The creative legacy of Vyacheslav Ivanov (1866-1949) includes a large corpus of original and translated poetic works, journalism, philosophical essays, literary and antiquarian monographs. Ivanov created an original version of Russian Symbolism, which combined two general trends of the Silver Age: first, to return Russian culture to the spiritual foundations of Christianity; second, to reinterpret and recreate the artistic archetypes of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. In 1900-1920 V. Ivanov actively preached the "choral" beginning of culture. He set the task of overcoming individualism through myth-creative willful art to "sobornost" — to the over-individual religious community of people. These tendencies intensified during World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917. At the same time, Ivanov was engaged in educational activities, expressed in particular in translations of the tragedies of Aeschylus, the poetry of Dante, Petrarch and Michelangelo. His antiquarian works, devoted mainly to the cult of Dionysus, are closely connected with his spiritual and literary quest.

After his emigration to Italy, Ivanov took a marginal position in European thought, minimizing his communication with Russian emigrants. In 1926, he joined the Catholic Church, without breaking with Orthodoxy, and tried to convey the meaning of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's works to a Western audience. Towards the end of his life, Ivanov wrote the epic "The Story of Svetomir the Tsarevich", which was to summarize his entire work and reflect the complexity of the spiritual life of man as God's creation and the coming resurrection of Russia, "which has gone to the rest of the Lord".

The archival heritage of Vyacheslav Ivanov has been preserved in its entirety, but is concentrated in several research centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Rome. The Vyacheslav Ivanov Research Center, which has digitized 95% of all the materials preserved in his apartment museum, is located in the Italian capital. In 1971-1987, thanks to the efforts of his heirs: his son Dmitry Vyacheslavovich (1912-2003) and the poet's last companion Olga Alexandrovna Shor (1894-1978): four volumes of his collected works were published. The publication of Ivanov's extensive correspondence and other materials left by him continues.

Ivanov as a symbolist poet

"Lodestars"

"Cor ardens"

Myth and music. Melopeia "The Man"

Winter Sonnets

"Roman Sonnets"

Ivanov's symbolic aesthetics

Notes

References