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Abstract:

The work of I.S. Shmelev and B.K. Zaitsev have attracted resear- chers’ attention for decades. The peculiarities of their styles were researched, and the approach of both writers to the same topics was compared. However, this was done in isolation from the historical and literary context. The relationship and friendship of these significant figures of Russian émigré literature have never been examined. Shmelev and Zaitsev met in pre-revolutionary Moscow, but their close communication began only in emigration. This article demonstrates how differently they reacted to their new life in France and to the French people around them, based on their individual personalities, and how this was reflected in their work. Zaitsev easily integrated into the European environment, which was familiar and close to him. Shmelev found it more difficult to integrate, especially since he could not understand the ‘strange moral principles’ that he believed underpinned contemporary Western society. Nevertheless, both writers felt compelled to defend the honor of Russian literature in the West, and when it came to expressing collective protest from the Russian émigré community against various forms of condolence for the passing of Felix Dzerzhinsky, they stood united. Shmelev was the ideological inspirer of Zaitsev’s essay, which condemned A.M. Gorky for his letter published in “Pravda” on August 11, 1926, which praised Dzerzhinsky. The article uses new archival materials.