The locus of the house and images of the main characters in the play “Moscow” by Andrey Bely: towards a problem statement

The relevance of the article is based on the fact that over the past decades of the XXI century it has become the urgent need in philology to examine innovative methods, stylistic decisions, new narrative strategies used by the poet, writer, publicist, aesthete and philosopher Andrey Bely (1880–1934) in his last (Soviet) working period. The article considers the issue how in the 30s of the XX century Andrey Bely, being under the great influence of V. Meyerhold’s experimental theater, turned the first and second chapters of the novel “Moscow” (“The Moscow Eccentric” and “Moscow under Siege”) into the drama “Moscow” which wasn’t on the stage. A question is raised about Andrey Bely’s innovation as a playwright and some methods of the stage performance of the play “Moscow” are identified in the article. Special attention is paid to the locus of the house in the novel and drama, the question of transformation is raised: from the closed, protected, inner and personal space to the opened, hostile, unlocked one where hostile and mystic forces invade. The fight between two main antagonists — Korobkin, a scientist, and Mandro, a spy — is given in a wide mythological, christian and antroposophical context. The author of the article presents her many years experience on various approaches to understanding of not fully researched works (novel and play “Moscow”) by Andrey Bely.

Andrei Bely’s collection of essays “Arabesques” as a metatext

This article explores the possible methods of metatext arrangement in the collection of essays “Arabesques” by Andrey Bely in addition to the main the main method described in the works of V. S. Kiselev and M. N. Darwin (the special role of framework components, determined arrangement of texts in contents directory). Special attention is given to the inner composition of texts included in the “Arabesques”, namely their imagery system and framework concepts. The analysis of the essays allowed determining the recurring key antinomies “up/down” and “light/dark”, which reinforce the unified semantic framework of the “Arabesques”. The orientation towards superunity is also detected on the syntactic level due to the constant reference of A. Bely to the “ironic pause” technique. In the modern literary studies, the problem of metatext (particularly in literary and semiotic understanding of the term ) has been brought up by M. N. Darwin, V. S. Kiselev, V. E. Prusenko, A. G. Kulik. However, this article is first to raise the question of their metatextuality the context of Andrei Bely’s collection of essays, which defines the novelty of this research. The author comes to the conclusion that alongside the basic techniques of metatext arrangement, Andrei Bely's “Arabesques” offer a range of additional means for creating semantic superunity – the use of antinomian images common to the collection of essays, and constant reference to the “ironic pause” technique.

“Impressionists’ Studio”: between Modernism and Avantgarde

In 1910 Russian cultural life was at a turning point. The death of V. Komissarzhevskaya, M. Vrubel, M. Petipa, A. Kuindzhi, and L. Tolstoy marked the end of an entire epoch. At the same time, several essays published in some of the most important literary magazines of the time exposed the crisis of the symbolist movement, while books such as “Symbolism” by Andrey Bely attempted to give a conclusive account of its ideas. The beginning of a new chapter in the world of Russian art was prefigured in three programmatic works published in 1910: M. Kuzmin’s article “On Beautiful Clarity”, the miscellany “Impressionists’ Studio” edited by N. Kulbin, and the anthology “A Trap for Judges I”, the first collective publication of the Cubo-futurists. The present study focuses on Kulbin’s work and on the miscellany he edited to suggest that this text constitutes both a “bridge” between modernism and the avant-garde and a prototype of subsequent futuristic almanacs.

Yu. A. Sidorov and Mystical Anarchism (on the basis of lifetime publications)

Based on two only lifetime publications, the paper examines the history of Yu. A. Sidorov`s (1887–1909) perception and discussion of ideas of the “mystical anarchism”. In the almanac Chrysopras (1906) Sidorov published two poems that were obviously influenced by the slogans of this movement. I study parallels between these debut poems and the texts of authors related to the movement, in particular, between the poem Dreamer, you sent a revelation to the world… and Georgy Chulkov's article On the confirmation of personality (1906). The study proves that a number of young writers (not only Yu. Sidorov, but also V. Grigoriev, E. Kazakov) were striving to declare their solidarity with slogans of the moment on the pages of the almanac Chrysopras, ideologically close to the Moscow Vesy. In the second lifetime publication, his review (Russkaya Mysl, 1, 1909) on the book of essays by Chulkov The Cover of Isis (1908), Sidorov showed new sharply critical and subverting attitude to the movement. I try to find the reason for Sidorov's new skeptical position to these principles and slogans. The paper showed it to be the poet’s disappointment with the results of the 1905–1907 revolution and his turn towards monarchist sentiments, with subsequent support of the ideology within symbolism that was promoted by the Moscow magazine Vesy. The author pays particular attention to the parallels between Sidorov's polemic attacks against Chulkov and similar invectives against him by the Vesy magazine collaborators (Zinaida Gippius, Andrey Bely, Boris Sadovskoy, etc.)

Crisis of Ideas in Moscow Society of Religion and Philosophy in Memory of Vladimir Solovyov in 1907–1910

The article provides an overview of the main development stages of the Moscow Society of Religion and Philosophy in Memory of Vladimir Solovyov (here­inafter, MRFO – Moskovskoye religiosno-filosofskoye obschestvo). The focus is on the second stage of MRFO’s activity, from October 1907 till April 1910. The articles studies the reasons for the expulsion of one of its most active members of the first period, Valentin Sventsitsky, and why the communication with him where broken thereafter. The article also explores the decline of Bulgakov’s po­litical activity towards the end of the revolution and his increased engagement with the problems of Christian history, spurred, among other factors, by the in­fluence of the Circle of Seekers of Christian Illumination. Another issue is the departure of Vladimir Ern from social and ecclesial issues and his transition to classical philosophical topics. The author also specifically focuses on the evo­lution of Berdyaev’s philosophic views – from socio-religious issues close to those explored by the New Religious Consciousness group, to ecclesial issues and the phenomenon of historical Christianity. The articles also describes the features of the formation of the philosophical ideas of Symbolists observed in their pre­sentations made at MRFO meetings in 1907–1908. Some of the presentations discussed are those of Andrey Bely and Vyacheslav Ivanov. The author also ana­lyzes the main reasons for the MRFO crisis of 1907–1910 and discusses the pre­sentations of Dmitry Merezhkovsky at MRFO meetings. In addition, the article seeks to give an overview of how the ideas of St Petersburg and Moscow circles of religious and philosophical thinkers developed in subsequent periods.

Sanctus Amor (1908) Нины Петровской как жизнетворческий манифест

Sanctus Amor is the only intravital storybook by Nina Petrovskaya, dedicated to Sergey Auslender. The title of the book, borrowed from the poem by Andrey Bely, initiates a literary polylogue addressed to several lovers of Petrovskaya: to Bely, as he once was her teacher of heavenly love; to Valery Bryusov, as he was Petrovskaya’s beloved one at the time of publication; to Auslender as the addressee of dedication and a new contender for being Petrovskaya’s favorite. Sanctus Amor represents the ideal of the Saintly Love, the manifesto which Petrovskaya followed rigorously in real life. Her letters to Bryusov and Vladislav Khodasevich reveal multiple congruences with the novels of Sanctus Amor, which demonstrate the inextricable character of life and literature in Petrovskaya’s worldview. The paper is devoted to the analysis of Sanctus Amor in the aspect of life-creating practices and its meaning in the literary dialogue with Auslender. Sanctus Amor is a complicated prescriptive symbolic message designed to proclaim its own, and to program another’s, concept of love.