Zinaida Hippius
Zinaida Nikolaevna Hippius (1869-1945) was a prominent Russian writer known for her poetry and prose infused with a Christian emphasis and apocalyptic themes. Born in Belev, Tula Province, she received a varied education including time at the Kiev Institute for Girls and private tutoring. In 1888, she married the writer D. S. Merezhkovskii and moved to St. Petersburg, where she became an influential literary figure and organized the Merezhkovskiis' religious circle to foster discussions on Christian themes in art.
Throughout her life, Hippius was extensively engaged with other leading intellectuals and traveled extensively within the Russian Empire and Europe. After the Bolshevik Revolution, Hippius fled to Poland, aligning herself with anti-Bolshevik activities. She eventually found refuge in Paris, where she worked to preserve Russian literature and culture among the émigré community, establishing literary journals and societies. She remained active in the literary world until her death in 1945, leaving behind a complex legacy shaped by her spiritual beliefs and resistance to atheistic ideologies.
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Subject Terms
Zinaida Hippius
Poet
- Born: November 20, 1869
- Birthplace: Belev, Tula, Russia
- Died: September 9, 1945
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Zinaida Nikoalevna Hippius was born in Belev in Tula Province on November 20, 1869. She attended the Kiev Institute for Girls from 1877 to 1878, and the Fisher Private Classics School in Moscow in 1882. In addition, she was educated at home by private tutors. In 1888, she married D. S. Merezhkovskii while in Tbilisi, and moved to St. Petersburg the same year. There she became active as a writer of both poetry and prose, with a deeply Christian emphasis.
Hippius was heavily interested in the Second Coming, and much of her work had a strongly apocalyptic flavor. She was very prolific, and published under a wide variety of pseudonyms, both male and female, which make it difficult for subsequent biographers to identify all of her work. She was widely acquainted with the leading writers and thinkers of her time, and travelled extensively both within the Russian Empire and abroad.
In 1900, she organized the Merezhkovskiis’ religious circle in order to draw like-minded writers to explore Christian issues through art. Between 1905 and 1908, she travelled throughout Europe, returning to St. Petersburg to join the Religious-Philosophical Society and to take charge of the literary section of the thick journal Russkaia mysl’. Between 1909 and 1914, she made several trips to France, but World War I brought a temporary halt to her travels.
After the Bolshevik Revolution Hippius quickly recognized she could have no peace with their atheistic philosophy and fled to Poland in December, 1919. There she was active in anti-Bolshevik activities until October of 1920, when Red forces invaded Poland. She found refuge in Paris, where she organized the Union of Irreconcilability Against the Bolsheviks. She also started literary journals and societies to keep Russian literature and culture alive among the emigre community.
In 1928, she participated in the First Congress of Writers in Exile, which was sponsored by the government of Yugoslavia. In the decades before World War II, she travelled widely in western Europe and was friends with Viacheslav Ivanov, widower of Lidiia Dmitrievna Zinov’eva-Annibal. She remained in Paris throughout the Nazi occupation, and died there on September 9, 1945.