“A curious fellow”: Letters of Z.N. Gippius and D.S. Merezhkovsky to K.I. Chukovsky (1907–1920)

Abstract

The corpus of letters of D.S. Merezhkovsky and Z.N. Gippius to K.I. Chukovsky is published for the first time, which allow us to reconstruct the little-known story of the relationship between the writers-Godseekers and the critic- feuilletonist. Even in the absence of reciprocal letters, the epistolary is of great historical and literary interest, especially its first part, which documents the initial stage of Merezhkovsky’s personal communication during his first Parisian emigration with the young Chukovsky, as well as the circumstances and conditions for the emergence of their friendly interaction. The second part confirms the factual accuracy of Chukovsky's revolutionary diaries and is of great importance for the reconstruction of the biography of Merezhkovsky pre-emigration period.

Keywords

• d.s. merezhkovsky
• z.n. gippius
• k.i. chukovsky
• v. bryusov
• d.v. philosophov
• “vesy”
• “rech”
• literary criticism
• feuilleton
• diaries
• epistolary