Literay Fact Literay Fact 2541-8297 2542-2421 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2021-19-61-107 Articles Z.N. Gippius’s Letters to F.A. Chervinsky Sobolev Alexander L. editor@litfact.ru 2021 biography of a writer literary life Z. Gippius D. Merezhkovsky Modernist life creation letters publication of archival documents Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The publication introduces 33 letters of the 1890s from Z.N. Gippius to the writer, poet and playwright, St. Petersburg lawyer F.A. Chervinsky. Gippius’s short romance with Chervinsky, as happened with her other heartfelt passions, provoked an intense epistolary dialogue, avoiding, however, direct expression and self-reflection of feelings. Gippius's letters are dominated by playing and light coquetry, full of hints and provocations, and the life romance itself is built by her as a tense psychological experiment. Their relationship in 1892 –1893 found reflection in the works of both participants — in Gippius's fairy tale “Time” and Chervinsky's story “Sylphide”, typical examples of modernist interrelation of literature and life. At the same time, the letters are interesting for the details of literary events reported in them, for the characteristics of a number of contemporary writers — N. Minsky, D. Merezhkovsky, A.P. Chekhov and other common acquaintances. Briusov, Dnevniki. Avtobiograficheskaia proza. Pis'ma [Diaries. Autobiographical prose. Letters]. Moscow, Olma-Press Publ., 2002. 415 p. (In Russ.) Vengerov, A. Kritiko-bibliograficheskii slovar' russkikh pisatelei i uchenykh [Critical-Bibliographic Dictionary of Russian Writers and Scientists], vol. 3. St. Petersburg, Tipo-litografia I. Efrona Publ., 1892. 27 + 444 p. (In Russ.) Gippius, Z.N. Sobranie sochinenii: v 16 t. [Collected Works: in 16 vols.], comp. by F. Prokopov, A.N. Nikoliukin. Moscow, Dmitrii Sechin Publ., 2001 –2019. 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