"In Search of the City of God": The Merezhkovsky Couple and Filosofov on the Religious Justification of Revolution. Issue 4 (4th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Demidova, Olga R.
• Is Part Of: Russian studies in philosophy. Volume 57:Issue 4(2019)
• Page Start: 321
• Page End: 332
• Publication Date: 2019-07-04
• Subjects: "triple union -- " spiritual brotherhood -- religious creative activity -- revolution -- Europe -- Russia -- freedom; Philosophy -- Periodicals; Philosophy, Russian -- Periodicals; Philosophie -- Russie -- Périodiques; Philosophie russe -- Périodiques; Philosophy; Philosophy, Russian; Periodicals; 105
• DOI: 10.1080/10611967.2019.1660568
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1061-1967

Abstract

Abstract : This article examines the phenomenon of collective creative activities by one of the most famous Petersburg "triple unions" at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Merezhkovsky couple (Zinaida Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky) and Dmitry Filosofov. This "triple union" is represented by three works: the essayistic collections The Tsar and Revolution (Paris, 1907) and Kingdom of the Antichrist (Munich, 1921) and the play Poppy Blossom (1906). My main focus is the Paris collection, the first in the series of the collaborative projects, which was composed in the same vein as the "triumvirate's" other projects: as a manifestation of the life-creating and religious tendency and also as an embodiment of the key ideas central to their concept of the "new religious community" and an understanding of the Russian revolution as a phenomenon with a religious core. This analysis takes place against a broad background of history and culture, of ideas and philosophy, utilizing a wide range of sources of various kinds: literature, documents, and scholarship, including memoirs, diaries, and epistolary texts by the Merezhkovsky couple and Filosofov.