MEREZHKOVSKY’S THE FOURTEENTH OF DECEMBER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION

Title  MEREZHKOVSKY’S THE FOURTEENTH OF DECEMBER: A NOVEL ABOUT THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION
Author(s)  O.А. Bogdanova
Information about the author(s) OlgaA.Bogdanova, DScinPhilology, LeadingResearcher, A.M.Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received  22/12/2016
Published  25/06/2017
Issue  2017 Vol. 2, №2
Department  Russian literature
Pages  172-189
DOI  10.22455/2500-4247-2017-2-2-172-189
UDK  821.161.1
BBK  83.3(2Рос=Рус)53
Abstract The article demonstrates how Dmitry Merezhkovsky, in his novel  The Fourteenth of  The article demonstrates how Dmitry Merezhkovsky, in his novel  The Fourteenth of  December  written  in  the  midst  of  the  revolutionary  crisis  in  Russia  and  based  on  the  history of the Decembrists revolt, attempts to give a historiosophical  understanding of   the  October  Revolution.  The  article  also  reconstructs  Merezhkovsky’s  revolutionary mythoideology  developed  in  1905–1917  and  analyzes  modification  it  underwent  after  October 1917. According to Merezhkovsky, not only was the Decembrists revolt in 1825 the first attempt of political revolution in Russia but it also defined the dual nature of Russian revolutionism as such. His own post-revolutionary experience enabled Merezhkovsky to make the following revisions in his idea of revolution. The people had become the “Beast” in 1917 instead of the Tsar. Bolshevism proved to be the “autocracy in  reverse.” While in February there was still a glimpse of hope that revolutionary forces would unite, the October Revolution split this unity in question into “revolutionary democracy” (a new autocratic union of the people and the Bolsheviks) and “revolutionary   aristocracy” (intelligentsia as a bearer of the ideals of freedom and Christian values).  The  traditional  unity  of  the  people  and  the  “land”  no  longer  existed:  the  people  had betrayed their homeland, mother-land, Russia. Yet Merezhkovsky believed that Russia  would not perish since it is larger than the people; it is also the land. The essay specificaly focuses on the way the author dis-identifies the notions of “the people” and “the land”   in the wake of current political cataclysms.
Keywords  Dmitry S. Merezhkovsky, a trilogyThe Kingdom of the Beast, a novel The FourteenthDmitry S. Merezhkovsky, a trilogyThe Kingdom of the Beast, a novel The Fourteenth of December, October Revolution, February, October, mythoideology, land, the people.
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