MEREZHKOVSKY, DMITRY SERGEYEVICH

born Aug. 14 [Aug. 2, Old Style], 1865, St. Petersburg, Russia died Dec. 9, 1941, Paris Russian poet, novelist, critic, and thinker who played an important role in the revival of religious-philosophical interests among the Russian intelligentsia. After graduation from the University of St. Petersburg in history and philology, Merezhkovsky published his first volume of poetry in 1888. His essay O prichinakh upadka i o novykh techeniyakh sovremennoy russkoy literatury (1893; On the Causes of the Decline and on the New Trends in Contemporary Russian Literature), sometimes erroneously described as the manifesto of Russian Symbolism, was nevertheless a significant landmark of Russian modernism. At the beginning of the 20th century he and his wife, Zinaida Gippius, organized religious-philosophical colloquia and edited the magazine Novy put (190304; The New Path). With his trilogy Khristos i Antikhrist (18961905; Christ and Antichrist), Merezhkovsky revived the historical novel in Russia. Its three parts, set in widely separated epochs and geographical areas, reveal historical erudition and serve as vehicles for the author's historical and theological ideas. Another group of fictional works from Russian historythe play Pavel I (1908) and the novels Aleksandr I (191112) and 14 Dekabrya (1918; December the Fourteenth)also form a trilogy. Merezhkovsky's favourite method is that of antithesis. He applied it not only in his novels but also in his critical study Tolstoy i Dostoyevsky (190102), a work of seminal importance and enduring value. His Gogol i chort (1906; Gogol and the Devil) is another noteworthy critical work. Before the Revolution of 1917, Merezhkovsky was opposed to the existing regime (as can be seen from Le Tsar et la rvolution [1907; written jointly with Gippius and Dmitry Filosofov]); he welcomed the February Revolution of 1917 but opposed the Bolshevik seizure of power. Emigrating in 1920, he eventually settled in Paris, where he published two more historical novels under the general title Rozhdenie bogov (192425; Birth of the Gods) and biographical studies of Napoleon, Jesus Christ, St. Augustine, St. Paul, St. Francis of Assisi, Joan of Arc, Dante, and many others; most of these have been translated into English. In later life he regarded Mussolini and Hitler as leaders capable of eradicating communism.