not in the decadent
tism, but the problem of individualism and all related issues.”
She polemically titled her 1896 collection of stories “New People,”
thereby implying the depiction of characteristic ideological aspirations
emerging literary generation. Her characters seem unusual
we, lonely, painful, emphatically misunderstood. In the story “Among
Dead" shows the heroine’s extraordinary love for the deceased artist,
whose grave she surrounded with care and on which, in the end, she freezes,
uniting, therefore, in his unearthly feeling with his beloved.

However, finding Gippius among the heroes of the first prose collections
people of the “symbolist type” who were searching for “new beauty” and ways
spiritual transformation of man, critics noticed clear traces
influence of Dostoevsky. So, in the story “Mirrors” the heroes have their own
prototypes among the characters in Dostoevsky's works. main character
tells how she “kept wanting to do something great, but this...
unprecedented. And then I see that I can’t - and I think: give me something bad
I will do it, but it will be very, very bad, completely bad...", "Know that to offend in the least
not bad". The short story “Golden Flower” (1896) deals with the murder of
“ideological” motives in the name of the complete liberation of the hero: “She must
die... Everything will die with her - and he, Zvyagin, will be free from love, and from
hatred, and from all thoughts about it.” Reflections on murder alternate
disputes about beauty, personal freedom, Oscar Wilde, etc. Gippius does not
copied blindly, and reinterpreted Russian classics, placing her own
heroes into the atmosphere of Dostoevsky's works.

The main motives of the early poetry of Gippius were criticism of the early 20th century
considered “curses of boring reality”, “glorification of the world of fantasy
Zia”, the search for “new, unearthly beauty”. Characteristic of symbolist
literature, the conflict between the painful sensation of intrahuman
disunity and, at the same time, the desire for loneliness was present in
early work of Gippius, marked by ethical and aesthetic maxim
malism. True poetry, Gippius believed, comes down to “triple
bottomlessness" of the world, three themes - "about man, love and death." She
dreamed of “reconciling love and eternity,” but assigned a unifying role to
death, which alone can save love from everything transitory.
These kinds of thoughts on “eternal themes” that determined the tone of many
Some of Gippius' poems of the 1900s also dominated the first two books of prose
Gippius, whose main themes were “the assertion of truth only
intuitive beginning of life, beauty in all its manifestations and contradictions and
lies in the name of some high truth.”

“The Third Book of Stories” (1902) by Gippius caused a significant resonance;
criticism in connection with this collection spoke of “morbid strangeness”
the author, “mystical fog”, the concept of the metaphysics of love “against the background of spirits
deep twilight of people... not yet able to realize it.” Formula of “love and passion”
Denmark" according to Gippius (according to the "Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius") according to
relates to “The Meaning of Love” by V.S. Solovyov and carries the main idea:
to love not for oneself, not for happiness and “appropriation”, but for gaining in the “I”
infinity. “Express and give your whole soul”, go to the end in any experience, in
including in experimenting with oneself and people - these are its main
life attitudes.
A notable event in the literary life of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century
was the publication of the first collection of poems by Z. Gippius in 1904.
Criticism noted here “the motives of tragic isolation, detachment from
peace, strong-willed self-affirmation of the individual.” Like-minded people noted and
a special manner of “poetic writing, reticence, allegory, allusion,
default”, the manner of extracting “singing chords of abstraction” from the “silent
piano,” as I. Annensky called it. The latter believed that “not one
a man would never dare to dress abstractions with such charm,” and that in
This book embodied in the best possible way “the entire 15-year history...
lyrical modernism" in Russia.

Some researchers believed that Gippius's work is distinguished by
“characteristic unfemininity”; in her poems “everything is large, strong, without
particulars and little things. Lively, sharp thought intertwined with complex
emotions, breaks out of poetry in search of spiritual integrity and
finding a harmonious ideal."
Others warned against making sweeping judgments: “When you think about where
Gippius is the innermost, where the necessary core around which it grows
creativity, where the “face” is, then you feel: this poet, perhaps, has something like
no one else has a single face, but there are many...”, wrote R. Gul.
Writer I. Bunin, implying the Gippius style, which does not recognize
open emotionality and often built on the use
oxymorons, called her poetry “electric poetry.”
V. Khodasevich, reviewing “The Shining,” spoke about “a kind of internal
the struggle of the poetic soul with the unpoetic mind."
V.Ya. Bryusov and I.F. Annensky considered her an outstanding master of verse,
admired the virtuosity of form, rhythmic richness and “singing
abstraction” of Gippius’s lyrics from the late 1890s to 1900s.

In 1910, Gippius’s second collection of poems, “Collected Poems. Book 2.
19031909", in many ways consonant with the first; its main theme was
“the mental discord of a person who seeks a higher meaning in everything, a divine
th justification for a low earthly existence." Two novels unfinished
trilogy, "Devil's Doll" (1911) and "Romantzarevich" (1912), met
rejection by critics who noted “weak artistic execution.” In the lane
in the novel there were caricatured portraits of A. Blok and Vyach. Ivanov, and
the main character was confronted by the “enlightened faces” of the triumvir participants
that of Merezhkovsky and Filosofov. Another novel was entirely devoted to the issue
God-seeking himself was, according to R.V. Ivanov Razumnik, “boring and
a dull continuation of the useless “Devil’s Doll.” About the novels “But
New Encyclopedic Dictionary" wrote: "Gippius is more original as an author
poetry than as an author of short stories and tales. Always carefully considered
often posing interesting questions, not devoid of acute observation,
Gippius's stories and tales are at the same time somewhat far-fetched, alien to freshness
These inspirations do not show real knowledge of life. Heroes of Gippius
they steal interesting words, get into complex collisions, but do not live in front of them
tatel; most of them are only the personification of abstract ideas, and some
which are nothing more than skillfully crafted puppets set in motion
by the author’s hand, and not by the power of one’s own internal psychological experiences.”

Collection “Last Poems. 1914-1918" (1918) drew a line under the asset
Gippius’s great poetic work, although two more of hers were published abroad
poetry collection: “Poems. Diary 1911-1921" (Berlin, 1922) and
"Radiants" (Paris, 1939).
The eschatological note prevailed in the works of the 1920s
(“Russia has perished irrevocably, the kingdom of the Antichrist is coming,
the collapse of a collapsed culture, brutality is raging,” according to
encyclopedia "Around the World").
As the author's chronicle of the “physical and spiritual dying of the old world”
ra" Gippius left diaries, which she perceived as unique
a literary genre that allows you to capture “the very flow of life”,
record “little things that have disappeared from memory”, according to which descendants
could restore a reliable picture of the tragic events.

In the collections of stories by Gippius “The Scarlet Sword” (1906) and “Black Po
white" (1908), researchers noted the "foggy impressionistic
manner" of the author, posing the problems of God-seeking, love and gender
(“Lovers”, “Eternal “femininity””, “Two - one”) noted again
influence of Dostoevsky (“Ivan Ivanovich and the Devil”).
In the 1900s, Gippius made a name for herself as a playwright: she wrote
the play “Holy Blood” (1900), which was included in the third book of stories.
Created in collaboration with D. Merezhkovsky and D. Filosofov, the play “Makov
color" was published in 1908 and was a response to revolutionary events
1905-1907.
Gippius is considered the most successful dramatic work
"The Green Ring" (1916); this play is dedicated to the people of “tomorrow”,
was supplied by Vs.E. Meyerhold at the Alexandrinsky Theater.

Her activities occupy an important place in the work of Z. Gippius
as a literary critic. She published her articles first
in the “New Way”, then in “Scales” and “Russian Thought” (mainly under the pseudonym
donim Anton Krainy). According to the New Encyclopedic
dictionary,” her judgments were distinguished by both “great thoughtfulness” and
“extreme harshness and sometimes lack of impartiality.”
Thus, A. Chekhov, in the assessment of Z. Gippius, is a writer of “cooling the heart to
to everything living,” and those whom he can captivate “will go to choke, shoot themselves and
then drink." “Chekhov,” wrote Z. Gippius in the article “On vulgarity,” “does not know
nothing; the devil settled firmly in his soul, intertwined with living reflections
peace; and Chekhov doesn’t even suspect that the devil exists, and of course, not for him
separate the living from the dead in the mind. And he is bored heavily and tiredly.”
In her opinion, the time of Maxim Gorky has passed, he is “an obsolete artist
Nick". “Poems about a Beautiful Lady” by A. Blok, according to the critic,
“unartistic, unsuccessful”, a “mermaid’s coldness” shines through them.

Hatred of the October Revolution forced Gippius to break with those of
former friends who accepted her - with A. Blok, V. Bryusov, A. Bely. Story
this gap and the reconstruction of the ideological collisions that led to it,
formed the essence of Gippius’ memoir series “Living Faces” (1925). Revolution (in
the opposite of Blok, who saw in it a cleansing blizzard) was
described by her as the “lingering suffocation” of monotonous days, “amazing boredom” and
at the same time, the “monstrousness”, which evoked one desire: “to go blind and
go deaf." In what was happening, Gippius saw the triumph of the “Huge
Madness" and considered it extremely important to maintain a position of "sound mind and firm
memory."
Creativity of Gippius during the years of emigration (according to the Krugosvet encyclopedia)
“begins to fade, she is increasingly imbued with the conviction that the poet is not in
able to work away from Russia”: a “severe cold” reigns in her soul,
she is as dead as a “killed hawk.” This metaphor becomes key in
Gippius’s last collection “Radiances” (1938), where motifs predominate
bitterness, disappointment, loneliness, and everything is seen through the eyes of someone “passing by.”
Attempts at reconciliation with the world in the face of an imminent farewell to it
are declarations of non-acceptance of violence and evil.

Presentation prepared
Goldaevskaya Valentina Anatolyevna,
teacher of Russian language and literature
GBOU Moscow "School No. 1499
named after Hero of the Soviet Union
Ivan Arkhipovich Dokukin

Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius is a famous Russian poet, writer and literary critic. After reading this article, you will get acquainted with her life, as well as with the creative legacy that Zinaida Gippius left to her descendants.

The poetess's date of birth 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. Her mother, the Russian poetess and writer Zinaida Gippius, is the granddaughter of a police chief from Yekaterinburg. Gippius's education was not systematic, despite the fact that she read a lot from a young age.

Z. Gippius and D. Merezhkovsky

In 1889, Zinaida Nikolaevna married the famous poet D.S. Merezhkovsky. She left Tiflis and moved with him to St. Petersburg. It was in this city that a year earlier she made her debut as a poet. Zinaida Gippius lived with her husband for 52 years. The interesting biography of this woman attracts connoisseurs not only of her own work, but also of her husband’s work. It is not surprising, because Zinaida Gippius lived a long life with him, in her words, “without being separated... not for a single day.”

"The Decadent Madonna"

In the early poems of our heroine, the influence of S.Ya. Nadson. However, Zinaida Gippius overcame it quickly enough. Her biography is marked by the creation of independent works from an early age. Participants in the literary life of the two capitals of Russia at the turn of the century considered the writer’s work the personification of decadence, and she herself as a “decadent Madonna.” It began to be called that way in 1895, when “Dedication” was published. “I love myself as I love God” - Zinaida Gippius loved to repeat this phrase from him. The biography of the poetess is very interesting from the point of view of changing masks and roles. Not only the image of the “decadent Madonna” was skillfully constructed by Gippius herself and introduced into the consciousness of poetry connoisseurs. Zinaida Nikolaevna tried on several more roles. We invite you to get to know them.

Role reversal

Zinaida Gippius is a poetess who carefully thought through her literary and social behavior. She changed roles periodically. So, before the revolution of 1905, for approximately 15 years, the poetess promoted sexual emancipation. At this time, Zinaida Gippius bore the “cross of sensuality”. The poetess’s work and biography reflect her position. She wrote about her view of life, about the “cross of sensuality” in 1893 in her diary. After this, she became an opponent of the “teaching church.” In her diary in 1901, she wrote that “there is only one sin - self-abasement.” In the period from 1901 to 1904, Gippius was the organizer of religious and philosophical meetings at which the program of “neo-Christianity” was presented, 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 taking place contrary to the opinion of the “herd society.”

House of Muruzi, relationship with A.A. Block

The Muruzi House, which the Merezhkovskys occupied, became an important center of social, religious and philosophical life in St. Petersburg. His visit was mandatory for young writers and thinkers who were drawn to symbolism. The authority of Gippius in the association that formed around Merezhkovsky was undeniable. Most of its participants believed that it was Zinaida Nikolaevna who played the main role in any of his endeavors. However, almost everyone disliked Gippius, since the poetess was intolerant, arrogant, 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 "New Way") 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 purpose of the poet and the essence of artistic creativity.

Two collections of poems

A book entitled “Collected Poems. 1889-1903” was published in 1904 by Zinaida Gippius. A few years later, the biography of the poetess was noted in a new collection. In 1910, a second book appeared, which presented works created between 1903 and 1909. The publication of 1904 became a major event in the life of Russian poetry. responding to her, he wrote that Zinaida Nikolaevna’s work represents the entire 15-year history of Russian lyrical modernism. The main theme of her works, according to Annensky, is “the painful swing of the pendulum in the heart.” V.Ya. Bryusov, a fan of Gippius’s work, especially noted the “invincible truthfulness” with which the poetess records emotional states and shows the life of her “captive soul.”

Abroad

In 1905, a revolution occurred, which contributed to the strengthening of the sentiments that controlled Zinaida Gippius. The Merezhkovskys decided to go abroad. Between 1906 and 1908 they were in Paris. Here the couple became close to emigrant revolutionaries, including 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 a proponent of the Symbolist program, as well as the philosophical ideas on which that program was built. As a literary critic, Gippius often published in the 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 (whose short biography and work confirm this) assessed the state of modern Russian artistic culture as a whole negatively. This situation, in her opinion, was associated with the collapse of social ideals and the crisis of the religious foundations that lived in the 19th century. Gippius believed that the vocation of the artist, which modern literature has failed to realize, is to directly and actively influence 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 writers who were affiliated with the Znanie publishing house, headed by M. Gorky, as well as against literature that was based on the traditions of classical realism.

Reflection of Gippius’s views in literary works

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. This position is also 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 through peaceful means and in social progress.

Attitude to the October Revolution and its reflection in creativity

Zinaida Gippius reacted hostilely and irreconcilably to what happened in 1917. A short biography of the poetess in subsequent years is closely related to this event. The sentiments that governed her were reflected in Gippius’ book “Last Poems. 1914-1918,” published in 1918, as well as in the “St. Petersburg Diaries,” which were partially published in the 1920s in emigrant periodicals and then published in English (in 1975) and in Russian (in 1982).

And in Gippius’ 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 about the coming of the kingdom of the Antichrist. The poetess argued that brutality was raging in 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 flow of life.” The letters record little things that have “disappeared from memory,” from which later descendants will form a reliable picture of the events that became a tragedy in the history of the country.

Severance of relations with those who accepted the revolution

Zinaida Gippius's hatred of 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 series “Living Faces” appeared, the basis of the internal plot of which is the history of this gap, as well as the reconstruction of ideological clashes that led to the events of October 1917. The revolution led to inevitable confrontation between 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 “clinging suffocation.” However, these everyday life were so monstrous that Zinaida Nikolaevna had a desire to “go blind and deaf.” “Enormous madness” lies at the root of what is happening, as the poetess believed. It is all the more important, in her opinion, to preserve a “strong 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 while away from his homeland: a “heavy cold” reigns in his soul, it is dead, like a “killed hawk.” The latter metaphor is key to the final collection of poems, Radiance, created in 1938. In it, the motives of loneliness are predominant, the poetess sees everything with the gaze of “one passing by” (these words are included in the titles of important poems in Gippius’s late work, published in 1924). The poetess tries 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 poetry.” Reviewing The Radiance, Khodasevich wrote that the “poetic soul” of Gippius fights with the “non-poetic mind.”

"Green Lamp"

You have already seen the organizational skills that Zinaida Gippius possessed. Her biography, interesting facts and creativity are largely related to her social activities, which continued almost until the death of the poetess. On her initiative, a society called the Green Lamp was founded, which existed from 1925 to 1940. The purpose of its creation was to unite various literary circles that found themselves in exile, provided that they shared the view on the vocation of national culture outside the borders 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 was impossible to do if one followed the “precepts” of the outdated 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 talk 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 had a hard time surviving the death of her husband. After his death, she was ostracized, the reason for which was the ambiguous position she took regarding fascism.

Gippius devoted the last years of her life to working on the biography of her husband. 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 Religious and Philosophical Meetings. On September 9, 1945, Zinaida Gippius died. Her poetry still lives in the hearts of numerous connoisseurs of her work.