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Abstract:

The meetings of the Green Lamp circle, which were arranged by the Merezhkovskys in Paris from 1927 to 1939, are usually viewed in the context of the history of the Russian diaspora. It is proposed to analyse, in a departure from secondary sources of information, the extant materials immediately related to the circle’s activity (transcripts of the meetings, typewritten speeches, publications of the speakers on the subjects of their recent presentations, published comments of attendees, succinct reports of literary soirees, relevant correspondence of attendees and participants). Therefore, meetings, of which no records have been found, remain beyond the scope of this paper; memoirs (of literary critics of the “older” and “younger” generations, writers, poets, etc.) are referred to wherever pertinent. The interlocutions taking place at the meetings are herein arbitrarily subdivided into literary, religious, political, and those concerning the spiritual state of Russian expatriates in France. Studies of the activities of the Green Lamp circle give a perspective of problems that exercised the minds of Russian intellectuals in exile during the thirteen years of the circle’s existence. It also makes possible weighing the contribution of the Merezhkovskys to the selfdetermination of the Russian diaspora as a community.