Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (born Feb. 16 [Feb. 28, New Style], 1866, Moscow, Russian Empire—died July 16, 1949, Rome, Italy) was a number one poet of the Russian Symbolist movement who can also be identified for his scholarly essays on non secular and philosophical themes.
Ivanov was born into the household of a minor official. He attended Moscow College, however, after his second yr, he went overseas and studied on the University of Berlin with the historians Theodor Mommsen and Otto Hirschfeld till 1891. He didn’t, nevertheless, defend his dissertation and so didn’t full his diploma. Ivanov stayed in Europe till 1905, residing in Germany, France, Italy, and Nice Britain, amongst different international locations.
His first e-book of poetry, Kormchiye zvyozdy (“Pilot Stars”), revealed in St. Petersburg in 1903, went virtually unnoticed by critics and most people alike. That very same yr Ivanov gave lectures in Paris for a course on the historical past of the cult of Dionysus. The lectures had been revealed in 1904–05, bringing him fame as a non secular thinker. On the similar time, he confirmed himself to be a part of the Russian Symbolist motion with Prozrachnost (1904; “Translucency”), a e-book of poetry, and he started working on the journal Vesy (“Libra,” or “Scales”).
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Ivanov returned to Russia and settled in St. Petersburg, his massive residence (referred to as the “Tower”) turning into one of many centres of Russian cultural life. Poetry readings, philosophical discussions, and political debates had been often held there. Throughout the interval 1905–12 he gained a status as one of many main poets and theorists of Russian Symbolism. He revealed the two-volume work of poetry Cor ardens (1911–12) in addition to Po zvyozdam (1909; “By the Stars”), a group of articles. The system that he invented to explain the essence of Symbolism—“a realibus advert realiora” (“from actuality towards the next actuality”)—is usually thought-about probably the most astute.
In 1912 Ivanov left Russia as soon as once more, however he returned within the autumn of 1913 and lived in Moscow, the place he drew nearer to the circle of spiritual philosophers there. Throughout this era Ivanov revealed articles, the philosophical and aesthetic essays gathered within the e-book Borozdy i mezhi (1916; “Furrows and Boundaries”), and the historico-philosophical and political items in Rodnoye i vselenskoye (1917; “Native and Common”). His most essential works of poetry throughout these years had been revealed later: the poetic cycles Chelovyek (1915–19; “Man”) and Mladenchestvo (1913–18; “Infancy”) and the tragedy Prometey (1906–14; “Prometheus”).
Ivanov rejected the Russian Revolution of 1917 due to its irreligious nature. He didn’t, nevertheless, oppose the brand new regime, and he served in varied governmental establishments. His work additionally appeared in Soviet publications. In 1920 he moved to Baku (now in Azerbaijan), the place he grew to become a professor on the college, and in 1924 he started residing in Rome. He didn’t thereafter return to the Soviet Union. In 1926 he grew to become a Roman Catholic, and he started instructing in Pavia, Italy, and in Rome, the place he blended with Europe’s foremost writers and philosophers.
His most well-known work of the postrevolutionary years, which got here to be broadly translated, is Perepiska iz dvukh uglov (1921; Correspondence Throughout a Room), a dialogue with the thinker Mikhail Gershenzon in regards to the destiny of culture and civilization after battle and revolution. In 1944 Ivanov wrote a sequence of poems that had been revealed posthumously in Svet vecherny (1962; “Night Gentle”). His Povest o Tsareviche-Svetomire (“Story of Tsarevich Svetomir”) remained unfinished at his demise.
For a few years, the complicated construction of Ivanov’s theories, his use of archaic language, and his unusual erudition in lots of fields of data made his works and concepts inaccessible to readers. For the reason that early Nineteen Eighties, nevertheless, there was a marked enhance in curiosity in his work in lots of international locations.
