Zinaida Gippius
Encyclopedia
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius, ' onMouseout='HidePop("41854")' href="/topics/Belyov">Belyov
- September 9, 1945, Paris
, France
) was a Russia
n poet, playwright, editor, short story writer and religious thinker, regarded as a co-founder of Russian symbolism
and seen as "one of the most enigmatic and intelligent women of her time in Russia".
She was married to philosopher Dmitriy Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky. Their union lasted 52 years and is described in Gippius' unfinished book Dmitry Merezhkovsky (Paris. 1951; Moscow., 1991).
, the oldest of four daughters. Her father, Nikolai Romanovich Gippius, a Geman-Russian (whose ancestor Adolphus von Gingst, later von Hippius) came to Moscow in XVI century) was a renown lawyer and a senior officer in the Russian Senate. Her mother, Anastasia Vasilevna (née Stepanova), was a daughter of Ekaterinburg Chief of Police.
Nikolay Gippius’s job implying the need for almost continuous city-to-city traveling, his daughters received little formal education; taking lessons from governesses and visiting tutors, they attended schools sporadically in whatever city (Saratov
, Tula
, Kiev
, etc.) the family happened to stay for more or less substantial period of time. Major crisis struck when their beloved father died of tuberculosis
at the age of 48, leaving his extensive family with not much to live by. Worse still, all four girls inherited predisposition to the illness that killed him. Worrying most about the elder, mother moved the family southwards, first to Yalta
(where Zina had to undergo a treatment) then in 1885 to Tiflis, closer to brother Alexander Stepanov’s place.
By this time Zinaida Gippius had already studied for two years at a girls’ school in Kiev
(1877—1878) and a year at Moscow’ Fischer gymnasium where, because of her chronically sad disposition, she was remembered as a «hugely troubled tiny creature». It was only in Borzhomi where uncle Alexander, a man of considerable means, rented a dacha
for her, that Zinaida started to get back to normal after a profound shock caused by her father’s death. Dancing and poetry reading parties were frequent in a large uncle Alexander’s house and the girl started to enjoy herself for the first time in her life.
Zinaida Gippius began writing poetry at the age of seven. By the time she met Dmitry Merezhkovsky in 1888 she's been already a published poet. «By the year of 1880 I was writing verses, being so a great believer in ‘inspirational’ thing as to making a point to never taking pen off paper. People around saw these poems as a sign of me being ‘spoiled’, but I never tried to conceal and, of course, spoiled I wasn't at all, what with all this religious upbringing», she wrote in 1902 in a letter to Valery Bryusov
. A good-looking girl, Zinaida attracted a lot of attention in Borzhomi and gained considerable experience in thwarting unwanted advances, but her new acquaintance was of a different mould. Exceptionally well-educated, introverted sort of gent, Merezhkovsky made an instant impression on her. He turned out to be a kindred spirit: on cerebral level the two got on like a house on fire. In fact, so overwhelming was this feeling of 'two hearts beating in unison' that the moment he proposed she accepted him without hesitation, never in her lifetime regretting what for some might have seemed a rush decision.
On January 8, 1889, in Tiflis
, Gippius and Merezhkovsky, ignoring a ceremonial part as much as they possibly could, got married, thus forming what turned out to become the most extraordinary husband and wife tandem in the history of Russian literature. They embarked on a short ‘honeymoon tour’ involving a stay in Crimea, then returned to Petersburg and moved into a flat in Muruzi House which Merezhkovsky’s mother rented and furnished for them by way of a wedding gift.
In Petersburg Gippius instantly discovered in herself the gift of a true socialite and started to make an all-round foray into the Russian capital’s cultural elite. She joined the Russian Literary Society (based on Nevsky, 38), became a member of the Shakespearean Circle (which celebrity lawyers like Prince Alexander Urusov were making the core of) stroke personal friendships with influential figures like Yakov Polonsky
, Apollon Maykov
, Dmitry Grigorovich
, Aleksey Plescheev
and Pyotr Weinberg, drifted into the rapidly changing Severny Vestnik
clique where she made her major debut as a poet in 1888. In 1890—1891 the magazine published her first short stories («Ill-Fated One», «In Moscow») which were followed by a series of novels ('Without Talisman', 'The Winner', 'Small Waves' - 'stylistically anonymous', according to latter critics) written for Mir Bozhy magazine which was known for paying good royalties. While writing prose in the 1890s was for Gippius, who had to sustain their small but economically ineffective family, a strictly commercial affair, poetry was an altogether different matter. Treating verses as something intimate, she called them her 'personal prayers'. Since all of them dealt with darker side of human soul and were exploring sexual ambiguity, narcissism
and human soul’s complicated metaphysics, small wonder many such ‘prayers’ were regarded as blasphemous.
Intellectual ‘decadence’ giving way to what’s been now dubbed ‘symbolism’, in poetry Gippius quite for some was tagged ‘demoness’, ‘queen of duality’, ‘decadent Madonna’ et cetera. Some thought this image of red-haired green-eyed androgynous monster/beauty, far from being spontaneous, was promoted with much deliberation. Gippius used male clothes and pseudo-names, shocked her guests with outrageous insults («to see the reaction», as she once explained to Teffi) and for a decade remained the Russian symbol of ‘sex liberation’, holding high her ‘cross of sensuality’, the phrase she coined in one of her diaries as early as 1893. By the year of 1901 all this slowly faded into the ‘New Church’ ideology she was the instigator of.
It was only in 1904 that Gippius’ first book of poetry, The Collection of Poems. 1889—1903 was published to enjoy great critical acclaim. Innokenty Annensky
called it the ‘quintessence of 15 years of Russian modernism’, Valery Bryusov
, another fan, praised the «insurmoutable frankness depicted the emotional progress of her enslaved soul with». Less infatuated critics marveled at Gippius’ laconic brilliance of self-expression and her unusual flair for elegant perfectionism bringing each finely chiseled gem of a line to an aphoristic level. Interestingly, Gippius herself never thought much of a published poetry’s social significance. In a foreword to one of her debut collection’s reissues, she wrote:
By this time Gippius became a prominent figure in Saint Petersburg's cultural elite. The Muruzi House quickly gained status of one Russian capital's new culture centers. Guesting the Guippius saloon was a must for any a fledgling intellectual of a symbolist hue. All guests recognised and respected the hostess’ authority and talent for leadership, but those who found her warm and affectionate were few. Yet, according to Georgy Adamovich
, it was Gippius who contributed an ‘inspiring, instigating, correcting’ force to these meetings, being a «center for all the different rays to focus into».
magazine. Encouraged by the (greatly impressed) miriskusnikis gay community, she started publishing here critical essays using male pseudo names, Anton Krainy being the best known one. Analyzing the crisis Russian culture has found itself submerged into, Gippius (somewhat paradoxically, given her ‘demonic’ reputation) saw the salvation in Christianization which implied practically bringing intelligentsia and the Church together. Merging faith and intellect, according to Gippius, was crucial for the survival of Russia; only religious ideas, she thought, would bring true enlightenment and liberation, sexual, spiritual et cetera.
And so the idea of the New Church began to take shape, Gippius the instigator of the process, Merezhkovsky — its major driving force. Religious and Philosophical Meetings (1901—1903), a ‘tribune for free discussion’ revolving mostly around all things concerning revivalism via culture-religion synthesis brought under one roof an eclectic mix of intellectuals from different parts of the spectre. It was given credit by many for being an important, even if short-lived attempt to pull Russia off the verge of major social upheavals it was heading for. Novy Put magazine (1903—1904) was created to herald the new ideas and print the Meetings’ protocols, Gippius again being the initiator. It was an episode when a newcomer Sergey Bulgakov (an ex-Marxist turned Christian philosopher) refused to publish her essay on Alexander Blok
that pushed the project towards its demise: first Merezhkovsky quit, then Rozanov and finally Novy Put, having lost most of its subscribers, got bancrupt. By this time Gippius (aka Anton Krainy) was a prominent literary critic, published in major magazines, mostly in Vesy
(The Scales) led by Bryusov.
Eager to withdraw from the spotlight, she re-channeled her social activities into what’s been called her ‘domestic Church’, based on the controversial Troyebratstvo (composed of Merezhkovsky, Filosofov and her). This new development outraged many: even former friends like Berdyaev saw this home-made neo-Trinity as profanation bordering on blasphemy. Nevertheless, as a compact and highly efficient intellectual center, troyebratstvo never lost its momentum , Gippius as ever at the helm.
of January 9, brought all the difference. Never a political activist, Gippius regarded now social change as the one and only thing worth of writing about. For the next ten years Merezhkovskys were Tzarism’s harsh critics, radical revolutionaries like Boris Savinkov
now entering their narrow circle of close friends. In February 1906 the couple left for France to spend more than two years in what they saw as voluntary exile, introducing the western intellectuals to their ‘new religious consciousness’ ideas. In 1906 Gippius published the Aly Metch (Scarlet Sward) book of short stories, in 1908 — Makov Tzvet (Poppies Blossom) play, Merezhkovsky and Filosofov credited as co-authors.
Rather disappointed with the European cultural elites’ indifference as regards ideas they deemed revolutionary in the truest sense of the word, the trio returned home. Back in Saint Petersburg Gippius’ health deteriorated; for the next six years she (along with her husband, who had heart problems) regularly visited European resorts and clinics. During one such voyage in 1911 Gippius bought a cheap apartment in Paris (on Rue Colonel Bonnet, 11-bis). What at the time felt like casual and unnecessary purchase some years later became a straw that saved them from homelessness abroad.
In 1910 Gippius published Collection of Poems. Vol. 2. 1903—1909. Very much in the vein of the first, it had the dilemma of a man looking for higher meanings of life as dominant theme. By this time she was a well-known (although by no means famous, as her husband) European author, translated into German and French.
In 1912 Lunnye Muravy (The Moon Ants) short stories collection was published, compiling arguably the best prose she wrote in some years. The Tchortovy Kukly (The Demon Dolls, 1911) and Roman-Tzarevich (1912), the first and the third novels of the (unfinished) trilogy, were more ambitious than successful. The left loathed them for being allegedly ‘anti-revolutionary’ and (therefore) ‘slanderous’, mainstream critics dismissed them as formulaic and lackluster, tendentious to the point of being topical.
The First World War outbreak rendered Merezhkovskys another shock. The couple condemned Russia’s participation in it, discarding ‘patriotic’ initiatives of Russian intelligentsia as irrelevant. Gippius did, though, stage a peculiar soldiers’ support campaign of her own, starting to produce a series of ‘to-the-front’-addressed letters each combining stylized folkish poetic messages with small tobacco-packet, signing them with her three servant maids’ names. Seen as pretentious and meaningless by many, this personal action did have some publicity, appreciated by some as a kind of healthy reaction to the jingo
istic hysteria of the time.
and denounced the October Bolshevik one
. For the latter's outbreak Gippius was blaming Alexander Kerensky
and his team of quasi-revolutionaries. In her memoirs («Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Him and Us») she wrote:
As Merezhkovsky, Gippius saw the October coup as the end of Russia and the coming of the Kingdom of Antichrist. «It was like a pillow fallen to strangle… what — the city? The country? No, something that was more than that…», — she wrote of the ‘morning after’, October 26, 1917.
In the end of 1917 Gippius was still able to publish her anti-Bolshevik verses in what remained of the old newspapers, but the next year was nightmarish, if her Diaries are to be believed. Ridiculing Herbert Wells («…I can guess why he’s drawn to Bolsheviks: they’ve leapfrogged him…»), she wrote of Cheka
atrocities («In Kiev 1200 officers killed; legs severed, boots carried off», — February 23: "In Rostov
teenager cadet
s shot down — for being mistakenly taken for other Kadets
, the banned ones", — March 17), of mass hunger and her own growing feeling of numb indifference: «Whoever had soul, now walk like dead men: neither protesting, nor suffering, waiting for nothing, bodies and souls slumped in hunger-induced dormancy».
Expressing sorrow for "weeping Lunacharsky" (the one Bolshevik leader who tried to protest against repressive organ's cruelties), Gippius prophesized: «Russia has never had any history. Things happening now have nothing to do with history either. They will be forgotten, like some undiscovered island’s savages’ atrocities; got to vanish without a trace». Last Poems (1914—1918) book of poetry, published in 1918, presents a stark and gloomy picture of revolutionary Russia as Gippius saw it.
Quite for some time Merezhkovsky and Gippius were cherishing hopes for the demise of the bolshevik rule, but, having learned of Kolchak
's defeat in Siberia
and Denikin's defeat in the south of Russia, they decided to flee Petrograd. In autumn 1919 Merezhkovskys and Filosofov started to make plans for escape. Invited to join a group of ‘red professorship’ in Crimea, Gippius chose rather not to, having heard of massacres local chiefs Béla Kun
and Roza Zemlyachka were there initiating. Having got Lunacharsky’s permission to leave the city for some ‘Ancient Egypt lectures for the Red Army soldiers’, Merezhkovsky with his wife, her secretary Vladimir Zlobin and Dmitry Filosofov set out to Poland by a soldier-packed train through Gomel, Minsk
and Vilno.
For the first years in Paris Gippius concentrated on doing the work she did best and been therefore loaded with: making contacts, sorting out mail, negotiating contracts and receiving guests. Husband and wife’s dialogues, as Nina Berberova remembered, were always revolving around two interwoven themes: Russia and freedom (She: «Freedom is primal, that is why I’m here…». — He: «Me too, but without Russia, what am I to do with my freedom?», et cetera). Always backing Merezkkovsky’s anti-Bolshevik ‘crusade’, she was deeply pessimistic as regards his ‘mission’ in general. «Our slavery is so unheard of and our revelations are so unbelievable that for a free man it’s difficult to understand what we are talking about», she conceded in one of her diaries.
The tragedy of the life and work of a writer, destined to live outside of Russia is a constant topic in the later works of Gippius. In exile she remained faithful to the aesthetic and metaphysical mentality she developed in the pre-revolutionary years. Preoccupied by mystical and covertly sexual
themes, she was also an alert, if harsh literary critic and connoisseur of poetry, who became known for dismissing many of the Symbolist and Acmeist Russian writers, this making her unpopular with the younger generation in her time.
In the early 1920s several Gippius' works published in Russia were re-issued. A collection of stories Nebesnye slova was released in Paris
in 1921, followed by book of poems Stikhi: Dnevnik 1911-1912 (1922, Berlin
). In Munich
a book by four authors (Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Filosofov, and Zlobin) Tsarstvo Antichrista (The Kingdom of the Antichrist) came out, where the first two parts of Peterburgskiye dnevniki (St. Petersburg Diaries) were published for the first time, and with an introductory article by Gippius The Story of my Diary.
Gippius was the major force behind the Green Lamp society named after the XIX century one, which Pushkin was a member of. Fractional altercations aside, it proved to be the only cultural center for the Russian emigration where writers and philosophers (carefully chosen for each meeting, summoned by special invitations) could discuss things that laid beyond the routines of daily life which was becoming for them more and more difficult.
In 1928 Merezhkovskys took part in the First Congress of Russian writers in exile held in Belgrade
. Encouraged by Merezhkovsky’s Da Vinci series of lectures’ success and Benito Mussolini
’s benevolence, the couple in 1933 moved to Italy where they stayed for about three years, visiting Paris only occasionally. What with the Socialist movement rising there and anti-Russian emigration feelings spurred by the President Paul Doumer’s murder in 1932, France for them felt like a hostile place to stay at.
Speaking as one voice, husband and wife continued to make all the political noises they deemed necessary, denouncing first the Munich Agreement
, then Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The War in Europe rendered questions of literature totally irrelevant. Yet, kicking against the pricks, Gippius compiled and published the Literature Tornado, an ambitious literary project set to give safe haven for all the writers rejected by publishers for ideological reasons. What in calmer times might have cause much ado and become a groundbreaking step in freedom of speech movement, in 1939 passed unnoticed.
Their last year together Merezhkovsky and Gippius spent in social vacuum. Regardless of the Merezhkovsky’s pro-Hitler «Radio speech» published 1944 version’s authenticity, there was little doubt he put himself in a me-against-them position, if not for the first, then certainly for the last time in his life. The Merezhkovskys were too close to (and financially dependent on) the Germans in Paris to retain any respect and credibility among their compatriots, some of whom expressed outright hatred towards the couple.
Merezhkovsky’s death in 1945 rendered Gippius a blow she for quite a while was struggling to sustain. What with Filosofov and sister Anna deaths (in 1940 and 1942 respectively) she found herself almost literally alone in the world and, as some sources suggest, was ever contemplating suicide for a while. Secretary Vladimir Zlobin still around, though, Gippius found her last straw in writing — what she hoped would materialize into her husband’s comprehensive life story. As Teffi remembered, -
Zinaida Nikilayevna Gippius died on September 9, 1945. Her last written words were: "Cheeply do I cost…. And wise is God." She was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
side by side with her husband, under one tombstone. A small group of people attended the ceremony, the figure of Ivan Bunin being notable. The man who loathed funerals and always made a point to stay as far as possible from graveyards, made this time an unexpected exception and stayed by the grave of Zinaida Gippius for quite a long time.
Gippius’ first two books of short stories, New People (1896) and Mirrors (1898) were regarded as somewhat formulaic, maintaining as they were "intuitiveness as the only way of seeing things in their true light" and examining "the nature of beauty in all of its manifestations and contradictions". Her Third Book of Short Stories (1902) marked a change of direction and caused a bit of a stir: this research on ‘metaphysics of love’, in the world of ‘spiritual twilight’ was ‘sickly idiosyncratic’ and full of ‘highbrow mysticism’, as critics saw it. Later some parallels were drawn between Gippius' early 1900s prose and Vladimir Solovyov’s Meaning of Love, both authors seeing the quest for Love as the means for soul self-fulfillment and reaching one’s higher self, rooted in Infinity.
It was not prose but poetry though, which made Gippius a major innovative force. "Gippius the poet holds very special place in the Russian literature; her poems are deeply intellectual, immaculate in form and genuinely exciting", the B&E Encyclopedia wrote in the early 1910s. Critics praised her originality, true wordsmith virtuoso ways and saw her as "true heir of Baratynsky’s muse".
Gippius’ debut book of poetry published in 1904 became a major event in Russian cultural life. Having defined the world of poetry’s three dimensional structure as ‘Love and Eternity’s meeting point in Death’ she developed her own style of ethic and aesthetic minimalism, symbolism dilemmas (like that of "suffering from alienation and longing for solitude") always being at the very core of things. Symbolist writers were, naturally first to praise her very special way of half-spokenness, ‘hint and pause’ metaphoric technique, the art of "extracting sonorous chords out of silent pianos", as Innokenty Annensky
put it. It was the latter who declared this debut the peak of Russia’s 15 years of modernism and argued that "not a single man would ever be able to dress abstractions into clothes of such charm".
Men admired Gippius' outspokenness too: of her inner conflicts, full of ‘demonic temptations’ (inevitable for the one whose mission was ‘creating one’s new, true soul’, as she saw it, Gippius spoke with unusual frankness. Bryusov and Annensky were fans: both treated Gippius’ early poems as an example of true virtuosity in poetry, rich in melodism and rhythmic undertones.
The 1906 Scarlet Sward book of short stories brought about the new turn: it was a research in ‘human soul metaphysics’ performed in the light of neo-Christianity. Viewing God and man as a single being, the author saw the act of self-denying as equaled to God-betraying sin: many chose to suspect blasphemy in this egocentric stance. Sex and death themes, investigated in obliquely impressionist manner formed the leitmotif of her next, Black on White (1908) book of prose: again, Dostoyevsky’s influences there were distinct. The 1900s also saw the rise of Gippius the playwright (Saintly Blood, 1900, Poppies Blossom, 1908), her later work Green Ring (1916), somewhat futuristic - in theme, if not in form, - was generally regarded as the strongest of all; Vsevolod Meyerhold
staged it successfully in Alexandrovsky theater.
Anton Krainy, one of Gippius’ better known alter egos, was highly respected and much feared literary critic whose articles featured regularly in Novy Put, Vesy and Russkaya Mysl magazines. Gippius critical analysis, according to B&E, was incisive and full of insight, occasionally extremely harsh but rarely objective.
Gippius’ Poems. Book 2. 1903-1909 published in 1910, was in many ways the continuation of the first one, its hero(ine) looking for higher justification for lower life tribulations, unwilling to make peace with the state of things where "both happiness and the lack of it were equally unbearable". It garnered good reviews; Bunin called Gippius poetry ‘electric’, noticing the special way the oxymoron were used as an electrifying force in the hermetic non-emotional world.
Some contemporaries found Gippius’ works as characteristically non-feminine. Vladislav Khodasevich
spoke of the conflict between her ‘poetic soul and non-poetic mind’. "Everything is strong and spatial in her verse, there is little room for details. Her lively, sharp thought, dressed in emotional complexity, sort of rushes out of her poems, looking for spiritual wholesomeness and ideal harmony", one critic wrote.
Gippius’ two early 1910s novels, Devil’s Doll and Roman Tzarevich, aiming to "lay bare the very roots of Russian reactionary ideas", weren’t successful: critics found them artistically helpless and totally tendentious. It was at this time that B&E wrote:
The October 1917 event led to Gippius’ severing all ties with most of those who admired her poetry: Block, Brysov, Bely. The history of this schism and the reconstruction of ideological collisions that made such catastrophe possible became the subject matter of her memoirs The Living Faces (1925). While Block (the man whom she famously refused a hand in 1918) saw the Revolution as a ‘purifying storm’, Gippius was appalled by ‘suffocating dourness’ of the whole thing, seeing it as one huge monstrosity "leaving one with just one wish: to go blind and deaf". At the base of it Gippius suspected some kind of 'monumental madness'; all the more important it was for her to keep "healthy mind and strong memory", she explained.
The title of her Last Poems (1918) book, though, was not to become prophetic. Two more: Poems. 1911-1920 Diaries (1922) and The Shining Ones (1939) were published in emigration. In her poetry, prose and essays of those years Gippius was utterly pessimistic: the rule of Beastliness on ruins of human culture and civilization’s demise were her major themes. Most valuable for Gippius were her Diaries: she saw these personal history’s flashpoints as essential for future generations to restore the true course of things. In retrospect though her heritage seems less dark and more humane. As one of the modern Russian critics put it, "Gippius works, for all of its inner dramatism and antinomy, it’s passionate, forceful longing for the unfathomable, has always... bore the ray of hope, the fiery, inexterminable belief in higher truth and ultimate harmony crowning person's destiny. As she herself wrote in one of her last poems, - 'Alas, now they are torn apart: the timelessness and all things human / But time will come and both will intertwine into one shimmering Eternity'".
Belyov
Belyov is a town and the administrative center of Belyovsky District of Tula Oblast, Russia, located on the left bank of the Oka River. Population: 17,000 .As many other Upper Oka towns, Belyov was first mentioned in a chronicle in 1147...
- September 9, 1945, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n poet, playwright, editor, short story writer and religious thinker, regarded as a co-founder of Russian symbolism
Russian Symbolism
Russian symbolism was an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It represented the Russian branch of the symbolist movement in European art, and was mostly known for its contributions to Russian poetry.-Russian symbolism in...
and seen as "one of the most enigmatic and intelligent women of her time in Russia".
She was married to philosopher Dmitriy Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky. Their union lasted 52 years and is described in Gippius' unfinished book Dmitry Merezhkovsky (Paris. 1951; Moscow., 1991).
Biography
Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius was born on November 20, 1869, in Belev, TulaTula Oblast
Tula Oblast is a federal subject of Russia with its present borders formed on September 26, 1937. Its administrative center is the city of Tula. The oblast has an area of and a population of 1,553,874...
, the oldest of four daughters. Her father, Nikolai Romanovich Gippius, a Geman-Russian (whose ancestor Adolphus von Gingst, later von Hippius) came to Moscow in XVI century) was a renown lawyer and a senior officer in the Russian Senate. Her mother, Anastasia Vasilevna (née Stepanova), was a daughter of Ekaterinburg Chief of Police.
Nikolay Gippius’s job implying the need for almost continuous city-to-city traveling, his daughters received little formal education; taking lessons from governesses and visiting tutors, they attended schools sporadically in whatever city (Saratov
Saratov
-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...
, Tula
Tula
Tula may refer to:In geography:*Tula, Hidalgo, a town in Mexico, once the capital and sacred city of the Toltec people.*Tula, Tamaulipas, a place in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico*Tula River in central Mexico...
, Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, etc.) the family happened to stay for more or less substantial period of time. Major crisis struck when their beloved father died of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
at the age of 48, leaving his extensive family with not much to live by. Worse still, all four girls inherited predisposition to the illness that killed him. Worrying most about the elder, mother moved the family southwards, first to Yalta
Yalta
Yalta is a city in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north coast of the Black Sea.The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony, said to have been founded by Greek sailors who were looking for a safe shore on which to land. It is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black...
(where Zina had to undergo a treatment) then in 1885 to Tiflis, closer to brother Alexander Stepanov’s place.
By this time Zinaida Gippius had already studied for two years at a girls’ school in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
(1877—1878) and a year at Moscow’ Fischer gymnasium where, because of her chronically sad disposition, she was remembered as a «hugely troubled tiny creature». It was only in Borzhomi where uncle Alexander, a man of considerable means, rented a dacha
Dacha
Dacha is a Russian word for seasonal or year-round second homes often located in the exurbs of Soviet and post-Soviet cities. Cottages or shacks serving as family's main or only home are not considered dachas, although many purpose-built dachas are recently being converted for year-round residence...
for her, that Zinaida started to get back to normal after a profound shock caused by her father’s death. Dancing and poetry reading parties were frequent in a large uncle Alexander’s house and the girl started to enjoy herself for the first time in her life.
Zinaida Gippius began writing poetry at the age of seven. By the time she met Dmitry Merezhkovsky in 1888 she's been already a published poet. «By the year of 1880 I was writing verses, being so a great believer in ‘inspirational’ thing as to making a point to never taking pen off paper. People around saw these poems as a sign of me being ‘spoiled’, but I never tried to conceal
Valery Bryusov
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was a Russian poet, prose writer, dramatist, translator, critic and historian. He was one of the principal members of the Russian Symbolist movement.-Biography:...
. A good-looking girl, Zinaida attracted a lot of attention in Borzhomi and gained considerable experience in thwarting unwanted advances, but her new acquaintance was of a different mould. Exceptionally well-educated, introverted sort of gent, Merezhkovsky made an instant impression on her. He turned out to be a kindred spirit: on cerebral level the two got on like a house on fire. In fact, so overwhelming was this feeling of 'two hearts beating in unison' that the moment he proposed she accepted him without hesitation, never in her lifetime regretting what for some might have seemed a rush decision.
On January 8, 1889, in Tiflis
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, Gippius and Merezhkovsky, ignoring a ceremonial part as much as they possibly could, got married, thus forming what turned out to become the most extraordinary husband and wife tandem in the history of Russian literature. They embarked on a short ‘honeymoon tour’ involving a stay in Crimea, then returned to Petersburg and moved into a flat in Muruzi House which Merezhkovsky’s mother rented and furnished for them by way of a wedding gift.
Literary career
While in Crimea the two made a pact: each promised to concentrate on what he or she did best: Dmitry on poetry, Zina on writing prose. This segregation treaty proved to be short-lived: first Gippius’ making a stab at translating Byron’s Manfred proved to be unsuccessful, then Merezhkovsky has got this idea of writing a Julian the Apostate novel.In Petersburg Gippius instantly discovered in herself the gift of a true socialite and started to make an all-round foray into the Russian capital’s cultural elite. She joined the Russian Literary Society (based on Nevsky, 38), became a member of the Shakespearean Circle (which celebrity lawyers like Prince Alexander Urusov were making the core of) stroke personal friendships with influential figures like Yakov Polonsky
Yakov Polonsky
Yakov Petrovich Polonsky was a leading Pushkinist poet who tried to uphold the waning traditions of Russian Romantic poetry during the heyday of realistic prose....
, Apollon Maykov
Apollon Maykov
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov was a Russian poet.He was born into the artistic family of Nikolay Apollonovich Maykov, a painter and an academic. In 1834 the family moved to Petersburg. In 1837-1841 Maykov studied law at Saint Petersburg University. At first he was attracted to painting, but he soon...
, Dmitry Grigorovich
Dmitry Grigorovich
- Early life :Grigorovich was born in Simbirsk, where his family were members of the landed gentry. His father was Russian and his mother French. From 1832 to 1835 he studied at several French and German private schools in Moscow...
, Aleksey Plescheev
Aleksey Plescheev
Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev was a radical Russian poet of the 19th century, one of the Petrashevsky Circle.Pleshcheyev's first book of poetry, published in 1846, made him famous: «Вперед! без страха и сомненья…» became widely known as "a Russian La Marseillaise" , «На зов друзей»...
and Pyotr Weinberg, drifted into the rapidly changing Severny Vestnik
Severny Vestnik
Severny Vestnik was an influential Russian literary magazine founded in Saint Petersburg in 1885 by Anna Yevreinova, who stayed with it until 1889.-History:...
clique where she made her major debut as a poet in 1888. In 1890—1891 the magazine published her first short stories («Ill-Fated One», «In Moscow») which were followed by a series of novels ('Without Talisman', 'The Winner', 'Small Waves' - 'stylistically anonymous', according to latter critics) written for Mir Bozhy magazine which was known for paying good royalties. While writing prose in the 1890s was for Gippius, who had to sustain their small but economically ineffective family, a strictly commercial affair, poetry was an altogether different matter. Treating verses as something intimate, she called them her 'personal prayers'. Since all of them dealt with darker side of human soul and were exploring sexual ambiguity, narcissism
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
and human soul’s complicated metaphysics, small wonder many such ‘prayers’ were regarded as blasphemous.
Intellectual ‘decadence’ giving way to what’s been now dubbed ‘symbolism’, in poetry Gippius quite for some was tagged ‘demoness’, ‘queen of duality’, ‘decadent Madonna’ et cetera. Some thought this image of red-haired green-eyed androgynous monster/beauty, far from being spontaneous, was promoted with much deliberation. Gippius used male clothes and pseudo-names, shocked her guests with outrageous insults («to see the reaction», as she once explained to Teffi) and for a decade remained the Russian symbol of ‘sex liberation’, holding high her ‘cross of sensuality’, the phrase she coined in one of her diaries as early as 1893. By the year of 1901 all this slowly faded into the ‘New Church’ ideology she was the instigator of.
It was only in 1904 that Gippius’ first book of poetry, The Collection of Poems. 1889—1903 was published to enjoy great critical acclaim. Innokenty Annensky
Innokenty Annensky
Innokentiy Fyodorovich Annensky was a poet, critic and translator, representative of the first wave of Russian Symbolism...
called it the ‘quintessence of 15 years of Russian modernism’, Valery Bryusov
Valery Bryusov
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov was a Russian poet, prose writer, dramatist, translator, critic and historian. He was one of the principal members of the Russian Symbolist movement.-Biography:...
, another fan, praised the «insurmoutable frankness
By this time Gippius became a prominent figure in Saint Petersburg's cultural elite. The Muruzi House quickly gained status of one Russian capital's new culture centers. Guesting the Guippius saloon was a must for any a fledgling intellectual of a symbolist hue. All guests recognised and respected the hostess’ authority and talent for leadership, but those who found her warm and affectionate were few. Yet, according to Georgy Adamovich
Georgy Adamovich
Georgy Viktorovich Adamovich was a Russian poet of the acmeist school, a literary critic, translator and memoirist.- Biography :Georgy Adamovich was born in the family of senior military officer Viktor Adamovich, an ethnic Pole, who in the rank of major general served as a head of Moscow military...
, it was Gippius who contributed an ‘inspiring, instigating, correcting’ force to these meetings, being a «center for all the different rays to focus into».
The New Church ideas
In the late 1890s the Merezhkovsky-Gippius duet started to produce new philosophical and religious ideas. Years 1899—1901 saw Gippius mixing with the Sergey Dyagilev clique and it’s Mir IskusstvaMir iskusstva
Mir iskusstva was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize European art during the first decade of the 20th century. From 1909, many of the miriskusniki also contributed to the Ballets Russes...
magazine. Encouraged by the (greatly impressed) miriskusnikis gay community, she started publishing here critical essays using male pseudo names, Anton Krainy being the best known one. Analyzing the crisis Russian culture has found itself submerged into, Gippius (somewhat paradoxically, given her ‘demonic’ reputation) saw the salvation in Christianization which implied practically bringing intelligentsia and the Church together. Merging faith and intellect, according to Gippius, was crucial for the survival of Russia; only religious ideas, she thought, would bring true enlightenment and liberation, sexual, spiritual et cetera.
Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...
that pushed the project towards its demise: first Merezhkovsky quit, then Rozanov and finally Novy Put, having lost most of its subscribers, got bancrupt. By this time Gippius (aka Anton Krainy) was a prominent literary critic, published in major magazines, mostly in Vesy
Vesy
Vesy , was a Russian symbolist magazine published in Moscow from 1904 to 1909, with the financial backing of philanthropist S. A. Polyakov. It was edited by the major symbolist writer Valery Bryusov.-History:...
(The Scales) led by Bryusov.
Eager to withdraw from the spotlight, she re-channeled her social activities into what’s been called her ‘domestic Church’, based on the controversial Troyebratstvo (composed of Merezhkovsky, Filosofov and her). This new development outraged many: even former friends like Berdyaev saw this home-made neo-Trinity as profanation bordering on blasphemy. Nevertheless, as a compact and highly efficient intellectual center, troyebratstvo never lost its momentum , Gippius as ever at the helm.
1905—1908
The year of 1905, having begun with the Bloody SundayBloody Sunday (1905)
Bloody Sunday was a massacre on in St. Petersburg, Russia, where unarmed, peaceful demonstrators marching to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II were gunned down by the Imperial Guard while approaching the city center and the Winter Palace from several gathering points. The shooting did not...
of January 9, brought all the difference. Never a political activist, Gippius regarded now social change as the one and only thing worth of writing about. For the next ten years Merezhkovskys were Tzarism’s harsh critics, radical revolutionaries like Boris Savinkov
Boris Savinkov
Boris Viktorovich Savinkov was a Russian writer and revolutionary terrorist...
now entering their narrow circle of close friends. In February 1906 the couple left for France to spend more than two years in what they saw as voluntary exile, introducing the western intellectuals to their ‘new religious consciousness’ ideas. In 1906 Gippius published the Aly Metch (Scarlet Sward) book of short stories, in 1908 — Makov Tzvet (Poppies Blossom) play, Merezhkovsky and Filosofov credited as co-authors.
Rather disappointed with the European cultural elites’ indifference as regards ideas they deemed revolutionary in the truest sense of the word, the trio returned home. Back in Saint Petersburg Gippius’ health deteriorated; for the next six years she (along with her husband, who had heart problems) regularly visited European resorts and clinics. During one such voyage in 1911 Gippius bought a cheap apartment in Paris (on Rue Colonel Bonnet, 11-bis). What at the time felt like casual and unnecessary purchase some years later became a straw that saved them from homelessness abroad.
1909—1917
Meanwhile in Russia political atmosphere changed for the better and the Religious-Philosophical Society got revamped in 1908 under the new guise. One element, though, was missing: whatever scorching questions intelligentsia might have had to aim the Church and its spiritual leaders at, were to remain unanswered. None of the latter attended the meetings and gradually the whole thing degenerated into a literary circle with relatively small agenda. Exceptions included the heated discussion concerning the Vehi manifesto and the Merezhkovsky/Filosofov vs. Rozanov scandal, leading to the departure of the latter.In 1910 Gippius published Collection of Poems. Vol. 2. 1903—1909. Very much in the vein of the first, it had the dilemma of a man looking for higher meanings of life as dominant theme. By this time she was a well-known (although by no means famous, as her husband) European author, translated into German and French.
In 1912 Lunnye Muravy (The Moon Ants) short stories collection was published, compiling arguably the best prose she wrote in some years. The Tchortovy Kukly (The Demon Dolls, 1911) and Roman-Tzarevich (1912), the first and the third novels of the (unfinished) trilogy, were more ambitious than successful. The left loathed them for being allegedly ‘anti-revolutionary’ and (therefore) ‘slanderous’, mainstream critics dismissed them as formulaic and lackluster, tendentious to the point of being topical.
The First World War outbreak rendered Merezhkovskys another shock. The couple condemned Russia’s participation in it, discarding ‘patriotic’ initiatives of Russian intelligentsia as irrelevant. Gippius did, though, stage a peculiar soldiers’ support campaign of her own, starting to produce a series of ‘to-the-front’-addressed letters each combining stylized folkish poetic messages with small tobacco-packet, signing them with her three servant maids’ names. Seen as pretentious and meaningless by many, this personal action did have some publicity, appreciated by some as a kind of healthy reaction to the jingo
Jingo
Jingo can refer to:*Jingoism, belligerent nationalism*Jingu of Japan , a legendary empress of Japan*Jingo , from the Discworld series...
istic hysteria of the time.
Two Russian Revolutions
Merezhkovskys greeted the 1917 February RevolutionFebruary Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
and denounced the October Bolshevik one
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. For the latter's outbreak Gippius was blaming Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Kerensky
Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky was a major political leader before and during the Russian Revolutions of 1917.Kerensky served as the second Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government until Vladimir Lenin was elected by the All-Russian Congress of Soviets following the October Revolution...
and his team of quasi-revolutionaries. In her memoirs («Dmitry Merezhkovsky. Him and Us») she wrote:
As Merezhkovsky, Gippius saw the October coup as the end of Russia and the coming of the Kingdom of Antichrist. «It was like a pillow fallen to strangle… what — the city? The country? No, something that was more than that…», — she wrote of the ‘morning after’, October 26, 1917.
In the end of 1917 Gippius was still able to publish her anti-Bolshevik verses in what remained of the old newspapers, but the next year was nightmarish, if her Diaries are to be believed. Ridiculing Herbert Wells («…I can guess why he’s drawn to Bolsheviks: they’ve leapfrogged him…»), she wrote of Cheka
Cheka
Cheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
atrocities («In Kiev 1200 officers killed; legs severed, boots carried off», — February 23: "In Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
teenager cadet
Cadet
A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...
s shot down — for being mistakenly taken for other Kadets
Constitutional Democratic party
The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...
, the banned ones", — March 17), of mass hunger and her own growing feeling of numb indifference: «Whoever had soul, now walk like dead men: neither protesting, nor suffering, waiting for nothing, bodies and souls slumped in hunger-induced dormancy».
Expressing sorrow for "weeping Lunacharsky" (the one Bolshevik leader who tried to protest against repressive organ's cruelties), Gippius prophesized: «Russia has never had any history. Things happening now have nothing to do with history either. They will be forgotten, like some undiscovered island’s savages’ atrocities; got to vanish without a trace». Last Poems (1914—1918) book of poetry, published in 1918, presents a stark and gloomy picture of revolutionary Russia as Gippius saw it.
Quite for some time Merezhkovsky and Gippius were cherishing hopes for the demise of the bolshevik rule, but, having learned of Kolchak
Aleksandr Kolchak
Aleksandr Vasiliyevich Kolchak was a Russian naval commander, polar explorer and later - Supreme ruler . Supreme ruler of Russia , was recognized in this position by all the heads of the White movement, "De jure" - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, "De facto" - Entente States...
's defeat in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
and Denikin's defeat in the south of Russia, they decided to flee Petrograd. In autumn 1919 Merezhkovskys and Filosofov started to make plans for escape. Invited to join a group of ‘red professorship’ in Crimea, Gippius chose rather not to, having heard of massacres local chiefs Béla Kun
Béla Kun
Béla Kun , born Béla Kohn, was a Hungarian Communist politician and a Bolshevik Revolutionary who led the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919.- Early life :...
and Roza Zemlyachka were there initiating. Having got Lunacharsky’s permission to leave the city for some ‘Ancient Egypt lectures for the Red Army soldiers’, Merezhkovsky with his wife, her secretary Vladimir Zlobin and Dmitry Filosofov set out to Poland by a soldier-packed train through Gomel, Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
and Vilno.
Gippius in exile
The quartet's first destination was Minsk where the Merezhkovskys lectured to the Russian immigrants and wrote political pamphlets in the Minsk Courier newspaper. After several months stay in Warsaw where Gippius had a stint as Svoboda newspaper editor, disappointed in Pilsudsky’s policy and dropping behind Filosofov (who chose the Savinkov company) on October 20 they left for France.For the first years in Paris Gippius concentrated on doing the work she did best and been therefore loaded with: making contacts, sorting out mail, negotiating contracts and receiving guests. Husband and wife’s dialogues, as Nina Berberova remembered, were always revolving around two interwoven themes: Russia and freedom (She: «Freedom is primal, that is why I’m here…». — He: «Me too, but without Russia, what am I to do with my freedom?», et cetera). Always backing Merezkkovsky’s anti-Bolshevik ‘crusade’, she was deeply pessimistic as regards his ‘mission’ in general. «Our slavery is so unheard of and our revelations are so unbelievable that for a free man it’s difficult to understand what we are talking about», she conceded in one of her diaries.
The tragedy of the life and work of a writer, destined to live outside of Russia is a constant topic in the later works of Gippius. In exile she remained faithful to the aesthetic and metaphysical mentality she developed in the pre-revolutionary years. Preoccupied by mystical and covertly sexual
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
themes, she was also an alert, if harsh literary critic and connoisseur of poetry, who became known for dismissing many of the Symbolist and Acmeist Russian writers, this making her unpopular with the younger generation in her time.
In the early 1920s several Gippius' works published in Russia were re-issued. A collection of stories Nebesnye slova was released in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1921, followed by book of poems Stikhi: Dnevnik 1911-1912 (1922, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
). In Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
a book by four authors (Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Filosofov, and Zlobin) Tsarstvo Antichrista (The Kingdom of the Antichrist) came out, where the first two parts of Peterburgskiye dnevniki (St. Petersburg Diaries) were published for the first time, and with an introductory article by Gippius The Story of my Diary.
Gippius was the major force behind the Green Lamp society named after the XIX century one, which Pushkin was a member of. Fractional altercations aside, it proved to be the only cultural center for the Russian emigration where writers and philosophers (carefully chosen for each meeting, summoned by special invitations) could discuss things that laid beyond the routines of daily life which was becoming for them more and more difficult.
In 1928 Merezhkovskys took part in the First Congress of Russian writers in exile held in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
. Encouraged by Merezhkovsky’s Da Vinci series of lectures’ success and Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
’s benevolence, the couple in 1933 moved to Italy where they stayed for about three years, visiting Paris only occasionally. What with the Socialist movement rising there and anti-Russian emigration feelings spurred by the President Paul Doumer’s murder in 1932, France for them felt like a hostile place to stay at.
The last years
Psychologically the late 1930s for Gippius was a downward spiral period. The political and social situation in Europe in general and her own place in the scheme of things in particular filled her with pessimism. As one biographer put it, "her metaphysically grandiouse personality, spiritual and intellectual maximalism overload, was totally out of place in what she herself saw as ‘soullessly pragmatic’ period in the European history".Speaking as one voice, husband and wife continued to make all the political noises they deemed necessary, denouncing first the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
, then Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The War in Europe rendered questions of literature totally irrelevant. Yet, kicking against the pricks, Gippius compiled and published the Literature Tornado, an ambitious literary project set to give safe haven for all the writers rejected by publishers for ideological reasons. What in calmer times might have cause much ado and become a groundbreaking step in freedom of speech movement, in 1939 passed unnoticed.
Their last year together Merezhkovsky and Gippius spent in social vacuum. Regardless of the Merezhkovsky’s pro-Hitler «Radio speech» published 1944 version’s authenticity, there was little doubt he put himself in a me-against-them position, if not for the first, then certainly for the last time in his life. The Merezhkovskys were too close to (and financially dependent on) the Germans in Paris to retain any respect and credibility among their compatriots, some of whom expressed outright hatred towards the couple.
Merezhkovsky’s death in 1945 rendered Gippius a blow she for quite a while was struggling to sustain. What with Filosofov and sister Anna deaths (in 1940 and 1942 respectively) she found herself almost literally alone in the world and, as some sources suggest, was ever contemplating suicide for a while. Secretary Vladimir Zlobin still around, though, Gippius found her last straw in writing — what she hoped would materialize into her husband’s comprehensive life story. As Teffi remembered, -
Zinaida Nikilayevna Gippius died on September 9, 1945. Her last written words were: "Cheeply do I cost…. And wise is God." She was buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Cemetery, specifically the one known as Cimetière de Liers, as there are two cemeteries in the city, is a Russian Orthodox cemetery, located on Rue Léo Lagrange in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, département Essonne, France....
side by side with her husband, under one tombstone. A small group of people attended the ceremony, the figure of Ivan Bunin being notable. The man who loathed funerals and always made a point to stay as far as possible from graveyards, made this time an unexpected exception and stayed by the grave of Zinaida Gippius for quite a long time.
Legacy
Modern critics see Zinaida Gippius’ earliest work as romantically tinged and largely derivative, mentioning Nadson and Nietzche as most obvious influences. Dmitry Merezhkovky’s Causes... manifesto became for her a turning point: in several years time Gippius gained the reputation of not just Russian symbolism’s major figure but of one of Russian modernism’s ideologist. Her early prose was symbolist too, protagonists being engaged in a search of such things as ‘new beauty’, etc, but Dostoyevsky’s influence was there too, even one of her later novels, Roman Tzarevich (1912) was compared to Besy.Gippius’ first two books of short stories, New People (1896) and Mirrors (1898) were regarded as somewhat formulaic, maintaining as they were "intuitiveness as the only way of seeing things in their true light" and examining "the nature of beauty in all of its manifestations and contradictions". Her Third Book of Short Stories (1902) marked a change of direction and caused a bit of a stir: this research on ‘metaphysics of love’, in the world of ‘spiritual twilight’ was ‘sickly idiosyncratic’ and full of ‘highbrow mysticism’, as critics saw it. Later some parallels were drawn between Gippius' early 1900s prose and Vladimir Solovyov’s Meaning of Love, both authors seeing the quest for Love as the means for soul self-fulfillment and reaching one’s higher self, rooted in Infinity.
It was not prose but poetry though, which made Gippius a major innovative force. "Gippius the poet holds very special place in the Russian literature; her poems are deeply intellectual, immaculate in form and genuinely exciting", the B&E Encyclopedia wrote in the early 1910s. Critics praised her originality, true wordsmith virtuoso ways and saw her as "true heir of Baratynsky’s muse".
Gippius’ debut book of poetry published in 1904 became a major event in Russian cultural life. Having defined the world of poetry’s three dimensional structure as ‘Love and Eternity’s meeting point in Death’ she developed her own style of ethic and aesthetic minimalism, symbolism dilemmas (like that of "suffering from alienation and longing for solitude") always being at the very core of things. Symbolist writers were, naturally first to praise her very special way of half-spokenness, ‘hint and pause’ metaphoric technique, the art of "extracting sonorous chords out of silent pianos", as Innokenty Annensky
Innokenty Annensky
Innokentiy Fyodorovich Annensky was a poet, critic and translator, representative of the first wave of Russian Symbolism...
put it. It was the latter who declared this debut the peak of Russia’s 15 years of modernism and argued that "not a single man would ever be able to dress abstractions into clothes of such charm
Men admired Gippius' outspokenness too: of her inner conflicts, full of ‘demonic temptations’ (inevitable for the one whose mission was ‘creating one’s new, true soul’, as she saw it, Gippius spoke with unusual frankness. Bryusov and Annensky were fans: both treated Gippius’ early poems as an example of true virtuosity in poetry, rich in melodism and rhythmic undertones.
The 1906 Scarlet Sward book of short stories brought about the new turn: it was a research in ‘human soul metaphysics’ performed in the light of neo-Christianity. Viewing God and man as a single being, the author saw the act of self-denying as equaled to God-betraying sin: many chose to suspect blasphemy in this egocentric stance. Sex and death themes, investigated in obliquely impressionist manner formed the leitmotif of her next, Black on White (1908) book of prose: again, Dostoyevsky’s influences there were distinct. The 1900s also saw the rise of Gippius the playwright (Saintly Blood, 1900, Poppies Blossom, 1908), her later work Green Ring (1916), somewhat futuristic - in theme, if not in form, - was generally regarded as the strongest of all; Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
staged it successfully in Alexandrovsky theater.
Anton Krainy, one of Gippius’ better known alter egos, was highly respected and much feared literary critic whose articles featured regularly in Novy Put, Vesy and Russkaya Mysl magazines. Gippius critical analysis, according to B&E, was incisive and full of insight, occasionally extremely harsh but rarely objective.
Gippius’ Poems. Book 2. 1903-1909 published in 1910, was in many ways the continuation of the first one, its hero(ine) looking for higher justification for lower life tribulations, unwilling to make peace with the state of things where "both happiness and the lack of it were equally unbearable". It garnered good reviews; Bunin called Gippius poetry ‘electric’, noticing the special way the oxymoron were used as an electrifying force in the hermetic non-emotional world.
Some contemporaries found Gippius’ works as characteristically non-feminine. Vladislav Khodasevich
Vladislav Khodasevich
Vladislav Felitsianovich Khodasevich was an influential Russian poet and literary critic who presided over the Berlin circle of Russian emigre litterateurs....
spoke of the conflict between her ‘poetic soul and non-poetic mind’. "Everything is strong and spatial in her verse, there is little room for details. Her lively, sharp thought, dressed in emotional complexity, sort of rushes out of her poems, looking for spiritual wholesomeness and ideal harmony", one critic wrote.
Gippius’ two early 1910s novels, Devil’s Doll and Roman Tzarevich, aiming to "lay bare the very roots of Russian reactionary ideas", weren’t successful: critics found them artistically helpless and totally tendentious. It was at this time that B&E wrote:
The October 1917 event led to Gippius’ severing all ties with most of those who admired her poetry: Block, Brysov, Bely. The history of this schism and the reconstruction of ideological collisions that made such catastrophe possible became the subject matter of her memoirs The Living Faces (1925). While Block (the man whom she famously refused a hand in 1918) saw the Revolution as a ‘purifying storm’, Gippius was appalled by ‘suffocating dourness’ of the whole thing, seeing it as one huge monstrosity "leaving one with just one wish: to go blind and deaf". At the base of it Gippius suspected some kind of 'monumental madness'; all the more important it was for her to keep "healthy mind and strong memory", she explained.
The title of her Last Poems (1918) book, though, was not to become prophetic. Two more: Poems. 1911-1920 Diaries (1922) and The Shining Ones (1939) were published in emigration. In her poetry, prose and essays of those years Gippius was utterly pessimistic: the rule of Beastliness on ruins of human culture and civilization’s demise were her major themes. Most valuable for Gippius were her Diaries: she saw these personal history’s flashpoints as essential for future generations to restore the true course of things. In retrospect though her heritage seems less dark and more humane. As one of the modern Russian critics put it, "Gippius works, for all of its inner dramatism and antinomy, it’s passionate, forceful longing for the unfathomable, has always... bore the ray of hope, the fiery, inexterminable belief in higher truth and ultimate harmony crowning person's destiny. As she herself wrote in one of her last poems, - 'Alas, now they are torn apart: the timelessness and all things human / But time will come and both will intertwine into one shimmering Eternity'".
English translations
- Apple Blossom, (Short Story), from Russian Short Stories, Senate, 1995.
- The Green Ring. (Play), C.W. Daniel LTD, London, 1920.