Zinaida Gippius about Ivan Bunin in the Private Correspondence of 1926–1932

Grzegorz Ojcewicz

Szczytno

Abstract

The article studies the contents of fi ve letters written by Zinaida Gippius in 1926–1932 to three
persons: Nina Berberova, Vladislav Khodasevich and Alexandr Amfi teatrov. All the interlocutors,
including Ivan Bunin, represent the fi rst wave of the Russian emigration. In her letters to the
acquaintances Gippius shares remarks about Bunin as a man and an artist. With typical for her
irony and arrogance, she refers to the works of her competitor revealing negative features of her
character. Gippius letters also portray mechanisms of the social and cultural life of Russian emigrants
originating from the older generation of writers.

Keywords:

Zinaida Gippius, Ivan Bunin, the fi rst wave of the Russian emigration, private letters, Nobel Prize in Literature