Friedrich Nietzsche,Dmitrii Merezhkovskii,and the Russian Renaissance

The artistic, poetic, and literary movement in the years between 1890 and 1917 has long been known as the “Silver Age,” a name that does not convey the movement’s essence and one that was mostly used retrospectively. The artists, philosophers, and writers of the day gave their own name to this cultural flourishing, the “Russian Renaissance,” because they believed they were embarking on a rebirth of literature, culture, art, and religion similar to that of the European Renaissance. In their search for a new aesthetic vision, the Russian Renaissance turned to the classical world, especially ancient Greece. But their view of that culture was distinctly shaped by works of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. This article will highlight the particular, crucial role of Dmitrii Merezhkovskii in bringing a Nietzschean view of Greece into the Russian Renaissance. Merezhkovskii’s Nietzschean celebration of the classical world, and his belief that this world could reinvigorate Christianity and Russian culture, proved greatly influential for the artists, poets, and philosophers that followed him.