Zinaida Gippius’s “Warsaw Diary”: His(Her) Story Revis(it)ed

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2025-3-282-294
  • УДК / UDC: 821.054.7.0
  • EDN:

    https://elibrary.ru/XBHBKM
  • Publication Type: Research Article
  • For Citation:

    Demidova, O.R. “Zinaida Gippius’s ‘Warsaw Diary’: His(Her) Story Revis(it)ed.” Emigrantica. Issue 3, ed.-comp. E.R. Ponomarev, acad. ed. E.R. Ponomarev, ed. A.V. Protopopova, M.S. Shchavlinskii, D.V. Zaitsev. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2025, pp. 282–294. (In Russian) https://doi.org/10.22455/Emigr.3034-3518-2025-3-282-294
  • Author 1: Olga R. Demidova
  • Information about the Author 1:

    Olga R. Demidova, DSc in Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy Department, Pushkin State University, Peterburgskoje Rd., 10, 196605 St.-Petersburg, Russia.
    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2281-4059

     
  • Abstract: The article presents an analysis of Z.N. Gippius’s Warsaw Diary in two parts of which — the Warsaw and the Paris ones — the events of Merezhkovsky’s and Filosofov’s Polish period (called “the Warsaw epic”) are registered and reconstructed. The triple goal of the article is analyzing the diary from the genre and structural points of view, defining its role in Gippius’s life and her diary prose, and working out the typology of the stories told in it. The author of the article singles out three major themes of the diary, i.e., the struggle against the Bolsheviks, Merezhkovsky’s and Filosofov’s possible part in it, Gippius’s relations with Filosofov, on which the main historical, cultural, and anthropological oppositions presented in the text are based: Russia — Poland, Russians — Poles, Merezhkovsky’s — Russian emigration, Gippius — Filosofov. Besides, the author presents a detailed classification of the diary prose variants incorporated in the text. In the final part of the article the author, relying on the complex comparative and hermeneutic analysis of the existential circumstances, emotional reactions, moral standpoints, and their reflection in the text, presents a detailed typology of the stories told in the diary, that form a unified tragic story of the failed plans and hopes, in which every participant plays his / her own part.
  • Keywords: Warsaw Diary, entry, memory, memories, Poland, Poles, Russians, reconstruction, Bolsheviks, struggle, Filosofov
  • Страницы / Pages: 282–294

References

  1. Demidova, O.R. “Pol’sha v sud’be Zinaidy Gippius” [“Poland in Zinaida Gippius’s Fate”]. Merezhkovskie i Evropa [The Merezhkovsy’s and Europe], under the general editorship of V.V. Polonsky, ed. by E.A. Andrushenko, O.A. Blinova, V.M. Vvedenskaja. Moscow, IWLRAS Publ., 2023, pp. 190–214. (In Russian)
  2. Kakurin, N.E. Grazhdanskaia voina v Rossii: Voina s belopoliakami [Civil War in Russia: The War with the White Poles]. Moscow, AST Publ., 2002. 732 p. (In Russian)
  3. Mikhutina, I.V. Pol’sko-sovetskaia voina 1919–1920 [The Polish-Soviet War 1919–1920]. Moscow, ISB RAS Publ., 1994. 322 p. (In Russian)
  4. Pilsudskii protiv Tukhavevskogo: (Dva vzgliada na sovetsko-pol’skuiu voinu [Pilsudsky vs Tukhachevsky: (Two Viewpoints of the Soviet-Polish War)]. Moscow, Boenizdat Publ., 1991. 252 p. (In Russian)
  5. Noskova, A.F., ed. Pol’sha v XX veke. Ocherki politicheskoi istorii [Poland in the 20thCentury. Sketches of Political History]. Moscow, Indrik Publ., 2012. 953 p. (In Russian)
  6. Davies, N. White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War, 1919–1920. New York, Pimlico / Random House Inc., 2003. 336 p. (In Russian)
  • Received: December 20, 2024
  • Approved after Reviewing: February 16, 2025
  • Publication Date: December 29, 2025

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