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Abstract:

This article analyzes a series of memoir ego-documents by Vladislav Khodasevich, published in émigré newspapers and allowing us to reconstruct his understanding of Nikolay Gumilev and the aestheticphilosophical program of Acmeism. It is shown that in his memoirs, Khodasevich deliberately emphasizes the opposition between Acmeism and Symbolism, representing it through the juxtaposition of Nikolay Gumilev and Aleksandr Blok. The memoirist depicts them as irreconcilable antagonists, largely mythologizing the poets’ real-life relationship. The émigré writer constructs a series of semantic oppositions in his texts (mastery versus inspiration, childish carefreeness versus adult seriousness, activity versus tranquility, publicity versus solitude, health versus illness, etc.), characterizing not only Gumilev and Blok but also the literary movements they represent. This allows us to reconstruct the two-layered nature of Khodasevich’s personal assessments, simultaneously sympathizing with the tragic fates of both poets and affirming the aesthetic superiority of Symbolism over Acmeism. It is suggested that Khodasevich uses Gumilev’s memoir as a polemical tool in his long-running debate with G. Adamovich, who created an alternative image of the Acmeist leader in his memoirs and assessed his influence on émigré poetry differently.

Keywords: N. Gumilev, A. Blok, V. Khodasevich, G. Adamovich, Acmeism, Symbolism, emigration literature, memoirs, newspaper periodicals.