Founding a Literary Movement:Decadence in Russia

Meet Valery Briusov

(1873-1924)

Photograph, c. 1900

Portrait by Mikhail Vrubel, 1905

Creating a Literary Movement

“I must find a guiding star in the mist…And I see it: it is decadence:

Yes! You can say what you like, that it’s false, ridiculous,

but it is advancing, developing, and the future will belong to it,

especially when it has found a worthy leader. And I will be that leader! Yes, I!”

1893 Diary (Age 19)

“I indulged in all the tricksof a trained beast—

talked about Symbolism,recited poetry,waved my arms

(a sign of originality).”

Diary, 1894

‘Briusov’: “A completely independent Petersburg circle of symbolists

has already been formed, and now, among us,the participants in the edition

The Poetry of the Russian Symbolists,you can find the most disparate views.”

‘Interviewer’: “You’re starting off very badly,my friends.

You haven’t even scribbled twenty poems,and already you have a schism.”

“Moscow Decadents,” An “Interview” Made Up by Briusov, 1894

O, cover your pale legs!1895 poem

“It is of great importancewhat mask we were wearing

the first timewe appeared before the public.

We lie a great deal,not because we want to deceive,but simply because we have to

preserve the maskwe once assumed.”

1899 Letter

Briusov’s Definitionsof Decadence and Symbolism

“The conception of lifecherished by all the decadents...

is extreme individualism.”

“The world is my conception [of it].Only my thoughts, my sensations,

my desires are given to me—never anything else or anything more.”

“[We] should be afraidof the commonplace

more than anything else.”

“We accept all religions,all mystical teachings,

only in order to avoid reality.”

“What is most valuablein the new art

is eternal thirst,anxious seeking.”

“The aim of symbolism is...to hypnotize the reader and

to evoke in him a certain moodby the juxtaposition

of a series of images.”