Abstract:
For the first time, the volume of “Literary Heritage” publishes in full the letters-diaries of T.N. Gippius (1877–1957) to his sister Z.N. Gippius, D.S. Merezhkovsky and D.V. Filosofov during the years of their stay in the first emigration in Paris (1906–1908). Letters-diaries are among the most important epistolary monuments of the beginning of the century, being a unique source for studying the phenomenon of the Merezhkovsky Church and Christian modernism in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. An extensive epistolary array (one-sided, with a few exceptions) contains comprehensive information about the history, everyday and esoteric life of the neo-Christian community of the Merezhkovskys, which included sisters T.N. and N.N. Gippius, A.V. Kartashev, V.V. Kuznetsov, S.P. Remizova-Dovgello (E.P. Ivanov, Andrei Bely and others joined them), as well as valuable evidence of the events of the literary, artistic, theatrical, religious, social and political life of the capital — a kind of Petersburg cultural chronicle of 1906–1908, about the moods of the elite and the inner circle of the Merezhkovskys. The main array is supplemented by the later letters-diaries of T.N. Gippius (1910–1913) and the correspondence of members of the community to the Merezhkovskys for the same period, also kept in the Amherst archive. The published epistolary is accompanied by detailed comments and indexes of historical-literary, real and textual character. The volume is illustrated with reproductions of portraits, icon painting, book and magazine graphics by T.N. Gippius and portraits of persons mentioned in the letters.
Keywords: T.N. Gippius, Z.N. Gippius, N.N. Gippius, A.V. Kartashev, V.V. Kuznetsov, D.S. Merezhkovsky, D.V. Filosofov, history of Russian literature and social thought, Russian symbolism, Christian modernism, history of the Russian Orthodox church, The First Russian revolution.
