Olga V. Kuleshova, PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, Head of the Department of Cultural Studies, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nakhimovsky Avenue, 51/21, 117418, Moscow, Russia. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3941-4625
The article examines the specifics of the emigrant work of D.S. Merezhkovsky using the example of the novel “Calvin”, which is part of the trilogy “The Reformers: Luther, Calvin, Pascal” (1939–1940). The eschatological views of the writer, who denies all forms of modern statehood, are represented in the novel in an artistic form. Merezhkovsky is about to destroy the novel genre, but at the same time not abandoning it. While preserving the plotline of the hero’s biography, the author remains in the field of artistic thinking: he creates an image, uses the means of artistic expression: introduces vivid metaphors and comparisons into the narrative, uses portrait sketches. Merezhkovsky’s thinking is antinomian, the hero is complex and contradictory, any thesis of the author presupposes an antithesis. The writer’s artistic finds correlate to his philosophy and are designed to demonstrate it more vividly. The writer strives for the gospel truth, involving the reader in the world of his eschatological thinking, trying to explain prayer to him. It sounds like a spell in Merezhkovsky’s latest novels: “Thy kingdom come!”.
Calvin; Luther; Christ; the Kingdom of God; freedom; salvation; philosophy of D.S. Merezhkovsky.
09.05.2025
08.06.2025
Kuleshova, O.V. “‘Thirst for Evangelical Truth’ in the Late Work of D.S. Merezhkovsky (Based on the Novel ‘Calvin’)”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 3(69), 2025, pp. 68–78. (In Russ.)
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